In the days leading up to the Beginning of Winter, as soon as the sun comes out, people in the community start carrying quilts downstairs. Everyone thinks they can do this, pick a sunny day, spread them out, and bask them until the afternoon when they can be collected, fluffy enough to bounce. If this experience were applied to wood, the master would surely shake his head. Even square materials for making anti-corrosion sleepers need to be dried, but they cannot be basked in this way. The stronger the sunshine, the more they need to be shielded. The same word "dry" applies to both quilts and wood, but they follow different paths. Most people who hear this for the first time will pause for a moment, but in fact, the reason is straightforward: it all depends on how the master arranges the pile of wood on the site.
The newly sawn square blocks are light yellow and appear dry, but they actually still contain water inside. Most of these square blocks are made of pine wood, which has a mild nature and is easy to dry. However, no matter how good the material is, if it is still wet when put into the tank, the oil will not flow smoothly. Therefore, it needs to be dried first. When drying, the key lies in how it is stacked.
First, lay a layer of strips on the ground to prevent the square materials from touching the ground. Stack them one by one, leaving gaps in between to allow air to circulate. The gaps are for the wind to pass through, so that the wind can flow around the stack and prevent it from becoming stuffy inside. The top of the stack should also be covered to protect it from rain, but not so tightly that it feels like being enclosed indoors.
The most easily overlooked aspect is the sun. While the quilt needs to be exposed to the sun, the wood cannot. When the sun shines directly on it, the surface tightens up first, but the inside cannot keep up, resulting in inconsistency between the inside and outside of a piece of wood. On the day of being put into the tank, if the oil wants to penetrate, it has to pass through this layer first. Therefore, what is important on the site is to be slow and even, so that the entire piece of wood can dry evenly, and the surface doesn't get dried first.
The most frustrating part of this task is waiting. There's no one on the site to urge us on. The master goes over every few days to take a look, checking the weather and the materials. If it's cloudy for days on end, we have to wait longer. When the wind is good, progress is faster, and it all depends on the materials themselves. There are walkways between the stacks, so people can get around. Whether to open the top cover to let in some air can be seen at a glance after a walk around.
When the square material feels lighter and the hand feels no dampness when pressed against it, it means the drying is complete. Just talking about the drying process, there seems to be no movement on the ground. However, whether the subsequent tank filling goes smoothly depends on these few days. The wood doesn't know about this, it just sits there, with the wind passing through the cracks, and the days pass by.
Once the material is properly dried, it's time to move it into the tank. This step is connected to the days spent on the site. If the material is not dried thoroughly, it will be hollow inside. After a round of extraction in the tank, the oil will have a place to settle and move evenly. The master closes the tank door tightly, allowing the oil to push its way in little by little, following the natural grain of the wood to the depths. When the oil reaches its designated place, the surface floating oil is collected, and the tank is opened. This batch of material has to stay on the edge of the stack for a while longer, allowing the ingested items to settle down. From the outside, when the tank door opens and closes, it seems like it has only been there for a while, but inside the wood, a transformation has already taken place. Whether it's dried thoroughly or not, this step is the clearest indication.
Later, the places they went to were diverse. Some were laid on the old tracks deep in the mountains, while others were sent to the short tracks in the mining areas. The factory also used its own dedicated tracks, which extended from the entrance straight to the freight yard. No matter where they went, the wood remained equally temperate. A batch of materials that had been dried thoroughly on the same site would yield the same length of sawn wood, and none looked particularly special when laid out. The cars that ran were fast and slow, and the loads they carried were light and heavy. It accepted whatever came and didn't pick and choose its work. Whether it was passing cars during the day or being empty at night, it stayed down below, silently. When the wood was dried evenly, it didn't like to change its temperament later on. No matter how long it was laid out today, it would still be the same length after some time.
Most people in these places have never seen it laid out to dry. What they see is a neatly arranged row, dark in color, aligned and orderly, under the steel rails. As for the days when strips were laid on the ground, gaps were left, and the scorching sun was avoided, no one took pictures or specifically mentioned it. But it was those few days that helped it survive under the steel rails.
After the quilt was dried in the sun on the day of the Beginning of Winter, it was brought back into the room, fluffy and warm. The batch of square materials on the ground still needed some more time; no one was timing it. Only when the wind had gone through every crevice and the master nodded, would it move on to the next step. The wood didn't speak; in this matter of drying, it all depended on people thinking for it.
