We made you the chief, and now you've become the world's chief?

Chapter 31 Unexplained Success

As the new day dawned, Xia Minghao emerged from the tent sporting dark circles under his eyes, essentially cosplaying as a panda.

I tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep, completely overwhelmed by the problem of the pottery drying in the shade.

After racking his brains, Xia Minghao could only think of a way to actively absorb moisture from the pottery using absorbent materials such as wood ash or hay.

It's definitely inefficient, and it may not even be able to truly solve the problem of incomplete air drying caused by high humidity.

We can only try it first and see.

Today we finished teaching counting and moved on to the more practical addition and subtraction.

But this also increases the difficulty.

Apart from Shia, who understood that four minus one equals three, everyone else was completely bewildered.

Xia Minghao was considering whether to give Xia one-on-one instruction and then have Xia teach the group of primitive people, thus saving his energy.

Because they were in a hurry to resolve the pottery issue, the morning class ended early, and the women went off to attend to their own work.

"Ye Zi, what's wrong?"

Xia Minghao yawned and was just about to go check on the pottery pile when he heard a gasp in surprise.

Turning my head, I saw that it was the thin and small Ye Zi being supported by another woman.

"what happened?"

Seeing that something was wrong, Xia Minghao stepped forward and asked.

"Chief, Ye Zi just collapsed to the ground, exhausted."

He fell to the ground?

Looking closely at Ye Zi, Xia Minghao finally noticed her listless appearance.

Could it be that he is sick?

He quickly raised his hand and touched Yezi's forehead.

"He didn't have a fever."

Xia Minghao was relieved to see that the body temperature was normal.

In this primitive era, even a cold or fever could be fatal.

It's impossible not to save one's own tribe members.

But ultimately, the amount of paracetamol in my outdoor medical kit was limited.

Even if it were for my own use, I would feel bad for half a day.

"Are you feeling hot or cold?"

Looking at Ye Zi again, Xia Minghao asked.

"It's not hot, it's not cold, it's fine."

Ye Zi quickly nodded, her eyes glancing inadvertently at the pottery blank not far away.

"That's good."

Without wasting any more time, Xia Minghao walked towards the pile of pottery.

But as soon as he touched the second batch of pottery, his movements faltered.

The feel of this is different from yesterday...

Different.

And it's so different!

The rough, unrefined feel, the weight when you pick it up...

The many subtle differences combined together create a feeling that is distinctly different from what one remembers.

Could it be that my memory is playing tricks on me?

But when he saw the other pottery, Xia Minghao was completely astonished.

The third batch of pottery felt exactly the same to the first batch fired yesterday.

The fourth batch of pottery should theoretically still be damp, since it was only air-dried for a day or two after it was made.

But now, when I touch it, it's not much different from the first batch of pottery fired yesterday.

In particular, the fourth batch of small ceramic bowls, which the women sculpted for practice, all reached an excellent level of dryness.

How could the dryness of pottery change so drastically overnight?
This is unreasonable!
Standing to the side, staring at the pottery, Xia Minghao frowned in thought.

After all the women in the cave had left and the pheasants had eaten their fill of insects, Xia Minghao was still clueless.

"Forget it, let's try burning it first. It's so dry, this will be a good opportunity to verify whether it's a problem with air-drying."

To ensure the success of the experiment, Xia Minghao thought about it and decided to sacrifice a pottery jar from the fourth batch as a control group.

One by one, the pottery pieces were moved back to the kiln. Repeating yesterday's steps, Xia Minghao carefully placed them inside.

Then preheat the oven, add charcoal, and simmer...

As the sun gradually set from the center of the sky, the temperature was no longer so scorching.

The earthen kiln has cooled down considerably.

He got up and carefully opened the kiln again, then nervously peered into the kiln.

The moment Xia Minghao's eyes fell upon the pottery in the earthen kiln, he forgot to breathe.

As the dust settled, sunlight streamed into the kiln, illuminating the pottery clearly.

One of them broke!
Just one!
And it was the fourth batch of control group that I put in myself!
The rest were all perfectly intact!
The problem was indeed with the air-drying process.

Xia Minghao carefully examined each piece of pottery as he took them out.

Two earthenware jars and one earthenware vat.

The earthenware jar and pot among them have tiny, scattered cracks inside.

This is likely a problem with fire control or cooling.

There are still many detailed issues to consider in the process of making pottery, and Xia Minghao did not expect to produce a masterpiece on the second firing.

As long as it's not broken and usable, even if it has some flaws, Xia Minghao is satisfied.

"The yield rate is too high, but..."

But Xia Minghao had no idea how those pottery blanks had all become so dry overnight.

Did something happen last night that caused the humidity in the forest to drop suddenly?
That doesn't make sense either...

After firing the pottery, ignoring the women's surprised looks, he simply instructed them to fetch water using two earthenware jars and then fill the earthenware vat with the water.

Xia Minghao began to think to himself.

But by dusk, he still hadn't figured it out.

"This is so strange, it could easily make three episodes of 'Approaching Science'."

I waited with doubt for the women to return.

I listened with a sense of unease as the women excitedly discussed the earthenware jars and vats.

They finished the meat soup feast with lingering doubts.

Crawling into the tent, Xia Minghao guessed it would be another sleepless night...

Ye Zi smiled more happily than anyone else, even though no one knew, and she dared not let anyone know, for fear that these lovely people would suddenly turn into a wolf tribe and devour her.

It's enough that I know it myself...

As night fell, the number of people praying noticeably increased.

It is clear that this so-called prayer spread today while women were working and chatting.

After the prayers were finished, the women looked at the new things in the cave, the earthenware jars and pots.

There's still half a jar of water in the earthenware jar!

The woman finally drifted off to sleep when she was so tired she could hardly stay awake any longer.

But Ye Zi still fought off her sleepiness until everyone except the woman on night duty was asleep before she dared to carefully open her eyes.

A star-like glint appeared in his eyes, and streams of air seemed to appear out of nowhere beside the pottery blank.

But she was too tired to devote as much energy to the person on night duty as she had yesterday…

Today is Hima's night watch, and she is currently looking at the moon outside the cave.

When the moon meets the first brightest star, she can find someone to relieve her.

In the quiet early summer night, only the soft chirping of insects accompanied Hima.

She unconsciously began to reflect on the changes that had occurred during this period, from being hungry to now enjoying that delicious boiled meat and broth.

When the men of the tribe stopped returning, Hima was already heartbroken, seemingly foreseeing the tribe's destruction.

But unexpectedly, the man that Xia brought back led them to live such a life.

Hima felt a surge of gratitude, and thinking of the "prayer" the other women had mentioned earlier, she began to silently pray to the chief, who was tossing and turning in his tent.

After she finished praying, Hima turned her head and glanced at the tent.

Just as she was about to continue keeping watch for any movement outside the cave, a pair of faintly glowing eyes immediately caught her attention in the darkness.

But once he saw it clearly, the terrifying memories that had been buried for so long instantly flooded back into his mind.

That terrifying totem tribe, the men used totem power to set their people on fire, and their eyes shone with the same light!

Screams, screams filled with terror, echoed through the silent mountain cave in the dead of night!

(End of this chapter)