American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 141 A Cozy Stone Fireplace!
Lin Yu'an gently comforted him, "I know, it does sound crazy. But this time is different from last time. I'm no longer struggling to survive for money, but..."

He paused, trying to find the most accurate words to describe his feelings.

"It's a desire to compete against real masters, Arya. You know, I love the feeling of pushing the limits of nature."

Aria quieted down and looked at Lin Yu'an's face on the screen.

His gaze was calm, but deep within it burned a flame she knew all too well—the desire of a strong person for a challenge.

She knew this was the real him. A man who could navigate the harsh wilderness with ease, and also paint a picture of their future together in the warmth of their home.

She fell in love with him precisely because he was so contradictory yet incredibly real.

After a long while, Arya sighed softly, her worry gradually replaced by understanding and tenderness.

"I understand."

She didn't mention the danger again, nor did she try to dissuade her. Instead, she changed her perspective and said softly, "Darling, actually... we don't need to risk our lives for money anymore."

She turned the camera towards her computer screen, which displayed the interface of a stock trading software.

A green, upward-trending candlestick chart filled the entire screen, next to which was a prominent stock code—NVDA.

Arya's voice held a hint of amusement: "The stock I bought based on your advice has gone up like crazy!"

"The value of the stocks we hold is enough for us to live comfortably for the rest of our lives, and even to build a substantial trust fund for our children."

“We’re not short of money now, darling.” She turned the camera back to herself, looking at him with utmost seriousness.

"So, I support you going, not for the $500,000, but because I know it's what you want, it's a way for you to feel 'alive'."

A surge of warmth welled up in Lin Yu'an's heart.

This is his Arya, who can always see through his deepest thoughts and give him the most steadfast support.

“But,” Arya’s tone became extremely solemn.

You must promise me one thing.

"You said."

"If you feel even the slightest bit of real danger, or if you feel you can't continue, you must press that SOS button and quit that damn show immediately!"

Her voice carried an undeniable air of command.

"Nothing is more important than your safety. Home is here, and the children and I will always be waiting for you to come back. Do you hear me?"

"I promise you."

Lin Yu'an nodded heavily, this promise more resolute than ever before.

With his assurance, Arya was completely relieved.

She smiled gently again and winked playfully: "Alright, my champion. Since you're off to conquer new wilderness again, I'd better hurry up too."

"I need to contact the designer immediately to order the renovation materials we need, as well as soft furnishings and furniture, etc."

“Then I’ll be waiting, my Queen.” Lin Yu’an laughed as well.

A conversation that could have sparked a conflict transformed into mutual support and shared hopes for the future, born from deep understanding and trust between the two.

After hanging up the video call, Lin Yu'an walked to the window and looked out at the forest that was already shrouded in twilight.

He knew that no matter how far he went or how harsh the place he went to challenge his limits, there would always be a light shining for him and a lover waiting for him to come home.

This concern is not a chain that binds him, but the most solid anchor that allows him to fly higher and farther!
After hanging up the video call with Arya, Lin Yu'an looked at the exquisite interior design drawings that Arya had helped refine, and his heart was filled with boundless motivation.

His gaze fell on the first item on the list, the soul of the entire living room: the enormous stone fireplace that stretched from the ground floor to the second-floor ceiling.

In his vision, it must possess a unique texture and bear the imprint of this land.

He wants to use real stones bearing the marks of glaciers and time to build a warm and sturdy heart for his home.

He ordered a "zero gap" high-performance fireplace system from a top Canadian fireplace manufacturer a month ago.

The system includes a 300-kilogram cast iron fireplace mantle and a Class A double-layered stainless steel insulated chimney pipe assembled from sections. I received the email a few days ago, and it is expected to arrive in seven days.

This is a good time to carry out the quarrying plan.

An ideal location immediately came to mind: a landslide-formed slope that he and Stan had previously discovered.

The mountains there are mainly composed of gneiss, which, after years of weathering and erosion, has formed a natural quarry at the foot of the mountains.

He clearly remembered the gneiss there, with its black and white striped texture as beautiful as an ink painting, and its extremely high hardness, making it perfect for use as the exterior lining of a fireplace.

But for heavy-duty transport in such places, a professional heavy-duty pickup truck and trailer are essential. Without the slightest hesitation, he drove straight to Old George's house.

When Old George heard Lin Yu'an's idea of ​​mining gneiss slabs himself, a knowing smile appeared on his face.

"I knew you'd go and get the stones yourself."

“You are exactly like me when I was young, always believing that only things you choose by hand have a soul.”

Without asking any further questions, he simply took a key from a bunch of keys hanging on the wall and tossed it to Lin Yu'an.

"Go ahead and take my big guy, with my flatbed trailer that can haul three tons of cargo. Use it as you please, just remember to fill it up with gas when you come back."

Old George said, "But I must remind you, kid, we're doing stone cladding, not building a solid wall."

"So, you don't need those boulders weighing hundreds of kilograms. What you need are stone slabs with a thickness of 5 to 15 centimeters, understand? That will test your eyesight and skills even more."

“I understand, George, thank you!” Lin Yu’an said sincerely.

"No need to thank me!" Old George waved his hand.

"Isn't that how it is between neighbors? Hurry up and go while the weather is nice."

The next morning, before dawn, Lin Yu'an set off in old George's Ford F-450, with a flatbed trailer towed behind.

At his command, two furry little creatures excitedly rushed out of the wooden house.

They wagged their tails, scrambling to jump onto the enormous pickup truck, which was like a moving castle to them.

But their short legs obviously couldn't reach, so Lin Yu'an smiled and carried them one in each hand into the spacious back seat.

The car drove along Dalton Highway for a while, then turned onto a dirt road that was not marked on the map and led to the eastern valley.

The F-450 diesel engine roared steadily and powerfully as its tall chassis easily rolled over potholes and rocks.

When he arrived at the hillside he remembered, the sun had just risen above the distant ridge.

Lin Yu'an parked the car on a relatively flat open space at the bottom of the slope, and then opened the back door.

Whiskey and honey immediately burst forth like two cannonballs into this brand-new playground brimming with natural charm.

Unlike a flat, rocky beach, this place is more like a huge, gentle slope composed of countless rocks. The air is filled with the scent of rocks and damp earth.

Whiskey and honey, seeing such a three-dimensional sight for the first time, excitedly began their adventure.

Whiskey, being quite daring, tried to climb a rock taller than itself, only to tumble down comically.

Honey, on the other hand, was more interested in the little flowers growing in the cracks of the rocks, and kept sniffing them with her little nose.

Lin Yu'an, like an experienced stonemason, embarked on a treasure hunt.

He didn't rush into action, but instead spent nearly half an hour walking across the pile of rocks, mentally constructing the image of the fireplace he wanted.

He needed hard gneiss with a thickness of 5 to 15 centimeters. He particularly loved the black and white slabs that flowed like an ink painting.

Finally, in the middle of the pile of stones, he found a piece of ideal stone.

He put on thick gloves and picked up a crowbar and a heavy stonemason's hammer.

He selected his first target: a stone slab that had been partially peeled off from the parent rock and was of uniform thickness, with an area of ​​about one square meter.

He first used a stonemason's hammer to clear away the surrounding rubble, then inserted a thick crowbar deep into the gap between the slab and the parent rock, and pried it outwards with a sudden movement!
With a loud clang, the stone slab completely detached from the parent rock.

The next step required even more skill; he picked up a large sledgehammer and several steel wedges of different sizes.

He carefully observed the distinct black and white natural texture on the stone slab, and then gently tapped the steel wedge into the edge of the slab along a clear white band of stone.

"Ding... ding... ding..."

"Crack!"

With a crisp sound, the stone slab split open, the break straight and neat, forming a regular shape with a natural fracture surface, more suitable for building a wall.

Each stone he chose was like a unique puzzle piece in his eyes; he could even imagine where they would eventually be placed on his fireplace.

Lin Yu'an repeated this process for an entire day.

As the sun set, the sturdy flatbed trailer was already neatly stacked with gneiss slabs weighing over a ton, which he had carefully selected and preliminarily trimmed.

For the next week, Lin Yu'an worked like a busy worker bee, shuttling between the camp and the quarry every day.

During the day, he quarried and transported stones, and at night he returned to the camp to sort and stack the quarried stones according to color, texture, and size.

On the afternoon of the seventh day, just as he was transporting the last load of stones back to camp, a high-chassis, six-wheel-drive delivery truck bearing the "Alaska Express Freight" logo came to a smooth stop at the entrance of his camp.

The driver jumped out of the truck, saw Lin Yu'an and the mountain of stones, and whistled, "Hey! You must be Mr. Herman, right? Your goods have arrived. I must say, the road you chose is really something!"

After confirming the order information, the driver used the truck's small crane to carefully unload the huge fireplace manifold wrapped in a wooden crate, along with several long crates filled with stainless steel chimney pipes, at the location designated by Lin Yu'an.

"Good luck, buddy!" the driver waved to him and hurried away.

At this point, all the materials needed to build the fireplace—the high-performance fireplace insert, the professional chimney system, and ten tons of natural gneiss from this land—were ready.

The construction of the fireplace officially began the next day.

David and Mike had returned a few days earlier, carrying a camera, ready to record the whole process.

The first thing Lin Yu'an did was to install the 300-kilogram cast iron fireplace insert in the center of the reserved foundation platform inside the completed wooden house.

Using a homemade four-wheeled flatbed cart, it was smoothly towed to the most precise location.

After installing the fireplace insert, the next step is to build the "skeleton" of the entire fireplace and chimney.

He took out a large amount of light steel keel and a professional cutting machine, and explained to David: "We are using a 'zero gap' fireplace, which can theoretically come into direct contact with combustibles."

"But for absolute safety, I chose to use this completely fireproof light steel keel to build the frame. Moreover, its dimensions are very standard, which can ensure that the fireplace we finally build will be absolutely straight."

Then he cut, spliced, and fixed the light steel keel pieces with self-tapping screws.

A huge hollow frame perfectly encloses the fireplace mantle, with a pre-drilled opening running from the ground to the second-floor ceiling.

After the framework is completed, the chimney will be installed.

He opened the long box and took out sections of Grade A double-layer stainless steel insulated chimney pipe.

"This is a double-layer structure, with high-density ceramic fiber insulation cotton filling the space between the inner and outer walls."

“Even if the internal flue temperature is extremely high, the temperature of the outer wall will only be slightly higher than the room temperature, so that it can safely pass through our wooden floors and roof.”

He connected the chimney pipes section by section upwards, like assembling a model, with each section having a professional locking mechanism that could be locked in place with a "click".

When the last section of the chimney pipe passes through the roof and is capped with a rain cap, the core internal system of the fireplace is complete.

Now, let's begin to dress this steel frame in a stone "coat".

Lin Yu'an first fixed a thick layer of cement board on the outside of the light steel keel frame as a base for pasting the stone.

Then he came to the stone mountain and began the work that tested his aesthetic sense and patience.

He selected the stones with the most suitable color, texture, thickness, and shape from the pile of gneiss of various shapes.

He would first lay out the stones on the ground to create the effect he wanted.

Then a small wet cutting machine was started to trim the edges of the stones so that they could be joined together tightly.

Once the order is determined, the pasting process can begin.

He mixed a high-strength stone adhesive and applied a thick layer to the back of the stone.

Then, starting from the very bottom of the fireplace, press the first stone firmly onto the cement slab and tap it gently with a rubber mallet until mortar is squeezed out from the edges.

He used a spirit level to constantly check the levelness and verticality of each stone.

One piece, two pieces, one row, two rows...

Lin Yu's security department spent a full five days on this task.

When he installed the last piece of carefully polished gneiss on top of the fireplace, a magnificent stone fireplace that stretched from the floor to the ceiling was finally completed!
In the days that followed, while waiting for the mortar and grout to dry completely, he also completed the waterproofing and fireproofing of the section of the chimney that penetrated the roof.

Finally, it's time to witness the moment when the "heart" of this home is ignited.

Lin Yu'an placed several pieces of dried birch wood into the brand-new fireplace.

A spark ignited the tinder, which then set fire to the tiny wood chips. Finally, a cluster of orange flames rose merrily in the enormous cast-iron furnace!

The flames crackled and popped, their warm orange glow illuminating the interior of the already partially completed home for the first time through the massive glass doors.

Lin Yu-an, David, and Mike sat around the fireplace, enjoying the comforting warmth that enveloped them.

David's camera slowly zooms out, moving from the warm interior, through the windows, and finally settling on the exterior of the entire cabin.

A wisp of white smoke rises from the tall stone chimney, blending into the azure sky of Alaska.

(End of this chapter)