Wang Lun and Li Ling worked until sunset before packing up and returning to the shelter to prepare dinner. After two days of hard work, the walls of the mud house were already over two meters high, and by tomorrow it would be almost finished. Then they would need to prepare to put up the crossbeams. Wang Lun planned to go with Li Ling tomorrow morning to carry all the crossbeams back and place them on the open space above. Once the walls reached three meters high, they could put up the outermost crossbeams, and then continue building the mud walls, adding crossbeams, and so on, until the central main beam was in place. Then they would add the crossbeams closest to the open space. That would essentially complete the mud house; the remaining work would be fixing the purlins and waterproofing the roof. This work could be completed in another day or two, as they had already prepared everything they needed. In fact, because they were short of rope, they planned to stay up late these past few nights to make more. Now, they just wanted to finish building the mud house while they still had enough food.
Let's focus on cooking first. Li Ling cut two pieces of mutton, grabbed some wild vegetables and a large fish, grilled the mutton on a stone slab, and cooked a pot of stewed fish with wild vegetables. This would make a fairly substantial dinner, since there wasn't much else to eat right now. Luckily, neither of them were picky eaters, so they ate with relish. Interestingly, they each took a bite of grilled mutton and a bite of stewed fish, a typical way of eating. Although they were tired of fish, neither of them complained.
Meanwhile, inside the cave, Wu Jing and Zhang Shengnan were also eating crabs. However, their main dish was wild vegetable soup, and they only had five crabs—four larger ones and one smaller one. Wu Jing gave the smaller one to Zhang Shengnan, and she only ate two herself. Then they ate wild vegetables and drank the soup. Although they still had some meat left, since they had caught five crabs in the stream that afternoon, they didn't bother with the meat.
The two of them spent the afternoon digging up a basket full of wild vegetables, enough to eat for a while. So, while eating, they discussed getting up early the next morning to go hunting again, stocking up on meat to prepare for winter.
As night fell, the contestants gradually went to sleep. The island returned to the domain of wild animals. Hyenas roamed the grasslands, and cheetahs lurked in the forests. Now it was the predator's domain, and the human contestants returned to their sanctuaries to rest and hide until dawn.
The next day, both Wang Lun's and Wu Jing's teams woke up very early, almost as if by prior arrangement. Wu Jing's team was going hunting, while Wang Lun's team was going to carry the beams back. Although their times were similar, the two teams had different people cooking breakfast. Zhang Shengnan cooked breakfast for Wu Jing's team, while Wu Jing prepared the hunting tools and even sharpened the knives. Wang Lun, on the other hand, cooked breakfast himself. As for the tools for carrying the beams, they had been prepared the night before, and Li Ling waited until breakfast was ready before getting up.
Both teams ate around the same time, but Wang Lun's team left a little later. After all, their task this morning was simply to carry all the beams back, which was considered completing their morning work plan.
Ironically, it was the two sisters, Liu Ruoxi and Liu Ruoling, who went to bed earliest, who woke up latest. It turned out that Liu Ruoxi had taken a bath yesterday afternoon and eaten a lot of crabs last night, which somehow caused her period to start early. Coupled with some menstrual cramps, she had been lying in bed the whole time. Liu Ruoling, on the other hand, was genuinely still sleeping.
It wasn't until dawn that Liu Ruoxi woke Liu Ruoling. Seeing her sister's period had arrived, Liu Ruoling quickly went downstairs, boiled a pot of water, and filled a bamboo tube with some for Liu Ruoxi to drink. After drinking some water, Liu Ruoxi felt a little better and said, "Take off my t-shirt and remove the sleeves, being careful not to break the threads." Liu Ruoling asked, "What are you going to do with the sleeves?" Liu Ruoxi said, "I'll make two sanitary pads." Liu Ruoling said, "I don't know how." Liu Ruoxi said, "I'm telling you, just do as I say." Liu Ruoling then said, "We don't have any needles." Liu Ruoxi said, "We brought back some fish yesterday. Cook a big one later, collect all the bones, and use the fish bones as needles; that should work." Hearing this, Liu Ruoling quickly went to cook the fish, without waiting for Liu Ruoxi to continue.
Soon, Liu Ruoling had cooked the fish soup. She brought the pots and bowls into the treehouse, first helping Liu Ruoxi sit up and letting her drink some of the soup, then eating the rest herself. Next, she took off her t-shirt and started tearing off the sleeves, temporarily leaving the pots and bowls unwashed.
Using a fishbone to pick out the thread was quite troublesome, mainly because it required a lot of concentration. However, Liu Ruoling couldn't sit still, so Liu Ruoxi had no choice but to patiently help her pick out the thread. The two of them, one sleeve on each side, spent over half an hour successfully removing both sleeves. Then, Liu Ruoxi had Liu Ruoling make a small hole in the sleeping bag to take out some cotton. After Liu Ruoling took out the cotton, Liu Ruoxi sewed while teaching her how to do it. It took another half hour to finish two sanitary pads. Then, the two of them together removed both sleeves from Liu Ruoxi's t-shirt. One sleeve was used to continue making sanitary pads, while the other was divided into two halves, one for washing the face and the other for bathing, which Liu Ruoling carefully placed.
After doing all that, Liu Ruoxi said, "Bring me some water so I can wash myself." Liu Ruoling took the pot downstairs, washed it clean, and filled it halfway with water. Back in the treehouse, she helped wash Liu Ruoxi. Because of the leak, she wasn't wearing pants, so Liu Ruoxi slept in her sleeping bag. Liu Ruoling then took the pot and a basket with Liu Ruoxi's pants inside and went to the stream to wash them.
After washing her pants, Liu Ruoling brought back a pot of water. At that moment, Liu Ruoxi was leaning against the treehouse wall, sewing her third sanitary belt. Liu Ruoling said, "Sister, why do you need to make another one?" Liu Ruoxi, without looking up, replied, "We arrived around the same time, I just came a little earlier. You only have a few days left, so having three belts will make it easier to change." Hearing this, Liu Ruoling immediately felt a headache coming on. Liu Ruoxi suddenly remembered something and said, "Go check the firewood and water. See if we have enough. We probably won't be going out for the next few days; we'll probably just forage for some wild vegetables near the camp." Liu Ruoling knew what was going on, so she went down from the treehouse to check the firewood. She found that because they hadn't brought back any firewood in the past few days, the camp's reserves were only enough for two or three days. She called out from under the treehouse, "Sister, we're running out of firewood. I'll go gather some." Liu Ruoxi said, "Don't go into the woods, be careful." Liu Ruoling replied, "Okay." Then she picked up her knife and wooden spear and left the camp. Liu Ruoxi continued sewing sanitary napkins.
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