Chapter 179: Tea Leaves
The idea had been lingering in Chen Mu's mind. It wasn't too difficult to implement, but one aspect required a considerable amount of time, and the other aspect didn't seem very significant.
Being able to enter and exit through the gap in the door made it unnecessary to create another exit. The gap itself was one meter long, occupying most of the wall's width.
Furthermore, except for the wall where the door was located, the other three walls led directly to the greenery, which was obviously dangerous.
However, due to the exposure of the base, they had to make additional plans.
"The thickness of the wall is 240mm, and bricks are much denser than wood. It might take some effort," Tang Jing said.
"It doesn't have to be completed in one day. We can incorporate it into our daily work schedule," Chen Mu thought for a moment and said.
Dong Junwei sighed, "Your current work schedule is already booked for the next ten days."
"It doesn't matter. These are the things I do every day, and I don't take any breaks."
Although he said that, Chen Mu undoubtedly had the heaviest workload in the entire Dawn base because almost all construction work heavily relied on his cooperation.
Wei Dalei's work hours were similar to his, but neither the difficulty nor the importance of his tasks compared to Chen Mu's.
With the plan in place, the next step was to discuss the specific location of the passage.
After having lunch and taking a short break, the work continued.
Currently, the top priority for all work in Dawn was to build a high platform at the top of the door, similar to an observation tower. Cao Zishan would be stationed there alone, with the primary purpose of increasing the range and power.
Dong Junwei's grenades were getting bigger and more terrifying in power.
However, once they reached a certain level, their effectiveness became limited.
Because everyone had their limits in strength, and the throwing distance couldn't be extended indefinitely, once the grenade's power reached a certain limit, making them larger would endanger themselves.
Therefore, increasing the range was the most reasonable solution.
The project of transforming a stainless steel stew pot into several cylindrical shapes, each two meters long and five millimeters in diameter, was undoubtedly massive.
Chen Mu had to proceed step by step, constructing it in sections, and then conducting the hoisting and splicing process.
In fact, according to Tang Jing's plan, the elevator of the high platform had three intermediate platforms. To make good use of these platforms, they designed two additional observation towers and stored a certain amount of explosive materials, which might be needed in case of intense battles.
This project also consisted of two elevators, each supported by eight columns. The tracks alone consumed 2449 grams of stainless steel materials, equivalent to 1.5 stainless steel stew pots. Adding in the platforms, steel cables, and others, they nearly used up two iron pots.
At first, everyone thought that the materials inside this storage room were endless, but just the construction of this one section near the door had already used up so much material.
According to the long-term plan of the decision-making team, the entire storage room in Dawn would undergo layered transformation, and by then, the current materials would obviously not be enough.
...
In the afternoon, after continuously working for two hours, Chen Mu stopped and prepared to take a break. He returned to the living area, grabbed a glass of water, and planned to lie down on a towel for a while.
However, not far away, he noticed Gu Yinglong sitting alone on the ground, fiddling with something green in front of him.
Curious, Chen Mu walked over.
As he got closer, he realized that it was actually a piece of tea leaf.
The tea leaf was cylindrical, lush green, with numerous fine hairs, roughly the length of a person and half a person's thickness, lying horizontally on the ground.
Chen Mu knew that this was the tea leaf Dong Junwei found in the second cardboard box. The tea leaves were placed in an iron box, which Chen Mu had punctured from the side to take out the tea.
According to Tang Jing, this tea was called "Lushan Yunwu," one of the top ten famous teas. It had a clear and fragrant aroma, a mellow taste, and a bright and clear soup color.
At that time, they broke off a small piece and had Du Jiajia brew a pot of tea with it.
In the absence of fresh green vegetables, tea leaves could to some extent supplement vitamins. It is said that ancient sailors relied on tea leaves to prevent scurvy.
The end.
That pot of tea received unanimous praise from everyone.
Since then, the kitchen prepared a large pot of Lushan Yunwu tea every day for everyone to drink at any time.
However, the way of brewing tea was quite special. Small containers couldn't boil water, and large containers were wasteful. So, in the end, Chen Mu enclosed both water and tea leaves in a stainless steel box, which Dong Junwei would then heat up.
But this method was fine for boiling water, whereas using it for cooking was not so easy to control. It was basically a pressure cooker, and Dong Junwei wasn't yet proficient in handling the temperature.
...
Gu Yinglong was sitting on a smooth wooden board, like a cool mat. As the weather grew hotter, it became difficult for everyone to sleep on towels, but making cool mats was a bit troublesome, and Chen Mu didn't have that much spare time. So, he made a few pieces of wooden boards for everyone to rest on.
Since discovering that she couldn't be of much help, Gu Yinglong's mood had been quite low. Apart from sometimes sitting on a small stool and watching Chen Mu perform "magic tricks," she would be sitting alone in a corner watching everyone busy.
It was the first time Chen Mu saw her earnestly doing something.
"What are you doing?" He squatted down beside the girl and looked at her palm placed on the tea leaf.
"Playing," Gu Yinglong said, smiling when she saw him approaching.
On that giant tea leaf, small protrusions slowly emerged. Upon closer inspection, they were the shrunken tea leaves.
Since there were no suitable plants in Dawn for Gu Yinglong's division ability, besides seeing her "grow rice" initially, Chen Mu hadn't seen her use her ability again.
Now, these tea leaves were indeed good experimental subjects.
However, compared to when she "grew" rice before, Gu Yinglong's "growing" of tea leaves was much slower and produced fewer leaves.
After watching her for a while, Chen Mu only saw her produce a dozen or so shrunken tea leaves.
"Who asked you to do this?" Chen Mu was curious.
"Dong Jiejie (Big Sister Dong)."
Since the last time people expressed doubts about Gu Yinglong's identity, everyone had become more uncertain if she was really a student from Zhiwei High School. If she wasn't, then her petite stature now had a reasonable explanation.
Because she was cute and had a silly personality, Gu Yinglong had almost become Dawn's beloved little mascot. Both boys and girls took extra care of her.
The girls liked to have her sleep beside them, and Dong Junwei and Tang Jing especially tried to coax her into calling them "Jiejie" (Big Sister).
Gu Yinglong, innocent and naive, called many of them "Jiejie."
At this moment, she was sitting cross-legged on the wooden board, with quite a few tea leaves piled up around her, seemingly her achievements for the day.
Chen Mu thought it was no wonder she hadn't come to watch him work these past few days; she had her own task now.
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