I've been transported to the orc continent.

Perhaps it was Bai Ling's bright eyes, or perhaps it was his overly sincere and earnest tone, but Yue felt embarrassed.

He turned his head, his voice carrying a barely audible chuckle: "Ling, your eyes were sparkling when you talked about the house that day, that's why I believed you."

Even now, Yue still remembers Ling's eyes that day, full of light, brimming with longing for the future and confidence that she would definitely build a house.

Therefore, he believed that Ling could definitely build the house. Since Ling could build a house, he could definitely build a kang (heated brick bed).

Bai Ling smiled as she looked at the moon. The sun had already set halfway down, leaving half of the orange-red sunset on the horizon, dyeing the surrounding sea of ​​clouds with bright and vivid colors.

Behind the moon was a beautiful sky, like an oil painting, and he was the most eye-catching figure in that painting.

"Yue, I'm going to continue building the kang (heated brick bed) tomorrow. Would you like to come and watch?" Bai Ling invited Yue. "There are many kangs to be built in the tribe. I can't manage it all by myself. I definitely need someone to help. Yue, would you like to come?"

A conflicted expression appeared on Yue's face. He had almost finished storing his food, but if he went to make a kang (heated brick bed) with Ling, he would not be able to continue hunting. Would that affect the tribe?

Bai Ling didn't know what Yue was struggling with, so he continued, "Yue, building a kang (heated brick bed) is basically just piling up adobe bricks and leaving a flue in the middle. When we build our house, we'll build the walls just like we did with the kang. If you help me now, you'll be a great help when we build the house next year."

He pursed his lips slightly and then asked, "Ling, the people who are helping you were all chosen by the clan leader. How do I get there?"

Bai Ling smiled and said, "I'll just go and tell the clan leader."

Yue's eyes lit up: "Okay, I'll go help you. Ling, I will definitely study hard, and I'll be able to help you when we build the house next year."

Bai Ling nodded with a smile: "Yes, I believe you."

*

The next day, Bai Ling's father Cang, father Feng, and younger brother Chen were not in the cave; they had all gone to attend to their own affairs.

Chief Zhan led several clansmen into the cave to watch Bai Ling work, and Yue was among them.

Yesterday, after dinner, Bai Ling went to see Zhan. He told Zhan that he had encountered a problem while practicing building a kang (a traditional heated platform bed) with pebbles. Yue happened to be passing by, and the two of them came up with a solution together. He felt that Yue had a lot of talent in architecture and hoped that Yue could come into the cave to watch him build the kang.

Zhan agreed without much thought, and today he brought Yue into the cave.

Bai Ling and Yue's eyes met in mid-air, and their lips pursed simultaneously, revealing a reserved yet polite smile.

But only the two of them know what secrets are hidden within.

*

Bai Ling worked on the chimney rather slowly. He stood on the already laid-out kang (a heated brick bed), with a stack of adobe bricks at his feet. Yue stood on the ground, holding up the adobe bricks with both hands and handing them to Bai Ling.

Bai Ling took the adobe brick from Yue's hand, smeared yellow mud on it with a bone knife, and then placed it on the already stacked adobe brick.

The entrance to the cave wasn't very big, only about the size of a palm larger than a chimney. After Bai Ling built up the exhaust vent, he broke the adobe bricks into several pieces and used them to block the entrance. For the parts that couldn't be blocked, Bai Ling also used mud to seal them completely.

The kang (heated brick bed) was ready. Bai Ling stood on the kang and smiled at Yue, who was standing on the ground.

The tribesmen inside the cave cheered and ran outside to take down the torches they had prepared earlier from the mountain wall and put them in the hearth.

The stove had already been filled with dry grass and small twigs. As soon as the torch was placed in the stove, the dry grass was ignited, and the small twigs also caught fire.

Smoke billowed out. At first, the smoke kept coming out of the stove, but after a while, the amount of smoke gradually decreased, and the flames in the stove grew bigger.

As Zhan lit the firewood, Bai Ling and Yue transformed into their beast forms and descended the low hill. The two circled around to the back of the hill, their eyes fixed intently on the chimney openings on the mountainside.

One second, two seconds, three seconds... I don't know how much time passed, but finally a wisp of smoke came out of the chimney.

Then more and more wisps of smoke appeared, turning from a wisp to a strand, and then into a stick.

Their icy blue eyes and obsidian eyes met, their gazes filled with amusement.

They seem to have succeeded.

They have taken a very important step in building houses.

*

“The kang (heated brick bed) needs to be heated for several days. During these days, the fire cannot be too big, otherwise the surface of the kang will dry out and crack,” Bai Ling instructed the clansman in charge of watching over the kang. “Just keep it burning during the day and don’t worry about it at night. The kang will dry out in three or four days, and then we can move in when winter comes.”

Orcs have lit fire pits and bonfires before, but this is the first time they've lit a fire in a pre-built earthen stove like this.

The fire for heating the kang (a traditional heated bed) must not be turned off all day, so the people in charge of cooking simply moved the earthenware pot into the cave.

The kang (heated brick bed) in this cave was finished, and Bai Ling began to build the kang in the second smaller cave.

This time, he was only responsible for providing guidance, while the clansmen were responsible for doing the work. Yue also helped build several mud bricks. Bai Ling told the clansmen to work as slowly as possible so that the kang (heated brick bed) would be of good quality.

With more people working, the kang (heated brick bed) was built faster. Although this cave was larger than the first one, the kang was still built in about the same amount of time.

Over the next two days, Bai Ling led his people to build kang beds in two more caves, and now only one cave remained.

The last cave is the largest, larger than the previous four caves combined. In this cave, Bai Ling not only has to build two kang beds, but also has to build a fire wall in the middle of the cave to separate the two kang beds.

Because the cave was so large, Bai Ling wanted to draw out the walls and the passageway in advance so that it would save a lot of trouble when working.

He couldn't do this by himself. Although the cave had two entrances, it was so deep that even at noon, the light inside was still dim. He needed someone to help him light a torch so he could mark the cave floor.

Bai Ling invited Yue to light a torch for him, and Yue readily agreed without hesitation, as he was now particularly willing to help Bai Ling.

This is because the two of them share a secret. Everything they do together now can be said to be working together for this shared secret. This makes Yue feel that there is an invisible bond between her and Ling, a bond that firmly binds her and Bai Ling together. At the other end of this bond is something called "a better life".

Both he and Ling were working hard for that thing, and with each step they took, they were one step closer to a "better life".

This filled Yue with energy and made her impression of Bai Ling even better.