Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 293: Chapter 197: The Urgent Rescue (Part 2)

Through the gaps between the bamboo stalks, he could see the downpour from the bamboo-slat roof forming a single, continuous sheet of water, like a waterfall.

’This rain is insane.’

He plopped down on the ground, his back against the wall of stacked bamboo, but he didn’t dare lean his full weight against it.

These three seemingly sturdy bamboo walls were actually just held in place by a few thin bamboo strips and weren’t particularly secure.

If enough force were applied from the side, the bamboo strips could deform, causing the walls to collapse.

This torrential downpour had come later than expected, but it had still disrupted his plans.

Listening to the howling wind, Lin Chen felt an ominous premonition.

’This won’t do. The bamboo house still needs to be reinforced. If it gets blown apart by the storm, I’ll be the one out of luck.’

’But the question is, how to reinforce it?’

He tilted his head back, staring blankly at the tops of the four bamboo poles right in front of him.

’The bottoms are secured by being stuck in the ground, so won’t sticking the tops into something hard also secure them?’

As soon as the thought occurred to him, his eyes lit up.

’Bamboo!’

’That’s right! If I drill four holes in a piece of bamboo and insert the four poles, they’ll be secured, right?’

’As long as I can fit this stabilizing capping beam onto the Light Wood posts, I can firmly secure the wall to the rest of the bamboo house, making it a single structure.’

’But the problem is... how do I attach it to the Light Wood posts?’

Besides this wall, the other three also needed to be secured.

’If I use a mortise and tenon structure, the only method I can think of right now is to cut a few notches into the tree trunks, then cut a slot at both ends of the bamboo piece serving as the capping beam, and fit them into the trunk notches to secure it.’

Once all four sides were fitted together, the entire bamboo house would become exceptionally sturdy.

After running a mental simulation of the entire process and feeling it was feasible, he stood up, gripping his bamboo knife tightly.

Since he had to cut into the Light Wood trunks, he would definitely have to work outside. Getting drenched was unavoidable.

Without much hesitation, he immediately took off his shirt and pants, stepping resolutely into the rain wearing only a pair of shorts.

The moment he stepped out, the overwhelming downpour cascaded over him, the impacts of the raindrops even a little painful.

But after a few seconds of being drenched, he gradually got used to it.

His objective was clear. He quickly moved the pile of bamboo from nearby to the front of the house, and also brought over the leftovers from building the walls, stacking them in a corner.

’The bamboo I have on hand for the walls isn’t long enough for this. Looks like I’ll have to cut new bamboo.’

The roof beams had to be long enough to be slotted into the Light Wood posts at both the front and back, which meant they had to be a section longer than the bamboo stalks used for the walls.

The posts themselves were over two meters tall. After being driven into the ground, about 1.8 meters remained above ground.

He had already set up four roof beams when he first secured the frame of the house. But because he had changed his method for building the walls on the fly, the current bamboo walls weren’t directly under the beams, but about a fist’s width in front of them.

Just as he lined up a new bamboo stalk with the base of two posts, about to cut it to the right length, his thoughts suddenly became exceptionally clear—perhaps due to the constant drenching from the cold rain.

He stared blankly at the fist-sized gap between the Light Wood beams and the bamboo wall. A moment later, he slapped his thigh.

’Damn it!’

’How did I not think of this sooner?’

’Since I’m using a mortise and tenon structure, and the Light Wood isn’t as easy to cut as bamboo, why am I even factoring in these four posts? Can’t I just go with a pure bamboo structure?’

Currently, the four bamboo walls were placed with the four posts as their corners, their lengths just right to press against the outer sides of the posts.

But if he were to shrink the house’s footprint, moving the bamboo stalks from the outside of the posts to the inside, the ends of the adjacent walls would overlap.

’Then, all I need to do is cut openings on the surfaces of the stalks where they meet, allowing them to lock into each other vertically, and they’ll be secured, right?’

Not only would this reduce the workload, but he could also do it from inside the house. Although he would still inevitably get wet, it was much better than working out in the pouring rain.

Moreover, this method had another advantage: the roof would extend out a bit further, conveniently forming an eave over the entrance.

At this thought, he immediately started to move the bamboo stalks from the entrance wall, followed by the other three walls.

’Good thing I hadn’t secured them yet. All I have to do is lift them out. That saves a lot of effort.’

After dismantling the four bamboo walls, he also pulled out the outer bamboo strips used for support and set them aside for later use.

He first laid down one long bamboo stalk on the left and right sides, still end-to-end against the posts, but placed on the inside. Then, he drove a bamboo strip into the soil right up against the stalk, hammering its top with his bamboo knife to ensure the strip was sunk deep into the earth and wouldn’t wobble easily.

He then laid a short bamboo stalk across one of the long ones where they would form a corner. With his knife, he carefully scored a white mark on the surface of the long stalk underneath.

He moved the short stalk aside and carved out a notch along the mark he had just made. Then, he placed the short stalk back into the newly carved notch.

After that, it was just a matter of repeating this process, stacking the bamboo stalks layer by layer.

The ends of the bamboo stalks of all four walls were interlocked, forming a relatively sturdy structure without any rope lashings.

To reinforce it further, he specially split a few more bamboo strips and drove them into the ground flush against the bamboo walls.

These bamboo strips were like rebar, turning the bamboo walls into a tightly-bound, indivisible whole.

With this new approach, he now had a suitable way to fill in the triangular gap above the entrance.