I sneered in my heart. As the saying goes, there is no gain without pain. Song Bailu's move was nothing but a ulterior motive. However, this was consistent with my understanding of her. It would be strange if she ever served me tea or water sincerely.

"You can rest assured. Since I promised Yunwen yesterday that we would resolve the past grievances with you two, we should naturally continue as before and help each other and do what we should do. It is also my duty to protect you, just like when Yunwen and I were sick, we needed you to provide medical treatment in time. As for Yingchun, as long as she is obedient, I will do my best to protect her. After all, if something happened to her, I guess you couldn't stay here, right?" I said.

This explanation also made Song Bailu completely relieved. She said repeatedly: "Brother Zhou Bo is really a man of great courage. It makes a little girl like me feel ashamed."

"Also, don't take the rumors about the black phantom too seriously. I've said everything I need to say. There's no need to make things difficult for yourself. The dirty stuff that should have appeared has already appeared, and those that haven't appeared will definitely not appear. Otherwise, why haven't we seen such things since we landed? Besides, there's an old saying, 'If you don't do anything wrong, you don't have to worry about ghosts knocking on your door. We have no grudges against it, so it won't look for us even if it wants to," I said.

Yingchun forced a smile, looking unnatural, and said, "Yes, Brother Zhou Bo's analysis is correct. I promise not to spread these horrible rumors."

But after she finished speaking, she and Yunwen looked at each other again, and both of their expressions were intriguing and full of deep meaning.

Since we came back from Xiying City, today's morning has been the most normal day. There are no mermaids, no messy things, and the four of us are all relatively healthy and have no abnormalities, which is really rare.

When Yingchun woke up, Bailu had finished preparing breakfast, which was still vegetable and meatballs with some cold-mixed black fungus, and a sip of pine needle tea. This was the start of a simple day for us mountain people.

The taste was roughly the same as last night, it was a simple meal, and after eating they sat around the table, waiting for me to assign them tasks.

"This is how I plan to arrange it for today. Bailu, you will be mainly responsible for Yunwen's physical condition. Make some nourishing soup for her. If possible, you can also accompany her for a walk. Take the horse for a stroll in the yard to circulate the blood. Then feed Sanfu some food. Yingchun will be mainly responsible for watering the farmland to ensure that the humidity and temperature of the soil are not too low. I will filter out the salt in a while. Bailu, you will watch the remaining meat marinate. Then I will go out for a while. One is to continue filtering salt from the sea water, and the other is to find some food. See if there are any stranded fish, shells, etc. on the beach to replenish the granary." I said.

The girls nodded and prepared to start their day's work.

"The ugly guy always gives me fresh meat to eat. Alas, now I can only eat stranded and stinky fish." Song Yingchun muttered, thinking I couldn't hear her.

After that, the girls each took up their own duties. I also found an unused earthen jar, knocked the bottom off, found a piece of seldom-used cloth, wrapped it tightly, and poured fine sand into the jar, which occupied about one-fifth of the jar. I found a burning charcoal, extinguished it, crushed it to form activated carbon, and poured it into the jar, which also occupied about one-fifth of the jar. Finally, I poured in coarse sand, which occupied two-fifths of the jar, to form a filter.

Find an earthen basin to collect water, then use the seawater in the general's kettle to pass through the filter, use the adsorption effect of activated carbon to complete the filtration, and then take the earthen basin to the campfire to dry, leaving only fine salt.

I have done it before, so it is not too difficult to do it again. Pour the remaining fine salt into an earthen bowl, about a small layer, about 3 to 4 cents, which is 15 to 20 grams. I have heard of a formula ratio of 10:1.5, which can marinate 150 to 200 grams of meat. We still have six large pork chops and three huge piranhas that we haven't eaten yet. This must be nearly one kilogram of meat. If we want to use it for marinating, the amount is still not enough.

But after some calculations, I roughly figured out the approximate amount needed. A military kettle can hold about one liter of water, so I will bring some more containers today. For example, a long earthen urn is more than twice the volume of a military kettle. Taking two together can save time and reduce risks.

So I put the earthen jar in my backpack and put a military water bottle in the compartment. I picked up my bow, carried my sword, put on a cloak, and went out.

The route was the same as yesterday. Fortunately, the wolves were not on this side of the coast, so I went to the coast and successfully got sea water. I was able to return quickly. I had collected all the food I needed along the way, and there was no need to spend extra time on this. So I quickly returned to the tunnel and was walking back with the earthen jar in my hand. Suddenly, I saw three scratches on the cave wall under the eternal lamp. I moved closer to touch it, and the shape was very similar to the scar on Sanfu's body before.

I heard that the ugly mermaid came from the abyss under the tunnel. Maybe it accidentally scratched its head when it came up one time. When the mermaid lived with us, after Yingchun fell asleep, it would jump into the well and disappear. It would pop up from the tunnel during the day. This is its daily movement trajectory, so my analysis should be correct.

It’s just that I never noticed it before, and I don’t know if it’s because I was in too much of a hurry.

Another thing is that the scratches on the cave wall are very deep, as if they are erupting with some kind of anger. I hope I am seeing things.

Never mind. Now I’m carrying the water, which is quite cold. Let me finish the task at hand first and then think about it in detail.

As I was walking, I suddenly smelled a fishy smell in addition to the scent of dragon incense in the tunnel. I was slightly alert, and my right hand unconsciously prepared to draw the sword, but then I remembered that it seemed that after I put my cloak on the mermaid's corpse yesterday, it was stained with a lot of blood, and I forgot to wash it yesterday, so there was a smell.

It turned out that I was too nervous.

Holding the earthen jar in one hand, I could only climb up the ladder with one hand. Fortunately, I had been trained and my arms had enough endurance. I quickly reached the post station with one hand, returned to the house to continue filtering the sea water and converting it into fine salt. This time the amount was almost enough. After pouring it all into the earthen bowl, Bai Lu took it to pickle it. I specifically instructed to keep one of the piranhas, without pickling it, and start stewing it tonight. This way, the amount of fine salt would be just enough to pickle all the others.

In this way, my work was basically completed, but there were no stranded fish on the beach. After all, I had picked up everything I should have picked up on the beach yesterday. How could there be so much food for free?

I was just about to go find Yunwen to see what she was doing when I heard Bai Lu say behind me, "Sister Yunwen is walking her horse in the courtyard. She's in a good mood. If you go over there, it might be a bit of a bother. Sometimes, if we keep some distance, we can feel more fresh with each other."

This means not letting me pass.

"I'm just going to check out the condition of the farmland, don't think too much," I said.

"I've checked it out. Basically, there's no problem. Although Yingchun has a hot temper, she's still very serious about her work. She's never messed up anything you asked her to do, right? It's just that she's in a bad mood right now. She's been staying in the room upstairs, making a lot of noise and I don't know what she's doing. She also won't let me in." Bai Lu said.

"Maybe just to tinker with something to vent my feelings." I said.

"Well, after all, the mermaid was her savior. It's hard not to be sad to see her die like that. And the only person I can listen to now is you, Brother Zhou Bo. So I have an unreasonable request. I hope you can do me a small favor. Is that okay?" Bai Lu said.

After taking a long detour, I found out this is what it meant.

"Okay, I happen to be busy and need your help. Yesterday my cloak was stained with the blood of a mermaid and it smells a bit fishy. Can you, Bailu, help me wash it with soap nuts and dry it?" I asked.

Bai Lu put down the pickling work in her hands, looked at me blankly, and said, "I washed and dried it for you this morning. Is there still a fishy smell?"

"Have you washed it?" I asked with my eyes wide open.