"It's not entirely self-built, I'm planning to use wood as a support for construction, but the main material will still be stone. Considering stone bricks are hard to find, the only option is to find a natural cave," Yu Hong explained.
"Oh..." Stammering Yiyi didn't quite understand, but seeing Yu Hong's confident expression and calm demeanor, she felt he must be quite capable.
"I... help, you!" She said, patting her chest. "I, know... a, hunting, cave!"
"Cave?" Yu Hong's eyes lit up.
He had long been reluctant to stay here with Stammering Yiyi. Not only was it unsafe, but the crucial problem was that he couldn't experiment with his Black Mark freely to determine its effects.
Feeling the third piece of enhanced white stone in his pocket, also known as enhanced pyroxene, Yu Hong quickly made a decision.
"Can you take me to see it?"
He urgently needed a secluded spot to test the specific effects of the Black Mark.
*He wondered what would happen if he reinforced all the walls and doors.*
Enhanced pyroxene could be strengthened into a jade-like material, with seemingly better effects, so what about the others?
Without hesitation, Stammering Yiyi put down what she was holding, returned it to the house, and then led Yu Hong along a newly found path through the mountains, not taking the old highway.
After several days of rest, Yu Hong's physical strength had significantly improved.
Because of his recovery, he hadn't encountered the shadows during the day anymore, which made him start to somewhat believe what Stammering Yiyi and Doctor Xu had said.
In the cold and quiet forest,
the two trudged one after the other, crossing a large slope and arriving at the base of the hillside.
Stammering Yiyi looked around and seemed to find something near a tree hollow.
She walked over and touched some marks on the edge of the tree hollow.
"Here, this is it," she said seriously.
Then, just as Yu Hong was about to ask, she raised her hand to point to the distant right.
Yu Hong was taken aback and looked in that direction.
In the distance, a gray rocky wall emerged faintly from the forest.
In the middle of the rocky wall, there was a dark cave hanging a couple of meters above the ground, with some dug-out indentations used as steps.
Yu Hong glanced at Stammering Yiyi and saw she had already started digging for vegetables, so he went over holding the enhanced pyroxene.
Soon, he reached the foot of the rocky wall.
He carefully observed the cave before him.
The entrance was over two meters high and slightly over a meter wide. The inside wasn't deep, and the cave bottom could be seen from the outside using sunlight.
At the bottom, there were some chaotic bags and a few animal skins of unknown origin.
"Are there animals here too?" Yu Hong couldn't help but ask.
"Yes... but, few." Stammering Yiyi chimed in as she caught up.
"Before, many, but since the Black Disaster, less."
Yu Hong nodded and climbed up using the indents, entering the cave.
The cave was just over five meters deep, slightly spacious inside, over three meters wide, barely enough for one person to rest.
The ground inside was dry with no moldy smell, clearly due to the rock material here.
The cave was roughly elliptical, with an irregularly shaped elliptical cavity.
*Yu Hong calculated that compared to Stammering Yiyi's place, this was obviously much more comfortable, at least reducing moldy spores invading the lungs, potentially prolonging life.*
*The main thing was, the Baiqiu Village itself seemed somewhat sinister. He always felt that encountering so many shadows during the day was likely linked to the environment there.*
*Otherwise, why would so many villagers be unwilling to live there, given the many existing houses?*
"By the way, Yiyi, among the villagers you still have contact with, do you know how many are there?" Yu Hong asked, having familiarized himself with some details these past few days.
From the booklet and Stammering Yiyi's words, he learned that many Baiqiu Village villagers lived in the surrounding woods, either building their own houses or digging cellars to hide in.
A few had left to live in the nearest town.
This included several people that Stammering Yiyi had rescued.
Stammering Yiyi also entered the cave, looking around curiously.
"There are four around. That's beside us," she counted on her fingers.
"Okay, got it." Yu Hong nodded. He took out a measuring tape he had prepared, which was an item from Stammering Yiyi's place, and measured the cave entrance.
Then he climbed back down to assess the surrounding environment.
"Can I live here?" he asked Stammering Yiyi.
"You can. No one... cares," Stammering Yiyi nodded vigorously.
*Yu Hong was satisfied. The place was too dangerous, and he originally wanted to live with Stammering Yiyi, but the danger of the shadows was too great. They were too cunning and hard to defend against.*
*Besides, Stammering Yiyi's environment was poor, too dirty, prone to chronic illnesses.*
*Also, the enhancement of the Black Mark had to remain secret.*
*These three factors combined urged him to find a suitable place for solitude.*
*And this cave was the best among them.*
*However, the logistics for living and renovation plans might take some time.*
*After all, living alone meant relying on stored food initially.*
He also needed a proper door for the cave, as well as things like a smokestack and a fire pit.
Having decided on his future residence, Yu Hong began wandering in the forest choosing materials, using Stammering Yiyi's tools.
He had no idea what kind of wood could be used for a door, but he knew it had to be hard and sturdy.
In the following days, Yu Hong continually designed the structure of his cave, the door, and various furniture items, while also selecting materials.
Soon, he chose a hard dead tree.
The deadwood was dry enough to be highly moisture-resistant.
Then came tree cutting.
*His weak body and powerless arms meant after a whole day of chopping, he came back with his arms limp and couldn't move the next day.*
Thus....
Bam.
Bam.
Bam.
Bam.
Crack.
Stammering Yiyi held the axe, watching the tree as thick as a thigh slowly snap and fall.
"Want more?"
She turned her head, seriously asking Yu Hong, whose face was hard to describe.
"....." Yu Hong's expression was indescribable. He shook his head.
"That's enough...."
He stepped forward, picked up the machete to trim off the branches, selecting the straightest parts of the trunk, then roughly measured out the length based on the cave entrance dimensions.
Though he was just an ordinary office worker before coming here, he had done some woodworking in the countryside.
Although not skilled, he understood some basic processes.
Stammering Yiyi watched from the side, sometimes curiously coming over to help.
Soon, night fell, and they dropped their tools and returned home to rest, waiting for the next day.
After an uneventful night, the two returned here after eating, continuing the work unfinished the previous day.
Stammering Yiyi, having finished eating too quickly, decided to get more food by agreeing with Doctor Xu to buy some from Old Yu.
While helping to process the dead tree, she noticed Doctor Xu approaching from the distant forest.
So she joyfully got up and waved.
"Xu! Over here! This way!"
"...." Doctor Xu walked slowly closer and saw Yu Hong was still there, instantly frowning.
"Didn't I just exchange food? How is it already gone again? Turns out, there's an extra person," she said unpleasantly.
"Yu Hong is very capable!" Stammering Yiyi quickly gestured, "He's building a better house. Safer than mine!" Evidently admiring Yu Hong's ideas, she defended him.
"Enough, let's not talk about it. Hurry up, the earlier you go, the sooner you return," Doctor Xu glanced at Yu Hong nearby and saw him getting up to greet them, so she moved closer and looked at him.
"What's your plan?" Over the days, she occasionally chatted with Stammering Yiyi and knew this guy had been absorbed in making his stuff.
Sustenance relied entirely on Stammering Yiyi, who helped fetch double portions, which added significantly to her burden.
The food was only enough to keep everyone half-full initially, and now there's the addition of one young man's portion...
"I plan to build a safe house. For now, eating depends on Yiyi, but trust me, I'll soon move out. Everything Yiyi helps me with, I remember. Once I have stabilized, I'll repay her!" Yu Hong discerned her intentions.
After he said this, he noticed the other person's expression softened slightly, and he continued.
"Once I build a safer place, I can even help Yiyi build a better, safer one too! Her place is very unsafe, and in case of a bigger trouble, it won't hold! Then she'll know the advantages of the safe house."
"Do as you please, but changing places doesn't guarantee safety!" Doctor Xu clearly didn't believe him. "Don't burden Yiyi."
"I won't!" Yu Hong said earnestly.
Doctor Xu looked at him intently for a while, then said no more and left with Yiyi.
Yu Hong stood in the woodland, watching them leave until they disappeared from view. Then he looked up at the sky.
The bright sunlight filled him with a sense of safety.
*In such weather, not even the shadows would appear recklessly.*
After resting for a moment, he continued to focus on sawing the wooden planks.
The tree trunks, burned thoroughly, were cut into thick, long planks by him.
The burning of the surface was to prevent decay, kill some bugs and larvae, and remove excess moisture from the outer surface.
After cutting into planks, they could be joined together using a mortise and tenon structure to create a sturdy and strong wooden door.
The mortise and tenon structure Yu Hong used was the simplest concave and convex type. Simply put, it involved digging a hole on the end of a thick plank.
Then, sculpt another thick plank with a spike that would perfectly fit this hole.
The spike was then embedded into the hole, forming a complete mortise and tenon structure.
The biggest advantage of this structure was that it didn't require nails.
Using this joining method, Yu Hong struggled to gradually craft one solid, long plank after another.
He didn't fully assemble the door before taking it over; instead, he laid the prepared planks piece by piece like building blocks, joining them at the cave's entrance.
During this time, he kept testing the effects of the Black Mark.
Enhancing one luminous stone after another.
As time passed, when Yu Hong finally adapted to the taste of that strange jerky, the wooden door for the cave was finally complete.
At dawn, Yu Hong alone went to the cave entrance to attach the last thick plank to the wooden door.
The entire wooden door was finished, even including a movable small door in the middle. The appearance was rather rugged.
These parts were remnants from dismantled houses in the village, pieced together with wood.
Additionally, the large nails used to connect wood and stone around the perimeter were also repurposed from these houses.
The entire cave entrance was now completely covered by the thick, gray-black wooden door.
Yu Hong entered alone, placing an enhanced white stone in a recess behind the door.
This was his idea to block shadows from entering.
*Since luminous stones could scatter shadows, placing them rationally in the path of shadows might prevent them from entering too.*