King of the Wilderness

”I knew you’d go off on your own to get the stones.”

”You’re just like I was when I was young, always believing that something chosen by hand has a soul.”

Without asking a single question, he took a key from the set hanging on the wall and tossed it to Lin Yu’an.

”Take my big truck, the one with the flatbed trailer that can haul three tons. Use it freely; just remember to top off the gas when you get back.”

Old George said, ”But I must remind you, boy, we’re doing a stone veneer, not solid walls.”

”So, you don’t need those hundred-kilogram boulders; you need slabs between 5 and 15 centimeters thick, understand? That will truly test your eye and skill.”

”I understand, George, thank you!” Lin Yu’an sincerely thanked him.

”Why thank me?” Old George waved his hand.

”Neighbors should be like this, shouldn’t they? Hurry up while the weather’s good.”

At dawn the next day, with the sky barely light, Lin Yu’an set off in Old George’s Ford F-450, hitched to a flatbed trailer.

With his command, two furry little creatures joyfully dashed out of the cabin.

They wagged their tails, eagerly trying to jump onto the giant pickup, a moving castle to them.

But their little legs clearly weren’t enough, and Lin Yu’an chuckled while picking them up, one in each hand, placing them in the spacious back seat.

The truck drove along the Dalton Highway for a while, then turned onto an unmarked dirt road leading to the Eastern Valley.

The F-450’s diesel engine roared steadily and powerfully, its tall chassis easily crushing through potholes and rocks.

He arrived at the familiar slope, with the sun just rising above the distant ridge.

Lin Yu’an parked on a relatively flat spot at the bottom of the slope, then opened the rear door.

Whiskey and Honey dashed out like cannonballs into this new playground filled with natural scents.

This was different from a flat pebble beach; it was more like a massive slope composed of countless stones.

The air was filled with the mixed scent of rock and moist earth.

For the first time, Whiskey and Honey experienced such an intricate landscape, excitedly beginning their adventure.

Whiskey, being brave, tried to climb a rock taller than itself but rolled down comically.

Meanwhile, his sister Honey was more interested in the small flowers growing in the rocky crevices, sniffing them continuously.

Lin Yu’an, like an experienced stonemason, began his treasure hunt.

He did not rush but spent nearly half an hour walking through the slope, envisioning his desired fireplace.

What he needed was slabs of granite between 5 to 15 centimeters thick, with a hard texture. He especially loved the black-and-white slabs that flowed like ink paintings.

Finally, he found ideal stone material in the middle of the slope.

He put on thick gloves and picked up a crowbar and heavy stone hammer.

He chose his first target, a slab partially detached from the mother rock, evenly thick, about one square meter in area.

He first used the stone hammer to clear surrounding debris, then inserted the thick crowbar deeply into the crevice between the slab and rock, prying outward forcefully!

With a ”clank,” the slab completely separated from the mother rock.

Next came the step that truly tested skill; he took a large hammer and several steel wedges of different sizes.

He carefully observed the natural black-and-white patterns on the slab, then gently hammered the steel wedges along a distinct white vein at the slab’s edge.

”Ding... ding... ding...”

”Crack!”

With a crisp sound, the slab cracked open, the fracture straight and neat, forming a shape perfect for wall construction, with a natural fracture surface.

Every stone selected by him felt like a unique puzzle piece, with him imagining their future places on his home’s fireplace.

For a whole day, Lin Yu’an repeated this process.

As the sun set, over a ton of carefully-selected and initially-shaped granite slabs were neatly stacked on the sturdy flatbed trailer.

For the following week, Lin Yu’an worked like a diligent worker bee, shuttling between the camp and the quarry.

During the day, he mined and transported stones, and at night he returned to camp, sorting the mined materials by color, pattern, and size.

On the afternoon of the seventh day, as he was hauling the last load back to the camp, a high-chassis, six-wheel-drive truck with ”Alaska Express Freight” markings stationed itself steadily at his camp’s entrance.

The driver jumped out, seeing Lin Yu’an and the piled-up stones, whistled, ”Hey! You must be Herman. Your freight is here. Have to say, the place you chose, what a route!”

After confirming the order details, the driver utilized the truck’s built-in small crane to cautiously unload a large wooden-crated fireplace core, along with several long boxes filled with stainless steel chimney pipes, placing them at Lin Yu’an’s specified location.

”Good luck, buddy!” The driver waved at him before leaving hurriedly.

With that, all the materials needed for building the fireplace—the high-performance fireplace core, professional chimney system, and ten tons of natural granite from this land—were fully prepared.