Chapter 78: The Chicken Coop

Chapter 78: Chapter 78: The Chicken Coop

Liam was somewhat displeased with his older brother belittling himself. He affirmed firmly:

"You are worthy! Brother, if you’re worried about family background, there’s no need. Our family will quickly rise again and become a member of the top ten!"

Benjamin shook his head, then touched the gland at the back of his neck:

"This illness of mine might never be cured in my lifetime. Furthermore, even if the Martinez family rises again later, it will be your effort, not mine. Daniel is so talented, an ordinary person like me truly isn’t worthy of him..."

Liam looked at his older brother helplessly, pulling his arm to make him look straight into his eyes. He emphasized every word:

"I will not allow you to belittle yourself like that! You are my older brother, the future head of the Martinez family. Your gland will certainly be cured, you only need to persevere for one more year.

Your own career won’t just stop at a vlog channel, have confidence in yourself! Sister Isabella is a young girl and even she had the courage to step forward and confess her feelings; you are a grown man, you cannot be outdone."

He took a deep breath, saying boldly: "Don’t you want to know what Daniel’s intentions are? Have you ever thought that he might like you too? Have you thought about how heartbroken he would be if you shrank back?"

Benjamin’s heart felt as if it were being squeezed. Just imagining Daniel shedding tears of heartbreak made him feel it was unbearable. However, what right did a useless Alpha like him have to be with someone as outstanding as Daniel?

Benjamin closed his eyes, turning his face away to no longer look at his younger brother. For the first time, Liam deeply resented this genetically inherited stubbornness!

He puffed out his cheeks, saying sulkily: "I don’t care about you anymore! When the time comes that you make him cry, don’t come to me asking for help!"

Having said that, Liam turned his head and walked straight away. Benjamin clenched his fists tight, his teeth grinding together. A sharp pain shot from his gland, Benjamin’s face turning pale. He took a deep breath, trying to adjust his rioting mental power.

[Host, I clearly see your older brother likes Daniel too, why doesn’t he go confess like Isabella?] Inside the house, Nirvana jumped out of the soul space, resting its head on Liam’s shoulder, asking its question.

Liam looked at his older brother’s lonely back, sighing as he answered: [He is feeling inferior. After all, Daniel’s family background and personality are both exceptionally good; it’s natural for him to feel inferior.]

Nirvana reached a claw out to scratch its head. It didn’t understand these complex internal twists; its database only determined ’like’ and ’dislike’. It grumbled: 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

[Your older brother’s mental wave is so unstable, constantly going up and down making me dizzy. If you don’t drag him away to do something else, I’m afraid his effort of persistently eating Grass Worms these past few months will go down the drain.]

Liam rubbed his forehead in a headache, forced to step outside and pull his older brother’s arm:

"I want to build a coop for the chicks, did you bring the things I asked for?"

Benjamin snapped back to his senses, the mental power that was on the verge of rioting dispersing immediately. He nodded:

"I brought them. How do you plan to do it?"

Liam giggled, pulling his older brother to the plot of land he had already zoned out. Benjamin dumped out the pile of bamboo that his younger brother had told him to cut on Cygnus.

Bamboo soaked in terraforming fluid showed significant changes compared to original bamboo. In his previous life, bamboo was very well-received.

The bamboo culm was used as pillars, rafters, wattle, woven mats, partitions, to build bamboo houses, or pressed into floorboards—a high-end interior and exterior material replacing natural wood. It was also applied to make hoe handles, shovel handles, poles for climbing trellises, or tools supporting farmers in the past.

In terms of cuisine, bamboo shoots (fresh shoots, dried shoots) were a familiar and abundant food source. The bamboo culm was also used to cook food such as rice, meat, and grains; the large bamboo leaves were used to wrap cakes, creating a very distinct flavor.

In addition, bamboo played a major role in environmental and ecological protection. Its firmly anchored fibrous root system helped prevent soil erosion and landslides in hilly areas, while bamboo had the ability to absorb carbon dioxide efficiently and grow very rapidly.

In daily life and household goods production, bamboo was the raw material to make chopsticks, baskets, sieves, flat winnowing baskets, beds, blinds, bamboo cots, cabinets, tobacco water pipes, along with many handicraft products for export.

Bamboo fiber fabric was also highly favored. The fabric was woven from synthetic or semi-synthetic fibers derived from the cellulose of the bamboo culm. Inside the bamboo culm was a bio-compound called "Bamboo Kun", which helped kill up to 99.8% of natural bacteria. This ability was maintained durably even after more than 50 washes.

The cross-section of bamboo fiber contained many tiny micro-holes, providing an absorption capacity 3 - 4 times higher than cotton, keeping garments dry and cool. The fabric surface was smooth and even, creating a soft feel, minimizing friction. This material was particularly suitable for people with sensitive skin or young children. Bamboo fiber fabric had an extremely low UV transmission rate (only about 0.6%), helping protect the skin optimally under sunlight.

Furthermore, bamboo was a rapidly renewable resource, requiring no fertilizers or pesticides. The fabric was biodegradable in nature.

Currently, the bamboo grown from the terraformed old bamboo segments was not only superior in size, but the composition of the leaves and culms had been optimized many times over.

The culms were at least sixty meters tall, their width as thick as an Alpha’s thigh. The growth and branching rate were very fast. From an initial bamboo cutting, Liam now had three or four bamboo clumps the size of five people’s embrace. After cutting down all the mature bamboo, Benjamin had also had the Robots dig up and rearrange the bamboo plants into straight, orderly rows. Before long, the Northern area of planet Cygnus would be a vast bamboo forest.

The bamboo leaves were the size of dong leaves, at least two meters long. Moreover, the leaf structure was very soft and tough, not decomposing when soaked in water, an excellent raw material for weaving into fabric threads. Liam told Benjamin to keep a few fresh leaves to wrap cakes, bringing the rest to dry for research.

He opened the chicken coop blueprint to show his older brother. The chicken coop was very spacious, with a capacity of up to several hundred chickens, built in the style of individual houses with separate enclosed yards.

The house was built on stilts to elevate it about sixty centimeters above the ground. The roof was made in a pitched style, the height from the floor to the roof being three and a half meters. Inside were three levels for the chickens to sleep, distributed on both sides, with round nests padded for each one. The central corridor was very wide, comfortably fitting two adults walking side by side.

The outside yard used a bamboo slat structure combined with small-mesh alloy netting. Above was an automatic dome roof, which could open and close for the chickens to sunbathe. Below was a self-cleaning floor system. When the chickens went to sleep, this system would automatically operate, processing the manure and waste discharged by the chickens during their activities; humans completely did not need to lay a hand on anything.

This system was also connected to the composting pit; once the manure was cleaned up, it would be sent to the composting system for processing. Therefore, they wouldn’t need to worry about odor issues.

Both inside the house and outside in the yard featured an integrated automatic temperature control system, cool in summer and warm in winter, ensuring the chickens would not fall ill due to the weather.

This design was modularly installed, absolutely not requiring the purchase of an integrated star-beast housing pen, therefore not needing a permit.

After Benjamin finished looking at the blueprint, he immediately set to work. He put on protective gloves, beginning to use a knife to process the bamboo. All the materials to build the chicken coop used construction materials from this world, but the outside was entirely reinforced with green bamboo.

Benjamin glided the knife blade along the bamboo culm, shaving off the bamboo nodes clean and smoothing out the unevenness between the internodes.

The twelve Martinez family private soldiers also assisted him together. Liam was only responsible for standing to one side operating the smart camera, adjusting the shooting angle to make it look a bit aesthetically pleasing, and that would do. Occasionally, Benjamin would run out himself to make adjustments.

At this moment, Liam suddenly recalled the bamboo-tube rice dish he had once seen on TikTok. He asked Nirvana: [Hey Nirvana, do you know how to cook rice using a bamboo tube?]

Nirvana searched through its database, then nodded: [I have an old video in my database; luckily I found it quite interesting back then so I didn’t delete it.]

Liam rolled his eyes: [Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I only need to see how people cook rice using a bamboo tube and I’ll know how to cook rice without a rice cooker myself!]

Nirvana retorted: [You didn’t ask me either. With so many things, how am I supposed to remember a video discarded a thousand years ago?!]

Liam didn’t argue with it further, turning to tell Benjamin: "Brother, please saw off a few sections of bamboo tube for me. One end closed, one end open."

Liam pointed to the position he wanted on the bamboo culm, Benjamin nodded immediately: "Alright, simple enough. Stand further away lest the dust fly into your eyes."