Chapter 57: Xu Yi's Efficiency

Chapter 57: Xu Yi's Efficiency

"Daddy, you woke up so early."

Su Keke woke up and found Xu Yi busy up high, laying out the arbor poles for the wooden platform.

Xu Yi had already finished laying the entire base, using up 81 arbor poles.

With the remaining poles, Xu Yi planned to tie the roof beams into place first.

Just like the base beams, he would use four poles.

However, this time, one side would be higher and the other lower.

This way, the roof would drain water smoothly.

One side would be 3.5 meters high, and the other 3 meters, which would be sufficient.

A treehouse of this height would provide enough space without feeling oppressive, making it quite comfortable to live in.

After finishing the roof beams, he would tie another beam in the middle, and then use arbor poles along the sides to form the walls of the wooden house.

With sturdy walls in place, even if leopards or black bears climbed up the tree, they wouldn't be able to harm Xu Yi and Su Keke.

"Keke, you're awake too. Do you want to come up and take a look?"

Although the flooring poles were not tied down completely yet, the structure was already quite stable.

"Okay!" Su Keke said happily and prepared to climb up.

"Be careful."

Xu Yi gave a word of caution and continued securing the flooring poles.

Soon, Su Keke climbed up to the top.

It was only two meters high, not very tall.

Besides, Su Keke would need to get used to climbing up and down like this anyway, so Xu Yi let her come up.

Once up, Su Keke walked around the platform.

"Daddy, should we cut down the trees above us?"

Su Keke pointed at the canopy overhead and asked curiously.

"No, let's keep them for now."

The sky still held dangers; what if some pterosaurs showed up?

Therefore, it was best to keep the tree canopy above the camp.

That way, even if pterosaurs spotted them, they wouldn't be able to land directly.

Only smaller pterosaurs would be able to get in, and Xu Yi should be able to handle them.

After tying a few more poles, Xu Yi brought Su Keke back down.

Xu Yi ground some fresh charcoal powder, and the two of them used their new toothbrushes to brush their teeth.

Xu Yi found that the bristles of this new toothbrush were quite soft, and brushing with it felt rather comfortable.

Furthermore, it was very thorough.

After rinsing, no charcoal powder was left in their mouths, leaving them feeling very clean.

Therefore, Xu Yi was very satisfied with his new toothbrush.

The two of them washed their faces and brushed their teeth by the river. After finishing, Xu Yi fetched some water.

Su Keke picked up a crab and some of the stream snails Xu Yi had just washed.

"Daddy, aren't we going to check the fishing traps?"

Su Keke asked curiously, as this was indeed a suitable time to check the traps.

"Daddy's main task today is to get the wooden house ready, so we won't go check the fish traps today. We'll collect them tomorrow instead."

Xu Yi explained to Su Keke, knowing that even if they harvested the traps, there wouldn't be time to process the fish inside anyway.

Thus, it was better to simply collect them tomorrow morning, clean the fish properly, and smoke them.

Xu Yi wasn't lacking food right now; there was a nest of mountain rats near the camp that could provide a hearty meal if caught.

However, the top priority right now was the house.

The leopard that appeared this morning made Xu Yi acutely aware of the dangers in the jungle.

With a house, they wouldn't have to worry about beasts sneaking in while they slept at night and biting them to death.

A campfire could certainly deter beasts, but what if a sudden torrential downpour struck at night?

If the campfire was extinguished, how would they defend against wild beasts?

Su Keke didn't say anything more and obediently followed Xu Yi back to the camp.

After cooking breakfast, Xu Yi resumed his work.

Su Keke went back up as well. Since her strength was limited, her knot-tying wouldn't be secure enough.

Xu Yi didn't ask her to help; she just needed to stay up there.

At a height of two meters, this spot was relatively safe.

He busied himself all the way until noon before finally finishing tying all the flooring poles.

"Later on, we can spread some mud on top, and the floor will be even smoother."

Xu Yi was quite satisfied with the fruits of his labor. Tonight, they could tie their hammocks up here.

By tying them crosswise—one slightly higher and one slightly lower—they could sleep peacefully.

He still had the afternoon and evening ahead of him, during which he could not only finish the roof beams but also construct a framework on the roof to anchor the thatch later on.

There was thatch growing along the riverbank, and it reached heights of about a meter and a half, which would be entirely adequate for shielding them from wind and rain.

However, harvesting thatch took time, and turning it into thatch panels also took time.

If it really started to rain, they could lay the snakeskin over the top first to block the rain and manage for a while.

The primary focus, however, was the four walls of the wooden house.

After having lunch, Xu Yi climbed back up onto the wooden house.

After measuring the required heights for all the roof beams, Xu Yi used his machete to carve out appropriately sized notches, slotted the beams firmly into place, and secured them.

By 3:00 PM, Xu Yi had finished the roof structure and secured eight roof beams.

All the arbor poles were completely used up.

Xu Yi would have to go cut new poles in order to finish framing the four walls of the wooden house.

[Number 1's efficiency is really high. I only looked away for half a day, and a large wooden house is already taking shape?]

[Indeed, Number 1 is very handy, works briskly, and rarely stops to rest.]

[It's a pressing matter, though. A leopard came to visit before dawn today, and fortunately, Number 1 chased it off. So they definitely need to build the treehouse as early as possible and make it secure.]

[What the heck, what's going on? There are leopards?]

Consequently, a bunch of people started discussing the leopard attack from the morning.

After resting for a while and drinking some water, Xu Yi picked up his machete and prepared to go cut some small shrubs.

Since he had pretty much cleared out the arbor poles on the opposite bank of the river, he had no choice but to find some shrubs to weave into the four walls of the wooden house.

To be honest, if he didn't have this machete in his hand, achieving his current level of efficiency would have been utterly impossible.

Just chopping down trees by hand would have consumed an unknown amount of time.

Xu Yi planned to walk along the foot of the mountain range to see if there were suitable shrubs in that direction.

At the same time, he could scout out the surroundings.

He hadn't explored this particular direction before.

"Keke, stay up here and don't come down. Daddy is going to cut down some small trees to bring back, okay?"

Before setting off, Xu Yi gave her instructions.

Compared to the ground, Su Keke was much safer up in the treehouse.

"Mm-mm, don't worry, Daddy, Keke will take care of herself." As she spoke, Su Keke picked up the spear from the floor.

Keeping her weapon close at hand had already become a habit.

Xu Yi nodded with satisfaction.

Heading straight along the mountain range, Xu Yi hoped he would make some useful discoveries.

Suddenly, he caught sight of a patch of vibrant green in the distance.

Instantly, a wave of joy washed over him.

Bamboo?