RPS – Chapter 17 Building a House is a Must

Li Feng had long been resentful about living in a cave. While it was cool inside, staying in a damp cave for a long time could lead to all sorts of health problems. For one, it was easy to develop rheumatism due to the humidity. Secondly, it was always so dark that prolonged stays could harm the eyes. Just these two points alone convinced Li Feng that building a house was absolutely necessary. The cave could be used as storage or a shady resting place, but not a long-term residence.

He brought up the idea with Li and listed a whole series of drawbacks of cave living and the benefits of having a house. Li was eventually swayed. Though the cave provided shelter from the wind and rain, everything Li Feng said was true—many of the “elders” in the tribe already suffered from leg problems and poor eyesight.

But while talking about building a house was easy, how exactly were they supposed to go about it? Li Feng only had a vague idea of how houses were built. He’d seen it done before—not high-rise buildings, of course—but he had a rough understanding of how to make small clay or thatched houses. It couldn’t be too different from building a latrine; after all, he’d seen how those were made back at the orphanage.

Their home was quite far from the main tribal settlement, so they decided not to tell the chief for now. They would wait until they’d successfully built the house. Then the other tribespeople could move into houses too.

No sooner said than done. Although Li and Bu still went hunting with the rest of the tribe every day, Li and Bu had more time on their hands. Li Feng gathered clay, which was abundant in the nearby mountain, then collected thatch and hauled lots of sand from the shallow river. He mixed all of these with water and made mud bricks. The bricks were rectangular, about 60 cm long, 30 cm wide, and roughly 15 cm thick—not exact measurements, but close enough.

They used thin wooden frames to shape the bricks, fixing the frame to a spot and filling it with the mud mixture. Once dried in the sun, the bricks became very hard—almost like stones—thanks to the sand and straw mixed in.

Once the mud bricks were ready, they began collecting more materials: stones, sand, clay, straw, and various types of wood. The tools here were primitive—mostly stone tools—so chopping down trees was extremely laborious. Thankfully, Li and Bu were both strong and capable. They managed to chop down the trees Li Feng had selected and drag them back.

Since deciding to build the house, Li Feng hadn’t had a moment to rest. He had to take care of the baby, cook, and squeeze in time to gather materials. He wasn’t a professional builder—he only knew the basics. With no certainty of success, he didn’t dare to start construction lightly. He had to prepare everything thoroughly and take advantage of the summer and autumn to finish the build before winter came.

Not all caves were warm in winter and cool in summer, so building a house was a pressing matter. After long preparations, the basic materials were mostly ready. In this primitive society, tools might be limited, but natural materials like stone, sand, earth, and wood were plentiful and easy to gather locally.

Li no longer doubted Li Feng’s words, especially when it came to food. Although he wasn’t skeptical about the idea of building a house, he did question whether they had the ability to actually do it. Could they really build a livable house—something no one had ever attempted before? How did Feng come up with all these strange and clever ideas?

Bu and Nuo were also very curious about the house Li Feng had described. Even though he’d drawn a simple sketch on the ground, they still couldn’t fully imagine it. Could it really be lived in? Could it shield them from the wind and rain like a cave? Was it really that amazing?

They had never seen or lived in a house before, so they couldn’t imagine it at all. All they could do was follow Li Feng’s instructions with curiosity and reverence.

First, they dug the foundation—deep and filled with sand and gravel. Li Feng wasn’t sure how to make the structure sturdier, so he drove the logs they had chopped deep into the ground. Row after row of logs were embedded in the foundation, which was then filled with sand, gravel, and soil and tamped down with stones. This process would take days.

Li Feng wasn’t in a hurry. After all, not all their time could be spent building. Li and the others still needed to hunt.

The house was built according to the lines Li Feng had drawn earlier. It was large—he intended for Bu and Nuo to move in with them. They were already close, and since they were helping with the construction, it made sense to treat the house as their shared home. By building a larger house, they could all live together and spare Nuo the trouble of running over from afar every day. But that wasn’t the main reason—the main reason was that they were like family now. Living together would make it easier to support each other in everyday life. Of course, if Bu and the others preferred to build their own house, Li Feng would support that too. He had already planned for separate rooms, since this house was going to be quite spacious.

Time passed quickly. Even though they worked on the house bit by bit each day, progress accumulated. The foundation and wooden supports were done, and the sun-dried mud bricks were ready to be laid. Each brick was stuck into place with wet clay. The house would be about three meters tall, and once the walls got high enough, it took two people working together, standing on large stones or similar supports, to continue the build.

Since thick wooden posts had already been placed in the foundation, the bricks were stacked along the inside of the wooden frame. Once all the bricks around the perimeter were laid, they plastered thick clay on the outside of the wooden posts. This made the structure not only sturdier but also more resistant to wind and rain.

The final step was the roof beams—which was the hardest part. The house had a simple design, with partition walls built the same way as the outer walls, making them very sturdy. Since the house was large, there were four or five main roof beams. Each room had one, with indentations left at the top of the walls to hold the beams. The challenge was how to lift those heavy beams into place.

Li Feng eventually came up with a rustic solution: they stacked stones into a tall platform and used that to hoist the beams. Two people stood on the thick, wide walls and used vines to pull the beams up. The high stone platform made it much easier to lift them.

Once the main beams were in place, the rest was easier. Thinner logs were laid across the frame, and dried thatch was piled on top in thick layers. Finally, they added clay mixed with straw over the thatch to waterproof the roof.

In some areas, they even used thin stone tiles as extra roofing material and plastered clay over them, making it even stronger. Unfortunately, those quality tiles were hard to find, so they only covered the main living spaces. They figured they could add more later if they found more tiles. Besides, thatch needed to be replaced every year anyway.

When the house was completed, the entire tribe came to see it. Some had stopped by during construction out of curiosity, but now that it was finished, they were amazed!

The house was huge. Li Feng divided it into five rooms, with a large central hall and two equal-sized rooms on each side. The structure looked solid—gray and dusty, yes, but sturdy.

Li Feng directed Li to move all their things from the cave into the new house. Since the house had been built right next to the cave, all they needed was to put up a fence to turn the cave into their own storage area.

The sweet potatoes and ginger they’d planted before were all growing near the cave. From now on, this would be their home—their everything! A place to manage carefully and decorate lovingly—a real home!