HUN Chapter 15: Stone House Shelter Complete!

Inside the temporary camp.

Lin Yu'an carefully cleaned the grouse, marinated it simply with the mixed spices and a bit of salt he had secretly brought, then steamed half and roasted the other half. Soon the fragrant aroma of meat made him feel like his mouth was watering.

By the time he finished cooking the grouse, it had grown dark, and he could even hear wolves howling in the distance. Of course, he couldn't be bothered with that now, only wanting to quickly taste this grouse!

He tore off a piece of tender chicken leg and eagerly put it in his mouth, then took a sip of chicken soup. The marinating had penetrated deeply, and both the soup and meat had no gamey taste at all! This gave his taste buds unprecedented satisfaction.

"This is definitely more delicious than any grouse cooked by any Michelin restaurant in the world!"

He spared no praise while speaking to the camera. Soon he had heartily devoured most of the grouse, storing the remainder in his space, planning to use it for breakfast footage tomorrow morning.

After Lin Yu'an finished his feast, it had grown completely dark. In the wilderness with no phone, no internet, no entertainment facilities, there was no option but to sleep early and rise early. Soon Lin Yu'an fell into dreamland, the sense of accomplishment filling his body and mind made him sleep particularly peacefully that night.

Another day passed, and time quickly came to morning. Lin Yu'an opened the camera lens at dawn and began today's recording.

"Good morning, after enjoying that delicious roasted grouse last night, I now feel like my whole body is full of energy!"

"Today is a beautiful sunny day, perfect for continuing our project! The goal is to make our stone wall taller and try to start building the roof framework!"

After two days of effort, the back wall and lower portions of both side walls of the shelter had begun to take shape. Lin Yu'an's main task today was to continue stacking upward and start considering reserved positions for doors and windows.

"Building stone walls isn't as simple as just stacking stones."

"The most important thing is ensuring the wall's stability and solidity. We need to try to make each stone form good interlocking with surrounding stones, then use my special adhesive, which is wet mud mixed with plant ash, to fill the gaps between stone cracks."

Lin Yu'an constantly talked to the camera partly for filming material, and partly to combat loneliness and constantly adjust his mindset.

For the entire day, Lin Yu'an devoted almost all his time to the final stone wall construction, consciously using longer, more regular stones and flat wood pieces as lintels at planned door and window positions, reserving space.

When evening's afterglow again painted the sky red, the shelter's four stone walls had basically closed up, leaving only rudimentary door and small window openings, looking like the base of a solid stone fortress.

Lin Yu'an straightened his aching back, looked at this shelter beginning to take shape, and showed genuine pride on his face, "Excellent! My shelter's main structure is basically complete! Starting tomorrow, we'll begin building the wooden roof framework!"

Over the following days, Lin Yu'an's life entered a regular and fulfilling rhythm.

During the day, he would spend considerable time on permanent shelter construction. The roof's wooden framework also began taking shape bit by bit. He would carefully select each piece of wood for beams and rafters, processing them meticulously with the logging axe and multi-tool.

Every day he would go fishing by the stream or check traps. Though trap yields weren't stable, his fishing skills continuously improved, and occasionally he could bring back a few small fish from fish trap baskets, barely supplementing protein sources.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Yu'an had spent fifteen days in this lonely wilderness of Chilko Lake.

These two weeks, each day was like a battle against nature, loneliness, and his own limits, while steadily realizing his initial plans step by step.

Fortunately, his traps occasionally yielded results, nearby berry resources were fairly abundant, preventing him from cheating by eating food from his space due to hunger.

During this period, Lin Yu'an spent almost half of each day cutting, transporting, and processing timber.

Without a saw, he could only rely on the logging axe to gradually chop thick logs into appropriate lengths and shapes, creating simple mortise and tenon joints or sufficiently flat connecting surfaces for better fixation with stone walls and each other.

Occasionally when transporting particularly heavy logs or precisely positioning wooden beams atop high stone walls, Lin Yu'an would take advantage of the camera's fixed distant shots to briefly leave the camera's range, then use his spatial ability's assistance to complete some physically demanding work.

That semi-subterranean stone house shelter had begun to take shape. The thick side stone walls stood firmly beneath the stone cliff, and the reserved door and window openings had been reinforced with wooden edges.

The most time and energy-consuming wooden roof framework, consisting of several small fir logs as main beams supplemented by dense branch rafters, had also been basically completed.

The hardships during this period were beyond outsiders' understanding.

Another morning, Lin Yu'an rubbed his somewhat sleepy eyes and habitually greeted the camera.

"Today is a crucial day for building our permanent shelter! If everything goes smoothly, today we can completely seal the roof and truly have a home that can shelter us from wind and rain!"

"There's also good news, those Jerusalem artichokes from before can be harvested in a few days. Then I'll have at least a week without worrying about food!"

"Alright, let's start today's work! Let's try to complete my shelter today!"

Today's main task was laying waterproof and insulation layers for this wooden roof.

Lin Yu'an had long ago carried back several large bundles of thick, flexible birch bark he had previously collected and dried from the streamside, along with large amounts of dry moss and pine needles.

While carefully laying birch bark on the roof rafters, he explained to the camera, "Birch bark is a naturally excellent waterproof material. Its high oil content can effectively prevent rainwater penetration. I'll first lay a waterproof tarp, then birch bark, then cover with thick moss and pine needles as insulation."

"Finally, I'll spread a layer of soil on top and lay moss transplanted from nearby. This 'living roof' not only provides good insulation and waterproofing but also blends with the surrounding environment, increasing the shelter's concealment."

This was detailed and tedious work. With soil covering his hands, he carefully fitted each piece of birch bark together, ensuring no large gaps, then layer by layer laid insulation materials, finally evenly covering mixed soil and small stones on top.

While working, Lin Yu'an chatted to the camera, "You probably can't imagine how tired I've been during this time! Without modern tools, processing this wood has been incredibly difficult! Because I didn't bring a saw, initially I didn't regret it, thinking a saw would only be useful in the early stages."

"But when you actually get here, you discover this is completely wrong! A saw has great use in later stages too. When collecting and processing wood fuel, a saw is much more energy-efficient than a logging axe."

"If everyone reaches the stage of enduring hunger, compared to contestants without saws, those with saws can conserve more energy and might last longer."

"So I'll try to make up for this mistake. While food is still adequate, I'll prepare winter firewood in advance, avoiding withdrawal from the competition due to lack of energy to collect wood in later stages. That would be an unforgivable error!"

When today's final piece of turf was carefully pressed onto the roof, Lin Yu'an straightened up, looked at this solid and simple stone house that almost blended with the surrounding environment, and felt an indescribable pride and satisfaction surge in his heart.

"Complete! My new home shelter's roof is finally complete!"

He excitedly spread his arms wide and celebrated loudly to the camera, as if embracing this world!

He eagerly walked into the stone house interior. Though not large, about ten square meters, because of the thick walls and tight roof, it seemed exceptionally quiet inside.

Sunlight streamed through the reserved small window opening, which he could block with stones anytime.

After more than ten consecutive days of enormous physical consumption, the shelter was finally built. Next he could focus his energy on finding food!

Lin Yu'an clearly knew he still had much heavy physical work to do, so he must obtain more stable and abundant protein sources for replenishment. Relying solely on traps to catch small game wasn't enough.

His gaze once again turned toward Chilko Lake, where that small stream ultimately flowed.

Speaking to the camera, "Although I previously felt fishing by this lake would be quite difficult, after several days of observation, I've discovered several good fishing spots."

"At some bends or places blocked by large rocks, the current is relatively gentle, and these places often have more abundant aquatic plants, very likely where fish congregate."

"Tomorrow morning let's try and see if we can catch a few big ones!"

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