During the short time we were out, the snow became heavier again and the temperature dropped sharply again.
Xiang En's hands were so cold that they hurt, and the hand holding the barrel was stiff. When he saw the entrance to the village, he just wanted to go back to the basement and burn some wood to keep warm.
When he crossed the entrance of the village, he suddenly looked at the wooden wall of the village standing still. Thinking of the threat of the ghoul just now, he wondered whether he should add a gate to the entrance of the village
He told Andrea his thoughts, but all he got was a "casual" reply, which made Xiang En lose his temper.
Have you completely lost your own ideas? I am afraid that after a while, Andrea will become a tool who only knows how to obey orders...
Were the conditions at that time too arbitrary
Xiang En began to doubt whether the terms of cooperation when he approached Andrea were appropriate. If she didn't have her own ideas, would she be unable to deal with the problem on her own if something unexpected happened in the future
Temporarily giving up the idea of getting the door now, Xiang En took Andrea back to the wooden house.
After closing the trap door in the basement, Andrea took the bucket and walked down the ladder. Xiang En followed closely behind and closed the trap door. The underground suddenly fell into darkness, with only one lamp embedded in the corridor between the two rooms. Oil lamps illuminated a few places.
The original alchemy was filled with wood and planks, most of which were materials Xiang En prepared to use to increase his totem skill proficiency.
The two of them did not stop in this room and entered the resting room along the narrow corridor.
The light in the room was still dim, so Xiang En found a flint and lit an oil lamp embedded in the wall.
Because the room has a chimney connected to the ground, the indoor temperature is still very low.
There are several large water tanks placed in the right corner of the room, with not much clear water left in them. Next to them are a few simple wooden shelves with a large amount of dried meat stacked on them.
In the middle of the room, next to the wall, was a bed large enough for two people to sleep, covered with several layers of animal skins and cloth.
Animal skins are actually very valuable. Just one bed of animal skins in the city can feed a family of three for a month or two. However, in this village, animal skins are so worthless that they are even sewn together and used as quilts. .
A small cubicle was dug out on the left side of the room, which was a toilet. It didn't smell very good in winter.
Andrea put down the bucket, set up a pot and lit a fire to boil the water she had just brought back from the river.
Xiang En had no intention of doing anything else for the time being, so he and Andrea simply stared at the iron pot to warm up the fire.
The stagnant air caused the indoor temperature to rise rapidly. Occasionally, Xiang Enhui pulled the bellows removed from the furnace at the village chief's house to suck in some cold air from outside.
The two of them were peacefully enjoying their current life in a small house, leaning together comfortably to warm themselves by the fire, as if everything outside had nothing to do with them.
Gulu!
The water in the iron pot boiled, and the steam kept coming out, gradually adding a bit of warmth to the room.
Xiang En found a wooden spoon to scoop out the water in the pot, put it under his nose and smelled it gently. The sour taste was almost inaudible, and it might have been drinkable.
He boldly swallowed it into his mouth. The warm water made him a little dazed. He resisted the urge to swallow it and savored it carefully.
"How about it?"
Andrea looked at him expectantly.
Xiang En frowned and felt it for a moment, then stopped holding it in his mouth, swallowed it, smashed it in his mouth, and said, "It still tastes weird, but it's okay to drink."
The reason why it is said that it is drinkable is because I saw those small fish swimming without any abnormality. Before, the river water was full of dead fish, but now there are live fish, which proves that the harm of this water to living creatures has at least been reduced to a certain extent. .
However, they still have a lot of clean water now, so they don't need to force themselves to drink the strange-smelling river water for the time being. After drinking the clean water, the river surface should be cleaner again.
Andrea took the wooden spoon and took a sip. It was true that she could taste a little strange taste and a little bit nausea. This made her feel very disappointed. She never thought that drinking water, something that she never needed to think about, could actually become a problem. problem.
Seeing that she was a little disappointed, Xiang Enmu said fondly: "It will take a while to drink, but it is no problem to bathe with this water."
"Eh?" Andrea was shocked when she heard this. She glanced at the smiling Xiang En, looked away shyly, and stammered: "Would you like to take a...bath? Hey, that's fine, haha."
The clothes Andrea was wearing were too thick, and Xiang En couldn't tell what she was doing. Her face was already red from the cold. In Xiang En's eyes, she looked like she was excited because she knew she could take a bath.
After confirming that the water could be used for bathing, Andrea let go of the exercise and squatted while carrying a piece of wood in the limited space.
As sweat overflowed from her body, Andrea also reduced the amount of clothing she wore again and again until she returned to the condition she wore during exercise.
Xiang Enze carved totems in front of the stove and threw the scattered wood chips directly into the stove to maintain a strong charcoal fire and maintain the temperature in the room.
The day passed like this, during which the two of them left the basement many times to see if the snow had stopped so that they could go get water.
It's just that the snow in the sky didn't stop, but got heavier and heavier. In the end, they simply gave up the idea of fetching water today and continued to exercise and hone themselves.
The next morning, after breakfast, the two people left the basement. Andrea pushed open the window of the wooden house and saw a layer of snow that almost buried the window.
"This..." Andrea looked back at Xiang En at a loss.
Xiang En went to the window and took a look, then put his forehead on his hands and sighed.
Compared with yesterday, there was more than a little more snow today, with siltation reaching a height of one meter. It would be difficult to go to the river in such an environment.
Originally, I wanted to install a gate to the village, but now it is obviously impossible to do so.
But taking a shower was no problem. Although the snow was a bit dirty, it was much better than the dirt that had accumulated on the two of them for more than ten days.
The two opened the door and started shoveling the snow. They laboriously moved the large pots in the center of the village, cleared a patch of snow from the ground, and set up the large pots with a few stones.
Xiang Enquan left the work of shoveling snow and lighting the fire to Andrea, while he went to raise the baffle of the chimney.
The snow was falling so heavily that he was a little worried that the chimney was not high enough and would be buried by the snow.
People here also use nails when building houses. To raise the height, you only need to nail the wooden boards upwards, and then reinforce the four sides of the chimney to prevent it from being knocked down.
Xiang En, who was standing on the stool, struggled to hold on to the wooden board and hammer the nails. After finishing the work, he leaned over and prepared to get off the chair, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of black outside the wall.
In a world filled with snow, a flash of black seemed so unusual. With his fairly good eyesight, Xiang En easily spotted the large face of the black figure and frowned deeply.
He stood up straight on the chair and looked intently at the figure a hundred meters outside the village wall. He had already recognized that it was one of the ghouls who ran out of the village.
It may have been attracted by the sound of hammering nails.
Thinking of this, Xiang En continued to monitor the ghoul and shouted: "Enri!"
Andrea, who was absentmindedly shoveling snow in front of the cabin, heard Xiang En's call and trembled like a frightened rabbit. She straightened up and responded, "What's the matter?"
"Go get the sword and shield. There seems to be a ghoul approaching the village."
"Ghoul?"
A flash of confusion flashed in Andrea's eyes, and the next moment she remembered Xiang En naming the villagers who had turned into monsters yesterday, and she suddenly understood the meaning of what she just said.
There was a cry of surprise on the spot, and Andrea immediately dropped the shovel and hurried into the house.
When she came to Xiang En, she had already grasped the dagger and wooden shield in her hands. The thick clothes on her body and her prepared appearance made her look like a fat rag doll holding a knife and shield.
(End of chapter)