Chapter 45: The Dream of Boiled Eggs!

  Firstly, he thought of the easiest jar to make, which is simple to knead and not easy to burst.

  However, at the beginning of production, he did not dare to make it too large, for fear that the craftsmanship was not skilled enough, and bubbles would appear, which would easily crack when fired.

  With great care, he pinched and kneaded the yellow mud, trying to avoid any air bubbles. According to his memory, Chen Xu's fingers moved quickly, and before long, a vase the size of a human head was formed.

  In order to ensure the success rate of the urn's firing, Chen Xu greatly thickened the bottom of the urn, and even the edges of the urn were more than twice as thick as those in his previous life.

  Although it was extremely crude, looking at the yellow mud pinched into a pot, a sense of pride still arose from his heart. After all, this was a pioneering product.

  "I wonder how much this ceramic piece would be worth if it were passed down to future generations? A hundred million yuan, wow, could it be as valuable as the He Shi Bi jade?"

  With boring thoughts swirling in his mind, Chen Xuan also let loose and started creating ceramics freely, but most of them were still daily necessities from his previous life.

  There were pot-shaped ones, basin-shaped ones, and bowl-shaped ones. When he got excited, he even pinched out a huge ceramic barrel.

  An hour later, the yellow earth on the rock had disappeared without a trace, and instead stood many strange utensils. At least in the eyes of the ape-like people who occasionally cast puzzled glances over, these things were extremely bizarre.

  "The big project is complete, and all that's left is to build a kiln for firing pottery. However, this thing has a high level of technical complexity, and I've never seen one before. But when I was young, back in my hometown, I did see a simple stove for burning firewood. I suppose if we just add a kiln chamber on top and create a chimney in the back, it should work!"

  "At least it's more useful than directly burning pottery in the open air with wood!"

  Stroking his chin, Chen Xu walked a few laps on the rock, recalling the shape of the kiln for burning wood in his mind, and then jumped off the rock to prepare for building the kiln.

  Just then, the Super Ape and the Ape General led a group of sturdy apes who had just returned from chopping trees and were sitting by the river drinking water and resting.

  Chen Xu directly called them over and found a place near the small hill to draw a circle, letting them dig a hole.

  When it is dug to a depth of about two meters, start digging horizontally in another direction. The excavation is divided into two layers, the lower layer is wider and larger, and the upper layer is narrower and smaller, and is constantly dug out in a bun shape from the position of the half-dug surface. In this way, it is possible to completely put the pottery made by Chen Xiang from the outside.

  The lower layer is dug very wide and large, with an area more than twice that of the upper layer, making it convenient for storing firewood. On the edge areas between the upper and lower layers, Chen Xun carved out many fire channels using a sharp dagger, and on the partition above, he also carved many fire holes to allow flames from the lower layer to emerge without causing collapse.

  After the upper and lower layers of two fire warehouses were dug, the remaining ones were on the other side, avoiding the upper space, digging downwards, using branches to dig out a hollow hole as thick as an arm, directly connected to the end of the lower layer fire warehouse, thus forming a simple smoke tube.

  After two hours of digging and polishing, this strange cave that can't be told whether it's a horizontal kiln or a vertical kiln was finally completed.

  At this time, the sky had already darkened, and the apes who went out to work returned one after another, with more or less harvest. A day's labor was thoroughly ended, but Chen Xu knew that his work had just begun.

  After so long a time of airing, the vessels he had pinched were almost dry. He carefully put several of his satisfactory works into the upper kiln room and took over the flat stone slab that the ape general had prepared from one side.

  The stone slab was embedded in the upper kiln chamber, sealing it tightly. Chen Xu shouted and the apes, who had been waiting, handed down the dry firewood they had collected.

  Chen Xu filled the lower space with firewood, then ignited it with a torch and squatted in the large pit, constantly filling it with dry firewood. This first kiln of pottery, he was going to personally control.

  Even if he couldn't control the size of the flames inside, he still tried his best to keep them stable, so as not to affect the ceramics inside. After all, this was his first time, and he didn't want the ceramics he fired to be completely unusable.

  For a whole night, while other apes fell asleep, Chen Xu was still full of energy and staring at the kiln, expecting the result of his first pottery firing in his life.

  At dawn, the apes woke up one by one from their dreams and began a day of labor according to the command of the fire god.

  And in the midst of the great pit, Chen Xu, this fire god, was also anxiously staring at the stone slab in front of him, for a moment, not knowing whether he should uncover it or not.

  In fact, the action of firing pottery ended at midnight, and he was very clear that this kind of firing would not take much time, and the time he spent on firing had already far exceeded the actual need.

  However, for insurance purposes, he still burned it a bit longer. After cooling down through the night, whether the pottery inside was successful or not had already been decided.

  He was still anxious in his heart, full of expectation and confusion, a feeling he hadn't experienced for a long time. In his memory, the last time he felt this way was when he first entered the college entrance examination hall years ago.

  "Good heavens, God bless us, don't let a single finished product be left behind, the blow would be too great!"

  Taking a deep breath, Chen Xu rubbed his long hair vigorously and slowly stretched out his large hand, grasping the edge of the stone slab with a reverent attitude. With just a slight effort, he pried out the stone slab that had been embedded in the mud.

  A faint mist dissipated, and six fire-red ceramic pieces appeared before him. Although he had expected it in his heart, when his palm touched the thick and solid ceramic wall, Chen Xu still couldn't help but feel a surge of hot tears welling up in his eyes.

  Excitedly, he let out a loud whoop and quickly pulled out six pieces of pottery from the kiln room. After carefully inspecting them, Chen Xu couldn't help but mutter to himself, "What a great start! I didn't expect it to be such a great start! Damn it, all six pieces of pottery are intact, not a single crack on any of them. Am I really a genius?"

  With a excited grin, Chen Xu began to carefully examine the six pieces of pottery in his hands, the first one being the fist-sized vase he had pinched out.

  The thick and solid red earthen wall guaranteed its sturdiness, fingers inserted into the pot, sliding over the slightly rough inner wall, a soft tactile sensation was transmitted, making Chen Xuan almost comfortably shout out.

  "Boiled eggs are no longer a dream, grandma! Not just boiled eggs, even bone soup is no longer a dream!"

  He muttered to himself, putting the pottery aside. This time, Chen Xue did not handle it with care, and judging from the sturdiness of the red pottery, it was impossible for it to break unless it was intentionally smashed from a great height.

  Shift your gaze to the other five vessels, one of which is a large pot with a semi-circular shape, its volume more than twice that of the jar, originally a temporary creation by Chen Xuan, intended for boiling water.

  I didn't expect it to succeed in the end.

  "Now that we have this big pot, we can cook meat from now on. And with a few more big crabs, oh boy, life is good!"

  Hehe, Chen Xu couldn't help but clap his hands in celebration of finally escaping the dark and gloomy life he had before.

  Apart from these two large pieces, the remaining three vessels are three ceramic bowls, roughly the same size as later large bowls, but much coarser, however, they were more convenient for eating and drinking.

  The last one is a long-handled ladle, which can be used for stirring and scooping soup, as well as for scooping water, and even for serving rice!

  "Grandma's, I can't take it anymore, I just can't stand that half-cooked beast meat anymore. I want to eat boiled eggs, I want to drink fish soup, I want to eat boiled crab."

  Chen Xu muttered to himself, holding all six vessels in his arms, and with a swift movement, he climbed up the big pit and shouted orders at the apes to catch fish in the river.

  He himself found a high place and started digging a stove with a diamond dagger. In no time, a simple two-hole stove appeared in his hands.

  Put that clay pot on the stove, fill up the wood under it, Chen Xu looked around, but found that those apes had not returned yet. Suddenly cursed a sentence, couldn't help standing up and walking towards the riverbank in big strides.

  He, however, was unaware of the high efficiency of his actions. Under the temptation of food, he spent a very short time digging the stove, and in less than a minute, he had dug out a simple stove.

  This little time was hardly enough for the apes to reach the small river.

  When he arrived at the small river, the apes finally went into the water, holding bamboo spears and shouting, catching the frightened fish everywhere. However, this was the Stone Age, and there were many large fish in the river. Although the apes were not familiar with this hunting method, under their agile movements, they still managed to spear a few large fish with bamboo spears after a short while.

  He shouted a few times, driving the apes out of the small river, ordering them to leave the big fish behind and do whatever they wanted. Chen Xu himself leaned against the edge of the small river, washed and cleaned several large fish, cut them into pieces with his dagger, and threaded them onto thin, long, and flexible branches.

  These big fish each weigh four or five catties, although the quantity is sufficient, but it's a lot of trouble to cook them. Chen Xu has endured for so many days, but he can't bear it anymore. He urgently wants to eat cooked food. These fish are too much trouble, and naturally have to be put aside.

  At this time, after peeling the big fish, Chen Xu's attention was focused on the aquatic plants along the riverbank. The water surface had calmed down, and some palm-sized large crabs lazily poked out their heads.

  Around the big crab, several palm-sized lobsters kept stirring the water surface, showing a harmonious small river scenery.