Jiang Xi went to meet them, took the prepared yellow croaker, and the two walked towards the cave together.

She deliberately forgot about yesterday's unpleasant parting and said with a smile, "Let's have Sichuan peppercorn stewed fish again today, it tastes delicious this way."

Yan Zheng wiped the sweat from his face, nodded, took off his backpack, grabbed a handful of mulberries, washed them in the river, and handed them to her.

Jiang Xi picked one and put it in her mouth. The ripe yellow mulberry seemed to be soaked in honey. As she ate it, her happy eyes turned into crescent moons.

He then casually pinched one and held it to Yan Zheng's lips. He paused for a moment but still opened his mouth.

Jiang Xi was in an exceptionally good mood today. The vegetation here was abundant, with so many wild fruits and meat to eat. Once their earthen stove and pottery were successfully made, their food problem would be solved.

Most importantly, once she understood some things, she was no longer afraid. With him by her side, the treacherous jungle no longer seemed so terrifying. Perhaps he was different now than before, but she no longer felt uneasy; the future was full of hope.

She didn't care about Yan Zheng's current attitude. After all, when a hunter knows that his prey cannot escape, he is no longer in a hurry.

After breakfast, Jiang Xi turned over the grass that had been cut and dried the day before, while Yan Zheng made a simple shovel using a stone slab and a wooden stick. Relying on the few mortise and tenon joints she remembered, Jiang Xi pieced together the split wooden planks into a rectangular brick mold.

The yellow clay from near the river is mixed with chopped dry grass, then trampled and mixed by hand. Finally, the clay is filled into a mold, and after removing the mold, a yellow clay brick with flat edges is successfully made.

The bricks made in this way are naturally not as good as fired red bricks, but they are a rare material for making earthen stoves. However, mixing the yellow clay is a strenuous physical task. It takes two people a whole day of shoveling and mixing to produce only a few dozen yellow clay bricks.

Next, these bricks are placed in the sun to dry naturally. After three days of drying, the yellow bricks will be completely dehydrated, becoming sturdy, durable, and not easily soaked in water.

After three days of tireless effort, their bricks finally increased from dozens to hundreds, and the small open space on the hillside was now completely paved.

The weather has been very kind these past few days, with only half the day overcast and not a single drop of rain. The first few dozen yellow bricks made are already ready for use.

Jiang Xi recalled the earthen stove at her grandmother's house when she was a child. They used tree bark tubes wrapped in yellow mud to make chimneys. The two of them made it, dismantled it, and made it again. It took them two days to finally figure out how to build a half-person-high earthen stove in the main hall of the cave, near the stone wall by the cave entrance.

To prevent the stove from exploding, they waited two more days until it was completely dry before cautiously lighting it and trying to light it.

It wasn't very neat or pretty, but it worked surprisingly well when it was lit. The cavity under the stove provided just the right amount of oxygen, and the bark chimney allowed for proper smoke exhaust, preventing smoke from flowing back into the hole.

The two of them cooked a lotus root and fish soup over a wood fire. The lotus root was found by Jiang Xi and Yan Zheng a couple of days ago when they went to collect duck eggs by the river. Because the lotus roots were not very deep, Yan Zheng tried to go down and touch them. Unexpectedly, he actually dug out a white lotus root as thick as his forearm. So the two of them unlocked a new dish - lotus root and fish soup.

The success of the earthen stove gave Jiang Xi immense courage, which was undoubtedly a good start for them to begin their jungle life.

She didn't know how much longer she would have to stay in this world. At present, their understanding of this jungle was very limited. Whether there would be wind and snow or rainy season was unknown. With the earthen stove in the cave, from now on, no matter if it was windy or rainy, they would be able to eat hot meals and drink hot water.

This gave her great confidence. According to their original plan, their ultimate goal was to fire a pottery kiln and turn all the clay into pottery.

During her junior year, she went to J City with a team from her department to participate in a ceramic culture exchange and study. The instructor who led the team gave a special explanation of the pottery kiln models from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Because she was going to participate in the later academic exchanges, she also took detailed notes.

Although a long time has passed, she may be able to reconstruct a rough outline based on fragmented memories.

So, taking advantage of the good weather, the two of them built a clay kiln next to the earthen stove based on Jiang Xi's memory. Yan Zheng didn't understand these techniques, but he did whatever Jiang Xi told him to do. Sometimes, after putting in a lot of effort, he would make a mistake and have to dismantle it. Jiang Xi would be angry at herself for not being smart, but Yan Zheng would comfort her.

In his words, if they could succeed in one or two attempts, then humanity wouldn't have had to go through two or three million years to progress from primitive society to modern civilization.

So, under the influence of self-doubt and external encouragement, and after two days of repeated disassembly and modification, Jiang Xi finally began to understand.

The newly designed pottery kiln opens from the side and not only has the function of firing pottery, but can also be used as an oven for baking food later. Now it is just waiting to be put into use after it is naturally air-dried.

On the other side, the rattan fibers, thanks to Jiang Xi's unwavering daily efforts to dry them, finally began to gradually degummed. Once completely dry, the degummed fibers, when gently rubbed by hand, spread out like a brush with its tip split open. They felt thick and soft to the touch, like both cotton and silk.

This was quite a haul. The clothes they brought were too thick, and their only two inner shirts had completely turned the color of their camouflage uniforms after the journey through the jungle and their labor.

Whenever it was time to change and wash, Jiang Xi could only wrap herself in banana leaves to barely cover herself.

Yan Zheng could only go shirtless, which made his already tanned skin even darker. Under the sunlight, his muscle lines became more prominent, and his back seemed to be full of inexhaustible strength.

With these soft fibers, she can weave or spin them into fabric.

What troubled her most was her upcoming period. She'd been here for about two weeks, and if there were no issues with timing or her health, her period should be in the next few days.

Thinking of this, Jiang Xi felt a surge of irritation. There were no sanitary napkins or toilet paper here, and she didn't even have a change of underwear. Under such terrible conditions, she didn't even dare to imagine how miserable she would be.

She had even considered that, in the worst-case scenario, she could only imitate the simple menstrual belts made by ancient women using cloth and wood ash.

As she touched the soft rattan fibers in her hands, a new idea came to her mind: these fibers might be able to solve her immediate problem.

She dared not delay any longer and was determined to put the matter on the agenda.

The first solution that came to mind was weaving, which is simple and requires no other tools.

When she was little, it was fashionable for the girls in her class to braid colorful bracelets as the Dragon Boat Festival approached. Jiang Xi never missed this extracurricular activity.

First, she gently rubbed the fibers together with her fingers. This fiber was soft and smooth, quite different from the hemp fibers of her original world. Furthermore, after being rubbed, the fibers immediately swelled, feeling more like a stronger, more resilient cotton fiber. Jiang Xi tested its absorbency, and it was better than she had expected.

She twisted the fibers apart and then wove them into strands. She first used the method of making colorful hand ropes to weave a strip of cloth, but because of the knots, the strip felt very stiff, which was obviously not what she expected.

Then she tried the most traditional method, the fishbone braid, and braided another one. This time it was much better than she had imagined. The fabric was soft and elastic and did not break easily when stretched.

She tried it first to make sure her skin didn't react, and it was relatively easy to use. To prepare for her period, she made dozens of strips at once, which took her two whole days.