Chapter 8: Getting Wealthy

"Heaven and Earth" did not truly eat, so Baifeng assumed she was not hungry; after finishing his own, he took her leftovers to eat.

As the saying goes, eating the leftovers of Heaven makes one clever.

Once Baifeng had a pottery jar, he abandoned the bamboo tube, which had a small capacity and was inconvenient to carry, and excitedly took the pottery jar to the water pool to fetch water.

Upon arriving at the water pool, Baifeng was completely stunned; the original water pool had been a large, flat, and deep harbor in the middle of a small stream, but this flash flood had directly changed the appearance of the original water pool.

It was now wider and deeper than the original pool, and most importantly, the area near the upstream had been blocked by wood, stones, and silt, directly turning it into a Quake Lake.

The water level upstream was high, which was fine for the moment, but it could collapse at any time in the next few days. Moreover, there was almost no water downstream, let alone fish; the water didn't even cover the tops of Baifeng's feet.

The dam of the Quake Lake was far from its limit, but if things continued like this for a few more days, it would be inconvenient for Baifeng to use water, and he wouldn't be able to catch fish; it was unknown how long it would take for it to collapse on its own.

Baifeng carefully climbed onto the dam of the Quake Lake; the upstream water level was over three meters, and the height of the dam exceeded four meters. One must know that the deepest part of this water pool was only two meters before; in this situation, it was impossible to catch fish.

Baifeng decided to take action and make this Quake Lake collapse ahead of schedule.

However, to maximize his gains, Baifeng found many bamboo stalks, inserted them at the downstream water outlet, and made a fence for catching fish.

This fishing device had a flat fence on the inside and a trumpet-shaped opening on the outside; when the fish were washed down with the water, they would be trapped in this fence, and then Baifeng could reach in and catch them.

After preparing the fishing device, Baifeng took his stone axe and walked to the dam of the Quake Lake, chose a stable spot, and began to dig the mud on the dam.

As the saying goes, wealth is sought in danger; for the sake of the fish and a stable water source, Baifeng began to destroy the Quake Lake when it was at its most stable.

The newly piled silt was easy to dig up and could be easily excavated by hand; Baifeng did not dig it too wide, only digging a gap of less than ten centimeters, and then kept deepening it.

Until the depth of the gap reached the upstream water line and water slowly began to flow out from the gap, Baifeng stopped and quickly left the dam.

The water flow continuously impacted the gap Baifeng had dug, making the gap deeper and wider, and the water flow changed from small to large.

Baifeng called this the "Baifeng Pool Flood Discharge Project."

The water level in the lower part of the pool kept rising, but the water was very turbid; after the water level rose, it began to flow toward the stream that had already dried up.

Fish of all sizes were continuously brought down by the water; many were swimming in the pool and not heading downstream. But as the water flow grew larger, the fish were helplessly washed down.

Baifeng's fishing fence began to "explode" with fish; the speed at which Baifeng caught the fish and smashed them unconscious with a stick was not as fast as the fence was filling with fish.

Before long, there were already forty or fifty fish on the bank; Baifeng didn't have time to count, and he only picked the large fish, letting the small ones go directly.

Baifeng felt it was time to stop, so he began to dismantle the fence. Just as he finished half of it, he heard the Quake Lake dam make a "boom, boom, boom" sound, like zither strings about to snap.

Baifeng stopped dismantling the fence and instead hurried back to the bank, staying far away from the water pool, while incidentally giving a stick to a few fish on the bank that hadn't been knocked out properly and were still wiggling.

The groaning of the dam grew louder, and then, in an instant, it was torn apart by the water; the turbid river water, carrying silt and fallen wood, rushed downstream.

This flash flood discharged for a full hour before the water slowly returned to calm; Baifeng took advantage of this time to kill fish while watching the flood roar. In the end, there were a full fifty-two fish; if each averaged three jin, Baifeng had obtained over one hundred and fifty jin of meat in half a day.

If this meat were processed and preserved well, it would be completely sufficient for the needs of one winter.

Baifeng had originally intended to fetch some water, but ended up getting so many fish unexpectedly; fortunately, the water pool was only a five-minute walk from the camp.

Baifeng carried the fish to the camp trip by trip; after bringing all the fish back, a fishy smell drifted everywhere in the camp. If this were his past life, Baifeng would certainly have avoided such a place, but now he enjoyed this feeling very much.

Now Baifeng's smoked fish racks were almost filling the camp; fortunately, the firewood used for smoking fish didn't need to be chopped, as it was everywhere, brought down by the flash flood—all kinds of wood, large and small; Baifeng only needed to pick up what he could carry and bring it back.

Looking at Baifeng's camp from afar, it was like the Heavenly Court; inside the camp, however, one was about to report to the Heavenly Court, it was simply too choking.

Now that Baifeng was slightly free, he began to think of ways to process rabbit skins; the raw skins peeled off directly weren't unusable, it was just that Baifeng had higher requirements.

Baifeng didn't even have a grass skirt now and was running around naked.

To cure the skins, the first step was to scrape the fascia and grease off them; this was easy to handle, and Baifeng finished it quickly.

Then came the tanning; Baifeng had originally thought about just soaking them in urine, but he didn't have a suitable container to waste, so he gave up for the time being.

The matter of making skins was also shelved for now; after all, he still had to collect some earth saltpeter, and Baifeng also realized the scarcity of his utensils.

He simply found some clay again, intending to show off his skills and make plenty of pots, bowls, basins, and the like.

Baifeng now had plenty of experience in making pottery and soon made a pile of basins and jars of various sizes.

The sky gradually darkened; Baifeng turned the fire for the smoked fish down a little, otherwise the smoke would be too thick, and Baifeng was afraid he would be smoked to death at night.

Tonight Baifeng boiled fish soup; without any seasonings or high technology, the fish soup was pure white and thick, though the fishy smell remained very strong.

As usual, he ladled out two bowls, one for Heaven and Earth and one for Baifeng.

After eating and drinking his fill, washing the pot and putting away the bowls, the moonlight was bright tonight, and Baifeng had no sleepiness; looking at his sprawling smoked fish racks, the anxiety in Baifeng's heart was greatly relieved.

There was enough food; next, it was time to improve the quality of life. And salt—he must make it tomorrow. Baifeng did indeed feel uncomfortable, or perhaps it was just psychological, but he felt his muscles were more sore and weak than before.

Lying in the small wooden shed that leaked moonlight, Baifeng forced himself to fall asleep.

Rising early, he stoked the bonfire and boiled some fish meat in the pottery pot again, then Baifeng prepared to fire the pottery jars and tiles.

The basins and jars made yesterday evening couldn't be fired yet; they had to be dried for another day, and this small fire kiln couldn't hold that many things anyway.

With the experience from the first time, Baifeng was very composed this time, but the amount of firewood used these past few days was too large, and that stone axe could barely withstand the high-intensity work.

Moreover, the difficulty of using the stone axe also made Baifeng feel extremely painful.

Actually, for a kiln, coal would have a better effect, but the coal Baifeng had discovered so far was right next to the home of that Cannibal Tribe, and Baifeng didn't dare to take the risk again.

As for coal, the wild people not far away had an open-pit coal mine, so there must be some near Baifeng's camp, perhaps even right under Baifeng's feet, just buried deeper and not on the surface.

Coal couldn't be used to smoke meat, but it could be used to fire the kiln; once Baifeng made a furnace with good sealing, it could also be used for heating in winter.

To find coal, Baifeng decided to explore the area behind the camp that he had never searched in the next few days; if he couldn't find any, he might as well upgrade his weapons and equipment and break out of the Wasteland.

After a little fantasy about building a nation with primitive people, Baifeng finally recognized reality; after adding firewood to all the places, he went to look for reeds.

After the hail and the flash flood, the reeds were broken, crushed, or fallen into the silt.

Baifeng easily obtained a few bundles of reeds, tied them tightly in the middle with vines, used bamboo as a carrying pole, and after securing the reeds, Baifeng wobblingly carried two bundles of reeds back.

Then he made two more trips to carry all the reeds back to the camp.

Baifeng dug a pit in the open space to burn the reeds; his great cause of salt production was finally about to begin.