Wandering America: My kill threshold is far ahead

Chapter 264 Almost Set the House on Fire

After a simple barrage of comments, most viewers' curiosity was piqued.

Ma Jieke dared not waste any more time and immediately transformed into an infrastructure construction maniac.

Building a fire pit is like building a shelter; the first step is to lay a foundation. If the foundation isn't solid, everything else is pointless.

Of course, the foundation of the hearth is much smaller, occupying only about 0.8 square meters.

To put it simply, it's just a stove for cooking; it just needs to be big enough to put the pot in. Making it too big is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but it also wastes firewood later.

He took out a wooden board about the width of a palm, with markings made with a knife every 10 centimeters or so, and it was one meter long in total.

This is a wooden ruler made using the width of a hand, because Ma Jieke's hand width is exactly 10 centimeters. Regardless of whether there is any error, it is better than measuring with the naked eye, right?

After marking the rectangle on the ground, he first used a logging axe to loosen the soil along the baseline, and then took out a metal plate salvaged from the old camp to shovel the soil.

Before long, a pit 1 meter long, 0.8 meters wide, and 15 centimeters deep was dug out.

Fill the pit with a large amount of gravel and compact it, and an extremely stable foundation is laid.

The next step is even simpler: build four mini stone walls, each half a meter high, on the foundation, and fill them with sand and gravel to transform them into...

Form a base.

At the very top of the base, a carefully selected, flat stone slab is placed. This stone slab serves as the working surface of the hearth, where cooking and lighting fires are done.

Next, arrange the stones in a circle on the work surface, and fill the gaps between the stones with wet clay to ensure that no sparks will pop out when the stove is burning.

The construction principle is the same as that of the shelter's stone walls: wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, with the opening area not too large, just enough to fit the bottom of the pot.

Glancing at the dwindling live stream time, Ma Jieke began another round of no-prize quiz: "Does anyone know how many openings a fully functional fire pit typically needs, and what their respective functions are?"

Faced with this easy question, the live chat became active again. After all, those who watch the live stream are basically wilderness survival enthusiasts, and even if they are just casual viewers, their theoretical knowledge far surpasses that of ordinary people.

"Teacher Ma, Teacher Ma, I know how to do this problem. At least two openings need to be kept: one for adding firewood and one for venting smoke."

"Smoke extraction isn't that easy. Do you think this is the city where you can buy any material you want? You might as well look for smokeless wood."

"I know the correct answer, but I'm not saying it because I suspect the streamer is trying to plagiarize the strategies from the chat!"

Seeing these strange answers, Ma Jieke was amused: "Alright, alright, let's just reveal the answers. Actually, some students got them right, but they weren't comprehensive enough."

"First, the firewood inlet is essential. It is located at the front of the fire pit and serves three purposes: adding fuel, observing the fire, and providing a certain degree of bottom air intake."

"Second, the smoke vent, located behind the fire pit, is the most important of all the openings, directly related to life and death. Don't think I'm exaggerating. The biggest risk of lighting a fire indoors is not a fire, but carbon monoxide poisoning. Combustion will consume oxygen and produce carbon monoxide. If the smoke is not properly vented, the shelter will become a gas chamber."

"Third, and most easily overlooked, is the air intake. The air intake is located on the side or bottom of the fire pit, preferably opposite or at a certain angle to the firewood spout, in order to create good air convection, making combustion more complete and efficient, providing more heat while reducing the generation of toxic gases. You can control the fire by adjusting the opening; the larger the opening, the stronger the fire, and the smaller the opening, the weaker the fire."

Listening to Ma Jieke's detailed explanations, the audience was once again won over, after all, this was all solid, practical information.

After the live stream ended, his work efficiency increased rather than decreased, and he built the stove without much effort.

However, this is only half the battle; the real challenge has just begun.

Just as mentioned in the live broadcast, the most crucial element of an indoor fire pit is its smoke extraction system.

This isn't something you can do just by having some physical strength; it requires extremely sophisticated skills and innovative thinking.

The main challenge is the flue. Ideally, a metal pipe would be the best choice, but that's obviously not possible here. So we have to settle for using stones and clay instead.

However, pure stone flues have a fatal flaw: their structural strength cannot be guaranteed. Since the inside of the flue is hollow, without a strong adhesive, if it were to collapse during use, the consequences would be unimaginable.

However, Ma Jie had already come up with a brilliant alternative before that.

He disappeared from the camera's view for a moment, and when he returned, he was carrying a log about 1.5 meters long and 20 centimeters in diameter on his shoulder.

"Family, guess what I found?" After a few seconds of suspense, he pointed the handheld camera at the cross-section of the log: "Ta-da! This is a ready-made chimney!"

It turns out that this was not a log, but a piece of naturally rotten hollow wood.

Next, Ma Jieke began cleaning out the rotten wood and debris inside, a process that required considerable patience, and he worked until it got dark.

Adhering to the principle that slow and steady wins the race, he did not rush to meet the deadline, but instead chose to fill his stomach first.

I took some Jerusalem artichokes out of the storage basket and washed them. They taste similar to water chestnuts when eaten raw, crisp and sweet. They're quite delicious with smoked salted fish. Finally, I finished with a cup of heartwarming and stomach-warming honey water.

Because I had done a long day of physical labor and was exhausted both physically and mentally, my sleep quality was surprisingly good.

I woke up the next day and had a big bowel movement, so I continued the work I hadn't finished the day before.

First, I went to the stream and filled a bucket with water. Then I mixed the clay I had collected yesterday with the water to make a sticky mud.

The next scene, though described as work, looked more like kindergarten play. He used his hands to evenly spread the mud inside the hollow wood until it formed a fireproof inner lining.

In this way, even if there is a spark or flame that comes into contact with the hollow wood, it will not ignite the wood.

"I know some observant students will have questions." After finishing this step, Ma Jieke said with a smile, "This kind of unfired wet clay will definitely crack when exposed to high temperatures. Now, don't blink, watch how I solve this problem."

Now that we have the main body of the chimney, the task at hand is simple: build a circular, hollow stone wall that is wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, close to the smoke vent behind the hearth, so that it fits tightly against the hearth and encloses the smoke vent inside.

This stone wall serves two purposes: first, it absorbs and stores heat, then slowly releases it into the stone house; second, it acts as a connection between the hearth and the chimney.

However, the next step, which is the most difficult and dangerous operation of the entire smoke extraction system, is opening a hole in the roof!

To vent smoke, a hole must be made in the roof to ensure that the chimney can extend out.

To my recollection, none of the 90 contestants in the previous nine seasons of "Living Alone in the Wild" had ever done anything like this.

On the one hand, the risks are too great. Who would want to dig a big hole in the roof of a shelter that has been built with great effort? If the waterproofing is not done well, then a perfectly good home will turn into a waterfall.

On the other hand, the cost-effectiveness is too low. Even if it is completed, who can guarantee 100% smoke removal? Any small mistake that leads to poor smoke removal will require the entire system to be overhauled and rebuilt. This is simply unacceptable for survivors with extremely low tolerance for error.

Since there are so many obstacles, it's better to settle for second best and simply open a window or install a simple chimney, both of which are good solutions.

But Ma Jieke doesn't think so. His highest level of survival skill right now is building. If he doesn't work on that, is he going to compete with others in fishing?

In fact, he had a trick up his sleeve when he first started building the shelter. Two of the logs used to cover the roof were cut in half, perfectly matching the position of the hearth. The top layer of wooden shingles was also marked in advance.

So when Ma Jie climbed onto the roof, he quickly found the shingle in the center, pulled it out with both hands, and what was exposed underneath were the two sawn beams.

"How was it, family? Was I well-hidden?"

With a cunning smile like an old fox, Ma Jieke pulled out his survival knife and repeatedly stabbed it into the cracks in the roof beams, finishing off the last blow.

*Thud!* As the log fell, half an opening was created. Once the other log was cut off, the entire opening was fully visible.

He then carried the chimney to the roof, carefully placed it into the opening, and the bottom of the chimney fit perfectly into the circular joint on the top of the hollow stone wall. All he had to do was apply mud to the joint, and the indoor work was complete.

The entire smoke extraction system is now only left with the final step of waterproofing.

That's right. Just like the stone house shelter, the chimney also needs to be waterproofed. Otherwise, if you point it vertically towards the sky, rain or snow will just pour in through the chimney.

First, there was the joint between the chimney and the roof. Ma Jieke's solution was to first saw a plank off the log, and then use a knife to cut a hollow circle on the plank, the size of which was just enough to fit the chimney.

This solved most of the gaps. The remaining areas were filled with clay, and then a layer of wooden shingles was laid along the ridgeline.

The purpose of this is to raise the joints of the chimney so that rainwater can flow down smoothly, rather than deliberately blocking it.

In architecture, the key is how to guide water flow to the ground, which is the so-called "it is better to guide than to block".

As for the top of the chimney, the simplest and most effective solution is to make a rain cap with supporting legs on the exhaust vent. It can be triangular or conical, and the key is that it can be waterproof and allow air to circulate.

This design is ubiquitous in daily life; you can find it almost anywhere by carefully observing the rooftops of tall buildings.

This was no challenge for Ma Jie. He calmly took a piece of log and, with a handsaw and a knife, worked for a long time to make a one-piece wooden rain hat that looked a bit like a wizard's hat from a movie.

Then, the three sharpened support legs are slowly wedged into the chimney wall, firmly connecting to it like nails.

With this, the entire smoke extraction system was completed.

After resting for a while after coming down from the roof, Ma Jieke immediately chose to start broadcasting.

He decided to light the first bonfire in the fire pit in front of thousands of netizens.

As soon as the broadcast started, the number of online viewers began to surge at a visible rate, reaching over 8000 before the number of people entering the live stream slowed down.

"Hello everyone, welcome to this live stream."

Ma Jie placed the camera in front of the fire pit, and once the number of people exceeded ten thousand, he announced, "I have some good news to announce: my fire pit is now complete. Next, I will attempt to light it for the first time in front of you all. If it succeeds, I hope you will spread the word to your family and friends. If it fails, consider it a joke I've put on for you all."

"Without further ado, let's begin the ignition ceremony!"

Wipe! Wipe! Wipe!

As he rubbed the magnesium rod vigorously with the back of the knife, the hot sparks quickly ignited the tinder. He carefully added dry twigs, deliberately controlling the fire.

While waiting for the campfire to burn fully, Ma Jie zoomed out to capture the fire pit and chimney in the shot.

This caused quite a stir, and a bunch of brilliant minds jumped out to offer their opinions.

"Host, if I'm not mistaken, is that a wooden chimney? Are you crazy? Aren't you afraid of setting the house on fire?"

"Genius! A true genius! You could never come up with something like this without spending at least 10 years in a mental hospital!"

"Stop with the ceremony, Jack. Hurry up and get some water ready. We can fix it if it catches fire."

Seeing these exaggerated reactions from the comments, Ma Jie couldn't hold back a bit. "Wait, if you guys are so amazing, why don't you come and participate in the show?"

It seems that these days there's a shortage of all kinds of talent, except for those who are good at giving advice from home. They can sit at home and point fingers, but if you were to actually participate in the actual operation, they probably couldn't even build a small shed.

However, Ma Jie didn't bother to explain. He continued to add firewood and controlled the fire to a size suitable for cooking, so that the test results would be truly valid.

Less than a minute later, an accident occurred: the smoke released from the burning wood was not fully released, making the entire shelter smoky and polluted.

"Cough cough...cough cough..."

Ma Jieke was surrounded by thick smoke and couldn't help coughing.

At the same time, he was also rapidly calculating in his mind which part had gone wrong.

Seeing the live stream filled with smoke, the viewers who had just been giving their opinions went completely crazy with laughter.

"Haha, I told you it wouldn't work. Without modern tools and materials, how could we possibly make an effective smoke extraction system?"

"Hurry up and run, main pack, stop messing around here, or you'll turn into James from the stench."

"Serves you right! Serves you right for trying to act tough. You went too far this time. No one has ever unlocked this achievement before. What makes you think you can succeed? Just because you're yellow-skinned?"

By this time, the smoke in the room was so thick that the comments on the screen were no longer visible, and even Ma Jieke himself felt that he had probably indeed failed.

Just as he picked up the bucket to put out the fire, he vaguely heard a strange sound that was indescribable in words; it was the sound of changing air pressure.

Could it be? A sudden flash of inspiration struck him, prompting him to quickly put down the bucket and, despite his shortness of breath, observe the stove.

A miracle occurred: the smoke was rising at a speed visible to the naked eye.

No, to be precise, it's not that the smoke rises naturally, but rather that it's drawn upwards by a suction force.