Liu Danqing found a sheltered place with sunlight and put the kneaded hay on the sand to bask in the sun.

"The sand itself is already very hot by the sun, and now I put the hay on it, warm it up and down, and add the dry air of the Gobi, and it won't be long before there is nothing left in the grass. ”

"Now, I go to look for tools to drill wood for fire, here, I can show you the most primitive method of drilling wood for fire, that is, hand drilling, compared to bow drilling and rope drilling, hand drilling method is more laborious, and there are certain requirements for the environment, if it is in a humid place such as rainforest, using hand drilling, it is impossible for ordinary people to raise the fire. ”

"Weiwei, let's go our separate ways, you go pull some hay and get some firewood back. ”

Xiao Weiwei nodded, and walked towards the hillside, most of the grass at the bottom of the valley was green, and it was not qualified as a firestarter, and it was still a good messenger for those withered yellow on the hillside.

"I'm going to look for a harder, straighter branch, and here's one, yes, I'll use my fruit knife to peel off its skin, and then scrape it a little more round, so that the thorns or bumps on it don't scratch my hands, and then sharpen the bottom, not too sharp, of course, but rounded. ”

"We also need to find a base, and this one is easy to find, as long as it's flat. This dead poplar tree is good, I pulled a piece down, it's very flat, that's it, I'll trim it a little, and dig a shallow hole on one side of this poplar plank, about the size of our drill bit, and cut a gap on the outside of the hole, which is where the debris will fall. ”

While digging a hole, Liu Danqing continued to introduce the selection of materials for drilling wood and fire tools.

As the name suggests, the branches used as wood drills should be harder, so that we can drill hard without breaking, and the wood used as the bottom plate is best to use cork, which has a low ignition point and is more prone to burn chips. ”

Liu Danqing put away the wooden drill, kicked the dead poplar apart, found a few large pieces of firewood, and walked to the shelter together.

Xiao Weiwei is now more and more energetic in her work, and in this time, she has collected a small pile of hay, as well as some large and small dry wood.

As soon as Liu Danqing returned to the shelter, he saw Xiao Weiwei holding a bundle of dead wood again, walking over here, and said as she walked: "Qingqing, I didn't pay attention before, I didn't expect that there are so many dead trees here, more than in the woods, and you can find a lot of them if you look for them." ”

Liu Danqing nodded and explained: "365 days a year here, it is basically sunny, and the air is very dry, so the dead trees basically do not rot, but slowly weather, and the speed of weathering is many times slower than the speed of corruption in the jungle, so after accumulation all year round, there will be no less dead wood in this valley." ”

"Of course, if we run out of dead wood, it will take a very long time to accumulate so much dead wood, it may take hundreds of years. ”

While explaining, Liu Danqing picked up the stones and began to build a stone wall.

"We are now going to build a stone wall to keep out the winds in the valley, and this stone wall will be followed by the rocks on the right, leaving an entrance on the left to protect our shelter, of course, we are only building a small section for us to protect our fire, to prevent the wind from blowing the sparks, and the rest will come slowly. ”

Xiao Weiwei put down the firewood in her hand, and also came over to help carry the stones and handed them to Liu Danqing.

"Qingqing, there is a little bit of good here, there are many stones, you can have whatever you want, unlike on the island, you can only use it. ”

Liu Danqing replied while building a stone wall: "Yes, there are endless stones and gravel here, I can use the jagged method to build a relatively solid stone wall, you see, when building a wall, after placing a row of stones, when the upper row of stones can not be placed in a row of alignment with the lower row, but must be staggered at intervals, so that the wall will be firm." ”

"If you are interested, you can go and see the old house in the countryside that has not been plastered, its structure is like this, bricks are intertwined with each other, so that they can form a whole, by the way, Lego bricks are also built like this. ”

After setting up a low wall, Liu Danqing was ready to start drilling wood for fire, he took back the dry grass and rubbed it a few times again.

"I rub the hay for a while, this is to make the stems and leaves of the hay more fluffy, so that with the burning chips, it can be ignited more easily, drilling wood for fire in the wilderness, it is a very low tolerance for error, any mistake in the details, can waste hours of our precious time. ”

"Alright, the velvet is ready, let's check again, um, the haystack is on my right, and the twig is next to the haystack, it's good, it's good to go. ”

Put the drill plate on the ground, the small notch is just on the velvet, Liu Danqing twisted a little bit of fine sand and put it in the small pit, and then put it on with the round head of the drill rod, and began to rub it up, explaining while rubbing.

"I first sprinkled a little bit of fine sand into the small pit of the drill plate, this is to increase the friction, this time I showed the most primitive hand drilling method, compared to the last time on the island, no shoelaces were used to pressurize it, so the friction generated will be much smaller, put some fine sand, can improve the friction. ”

"You see, it's just a shoelace, it's a lot more difficult for me to make a fire, and in order to apply a downward stroke, my hand keeps sliding under the stick, so I have to pause and turn often, and lift my hand up and keep drilling, and there is an old saying in the countryside, called a break, three fires, that is, when the fire is burned, after the fire is extinguished, even if it is lit immediately, three straw handles will be wasted. ”

"Drilling wood for fire is a test of physical strength and will work, relative to physical strength, will is more important, because no one knows when, to be able to produce enough debris, sometimes we spend half an hour of friction, and finally see that there are debris fell into the velvet, quickly hold the velvet up and blow, but maybe because the debris is too little, the fire did not rise, then all the work is in vain, and can only start from scratch. ”

"When drilling wood for fire, the most important point is the rhythm, the rhythm must be stable and continuous, must not be fast and slow, especially when you get started, you can drill and fly, but after a while, the speed will slow down, which is a waste of time and the success rate is low. ”

"We must maintain a steady speed, don't be in a hurry, don't be discouraged, you see, it's already smoking, it's not far from success, we have to stay calm, continue to drill, let the debris keep producing and falling into the velvet. ”

Twenty minutes later, Liu Danqing saw that several looming sparks could be seen in the velvet, so he stopped what he was doing, carefully picked up the velvet, put it in front of him, and blew it.

After a long and steady breath, white smoke was produced in the velvet, Liu Danqing turned his head and took a deep breath and blew it again.

"Boom", orange flames strung out of the velvet.