Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 262: Chapter 187: How Could You Be Sleeping in Lin’s House?

"Bamboo shoots."

"Baby bamboo? The kind pandas eat?"

"Yes, but not exactly. Pandas mostly eat bamboo, which is what these grow into."

Before he could finish, Erica had already picked up a bamboo shoot and tossed it into her mouth.

"?"

Lin Chen’s eyes widened. "Didn’t you say you have a sensitive stomach?"

"It’s a plant, not seafood. What’s the problem? If pandas can eat it, so can I~"

’Pandas can eat full-grown bamboo. Can you?’

Lin Chen suppressed the urge to argue with her, grabbing the handful of shoots and dropping them into the seafood soup. A simple boil for two or three minutes and they would be ready to eat.

"So this is what baby bamboo tastes like. It’s crunchy and has a light fragrance, but there’s not much flavor. Why would pandas like this stuff?"

"Go ask a panda, then."

After finishing off all the shoots and the soup, he pulled a plantain, its skin roasted pitch-black, from under the fire. He peeled it and devoured it in a few quick bites.

Erica showed not the slightest hint of dissatisfaction that he hadn’t shared his food. Instead, she watched him eat with a completely normal expression, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Lin, are you going to make something different for dinner?"

"Not sure yet. If it doesn’t rain, I plan to head over to the cabin and keep working. Time is tight and the task is demanding, so if I’m running late, it’s possible I won’t cook at all."

"I see. Okay, then I’ll go find a suitable... huh? Wait a minute!"

As if she’d just thought of something, she suddenly pointed behind her. "After you move into the cabin, are you still going to use this cave?"

"Probably not. There’s an Ant Nest under the cabin that I’ve already converted into a cellar. It’s much bigger than this place, and I won’t have to run back and forth."

"Then I can use this cave, right? Once you move out, it’ll be unclaimed. I can just build on what’s already here. It’ll save me a lot of time and effort!"

"Huh?"

Lin Chen never would have imagined she’d set her sights on his cave.

"But I’m not sure how many days it’ll take to finish the cabin. Where will you sleep in the meantime?"

"Can I squeeze in with you?"

"No!"

"Stingy... I’ll just dig another one next to it, then. Hmph."

With that, Erica dove into the cave. She produced a hidden combat knife from somewhere and started digging into the earthen wall, one strike at a time.

"Hey! What are you doing starting construction in my home?"

Without turning her head, Erica shouted back, "It’s your home now, but it’ll be my home when you move out! I’m just making it easier to expand later!"

’Could you be any more unreasonable?!’

Lin Chen couldn’t be bothered to argue with her. He slung the bamboo basket over his back, grabbed his bamboo knife and combat knife, and turned to leave. Out of sight, out of mind.

Back at the cabin site, he decided to ignore the rain shelter over the cellar for now. Who knew if it would rain again before the cabin was completely finished? It was better to leave it, so he wouldn’t have to worry about flooding later.

Besides, the success of the rain shelter experiment had given him more ideas. He immediately erected two more pieces of Light Wood, changing the two longer sides from two support posts to three.

This would greatly reduce the difficulty of construction, make the required length of the logs less of an issue, and even make the whole cabin structure more sturdy.

After setting the posts, he ignored the opening he had left in the side earlier. First, he cut a notch into the top of each post. Then he laid a piece of Light Wood horizontally, letting it rest securely in the notches atop the three posts.

He had also prepared this piece of Light Wood beforehand. He had laid it flat along the base of the three posts and chiseled out notches corresponding to their positions. That way, when he placed it on top, he just had to flip it over for the notches to lock together, creating a fixed joint.

With the beams for the two long sides in place, it was time for the shorter sides.

He used the notches he had previously chiseled into the sides of the original four posts, wedging a slightly thinner piece of Light Wood into them to lock the ends in place. A simple rectangular frame for the roof beams was now assembled.

Under normal circumstances, a cabin built with this structure would be sturdy enough. The problem was that the Light Wood itself wasn’t heavy enough. If a strong wind blew, the unfixed rectangular structure could easily be rocked back and forth by the wind, causing the beams to loosen.

He stood in front of the cabin, staring at the logs, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

’Once the roof is up, its weight will naturally exert a downward force, holding these logs in place. But will that be enough?’

Light Wood was just too light. He’d have to use relatively thin branches to build the roof, and the entire thing probably wouldn’t weigh more than forty kilograms.

Spread across six posts, the average force on each would be less than seven kilograms. It was practically nothing.

’I’ve got it! I can brace the posts by leaning a few logs diagonally against the sides, like with a tent. The triangle is the most stable shape. That should definitely stop it from swaying, right?’

With a complete construction plan now in his mind, he immediately set off up the slope.

To be on the safe side, he decided it would be better to use bamboo for the roof’s framework. Besides, one piece of split bamboo could serve as two, and as long as he knocked out the internal nodes, they would become natural drainage channels. He could even use this structure to collect rainwater.

He spent the entire afternoon on this task, trekking back and forth between the bamboo forest and the cabin.

The only saving grace was that the path from the bamboo forest to the cabin was downhill. He could just drag the bamboo stalks by their leaves, so it didn’t take much effort.

But there was also bad news.

After felling several Light Wood trees and seven or eight bamboo stalks, the slender bamboo knife finally gave out and broke.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a major setback for now. He could use his combat knife to split the bamboo; all he needed to do was cut a slit and then pull it apart.