Place the empty bowl in the center of the sand pit.
Cover the sand pit with plastic sheeting, leaving no gaps, and use nine stones to press down the edges of the plastic sheeting to prevent it from being blown away by the wind. The last stone is placed in the center of the plastic sheeting, forming a sunken cone.
A solar water collector is ready!
Jiang Ye learned this method from Shao Wan during a chat. Shao Wan, a former anti-drug police officer, occasionally pursued drug dealers in the wilderness and used this method to collect water when conditions were primitive.
Jiang Ye didn't rest and dug a second pit a few meters away.
Cen Yemeng was very smart. She ran to find plastic sheeting, picked up stones, and finally took a bowl from the spaceship.
Jiang Ye used the same method to make a second water collector.
The two returned to the first water collector.
The effect was unexpectedly good. The surface of the plastic sheeting already had many small water droplets. From time to time, two water droplets would collide, then slide down the plastic sheeting and drip into the bowl in the center of the sand pit.
This water evaporated from the sand and was quite clean, drinkable directly.
The beach was close to the sea, and the sand had plenty of moisture, evaporating water almost continuously.
"You're amazing!" Cen Yemeng exclaimed excitedly.
Jiang Ye waited for a while, lifted the plastic sheeting, and there was a full bowl of clean water!
"Wait a moment, I'll analyze it to see if the water is clean," Jiang Ye said.
Back in the spaceship, he placed the bowl of water into the analyzer.
The sun was strong, and the spaceship's power was sufficient. The analyzer quickly displayed the data:
[Item: Clean Water]
[Item Information: Clean water with trace impurities, safe for direct consumption]
Jiang Ye brought the bowl out and handed it to Cen Yemeng. "Drink up."
"You drink first, I'll drink the rest," Cen Yemeng shook her head.
"I'm not thirsty for now, and we definitely won't run out of water. Drink it quickly," Jiang Ye said, smiling and ruffling her hair.
Cen Yemeng took the bowl and drank it in large gulps, but only half a bowl before handing it back to Jiang Ye.
Jiang Ye didn't take it. He turned and went out of the spaceship, continuing to swing his shovel and dig pits.
There were a total of 8 bowls on the spaceship. Jiang Ye dug six more sand pits, all made into water collectors. This way, eight water collectors would collect water simultaneously.
He also calculated the time. It took about an hour to fill each bowl, and the capacity of each bowl was about 250 milliliters.
This meant that 2 liters of water could be collected per hour!
Up to 48 liters of water per day!
Even deducting the water that couldn't be collected promptly during sleep at night, this amount of water was more than enough for drinking and eating.
However, the most crucial thing was to find a way to store water.
The spaceship originally had a water storage tank, but it was already cracked.
The food printer could only store a few liters of water for printing food.
They had to go to the garbage mountain and try to find suitable containers for storing water.
Jiang Ye, carrying his gun and shovel, headed towards the garbage mountain.
Cen Yemeng trotted along, holding his hand.
At the foot of the mountain, they truly felt the grandeur of the garbage mountain, its scale unbelievably vast.
It was estimated that these garbage mountains were old. Most of the garbage had turned into fragments, and rust and rotten plastic had solidified like soil. However, there was still a lot of garbage that was relatively intact.
Some garbage was easily identifiable: phone cases, fertilizer bags, oil drums, tight-fitting clothes, microphones, aluminum beverage cans, glass jars, and bottles...
Some garbage was completely unrecognizable, possibly mechanical parts or satellite debris, glinting in the sunlight.
Jiang Ye constantly monitored the environmental readings of his spacesuit. The radiation level had slightly increased, but it was negligible and within the normal range. To his surprise, the bacterial count had not increased much. It was likely that the organic matter here had long been consumed by fungi, and the remaining glass bottles and metal cans could not support bacteria.
Cen Yemeng was actually a little excited, looking around. She picked up a stick from somewhere and rummaged through the garbage pile.
"I actually really liked picking up trash when I was little," Cen Yemeng said. "Whatever I found on the ground, I would pick it up and collect it, keeping it under my bed, always thinking it would be useful someday. Later, there was too much trash under my bed, and my dad found out and beat me, so I stopped picking things up."
"You're really different from the rich girls I imagined," Jiang Ye also picked up a mop handle and searched through the garbage pile.
"What do you imagine rich girls to be like?"
"They have everything done for them, don't drink bottled mineral water, only drink spring rain, and their juices are freshly squeezed from fruits flown in from other places. They have people to serve them and clear their path wherever they go, getting whatever they want, looking up at people, but looking down on everyone." Jiang Ye thought for a moment. "And elite schools, frequent visits to luxury stores, never lifting a finger for chores, and so on."
Cen Yemeng giggled for a while. "It's not a movie, it's not that exaggerated. When I was little, my life was actually similar to my classmates. My food, clothing, and daily expenses were a little better than others, but there was no fundamental difference. For example, a gold bathtub and a ceramic bathtub, aren't they both for bathing? There's really no difference."
"You used a gold bathtub when you were little?" Jiang Ye was surprised.
"No."
"You scared me."
"I used a jade bathtub, three times more expensive than a gold one," Cen Yemeng giggled.
"You're suffering with me, rummaging through garbage here," Jiang Ye said. "When we get back to Jiang Ye Star, I'll get you a gold-inlaid jade bathtub, with two layers of jade sandwiched between gold!"
"I don't feel like I'm suffering; I'm very happy with you," Cen Yemeng bent down and picked up a piece of trash. "See if this is any good?"
Jiang Ye took the item from her hand. It was a small pink plastic basin. The pattern at the bottom was faded, but it was still vaguely visible: it was a basin for washing a baby's bottom.
"It can be used as a foot basin," Jiang Ye didn't throw it away and held it in his hand.
The two of them climbed up the mountain, sifting through the garbage on the ground.
The garbage mountain had a gentle slope. Due to the frequent coastal hurricanes, the constant gales and storms had shaped the entire mountain into the most stable form, so there was no need to worry about "garbage avalanches."
Jiang Ye kept bending down to pick things up, keeping anything useful:
A metal water bottle, tightly sealed, capable of holding 1 liter of drinking water. It showed no signs of rust.
A bundle of rope, about ten meters long when unrolled, made of an unknown material. It was quite sturdy.
A battle-axe, with a fierce design, possibly an enhanced fire axe, made entirely of metal.
Cen Yemeng also occasionally picked up some trash and handed it to Jiang Ye.
A shiny stainless steel food basin, capable of holding about 3 liters of water.
More than ten almost brand-new plastic bags, sealed in a metal box. They had been kept away from the environment for a long time and looked as if they were just bought from a supermarket.
A glass fish tank, which surprisingly hadn't broken, capable of holding a few liters of water.
They had collected most of the usable garbage; any more would be too much to carry.
"Let's go to the summit to take a look, then we'll head back," Jiang Ye said.
Cen Yemeng nodded and followed Jiang Ye upwards.
After more than ten minutes, they reached the summit.
The two of them stared at the scene before them, frozen in place.