Today, Top and I continued our usual journey, hunting and gathering edible plants along the way.
We were like homeless wanderers in the jungle.
The rain was still pouring down overhead, and Top was sheltering from the rain inside my basket with a banana leaf.
I didn't care about the heavy rain; the fur coat I was wearing inside out looked like a one-piece raincoat on its smooth surface.
In addition, my trouser legs were tucked over the outside of the bamboo boots, so not only my body but also the inside of my shoes remained dry and comfortable.
Fortunately, I didn't slack off and just make a pair of shoes. Otherwise, in this damp weather, my feet wouldn't be protected and I might have developed a fungal infection due to prolonged soaking in water, which could then lead to ulcers and a series of other problems.
The paths in the jungle are difficult to walk on, especially after it rains when the ground becomes wet and slippery. You can easily slip and fall, and getting injured in the jungle is a very troublesome thing.
This place has the world's densest biodiversity, including tens of thousands of microorganisms and pathogens. Wounds in the jungle are several times more likely to become infected than in other terrains.
If one is unfortunately infected with some acute pathogens, without proper medical treatment, a person can die in just a few hours.
I'm not in a hurry anyway. This arduous journey has already taken a toll on my mental state, and now I need to sit down, rest, and adjust my mindset.
The first rule of survival in the jungle is not to be impatient. There are countless dangers here, and you can easily make a mistake. The biggest cost of making a mistake is to enter a vicious cycle until death.
I'm sitting on a rock that's been washed clean by the rain, and I feel something strange on my legs, like something is wriggling on my skin.
I rolled up the pant legs that were wrapped around my shoes, and the sight before me made my scalp tingle. Leeches the size of mung beans were crawling all over the inside of my pant legs.
This is the most common type of leech found in tropical rainforests.
The rainforest climate is humid, so they don't need to stay in the water for long periods. They usually hide in the bushes and grass along the way, and when they sense that a warm-blooded animal is passing by, these vampires attach themselves to the animal's fur.
When they bite, they release an antithrombin, which not only prevents blood from clotting but also anesthetizes the transmission of pain signals to the brain.
This means that even if they target you, you won't notice, unless they've finished drinking their blood and crawl away on their own. Otherwise, no one can get rid of these vampires.
I crushed the blood-sucking leeches one by one until my fingers were bright red and covered in blood.
These things are really scary. If we keep going, there might be even more leeches attaching themselves to us.
At that moment, I felt a bit itchy in my genitals. When I took off my clothes, I saw that there were several blood-sucking leeches wriggling in my pubic area.
"Damn it, what kind of place are you sucking from? It's a good thing I'm a man, otherwise, if you guys were inside me, what would happen?"
I spat and, in a fit of rage, pulled down those wretched and disgusting leeches and crushed them one by one.
Since I had no clothes inside to get wet anyway, I simply turned the fur inside out and thoroughly cleaned all the leeches inside. My blood wasn't meant to be sucked for free.
But this doesn't solve the problem. These leeches become especially active in the rain, and it won't be long before I'm covered in new ones again.
If only there were a fire. I looked up at the sky, but the rain showed no sign of stopping.
The air was damp, the wood was damp, and I sighed, unless I could find shelter from the rain.
Otherwise, even if they managed to get the fire going, it would be extinguished in less than five minutes under such heavy rain.
After sitting there for another half hour, the rain finally started to subside.
Although there were leeches on the road, I couldn't do anything about it for the time being and could only continue on my way. I would think of a way to solve the problem once I found a place to take shelter from the rain.
Perhaps the heavens had grown tired of raining, for the rain finally stopped, and the sun's rays once again shone through the dense forest, leaving long, narrow streaks of light in the woods.
Seeing the sun come out, I didn't feel much joy. Instead, I checked the water stored in my basket.
I shook a few bamboo water-storing tubes, and they made a dull thud, proving that I still had enough water for now.
If you open the sun in a jungle after it has just rained, high temperature and high humidity will appear within one or two hours.
Most people only think that the stronger the sun, the higher the temperature, and the drier the air, the faster the body loses water.
In fact, it's not just high temperature and dryness that accelerate fluid loss; in a hot and humid environment, the body loses water twice as fast.
Even at a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius, which is usually quite comfortable, people will still sweat profusely if the air humidity exceeds 60%.
This is why the temperature reached by a steamer is much higher than that of boiling water.
Significant fluid loss means that the body's electrolytes are also excreted along with the fluids, leading to symptoms such as dizziness, fatigue, and nausea.
Even in the rainforest, people are still at risk of dehydration, which can be even more severe than in the desert.
What's worse is that the dimly lit rainforest is never short of annoying insects. As soon as the rain stopped, the irritating buzzing began to ring in my ears.
"Smack!"
A crisp slap rang out as I swatted a tiger mosquito, which looked similar in size to an Aedes amur. This creature wasn't particularly large, but its bites elicited the most severe allergic reactions.
This type of mosquito is different from other types of mosquitoes; with other mosquitoes, you can at least feel the bite.
However, when this creature bites, it secretes an enzyme that inhibits pain transmission, just like those leeches, so people are basically unaware of its presence when it's being targeted.
I was very irritable because of these annoying mosquitoes all the way, and I kept getting one big red bump on my body.
I don't think I've ever received this many red envelopes during Chinese New Year.
Under this double attack, I wasn't moving fast. Now I didn't want to keep going; I just wanted to find a dry place to sit down and think of a plan to deal with these damned vampires.
I followed the mountainside and soon discovered a protruding rock ledge.
The protruding rock ledge serves as a natural barrier against rainwater, and the land beneath it remains dry, with even some dry, withered grass and branches nearby.
I ducked down and went under the rock shelf, where I could find shelter from the rain.
With a little renovation, it can also serve as a temporary cooking area and campsite. What I value most is that the terrain here can provide shelter from the rain.
Living on the ground, though damp and dangerous at the moment, is still more appealing than the omnipresent leeches and incessantly buzzing mosquitoes in the trees. I've decided to risk spending the night here.
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