Living on a Mountain with my Husband

Chapter 24: BUILDING A WALL

The next day, LongWei woke up before Zimo again. This time however he did not plan to pretend to sleep. He did not want Zimo to worry like he had the night before.

The first things zimo saw when he opened his eyes was LongWei looking at him. Feeling shy, his ears started to turn red. Then he noticed he was holding LongWei's arm again. "Oh no! Why am I so dishonest. It's so embarrassing." Zimo thought as he dove under the quilt.

LongWei could not help but chuckle when he saw Zimo's action. It was a good idea to wake up before him.

"Sorry, dear. I didn't know I was so dishonest when I sleep. Does it make you uncomfortable?" Zimo asked as he peeked his eyes out from under the quilt.

"Hm... it's okay." LongWei said unable to stop the corner of his mouth from lifting up.

...

Zimo went out to prepare the water to wash and LongWei prepared to cook breakfast. LongWei had made some buns the night before, so he put them over the pot to warm the up and took  another pot to cook some rice for porridge. In the porridge he added an egg for each of them and some leeks.

"It's very delicious dear." Zimo said as he nibbled on his bun.

"After breakfast we can head out to we here the mud and stone are for the wall." LongWei began discussing the days activities.

"Dear, do we to bring baskets or buckets to Cary the mud?" Zimo asked.

"The mud shouldn't be wet, at the moment it will be clay. We will need to dig an area auntie we reach the clay below the surface. There is no need to bring anything to place the clay into, it will be enough to pile it directly in the cart. Once we bring several loads of clay, we can gather some long thick grass to mix with the clay and some water from the river. We need to mix the three together and use the mud to build the wall up." LongWei explained. Building a mud wall wasn't very difficult, but it was exhausting. He planned to do four loads of mud a day.

"Listen to you, dear." Zimo said as he smiled.

...

The two left for the clay pit LongWei had used previously. When making mud walls and soil would work, but LongWei had learned in the army from a comrade in arms whose family built estates professionally for the nobles and upper class many tricks and tips to improve the quality and efficiency. The most important tip was to find good clay.

As they started digging up clay, Zimo missed the revolutionary tool "the shovel". That isn't to say they did not have a shovel, but the current shovel was short like a gardening spade and made of wood. As they dug, the two would switch from LongWei digging and Zimo gathering grass, to LongWei gathering grass and Zimo digging. This way they would over exert themself in a single go.

"Old man Li is a blacksmith, maybe next time when we have money and go down the mountain I can ask him to make a modern shovel out of iron. It will be heavier, but LongWei is very strong. The weight shouldn't be a problem for him. Also maybe a better scythe or hoe would be nice, too." Zimo drifted off into space as he worked and thought about all the things that would be useful to have, but currently didn't exist.

After filling a cart full of clay they moved back to the house and dumped the clay in front of the north wall. They did this four times separating each load by a short distance. Next the went and gathered buckets full of water from the river and started mixing the first pile of clay into mud.

"Do we just need to pile it on?" Zimo asked curiously.

LongWei decided it might be faster to demonstrate, so he grabbed the mixture and placed it in the wall pressing it down with a heavy log he had taken from the shed. This log wasn't to heavy, the goal wasn't to pound the mud flat , but enough to remove the excess water. Doing this would reduce shrinking and speed up the drying process. In a day, the should add about ten centimetres in height on the wall.

just past noon they finally finished one round around the house. It took longer than initially planned, but it was still okay.

"I'm going to go make something for us to eat, Zimo could you feed the mule and chickens?" LongWei asked as he finished washing the mud off his hands by the river.

"Hm."

Zimo had been quiet  most of the morning, it seems we was thinking about something important. LongWei didn't mind and simply let him do dream away. "I wonder what little birdy is thinking about?" LongWei wondered.

Meanwhile Zimo was thinking about ways to improve their current tools. "Shovels, hoes, scythes, spades, pitchforks, skewers there are many useful tools that have a simple design, but aren't currently available. However, LongWei and I don't know blacksmithing.
Old man Li does, but would he be willing to make them? He seems to have retired for the most part, making smaller household items like iron pots and knives.
It would be nice if he could help, or maybe he could teach me? If I learnt blacksmithing I could make hunting tools for LongWei. No, that's not very feasible. Just looking at old man Li, you need to be very strong to pound iron into the correct shape..."

They ate some stir fried cabbage and rice porridge for lunch. Lunch in this time period wasn't very common, but LongWei was determined to fatten up his little birdy, so he insisted on cooking multiple times a day for him.

After lunch Zimo felt a little sleepy. Noticing this LongWei made the executive decision for the two of them to take a nap together. When washing up for bed, zimo aid,

"Dear, if I'm dishonest during our nap again, you don't have to endure it. Just push me away."

LongWei looked at Zimo laying next to him. "Rather then endure I would prefer the little birdy slept directly in my arms." After thinking this LongWei took the initiative to pull Zimo into his arms and pressed his head on his chest.

"Eh?! Dear, what... what are you doing?" Zimo stuttere as his face grew as red as an apple.

"Rather than endure, I would prefer it if you slept like this." LongWei said looking down at the red little birdy in his arms.

"Is this really okay? You won't feel uncomfortable?"

LongWei nodded, patted Zimo back in a soothing way and closed his eyes to sleep.

"What does this mean? Is it because I'm his husband, or does he like to hug things when he sleeps? If it's the former, will our relationship progress further into something more intimate and physical." Zimo's mind was full of strange thoughts, but the sleepiness eventually one and he fell asleep in LongWei's arms.