I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 436 – The Weird Mu Tou
The Green Sparrow tribe was not significant, and Han Cheng was the focal point of the entire tribe, the kind who brought his spotlight.
Everything that happened to him, as long as it wasn’t deliberately hidden, quickly became common knowledge.
The shaman was preparing to create a tool that could pound rice without human effort, something beyond everyone’s understanding and possessing new and extraordinary characteristics. So, it didn’t take long before everyone in the tribe knew about it.
Upon hearing this news, the happiest were those who frequently pounded rice in the tribe. They were delighted that they wouldn’t have to pound rice all day anymore.
However, after their initial joy, they also wondered what this tool, which required no human effort to pound rice, would look like.
But no matter how hard they thought, they couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation.
It wasn’t just them; many people in the tribe had thought the same thing, but it had not yielded results.
To them, such a thing seemed utterly impossible.
However, over these years, the Divine Child had already accomplished many seemingly impossible things, so they were not inclined to believe he couldn’t achieve this either.
It’s just that the number of people going to the Lame’s room increased again for no apparent reason, all wanting to see what kind of tool the Divine Child and Lame had created.
Mu Tou was not included among those who went to watch because he had something else to attend to.
At this moment, he was incessantly hammering away on a piece of stone with one hand holding a hammer and the other an iron chisel.
Fine stone chips would occasionally fly off, and stone dust would rise.
His body, face, and hair were all covered in a layer of whitish stone dust.
Ignoring all this, Mu Tou was completely focused on his work.
On his mouth was a thick, white mask that covered his nose, mouth, and half of his face.
Initially, Mu Tou found the mask uncomfortable and wanted to remove it, but the Divine Child didn’t allow it, saying he might get sick, so he dared not take it off.
Over time, he got used to it, and now, whenever he made stone tools, he wore the mask.
What he was working on now was a stone mortar, similar to the one originally in the tribe.
However, forging this one was much faster than the original because the previous stone mortar was chiseled out bit by bit. In contrast, this one now had an iron chisel and hammer, making the process incomparable.
For the next considerable period, his job was to chisel stone mortars.
He wasn’t particularly slow; it was because he needed to chisel at least five stone mortars.
Mu Tou knew the purpose of these stone mortars was related to the tool the Divine Child was creating that could pound rice without human effort.
He wanted to see this tool that piqued his curiosity as soon as possible, so he vigorously chiseled the stone mortars.
“Mu Tou, pause for a moment. Go to the riverbank and install the stone mortars,” Han Cheng shouted as he approached.
Mu Tou set down his tools and tapped a nearby stone mortar with his hand, indicating that he had already prepared one.
Bending over, he tried to move it but seemed to struggle. The second Senior Brother walked over and picked it up.
Mu Tou suddenly felt relieved.
He followed the group, walking forward while observing the peculiarly long piece of wood Heiwa and Eldest Senior Brother carried.
The piece of wood was a stripped tree trunk, thick at one end and thin at the other.
The thick end has a diameter of over twenty centimeters, while the thin end is approximately fifteen centimeters.
In the middle of the thick end, a hole has been drilled, inside which a wooden stick, thicker at the bottom and thinner at the top, forms a ninety-degree angle with the trunk.
This wooden stick looks like the sticks used in the tribe for pounding rice.
Towards the thicker end of the large trunk, another hole has been chiseled out horizontally.
Behind this hole, the upper part of the trunk has been hollowed out, resembling a miniature canoe scaled down countless times compared to those in the tribe.
Looking at this strange-looking object, Mu Tou was momentarily puzzled, unable to understand how this modified trunk was meant to be used.
Could such a trunk alone be used to pound rice automatically?
This question lingered in his mind, similar to many others in the tribe.
Even though the Divine Child and Lame had already created tools, they still couldn’t figure out how this odd-looking thing would function.
Han Cheng didn’t elaborate further but led the way with the people towards the small river.
They stopped a bit upstream from the brick kiln.
Here, a tributary with a modest current flow into the small river. The drop between the tributary and the small river is just over a meter, perfect for setting up the simple water-powered pestle he had created.
He took measurements here for a while and had Second Senior Brother set down the stone mortars.
Then he placed the peculiarly shaped trunk there as well. The specially crafted wooden stick under the thicker end was placed inside the stone mortar.
The thinner end extended towards the drop in the creek.
After ensuring the distance was correct, he used a pre-prepared crossbar to thread through the horizontally chiseled hole in the trunk.
They stacked small stone walls on both sides of the crossbar to support the wooden bar.
Because the trunk’s front end was heavy, once the crossbar was propped up, the tail end lifted high, and the front end pounded into the stone mortar.
Han Cheng walked to the trunk’s tail end, pulled it down, and let go, and the unbalanced crossbar fell again.
The wooden stick under the thick end struck the stone mortar, emitting a hollow sound.
The effect was satisfactory enough, and Han Cheng nodded with some satisfaction.
Seeing Han Cheng’s operation, the onlookers’ eyes lit up involuntarily. They seemed to understand how the device worked suddenly.
But this understanding quickly disappeared, replaced by new doubts.
Wouldn’t pressing like this be feasible within the tribe? Why did the Divine Child have to transport these things to the edge of the small river?
Moreover, it didn’t seem to eliminate the need for human effort.
Han Cheng noticed the crowd’s doubts but smiled and didn’t explain further.
Instead, he instructed Lame and a few others to nail down three rows of sticks in a straight line between the trunk and the middle of the drop in the creek.
The sticks were half a meter apart.
Then, he brought a bamboo pole, specifically selected for its thickness, which was already jointed.
One end of the bamboo pole was placed at the drop in the creek, while the other was aimed at the raised end of the trunk.
As soon as the bamboo pole was in place, water flowed through it, crossing over a distance of over a meter and landing in the wooden trough behind the trunk.
The water flow wasn’t too fast, but when Lame and the others secured the bamboo tube to the wooden stakes, the trough was filled with water.