Because they were blocked by Wang Ping and the bee swarm for several hours, after they came ashore, they dried their clothes and shoes and had lunch. When Ding Yi asked everyone to start building the shelter, it was already three o'clock.
A badger felt guilty and was too embarrassed to hide in the sun this time. He ran around handing tools or moving branches to people, being particularly attentive.
Of course, there are exceptions. For example, Yang Xu has never seen a badger go over to help.
At this time, Yang Xu's face was so swollen that he simply took off one sleeve of his T-shirt and tied it around his face. Only his eyes were exposed, and no one could tell his expression at the moment.
The shelter couldn't be built right next to a water source, to avoid being attacked by wild animals drinking water. But it couldn't be too far away, and at the same time, it had to be built on the beach, so that everyone could find food. The final location was a 50-meter-wide sandy area at the edge of the southeast woods.
It is about 600 meters away from the water source, which is a bit far, but the advantage is that it is open enough. The beach here extends into the woods in a convex shape, with tall red nan trees on both sides. Outside the woods on the south side, there are reefs surrounding the coast. The location of the shelter was chosen on the side close to the south.
Seeing that the day was almost over, reality did not allow everyone to be picky. After marking out an area of about 20 meters, everyone decided to build three shacks side by side. Two girls in one shack, and two boys in two shacks. This way, excluding the people who kept watch every night, there would be exactly two people in one shack.
In the current situation, in order to avoid embarrassment, Gu Lao San would definitely not sleep in the same shack with Yang Xu. So he followed Han Da Xia all the way to get close to him.
Ding Yi took a military shovel and searched the forest for suitable branches and wooden poles as thick as arms to build the shelter. Yang Xu searched along the coast for small rocks and brought them back to make tools and also to support the foundation of the hut.
The remaining few people took the flattened branches to level the selected ground. Yi Jiuyang used the basket that someone had used to "catch" the seagulls, dragged the sand over one by one, and poured it on the open space to raise the foundation.
Li Mengdie and Hu Li then started weaving straw mats, which could be used both as floor coverings in the future shelter and as curtains to cover the roof or walls.
Wang Ping saw that after going around in a circle, no one wanted to see him. He rolled his eyes and ran back to where everyone was originally camping. He pulled down Gu Laosan's coat that was hung there, and imitated Yi Jiuyang, piling sand inside it, and ran with his little paws to where everyone was laying the foundation.
"Ah... my clothes..." Just as a salted fish flattened the sand that Yi Jiuyang had poured out, he saw a badger using a familiar coat to pull a bunch of sand in front of him.
"Haha! Great job, boss!"
Hu Li, who was weaving straw mats in an open space nearby, clapped his hands and cheered. Everyone laughed when they saw the badger's actions.
"What are you shouting about?" Han Daxia looked at Gu Lang and said with a smile: "It's doing work for us, you should praise it!"
"You said light, but it's not your clothes you used!"
Gu Laosan glared at him, then saw Ding Yi dragging a few small logs back, and shouted at him: "Hey, Lao Ding, come and make another basket for my boss!"
"snort!"
Ding Yi dragged the log to the foundation, looked at his two arms of different thicknesses, snorted coldly, ignored someone, and turned away.
When several people saw Gu Lao San hitting a wall, they all laughed secretly.
When the ground was almost raised, everyone helped Ding Yi drag back the remaining logs he had cut. They cut the branches and piled them aside, then dug a pit around the foundation and stood four logs with their tops in the shape of a "Y" on the outside.
From the side, the hut that everyone was going to build was in the shape of a right triangle, with three rectangular entrances on the front, separated by pillars. The roof was made of logs placed on beams, extending back to the ground, covered with straw mats and branches, and then covered with a layer of sand, so that it was waterproof and windproof.
Because there were no tools such as wire or chisel, Ding Yi, at Yang Xu's suggestion, chose a few small "Y"-shaped logs with thick forks on the top as doorposts. In this way, the crossbeam was placed above the forks, and it looked very solid if it was fixed with vines.
If one person did these things, it would probably take a long time. But when more people joined in, many problems would disappear. By the time the sun was about to set, the general structure of the shelter was almost built.
They dug a pit in the clearing in the woods and lit a bonfire. Two girls were preparing dinner, while the others continued to work before it got dark.
Behind the two middle doorposts, Ding Yi used an engineering shovel to dig two 20-centimeter-wide trenches vertically. After placing two logs on the door beams, he used short branches to erect them into the trenches along the gap between the two logs, and then filled them with soil to form a partitioned wall.
However, because too much time was wasted at noon, it would probably take until midnight before the shelter was fully built.
Next to the bonfire, a camping pot was already set up on the fire and boiling water. Hu Li was squatting on the side, stacking the conchs and scallops that he had washed at the beach layer by layer in a steamer covered with Trichosanthes leaves. Next to him was a steamer newly made by Ding Yi, which contained a sea fish.
While he was busy, he saw Wang Ping walking over with a piece of fragrant beeswax in his little paw. When he saw Hu Li looking at him, he forced a smile on his face.
Hu Li's eyes curved, and he wanted to invite him to come over to play. But thinking of the plan that the anchors had agreed on behind a certain badger in the afternoon, he coughed lightly and deliberately put on a stern face, pretending that he was still angry.
"What are you doing here?"
"Oh, the little girl is so hard to appease..." Wang Ping scratched his face in distress, but then he remembered the purpose of his visit, so he smiled again, stretched out his little paw to hand over the piece of honey, and pointed at the fish in the steamer.
Although a day had passed, the idea of steaming fish with honey was still lingering in the badger's mind. Seeing that dinner was about to start, the badger quickly ran to break off a piece of the beehive he had hidden and brought it to Hu Li.
"Use this to steam fish?"
Hu Li only thought about it for a moment and felt that this was a good idea. He had the essence of a foodie and was a fellow… badger. Just as he was about to take it, he heard a slight buzzing sound. A bee crawled out of the small hole in the beeswax and flapped its wings. His face suddenly changed.
“Crunch!”
A furry little paw stretched out instantly, grabbed the bee, squeezed it hard, and then threw it aside. At the same time, the little paw was raised to the mouth and blinked at Hu Li.
"Shh, don't shout, it's gone! Look if you don't believe me!"
A badger showed the beeswax without any bees, but Hu Li shook his head.
"Pour the honey in yourself. I don't dare to take it!" The little girl shook her head like a rattle and pointed at a badger and said, "And, you just stand there and don't come over!"