The next morning, after breakfast, Yezi began packing, then checked the fire source to make sure it was extinguished, and then dragged the sled back to camp.

There were no unexpected events on the way back. After three days, Ye Zi finally saw the campsite and quickened her pace.

Er Ya and Huang Jingyu were not at the camp. After Ye Zi put down the sled, she first boiled a pot of water for herself. She had been away alone for eight days and had not had a sip of hot water.

There was nothing they could do about it. There was only one pot in the camp. Ye Zi took it with her, so the remaining two teammates had to eat roasted meat and drink cold water.

After finishing a bowl of hot water, Ye Zi comfortably closed her eyes.

After finishing their day's gathering work, Yellow Whale and Er Ya saw a sled piled high with furs and meat as soon as they entered the camp.

He immediately realized that Ye Zi had returned.

Before her family could even call out, Yezi had already come out of her room.

"When did you get back? How are you?" Huang Jingyu asked first.

Ye Zi grinned and said:

"I just arrived, went back to my room and drank some hot water. What could possibly happen to me?"

"It's good that you're alright," Er Ya said happily.

Ye Zi nodded. In fact, Ye Zi knew that Er Ya and Huang Jingyu were on their way back to camp as soon as they entered the system's detection range.

The three-person team is finally reunited.

The yellow whale pointed to something on the sled and asked:

"With these, do we no longer need to worry about our appetite and keeping warm?"

Ye Zi smiled and nodded, then said:

"About 500 kilograms of moose meat, 24 wolf legs, one moose hide, and six wolf hides."

Huang Jingyu and Er Ya stared, mouths agape, unsure what to say. After a long while, Er Ya regained her senses and asked:

"You hunted wolves again?"

Ye Zi said helplessly:

"I killed a moose first, but then the wolves came attracted by the smell of blood. I had no choice but to kill them."

"Six wolves, are you really not injured?" Er Ya continued to ask.

"No, it's not like it's the first time I've fought wolves. Besides, I've developed a new skill."

Ye Zi responded, then walked to the sled and began unloading the cargo.

As the six wolf skins were laid out in a row, the huge moose skin package was opened.

Five hundred kilograms of meat were piled together, and the three of them were enveloped in a sense of happiness, knowing they had no worries about food and clothing.

"Who else? I'm asking who else has more food reserves than us," the yellow whale grinned and laughed.

Not to be outdone, Ye Zi put her hands on her hips and said:

"Who else? I'm asking who else dares to say they're guaranteed to beat us?"

Er Ya quietly watched the two of them fooling around; this was perhaps the only fun the three of them had in the wilderness.

Having finished his antics, Ye Zi said helplessly:

"The moose meat has only been simply smoked, so its shelf life is limited and we need to continue processing it."

Wolf legs are a reserve; we'll eat them when we can't find other food, since they don't taste good.

Yellow Whale picked up the conversation and said:

"It's just smoked meat. The smoking shed is still there, so we can just start smoking it."

Er Ya said:

“We need a cellar or a storage room, otherwise there’s nowhere to put all this meat. The temperature inside the house isn’t suitable for preservation, even for smoked meat.”

Ye Zi and the other person nodded, and after discussing it, they finally decided to set up a storage room.

Smoked moose meat can be preserved for a month without any problem. After a month, autumn will arrive in Alaska, and the temperature will drop significantly, at which point it can be preserved at low temperatures.

If you build a cellar, the temperature inside will be higher than outside after the air temperature drops, which is not good for preservation.

The rest was simple: Ye Zi chopped down trees to build a storage room, while Huang Jingyu and Er Ya were in charge of making smoked meat.

Of course, choosing some less smoked ones is essential for enjoying a delicious moose meal.

The process of building the storage room was quick, taking only two days. The first day was spent cutting down trees, and the second day was spent building it, using the same method as the shelter.

After two days of smoking, the moose meat is ready for storage. After being taken out of the smoking shed, it is placed directly into the storage room.

But the smoking shed can't stop yet, because there are still twenty-four wolf legs waiting to be processed.

While smoking wolf legs, Ye Zi began processing moose and wolf skins.

In their long-term camp, wood ash was plentiful. Whether it was in the meat shed or the fireplace in the three-person house, a pile of wood ash had to be cleaned out every day.

Therefore, the process of processing the fur also went smoothly.

Six wolf pelts and one moose pelt. Because there was plenty of time, the fireplace was not used to dry the pelts this time to speed up the drying process.

They were simply placed on the barricades around the camp to air dry, and then rubbed.

The bedding for the three of them was also adjusted.

Er Ya was still covered with the same black bear skin, but now she had an extra wolf skin to use as a mattress.

Moreover, it was a wolf skin made by piecing together two wolf skins, which perfectly covered Er Ya's heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed).

Aside from causing internal heat, there were no other discomforts. To deal with this, a piece of embered wood was only placed in the stove pit at night when people were resting.

This way, Er Ya won't have to sleep on a cold bed, and the fire won't be too big and cause her to get a sore throat.

The newly acquired moose hide was given to Huang Jingyu. It was just enough for him, including both bedding and a blanket. Moreover, moose hide is warmer than wolf hide. Although Huang Jingyu is in good physical condition, he is not so strong in Alaska after the temperature drops. This arrangement was necessary to prevent him from getting sick.

Finally, there was Ye Zi. The original four wolf pelts became his bedding. They were pieced together in pairs, one as a bedding and the other as a cover.

The last four wolf pelts were freshly acquired. They hadn't yet been kneaded to a very soft consistency, but there was no rush to make winter clothing; they still had time.

Life became much simpler after that. In the morning, we would go out hunting, gathering, or fishing. We would return to the camp for lunch. From the afternoon until we rested in the evening, we would either rub the furs or organize the supplies.

The moose head had been stripped of its fur and flesh, leaving it as a complete moose skull. Ye Zi thought it looked better than a specimen.

He didn't even spare the six wolf heads; the wolf fangs had already been pulled out. They weren't used to make arrows, but rather he made a necklace out of them.

Er Ya and Huang Jingyu were curious about why Ye Zi did this. Ye Zi didn't answer directly, but smiled mysteriously and said that it was a surprise for them after the competition.

After sorting through the supplies, we came to the conclusion that we didn't have enough fur.

The remaining four wolf pelts were only enough to make two sets of clothes. There were some rabbit pelts, but they had already been used to make boots.

This was not a problem for Ye Zi at all. If it wasn't enough, she could just ask the bears, wolves, and moose. She could find anyone and they would provide some, which would be enough.

However, Ye Zi also had his own ideas. He was waiting for the temperature to drop so that he could hunt prey and use the fresh meat that nature had preserved. That would be the best food, rather than the smoked meat he ate every day.