Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 444 Completed

The construction of the log cabin is progressing much faster than expected.

Old Wang inserted the last hinge into the eyelet of the door frame, aligned it correctly, and then tapped it a few times with a mallet to make the base of the hinge sink into the wood.

He stood up, reached out and pushed the door. The door panel turned on the hinges, making a slight "creak," and opened steadily to its maximum opening. Then he pulled it back and closed it tightly.

"It's done!" Old Wang patted the dust off his hands, took two steps back, tilted his head and looked at the wooden door that could finally open and close freely. He grinned, revealing a set of teeth stained yellow by tobacco.

Old Li climbed down from the roof, still clutching his hammer. He stood in front of the wooden house and looked it over from top to bottom.

The roof was covered with wooden planks, and then covered with a waterproof tarpaulin, which was nailed firmly in place. Raindrops would drip down the tarpaulin without seeping in.

The wooden boards on the four walls were nailed neatly. Although they were not planed and the original bark and saw marks were still visible on the surface, each board was nailed firmly and did not budge when pushed by hand.

The door frame was made by Lao Wang from a single piece of square timber. It was square and regular. After the door panel was installed, the gaps were not large, which could block the wind and also block most people's view.

"Has that short plank in the back wall been replaced?" Old Wang remembered and turned to ask.

"It's been changed," Old Li pointed to the back of the wooden house. "We used a dry cedar log, no wormholes, don't worry."

The four helpers who joined later were still tidying up their tools and gathering the remaining wood to one side.

They picked up the scattered nails one by one from the mud, straightened them with a hammer, and put them into the tin box.

The middle-aged man in the gray-blue raincoat wrung out his soaked shirt, put it back on, and stood in front of the wooden house with his hands on his hips.

"Ladies," he turned and called out to the tarpaulin, "come and take a look. If there's anything you need help with, tell us before we leave."

Xu Xiaoyan stood up from the pot, wiped her hands, and walked towards the wooden house, with Lan Yue following behind her.

The wooden house isn't big, probably only about 20 square meters, but standing in front of it gives you a completely different feeling.

Lan Yue reached out and gently pushed the wooden door.

The door panel turned, and the hinges made a dull, solid sound in their grooves; the door opened.

Xu Xiaoyan nodded in satisfaction. "It's good, I'm very satisfied."

She turned around and walked back under the waterproof cloth, bent down, and opened the pot lid. "In addition to the compressed biscuits that were mentioned before, there is a bowl of cooked wood ear soup or fresh wood ear mushrooms, whichever you choose."

After the wages were settled, the group left satisfied.

Under the porch of the trading point in the distance, someone was peering in this direction, probably unable to sit still because of the increasingly strong aroma of soup.

Soon, the group was drawn over by the lingering aroma of the wood ear mushroom soup in the air.

Lan Yue quickly went to greet them, handing the bowl to them with just the right amount of enthusiasm, "Fresh wood ear mushroom soup, one bowl with a compressed biscuit, would you like to try it?"

The person looked down at the dark brown broth and the unfolded wood ear mushrooms in the bowl, swallowed hard, hesitated for a moment, and then shook their head.

"Too expensive. A single compressed biscuit can at least be a meal."

"Exactly, soup makes you hungry again soon after you drink it, so it's not very satisfying."

"How about a discount? Half a dollar?"

Lan Yue smiled and shook her head. "Sorry, this is the price. These are fresh wood ear mushrooms, and we went to great lengths to get them."

One by one, people who had asked about prices left. Some left decisively, while others kept looking back as if they were still hesitating, but their feet had already stepped out.

Lan Yue stood at the door of the wooden house, holding the bowl of sample soup that had gone cold. The smile on her lips slowly faded, and her brows furrowed into a small knot.

She turned around and went back under the tarpaulin, put the bowl on the ground, squatted down, looked at the pile of fresh wood ear mushrooms that were still mostly gone, and then looked at the pot of cooked wood ear mushroom soup that was almost empty.

Her voice betrayed barely concealed anxiety: "Xiao Yan, everyone thinks it's expensive, and we still have so much left!"

Xu Xiaoyan was leaning against the door frame of the wooden house, holding a sharpened wooden stick in her hand, casually drawing something on the muddy ground.

Hearing Lan Yue's words, she raised her head, her gaze falling on the pile of wood ear mushrooms, then on Lan Yue's anxious face, and suddenly smiled.

"What's the rush?" Xu Xiaoyan stuck the wooden stick into the ground, stood up, dusted off her trousers, walked to the waterproof tarpaulin, squatted down, picked up a piece of wood ear fungus, and examined it:

"Good things are worth the wait. If we can't sell them all, we can just turn them into dried wood ear mushrooms."

Lan Yue paused for a moment, blinked, as if something had clicked into place in her mind.

"Dried wood ear mushrooms?" she repeated, the anxiety in her voice largely softened by the word, replaced by a focused expression as she rapidly processed the new idea.

"That's right... If you dry it, it will last a long time, you don't have to worry about it spoiling, and you can sell it whenever you want..."

She spoke faster and faster, her brows gradually unfurrowing, and finally she let out a long breath.

I relaxed completely, plopping down on the sleeping mat and patting my chest.

"I was so scared! I thought I was going to be stuck with this stuff today. I was wrong. I completely forgot that this thing can be made into dried goods."

Xu Xiaoyan put the piece of wood ear mushroom back, stood up again, and turned her gaze toward the hillside.

Scattered on the hillside were some dead branches and broken wood, traces left by the previous "pine resin craze." Some people cut down trees to extract pine resin, and the branches were left there unclaimed.

"By the way, we'll need a lot of firewood to make it into dried goods."

Xu Xiaoyan withdrew her gaze, turned around and pulled out the old axe she had borrowed from the trading point from under the tarpaulin. She weighed it in her hand; there was a nick in the blade, but it was still usable.

She slung the axe over her shoulder, tilted her head towards Lan Yue, and said, "You watch the stall, I'll go chop wood."

Lan Yue had only been sitting down for a couple of seconds when she heard this and jumped up again, reaching out to stop the axe on Xu Xiaoyan's shoulder.

"I'll go," Lan Yue's voice was a little faster than usual, with an unusual seriousness and persistence. Her hand was already gripping the axe handle, neither pulling hard nor letting go.

"You're much better at doing business. You're much better than me at negotiating prices, greeting customers, and selling things. Keeping me here won't be of much use."

"Okay," Xu Xiaoyan took the axe off his shoulder, turned the handle over so that the axe head was facing outwards, and steadily handed it to Lan Yue.

"Be careful, the slope is slippery, don't go to places that are too steep."

Lan Yue took the axe, pulled the scarf over her face to cover her chin, buttoned up her coat, and bent down to tuck her trouser legs into her socks.

"Don't worry, what could possibly happen while chopping wood?" Lan Yue straightened up, grinned at Xu Xiaoyan, then turned around, shouldered her axe, and strode towards the hillside.