Su Meihua crouched at the cave entrance. "Yu Yao, this cave looks quite deep. Is it dangerous? Should we just go in like this?"
Yu Yao was prepared and turned on her flashlight. "There shouldn't be any danger. Sixteen is always very alert. We've been standing at the cave entrance for so long and haven't heard it bark once."
Along the way up the mountain, Sixteen was always the first to notice any movement that came within a mile of them.
Su Mei Garden thought about it and felt much more at ease.
The cave was dark and deep. The two walked forward along the stream from which the mountain spring water flowed.
The mountain spring water started out as a trickle, but the further you went in, the stronger the flow became.
The two walked for almost twenty minutes before finding the spring.
In a rocky pit, clear and clean spring water was gushing out from the cracks in the rocks. There were three streams, and the smallest one was about the thickness of a finger.
Because it was deep in the cave, the spring was in a pool with few impurities, and the spring water was clear and sweet, which made Yu Yao and Su Meihua very happy.
"Yu Yao, this spring is so big, it should be able to draw water down the mountain for drinking water, right?"
"There shouldn't be any problems. Tell Lu Ze and Commander Lei later that the rest of the work is up to them."
Su Meihua clapped her hands with a smile: "This is great! With bamboo water tubes, we can now use tap water just like the other residents in the apartment building."
Having achieved her biggest goal on this trip up the mountain, Yu Yao was overjoyed.
Su Meihua: "Yu Yao, are we going to Kapok Valley next?"
Yu Yao shone her flashlight into the depths of the cave. "Don't rush. There's the sea behind this mountain. The air in the cave smells of the sea. If I'm not mistaken, this cave should lead to the sea. Let's go forward and see."
Since the goal is to explore the back mountain, the caves are naturally included in the exploration scope.
The two walked for another ten minutes or so, and the smell of the sea breeze in the air became stronger and stronger, so they should be almost through the tunnel.
Suddenly, Sixteen started barking incessantly at a certain spot ahead.
Su Meihua was startled. "Yu Yao, could it be something? Like a tiger or a wolf?"
"Sixteen's voice is very steady, it's not anything dangerous. I'll go follow him and take a look."
Hearing her say that, Su Meihua breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm worried about you going alone, I'll go with you."
As she spoke, she gripped the machete tightly, but still feeling uneasy, she picked up a stone from the ground and held it in her hand.
Seeing that she was scared but still insisted, Yu Yao said okay.
Sixteen barked a few times toward the darkness, then turned back and barked a few more times toward Yu Yao and the others.
Yu Yao and Su Meihua followed it, quickening their pace.
Soon, Sixteen stopped and switched directions.
Yu Yao shone her flashlight in that direction and breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness, it's just an injured seabird."
"Sixteen, do you want me to save this seabird?"
Sixteen nodded.
Yu Yao picked up the injured seabird. "Little guy, you're lucky. I happened to bring some bandages and medicine."
The seabird's leg had been bitten by something, so Yu Yao disinfected it, cleaned the wound, bandaged it with gauze, and put it in a bamboo basket.
Sixteen barked nearby, seemingly asking a question.
Yu Yao patted its head. "This seabird is fine. We can take it back and raise it."
Su Meihua watched from the side and said with a smile, "Sixteen is really smart. It's been a year, it's time to breed it. When it has puppies, I'll reserve one first."
"If I get pregnant later, I'll give you one."
Sixteen, completely unaware of what was happening, happily circled around the bamboo basket containing the seabirds.
Yu Yao's gaze fell on the island, feeling as if she had seen the bird somewhere before, but she couldn't quite place it.
"Sister-in-law Meihua, let's keep going. I can already smell the sea breeze, we shouldn't be far."
Yu Yao's estimate was correct. After walking for only a few minutes, the narrow cave suddenly opened up, and a ray of light shone in from the outside, making the cave no longer pitch black.
Su Meihua pointed to the mountain wall, "Yu Yao, look, there are so many swallow nests here. The swallows on this island are really strange; they like to build their nests in caves and don't like to build them under the eaves."
Yu Yao looked in that direction and stared wide-eyed at the dense clusters of swallow nests on the cave walls.
She finally remembered why the seabird looked familiar.
Those were not ordinary seabirds at all; they were swiftlets.
In her previous life, when she traveled to islands, she visited Dazhou Island, which was an important navigational landmark on the Maritime Silk Road and the only habitat of swiftlets in my country.
Back then, the environment wasn't as good as it is now. There weren't many natural, wild swiftlet islands. Let alone finding bird's nests, it was very difficult to even see swiftlets.
I never expected to see swiftlets in other parts of the island.
She had even gone with the tour guide to see what swiftlets looked like; they would have missed it if they hadn't wanted to see the other side of the cave.
It's unclear how long it's been since anyone visited this cave, or perhaps no one has ever been here at all.
Su Meihua asked curiously, "Yu Yao, why are you so excited? It's just a swallow's nest, what's so strange about it? Back in our hometown, we had several under the eaves of our house."
"Sister-in-law Meihua, this isn't an ordinary swallow's nest, it's a bird's nest! A swiftlet's bird's nest!"
"Bird's nest?" Su Meihua didn't react at first, but when she came to her senses, she was even more excited than Yu Yao, and her voice trembled, "Yu Yao, are you referring to the bird's nest that high-ranking officials and landlords used to eat?"
Yu Yao nodded. "That's right, it's bird's nest."
What!
Su Meihua stared in disbelief at the countless bird's nests filling the cave, swallowing hard. "My goodness! So many bird's nests!"
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