Transmigrating to the BeastWorld,I Picked Up an Adorable BeastHusband!-Chapter 62
The cave was silent save for the crackle of the tiny fire and the heavy, slowing cadence of Weijieโs breath. Ningning looked at the heap of iron-oak sections. ๐ฏ๐ง๐ฎ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ต.๐ฌ๐ธ๐
They sat there, hulking and damp, a promise of warmth that they couldnโt yet fulfill.
She couldnโt start the kiln tonight.
Her own muscles were screaming, and Weijie was a heartbeat away from total shutdown.
"Doudou, hold the calculations for the enclosure." she whispered. "He needs to eat. I need to think."
[Priority shift acknowledged, Dumpling. His core temperature is 34ยฐC and dropping. He needs calories to fuel the metabolic transition into brumation, even if itโs just meat.]
Ningning stroked her chin, did she have any food on hand?
Or should she quickly roast some meat?
[Letโs start with water first...]
"Water first." Ningning agreed, her voice a dry rasp.
She reached for the crude clay cup they had fashioned, dipping it into their small water pot to ensure no drop was wasted.
She took a long, careful swallow, the cool liquid shocking her parched throat, then held the cup to Weijieโs lips.
He drank greedily but blindly, his eyes tracking a point somewhere in the dark ceiling.
[Dehydration will accelerate the tiredness in Weijie] Doudou warned.
[And for you, Dumpling, your cognitive functions are already slipping. Youโre thinking about hydrochloric acid while your own electrolytes are crashing..]
Once he was hydrated, she moved to the small cache of raw meat. She didnโt have time for a gourmet roast. She sliced thin strips of lean muscle, skewering them on a clean branch and holding them over the flickering hearth.
The fat hissed as it hit the coals, the smell filling the cave, a rich, savory scent that made her stomach cramp with sudden, sharp hunger.
"Eat up." she whispered, pressing the warm, char-edged meat into his hand.
He ate with a primal, sluggish hunger.
His body was a furnace trying to bank enough coals to stay warm for five months of darkness.
As the last of the meat disappeared, his head loped forward, his chin hitting his chest.
"Sleep." she said, guiding him down onto the thick pile of furs.
He didnโt fight her. The moment his head touched the hide, he was gone.
His breathing slowed from the ragged pant of a laborer to the deep, resonant drone of a hibernating beast.
With Weijie finally still, Ningning turned her back to the fire. The silence of the cave was heavy, pressing against her ears.
She picked up a piece of charcoal and crawled toward a smooth patch of limestone wall.
"Okay, Doudou. Letโs design the enclosed space. I need to dry 180 pieces of wood. If each piece is roughly 60cm by 20cm, I need a volume that can hold them without cutting off the air."
[Visualizing now] Doudouโs interface flickered, overlaying a translucent golden grid against the dark cave wall.
[To maximize the rock saltโs hygroscopic properties, you cannot just stack the wood.] Doudou explained. [You need a Desiccation Chamber. We will use the far corner of the cave, the one with the natural limestone โpocketโ.]
[Hereโs the plan. The Foundation: Lay a bed of the driest rock salt, approximately 10cm thick.]
[The Frame: Use the green iron-oak logs themselves to build three "retaining walls" against the cave corner.]
[The Stacking: Position the 30 pieces they just brought in a โHollow Squareโ or โBirdcageโ pattern. This ensures that every inch of surface area is exposed to the air.]
[The Seal: This is the most crucial part. She needed to coat the outside of this log-wall with the salt-mud mixture.]
[The Thermal Trap: A small opening at the bottom to let in warm air from the hearth, and a tiny vent at the top to let out the moist air.]
"Itโs a closed-circuit dehydrator." Ningning murmured, her fingers tracing the charcoal lines. "The salt at the bottom will pull the humidity out of the air inside the box, making the air โthirstyโ. That thirsty air will then suck the sap out of the wood. Itโs a cycle."
[Exactly. But there is a flaw in your plan, Dumpling.]
Ningning paused, her charcoal stick hovering over the wall. "What?"
[Gravity. To seal the top of the โboxโ so the heat stays in, you need a roof. You canโt lift those 83kg logs high enough to roof an enclosure by yourself. Not without a machine.]
Ningning looked at her sleeping husband, then at the massive logs.
She was a chemist, but she was still a human girl in a world built for giants.
"Then I donโt lift them." she whispered, a tired but sharp glint appearing in her eyes. "Iโll build a ramp-and-lever system using the wheelbarrow frame. If I canโt be strong, Iโll be long."
Ningning sat cross-legged on the stone floor, her charcoal stick tapping against her chin as she stared at the blueprint on the wall.
The physics were sound, but the material science required a bit more finesse.
She couldnโt just throw mud at the logs; she needed a composite material that would act as both a sealant and a thermal insulator.
"Doudou, letโs map out the Salt-Mud Synthesis. If I get the ratio wrong, itโll crack as it dries and leak the humid air back into the chamber."
[Analyzing material properties, Dumpling] Doudou replied. [You need a โHygroscopic Plasterโ. Here is the preparation sequence.]
"If the mud is too wet, itโll slump off the wood," she whispered, her eyes tracking the golden grid Doudou projected onto the wall. "But if itโs too dry, it wonโt bond. I need a chemical bridge."
She began to sketch a series of vessels and mixing pits in the dust.
The salt-mud wasnโt just a sealant, it was a desiccating plaster.
She planned to first pulverize a portion of the rock salt using a heavy river stone, turning the coarse crystals into a fine, biting powder.
"Iโll mix the salt powder directly into the silt." she murmured, her fingers tracing the path of the moisture. "As the wood โsweatsโ its sap, the salt in the mud walls will actually pull that moisture outward, acting like a thousand tiny pumps. The exterior of the kiln will feel damp, but the interior will be a desert."
Doudouโs voice hummed in approval. [A smart application of osmotic pressure, Dumpling. By saturating the mud with salt, youโre creating a gradient. But donโt forget the binder. You need fiber.]
Ningning nodded. She noted down that sheโd have to gather dry pine needles and crush them into the mix.
The needles would act like rebar in concrete, giving the mud structural integrity so the kiln didnโt collapse under its own weight as it dried.
Next, she mapped out the floor.
She couldnโt just have a flat bed of salt. She needed surface area. She drew a series of "ridges" and "furrows" in the salt bed, like a miniature plowed field.
"The air needs to roll," she explained to the empty cave. "If the salt is flat, only the top layer works. If I make ridges, the heavy, moisture-laden air will sink into the furrows and be trapped by the salt crystals."
She spent the next hour meticulously planning the "Ramp-and-Pull." Since she couldnโt lift the 83-kilogram sections above her waist, she would build a sloping trestle out of the branches Weijie had cleared earlier. She would grease the trestle rails with the same sap-paste she used for the axle.
"Iโll use the wheelbarrow as a counterweight." she noted, her charcoal stick snapping under the pressure of her excitement.
"Iโll load stones into the barrow on one side of a pulley-branch, and use that weight to help me hoist the iron-oak logs into the top layers of the kiln."
Ningningโs stomach let out a low, mournful growl that seemed to echo in the vast silence of the cave.
She had been too focused on the chemistry of the kiln to remember she hadnโt eaten since the previous afternoon.
"Doudou, hold the construction plans," she whispered, her voice cracking. "Iโm going to pass out if I donโt eat."
[Nutrient intake is critical, Dumpling. Your glycogen stores are depleted. If you faint while planning, you wonโt be able to execute.]
She moved to the fire pit, grabbing a few thicker slices of the smoked meat they had prepared.
She didnโt want to waste time roasting them over the fire again, so she ate them cold.
The meat was tough, tasting intensely of smoke and salt, but it provided the instant calorie boost she needed.
As she got into the bed. She noticed was cold the bedding was.
Arenโt things getting cold way too quickly?
