Lin Wan stood in front of four grown males and tried very hard not to feel like a primary school teacher.

She failed.

They were all looking at her with varying degrees of attentiveness. Wang was focused, arms crossed, ready for Lin wan’s orders.

Qin Mo stood slightly apart from the others, hands loose at his sides, his expression giving nothing away but his eyes kept track of her every movement with an unblinking attention, Lin wan recognized as his version of keen interest.

Keal was upright and present, visibly improved from the night before, his posture carrying a quiet gratitude he hadn’t put into words again but that showed in the way he stood anyway.

Da Jun, who had woken up looking like a different male entirely, was watching her with open curiosity and no attempt to hide it.

Lin Wan looked at all of them.

Then she crouched down and picked up a handful of the earth at her feet.

"First thing," she said. "Tell me what you think this is."

A pause.

Da Jun glanced at the others. "...Dirt?"

"Correct," Lin Wan said. "And also the most important building material we have." She let the soil run slowly through her fingers. "In my homeland, people have been building with earth for thousands of years. Walls that outlasted the people who built them. Structures that stood through floods and storms and time." She brushed her palm clean and straightened. "That’s what we’re going to build here."

Qin Mo’s eyes dropped briefly to the blueprint still etched into the ground nearby. "You explained the method. Cob."

"Yes." Lin Wan nodded. "Cob is a mixture. Clay soil, sand, water, and fiber, usually dried grass or straw. When you combine them in the right amounts and work them together properly, they bind. When they dry, they become almost as hard as stone." She looked around at them. "But before we mix anything, we need to understand what we’re working with. Not all soil is the same."

She moved to a patch of ground a few steps away and crouched again, pressing her fingers into it.

"Come here," she said. "All of you."

There was a brief moment where Lin Wan was fairly certain that three of the four males present had never been told to come here by someone who could fit under their arm with room to spare. But they came.

Wang crouched beside her without hesitation.

Qin Mo lowered himself to one knee , fully committed to the moment.

Keal and Da Jun crouched on her other side.

"Press your fingers in," Lin Wan said. "Tell me what you feel."

Wang pressed in. "Dense."

"Good. That means it has clay content." Lin Wan moved a few steps and gestured for them to follow. "Now try this patch."

Qin Mo was the first to reach forward this time. He pressed his fingers into the lighter soil near the tree line. A small furrow appeared between his brows. "It crumbles."

"Yes. Too much sand, not enough clay. We can’t use this alone. We mix it with the first type to balance it." Lin Wan stood and dusted her hands off. "This is the first skill. Learning to read the ground. Before you touch a single stone or carry a single handful of water, you need to know what is good and how much is needed."

Qin Mo looked up at her from his crouched position.

"Is this soul good for what we need ," he said. It wasn’t quite a question.

"Yes," Lin Wan said simply. " It’s exactly what we need."

Qin Mo stood without further commenting, only, his brain seemed to have more questions now, how could a female know how to build this?,

How are females treated back in Lin wan’s home?

If Lin wan was doing this, dies it mean she wasn’t taken care of as a female should be taken care of?

In conclusion Lin Wan is so pitiful.

Lin Wan moved them through the morning. She had them dig from two different areas of the floor, separating the clay rich soil from the sandier earth into distinct piles.

Wang and Keal handled most of the digging without being asked twice, falling into an easy working rhythm.

Da Jun proved surprisingly efficient, moving earth quickly and without complaint, his recovered strength evident in every motion.

Qin Mo dug alongside them.

Lin Wan had half expected him to just supervise them. But he didn’t. Instead, he took a digging tool, found a section of earth and had her check on it, before he started working.

Wang noticed too. Lin Wan caught him glancing sideways at Qin Mo once, with an approving look before he turned back to his work.

"Water next," Lin Wan announced when the piles were sufficient enough. "We need to wet the clay soil until it’s workable. Not soaking. Drench, There’s a difference between the two."

"How do we know the difference?" Keal asked.

Lin Wan picked up a handful of the damp clay soil, pressed it together in her palm, and held it out. It held its shape cleanly, no crumbling at the edges, no water seeping out between her fingers.

"Like this," she said. "If it falls apart, it needs more water. If water runs off it, you’ve gone too far. It should hold when you press it and release clean when you open your hand."

Keal looked at the clump in her palm. Then he picked up his own handful and tried.

It fell apart.

He looked at it. Added water. Tried again.

It held.

A childlike saatisfied expression crossed his face. "Like that?"

"Like that," Lin Wan confirmed.

Da Jun was already attempting his own handful. His held on the first try, and he looked unreasonably pleased with himself about it.

Wang held his up for Lin Wan to check waiting for Lin wan to praise him.

She looked at it. "Perfect, that’s the exact consistency of my own ."her eyes shone with pride.

Wang dropped it down, his expression of satisfaction was written all over him, with no intention of curbing it.

Lin Wan turned to Qin Mo.

He was already holding his out, waiting for Lin wan to praise him too.

She looked at it. The consistency was exactly right, perhaps more precisely right than any of the others, the kind of result that came from paying very close attention to every instruction and applying it without deviation.

"You’ve done this before?," Lin Wan asked

"Never," Qin Mo said.

"Then you’re a very fast learner."

Qin Mo looked at her steadily. "I listen carefully."

Lin Wan held his gaze for a moment. Then she moved on.

Leaving Qin Mo in regret, as she hadn’t praised him the way she praised Wang, what was he even thinking, Wang is her beasthusband and he’s not. . .