During times of famine: I have a spiritual spring space

Chapter 21 Digging a Pond

After saying that, Zhuang Lihui pretended to go for a walk nearby, and then instantly returned to his spatial dimension where the two siblings couldn't see him.

There's a lot of work to do, and the tasks are heavy. We need to enclose a space for the chickens and geese, but we don't need to keep them locked up, because Zhuang Lihui sometimes doesn't have time to feed them. When they're hungry, they'll go to the field to find food on their own.

I also need to build a house. The house doesn't need to be too big, just big enough for me to rest and live in.

Grain storage bins or barns don't need to be placed indoors; they can be placed outdoors, since the space won't get rained on.

We also need to dig a pond next to it and raise some fish or something. In the future, the chickens, ducks, geese, and other poultry and livestock in the space can drink water from the pond instead of going to the well.

Although the space has the ability to decompose and evolve, so even if you defecate in the well, you won't dirty the spiritual spring, you'll still feel a bit disgusted.

Zhuang Lihui rolled up his sleeves and got to work.

We started with the simplest task: using the bamboo we had cut earlier to make a fence, we selected a spot, about 20 or 30 square meters, and enclosed it with the fence, creating a gate.

This will be a resting place for chickens, ducks, and geese from now on.

Zhuang Lihui finished the job in about an hour.

Next, he started digging a pond next to it. The pond didn't need to be very deep, just over half a meter would be enough. Also, it didn't need to be very big, ten or twenty square meters would be fine.

If we had an excavator, it would probably only take a few minutes.

However, even though Zhuang Lihui is physically gifted and his strength has improved dramatically, it still took him nearly two hours to dig the pond by hand.

Zhuang Lihui chiseled a hole next to the well, connected a hollow bamboo pole, and channeled the spring water to the pond beside it.

Then, he made a lid out of wooden planks to cover the well opening, so that no animals would stick their heads into the well to drink the sacred spring water.

Exhausted, Zhuang Lihui slumped down to rest.

After resting for about half an hour, seeing that it was almost time, he took a few cornbreads that he had made earlier and a gourd of diluted spiritual spring water and left the space, returning to the place where the two siblings were picking peanuts.

"Come on, have something to eat and some water first, then continue," Zhuang Lihui said to them.

He discovered that about half of the peanuts had been picked.

Looks like we can finish picking the peanuts today. It's definitely easier to have help; how long would it take to finish on my own?

However, peeling the shells is a troublesome task, although it is not tiring, it takes too much time.

He even considered taking them to the commune's oil press, but he held back. Taking hundreds of pounds of peanuts to press for oil would attract too much attention these days.

If it's too little, the oil press probably won't even bother with you.

The best way is to stir-fry the peanuts in their shells directly in the pan until the shells are crispy. Then, crush them with a stick to break the shells, and blow the wind away the broken shells, leaving only the peanut kernels.

Seeing that they were cornbreads, and fried to a golden brown, they looked very appetizing, and Xiao Fan and his sister couldn't help but swallow.

"Big brother, we're not hungry!"

"Don't be hungry! Eat up, then get back to work. Let's finish picking these peanuts and go back soon." Zhuang Lihui gave each of them two cornbreads.

Xiao Fan and Xiao Yu put down the peanuts and began to eat them heartily.

The corn tortillas are delicious!

At home, although they have corn, they grind the corn cobs together and cook them into corn porridge. Although the taste isn't great, they are already quite satisfied.

There are plenty of hungry people in the village who don't even have corncobs to eat, unlike them.

Zhuang Lihui also noticed that although he said they could peel a few peanuts to eat, the two little ones were very self-disciplined and didn't eat a single one, which made him think even more highly of the brother and sister.

In terms of character, no problems have been found so far.

After eating cornbread and drinking two or three sips of diluted spiritual spring water, the two siblings felt that life was wonderful.

They didn't rest for long. A few minutes later, without Zhuang Lihui urging them, they consciously continued picking peanuts, their hands and feet moving quickly and skillfully, even more so than Zhuang Lihui.

Zhuang Lihui really likes this kind of high-quality tool.

He walked away again and returned to the space where no one was paying attention.

Building a house is a huge project, even if he didn't plan to build a very big one. In his previous life, he had watched many videos of building wooden houses, and they weren't particularly difficult.

Anyone can do it!

Of course, the wooden house he's going to build will be better than those used for wilderness survival. After all, he has all the necessary materials, including cement.

Zhuang Lihui already had a plan in mind. He used a straight bamboo stick to measure for a while to determine the location for digging the foundation, and then started digging, creating a trench about 30 centimeters deep and 20 centimeters wide.

Next comes mixing the cement.

Fortunately, he had the foresight to collect a batch of sand from the riverbed and bring it into his spatial dimension. Not only sand, but also quite a few pebbles, which he had prepared for building a house.

The cement was mixed with spring water; it's extravagant, but there's nothing we can do about it.

By this time, the pond was almost completely filled with the spiritual spring water.

That's not surprising, since the pond isn't very big.

Mixing cement is a skilled task; the amount of cement, sand, and water must be carefully controlled. Otherwise, the quality of the cement will be greatly reduced after it hardens.

Some cement blocks can be broken off by hand after they have hardened, and some even crumble when squeezed, because they were not mixed properly.

After Zhuang Lihui filled the trench with cement, it was already late, so he quickly finished work. That was all he could do for the day; he would continue tomorrow when the cement had hardened.

Sure enough, outside the space, the sun was about to set.

Xiao Fan and Xiao Yu had finished picking all the peanuts and were now finishing up.

Zhuang Lihui handed them 10 ears of corn: "Alright, you don't need to do the rest. Hurry up and go back! Be careful not to let anyone see you."

"Big brother, will you come again tomorrow?" Xiao Fan couldn't help but ask.

Zhuang Lihui shook his head: "Come back the day after tomorrow. I have other things to do tomorrow."

"good!"

The two siblings happily wrapped up the ten ears of corn, securing them tightly, and immediately turned back the way they came. When they entered their village, they deliberately avoided everyone.

When Xiaofan's mother saw her two children return, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that the children had brought back 10 ears of corn, she felt that the pressure of life had eased a lot.

At the same time, she also felt somewhat ashamed, as she is now raising two children on her own.

"It's good to see you back. Mom made you some corn porridge, eat up!"

"Mom, we're having cornbread for lunch, it's so delicious!" Xiaoyu immediately shared her joy.

The woman sighed with gratitude, saying that her benefactor had been so good to her two children, and she didn't know how to repay him.

"You must..." She could only continue to instill in her children the idea of ​​gratitude, and that they should keep a low profile, speak less, and not let others find out.

After they left, Zhuang Lihui quickly cleaned up the scene; having space made things convenient.

Once he's finished cleaning up, he needs to get back as soon as possible.