After resting for a while, Jiang Xi struggled to sit up and said in a trembling voice as she walked, "I need to use the restroom."
"Don't go too far," Yan Zheng instructed, his brows furrowed.
Jiang Xi dragged her aching legs to a tree. She didn't really need to use the restroom; she just wanted to find a secluded spot to stay for a while.
She was exhausted, hungry, and most importantly, she started having wild thoughts. What was she still holding on to? The chances of getting out were so slim, and she had an ex-boyfriend, or rather, a stranger, by her side. After all, she couldn't connect the "Yan Zheng" beside her with the person in her memories.
Apart from their equally resolute and strong facial features, they had nothing in common. He looked so fierce and domineering, and his attitude towards her was cold and hostile.
She had a premonition that if she showed even the slightest sign of collapse or giving up, this man would not hesitate to abandon her or tear her apart and devour her.
She is now constantly on edge.
As she was about to leave after staying too long, her eyes were drawn to something on the ground. There were three or five spiky balls lying at her feet, two of which had split open in the middle, revealing a hard red shell inside. They were chestnuts! Jiang Xi was still happy, as this was the only fruit tree she had seen since arriving here. She called out loudly to Yan Zheng.
Yan Zheng was gathering dry wood to start a fire when he heard her shout. He dropped the firewood, quickly stepped onto the stone slab, grabbed the axe from the slab, and went to find her.
Seeing that Jiang Xi was alright, he finally relaxed. He stepped on the chestnut thorns with his shoe and carefully took out the chestnut kernels. Looking at the chestnuts in his hand, and then at Jiang Xi, he surprisingly praised her: "You're doing well. You're lucky. Now we won't go hungry."
However, the chestnuts were not fully ripe at this time, and there were only a few scattered on the ground. Jiang Xi looked around and found another one not far from the tree.
They picked up everything they could find on the ground. The chestnuts were thorny, so they had to be very careful picking them up with their bare hands. The work was very time-consuming, and the wild chestnut kernels were small. After picking for half a day, they felt they had only managed to get enough for one meal.
The two, already hungry, didn't bother picking any more. They quickly gathered the chestnuts in their clothes and took them to the pond to start a fire and cook. Jiang Xi went to add firewood, while Yan Zheng used an axe to smash a small hole in each chestnut to make it easier to peel them later.
Half of the chestnuts that had been opened were boiled in a pot with water, and the other half were roasted in the campfire later. The aroma of chestnuts wafted out as soon as the water boiled. Since eating chestnuts alone wasn't enough to satisfy her hunger, she went to the stream and found some water celery. She also picked some tender tips of a few lamb's quarters that weren't too old yet.
After the chestnuts were ripe, Yan Zheng took them out and peeled them while they were drying.
I boiled another half pot of water, put all the wild vegetables in, sprinkled in the remaining half packet of seasoning powder, stirred it a couple of times, and a pot of wild vegetable soup was ready.
They smashed and pounded the unburnt charcoal, then pushed the still-burning wood aside, and threw the remaining half of the chestnuts into the charcoal ash to roast. The two then began to eat this hard-won meal.
Jiang Xi didn't have much of an impression of chestnuts before, only thinking they were similar to potatoes. But now she thinks they are much tastier than potatoes, very soft, sweet and fragrant. Paired with braised beef-flavored wild vegetable soup, this meal is really good.
Finally, after finishing off the roasted chestnuts, the two of them felt full.
After the meal, Jiang Xi finally had some energy and gathered up the scattered branches around her to use as firewood.
Yan Zheng climbed to the top of a rocky hill and looked around for a while: "We'll rest here tonight. There's water and food here."
Jiang Xi nodded in agreement, then thought for a moment and said, "How about staying a couple more days?"
Jiang Xi felt it was necessary to prepare more as she thought about it, and turned to Yan Zheng to suggest, "Let's stay a couple more days and prepare some food to take with us, just in case there are no chestnut trees ahead."
Yan Zheng did not immediately refute. He jumped off the boulder and added some firewood to the fire before saying, "The terrain here is open, and there is food near the water. Not only do you like it, but the wolves and tigers like it too."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Xi lowered her eyes and dismissed the idea. She still didn't really like having large carnivores as neighbors.
After resting for a while, Yan Zheng walked around and looked at the surroundings. He circled around several three- or four-meter-high rocks. Two of the boulders balanced each other, forming an angle on their outer sides. The stone platform below was about two meters deep, which should be just the right size for two people to sleep on.
Although it's not very smooth, the crack in the rock is about a meter off the ground, so it should be fine to make do for one night.
Yan Zheng had already cleaned up the fallen leaves in the cracks of the rocks, and Jiang Xi went to look for foxtail grass just like yesterday.
Perhaps because of the abundance of rocks and sunshine in this area, the wild grass was not as lush as it had been by the stream yesterday. Instead, there were many withered grass leaves, which she cut into a pile with her machete.
Over there, Yan Zheng was using vines to tie tree branches together. Today he was going to make a hanging door, and like yesterday, he was tying straw mats to the door frame.
Hanging the door from the crack in the stone with vines can provide both safety and warmth.
Jiang Xi cleaned the hay, picked out the long enough to weave into a straw mat, and spread the rest on the stone platform, making a full ten centimeters thick. She sat on it to test its softness, and found it to be just right.
The remaining hay was all woven into straw mats, which were then tied to the door frame.
One person braided and another tied, and it took an hour to make a decent grass door. Finally, they used a few vines to hang the two sides of the door and tied them to the big trees on both sides, which was both sturdy and concealed.
After finishing everything, Jiang Xi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Now that the problem of sleeping that night was solved, she looked at the sun and estimated that it would set in a little over an hour. The two then discussed going to pick some more chestnuts.
There were very few chestnuts left under the tree. Yan Zheng found a wooden stick about two meters long from somewhere and tapped it on the tree. Soon, a bunch of chestnuts fell.
This time, Jiang Xi learned her lesson and made a pair of long chopsticks, which, combined with her feet, greatly increased her speed in picking chestnuts.
They rushed back before sunset, laden with their catch, filling a whole pot.
Upon returning, Yan Zheng gathered firewood and stones to start a fire. By the time the fire was lit, it was completely dark, just as all the birds were returning to their nests, and the forest suddenly became lively.
I boiled a small pot of water and put in the chestnuts that I had just cut open. I also went to the other side of the stream and picked a few hawthorns to make hawthorn water. That's my dinner for today.
Yan Zheng sat on the stone slab, picked up an axe, and began to open the remaining chestnuts, while Jiang Xi sat on the ground adding firewood to the fire.
The bright firelight shone on her face, making her cheeks flushed. At that moment, she felt utterly exhausted, wondering how much longer this would last.
The fear and uncertainty about the unknown, like the darkness of night, eroded Jiang Xi's already fragile will to live.
"Do you think we can still get out? The natural disaster should be over by now, right?" Jiang Xi looked at Yan Zheng, her eyes reflecting a glimmer of hope, and asked tentatively, anxiously hoping to get an answer from him that would give her the strength to keep going.
Yan Zheng paused, but without looking up, he continued to focus on chopping chestnuts.
"With me here, what are you afraid of?"
He spoke a simple sentence with unusual seriousness, unlike his previous indifference, and it carried a hint of comfort.
Fresh chestnuts are very difficult to handle. He carefully held the chestnut in place with his left hand and used his right hand to quickly and forcefully strike it with the axe. Only then could the axe be firmly embedded in the chestnut. He then removed the chestnut with his hand, leaving a small opening in the shell.
His right arm, holding the axe, tensed, while his left hand picked up a chestnut again to hold it in place. His eyes were fixed on the chestnut: "Once we get to a higher point and see the whole area, maybe we can find a way out of the mountains." As he finished speaking, the chestnut was firmly embedded in the axe blade.
Hearing this, Jiang Xi did not feel relieved. The double blow to her body and mind from the arrival of the apocalypse, coupled with two days of running around and sleeping in the open, left her feeling extremely fearful and vulnerable.
A vague feeling ran through him, with only one voice asking, "What if there's no way out?" Perhaps he was just trying to comfort himself.
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