Chapter 36

As they walked, they found that although they had passed the novice protection period, not all animals would attack actively. For example, hares, pheasants, and small birds would even go around them when they saw them.

Large animals like wild boars would still pounce on them. Unless there were lone ones, the two of them were determined not to go up, as the risk factor was too high.

The remaining ones with skin and fur that could be beaten were all killed.

When Qiao Sheng saw the wild ducks, the first thing he thought of was beer ducks. He had beer at home, and now he only needed ducks. As soon as he raised his iron gun, Li Mu stopped him and asked him to change to a hunting net.

The best thing about Qiao Sheng is that he listens to advice, and time is very tight. The wild duck is obviously very alert. Fortunately, after this period of time, I have used wild rabbits to practice, and the wild duck was pinned down when the hunting net was thrown out.

After tying up the wild duck, I asked why I couldn’t kill it, so that it would be easier to take away in a bag.

"This green-headed wild duck is easy to raise, laying eggs and molting. If I catch more later, I will kill it for you to eat. You may have to wait for the beer duck, and the beer still needs to ferment for a few days." Li Mu explained, still looking for traces of other wild ducks. This wild duck should live in groups.

The two of them looked around for ducks and soon found a water source. There were indeed quite a few wild ducks in it. The two of them squatted aside and quietly made a few more hunting nets. The wild ducks would run around when frightened, making it difficult to catch them. They caught them by surprise.

Soon, five hunting nets were in place. Qiao Sheng seized the opportunity and flew out five nets one after another. Only one was empty. Including the one caught before, there were five in total. After Li Mu's identification, there were three females and two males.

With these five, it was enough for them to reproduce. The two of them stopped tangling by the water and continued to look for other crops and animals. It was not that they didn't want to continue catching ducks, but after the previous incident, the ducks in the water had already escaped.

After hunting a full grid of rabbits in her backpack, Qiao Sheng couldn't help asking how there could be so many rabbits on the island.

Li Mu explained to her that rabbits have two uteruses, so they can give birth seamlessly, and that they have a short gestation period and give birth in large quantities, so it's easy for them to cause a disaster.

"Then we're getting rid of pests for the people. Catch more. Did you pick Sichuan peppercorns or Sichuan peppercorns? Did you also pick chili peppers? Let's make spicy rabbit meat later. By the way, can you handle spicy food?" Qiao Sheng said righteously, without considering that there were only two of them on the island, so how could he be doing it for the people?

"It's to get rid of pests for the people. The ones I just picked are Sichuan peppercorns. I need to look for more Ma peppercorns. I picked a lot of chili peppers. Anything is fine. I like spicy food." Li Mu has been with her for a long time recently. He has long been accustomed to the habit of starting and ending things differently. He is also self-taught and can quickly summarize all the questions in one sentence. He answers each one very clearly.

At noon, they had a simple meal in the woods. What they ate was not important, as long as they could fill up the value bar.

After taking a short rest against a tree, the two began to look for useful supplies in the woods again. It was not known whether Li Mu had a good eye or knew a lot. Anyway, he could really find everything. He once made Qiao Sheng suspect that he must have missed some crops in the previous islands.

Estimating the time, they walked back while chopping trees. Qiao Sheng turned his attention to animals while chopping trees. Li Mu was completely serious about chopping trees. Soon his bag was full. When the sun was about to set, the two of them had already reached the edge of the forest.

Qiao Sheng was carrying a backpack and a machete, while Li Mu was wearing a waist bag with two cloth bags on the back. One of them contained five wild ducks and the other contained four wild rabbits.

After seeing the boat, the two were blocked by two wild boars. Each of them led one to a distance and began to swing the machete to chop the pig's head. Several times, they hit the wild boar's tusks. This was because the two had cooperated to kill two wild boars and were already skilled. However, this time, they were fighting side by side, and it became a single person's battle. It was inevitable that there would be omissions in movement and defense.

When the two wild boars lay down completely, the sun was almost gone. They put the two wild boars with their heads chopped into pieces into bags, and did not dare to rest. They hurried back to the boat while there was still light.

After getting on the boat, the two people sat down in the first-floor cabin without any image. This trip was too tiring.

After resting for a while, the sky was completely dark, and the unlit cabin was also pitch black. Li Mu originally rested with his head down, but soon he heard the rustling sound next to him. When he turned around, he saw Qiao Sheng's big eyes, looking at him sincerely.

This look made him understand a lot. He coughed lightly, stood up and lit the metal wall lamp hanging on the wooden wall. When he turned around, he knew where the sound came from. Qiao Sheng was sitting cross-legged, holding on to the strap of his backpack and twirling it with both hands.

"As expected of you, you actually understood the look in my eyes and walked away. I'm going to make dinner. What do you want to eat?" Qiao Sheng smiled so hard that his eyes almost disappeared. He threw his backpack to Li Mu. Seeing that he didn't have any suggestions about the type of dinner, he took the fire and went upstairs.

Li Mu stayed on the first floor to build nests for the newly caught wild rabbits and ducks. There were four wild rabbits in one nest, after all, there were three pregnant rabbits in it. As for the female rabbit that had already given birth, she should feed the cubs first. After all, she had to wait until the little ones grew up and could be separated before putting the male rabbit in.

The five wild ducks were also simple. First, he nailed a range with wooden boards, and covered it with the dry grass he picked up today. Then he made a plastic bucket of the largest size. For five ducks, the bucket didn't need to be too deep, but it had to be big enough. He filled it with the rainwater he had collected before, and threw all five mallards into the plastic bucket. The job was done.

As soon as he finished all this, Qiao Sheng on the second floor called him up to eat. They had grilled corn and ribs, and cooked some fish soup.

After dinner, the two of them cleaned up the dishes and went downstairs to sort out today's spoils. Then they saw a male mallard duck standing on the terrace, flapping its wings constantly, trying to jump off the boat. The guardrail was not high, so it just couldn't jump out.

"Is this duck not very smart? If it lays eggs and we eat them, will it affect our IQ?" Qiao Sheng asked with his head tilted.

"It's a male duck and doesn't lay eggs. We won't eat the eggs it lays. We have to use them to hatch ducklings. I think it should have a high IQ. You see the other four are still swimming in the plastic bucket, but this one wants to run away. It has good jumping ability and jumped out of the wooden board." Li Mu walked over, pinched the neck of the mallard duck that was trying to escape and brought it back to the nest. "

Then should we tie a rope to it so that it won't run around? It seems that it can't run off the boat, but it can't stand running around all over the boat." Qiao Sheng felt very worried. The rabbits and chickens he raised before were very obedient. Since entering the nest, none of them showed any signs of running away.

Between cleaning up the duck shit all over the boat and tying up the wild duck with a rope, Li Mu chose to tie it up, ignoring the duck's rooster voice and fluttering wings. The end of the rope was tied to the wooden board that served as a fence, and nailed with iron nails. The length was just enough for it to swim in the plastic bucket. The tied duck jumped up and down like it was going crazy.

"Tie it up! If you keep quacking, I'll pluck your feathers and cook you!" Qiao Sheng was annoyed by the quacking sound in his ears. He walked over and kicked the duck's butt. The tied duck, who was happy to get a new name, immediately became much more obedient. Although its wings were still flapping, it at least stopped quacking.

Two bags were filled with today's harvest, four wild boars, and it felt like the boat was sinking when they were taken out. There was no time to clean them up on the island, so they were put into storage boxes first and cut up and dried when they drifted on the sea.

The hares were almost piled up into a small mountain. There were more than 150 of them, which was a large amount. Li Mu used a machete to skin the snake. The two of them struggled for a long time about the meat, and finally decided to put it on the trading system. Li Mu also set a high price for it, a bag of pepper seeds.

Qiao Sheng also said that no one would exchange it, who would dare to eat it? Unexpectedly, it was exchanged in less than half an hour. Looking at the bag of pepper seeds in Li Mu's hand, she could only sigh that the world is so big, and there are always some brave people who shine.

After getting the peppercorn seeds, Qiao Sheng prepared to plant them in the planting pots in the cabin. The planting pots reminded him that this was a tree and could not be planted in such a small pot. Looking at the large coconut trees in the planting pots on both sides of the first-floor terrace, it seemed that the peppercorns would have to wait a while.

The sugarcane was taken out, and each person cut a section and chewed it, and the rest was put in the storage box first. How to plant this on a large scale, Li Mu said he had to study it to see if it could be planted directly or if seedlings had to be raised first.

There were also peppercorn seeds, and Li Mu packed them separately in a small cloth bag. It also reminded him that they needed to be planted in a large planting pot, and put them together with the peppercorn seeds. When the coconut trees matured and were cut down, they would be planted in the planting pots outside.

There weren't many chili peppers, so I took one apart first, took out the seeds and planted them in a pot. They'd be very useful for frying chili oil after drying.

The rest were wooden boards, leaves, a pile of hay and thicker branches. I asked and found out that the hay was for wintering, and it would be useful for the little animals on the boat to give birth. It wasn't a good idea to always use banana leaves as a cushion, and it was too wasteful to use cotton to keep warm.

Li Mu planned to get up early tomorrow and dig a kiln to make some charcoal with the branches he picked up.

After emptying the bag, the two began to pack up the 158 hares. They moved the wall lamp to the first-floor terrace. Li Mu dismantled two fences. The two washed and peeled the hares in the sea water. Qiao Sheng couldn't bear it after peeling more than 30 hares. The remaining nearly 130 hares were also put in the storage box to be dealt with later.

They made hot water, half a pot for each person. They didn't take a bath. They wiped their bodies with warm water and filled the wooden basin for foot washing to soak their feet. When Li Mu finished packing and came up from downstairs, Qiao Sheng had already gone to bed. He was like a spinning top that didn't stop for a moment.

In the morning, Qiao Sheng was awakened by the creaking sound of being tied up. When he looked up, Li Mu was no longer in bed. He got up, went to the bathroom, took a willow branch, dipped it in tooth powder, and started brushing his teeth. He changed his pajamas, then left the bathroom and walked to the second-floor terrace.

When he passed by the dining table, he saw two bamboo cups on it. When he went over, he saw that they were filled with coconut water. When he walked to the kitchen, the corn and sweet potatoes on the simple grill were already cooked.

It seemed that this was the breakfast prepared by Li Mu. He took a small iron basin from the storage box in the kitchen and brought all the food on the grill to the dining table.

Then I walked to the terrace and looked at the shore. Sure enough, Li Mu was standing on the shore busy. The kiln for burning charcoal had been dug. Judging from Li Mu's movements, he should have added the branches he picked up yesterday into it, sealed the kiln mouth, leaving only a chimney, and prepared to burn charcoal.