I have never noticed this area. It is the forest area on the right side of the way back to the Huoquan old house from the jujube forest. Many trees here are rotting due to insufficient light and nutrition. When the rotten wood meets fungi, they will grow abundant wood ear mushrooms. This area is blocked by nearby taller trees, and the rainfall is sufficient and difficult to drain, and the air is relatively humid, which provides all the conditions for the growth of wild wood ear mushrooms.

"That's great! Black fungus is full of protein, carotene, phosphorus, iron and other ingredients. It has always been known as the 'king of vegetarian food'. It also nourishes, benefits the stomach and promotes blood circulation. If we eat more of it recently, it will be very beneficial to the body. We urgently need to replenish these nutrients now." Song Bailu said.

"Well, then pick them and take them back, dry them, and then cook them. Otherwise, most fresh wild fungus is poisonous. Also, I'll see if I can find some mother species here. Then I'll put sawdust in a snakeskin bag and put the sawdust inside to see if mycelium can be cultivated. If successful, I'll pick some more wood segments here, make holes in them to put the mycelium, and cultivate fungus artificially." I said.

"It's a good idea. We can give it a try. If it succeeds, our survival will be more secure." Song Bailu said.

I nodded, and just remembered that when chasing Bigfoot, it pulled out a whole tree and broke another one with a rock. Yunwen should remember the location of the two broken tree trunks, and their tree segments can be used to try to artificially grow wood ear. As long as it succeeds, we can at least have more food security and more nutrition.

After collecting all the wild wood ears here, I specially used a bayonet to cut open the inside of the wood from which the wood ears were collected, dug out a layer of wood bark, and used the food plastic bag in my backpack to take the entire small piece of wood away. Wild wood ears can grow on this rotten tree, and there are mother seeds of wood ears on it. If placed in a culture medium, maybe mycelium can be cultivated. With enough mycelium, wood ears can be cultivated independently.

There were few resources on the island, so everything was worth a try. To be on the safe side, I cut off some of the rotten tree parts that had grown over the wood ears, and put all the wood chips in a food bag to maximize the chance of finding the mother species.

After finishing all this, Bailu and I went back to the old house. Yunwen quickly came forward to greet us, but Yingchun was too lazy to come.

I asked Yunwen if she remembered the broken tree. She vaguely remembered it, so we planned to go find the broken tree together tomorrow.

In the evening, I first sawed some tree trunks with a saw, and put the sawdust that fell on the stones into the snakeskin bags I made before. There were exactly three bags as culture media. I asked Yunwen to boil them in high-temperature water for sterilization. After bringing them back, I put in the wood chips cut from the rotten wood that I brought back. Because there were mother strains of fungi on them, I connected them in time and sealed the bags and tied them tightly.

However, the temperature still needed to be kept at a constant level, so I arranged for Yingchun, Yunwen and me to build a small mud house that could maintain the temperature. Just as we finished mixing the mud and were ready to start working in the evening, Bailu called us over for dinner.

Since fresh wild fungus is best not eaten, tonight's meal will be a soup with the last of the crab meat and some wild vegetable roots.

"Hey, I have a question. Winter is coming, shouldn't we consider how to survive the winter? We have no crab meat left, and the dried fish can only last for three days at most. We have to eat dried red dates for the rest of the days. How are we going to survive? Have you thought about it?" Song Yingchun said after chewing two bites of crab meat.

"There will always be a way when you reach the mountain. Yingchun, let's not be too anxious." Yunwen said.

"You are a naive person who fantasizes about beautiful things every day. How can you not be anxious? I would like to ask Zhou Bo about this issue. What do you want to do? Can the problem be solved by just setting up a project to grow wood ear mushrooms?" Song Yingchun asked.

"First of all, if we can successfully grow wood ear mushrooms and complete the project of the constant temperature room, I can tell you that we will have a large number of wood ear mushrooms to eat every month, which will greatly reduce the probability of us starving to death. Secondly, Yunwen is not talking about a beautiful fantasy. We can only take things one step at a time. Although I don’t have a specific winter plan now, I can do my current things well, which is an explanation." I said.

"Zhou Bo, even though my sister asked rashly, I think it is necessary to think about it in advance. Wheat is too far away, and the production of wood ear mushrooms is not enough to survive the difficult period. This is a problem." Bai Lu said.

Bai Lu said this, so I can only say: "Okay, I get it. Wintering is a big deal. I can't help but think about it. Give me some time."

This answer seemed to give the Song sisters some peace of mind. Food issues have always been very severe for us, and now that the cold winter is approaching, it is normal for everyone to be anxious.

And so we finished our last meal of crab meat, eating it in a state of great worry.

At night, I asked myself to be on duty on the first shift, Yunwen on duty on the second shift, and the two sisters assigned themselves to the remaining two shifts (they were pretending to obey my arrangements anyway), and then let them go to rest.

The temperature has indeed been dropping sharply recently. Even though I put on my coat and sat by the campfire, I could still feel the cold wind penetrating my bones. I was shivering all over. It was much colder than the previous two days. About two hundred steps to the right of here is a cliff, and under the cliff is the vast ocean. Therefore, the sea breeze blows frequently and relatively unprotected, blowing directly in my face.

Just as I was lamenting the arrival of this chilling and desperate winter, Yunwen walked out of the house.

"Why aren't you sleeping? Don't they let you sleep?" I asked.

She shook her head, opened my coat with her hands, came in, and wrapped herself in it with me. The warmth of the two of us reduced the impact of the cold wind.

"No, don't think too much. They have been very nice to me recently. I'm just worried that you would be too cold staying alone." Yunwen said.

Because her body was squeezed together with the other two girls, it retained some temperature. Her soft skin pressed against me, which really warmed me up a lot and also made me blush and my heart beat faster.

"Thanks," I said.

"It's okay. Compared to what you've done for me, this is nothing. By the way, Zhou Bo, can I help you a little? There is no reason to let you bear everything alone. I also hope I can do my part to help with this winter." Yunwen said.

"Of course I feel good that you think so, but there's really nothing you can do to help me," I said.

"It takes a month to cultivate the bacteria now, but food can only be provided for three days. The twenty-seven days during this period are a food shortage period. This is what you are worried about, right? I think I can help you with some of it." Yunwen said.

"Is there any way to do that?" I asked.

"Do you still remember that map? I still have it. There are many areas marked on the ground. When I'm free during the day, I'll take you for a walk. Maybe we can find some food to fill the gaps." Yunwen said.

"Winter is here, it's the same everywhere. Besides, it's easy to encounter Bigfoot if we go to the mountains, and we might be in danger of getting hurt," I said.

"That's because you know too little about this island, so you think so. I have memorized the map by heart, so what I say may be more objective. This island is far more complicated than you think, but these complexities may lead us out of the predicament and survive the winter crisis." Yunwen said.

"Is it so mysterious?" I said half-jokingly.

"Not at all. First of all, I can tell you that there is a shortcut that can help you avoid encountering Bigfoot and go to another area. The resources there may be more abundant and the food may be more complete..." Yunwen said.