Chapter 54: Building a Kiln
Making tomato chili cakes was a complicated process.
Xia Lu Nong and Kong Zhi were busy from morning till night. Everything else was manageable, but the stove was too small to meet their needs.
Xia Lu Nong, watching the pot that had been baking on the stove almost all day, slumped lazily in his chair and complained, “If only we had a bigger stove and pot. We could bake more at once and wouldn’t have to spend all day in the kitchen.”
Kong Zhi, without looking up, said, “Let’s check the market again tomorrow.”
“The market is so small. We’ve already bought the biggest pot. Where else are we going to find another one?” Xia Lu Nong mumbled, his eyelids drooping. “And even if we did find a big pot, we don’t have a stove big enough for it.”
“If we don’t have one, we’ll build another. The yard’s big enough. We can chop some bamboo and build a shed.”
Xia Lu Nong perked up, sat up straight, and looked at Kong Zhi. “Speaking of which, have you heard of something called a bread kiln?”
Kong Zhi raised his chin slightly, signaling for Xia Lu Nong to continue.
Xia Lu Nong gestured with his hands, “It’s basically a type of stone kiln, introduced from the West. It’s similar to our brick kilns but much smaller. You light a fire inside first, and once the kiln absorbs enough heat, you put the food in and cook it using radiant heat.”
Kong Zhi thought for a moment. “I’ve heard of it. Isn’t that what the main character’s house had in the movie Eniania Island?”
Xia Lu Nong slapped his thigh, looking at Kong Zhi with shining eyes, “Exactly! That’s the one. What do you think about us building a bread kiln like in the movie?”
Kong Zhi replied honestly, “We might not be able to pull it off.”
“Let’s give it a try,” Xia Lu Nong said, getting more excited the more he thought about it. “Brother Xi Nian and the others are building the hydropower station, right? They must have professionals. We can ask them.”
Later that evening, Xia Huo Qu and Yan Xi Nian returned.
Xia Lu Nong followed them around, asking non-stop about the bread kiln.
After washing his face, Yan Xi Nian turned and said, “I’ve heard of that too. In theory, it’s not too complicated. I’ll ask someone about it tomorrow.”
“Great,” Xia Lu Nong said, leaning against the doorframe, fiddling with the door. “If we want to build it, can we trade for some cement?”
“We can,” Yan Xi Nian laughed. “I’ll bring a specialist over tomorrow. However much material you need, we’ll trade for it.”
Xia Huo Qu, standing nearby, added, “Have someone check it out first. Try to avoid using materials from the base if you can. It doesn’t look good to trade for materials for private use.”
Yan Xi Nian smiled, “No worries.”
Seeing his brother’s serious expression, Xia Lu Nong nodded. “Got it.”
The next morning, Yan Xi Nian brought someone to the house.
The person who came was a young man named Xi Jian Bai. He was thin, tanned, of average height, and when he smiled, his buck teeth showed, giving him an approachable look.
After introducing himself, Xi Jian Bai pulled a blueprint from his bag. “Captain Yan and Vice Captain Xia told me about it. I recommend building a white kiln.”
“What’s a white kiln?” Xia Lu Nong asked.
“It’s a type of bread kiln too,” Xi Jian Bai explained. “White kilns and black kilns are similar. In a black kiln, you burn the fire inside the chamber, and after the fire burns down, you remove the ashes—this is called ‘retreating the coals.’ Because the fire is inside the chamber, some smoke always remains, so the food ends up with a bit of a smoky flavor. Its use is a bit limited.
“In a white kiln, you burn the fire underneath, and the smoke goes out through a chimney, so there’s no smoky flavor. It’s more versatile.”
Xia Lu Nong had only admired the bread kilns in movies for how nice they looked and hadn’t considered this.
Hearing Xi Jian Bai’s explanation, he immediately nodded. “Alright, let’s build a white kiln. We’ll follow your lead. What do we need to prepare?”
“Sand, cement, bricks, and stones. If possible, it’d be great to have some beer bottles too,” Xi Jian Bai wrote down the necessary materials on the blueprint and explained, “This kind of kiln needs a thicker body, and both sand and beer bottles are used as heat retention materials. It would be better if we had them.”
Xia Lu Nong immediately agreed, “No problem, the canteen has plenty of beer bottles. I’ll trade for some there.”
“Good. As for the sand, we can just dig some from the river outside the base. It’s not too complicated,” Xi Jian Bai said. “Now, let’s confirm the dimensions. Can you read blueprints?”
Xia Lu Nong looked at the densely packed numbers on the drawing and felt his scalp tingle.
He had studied opera literature in college and didn’t even have to take advanced math. His math skills were long forgotten.
Wearing the expression of someone struggling academically, he pretended to study the blueprint and then tried to hand it back to Xi Jian Bai with a hum.
Just as Xi Jian Bai was about to take it, a hand reached out from behind Xia Lu Nong and gently took the blueprint from his grasp.
Feeling the strength in the hand, Xia Lu Nong knew it was Kong Zhi. He stepped aside to give him space.
After examining the blueprint, Kong Zhi asked Xi Jian Bai, “Could you provide more details on the opening height and the interior ceiling height of the kiln?”
“Let me think,” Xi Jian Bai pondered for a moment. “I’m not too sure about the exact ratio. How about we use the golden ratio? We can multiply the ceiling height by the golden ratio to get the height of the opening. Would that work?”
Afraid Kong Zhi might disagree, Xi Jian Bai quickly added, “I’ve never built a stone kiln before, so I’m not entirely sure. But in my experience, using the golden ratio usually works well.”
Kong Zhi glanced at him and nodded, continuing, “We also need to confirm the height and depth of the chimney, the height and width of the firebox, and the size of the door.”
Before the disaster, Xi Jian Bai had been in school, and after everything happened, people mostly improvised. It was the first time he had encountered someone more meticulous than himself, and he was a bit stunned.
He quickly recovered, “No problem, let’s confirm everything now.”
They spent over an hour confirming all the dimensions, drawing a more detailed structure diagram, and figuring out which materials needed to be prepared immediately and which could be delayed.
By the time they were done, Xi Jian Bai looked dazed, as if he were back in school working on a final project.
Thankfully, Xia Lu Nong provided lunch, and Xi Jian Bai revived on the spot, eating white rice with scrambled eggs and tomato, and meat sauce. With a mouth full of food and tears in his eyes, he was almost moved to tears.
“Lu Nong, your food is too good!” Xi Jian Bai exclaimed. “I’m so jealous of your cooking skills. I’m sick of eating at the canteen every day.”
After inhaling another bite, Xi Jian Bai continued, “It’s too much work to cook! You have to wash and chop everything, then scrub the pots and pans. After all that effort, it doesn’t even taste as good as the canteen stir-fry.”
Xia Lu Nong smiled and didn’t push the subject further.
After finishing his meal, Xi Jian Bai asked eagerly, “Lu Nong, are you still trading tomato chili cakes? I want to trade for five pounds.”
“Of course,” Xia Lu Nong nodded, though he apologized, “But you’ll have to wait in line. I’ve got other orders to finish first, so it’ll take about a week. Is that okay?”
“No problem! Your tomato chili cakes are so good, I don’t mind waiting a bit longer,” Xi Jian Bai said as he scooped up another bite. “Honestly, I thought you were underpricing them. Can you even make a profit?”
Xia Lu Nong nodded.
Of course, he could.
Tomatoes had a high water content, so even when made into chili cakes, they couldn’t be dried out completely. A batch weighing about ten pounds could be made from just a few tomatoes.
When rice was ground into flour, it was dry, with no moisture at all. A pound of rice flour could make seven or eight pounds of chili cakes.
Even when factoring in labor, firewood, and the small amount of meat, trading one pound of tomato chili cakes could easily bring in three pounds of rice.
The profit was considerable.
Most people at the base worked themselves to exhaustion either farming or risking their lives scavenging for resources, but even then, they didn’t yield much rice.
Seeing Xia Lu Nong nod, Xi Jian Bai breathed a sigh of relief. “I was worried you weren’t making much of a profit and would stop selling once this batch is gone.”
“That won’t happen,” Xia Lu Nong laughed. “We’re building a bread kiln, remember? If we didn’t plan to keep going, we wouldn’t be putting in all this effort.”
“Haha, true. By the way, you don’t need to pay me in rice for building the kiln. Just trade me more tomato chili cakes instead.”
“No problem. We’ll do it your way.”
Xi Jian Bai grinned as they sealed the deal, feeling even more motivated for the afternoon.
He took Xia Lu Nong and Kong Zhi outside the base to find clay. “We need clay from the sandy soil, but the clay in the base’s bamboo forest isn’t good enough. It’s better to come out here.”
Xia Lu Nong nodded.
Xi Jian Bai, carrying a basket, glanced around and said, “The base clears out the mutated plants and animals every quarter, so it’s relatively safe. Just stay alert. We come out here for clay often and usually don’t run into trouble.”
Xia Lu Nong joked, “No worries. Kong Zhi is strong. If anything happens, he’ll fly us out of here.”
Before he could finish, Kong Zhi tapped him on the shoulder from behind. “Be careful what you say. You might jinx it.”
Xia Lu Nong quickly turned around and spat, “Ptooey, ptooey! I was just talking nonsense!”
Xi Jian Bai, amused by Xia Lu Nong’s antics, couldn’t help but laugh.
Kong Zhi shot Xi Jian Bai a dark look, making him instinctively rub his neck in a nervous gesture.
