Chapter 5, Methods of Fire Procurement

Banxia secretly sighed at that moment, realizing that it was not entirely a bad thing, as at least breakfast was taken care of

Banxia carefully retrieved a metal box from beneath the stove

In this world devoid of natural gas and coal, the only fuels available to Banxia are gasoline and firewood

The teacher smiled and said, "You are not a naked ape; you are a young lady"

When she does not go out, she wears only this oversized white shirt, with just a pair of shorts underneath, walking around the house with her long legs bare.

But she has a wall of firewood

The Colgate toothpaste on the washbasin has already been rolled into a layer of skin, yet Banxia is still unwilling to give up, squeezing it to apply the last bit of greenish toothpaste onto the toothbrush

The large red barrels used for storing fresh water were found by the teacher, totaling two, placed side by side in the bathroom, occupying half of the space in the bathroom—where the shower area was originally located. These plastic barrels are one meter high and come with lids, making them perfectly suitable for storing fresh water, whether for drinking or other uses. Banxia draws water from these barrels, with an average of one barrel lasting three to five days.

Eternal flame

She jumped out of bed, pulled her clothes from the back of the chair, and then drew a circle around September 7th on the wall.

Squeak

However, having kindling alone is not sufficient; it must also be ignited

After finishing her morning routine, Banxia tied her hair up into a ponytail, and it was time to prepare breakfast

I will select a few lucky guests to stay and have breakfast.

Banxia is actually willing to run naked, but the teacher stopped her. The teacher said that clothing serves not only functional purposes such as warmth and decoration, but it also distinguishes you from the beasts. If you do not wear clothes, one day you will blend into this wild world and forget your identity as a human.

That signifies unanimous approval; today for breakfast, we will have dandelion porridge

Since the day humanity mastered fire, methods of ignition have undergone iterative updates. The process of striking fire by friction was too time-consuming and labor-intensive, so people learned to use minerals to create flint and steel. Each time igniting a fire was cumbersome, leading to the practice of using charcoal to preserve embers. By covering partially burned charcoal with fine ash, the time it takes for the flame to extinguish can be significantly prolonged. Ember is always more enduring than an open flame, and such embers can even be stored in a box for easy transport and use at any time.

A girl should be beautiful and charming, you are the most beautiful girl in this world, if you don't wear clothes, then this world will take advantage of you

She opened the box, took out the lighter, and with a "pop," ignited the flame

The primary source of freshwater in Banxia is rainfall. Nanjing is a city with abundant rainfall, experiencing regular precipitation for eight months of the year. Humid temperate cyclones come from the sea, bringing ample rainfall. From March to October, this extended period constitutes the typhoon season in Nanjing

Each piece of firewood is as long as a palm and as thin as two or three fingers, stacked heavily against the kitchen wall, forming a pile that is more than a person's height.

After washing her face, the girl casually poured water onto the floor outside the bathroom, rinsing away the dirt and dust on the ground

Banxia, with her eyes closed, was already enjoying the music. Early in the morning, this group of mice made sounds more melodious than singing, rising and falling, with varied intonations, resembling a symphony orchestra

Dad! Mom! What are we having for breakfast today?" Banxia held a rubber band in her mouth, humming a vague tune, "How about some porridge? How about dandelion porridge? The ones we picked yesterday should still be fresh. If you don't say anything, I'll take it as a yes!"

She is reluctant to use gasoline

This is the rule set by the teacher for her: even if the world were to end, she must brush her teeth every day

This object is truly heavy

"Am I pretty?" Bansha grinned at the dirty mirror in the bathroom, "I don't even know if I'm pretty or not; I have prosopagnosia."

She opened her eyes and immediately reached her hand into her messy hair. Fortunately, no mice had come in last night

She crawled out of bed, causing the bed to creak, and the sounds of the mice beneath it immediately ceased. Hanxia could imagine the group of rodents, who were having a concert, all looking up in fear, worried that the black board above them might suddenly collapse. The girl cleared her throat: "Dear guests, I will count to three, and if you do not leave after three..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the mice darted out right beneath the girl's eyelids, disappearing from view within a few seconds

The kitchen is just one wall away from the bathroom. This is a three-bedroom, two-living room house, featuring one master bedroom, two secondary bedrooms, one living room, one dining room, one kitchen, and one bathroom

Runs very fast

In the past, Banxia had also attempted to block the mice. She meticulously searched the room from top to bottom, sealing every possible gap through which the mice could enter, ensuring that not even a needle could fit through. However, the next morning, upon opening her eyes, she found a pair of shiny black eyes staring at her, with a sharp, moist little nose sniffing around.

Nowadays, Banxia no longer attempts to block the mice; these little creatures can appear from all sorts of unimaginable places and disappear into various inexplicable locations

When cooking, it is essential to close the kitchen door properly and open all the windows to ensure there are no ventilation issues. Only then did Banxia laboriously pull out the stove from under the countertop.

The ceramic washbasin provided in the bathroom is unusable, having been damaged several years ago. There is a large crack at the bottom, wide enough for a finger to fit in, so we can only use a separate basin.

The teacher said this while kneading her face into a round and flat shape

The teacher once took Banxia to thoroughly scour half of the supermarkets and convenience stores in the Qinhuai District, acquiring a mountain of toothpaste and toothbrushes, all piled up in the room downstairs

She need not conserve water, as Nanjing City does not lack fresh water

How to order

First, maintain dental care

Before winter, there is actually no need to wear clothes

After brushing her teeth and washing her face, the girl scooped a ladle of water from the large bucket in the corner of the bathroom and poured it into a plastic basin, then squatted down to wash her face

Chirp—chirp chirp—chirp—chirp chirp—

Indeed, no one is speaking

It seems that this toothpaste will not be usable tomorrow; at that time, we can just cut it open with a knife, as there should still be some that can be scraped out from inside

These firewood pieces are split from the wood of the half summer. In Nanjing, there is no shortage of wood; the streets are lined with flourishing camphor and oak trees. She cuts down the trees and saws them into pieces, then splits them into small firewood bit by bit, stacking them on the balcony to dry. Fresh, wet firewood cannot be burned; when burned, it produces thick smoke. Therefore, after splitting the firewood, it must be dried. First, it is placed on the balcony to dry, and then moved to the kitchen to dry. The firewood that is split first is burned first, and the firewood that is split later is burned later. Regardless of which piece of firewood it is, by the time it is to be burned in the half summer, it should be dry.

This is the spark

Banxia asked the young lady what was wrong

Banxia said, isn't that quite good? Humans come from nature and return to nature; we are all hairless apes

Banxia believes that these toothpaste can last her at least twenty years

Banxia always has a keen understanding of her parents' psychology

Banxia tousled her hair

It is evident that Banxia currently does not have any honeycomb coal in hand

Banxia rolled slightly thinner firewood and dried grass leaves into a bundle, which serves as an excellent kindling, igniting with just a spark

Therefore, the vast majority of the time she is burning wood

The old-fashioned honeycomb coal stove, heaven knows where the teacher found this thing, stands half a meter tall and is a cylindrical shape. The bottom of the stove has a vent covered with a lid. This device is originally designed for burning honeycomb coal—honeycomb coal is a short cylinder that can be stacked vertically in the combustion chamber. However, it is essential to ensure that the holes of all the honeycomb coals are aligned from top to bottom. The holes are crucial for air circulation; air enters through the vent at the bottom of the stove, then passes through the aligned holes of the honeycomb coal, and finally exits from the combustion chamber. Only with proper air circulation can the coal burn.