The reason isn’t anything else.
This canoe is simply too big!
Chen Wen roughly estimated it to be close to ten ters long, and wide enough to accommodate three people sitting side by side.
"You call this a canoe?"
Chen Wen looked at Feng Zhong.
Feng Zhong was a bit embarrassed: "Ah, it’s not just the shape that looks like one, but don’t let the size fool you, it’s actually not very heavy. The material is quite light."
As he spoke, Feng Zhong imdiately started to demonstrate to Chen Wen.
Chen Wen waved his hand: "No way, a hippo definitely can’t pull this; you can’t just consider the material, you also have to consider the resistance in water due to its size."
Feng Zhong wasn’t quite willing to give up: "Why don’t you tie it up and give it a try?"
Chen Wen shook his head and said, "Let’s first see how badly it’s damaged. If it’s too ssed up, it’s not worth trying."
The two of them went to one side of the canoe and lifted it with force.
"Wow!"
The scene inside the canoe’s cabin left Chen Wen amazed.
"Those with a fear of holes are in luck."
Feng Zhong wasn’t surprised; he had witnessed it once before.
Why are there so many bugs inside here?
"Look over here; this is where I ntioned the damage."
Upon hearing this, Chen Wen looked at the area Feng Zhong ntioned.
"This must have been when it was swept away by the flood and hit sothing hard."
Chen Wen looked at the hole and said, "It’s not easy to fix; we don’t have the proper materials."
"How about using wood to patch it up? Kind of like a mortise and tenon joint."
Feng Zhong was persistent.
Chen Wen rolled his eyes: "The effect of a mortise and tenon joint isn’t that great; it will still leak. We would need to waterproof, caulk, and coat with oil before going into the water, but we don’t have enough tools to do that."
This was sothing he knew professionally, so Chen Wen directly shared all his knowledge.
After hearing Chen Wen’s analysis, Feng Zhong said helplessly, "So this was a wasted trip? I just feel unwilling to give up."
Chen Wen kicked a bug that was crawling toward his foot and said, "It’s not completely a wasted trip. Look, a third of this side of the boat is perfectly intact. I could cut the boat from here."
"And then?"
Feng Zhong wasn’t very clear about Chen Wen’s idea.
Chen Wen pointed at the boat and said, "The two of us can perform secondary processing on this third of the boat, using fire to bend the wood here."
Seeing Feng Zhong still a bit confused, Chen Wen explained using a school lesson: "Wood straightens with string, bending forms a wheel, rember that lesson? The work we’re about to do is bending. The material of this boat is already quite light and soft, easy to shape."
"So I want to try and see if I can transform this one-third of the boat into a smaller canoe."
"Of course, I can’t guarantee 100% success. If you feel it’s not worth the effort, we can just find so food around and head back."
Chen Wen made it very clear.
Modifications co with risks, possibly wasting more effort yet still yielding nothing.
Feng Zhong’s expression changed for a while, then he gritted his teeth and said, "Let’s try it! Can’t just waste a trip!"
"That’s the spirit!"
Chen Wen grinned, pulled out an axe, and began to chop down the canoe.
...
Ten minutes later.
Chen Wen initially planned to cut from the one-third mark, but when he actually started, he felt the one-third mark of the canoe wasn’t ideal for operating.
So, after so discussion, they decided to reduce so of the canoe’s load to increase feasibility.
In the end, Chen Wen cut the canoe at the one-fifth mark.
"After all, we’re not the ones sitting in it; as long as it can hold so food, it’s fine."
Looking at the two-ter-plus canoe wreckage they cut off, Chen Wen wiped so sweat: "Let’s go, if this modification works, a hippo can easily drag it, and there’s no problem loading dozens of pounds of food."
Feng Zhong nodded: "It’s up to you."
The two lifted the canoe; the current wreckage would sink if put into water, so they could only carry it.
But fortunately, it wasn’t heavy, and they had a hippo to escort them.
By the ti it was a little past three in the afternoon, they finally returned to the shelter.
This ti the two of them were utterly exhausted.
Upon returning to the shelter, Feng Zhong proposed cooking and fetching water.
The two of them divided the tasks and got busy.
By the ti they were eating the hot crocodile soup, it was already evening.
...
After a hearty al, both Chen Wen and Feng Zhong lay awkwardly on the ground.
"When do you plan to start?"
Feng Zhong asked Chen Wen.
Chen Wen broke a very thin stick and picked at a small piece of crocodile at stuck between his teeth: "I’ll start in a bit, first make a temporary modification to the canoe, and then we’ll do the bending tomorrow morning."
"Then I’ll go out hunting tomorrow morning?"
Feng Zhong inquired.
Chen Wen acknowledged with a sound; he actually thought of the at stored at Yoshikawa Feng’s shelter.
But considering Feng Zhong’s sowhat questionable character, Chen Wen decided to keep this to himself.
"There’s plenty of crocodiles over here, so if you’re hunting, I suggest you take a long spear for crocodile hunting."
Chen Wen advised: "Take two spears, tie a rope to one, to catch a crocodile’s mouth, and then the other spear, just stab it, and you have a high chance of success."
Feng Zhong was half believing, half doubting.
This was his first attempt at crocodile hunting in the wilderness; before coming here, he hadn’t considered directly hunting crocodiles.
Because he was better at trap hunting.
Following Chen Wen’s guidance, Feng Zhong tried to prepare the crocodile hunting equipnt.
The rope loop was the most important part.
"Oh, be careful of the death roll."
Before starting his own work, Chen Wen reminded Feng Zhong: "The death roll of crocodiles on land is not to be underestimated either."
"Okay."
Feng Zhong gestured an okay hand sign but didn’t really pay attention to the warning.
Everyone knows about the death roll, after all.
...
Chen Wen’s work was relatively simple tonight.
He just needed to heat up one-fifth of the canoe over a fire to clean off the dirt.
After finishing, Chen Wen went to rest.
Feng Zhong worked a bit longer, didn’t go to rest until two hours later.
Once Feng Zhong fell asleep, Chen Wen, who had napped a little earlier, quietly got up and brought so spoiling crocodile at across the river.
The night was his ti to bond with the leopard brothers.
Tonight’s progress was good; the leopard brothers fully trusted Chen Wen.
Chen Wen also gave them nas—Leopard the First and Leopard the Second, the leopards were quite happy.
After spending so ti together, Chen Wen returned.
On the way, he communicated with the hippo, letting it start officially interacting with the leopard brothers.
He planned to have the hippo and leopards cooperate for hunting in a couple of days.
The hippo agreed.
Everything fell into place, and Chen Wen went to sleep with a smile on his face.
...
Early the next morning.
Feng Zhong took Chen Wen’s recomnded crocodile hunting tools and set out.
Chen Wen began to work on the canoe.
In his view, the process included three steps.
First, heating, to make the wood soft.
Second, bending, bending the wood so the cut-off end curls up to form the shape of a boat.
Third, final adjustnts, patching where needed.
These three steps seed simple, indeed not hard at all.
But that was for Chen Wen.
When learning from the craftsman Gan Tieshan, he saw him bend wood using fire.
He even got personal guidance from Gan Tieshan, so it was a seasoned skill.
Now that he started working, it was relatively easy.
"Let’s do this!"
Chen Wen rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
First, he built a rack with stones and placed the canoe on it.
Then he used charcoal to mark out the areas and key points for bending on the canoe.
With the preparations done, the bending of the wood officially began.
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