Live Strong in the Wilderness-Chapter 101: It’s on Fire

The thunderstorm suddenly came, and it was a heavy rain. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Xu Yi was somewhat surprised; he hadn’t expected that as soon as Lu Ke mentioned it, the storm would arrive.

After he finished his bath and came out, the rain continued to pour down.

"Dinner is ready." Lu Ke placed the hot water on the table and poured it into the cup.

"You should sit; this chair height suits you better." Xu Yi said, then walked over to the table.

If everything goes smoothly, he could make another chair today.

After dinner, Lu Ke and Xu Yi placed the grapes into the pottery jar together.

"Xu Yi, don’t we need to add anything else? Just mashing the grapes and that’s it?" Lu Ke asked, somewhat puzzled, as she put the grapes into the pottery jar.

After all, she had never made wine and didn’t know the exact steps involved.

"Yes, the white substance on grape skins is natural fermenting material," Xu Yi explained, then crushed the grapes with his hands.

"Don’t fill it up completely; you need to leave some space on top because fermentation produces gas," Xu Yi added.

All three pottery jars were filled with quite a lot of grape juice.

However, there were still quite a few grapes left.

After all, the pottery jar size was limited and couldn’t hold that many grapes.

After crushing all the grapes, they placed the lids on the jars and let them ferment naturally.

Once the grape color faded, the fermented grape juice would undergo secondary fermentation.

Normally, the first fermentation takes about one to two weeks.

The speed of fermentation is related to the fermenting material, temperature, and even the tools used.

The ideal temperature for winemaking is typically between 25°C and 32°C.

Homemade wine can often exceed methanol limits due to poor temperature control and inadequate fermentation of the grapes. Furthermore, table grapes with low tannin content aren’t suitable for winemaking.

Xu Yi used wild grapes, which have more tannins and many white substances on the skins. There should be no issues with fermentation.

After finishing with the grapes, Xu Yi carried the three pottery jars back to the room.

Then, he took out the basket holding the rabbits.

The smell in the room was getting a bit strong, so it needed to be moved outside.

It was fine with only one rabbit, but now there were four baby rabbits, and the odor was quite noticeable.

So, it was indeed necessary to fence off an area for animal husbandry.

Xu Yi had a plan already; he would fence off an area next to the toilet for raising rabbits or other animals.

He planned to set more traps in the forest to catch some animals.

Fresh meat is always tastier.

"Xu Yi, have the chicks hatched yet?" Lu Ke asked while working on the hay, glad she no longer had to sit on the cold stone now that there was a chair.

"Not yet," Xu Yi glanced over without touching them.

"Oh, I thought they had hatched," Lu Ke replied, assuming that once the chicks hatched Xu Yi would remove the basket from the room.

"No, the smell is just too strong now, not suitable for indoors. Tomorrow, I’ll fence an area by the toilet for them," Xu Yi illustrated with his hands—the space was too small to continue as it was, so it was better to make a larger one.

Spending a bit more time and effort now would prevent more trouble later.

Lu Ke nodded, agreeing that the smell inside was getting strong.

Fortunately, there were all greenhouses outside, so there was no worry about the rabbits getting caught in the rain after being moved outside.

Then Xu Yi began making the chair.

After Lu Ke finished with the straw, she opened the earthen kiln.

"How’s it? No cracks?" Xu Yi finally asked, knowing that Lu Ke had made a squat toilet, unsure whether it had broken during firing.

"No, they’re all fine," Lu Ke replied, though neither was broken, cracks might still appear, so they needed a water test.

"That’s good, I was worried they’d shattered," Xu Yi said, looking outside.

The rain had stopped.

Though occasionally, a thunder sound was heard.

Lu Ke filled the pottery with water and then took some stones from the fire pit to boil water for a bath.

Suddenly, Xu Yi heard Lu Ke’s surprised voice: "Xu Yi, is there a fire over there?"

Xu Yi stood up and looked over.

Indeed, far away there was firelight, appearing rather intense.

"Yes, probably a lightning strike started it, but it’s far from us," Xu Yi answered without much worry.

Seeing as he had cut down nearby trees and the area was large, if the fire ever reached near he and Lu Ke would still have time to escape.

Furthermore, it was quite a distance; seeing a fire there didn’t mean they should flee to the coast immediately. A forest wildfire doesn’t easily form, hence no need to overly worry.

"It shouldn’t reach us here, right?" Lu Ke asked while rinsing her hair.

"No, it’s too far, and if it does reach here, it’d be by tomorrow. Rest assured, if it gets close we’d have time to escape to the coast," Xu Yi reassured, then resumed drilling the chair’s opening.

After a while, Lu Ke finished her bath and came out.

Sitting by the fire, she dried her hair and watched Xu Yi work.

After a moment, Lu Ke voluntarily said: "Xu Yi, I’ll go to sleep now, come rest early, too."

Her stomach had been uneasy, as her period was near ending.

"Sure, I know, you sleep," Xu Yi nodded without asking further.

Even though it was just past nine, earlier than her usual sleeping time.

He continued working on the chair nonstop.

By 11 o’clock, he stopped his work.

Looking around the room, Xu Yi thought: System, check-in.

After all, this was the 23rd day since they arrived in the wilderness, which meant he had checked in another cycle of seven days.

What would the seven-day gift package be this time?

"Ding, checked in 7 days, received a Basic Gift Package."

Hearing this, Xu Yi picked up his dagger and began drilling the last hole.

While drilling, he silently said in his mind: System, open package.

"Ding, received Climbing Skills Package (Basic)!"

"Ding, received Archery Skills Package (Basic)!"

Climbing skills?

Xu Yi found this quite useful, especially when picking fruit which required climbing trees.

It’s not feasible to cut down a tree every time something was needed from it, right?