I've been transported to the orc continent.

Chapter 121 It's okay to suffer a little now

Yue thought about it very seriously and said, "No."

Bai Ling was stunned; he had never expected Yue to answer like that.

Based on his experience from movies and TV dramas, shouldn't Yue say "okay" with a mix of shyness, surprise, excitement, and anticipation?

Why does Yue act so unpredictably?

Bai Ling pondered: Is it that Yue doesn't like the house I built, or that Yue doesn't want to accept the house I built for him?

Perhaps Bai Ling's puzzled expression was too obvious, Yue said softly, "We don't need a bigger or better house, this house is fine."

"A house that's too big is useless; this house is already very good."

Bai Ling breathed a sigh of relief. So that's how it is. Yue doesn't like big houses. For him, a house only needs to be big enough to live in.

“Then let’s do this,” Bai Ling’s eyes crinkled into a smile, “I’ll make the house beautiful and plant flowers, vegetables and fruit trees all around it. In spring, we can see the green buds, and in summer we can sit under the trees to cool off. Oh, I’ll also make a rocking chair, or put a table and chairs under the trees. In autumn we can eat fruit, and in winter we can build a snowman.”

Bai Ling leaned closer to Yue, their shoulders almost touching. "We need to build three snowmen, two big and one small, what do you think?"

Bai Ling's voice was sweet and cloying, which Yue couldn't stand. He moved to the side to keep his distance from Bai Ling.

However, a voice, barely audible, rang out: "Okay."

It's unclear whether Yue thought Bai Ling's suggestion of tidying up the yard nicely was better, or whether building two big and one small snowmen was better. In Bai Ling's opinion, Yue thought both were good.

What Yue thought was good, Bai Ling naturally thought was even better. He had already begun to imagine in his mind just how beautiful his and Yue's little courtyard would be, and of course, how harmonious the two adults and one child would be.

Ideally, the smallest one should be a cute and brave white wolf with obsidian-like eyes.

*

The brick and tile kilns were burning day and night, but there were still huge gaps.

Due to limitations in productivity, each time the brick kiln in the tribe fires bricks, if it's enough to build four all-brick houses, it can build about two houses, with some blue bricks left over.

The kiln can be fired a little over four times a month, enough to build about nine to ten houses.

At this rate, it will be impossible to provide brick houses for all the tribe members this year.

Bai Ling came up with a solution: to build a house made of a mixture of blue bricks and adobe.

This type of house was very popular in times of scarcity. The walls were made of bricks on the outside and adobe bricks on the inside. This type of house also had a name: "brick house".

This is how brick houses are built: the outer layer of all four walls is made of blue bricks, while the inner layer is made of adobe instead of blue bricks. This way, the load-bearing capacity, waterproofing, and aesthetics of the walls are similar to those made entirely of blue bricks, but a lot of blue bricks can be saved.

The interior walls of the house were all made of adobe bricks, as were the partitions. The adobe walls were plastered with quicklime, so there was hardly any difference in appearance, which made the house much cheaper to build.

In my past life in a rural area, if some families wanted to build a brick house but didn't have enough budget, they would build this kind of adobe brick house.

Such houses are not much different from all-brick houses in terms of appearance and practicality, and have a longer service life, making them more suitable for the current situation.

If you build brick houses, the amount of bricks needed to build one house can be used to build about three houses. In this way, you can fire enough bricks to build about twenty-seven or twenty-eight houses a month. By the time winter comes, there will be enough bricks for every household in the clan to have a house.

*

Building a house is a big deal. A family needs many orcs to help build a house. The tribe members also need to hunt, gather, and manage the crops in the fields. It is unrealistic for everyone to rush to help the family building a house.

The clan chief divided the clan members into more than ten groups according to their households. When building houses, members of these groups had to help each other, while clan members who were not in the same group could go about their own business.

Zhan stood on a stone in the square and shouted, "Those with young children and the elderly should build houses first. After they have all finished building their houses, the rest of you can draw lots to build your own houses."

No one in the tribe objected to this. Zhan continued, “Everyone in our tribe wants to have their own house. The brick kiln needs a lot of manpower, the iron smelting workshop needs manpower, the carpentry team needs manpower, and we also have to farm. So, when you think about it, there will be far fewer tribesmen going out to hunt and gather, and far less time spent going out.”

"Food became a big problem."

The tribe now has iron smelting workshops, kiln firing groups, lime and cement making groups, carpentry groups, and groups that specialize in building houses. Every household has to help each other build houses, which will definitely affect hunting and gathering, and the impact will be very significant.

Ling also said that after the house is built, it will need to be cleaned up, which is a very time-consuming task. As a result, the clansmen will have even less time to go out.

With fewer people going out to hunt and gather, food sources have decreased. In addition, it's only just past spring, and the tribe's food reserves are not very high. It's unrealistic to rely solely on the tribe to make up for the food shortage.

Zhan had anticipated this situation and had already made arrangements in his mind.

Previously, when they gave iron tools to other tribes for farming, they received a lot of food in return. Now that the tribe is facing a food shortage, Zhan sent his people to take the iron tools to the surrounding tribes to exchange for food.

However, the surrounding tribes were not very wealthy either, and the food they received in exchange was still not enough to fill the food gap in their tribe.

He told his people about the difficulties his tribe was facing, and they all stopped discussing and listened very attentively to his speech.

After recounting the tribe's difficulties, Zhan continued, "This year, no one has a house to live in, so we all live in caves. We share our food together. Everyone tries to go out hunting or gathering as much as possible. The tribe's hunting teams go out more frequently, and the gathering tribespeople try to go further. The guards also carry baskets on their backs while patrolling, gathering food as they go."

"The iron smelting workshop, the kiln firing group, the lime and cement group, the building group, and the hunting group all have heavier jobs, but they eat better than us. In the fall, they and the hunting group will get more meat and hides. Does everyone agree?"

All the beastmen agreed, and Zhan continued, "This year we planted crops and built such beautiful houses. When winter comes, we can live in bright and warm houses and eat and sleep comfortably."

"For such a wonderful life, it's nothing for us to be a little tired now, don't you all agree?"

The tribespeople cheered. Yes, they would be able to live a good life this year, and it didn't matter if they suffered a little now.