Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 263: Chapter 187: How Could You Be Sleeping in Lin’s House?

As for clearing out the bamboo nodes, it was easier just to grab a rock and knock them out.

The sky gradually grew dark, the setting sun sinking bit by bit into the sea.

Lin Chen laid the last bamboo slat diagonally on the roof. He glanced at the sun, now just a sliver on the horizon, then looked down at the pile of banana leaves inside his shelter.

’Whatever, I might as well finish it all in one go.’

His original plan was to cover the roof with banana leaves and branches. But after laying out the drainage channels for the roof, he suddenly realized the structure worked on the same principle as the tiled roofs you see in the countryside.

He laid the semi-cylindrical bamboo halves side by side. In cross-section, they formed a series of channels that could ward off most of the rain, but the gaps between the halves would likely leak.

However, by placing another layer of bamboo halves upside-down over the gaps, he could cover them perfectly. This would also channel all the rainwater down into the first layer of bamboo troughs.

This way, the roof effectively had two layers of bamboo. It was heavy enough, waterproof, and windproof—a practically perfect roof.

’The four walls are all that’s left. I’ll deal with them tomorrow.’

A round trip to the bamboo grove took about an hour. He could only drag back five or six stalks at a time; any more would be too heavy and he risked injuring his back.

Assuming five bamboo stalks, cutting them to the right length for the roof and then splitting them in half would yield at least thirty or so bamboo troughs.

He’d made two trips that afternoon, which was enough to gather all the material for the roof. He had four bamboo stalks left over for building the walls tomorrow.

’As for these banana leaves, I’ll save them to make a bed. Or I could wash them and use them as a tablecloth.’

His original idea for the walls was to split the bamboo into long, finger-thick strips and weave them together.

But after finishing the roof, it was as if the floodgates of inspiration had opened; he had another new idea.

He’d have to wait until tomorrow to try it and see if it was actually feasible.

As night fell, he returned to the stream and pulled a wrinkled, yellow-skinned fruit from his pocket. It was the soapnut he had collected earlier.

He dipped it in a little water, flattened it in his palm, then rubbed it vigorously in a circular motion.

As he rubbed it again and again, a fine, white foam quickly formed in his palm, just as if he were using real hand soap.

After scrubbing his hands, he went ahead and scrubbed his arms as well. After rinsing them clean, he took out another soapnut to wash his face.

The soapnut had powerful cleaning properties. In just two or three minutes, his hands, which had become black with grime from a long day’s work, were restored to their natural, clean color.

He followed the stream down to the shore and picked a cluster of coconuts to take back, securing his water supply for the next morning.

"You’re back?"

In the distance, he could see a fire already burning at the entrance to the cave.

Erica was still in her tight, sleeveless crop top. When she saw him return, she jumped up excitedly and waved.

Beside the fire, two coconut-shell bowls sat empty next to a pile of Green Mussel shells.

"I tried making that coconut and shellfish soup like you did at noon. It was actually really good, but it was missing salt, so it was a little bland."

"Then just get salt from seawater."

Lin Chen casually tossed the coconuts into the pit, his eyes flicking to the fresh marks on the earthen wall.

’In a single afternoon, I managed to finish my roof, and this girl has only dug a few inches?’

’She probably didn’t dig at all!’

"Getting salt from seawater is too much of a hassle. You have to make containers, gather pebbles, soil, sand, all that stuff... Oh, right, how did you get your sea salt? I don’t see any equipment for it around here."

"...A secret."

’Salt is the ultimate ace in the hole for wilderness survival. I can teach her cooking methods, but not this. Absolutely not.’

’We barely know each other. Am I supposed to believe she’s not interested in the championship just because she says so?’

’So what if she’s rich? Who’s to say she doesn’t want to win the championship just for the hell of it?’

’Getting a decent rank would definitely be good for her career.’

Erica knew how to take a hint. Seeing his resolute silence, she didn’t press the issue, merely pouting and muttering a few words of discontent under her breath.

"Fine, don’t tell me! Hmph. I just think it’s a hassle, it’s not like I can’t do it myself!"

With that, she put on her Hat Lamp, picked up a few bamboo tubes, and headed for the shore.

It was only then that Lin Chen noticed she had also cut down and brought back a couple of bamboo stalks. The problem was, he hadn’t seen her carrying any logging tools. Had she used her survival knife?

’If she did, it would seriously damage the blade. A small, portable knife like that isn’t designed for chopping down trees.’

But that was her business; he couldn’t be bothered with it. He quickly cooked some seafood to fill his stomach, banked the fire to preserve the embers, then ducked into his cave to sleep.

「Some time later.」

Erica returned, lugging heavy bamboo tubes filled with seawater. From a great distance, she saw that the wooden fence was already up across the cave entrance.

’He’s asleep already?’

She glanced at the time. It was just past eight P.M.

’Building that wooden shelter must be exhausting.’

’This is good, though. When he wakes up, I can show him the fresh sea salt I made and prove myself!’

She carelessly set the water-filled bamboo tubes on the ground, then took several empty bamboo sections and began layering various filtering materials of different textures inside them.

At the very bottom was moss, followed by sand, soil, and finally fine gravel.

She poked a small hole in the bottom of the filtering tube and placed another empty one underneath to collect the water. Then, she slowly poured seawater over the top layer of the filter.

This method was mainly for filtering impurities from water, a useful technique when potable water was scarce.

While it couldn’t desalinate the seawater to make it drinkable, it could filter out a significant amount of the other impurities.