Yan Zheng did not go out hunting again, nor did he rest; instead, he began making "gifts".
He started collecting stones early in the morning. They were a bluish-gray stone. Since they didn't have hammers or similar tools, Yan Zheng could only pick up some scattered pebbles or use harder black stones to smash them, which was especially difficult.
Jiang Xi wanted to help, but Yan Zheng chased her away to tend the fire. He dumped all the collected stones into the kiln to burn.
After a busy day, he had only collected two baskets of stone. Jiang Xi felt a heavy weight in her heart when she saw his hands covered with bloodstains and bruises.
After dinner, Jiang Xi wrapped herself in a blanket and pounded herbs by the firelight.
Yan Zheng had just finished bathing in the river. In late autumn, the evening breeze in the forest gradually picked up. A deer about half a person's height was lying at the entrance of the cave, chewing on a sweet potato. Yan Zheng walked past it and casually touched its antlers, which made the deer let out a series of "yoyos".
Yan Zheng saw Jiang Xi pounding herbs at the table, so he sat down next to her, pulled the blanket over himself, and put his arm around her waist.
Jiang Xi felt a tightening around her waist, and the faint herbal scent of soapberry lingered in the air. Her heart ached, and she pulled Yan Zheng's hand to her side, applying the pounded herbs to his skin.
She couldn't help but scold, saying, "Those broken stones are so useful, and you're making such a fuss about them. Is it worth all this trouble? Look at your hands."
She spent the whole day asking about the stone's purpose, but Yan Zheng only told her it was a surprise, and no matter how much she asked, he didn't reveal a single word.
The setup for this three-way trial.
Yan Zheng pinched her face, which was turning into a little bun of anger, and said with a smile, "I already said it was a surprise. It's no fun to say it out loud. This little injury will be fine in two days."
Yan Zheng raised his hand to help her brush away the stray hairs that had fallen beside her ear.
Jiang Xi noticed that the bandage he had painstakingly wrapped on his hand was crooked, and quickly stopped him: "Don't move, be careful not to spill the medicine all over the floor."
So he had no choice but to obediently prop up his palms, put his arms around her shoulders, and kiss the top of her head.
With a wronged expression and a serious face, she said, "Jiang Xi, you're becoming less and less patient with me."
He looked both aggrieved and sincere, which calmed Jiang Xi down by half, and she couldn't help but smile.
She leaned closer to Yan Zheng and reached out to touch his earlobe: "Yes, because you want to show your boyfriend strength, I have to give you a chance, right?"
Yan Zheng hugged her tighter and sighed, "You."
Jiang Xi felt a warmth in her heart. She understood that Yan Zheng wasn't good at expressing himself, but he always took action quietly.
She pressed her head against his chest, and the two cuddled for a while.
Listening to his steady heartbeat, Jiang Xi felt wonderful and at peace.
She felt that Yan Zheng had changed, or rather, the old Yan Zheng had returned. He would send her flowers and tell her about surprises. Their interactions became more and more comfortable and intimate.
She gently raised her head, looked into his deep eyes, and kissed him.
The flowers on the table bloomed even more brightly and passionately.
After a long while, the firewood in the earthen stove began to crackle.
Jiang Xi huddled up and murmured, "It really feels like winter is coming soon."
The weather is getting colder and colder. It's impossible to go out at night wearing only an inner shirt. Even the cave is chilly.
Yan Zheng gently rubbed his chin against the top of her head: "We need to speed things up."
In the following days, Yan Zheng focused all his attention on the timber, and his daily work consisted of felling and processing the wood. He was clearly eager to get started, and Jiang Xi also helped him stack the logs and collect vine fibers.
Five days later, Yan Zheng used wood and the leftover mud bricks to build another small wooden house next to the back door of the cave.
The cabin conveniently blocks the back door of the cave. You can enter the cabin directly from the cave's corridor, and there's a small door on the side of the cabin that leads out.
Although it is only five or six square meters, it is made of solid materials. The exterior walls of the entire house are made of logs as thick as a calf, which almost used up all the timber they had cut down in the past few days. The roof is also covered with a thick layer of moss.
The wooden cabin blocked the back door of the cave, preventing the draft from passing through. Jiang Xi thought to herself, "It must be very warm here in winter."
The river behind the house can be seen through the side door. Jiang Xi put a wooden sign on the door and casually stuck a bunch of small purple wildflowers on it. The whole house looks simple and cozy, and it is in perfect harmony with the surrounding grassland and forest.
Although she was very tired, Jiang Xi still felt a great sense of accomplishment when she saw the completed wooden house.
At first, she thought it was a toilet built by Yan Zheng to facilitate his physiological needs in winter, but the more she looked, the more she felt something was wrong. She also saw that Yan Zheng had started to build a clay stove inside the house and even built a raised platform along the ground.
A few steps were built along the edge of the platform. The entire platform was hollowed out in the middle. Going up the steps, a shallow pit about 1.3 to 1.4 meters deep was dug out in the middle of the platform, with a walnut-sized drain outlet at the bottom.
Then he finally took out the stones and shells that had been fired in the kiln a few days ago. After being fired at high temperature, the stones turned grayish-white. Yan Zheng put them in a homemade, not-so-standard stone mortar, crushed and ground them, and then sieved them.
By this point, Jiang Xi had guessed most of it; he probably wanted to make cement, so Jiang Xi simply joined in the work.
The sieved fine lime powder, after being mixed with water and fine sand, becomes cement for construction.
Then Yan Zheng smeared the cement into the shallow pit on the platform.
As Jiang Xi watched his actions, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind, and her originally calm heart began to pound.
Is this a bathroom?
The pit in the middle of the platform is a bathing pool, and cement is used to prevent water seepage.
She was now more than just impressed; she had never even dared to dream of having a bathroom in this jungle before, but Yan Zheng not only dared to dream it, he also dared to do it.
Yan Zheng even said that this was not enough; the waterproofness and safety of cement were not perfect, and there was still one most complicated process left.
After waiting for two days for the cement to dry naturally, Yan Zheng took Jiang Xi to the back mountain.
Autumn seems to arrive earlier in the jungle, with the green of the mountains and fields being replaced by orange and yellow. As you walk along, it's as if you're in an autumn/winter oil painting from the Western world.
Yan Zheng was marking out a type of tree that he had seen before when they were boiling salt in the back mountain.
He described it to Jiang Xi as a large tree with oval leaves and brown bark. When the bark was damaged, latex would slowly seep out from the trunk.
In the past, this was a raw material for rubber, so in some places it was also called the rubber tree, and it was used to make tires, rubber mattresses, and toys, etc.
It can be seen that rubber trees are particularly rare in this vegetation. They searched for a long time in the jungle until the afternoon before finally finding one. Fortunately, this rubber tree was quite old and its trunk was thick enough.
Yan Zheng used a dagger to make a small drainage ditch around the tree. Then he used vines to tie the ceramic bowl to the tree. The latex would slowly seep out from the wound on the tree and eventually flow into the ceramic bowl.
After the last rays of sunset turned from orange to black, their figures emerged from the jungle behind the mountain, each holding a ceramic bowl.
The bowl was full of latex. Yan Zheng didn't wait for anything. He had Jiang Xi hold up a torch, take out the pig bristle brush he had prepared earlier, and before the latex had solidified, he spread it evenly in the bath pit on the high platform.
Latex appears white, but it actually turns into a transparent, colorless film after being applied. Apply one layer first, wait for it to dry naturally, and then apply another layer until the inner wall of the bathtub feels smooth to the touch. This will prevent water seepage to the greatest extent possible.
If the latex is not used in time, it will harden and dry in a day or two. So they didn't sleep all night and repeatedly applied the latex to the bathtub five or six times until the sky began to lighten, and only then did the last step come to an end.
Jiang Xi went to the river to wash her hands. She looked up at the sky and it didn't look like a good day. The clouds overhead were thick and heavy, and she couldn't see the sunrise.
She put the dried salted fish into the cave, and the two exhausted people washed up briefly before going into the inner room to rest and catch up on sleep.
When Jiang Xi woke up again, the sky was noticeably darker and the air was noticeably cooler. Smelling the faint aroma of meat wafting through the cave, she picked up a wooden hairpin from the bedside table, casually tied her hair into a bun, and walked out of the inner room.
Yan Zheng was nowhere to be seen in the outer hall, and even the little deer was not in the cave. On the dining table was a small stove and pot, bubbling and steaming.
Jiang Xi sniffed; the aroma of meat she had smelled earlier was coming from the pot. Besides the small charcoal pot, there were also several plates of washed and chopped ingredients on the table.
There were soaked wood ear mushrooms and wild mushrooms, tender and crisp lotus root slices, as well as wide sweet potato noodles that Jiang Xi had made earlier, and two plates of boneless and thinly sliced rabbit meat, all neatly arranged in a circle on the plate, decorated with wildflowers and water celery in the middle.
Jiang Xi picked up a slice of rabbit meat. It was evenly thick and had clear marbling. She clicked her tongue in amazement and couldn't help but admire him. Even with such an unsuitable tool, he still had such amazing knife skills.
Soon she heard a commotion outside; it was Yan Zheng's voice.
As Jiang Xi walked to the door, she saw Yan Zheng washing something by the river with his back to her. He was praising Xiao Lu for being so smart. Xiao Lu was beside him, looking down at him as if she could understand what he was saying. Xiao Lu is quite big now, standing up to a person's waist.
Jiang Xi felt a pang of tenderness at the sight before her, as if a feather had gently brushed against her heart. She asked softly, "What are you washing?"
Yan Zheng turned to look at her: "Finally awake. Wash some wild vegetables, we'll have hot pot later."
The wild vegetables are darker in color now, not as tender as they are in spring and summer, and have a stronger flavor, making them perfect for hot pot.
Jiang Xi joked, "I must say, your recipe book is quite extensive!"
Yan Zheng accepted her praise: "This is called the warmth of home cooking. Back in the mountains, when it got cold and we didn't know what to eat, we would light a stove, and a few of us from the team would gather around to cook some meat and vegetables. We would have a warm and cozy meal."
As Jiang Xi listened, she was reminded of the winters she spent with her grandmother in previous years.
Back then, every spring in the countryside, fish fry would be released into the rice paddies, and then caught and eaten in the autumn. After a summer of feeding, the fish meat would become exceptionally plump and delicious.
Deep-fry the whole fish in a wok until the skin is crispy. Then, heat oil in another wok, add scallions, ginger, and garlic to sauté until fragrant, add various sauces, and finally put the fried fish in and simmer with water for a while.
Once cooked, the broth becomes thick and rich. When you put the fish, which is covered in broth, in your mouth, it melts in your mouth. Paired with a bowl of white rice, the meal makes you sweat profusely, and you won't feel cold even in the coldest winter.
Yan Zheng stood up and shook the moisture off the wild vegetables: "Alright, let's go back."
Pulled back to reality, Jiang Xi went over, took the fawn's hand, and led it into the cave.
After gaining weight for winter, the rabbit meat had just the right amount of fat, making it moist and not greasy. After being simmered in a broth infused with the fragrance of wild mushrooms, the rabbit meat was so tender that it almost made you bite your tongue off. The two of them sat around the stove, enjoying their meal immensely.
The two were chatting casually while eating when a thunderclap sounded in the sky, followed by a sudden burst of light and the sound of torrential rain.
Jiang Xi put on a blanket, picked up a slice of crisp lotus root, and sighed inwardly, "Eating hot pot while listening to the rain is such a rare moment of leisure."
However, this leisure time was too long. The rain lasted for two whole days, and the river rushing down from the mountain flooded the entire area in front of the cave. Jiang Xi had no doubt that if she took a step out, she would be swept into the lake by the current.
Even the river in the valley behind the mountain has become twice as wide as usual.
Left with no other choice, the two could only do some handicrafts in the cave. Jiang Xi took advantage of Yan Zheng being there as a model, occasionally holding the sweater up to her body and sewing him a sweater out of fiber fabric.
On the other side, Yan Zheng used the wood prepared in the cave to make two bedside tables. He even used a piece of wood and a dead branch to make a wabi-sabi style vase, which he placed on the headboard. It looked like a piece of natural wood with an ecological aesthetic.
Jiang Xi liked it more and more as she looked at it; how could his hands be so skillful?
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