Bearing the blue sky

When they found Scholar Yu, he was practicing calligraphy.

"Get out! You are not worthy to enter the master's study!"

Before Zhu Ge could even enter, Yu Xiucai scolded, "Even if Big-bellied Dog and Little Black Egg were willing to go to Yuanyang City with you, I wouldn't go!"

"Don't be impatient."

Zhu Ge shook his head, a warm smile appearing on his face: "Even if we were to go, it would be later. Before that, we need to hold off the insect swarm. I came here to discuss countermeasures with you."

"You're not going to send your fisherman in his straw raincoat to defend us?" Scholar Yu sneered. "With the divine sense gathered at the third realm, a single sweep of divine sense can find and annihilate the insect demon, let alone the other insects."

"Alright, alright, stop with the useless talk." Zhu Ge's face darkened.

"Don't be so stubborn. I won't go into how harsh you were to us in the village in the past, since I was just a mortal then. But now we are both cultivators, so show me some respect!"

"Respect?" Scholar Yu scoffed. "If I respect you, who will respect Xianxian?"

"court death!"

Zhu Ge's body suddenly turned into a blur, his right hand swiftly reaching out and gripping Yu Xiucai's throat, his blood gushing out, his right hand as hard as metal.

"Martial... mid-stage of martial arts?!" Yu Xiucai's eyes widened in shock as he sensed Zhu Ge's aura.

Zhu Ge grinned: "Confucianism and Taoism? What can you do if I grab you by the throat?"

Yu Xiucai's face turned cold, his heart pounded, and the word "Confucian" seemed to appear and disappear in his mind.

"Jade shattered?! Are you insane?!"

Zhu Ge cursed and immediately abandoned Yu Xiucai, retreating frantically.

Yu Xiucai slumped to the ground, looking at Zhu Ge with a cold expression, the inscription on his heart slowly disappearing.

"Alright!" Zhu Ge snorted, cracking her knuckles, and looked down at Yu Xiucai from a distance.

"I plan to dig a huge space at the foot of Jianshan Mountain, expand the existing cellar, and then store food there, and we will also hide inside."

"In this way, as long as we guard the entrance to the cellar, we don't need to use firewood to surround the entire mountain."

This is Zhu Ge's idea.

The period around the Awakening of Insects is the annual "doomsday" for Yunjiang.

For Yunjiang, the winter cold is nothing; it won't be too cold, and in many places, it may not even snow.

However, during the Awakening of Insects, the overwhelming swarms of insects are deadly.

Even if people don't die directly from the insect swarm, they will die from starvation.

Where the insect swarm passes, not a blade of grass grows.

Therefore, they usually harvest rice seedlings before the Awakening of Insects and then continue transplanting them after the insect swarm has passed.

The seedlings can be harvested, but people can't.

In the past, the entire mountain was surrounded by firewood because there were many people.

Sometimes, having more villagers can be a strength, but it can also be a burden.

Now, although no one is helping them, the five of them can be said to be free of burdens, and they can completely retreat and avoid the insect swarm.

"Dig a cellar?" Yu Xiucai seemed to have forgotten his pain, rubbing his neck as he stood up. "What if there's a landslide? What if water seeps into the terraced fields?"

"That's where Hua Xiaomei needs to investigate." Zhu Ge's lips curled into a smile:

"Hua Xiaomei is a 'double happiness' ghost, so going underground won't be difficult for her. She can help us explore the water veins. As for the landslide? Just use more wooden stakes. There are only five of us, so we don't need to create much space."

Scholar Yu frowned in thought.

Zhu Ge smiled dismissively: "Now Big Belly Dog and Little Black Egg listen to me. You and Sui Niang can do as you please. It's fine if you don't listen."

After saying that, Zhu Ge left.

Only Yu Xiucai remained standing there, touching his neck, his expression shifting between anger and uncertainty.

……

Next came the simple excavation work.

Duan Lei, the big-bellied dog, and Ji Fuhui, the little black egg, were already training their bodies and had plenty of food. Over the past ten days or so, they have seen initial results and their bodies have become much stronger.

Digging is their job, but now they're digging even more intensely.

The Awakening of Insects here falls on the 13th of the second month, and it's still seven days away... Zhu Ge carried several trees with their branches trimmed into the newly dug space in front of him.

It was dark and damp inside, separated from the cellar next door which was covered with wood ash.

"Here, give it to me, I'll singe it with fire." Duan Lei took one of the wooden stakes and immediately lowered his body a few feet.

The wooden stake was very heavy, and Zhu Ge had to muster all his strength to move it.

Duan Lei took it, then went to the corner and placed the wood upright on the soil.

The construction here is similar to building houses outside.

Inside the earthen space, wooden beams and pillars are placed haphazardly to support the space.

There was no other way; Zhu Ge had no idea how to make cement, having not memorized it before transmigrating. So, he could only build the basement using the methods that Duan Lei and the others knew.

"Then I'll continue moving."

Zhu Ge immediately went out and went down the mountain.

Ji Fuhui had already cut down another tree and trimmed off its branches.

The blessing song was moved again.

In the past three days, four basements have been completed.

Four basements were built around the central grain storage cellar.

One room was for the four men, and the other was for Sui Niang.

There was also a room used for classes and writing, such as when Duan Lei and his classmates attended Yu Xiucai's Confucian studies class, and it was also used to store some clothes, farm tools and the like.

The last room was used to store rice seedlings, which would be replanted in the terraced fields after the Awakening of Insects.

With the four storage rooms completed, most of the original houses in Jianshan Village have been demolished.

All the houses were built with mud and wood, which is the origin of the term "earth and wood" in the so-called civil engineering projects that Zhu Ge knew.

The soil was of little use, but the wood was put to good use, either as flooring for the new basement or as firewood.

They even had the capacity to continue digging deeper.

Zhu Ge felt that digging deeper also had its advantages.

This region experiences an annual insect swarm, and in the summer, it suffers from a terrifyingly hot and humid climate.

In addition, disasters such as rain, lightning, and miasma occur frequently.

Living underground is much better than living above ground.

However, just as Zhu Ge and his team were preparing to dig down after the basement was built, Zhu Ge heard some news that was both unexpected and not unexpected.

"You mean... Sui Niang is gone?"

Zhu Ge sighed.

"Yes." Duan Lei frowned, his face puffed out in anger: "Sui Niang didn't say anything. I watched her go into the woods, she glanced back at me, and then left."

"Didn't you catch him?" Zhu Ge asked subconsciously.

"I ran so fast, I couldn't catch her." Duan Lei grabbed his hair, frustrated. "If Sui Niang goes into the forest, she'll die! It's all my fault, I wasn't fast enough!"

"It's not your fault." Zhu Ge patted Duan Lei on the shoulder: "This was Sui Niang's own choice."

"Don't touch me!" Duan Lei pried Zhu Ge's hand away. "It's all your fault!"

Then he stormed off in a huff.

Seeing this, Zhu Ge laughed in anger: "I gave you a way out, a chance to rise to prominence, and tickets to Yuanyang City, and you really don't know what's good for you!"

"If I hadn't been unfamiliar with Yuanyang City and needed a few helpers, you lowly peasants would have been dead long ago!"

"Hmph, once I've established myself in Yuanyang City, with the Fisherman in the Straw Raincoat as my backer, you lot will have plenty of times to beg me!"