When Wang Lun woke up in the afternoon, he found them still asleep. After washing his face, he woke Li Ling and the others. Although he didn't want to wake them, he had things to do, so he decided to do it anyway.

Soon the three women woke up, washed their faces to clear their heads, and then followed Wang Lun to continue chopping wood.

Just like in the morning, Wang Lun and Liu Ruoling chopped firewood, while Li Ling and Liu Ruoxi trimmed small branches and tidied up the wood.

Meanwhile, people arrived at the temporary shelter where Liu Ruoxi and her friends had just arrived on the island. It was the Zheng brothers, Zheng Long and Zheng Hu, from Team 44. These two brothers had been surviving by constantly moving around for so long. Today they had arrived at the place where Liu Ruoxi and her friends had landed. The two climbed to the top of a tree and saw a bamboo grove, so they headed towards it. Unexpectedly, upon reaching the bamboo grove, they discovered an abandoned shelter. They reinforced the shelter and decided to live there for a while.

Wang Lun and his men chopped firewood until the sun was setting before packing up to return to camp. As usual, they first bundled up the firewood they had chopped in the afternoon and collected it into a pile. Each person carried one bundle, and Wang Lun carried another. Even so, there were still twelve bundles of firewood left, meaning the four of them would have to make two more trips to move them all. In total, they chopped twenty-two bundles of firewood that day, enough to burn for a while. However, Wang Lun didn't change his plan; he intended to chop firewood for another half day tomorrow, and then spend the remaining half day moving the firewood.

The four returned to the camp as the last rays of sunlight faded. After resting for a while, Li Ling and Liu Ruoxi began cooking, while Wang Lun and Liu Ruoling quickly piled up the firewood they had brought back. It was a quick process, as there were only ten bundles, not much. Once the firewood was piled up, Wang Lun and Liu Ruoling took out the cards they had made the day before and began carving characters on them. A deck of cards has fifty-four cards, four suits, thirteen cards from Ace to King, plus two Jokers, totaling fifty-four cards. Wang Lun had Liu Ruoling carve the spades and hearts, but because carving characters involved too many strokes, they simplified it by carving symbols to represent the different suits. Wang Lun then carved the diamonds and clubs, as well as the two Jokers.

By the time Li Ling called for dinner, Wang Lun and Liu Ruoling had only carved a few cards. It would probably take some time before they finished carving them all, as they had been busy lately.

After dinner, the four continued weaving straw sandals. That evening, after each of them finished weaving one sandal, they went to rest on the kang (heated brick bed). Today had exhausted Liu Ruoling, after all, she had been chopping trees all day. Of course, Li Ling and Liu Ruoxi were also tired, as was Wang Lun, but Wang Lun had gotten used to the fatigue, and being the only male, he couldn't complain about being tired. Li Ling and Liu Ruoxi, on the other hand, had been busy trimming small branches, which was tiring, but certainly not as tiring as Liu Ruoling's constant chopping.

The next morning, all four of them slept in late. After all, they were exhausted the day before, and even a night's sleep had only partially restored them. Although they all slept in, Wang Lun was the first to get up. After getting up, Wang Lun fed the pheasants and rabbits, and also retrieved an egg from the henhouse.

After placing the eggs in the pot, Wang Lun went to fetch water to cook the rice. As he started cooking, Li Ling and the others gradually got up.

Once they've finished tidying up, it'll be time to eat.

After lunch, Wang Lun led them back to the woods to cut down trees. They planned to cut trees for the morning only, then stop in the afternoon. Hearing that Wang Lun only intended to cut trees in the morning, Li Ling and the other two seemed to regain some energy. But soon they slumped again, not as energetic as yesterday. Wang Lun understood; after all, he was also very tired and was only persevering through sheer willpower.

By noon, Wang Lun had finished bundling the firewood from the morning and was moving the rest together. He had only bundled eleven bundles this morning, and after taking five back at noon, he had six left. Counting the twelve bundles left over from yesterday, it would be just enough for three trips in the afternoon. However, that would mean either Li Ling or Liu Ruoling would have to carry two bundles of firewood back with Wang Lun.

The four returned to the camp. Li Ling and Liu Ruoxi cooked, with Liu Ruoling helping. Wang Lun piled up the firewood they had brought back. Then he went to check the water tank. Wang Lun touched it and found that the soil was dry and there were no cracks. So Wang Lun decided to put some water in to test if the water tank leaked.

Wang Lun found a bamboo pole left over from the waterway, placed one end at the waterway outlet, and the other end in the reservoir. To prevent the water from rushing directly to the bottom of the reservoir, Wang Lun also took a basket and put some dry grass inside to reduce the impact of the water.

After finishing these tasks, Wang Lun went to check on the pheasants and rabbits. The pheasants were already used to the coop, with food delivered to their doorstep every day; how could they not be comfortable? However, there were some drawbacks: the space was a bit small, and they couldn't fly very far. There were also fewer of their kind—only two pheasants. Of course, Wang Lun also had this thought: how wonderful it would be to have ten pheasants, each laying an egg every day! But that was just a thought. If he really had ten pheasants, he basically wouldn't need to go out; all he'd have to do every day was cut grass for them.

After these past two days, the rabbits have gradually gotten used to it. Now, with someone watching, they can eat grass. Unlike when they were first introduced, when they would immediately run away when someone was watching. Wang Lun hoped that among the six rabbits, there would be both males and females, so they could reproduce. Then they wouldn't have to worry about food anymore. Ideally, it would be one male and five females, so that each litter would have five rabbits producing offspring, increasing the number of baby rabbits by at least ten or twenty each time. Then they would have an endless supply of rabbits to eat. Of course, this was all just Wang Lun's fantasy; such a good thing was impossible.

After checking the rabbits and pheasants, Wang Lun returned to the house and waited for dinner.

After the meal, Wang Lun didn't let them rest today, but instead took them directly to move firewood. Li Ling and the others had no objections. After all, they knew how hard Wang Lun worked, and besides, the sooner they finished, the sooner they could rest.

Upon reaching the woods, Wang Lun told them to rest for a while while he went to chop two more bundles of firewood, making a total of twenty bundles. Five bundles each time, for a total of four trips. Although Wang Lun told them to rest, Li Ling and the others still went to help. Soon, both bundles of firewood were tied up.

The four men immediately began carrying firewood back and forth. They worked for three or four hours before finally bringing all the firewood back to the camp.

Seeing that it wasn't dark yet, Wang Lun sent Li Ling and the other two to cut some grass near the camp to feed the pheasants and rabbits the next day. They shouldn't let the pheasants and rabbits starve to death while they went to the seaside; that would be a huge loss. Wang Lun himself carefully stacked the firewood they had brought back, as it couldn't be left lying around taking up too much space. With these thirty-odd bundles of firewood, Wang Lun and his group wouldn't need to chop firewood for a month or two, saving them a lot of time.