As Jiang Xi was about to go back, her gaze was drawn to the water mint by the river.
It's the height of summer now, and they just picked some oranges yesterday. She's craving a cold drink, so why not make a refreshing orange and mint juice drink that can both cool you down and stimulate your appetite?
After picking mint, she had just walked through the cave corridor, wearing only a few banana leaves around her neck, when she met Yan Zheng, who was coming in from the front entrance of the cave.
He was carrying a cleaned large yellow croaker in his right hand. He must have just finished bathing in the river, as his body was still damp, his hair was wet, and the ends of his slightly long hair were still dripping water. He was only wearing two banana leaves around his waist. His honey-colored skin contrasted sharply with his strong and muscular physique, and the slight stubble on his cheeks made him look very striking.
Jiang Xi suddenly felt that he was exceptionally tall at this moment, and his presence made the cave seem much narrower and the cave seemed to become even hotter.
Yan Zheng also saw her. Jiang Xi's long hair was wet and draped behind her, with only a playful strand of hair swirling and sticking to her collarbone. Banana leaves were wrapped around her chest and thighs, revealing a section of her waist. The green banana leaves made her waist look even whiter and more slender.
His gaze lingered on her waist, his eyes darkening slightly. Jiang Xi noticed his gaze and, not to be outdone, looked back at him.
After a long while, Yan Zheng withdrew his gaze, casually placed the fish on a banana leaf inside the cave, and walked directly into the inner cave.
After he left, Jiang Xi touched her burning cheeks and cursed herself for being so weak.
She took some fruit and a handful of wild vegetables from a corner of the cave and fled the cave.
Then she first boiled a pot of water, piled up stones in the river to make a small pit, put all the fruit in it, and used the water flow to cool the fruit.
On the other side, she used an axe to chop the fish into pieces and washed them in the river.
Yan Zheng emerged from the cave. He had changed into his own short-sleeved shirt and was wrapped in banana leaves around his lower body. The atmosphere was somewhat awkward. He didn't greet Jiang Xi and went straight to the lower reaches of the river.
After cleaning the fish pieces, the water in the pot was almost at room temperature. Jiang Xi washed the mint, patted it in her palm, and threw it into the pot. She also cut the washed orange in half and squeezed the juice into the pot. Finally, she stirred it well and it was done.
Jiang Xi tasted it first. It had a refreshing minty flavor and a hint of orange. The only regret was that it didn't have sugar, but she was already very satisfied. Although the cold drink would lose a lot of flavor without sugar, Jiang Xi felt that she should be content to be able to drink a beverage in this hot summer.
She refilled the mint drink into a water bottle, tightened the cap, and put it in the river to keep it chilled before starting to prepare lunch.
Recalling the taste of the large yellow croaker she ate last time, Jiang Xi remembered that they had picked Sichuan peppercorns yesterday, so why not make Sichuan peppercorn stewed fish?
She put the cleaned fish pieces into a pot with enough water to stew, then went to the cave to get the Sichuan peppercorns she had picked the day before, spreading them out in a sunny spot at the cave entrance. She casually picked up a peppercorn, washed it, and tossed it into the pot. As soon as the peppercorn hit the pot, the fish soup immediately released a numbing aroma, reminding her of the Sichuan peppercorn fish hot pot restaurant across from her workplace.
Jiang Xi turned around and saw Yan Zheng scooping stones out of the water. She scooped out all the flat stone slabs from the river and placed them in the sun, arranging them in rows.
She walked over from upstream: "Why did you dredge up so many stones?"
The stones in the river were slippery, and Yan Zheng struggled to throw them one by one onto the bank: "The cave is too high off the ground, and it's inconvenient to go up and down. Let's build a step."
Seeing that he was struggling to retrieve and arrange stones in the water all by himself, Jiang Xi went around to help him, taking the stones with her hands: "I'll help you."
Yan Zheng refused her outright: "No need, you go and watch the fire."
"It's alright, the fish is already stewing."
Yan Zheng said helplessly, "Jiang Xi, the forest fire is very serious."
After saying that, he deliberately stood up, glanced at her, and said with a hint of teasing in his tone, "And are you sure this outfit is appropriate?"
Jiang Xi followed her gaze and glanced at herself. Although she was thin, she had not lacked any fullness in the right places after entering puberty. At this moment, the banana leaves on her chest were already overburdened and about to fall off.
She felt a burning sensation behind her ears and quickly covered her chest. Knowing better than to do anything, she turned around and walked back towards the cave, saying awkwardly, "I'm going to check on the fish soup."
This place is really inconvenient. Thinking about the leaves I'm currently wearing, how am I any different from a caveman? I need to think of a way to solve the clothing problem as soon as possible, otherwise there will be more and more opportunities to be embarrassed like this in the future.
After arranging the banana leaves, Jiang Xi focused on the fish in the pot. Once the fish was tender enough to be easily pierced with chopsticks, she sprinkled in some delicate wild vegetables, and the fish soup was ready.
The large yellow croaker, even after long stewing, remains tender and juicy. The unique flavor of Sichuan peppercorns, combined with the delicious broth, creates a fragrant and numbing aroma that whets the appetite of both of them.
When you're sweating from eating, a sip of ice-cold mint drink makes the survival days in the wild seem less unbearable.
After the meal, Yan Zheng went up the hillside and carried back the timber he had cut down that morning. Jiang Xi chose a few trees with less lush foliage in a sunny spot by the river, tied the vines to the trees, and tightened them to use as clotheslines.
They went up the hillside again and dragged back the rattan fibers they had peeled off in the morning, arranging them neatly one by one on the clothesline.
The temperature here is high, so first expose the rattan fibers to the sun for two days, then water them with clean water, repeating this process several times until they degummed.
She didn't know if this method of treating hemp would work on rattan fibers, but at this point she had to do more experimentation.
If they succeed, it will drastically change their lives.
She then went up the hillside and brought back the remaining vines.
After all the wooden doors and vines were brought back, they began assembling the wooden doors.
The door is relatively simple to make. Just arrange the wood neatly according to the warp and weft, and then tie each joint tightly with vines. As long as the wood is thick enough and the vines are tied tightly enough, the wooden door will be sturdy enough.
Yan Zheng then found a sharp-edged stone and tied it together with a wooden stick to make a simple stone shovel.
First, they dug a pit half a meter deep on the right side of the cave entrance, near the river. They buried a log, as thick as a thigh and more than three meters long, in it and placed it beside the cave.
Next, the assembled wooden door was fixed to this stake. At night, a log that was wider and longer than the cave entrance was placed inside the cave, and vines were used to tie the wooden door and the log together. This way, they would support each other, making it difficult for even a black bear to break through the door. Since the cave entrance was large, it was designated as the front door.
Yan Zheng had originally intended to use the same method to dig the cave entrance to the valley behind the mountain, but the soil layer in the valley was very thin. He only managed to dig twenty centimeters before being blocked by rocks, and could not dig any further; the same thing happened on both sides.
Later, Jiang Xi came up with a solution: she made a door much larger than the cave entrance, placed a sufficiently heavy stone inside, and used vines to hold the wooden door shut at night, then tied the vines and stone together. During the day, when she wanted to go out, she would untie them, and the wooden door could be easily pushed open.
Time flies when you're busy. By the time the back door was installed, it was already dark, with only a faint light remaining near the mountains.
For dinner, they ate the remaining half of the fish soup and some fruit.
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