When Wang Lun returned and heard Liu Ruoxi's idea, he praised it as a brilliant idea, as he himself hadn't thought of it. Wang Lun stuffed the soaked seafood into the pheasant's belly, then wrapped the pheasant in leaves. He took it to the doorway and covered it with mud. Next, he placed it in the fire pit, adding plenty of firewood. Then he just waited; after more than an hour, the pheasant was cooked.
Wang Lun dug the mud ball containing the pheasant out of the charcoal fire, first breaking the mud shell. Then he carefully removed the mud bit by bit until he saw the leaves inside. After removing one or two more layers of leaves, he used an entrenching tool to place the pheasant on the table, on a wooden plate. Liu Ruoxi also brought over a half-pot of fish soup.
Wang Lun removed the last layer of leaves, and the aroma of chicken immediately filled the air. As usual, Wang Lun gave two chicken legs to Liu Ruoxi and Liu Ruoling, and one chicken wing to Li Ling each. The rest were for everyone to take.
After dinner, apart from inedible bones and leaves, there was nothing left on the table. Since we need to fire pottery jars soon, we have to continue our night watch. Of course, tomorrow all four of us will be going out together, so tonight we'll take turns keeping watch.
Nothing happened overnight. The next morning, after breakfast, Wang Lun took Li Ling and the other two out to the woods to pick mushrooms. They picked all kinds of mushrooms, regardless of whether they were poisonous or not. They only put the ones they suspected were poisonous in a separate basket. Only the ones they recognized and that were not poisonous were put into the basket.
Although they had spent the morning hiking in the woods, the four of them hadn't actually collected many mushrooms. Together, they only managed a little over one basketful; the rest was all wild vegetables. They didn't even fill each basket completely before they had to head back. They needed to cut grass in the afternoon, as the pheasants, rabbits, and goats at their campsite were out of food.
The four returned to the camp. Liu Ruoxi and Li Ling went to cook first, while Wang Lun and Liu Ruoling hung up all the edible mushrooms under the eaves to dry. There were still some mushrooms left under the eaves, but most of them had been brought inside, with only a small portion left for regular consumption.
After the meal, Wang Lun told Li Ling and the others to rest for a while and go out to cut grass when the weather cooled down in the afternoon. Wang Lun then went to pick out the poisonous mushrooms and put them in a separate place to dry. He recognized some of these poisonous mushrooms, but there were others that were uncommon, which he didn't recognize and treated as poisonous. In short, Wang Lun prioritized safety and preferred to eat less rather than risk any problems.
After Wang Lun finished removing all the poisonous mushrooms, he washed up and went to rest on the kang (a heated brick bed). It was still very hot outside, and he preferred that the pheasants, rabbits, and goats go hungry rather than have any of them suffer from heatstroke.
Around 3 PM, Wang Lun finally woke Li Ling and the others up and off the kang (heated brick bed) to prepare to go out and cut grass. The task of cutting grass today was quite heavy, since there were now many small animals, meaning there was more food to eat.
Wang Lun led Li Ling and the others to the lawn they had visited before to cut the grass. It had been so long; the grass must have grown tall by now. The four of them walked slowly and deliberately under the blazing sun to the lawn.
Wang Lun and the other three started mowing the lawn. Although it was very hot, Li Ling and the others didn't complain about being tired or hot, and they were all mowing the lawn diligently. On the contrary, Wang Lun would stand up every now and then, look around, and only continue mowing when he saw that there was nothing wrong.
Time flew by, and in just over an hour, the four of them had cut four baskets. Wang Lun told Li Ling and the others to rest for a while before heading back to camp, as there was still plenty of time.
While Li Ling and the others rested, Wang Lun went to explore places he hadn't been before, looking for anything special. After crossing a small hill, he saw a large grassland in front of him, and he immediately felt that he no longer needed to worry about fodder for the animals.
But Wang Lun saw a plant that made him even happier. He didn't even say hello to Li Ling and the others before running down the hillside to where the plant was.
Upon reaching it, he saw foxtail grass in front of him. Wang Lun pulled one out and held it in his mouth like he did when he was a child, then continued to gaze at the vast expanse of foxtail grass. The more he looked at it, the more he liked it, to the point that Wang Lun became somewhat lost in thought.
He only snapped out of his daze when he heard someone calling him. He realized quite a while had passed. He answered and then went back to find Li Ling and the others. But as he walked, he kept looking back at the foxtail grass.
After Wang Lun met up with Li Ling and the others, they asked him what he had been up to. Wang Lun just smiled mysteriously and said he had found something good. When pressed further, he wouldn't say anything, only that they would find out tomorrow. He also told Li Ling and the others to prepare themselves, as the next few days would be very tiring. Liu Ruoling wanted to ask more, but Li Ling and Liu Ruoxi stopped her. At this point, Wang Lun wasn't planning to say anything, leaving a mystery for tomorrow. Liu Ruoling was somewhat unhappy and stopped asking.
Wang Lun and his three companions shouldered their baskets and began their return to camp. On the way back, Wang Lun was in high spirits, chewing on foxtail grass and, like a young boy, using his spear to break off roadside weeds. Seeing this, Li Ling and the other two wondered what good thing Wang Lun had found that made him so happy.
Although Li Ling and the others didn't get close, they could still see Wang Lun from a distance on the hillside. It was a grassland; while it solved the forage problem, Wang Lun shouldn't be this happy. What could it be? Could it be wild rabbits? No, there were ten in the camp, including four pregnant females—enough to feed them. What could it be? Neither Li Ling nor Liu Ruoxi could think of anything. Only Liu Ruoxi, her intuition telling her it must be related to the foxtail grass Wang Lun had mentioned. But she didn't know the specifics, since foxtail grass was so common that many people recognized it.
When Wang Lun returned to the camp, he asked Liu Ruoling to fetch a large handful of hay from the rabbit pen so that Li Ling and the others could take turns making another straw mat. He also asked Li Ling to use the fine clay from today to make a large ceramic pot. After the pottery blanks were made, they would decide whether to continue making pottery pots tomorrow.
Wang Lun finished tidying up the grass by himself and then let Li Ling and the others start working on it. Although the three of them were very puzzled, they still continued to do it according to Wang Lun's instructions, after all, Wang Lun had never disappointed them, never.
After gathering the grass, Wang Lun went to find two stones, one large and one small. He sat by the pond and tapped the middle of the larger stone with one of the stones. Li Ling and the others heard the tapping sound and went outside to see Wang Lun tapping the stone with another stone, looking puzzled.
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