Ancient Eden - Chapter 136
Chapter 136
(42.3)
The coldest period of winter was truly beginning to strike.
This was Mu Qing’s first time experiencing such a severe winter cold here.
Li Mang had installed a large row of wood at the corner of the inner cave and the outer cave, using mud to paste between the gaps in the wood, and made a door in the center to come in and out, and hung an animal skin to cover it up, so as to keep the cold outside.
But it was still cold.
She finally understood why Li Mang had been so insistent on getting her that tiger skin before.
Without the long heating wall that they had built previously, she believed that she probably could only have spent her winter days wrapped in the thick tiger skin, cowering in front of the fire to keep warm.
Fortunately, there was a heating wall.
Before the severe cold came, one day she suddenly recalled the heating walls in the homes of the northern region, so she told Li Mang about her idea. Li Mang understood what she meant, and from the next day onwards, he made clay blocks and fired bricks in the kiln, then mixed the clay with a small amount of melted resin to make a binder, and built a heating wall along the wall of the cave from the outer entrance, extending all the way to the inner cave.
When the heating wall was finished, he went into the jungle to collect the feces of one kind of animal. These feces, even when dried and shrunken, were usually about a foot in diameter, and large piles were one foot and a half.
Mu Qing didn’t know from what kind of big animal this came from, but it really worked when it was burned up at the hole of the heating wall. The flames were blue-red and the heat was long-lasting, they just had to burn a few pieces of it, and add some firewood, and the entire heating wall would heat up, causing the entire inner cave to warm up. And because the burning hole was at the entrance of the outer cave, they couldn’t smell the odor of burnt feces inside.
Now as long as she didn’t go outside, and wore a shirt, as well as a layer of regular fur clothing, she didn’t feel cold at all.
Xiao Hei also seemed to like the heating wall, at night time, Xiao Hei always pushed the big turtle shell, that it seemed to consider as its property, close to the edge, and then jumped in to lie down in it and sleep.
One day Mu Qing had a dream in the middle of the night. She dreamed of Youyou. She was standing there, looking at her with a big smile in her eyes, saying “Taisakamu”.
She woke up with a start, suddenly missing very much her bright eyes and Naduo’s gentle smile.
She thought of the huts in the settlement. How could they stand a severe cold like this, even if they had a fire pit, in those kind of hut?
She hurriedly nudged Li Mang beside her to wake him up.
Li Mang thought she was having a nightmare at first, but when he heard what she said, he just laughed.
He told her that underneath the ground of the settlement, in addition to the few holes in the ground for storing food, there were several very large underground chambers, connected to each other, with trees supporting the roof. At this time of the year, they would all relocate underground to escape the bitter cold outside.
Mu Qing was then relieved.
But Li Mang beside her fell silent.
She felt a hint of heaviness from him.
She thought it was probably related to the words she had just said. She aroused the longing he had for his people, just like how she suddenly missed Youyou and Naduo after waking up from her dream.
With a low sigh, she reached out and wrapped her bare arms around his head, keeping him pressed against her bosom. In the darkness, she gently patted his back like a child, until his even, low breathing sounded in her ears.
The snow had been falling endlessly for nearly half a month. The waterfalls and streams very quickly became frozen and turned into ice sculptures, and buried by the thick snow, no trace of the original scenery could be seen.
The whole world turned into a sea of ice and snow.
Translator : Laura
Other novels : His One Love & After Being Kidnapped by the Crown Prince & Unaware that My Legitimate Sister is My Husband
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