743: Iron-Smelting

Iron-Smelting

The jealous Parker pouted. Clearly, he was the one who found this rock. Yet, somehow, he managed to anger Qingqing, and she even thanked Winston instead. How maddening.2

Parker carried the rock away and was momentarily so shocked that he widened his mouth.

That transparent rock turned out to still be intact!

It was now embedded into the cracked stone floor. Large patches had also fallen off that rock that was used to smash it.

"Look, Qingqing." Parker dug out the rock and blew away the dust upon it, before presenting it to her like a treasure. "It's still perfectly fine."

Bai Qingqing, too, widened her mouth. She was in a state of shock for a good while, before exclaiming incredulously, "Surely not!"

Could it really be a diamond?

Bai Qingqing's mouth twitched. She heard that diamonds were the toughest material in the world. How lucky to have found it!

"Great, that makes one more." Bai Qingqing took the seventh white crystal from him and gleefully contained it in her pocket.

Even if she couldn't go back to the modern ages, she was prepared to store these away properly.

"I was the one who dug it," Winston suddenly said.

"Tsk." Parker scoffed.

Ignoring him, Winston continued speaking, "I discovered a very deep earth fissure[1] today. I went down to check it out and ended up finding this rock. I'll go back to look for more tomorrow, perhaps there are more down there."

Bai Qingqing did not doubt him at all, so she repeatedly nodded. "Okay!"

Parker also believed him. "Hey! Where is it? If I'm free, I'll go and try my luck as well."

"At the foot of Messy Stone Mountain, the area nearest to the sand," Winston told him the location without any reservations.

Parker looked up and cast a glance at him. "Well, thanks."

It was so rare to see her spouses get along. Bai Qingqing was secretly happy.

At night, after a rough selection, she prepared to go to bed.

Bai Qingqing deliberately washed the transparent rocks as she washed her hands, before placing them underneath her pillow.

Parker walked to the nest, then suddenly turned around. Shortly after, he came back with a porcelain bowl.

"Here, put this on top of your head," Parker said with a smile as he positioned the bowl right above her head.

Bai Qingqing was caught between laughter and tears. Was this fellow worshipping her as a deity or something?

She rolled over and half-sprawled over him. As the house was very warm, lying on Parker's body felt a tad hot. She couldn't help but think of Curtis.

"If Curtis delayed his hibernation for a few days, he might not even need to go into hibernation. He could simply stay inside the house."

Parker, however, was glad that Curtis went into hibernation early.

With the moon hanging above, it was so cold outside that it felt like the wind would freeze into a solid form. After the fire in the bed-stove extinguished, the air in the bedroom became incredibly chilly.

Bai Qingqing automatically rolled over to the even warmer Winston and hugged him like he was her giant teddy bear, murmuring, "Saint cha chary…"

Parker, who was prepared to add more firewood, couldn't help but smile when he heard her voice. "She's talking in her sleep."

Neither Parker nor Winston took this to heart, and everything went about as usual the next day.

Winston gathered his men to construct an iron-smelting room in the forest outside the stone castle. After digging out a pit furnace underground, they began the experiment.

After the preparations were in place, Bai Qingqing headed there as well.

She recalled that to smelt iron, carbon monoxide was required so that the ferrous oxide in the iron ore could return to its solid state.

That was why the first batch to enter the furnace wasn't ores, but charcoal, because charcoal contained a large amount of carbon monoxide.

The principles of making charcoal were very simple—to burn the firewood halfway, then seal the furnace completely; after cooling down, it would turn into charcoal.

Cough.

Of course, the quality of the resultant charcoal was sub-par. Some were overly burnt, while some remained firewood.

But so long as the charcoal could produce carbon monoxide, it could be considered good charcoal.

[1] large crack in the ground

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