Wang Lun rested for over twenty minutes, then got up and, together with Liu Ruoxi, carried the two baskets to the pond. They went back inside to retrieve the baskets, pulled out a knife from one of the baskets, and transferred the wild vegetables and mushrooms from Wang Lun's basket to the other two. Then, they took out each animal one by one. Including those from the morning, there were three rabbits, one squirrel, five snakes, two pheasants, one deer, one muntjac, and one masked palm civet. Of course, all of these were dead; Wang Lun dared not hunt masked palm civets, as they are a Class III protected animal (no demand, no harm. Protected animals should never be touched, let alone hunted; that's illegal). There were also three doves and one goat. Now they had six pelts in total, basically enough to make a set of clothes for the two of them, so they wouldn't be too cold in winter. However, they were still short of winter clothing for two people, but it was still early, and they figured that would be taken care of by then.

Then Wang Lun began processing the goat, first skinning it, then removing the internal organs, and then handing it over to Li Ling to sort out the edible organs, wash them clean, and then cut the goat meat into small pieces. After processing the goat, he processed the fawn, and then the masked palm civet, following the same steps: first skinning, then removing the internal organs, then washing, and then cutting the meat.

As for the two sisters, Liu Ruoling took care of the small animals, such as rabbits, snakes, and squirrels. Liu Ruoling would boil water first, and then pluck the feathers from the birds and doves.

It took the four of them over an hour to process all the animals. Wang Lun even built a special rack to hang the meat by the fire pit to dry all at once. While Wang Lun was setting up the rack, Liu Ruoling made several racks to support all the animal hides for the day, then placed them under the eaves to air dry. Li Ling and Liu Ruoxi sorted out the mushrooms and wood ear fungus. The mushrooms were strung on straw ropes and hung under the eaves to dry, while the wood ear fungus was placed on a stone slab covered with dry grass to prevent it from being blown away. Next, they sorted out the fruits and wild berries, separating them for different seasonings. Wild onions, with their roots and easy to grow, were set aside to be planted later. The fruits and wild berries were brought inside to be processed later. Then, all that was left were wild vegetables and herbs. The two of them threw the vegetables and herbs into the pond to soak for now, and would deal with them tomorrow. That was enough for today, since it was getting dark. As for some of the rarer herbs, such as Ganoderma lucidum and Ligusticum chuanxiong, those without leaves, they were collected separately and brought inside for Wang Lun to process.

Then Liu Ruoxi washed some wild vegetables, and the two of them tidied up all the tools before going inside. Once inside, Li Ling helped Liu Ruoxi start a fire, while Liu Ruoxi cooked. Tonight they were having stewed snake meat. Snake meat doesn't keep well, so they decided to eat it first. Of the five snakes, one had parasites and was discarded. Liu Ruoxi planned to cook the remaining four, since it would be difficult to deal with the last one, and besides, one of them was relatively small, so there wouldn't be much meat. Moreover, the three of them had been working hard all day and would definitely eat more than usual. As for Liu Ruoxi, she naturally ate kudzu root porridge and herbal soup.

Stewing snake meat takes a while, which made Wang Lun and the other two a little hungry. Li Ling went to the shelf and gave each of them one of the remaining peaches, which was just right. After eating the peaches, the three seemed to regain some energy. Wang Lun even picked up the hay again and started weaving straw sandals. Li Ling and the other two, however, didn't have Wang Lun's energy, so they twisted rope for him. But they twisted the rope unevenly and kept stopping, showing their weakness.

Fortunately, Liu Ruoxi stewed the snake meat over a high flame, so it was done quickly. A little over an hour later, Liu Ruoxi called everyone to eat. Since everyone was quite tired, Liu Ruoxi carried the pot to the fire pit and served the three of them rice. First, she served Wang Lun a bowl, which he passed to Li Ling, then to Liu Ruoling, and finally Wang Lun ate. Of course, it wasn't the last; lastly, Liu Ruoxi, who had a special meal prepared for them, ate a large bowl of kudzu root porridge. The three of them had expended a lot of energy, so they ate quickly and quite a lot. In no time, the three of them finished the entire pot of wild vegetable and snake meat stew, not even leaving a drop of broth. Although they usually didn't leave any broth, everyone was forced to finish it at the end, but today they eagerly drank it all.

After the meal, Liu Ruoxi went to wash the pot, and Wang Lun lit the light for her. Liu Ruoling originally wanted to go too, but Wang Lun saw that the two of them still seemed a little out of sorts, so Wang Lun went to light the light for Liu Ruoxi himself.

After Liu Ruoxi finished washing the pots, the four of them sat around the fire for a while. Wang Lun mainly arranged things for tomorrow, while the other three went out to search for food, and Liu Ruoxi handled camp affairs, starting by cooking lunch as usual. If the harvest was good, the three of them would return for lunch and carry their spoils back to camp. If the harvest was less, they would return later, but not until dark. As for the search direction, they would go to the peach tree area in the morning and then head towards the coast in the afternoon.

After arranging things, the four chatted for a while before going to sleep. Wang Lun and the other two fell asleep almost immediately after getting into bed, but Liu Ruoxi wasn't sleepy yet, so even while lying down, she was still thinking about other things.

If the treehouse hadn't been destroyed, the two of them would probably still be living there. Their food would likely consist mainly of wild vegetables, supplemented by bird meat; other meats would depend on luck. They probably wouldn't have enough winter clothing and would likely have had to endure the winter in the camp. Unlike here, where they've already started stockpiling furs for clothing before winter even arrives. As for food, they still have so much, and they've brought back so much more. There's still a pond full of unprocessed wild vegetables outside, not to mention the ones they processed this afternoon that haven't even dried yet. They even built a kang (heated brick bed) when building the mud house, preparing for winter in advance. As for their previous treehouse, they'd probably have to huddle together, shivering, in winter. The more they think about it, the more they feel that all their previous efforts were largely useless, and they feel terrible. In the end, they still have to rely on others. But what Liu Ruoxi really wanted to say was, "It's so great to be clinging to someone's coattails!" If she had any other thoughts, she, Liu Ruoxi, wanted to keep clinging to them forever, ideally until the very end. She thought Wang Lun and his partner would get a billion in prize money, and the two of them could keep a hundred million. According to Liu Ruoling's plan, they could then share half with Wang Lun and his partner, leaving them with fifty million! How could anyone earn fifty million? She'd never even dreamed of it. The more Liu Ruoxi thought about it, the more excited she became, and the more unable to sleep she felt.