Chapter 70: Construction

After He Ying's single hand was bound, she no longer struggled.

This battle is now considered over.

"You didn't draw your sword, so let's call it a draw."

"I can afford to lose."

After each exchanged a polite remark, Chen Mu put away his weapon, He Ying rubbed her wrist, and the two failures were remarkably similar.

She could see that Chen Mu's physical fitness remained at an ordinary person's level, but in the use of special ability, he was indeed much higher than her.

He Ying was still a competitive person at heart; being able to accept defeat didn't mean she was convinced, and clearly this guy's ability should be only supportive!

But she also knew that unless she quickly caught up to him in special ability, the gap would only keep widening.

Dong Junwei laughed and said, "You're so enthusiastic? Practicing this early in the morning?"

"We just happened to meet, so we played a couple rounds."

"Actually, it's not bad; real combat trains people best."

"I think the same."

"......"

Seeing that there was no more excitement to watch, everyone also dispersed.

……

After breakfast, everyone once again threw themselves into the massive water diversion project.

After the water reservoir was completed, the next most massive task was to manufacture the pipes.

The pipes themselves weren't difficult for Chen Mu, but when the quantity reached a certain scale, it was no longer an easy job.

"The difficulty of the pipes themselves isn't high, just tedious, but the support is a problem—how high should the rainwater pipe's inlet be set?"

"Around thirty centimeters is fine; this pipe is an auxiliary pipe, normally it self‑connects and self‑drains, and only when we need to fill the water reservoir do we open its outlet."

Tang Jing said while speaking, pointing upward, and added: "The support issue is fine, because no matter what we have to drill a hole in the door, which will then become a natural support."

"How high is the hole to be drilled in the door?"

"About twenty‑five centimeters; the initial section of the inlet pipe doesn't need much slope, ideally it should be perpendicular to the rainwater pipe, which also maximally prevents large particulate impurities from entering with the flow, but after passing through the door we need to make a ninety‑degree elbow, and the elbow's quality must be solid, because this spot will endure the greatest impact force."

"Then we connect a vertical pipe down to the ground, and discharge it through the door gap?"

"Not bad, it seems you understand my meaning." Tang Jing laughed.

"I'm not as professional as you, but I roughly get it." Chen Mu smiled: "Actually, I originally thought about whether we could directly run a pipe from some water source to here, like the drinking fountain in the classroom, the water bucket on top—if it's full, we could use it for a long, long time."

"The water volume would be enough, but that's impractical."

"Because the project is too massive?"

"The project's scale is one aspect." Tang Jing turned her gaze toward the teaching building and continued: "Even if you could make such a pipe, it would be impossible to connect it."

"Why?"

"If the pipe is too thick, the water in the dispenser won't have filled the pipe before it's gone, which is obviously pointless; but if the pipe is too thin, it also won't work, because when the pipe diameter becomes small enough, water flow is difficult to sustain on its own—this involves water surface tension and atmospheric pressure—and moreover, the smaller the diameter, the greater the head loss along the way, so by the time the water reaches halfway, it would stop moving."

"Along the way… what?"

"Head loss, that's a term in water supply and drainage; it basically means the resistance of water inside the pipe, so this could also be a counter‑intuitive point, not to mention that outdoor pipes laid outside are likely to be sabotaged."

"Alright."

At this moment, the surrounding crowd had already turned to stone, completely failing to hear the two's conversation.

After construction officially began, everyone instead stopped overthinking.

Tang Jing assigned each person their tasks, and even she and the other girls were given some lighter physical work.

Chen Mu's first task.

was to drill a hole about 1 centimeter in diameter at a height of twenty‑five centimeters on the door.

This pipe diameter was also set by Tang Jing after weighing the workload and Chen Mu's ability.

A height of twenty to thirty centimeters.

For Chen Mu at this time it was really no big problem; he casually made a handle while climbing up.

However, drilling a 1‑centimeter‑diameter round hole in a 4.5‑centimeter‑thick wooden door still required considerable effort.

At the same time.

The people below were also busy moving various materials.

Because it was wood, whose density isn't high, Chen Mu finished it in about half an hour.

He even rested twice during that time.

He then followed the same procedure and climbed up the rainwater pipe.

The De50 plastic PVC pipe, with a wall thickness of 4.5 mm, presented even less difficulty than the wooden door.

……

The key to determining the completion time of the entire project still lay with Chen Mu.

The remaining work was to manufacture the pipes, make the connections, and smooth and fill the gaps; moreover, the sedimentation tank and grille that Tang Jing mentioned were relatively simple.

The so‑called sedimentation tank is a plastic box higher than the water reservoir, but with a smaller base area and an elongated shape.

After water fills it, it flows a distance and then leaks from the upper outlet into the water reservoir; this water has been settled, and although it isn't very clean, it's sufficient for bathing and such.

After all, with industry and automobile exhaust gone, sulfides in the rainwater have greatly decreased, and in a few weeks the water quality will improve further.

The most time‑consuming part is manufacturing the pipes.

Although Chen Mu no longer pursued a perfectly smooth finish on the pipes, the first day still yielded little output.

He never expends too much mental energy, no matter when; even at home he stops when he feels about one‑third remains, naturally to be ready for sudden events.

Of course, the amount of mental energy is inherently hard to quantify, and each time he just goes by feeling.

……

The first day's results were remarkable.

According to Tang Jing's estimate, in about six days their water diversion project will be completely finished; after that, as long as it doesn't go without rain for over a month continuously, they will have a steady supply of domestic water, and even He Ying will no longer need to get up in the morning to go outside to collect dew to wash her face.

Fortunately, Shangshi is located on the southeastern coast, with abundant rainfall; at least in summer, there's no need to worry about lack of rain.

By the time they rested in the afternoon.

Tang Jing gathered everyone together.

"I have roughly drafted the regulations and the responsibilities of each position in the Qiming organization; let everyone vote on it."

She promised yesterday to produce the charter within 24 hours.

"Do we need to write it down?" Du Jia Jia asked.

"Yes."

Tang Jing laughed: "But there's no rush; first let everyone listen, and if they find no issues, then we'll have it engraved."