Chapter Fifty
After hanging the meat on the rack, Wang Lun went to help Li Ling cook lunch. Actually, it was more like he was watching over her than busy, because Li Ling had already put the offal in the pot and was cooking it. Since there were few seasonings, just some salt, nothing else, but it would probably taste good anyway. A large pot full of porcupine heart and liver, goat heart, liver, lungs, stomach, etc. Soon, the offal was cooked. Li Ling took it all out, added some wild vegetables to the pot, and continued cooking. After the offal cooled slightly, she sliced the goat lungs and added them to the pot with the wild vegetables to cook for a while longer. Then she chopped some heart and liver, and placed them on a large leaf. Once the wild vegetable and goat lung soup was ready, the two began to eat. Bowls contained soup, with sliced heart and liver. It felt like they weren't on a desert island anymore, though Wang Lun probably wouldn't eat like this if they were outside. To be honest, the offal tasted very fishy, but the two of them were already used to it. Besides, now that it was all meat, why would they have any other thoughts?
The rain stopped, and almost all the teams went out, mostly looking for wild vegetables. Occasionally, some lucky ones would find drowned prey. Of course, some experienced ones took advantage of the rain to quickly go into the woods to collect mushrooms and check for prey. Tang Shengli from team 75 was the most outstanding among them, after all, he'd been a forest ranger for almost half his life, so his experience was extraordinary. But the luckiest of them all was Hao Yun from team 88; while others had to go into the woods to search, the prey came to him.
It turned out that during the rain, an injured deer had run out of the forest. This deer was incredibly fast in the woods, but before it even reached Hao Yun's shelter, it collapsed. Hao Yun braved the rain to carry the deer into the shelter and examined it. He found a wound on its leg and another on its abdomen. The leg wound was relatively minor, as it hadn't broken the bone. As for the abdominal wound, it had stopped bleeding, and the internal organs were faintly visible through the wound. Seeing this, Hao Yun immediately became alert. This deer had likely been bitten by a predator and had run here; no one knew if it was being followed by a predator. Of course, what kind of animal had bitten it was, that was anyone's guess. After all, neither Hao Yun nor his teammates had any wilderness survival experience.
Fortunately, Hao Yun and his companion remained vigilant for a long time, waiting until the rain stopped, but they didn't see any predators. What they didn't know was that a predator had appeared in the woods before, leaving a footprint on the ground, but had simply disappeared after seeing the two of them.
Of course, the vast majority of contestants foraged for wild vegetables, excluding the Liu sisters' and Wu Jing's teams. The Liu sisters had more wild vegetables than they could possibly eat, and still had plenty stored up. So, after the rain stopped, Liu Ruoxi immediately called Liu Ruoling to go into the woods to pick mushrooms. After all, they still had meat and wild vegetables stored, so they simply went mushroom picking; having another food source was always good. As for Wu Jing and her teammate, they took advantage of the rain and the still-wet ground to quickly build a fence. One dug the soil, while the other plastered a thick layer of mud onto the fence.
After Wang Lun and Li Ling finished eating, Li Ling filled a pot with water, intending to pluck the feathers from the three birds after it boiled, and then fill it with water to remove the quills from the porcupines. Seeing Li Ling busy with her work, Wang Lun went to do the remaining work on the earthen house, which involved digging out the remaining soil so that they could build the house directly later. About half an hour later, Li Ling came out, but she was continuing the work on the second phase of the project, the perimeter wall. The location for the toilet was reserved, and they could work together later when they had time, which would be faster. Another reason was that the soil from digging the earthen house alone wouldn't be enough to build the toilet. When Wang Lun had time later, he could dig the septic tank and filtration system for the toilet, which would be sufficient. If it wasn't enough, they could dig some more.
While the two were digging and building their campsite, most of the participants were working according to their plans. Of course, some were resting or tidying up their campsites. No one was indifferent to the high prize money. Those who wanted to rely on their teammates were generally unreliable, since all participants were randomly selected, and even teammates themselves weren't entirely clear on each other's identities; after all, everyone has things they won't tell others.
In the evening, Wang Lun called on Li Ling to stop early. He said they'd stop here for the day, and he figured the remaining work on digging the earthen house could be finished by tomorrow. He decided to rest early today. After all, they'd brought back so much fresh meat that morning; if they didn't eat some now while it was fresh, they'd only have smoked meat left later. Plus, after all they'd done recently, it was time to treat themselves and Li Ling.
So Wang Lun relit the campfire outside. Although the ground was still a bit damp, it was enough to roast a leg of lamb. While Wang Lun roasted the lamb leg over the campfire outside the shelter, Li Ling cooked a sheep's head over the fire pit inside, planning to make a soup with it and then have hot pot. After all, they had a good amount of supplies, enough for a hot pot meal. Li Ling put the sheep's head in the pot to simmer slowly, and then started preparing the other dishes. She took some lamb, sliced it thinly, and made a large plate of lamb slices. She washed some wild vegetables and put them on a small plate. Then she soaked some seafood and kelp and put them on two plates. She also picked out some edible mushrooms she had picked up that morning and put them on a small plate. That made five plates of hot pot ingredients, enough for them. As for where the plates came from, Wang Lun said there were plenty of flat stones in the stream.
After the sheep's head is cooked, the meat will be removed and used to make another large plate. Of course, the sheep's horns will be saved for Wang Lun; now that he has an alloy arrow and sheep's horns, making a sheep's horn bow is quite necessary. While Li Ling was preparing the dishes, Wang Lun wasn't idle either. He was roasting a leg of lamb outside. Because there were many dishes, he only roasted one leg, but it was enough for the two of them. Wang Lun made a few cuts on the leg, rubbed some salt on it, and waited until the lamb sizzled with oil before rubbing it with more salt. Then he continued roasting it, roasting it for a longer time to ensure it was safe to eat. After all, Wang Lun had never roasted a leg of lamb before, so he preferred to roast it longer rather than find the meat undercooked.
The two worked until dark before preparing all the food. They sat around the fire pit, where several more stones had been added, with the prepared dishes placed on them. A pot of mutton head soup sat above the fire, incredibly delicious. Seeing that everything was ready, Wang Lun said, "Let's eat, let's have a good meal today." Li Ling, without hesitation, immediately picked up a slice of mutton and put it in the pot. Wang Lun first ladled a bowl of soup into each of their bowls before starting to cook the meat, also picking up slices of roasted lamb leg while cooking.
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