After chatting for a while, the four of them cleared the table. Liu Ruoxi and Liu Ruoling went to wash the pots and pans, Li Ling continued making pottery blanks, and Wang Lun went to fire the pottery. Each of them was doing their own thing.
After Liu Ruoxi and Li Ling finished washing the dishes, they returned and went to bed on the kang (heated brick bed). Tonight, Wang Lun and Li Ling would keep watch for the first half of the night, and Liu Ruoxi and Li Ling would keep watch for the second half as well.
Nothing happened overnight. When Wang Lun woke up in the morning, he smelled the aroma of stewed fish with wild vegetables. He quickly got up, washed, and ate breakfast. After daybreak, Liu Ruoxi and Wang Lun had finished all the morning tasks at the campsite and prepared their belongings for their trip. Only then did they begin cooking breakfast, timing it perfectly. When Wang Lun woke up, the stewed fish with wild vegetables was just ready.
After the meal, Wang Lun, carrying baskets on their backs, left the camp and entered the woods. After seeing Wang Lun and Li Ling off, Liu Ruoxi and her companion began working on the camp's tasks. First, they needed to cut grass twice that morning, as the camp's grass was almost gone.
Wang Lun led Li Ling into the woods, walking relatively quickly. They only stopped when they encountered anything special or valuable. For example, they didn't stop to eat wild vegetables. Wang Lun wanted to explore as much as possible to find more things.
Although that's what they said, in reality, their exploration area was always limited to a small region near the camp. After all, they still had to return to the camp every day, so they wouldn't stray too far from it. If they went too far, they probably wouldn't be able to get back to the camp that day.
Soon, the day was over. That morning, Liu Ruoxi and Liu Ruoling cut four baskets of grass. Before going out, they had taken out the foxtail grass seeds and the wild vegetables they had collected earlier to dry in the sun. After returning, Liu Ruoxi continued weaving clothes, while Liu Ruoling processed the grass.
After lunch, Liu Ruoxi continued knitting, while Liu Ruoling selected some relatively clean plastic bottles, washed them thoroughly, and then scalded them several times with hot water. This made the plastic bottles usable; they might even be used to store water later, so they wouldn't have to carry that heavy bamboo tube when going out. After finishing this, Liu Ruoxi asked Liu Ruoling to put some dried foxtail grass seeds in a ceramic pot with some water to make it easier to remove the fuzz. After rinsing and cleaning, the seeds were dried further. Once dried, they could be ground into large particles for later use in cooking millet porridge.
Wang Lun and Li Ling were also busy that day. They walked a long way, but their harvest was plentiful. They found several fruit trees with small fruits on their hands, but the fruits were not yet ripe, so they didn't pick them. They simply noted the locations so they could come back and pick them later.
Along the way, Wang Lun encountered eight taro plants. He dug them up, stems and leaves included, planning to harvest some of the larger taro roots and make a stew of taro and chicken. The remaining smaller taro roots would be planted and eaten later.
We also harvested a cassava plant. We successfully dug up about ten pounds of cassava roots and stems. After processing, we estimate we can get about seven or eight pounds of starch, which should be enough for two or three meals.
Of course, that was all. So, in the afternoon, Wang Lun and his companion began their return journey. On the way back, they dug up some wild vegetables, which basically filled both baskets. By the time they returned to camp, it wasn't dark yet; the sun was just about to set.
Taking advantage of the remaining time, Wang Lun had Li Ling and Liu Ruoxi sort through the wild vegetables at the campsite. Wang Lun and Liu Ruoling then cleared some space near the entrance to make it easier to plant the remaining wild vegetables the next day.
Before long, the sun had set. Wang Lun took Liu Ruoling back to camp. After all, it was still quite dangerous outside. Back at camp, the two of them helped process the day's harvest.
They quickly sorted out all the wild vegetables, picking only the edible ones. The inedible parts were left to feed the pheasants, rabbits, and goats. Liu Ruoxi and Li Ling started blanching the vegetables, while Wang Lun took Liu Ruoling to wash the cassava and taro. The taro would be saved for tomorrow, while the cassava was placed in the pond to allow any toxins to dissipate before it could be eaten.
After finishing these tasks, they returned to the house, where Li Ling and the other woman were still blanching wild vegetables. So Wang Lun asked Liu Ruoling to fire pottery, while Wang Lun took the fine clay and made a clay pot blank.
Dinner tonight was again wild vegetable stew with fish. After dinner, Liu Ruoxi brought the knitted garment to Wang Lun and asked him to try it on. Seeing that the garment was finished, Wang Lun picked it up and examined it closely. It was indeed quite good; although it felt a little rough to the touch, the quality was excellent. At least when Wang Lun stretched it, it didn't deform.
So Wang Lun took off his shirt and changed into the clothes. The three of them surrounded Wang Lun, all wanting to see how the clothes looked. Liu Ruoxi had Wang Lun turn around and do a few stretching and squatting movements, finding that they fit quite well. Then she touched the clothes. The more she touched them, the more her brows furrowed. Wang Lun noticed this and said, "Actually, it's okay. Although it's a bit rough, at least I have clothes to change into." Liu Ruoxi rolled her eyes at Wang Lun and said, "You're tough enough to handle it, but what about us?" Wang Lun said, "There's nothing we can do but adapt. We don't have anything else." Liu Ruoxi felt helpless upon hearing Wang Lun's words. There was nothing they could do; they had no materials and couldn't make anything else.
Li Ling asked, "Could we make underwear out of snakeskin?" Wang Lun immediately remembered that they had some snakeskin before. But weren't Li Ling and the others afraid of snakeskin? So he asked. Li Ling said, "We've already eaten meat, what's there to be afraid of snakes for? Besides, even if there are snakes, they're just extra food, what's there to be afraid of?" Wang Lun immediately felt that there might be something wrong with this person. He turned to look at Liu Ruoxi and Liu Ruoling and found that Liu Ruoxi agreed wholeheartedly, while Liu Ruoling seemed a little hungry after hearing about extra food. Now Wang Lun was certain that the deserted island could indeed change people. Before, these three only ate snake meat because they were hungry, which gave them the courage to eat it. Now, when they saw snakes, their eyes lit up, as if they wished there were more of them.
Liu Ruoxi thought for a moment and said, "Snake skin should work, but we don't seem to have many." Wang Lun said, "It's alright, if we don't have snake skin, we have other skins. Rabbit skin will also work; we have plenty of rabbits." Hearing Wang Lun's words, the others remembered that they had many rabbit skins. Although it would be a bit hot, having something to wear would be good enough. So Liu Ruoxi and Li Ling began to discuss how to make underwear. Seeing this, Wang Lun went to sleep on the kang (a heated brick bed). (This last sentence is a separate, unrelated thought and doesn't need to be translated.)
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