They were lucky; after walking for less than ten minutes, they could clearly feel that they were going uphill. The two quickened their pace, not even bothering to dig up the wild vegetables by the roadside, for fear of wasting time. Of course, they still picked wild fruits, since wild vegetables could be replenished at any time, but wild fruits could not.
After walking for another half hour, there was no path ahead. A stone wall stretched out before them, seemingly endless. However, the wall was now only four or five meters high, and Liu Ruoling wanted to climb it again. This time, Li Ling didn't refuse; instead, she encouraged her. But she wouldn't act rashly.
Li Ling instructed Liu Ruoling to cut down a large tree near the rock face, hoping to get it leaning against the cliff to reduce the climbing distance. Liu Ruoling readily agreed and went to cut down the tree with her knife. Li Ling then found the thick hemp rope, split it in two, and tied a knot. This created a rope five or six meters long. She then pulled up several vines, tied them together, and used them as a secondary rope.
Liu Ruoling quickly felled a tree, and then she knew what to do. She climbed the tree, cutting away any branches that blocked her path. On the more difficult sections of the trunk, she made several cuts to create footholds. Soon, Liu Ruoling reached the base of the stone wall, which was only a little over a meter from the top; with a little effort, she could easily climb over it.
Liu Ruoling originally wanted to climb over, but Li Ling stopped her and told her to come down first, bring up the auxiliary rope, then pull up the thick hemp rope, then pull up the two baskets, and finally Li Ling went up.
It took them another ten minutes or so to reach the top of the rock face. Looking out, they saw several coconut trees by the sea and a banana grove nearby. Seeing the coconut trees reminded Liu Ruoling of the coconut crabs Wang Lun had mentioned, and she immediately wanted to go down and catch a few to try. Li Ling, seeing the banana grove, became excited and urged Liu Ruoling to come down right away. Liu Ruoling looked puzzled; after all, bananas couldn't compare to the deliciousness of coconut crabs.
Li Ling told Liu Ruoling that Wang Lun had wanted to find banana trees to make clothes, but hadn't been able to find any. Liu Ruoling was even more puzzled. How could banana trees be used to make clothes? She knew the pith was edible, but how to make clothes from it was another matter. Actually, Li Ling didn't know either, but since Wang Lun said it could be done, it must be possible.
So the two started looking for a way down, but the best place to go down in this area was further in, where it was lower, only three or four meters high, but that would take a long time. This place wasn't too bad, only four or five meters high, not too high.
Li Ling decided to go down from here, since it was close to the banana grove, and there was a tree nearby that could be cut down to climb the rock face and make it easier to get back. So Li Ling asked Liu Ruoling to hold the rope tight while she risked going down. But Liu Ruoling was unwilling, since Li Ling's physical strength was not as good as Liu Ruoling's, and they had already walked such a long way.
However, Li Ling persuaded her otherwise. The reason was simple: Liu Ruoling was stronger, and if an accident occurred, she could hold onto the rope. If Li Ling were on top, she might not be able to hold onto the rope, and Liu Ruoling could be seriously injured. As for the idea of noting down the location and going back to call Wang Lun, neither of them mentioned it.
Liu Ruoling tied the rope around Li Ling's waist, then tied the vine she had used earlier around her waist as well. The other end of the thick hemp rope was wrapped around Liu Ruoling's own waist, and the other end of the vine was tied to a rock. Since the rock was too small to hold the rope in place, Liu Ruoling and Li Ling then began to climb down.
Li Ling climbed down little by little, making sure each step was secure before calling Liu Ruoling to let down a little more rope. Liu Ruoling did the same, letting down only a tiny bit each time, afraid of causing an accident.
Thankfully, Li Ling landed safely. Once down the rock face, she plopped down on the ground and rested for over ten minutes before recovering. Then she got up and went to chop down the tree next to her. Meanwhile, Liu Ruoling above wasn't idle either; while Li Ling was chopping the tree, she used a thick hemp rope to lower the two baskets down.
Once the tree fell, Liu Ruoling could climb down. Soon, the tree fell, its top resting against the top of the stone wall. Liu Ruoling crawled down through the branches and quickly reached the ground.
As soon as Liu Ruoling reached the ground, the two embraced tightly. It had been a dangerous ordeal, but thankfully, nothing serious happened. After this experience, their relationship grew even stronger.
After hugging for a little over a minute, Li Ling said, "It's getting late, we need to go cut down banana trees." Once Liu Ruoling learned that banana trees could be used to make clothes, she stopped worrying about the coconut crabs. Coconut crabs, after all, were just food. There was plenty of food, but each person only had one set of clothes, and no spares. They did have fur, but in this hot weather, who would wear fur?
So the two of them shouldered their baskets and headed towards the banana grove. Clearing the path took them some time; what should have been a short distance took them over twenty minutes. Once they reached the grove, one of them cut down leaves, while the other bundled them. After cutting down all the leaves, they even peeled off the outer layer of bark. Since they genuinely didn't know that the bark was for making clothes, they decided to collect some of each type first.
The two men cut down two trees and then stopped. They couldn't bring them back anyway. So they searched the banana grove for ripe bananas, picked them all, and each ate two for lunch. Then, without stopping, they carried the leaves and bark down the rock face. Afterward, they walked along the rock face towards the sea.
Half an hour later, the two arrived at the beach. They glanced at the shore briefly, and seeing nothing unusual, headed towards the coconut grove. After all, Liu Ruoling wanted to eat coconut crab, and Li Ling wanted to help her achieve that. Of course, if they could get it, great; if not, then Li Ling couldn't be blamed.
Surprisingly, the two were quite lucky. They encountered two coconut crabs as soon as they arrived at the coconut grove. Luckily, Li Ling had asked Wang Lun how to catch coconut crabs before, otherwise, they might have just been watching helplessly. Li Ling had Liu Ruoling use a stick to hold one crab down, and covered the other with an empty basket to prevent it from escaping. Then, she used her foot to pin down the immobile crab, and had Liu Ruoling control its two pincers before using a vine to tie it up. They used the same method to tie up the second crab. Now that they had coconut crabs, they could head back. As for the other coconut crabs in the grove, they could catch them next time they were craving them; catching them now would mean taking care of them, which was too much trouble.
Liu Ruoling knew it was getting late and she wasn't sure if the two of them could get back to the shelter before dark. They had so much stuff. So, the two shouldered their baskets and started their return journey. Along the way, they found a piece of seaweed on the beach; it had probably just washed ashore, as they hadn't seen any seaweed on the way there.
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