Chapter 41
The two ate for almost half an hour, finishing the soup and the rabbit legs, each of them gnawing on one leg. After cleaning up the dishes, they sat under a tree, gazing at the twinkling stars. Suddenly, Liu Ruoxi said, "It might rain soon, so we should prepare more food and firewood for tomorrow." Liu Ruoling was puzzled, asking, "Sister, how do you know it's going to rain?" Liu Ruoxi replied, "Looking at the sky. Don't you know how? It's very simple." Liu Ruoling turned and stared intently at the sky, but it was still the same old sky; she couldn't understand it at all. "Am I going to have to put up with this on the island?" she thought, growing increasingly angry. She climbed up to the treehouse to sleep. Seeing Liu Ruoling go up, Liu Ruoxi added some firewood to the fire and then climbed up to sleep as well.
Meanwhile, Wang Lun and Li Ling, who were building their campsite, were washing up and getting ready for bed. Today, they had increased the height of the wall by one meter. The formwork was installed in the morning, dismantled in the afternoon, and then reinstalled. Fortunately, the soil held its shape well, so the wall built in the morning was fine. The afternoon's work was even less problematic, since the formwork hadn't been removed yet and would be taken down the following morning. Wang Lun had also excavated about one-fifth of the earthen house, expecting it to be completely finished in another four or five days. The wall was now halfway up the planned height, and the first phase of construction would be completed in another day or two. Once the wall was finished, the construction of the earthen house would be much faster, as they wouldn't have to worry about darkness. Even if it got dark, the high wall would prevent almost all predators from getting in. However, the two of them wouldn't start building the campsite immediately tomorrow morning. While making dinner, Li Ling noticed that their firewood stockpile was running low; the remaining amount would only last for two or three days at most. Therefore, Wang Lun decided that the two of them would go and gather as much firewood as possible tomorrow morning, hoping to collect enough for more than ten days. That way, they wouldn't have to worry about firewood during the later construction phases, and they wouldn't have to worry about running out of firewood even if it rained. After washing up, the two went back to the shelter to sleep. It's worth mentioning that they still hadn't widened the beds today…
On the other side, Wu Jing and Zhang Shengnan took a nap until about four o'clock in the afternoon. When they came out of the cave, they looked at the sun and estimated that it was about four o'clock in the afternoon. After discussing it, they decided not to go out today. However, they couldn't stay idle, so they simply went to the woods near the camp to cut some thick branches to build a smokehouse for the meat. After all, the antelope, which weighed sixty or seventy pounds including bones and meat, could not be eaten in a short period of time. The best way was to smoke and preserve it.
The two grabbed their military knives, closed the camp gate, and went into the nearby woods. Wu Jing chopped tree branches, while Zhang Shengnan searched for wild vegetables nearby; finding some would be great, but not finding any wouldn't matter. Soon, Wu Jing had chopped a bundle of branches and called out loudly to Zhang Shengnan, who responded from a distance. Wu Jing waited a few minutes, and Zhang Shengnan returned, carrying a small bundle of wild vegetables and something wrapped in leaves in her other hand. Wu Jing said, "Let's go back to camp. What are you carrying?" She then hoisted the bundle of branches onto her shoulder and started walking ahead. Zhang Shengnan said, "I found a dead tree while digging for wild vegetables. There are some wood ear mushrooms on it." Wu Jing said, "Wood ear mushrooms? Are they edible? I remember some wood ear mushrooms are poisonous." Zhang Shengnan said, "I checked, they're edible." Wu Jing immediately laughed and said, "Then we have another vegetable dish today! We eat wild vegetables every day, we're almost sick of them." Zhang Shengnan said, "Who isn't? But we should be okay, since we often hunt and always have some catch. It's hard to say about the others." Wu Jing suddenly thought of something and said, "You said those two teams..." On the island? "Zhang Shengnan" Those two teams? "Wu Jing" is the team of Wang Lun and the two sisters. Zhang Shengnan thought for a while and said, "They should still be there, but I guess they must have had a harder time. After all, none of them seem to have had any experience in surviving in the wild." Wu Jing said: "Yes, I hope they can meet us soon." Zhang Shengnan said: "Do you really want to form a team with them?" "Wu Jing said: "Wang Lun is okay. After all, Wang Lun also provided us with a breakfast. As for the two sisters, forget it, I probably won't meet them. "Zhang Shengnan said: "I suggest it is best not to form a team. After all, I think there is enough food, but in fact the gap is still quite big. Wu Jing said: "Yeah, let's talk about it then." "The two of them fell silent and stopped talking about this topic. Because they are now more inclined not to form a team. After all, before going to the island, they felt that there were too many people, so it would be easier to survive. But after going to the island, after living in these few days, they found that it was very difficult to get food for just two people. If two more people were added, it would be even more difficult, so they both tended not to form a team. What they didn't know was that the other two teams were doing much better than each other. The Liu sisters ate wild vegetable and meat soup every meal; although it was bird meat, it was still meat. As for Wang Lun and his companion, they ate fish every day until they were sick of it. If they hadn't run out of other food, they would have stopped eating fish long ago.
Wu Jing and Zhang Shengnan returned to the campsite. Wu Jing set up a rack for smoking meat, while Zhang Shengnan took out a few bones and put them in a clay pot to boil, preparing a pot of bone broth for hot pot that evening. After all, they had enough meat, some wild vegetables, and the wood ear mushrooms they had just picked—enough for a hot pot. Once the rack was set up, Wu Jing transferred the meat to it and placed it near the campfire to smoke. After some time, it would be dried and then stored. After finishing these tasks, the two sat quietly by the campfire, waiting for the bone broth to cook so they could add the vegetables and begin their hot pot meal.
Wu Jing and her partner became the first team on the island to truly experience life outside the island through hot pot, while the other teams were still struggling to make ends meet. These two were already getting creative. This food-themed segment had the viewers in the live stream drooling. Their popularity, coupled with their recent catch of an antelope, attracted even more viewers. Then, they mentioned their previous alliance with two other teams, prompting some viewers to comment that now that they were successful, they weren't going to include their former, less fortunate allies. Some netizens commented, "That's just how things are on the island right now. Just focus on your own survival. More people would make survival even harder." Others who watched the sisters' and Wang Lun's livestreams said, "What? Bringing them along would make things even harder? You probably don't know Wang Lun and Liu Ruoling are already building earthen houses, not to mention the sharpshooter Liu Ruoling. If they really team up, their two teams will definitely have a harder time." "What's going on? It's only been a short time, and people are already building earthen houses. Is this the start?" "Sharpshooter? Liu Ruoling? Can she even draw a bow?" "Go see for yourself. There are short videos online." Some netizens actually went to find clips of Liu Ruoling shooting birds. Soon after, she returned to the livestream and said, "Seriously, she hits every time! I'm going to watch her shoot birds now." Then some netizens moved to the sisters' livestreams, while others went to watch Wang Lun and Liu Ruoling build earthen houses.
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