But Chen Jian, holding the stone, seemed to have no idea what I was thinking. Instead, he looked at the stone again and again in the firelight, his surprise growing.

After a while, he reluctantly put the stone back into my basket.

He looked at me excitedly: "Brother Sihai, where else can I find this stone? Could you get me two more?"

I looked at Chen Jian and nodded: "That's not difficult at all. If you want it, we can go tomorrow. But if we bring this thing back and can't sell it, it'll just be a rock. What do you want to do with it?"

Chen Jian looked at me and chuckled, then leaned close to my ear and glanced in the direction of his treehouse before whispering something.

"Although Liu Jiaojiao and I are together, I feel that she is being treated unfairly by being with me in such an ambiguous way. After all, in the current situation, I can't give her a wedding or a home, so I can't just stay with her empty-handed forever, can I? Don't girls love beauty? If I can polish this stone into a bracelet for her, wouldn't that be a novel gift?"

When Chen Jian said that, I was also a little excited. Why didn't I think of turning these stones into jewelry back then?

But in the current situation, there are simply no tools available to grind into hand gestures.

Chen Jian looked at me, sighed, and rolled his eyes: "Brother Sihai, there are always more ideas than problems. Although we don't have anything to make jade bracelets right now, we can grind them little by little with stones. Once we get a rough shape, polishing won't be a problem, right? Constant dripping wears away a stone. Hard work pays off, just like the Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains!"

I rolled my eyes at Chen Jian's rambling nonsense; he was just spouting gibberish.

"But if you really want to do it, let's go tomorrow. I'll also find some wild vegetables to eat."

Chen Jianxing took two apples from me with great enthusiasm, turned around and went back to his treehouse. Before leaving, he repeatedly told me not to tell Liu Jiaojiao, as he wanted to give her a surprise.

I turned around and went back to our treehouse. Because I went out to collect seashells today, they hadn't had time to build me another house yet. So, I had no choice but to sleep in Xiao Qiang's little house.

But in the middle of the night, he suddenly heard footsteps. He opened his eyes and, by the moonlight shining into the treehouse, saw that it was Xiao Qiang who had come.

She cautiously walked in, and when she saw that I was awake, she chuckled and said in a very soft voice, "Xiaoxiao's room is really too stuffy, so I wanted to come back to get some clothes and go down the mountain to take a shower. Since you're awake, why don't you come with me?"

I listened carefully to the sounds coming from Wang Xiaoxiao and Xu Wei's room. I could only hear their even breathing, so they must be fast asleep. I nodded, took Xiao Qiang's hand, and carefully went down the mountain.

I held a torch in my hand, and Xiao Qiang stood beside the waterfall, wiping her body with water from her wet clothes.

Bathed in moonlight, Xiao Qiang's figure was so beautiful that it was impossible to look away.

A sudden surge of heat welled up inside me.

It's been a long time since we last got intimate, and her current behavior in front of me is a huge test for me.

I lost all interest in lighting the way for her. I stuck the torch into a nearby rock, rushed forward, and hugged Xiao Qiang tightly. Then we both rolled into the grass...

After the fierce battle ended, Xiao Qiang slumped weakly into my arms, patting my chest as she looked at me and muttered softly, "Why are you like this? We're not far from the mountaintop. It would be so embarrassing if someone saw us!"

I looked at Xiao Qiang and couldn't help but whisper in her ear, "So you kept your teeth clenched and didn't say a word, didn't you?"

Xiao Qiang glared at me and said, "How annoying! I just washed it clean, and now it's dirty again. I have to wash it again. I'm exhausted."

While complaining, he still had a smile on his face as he went to the waterfall again to wash himself.

I also took a shower and then turned around and went back to the top of the mountain.

This time, I fell asleep shortly after lying in bed, and when I woke up the next morning, I smelled a fragrant aroma wafting into my nose.

I got up and left the treehouse, and there I saw Wang Xiaoxiao. They had already built a small stove out of stones, and hanging above it was the clay pot I had made, which was bubbling away.

I was a little hungry, so I sat on a stone bench and stared intently at the soup in the pot.

Xu Wei looked at me and couldn't help but tease me: "Why do you look so tired? Didn't you sleep well last night?"

Xu Wei's question may have been asked casually, but it made me blush.

Xiao Qiang, who was cleaning the shellfish meat, also paused.

We looked at each other, but neither of us spoke, silently going about our own business.

After breakfast, I was just thinking about going down the mountain to have Wang Ping finish building the fence at the foot of the mountain when Chen Jian came running up to me excitedly, carrying a saw.

"Brother Sihai, let's go. I'm all ready. Look, I even brought the bags."

Now I couldn't go with Wang Ping to handle things, so I just told Wang Ping and then took Chen Jian down the mountain to find the jade mine along the route we took yesterday.

Halfway there, Chen Jian had to go to **, and I was also a bit tired, so I leaned against a tree to rest.

I had just sat down when I suddenly heard a scream from Chen Jian's side.

I was startled and immediately stood up, shouting loudly in Chen Jian's direction, "What's wrong with you?"

However, Chen Jian did not respond to the first inquiry.

My heart skipped a beat. Could it be that he had already perished?

He then pulled out his gun and cautiously approached Chen Jian.

But after walking a few steps, he saw Chen Jian standing next to a tree, his pants half down, standing stiffly in place without moving.

I didn't know what was wrong with him, so I didn't dare to be careless. I cautiously approached him and found that he had no injuries on his body and there were no venomous snakes around.

But he stared intently at one spot, unblinking, as if he were in a meditative state.

I went up to him and kicked him: "Hey, what are you doing? What's wrong? Why aren't you answering when I ask you a question?"

Chen Jian turned his head and glanced at me, swallowed hard, and pointed to the patch of grass in front of him.

"Brother Sihai, look what that is?"

I looked around at the pile of grass but couldn't see anything wrong. I shook my head and said, "There's nothing there."

Chen Jian looked at me, gritted his teeth, and said with an uncertain expression, "That's rice! Don't you recognize it?"

After saying that, he carefully approached the pile of grass, pointed to a green seedling, and looked at me.

But I was completely baffled because I really didn't recognize this thing.