One Hundred Days on an Uninhabited Island

Knead the mud.

The old man and Mu Jie moved a stone with a relatively flat surface, dug out the mud that Wen Siqi and the others had brought back from the bucket, put a palm-sized piece on the stone, and poured some water to make it moist. While picking out the sand that came into contact, I began to knead the soil.

"Knead the soil first to make it soft. It should not be too soft, just moderate, and the air mixed in it should be discharged, otherwise the mud will be full of air, and it will easily explode when baked."

"That's what my old brother told me back then, but I'm getting old and it's been a long time, and I can't remember some things clearly, so let's try to make two small ones first, so as not to waste it."

The old man was rubbing the mud while talking, and as time passed, he began to lose his breath.

Kneading mud and playing with mud are two different concepts. The former is a labor of strength. If you don't have a little strength, you can't knead the mud well. The old man is old. He hasn't really eaten a full meal these days, and his strength can't keep up. Lin Jianfei, Wen Siqi, Jiang Xinran I took the bottle and went to fetch water again. The rest were either old, sick or pregnant. Only Yao Yanan, Mu Jie and Wang Zhenzhen could do their best.

Yao Yanan came to visit her "relatives" again at an untimely time, and she had to do some strenuous work again, so she might come happily, so Mu Jie held her back to prevent her from moving, and prepared to go into battle by herself.

But before he squatted down, Wang Zhenzhen sat down on the seat that the old man made way for.

"Get out of the way, it's just what the daughters in each city can do, get out of the way, don't get in the way!"

With a slap, the mud hit the stone, and with a crisp sound, the unpleasant sharpness was suppressed, and the hands with the black mud mixed in the nails began to knead.

After kneading for a while, the old man yelled to stop, saying that it was time to knead the billet, so Wang Zhenzhen stopped, twisting his arms with a distressed expression.

The old man dug out a piece of the kneaded mud and kneaded it into a tennis ball in his hand, and then kneaded the tennis ball into a rugby ball. After getting a rough shape, the old man used his fingers to dig a hole in the top of the ball, and the hole got bigger and bigger. Big, rugby is developing towards tennis again.

"This is called the hand kneading method. It needs to rely on the feel of the hand. If the hand feel is not good, it will be rough. In the past, the most used is to use mud strips. What is it called... what is the coil construction method, but it is only a test product and there is no need for coil construction. .”

The little clay pot slowly took shape in the old man's hands, it was so small, it was as big as a palm.

In the end, the old man scratched a few more marks on the outside of the clay pot. He said it was to prevent cracking. They didn't understand, but it sounded like it anyway.

"Okay, let's put it in a ventilated and dry place and let it dry in the shade. After it dries in the shade, it can be burned in the fire."

"How long will it take to dry in the shade?" Ye Yajie asked casually.

The old man hesitated, "Well... about a week?"

"So long?! Couldn't it be done on the same day?"

Hearing Ye Yajie's surprise, the old man straightened his face and said, "How can it be so easy, the water in the mud has to be let go first, this walking process is not fast, it is easy to lose balance if it is too fast, there is a lot of water here There is less water there, and it is easy to break when firing."

"Can't it be sun-dried or dried by fire?"

A voice came from behind the jungle, the old man turned his head, and when he saw Wen Siqi coming back, he frowned and thought about it.

"Isn't it okay?"

Seeing that the old man didn't respond for a while, Wen Siqi thought it was impossible, and felt a little regretful.

She has never had any relevant knowledge about pottery art. It can be said that she knows nothing about this aspect, so that she thinks too simple about the process of pottery making. In some places, she is even naive, thinking that pottery can be made with the right soil. Can, in fact, can indeed be done, but she thinks too easily about the time.

Are you impatient?

Secretly thought, just about to change the plan in my heart, I heard the old man say: "You can try it, use fire to dry it."

"is it okay?"

"I've heard of the drying method, but I haven't seen my brother use it. I'm not sure, but I can try it."

The old man was not confident, he looked at the clay pot and muttered, as if pondering the feasibility of the method.

The temperature of the sun is not easy to control, but the fire is fine. After the old man made sure, they helped build the fire again.

Build stones around the fire, and the old man put the finished clay pot on the stones, and sat by the fire to watch the fire temperature, turning the pot from time to time, so that the noodles were dried evenly.

In order to ensure that all the water in the mud disperses, the drying time is very long, from noon until the sun goes down, and the sea surface is stained with orange, the old man took the clay pot away from the fire and let it cool down meeting.

At the same time, the old man dug another small pit beside the fire, surrounded it with stones to form a small pile, and when he thought it was almost time, he took some sparkling ash from the fire and poured it into the pit. Cover the clay pot, and then spread branches on the pot, so that it is full, and then draw the fire on the side to start firing.

Because there is no kiln, the old man directly chooses to throw it into the fire. The temperature is not as good as that of the kiln, and it takes longer until night falls, the whole island is in darkness, and the fire burning on the beach becomes the only embellishment. The old man was still sitting by the fire and watching the fire.

"Grandpa, it's time to eat."

Wen Siqi came over with a coconut bowl.

It was only half past six, but the sky darkened prematurely, even the wind became strong, and the mountain walls couldn't stop it. Wen Siqi estimated that there would be a rain in the morning at the latest.

"Eh, good, good."

The old man wiped his hands on his clothes, and took the coconut bowl and chopsticks from Wen Siqi.

Today's Wen Suiyun failed to display her European blood. Dinner was a pot of palm core, no seafood, not even shellfish.

Wen Siqi looked at the fire, and sat down beside the old man, "Grandpa, how long will it last?"

"Let's burn it for a while, I'll turn off the flame after a while, take it out and have a look."

The old man blew into the bowl, then picked up the bowl and swallowed hot water into his mouth, then picked up a palm core and crunched it, his words were a little vague.

Wen Siqi sat here and waited.

After a while, Jiang Xinran brought Wen Suiyun and Ye Yajie over, and they all looked curiously at the fire immediately.

"How long will it take to burn? It's almost a day."

Ye Yajie took a branch from the woodpile nearby and poked it towards the edge of the fire. She didn't dare to poke too deep, for fear of damaging the clay pot, so she poked at the edge of the fire.

"It will be fine soon, just wait."

The old man put down the bowl and chopsticks, stood up and circled around the fire.

After about a few minutes, the old man took the firewood from the fire and handed it to Wen Siqi, and then pushed the remaining firewood away with his spear and extinguished it.

Wen Siqi held the firewood close to the fire, the light was not very good, and the clay pot was covered with the same color by the plant ash, it was a bit hard to find with the naked eye.

The old man swiped slowly with his spear, only to hear a crisp sound coming from the wind and waves, the old man immediately became overjoyed, and regardless of the remaining temperature in the ash pile, he stretched out his hand and grabbed something from the ashes.

"It's done?"

"It's done, it's not broken."

Rough old hands stroked the uneven surface of the clay pot, and the old man happily wrinkled an old chrysanthemum on his old face.

Fortunately, the clay pot did not burst, and no cracks were found on the body surface. It was a very successful firing, so good that people can't believe it.

"Grandpa, touch it for me, let me touch it quickly!"

Ye Yajie couldn't wait and stretched out her hand to the old man, looking more excited than Wen Suiyun like a child.

"Don't worry, don't worry, you have everything, touch everything."

The old man smiled and handed the pot to Ye Yajie, as if he was handing over a treasure rather than an ugly and small broken pot.

The clay pots have not been polished, and the surface has obvious roughness. They are small and dusty under the light of the fire, without any refinement. Normally, Ye Yajie would not even look at them, but now, Ye Yajie But he loves it very much, touching it left and right, rubbing it right and left, and he can't put it down.

"Damn it! I finally don't have to act like a savage anymore!"

Ye Yajie was very happy, so happy that she was full of vulgarity, which surprised Jiang Xinran.

With the faint light of the fire, she looked at the strange elder sister beside her in silence.

After a while, Jiang Xinran saw Wang Zhenzhen and the others coming, looking at the excited and mean face standing by the torch, illuminated by the light of the fire, Jiang Xinran suddenly smiled, and stopped worrying about Ye Yajie's change.

That's fine too.

On the beach, everyone was there except Han Tang, who was pregnant, and Yao Yanan, who was restricted by "relatives", and the clay pot passed the circle in everyone's hands.

The old lady was as happy as the old man, the chrysanthemums were blooming.

As soon as Wang Zhenzhen got it, Ye Yajie got into a fight with her again, and the relationship was so bad that it was suspiciously good.

Lin Jianfei knocked on the pot, and when he heard the crisp response from the pot, the scar on his face revealed a ferocious look again.

Mu Jie showed a rare non-professional smile, very shallow and fast, like a flashing meteor, disappearing in the blink of an eye, Jiang Xinran almost thought it was an illusion.

And what Jiang Xinran cares about is Wen Siqi's smile, which is just as shallow and as happy, but it gives her a heaviness that other people don't have. He gasped for breath the moment he was taken away.

"what happened?"

Sensing that someone was looking at her, Wen Siqi followed her feeling and saw Jiang Xinran staring at her without squinting. There was no such affectionate staring as described in the novel, but rather a curious inquiry.

The light from the torch just hit Jiang Xinran's face, and Wen Siqi could see the curiosity in her eyes.

What are you curious about?Did she see something?

For a while, Wen Siqi herself became curious.

"Ah? Ah... nothing."

Jiang Xinran turned her eyes away, the guilty conscience of being caught made her turn faster, and missed Wen Siqi's curious look at her.

Similarly, Wen Siqi could no longer explore her curiosity about Jiang Xinran, so she could only look away resentfully, looking at the pottery pots passed by other people, and collected her thoughts.

Look at the sky, the night sky is covered by dark clouds, the stars and the moon are invisible, the sea breeze blows the light of the torch flickering, and at this time, it almost blows the fire until there are only sparks left.

"Everyone, it's getting late, let's go back earlier, otherwise, there may be danger on the road."

There is a short road from the beach to the cave, and the road is not long, but they haven't completely cleaned up the vines on the road, so no one can tell if there will be reptiles staying there in the dark.

The torch was about to go out, and Wen Siqi didn't dare to take any risks, so she urged everyone to go back quickly.

Happy to happy, the reason is still there, after hearing Wen Siqi's words, everyone stopped standing on the beach, Wen Suiyun held the clay pot, and went back in a long line one after the other.

I still have to work tomorrow.