Yan Zheng has recovered. He ate a simple breakfast of poached eggs and wild vegetables. After Jiang Xi changed his dressing, she fed him some anti-inflammatory medicine, removed the rabbit fur, and then went to the back mountain.
She originally wanted Yan Zheng to continue resting in the cave, but he insisted on not doing so, saying that he would find a comfortable place to sit at the back entrance of the cave and did not want to be cooped up inside.
Jiang Xi had no choice but to help him up. She found a large rock at the entrance of the cave behind the mountain, arranged it properly, and helped him lean against it.
She then went to collect the straw stacks that had been blown away by the strong wind and reassembled them.
Two-legged rabbits mostly roam on hillsides. Jiang Xi found a tall tree to lean against, truly setting up a waiting spot. She thought of the proverb "waiting for a rabbit to run into a tree stump," and her heart was pounding, wondering if she would have any luck today.
She waited until the sun was high in the sky, the midday sun was so scorching that even the leaves in the forest looked listless. Jiang Xi was even more irritable from the heat, and listlessly tugged at the wild grass at her feet.
She spent the whole morning squatting down, but those two rabbit ears were very sharp and alert. As soon as she poked her head out, the rabbit took off running. She didn't even get a clear look at the rabbit's appearance, let alone see what it was eating.
So when she saw the two-legged rabbit again, she was extra careful, only daring to peek out with her eyes. She squatted there for an hour or two and actually saw it. The rabbit was holding a tuber the size of a sweet potato in its hands. The outer skin was white and covered with some soil, so it must have been dug out of the ground. There was a branch hanging on it with two leaves.
Because it was too far away, she couldn't see its exact appearance. Jiang Xi had an idea. She suddenly ran out and shouted. The rabbit was so frightened that it immediately dropped its food on the ground and ran away without a second thought.
Jiang Xi wanted this reaction, so she went over and picked up the tuber.
It was a plant she had never seen before. This piece looked like it had been broken off from a larger tuber. The cut was white, and it looked a bit like cassava. She looked somewhat displeased. If it really was cassava, it would be troublesome. That stuff was complicated to cook and hard to digest.
She picked up the leaves and examined them carefully, but she couldn't remember where she had seen this plant before, so she had to take it back to Yan Zheng for identification.
Yan Zheng looked at it and felt it was familiar. After looking through it carefully, he remembered that he had seen this plant at the foot of the mountain by the river when he picked mulberries last time. It was a climbing vine that could climb up to ten meters high along the mountain. However, these rabbits had no reason to go so far to find food, so there must be some in this forest.
However, the forest was fraught with danger, and the venomous snakes alone were enough to give them a hard time. In the end, Jiang Xi decided to go to the foot of the mountain by the lake to dig for materials, since that area was at least relatively open and they wouldn't get lost.
Yan Zheng meant that they should go find it together once he recovered, but Jiang Xi was unwilling to wait any longer. She had just taken a small piece to taste it. It tasted like a raw sweet potato at first, but it had a slightly sweet aftertaste. This kind of tuber might be an important source of carbohydrates for them, and it was exactly the nutrient he needed right now.
After lunch, Jiang Xi took the pottery out to dry again. She didn't want to wait any longer, so she carried her backpack, sword, and stone shovel to the lakeside. This time, because the way up and down the mountain was difficult, Jiang Xi refused to let Yan Zheng come with her.
She followed the river in front of the cave down, walked a few dozen meters along the foot of the mountain, passed through a small banana grove, and saw the vine that Yan Zheng had mentioned. Jiang Xi took out the tuber and carefully checked the leaves. Only after confirming that it was correct did she look up and examine the plant. It had to be said that it was incredibly good at climbing. The tendrils of the vine clung tightly to the mountainside and were already two or three stories high. Upon closer inspection, there were still faint signs that it would continue to climb upwards.
Jiang Xi could already imagine how thick its old roots must be. The small piece in her hand was probably a newly sprouted root. She first used a stick to tap the surrounding vines and grass hard to prevent any uninvited guests from appearing later.
She then chose a good spot to dig, but she clearly underestimated the plants and overestimated her own strength. Her arms ached from digging, and the pit was already half a meter deep, but she had only dug up tubers that were about two fingers thick.
She gave up the idea of ​​continuing to dig, and decided to come back to dig every two days, making sure to dig it thicker and thicker.
In the end, she returned with a full harvest, having collected more than a dozen tubers, each two or three fingers thick and half a meter long, enough for them to eat for two or three days.
Just as she finished tying up the tubers, Jiang Xi felt the ground beneath her feet involuntarily shake. Before she could react, the shaking intensified.
Then came a loud flapping sound. The wild ducks and seabirds on the lakeside seemed to be startled and all flew up to the lake surface, forming a dark, swarming mass that blotted out the sky. Jiang Xi thought to herself, "Oh no, there must be some large animal nearby."
She grabbed her backpack and ran. Although she didn't know what it was, anything that could startle such a large number of birds and animals must be something not to be trifled with.
The vibrations beneath her feet intensified, coming in waves. Fearing she might perish before even reaching the top of the mountain, Jiang Xi had no choice but to find a hollow in the mountain to hide herself.
Then she heard a "yo-yo," followed by a series of more "yo-yo" sounds, and Jiang Xi was almost sweating profusely.
Judging from the noise, it wasn't just one or two animals; it was more like a whole group. She was so scared by what kind of animals they were that her legs went weak. She huddled at the foot of the mountain, not daring to breathe.
As the sound grew louder, she finally saw it: a herd of deer.
Unlike the deer she had seen at the zoo, these deer were very large. Adult deer were as big as donkeys, and some that looked like male deer were as big as horses, with antlers that were more than a meter long.
The deer herd walked along the lake in a grand procession, with some deer stopping every now and then to drink water.
Seeing this, Jiang Xi breathed a sigh of relief. She hoped that they were herbivores like the deer in the other world. According to her knowledge of these creatures, deer were not particularly aggressive. She just needed to wait quietly to avoid startling the herd. Once the herd had passed, she could get away.
Their bodies were so graceful, agile, and with long, slender limbs. Against the backdrop of the lake and the green forest, Jiang Xi felt as if she were in the Jurassic era. The jungle, the deer herds, and everything here was a magnificent sight she had never seen before.
She admired and praised the deer until her legs went numb from squatting for so long. Only then did the main herd of deer pass by, leaving a fawn and its mother alone. The fawn was already the size of a lamb and looked like it hadn't been weaned yet. It looked tired and lay on the ground, refusing to get up. The mother fawn kept chirping and nudging the fawn's rump with her head, signaling it to get up and walk.
But the fawn looked really tired and refused to get up, so the mother and daughter were locked in a stalemate behind the herd.
Jiang Xi found it amusing, and then thought of her own parents, wondering if they were doing well in the resettlement area.
Thinking of this, she saw that the sun was already setting in the west, and dared not delay any longer. She didn't even bother to look at the deer anymore, and hurriedly got up and walked towards the cave.
As soon as she reached the top of the mountain, she saw Yan Zheng coming down, clutching his wound. He saw her and asked anxiously, "Are you hurt? What was that sound just now?"
The deer herd made a great commotion, and since the cave was right next to the cliff, Yan Zheng could hear it clearly.
"It's nothing, it was just a herd of deer migrating. They were a little too loud, but they've all gone now."
Jiang Xi's tone was reproachful as she ran over and supported him with her shoulder: "Why did you come down? You were just getting a little better."
Yan Zheng comforted her, "I'm much better now."
Upon reaching the cave entrance, Jiang Xi unloaded her backpack and took out her harvest: "I found a tuber. It's so deep. I dug half a meter deep to find this little bit."
Yan Zheng picked up one and examined it: "I'll go dig it up when I'm better."
"Fine, then why aren't you listening and waiting in the cave?"
While they were bickering, she helped Yan Zheng into the cave, opened his wound to check on him, and only breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the wound had successfully scabbed over.
Then she went to the back mountain and casually picked a "grass". The leaves of this "grass" were crescent-shaped and bluish-green. Jiang Xi rubbed it in her palm to extract the medicinal juice as Yan Zheng had instructed, and then applied it to his wound.
He explained to her very seriously: "This is the most commonly used Miao medicine in the Miao villages near the rescue team. It is called Crescent Grass. It can reduce inflammation and pain and treat bruises and sprains. It can even be used to make a decoction for typhoid fever and colds."
She then remembered that it was the one he had found to apply when she injured her foot last time.
Jiang Xi even boldly wanted to collect more, thinking of drying and storing it for future use.
For dinner, Jiang Xi cooked two tubers. They cooked for more than half an hour until the tubers became soft. They tasted a bit like dry noodles from white sweet potatoes, but not as sweet as sweet potatoes. They had a slightly sweet aftertaste.
She was delighted, as this was likely a source of high-quality carbohydrates, meaning they had another ingredient to choose from. She named this food root potato.
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