"Eat, eat, eat, all you do is eat! You're already as fat as a pig, and you still want to eat?" The Great Princess glared coldly at the Second Princess.
The Second Princess was afraid of her, so she pressed her lips together and kept quiet.
The Princely Heir was holding his daughter Li Guoguo while coaxing his son Li Jing, wanting to step forward and ask his younger siblings why they were carrying a pile of grass, but he couldn't get away.
The Xue Family was sitting idly, but she didn't dare to ask; she was afraid the Princess Consort would rebuke her.
Prince Luling, without a care, walked over and watched his children bustling back and forth.
"What are you going to do with this grass?" he asked, puzzled.
"Father, third sister said it's to lay on the ground to sleep," Li Xing'an replied.
Prince Luling nodded, "It's a good idea, but..." he looked around, worriedly saying, "the ground is so wet, the dry grass will soak through too."
This indeed was a big problem.
The Second Young Master and Li Xing'an both turned to look at Li Yuzhu.
"Third sister, do you have a way to solve this?" Li Xing'an asked.
"What can she do?" The Great Princess smirked at them.
"I do," Li Yuzhu nodded, "I already have a plan."
"Great, hurry up and tell us, what's the plan?" Li Xing'an asked excitedly.
As he spoke, he also glared at the Great Princess.
The Great Princess turned her head defiantly.
Li Yuzhu said, "Let's chop some firewood first." She gestured to the Second Young Master and Li Xing'an, "Come on, second brother, third brother, let's go back to the woods to chop some firewood."
"Coming,"
The three of them returned to the woods.
They went again to the northern slope.
Breaking dead branches was much easier than cutting dry grass.
With a firm tug and twist of the hands, the dead branches snapped.
It didn't take long for the three of them to return to the cave each carrying a large bundle of dry branches.
But Li Yuzhu didn't rush to light the fire; instead, she called over the Second Young Master and Li Xing'an to start dealing with the problem of the wet mud in the cave.
There was no way to solve the water seeping from the cave walls, but the ground problem could be addressed.
Li Yuzhu explained the method.
The Second Young Master and Li Xing'an, amazed, kept praising, "This method is great."
Li Yuzhu's method was to dig a small ditch along the cliff wall using stones.
The cave floor wasn't entirely stone but a mixture of dirt and rocks.
The cave covered an area of about thirty or forty square meters, so digging a small ditch around the perimeter wasn't a difficult task.
Soon, the semicircular ditch was dug by the three of them, extending all the way outside the cave.
The water seeping from the rock walls flowed along the ditch to the slope outside the cave.
This method was truly ingenious, and Prince Luling nodded approvingly.
Then, the three of them began organizing the ground.
The larger stones were also dug out by them and piled outside.
After loosening the soil, a stomp made it compact.
After leveling the ground, Li Yuzhu laid the branches on it and stuffed some dry grass in between.
She took out a fire stone obtained from Old Qin and ignited the dry grass, using the fire to light the wood.
Li Yuzhu said to everyone, "The water seeping from the cave roof won't wet the ground any longer because of the additional small ditch. Once the firewood dries out the wet ground, we can remove the wood, lay dry grass on top, and have a comfortable place to sleep."
Prince Luling laughed heartily, "I didn't expect Yuzhu to come up with such a good solution, well done!"
Li Xing'an chuckled and looked at the Great Princess, "Li Yuwen, shouldn't you kneel to the third sister now?"
Li Yuzhu looked at the Great Princess without speaking.