Live Strong in the Wilderness-Chapter 130: Howling at Midnight

By the time evening came, the rain had stopped.

As soon as the rain stopped, the temperature rose a bit.

This situation allowed Xu Yi to breathe a sigh of relief, after all, their various reserves were still not enough, not sufficient to cope with winter.

Judging by the animals here, there should be a winter.

After all, roe deer live in northern regions.

Of course, Xu Yi didn’t hope this area he lived in would have winter.

Hunting in winter becomes extremely difficult, maybe going more than ten days without catching a single animal.

Moreover, a large amount of firewood needs to be stockpiled; otherwise, it’s impossible to cut wood in winter and bring it back to burn. The reserves Xu Yi had wouldn’t even last ten days.

And also, there’s the issue of winter clothing for cold resistance, which neither Xu Yi nor Lu Ke had prepared.

If winter is coming, a lot of preparation work must be done.

However, winter doesn’t come immediately after the temperature drops; otherwise, not many teams would make it through, right?

The organizers wouldn’t eliminate everyone so early, what would be the point of that?

Only a month has passed, compared to 500 days, the time is truly pitifully short.

"Xu Yi, dinner’s ready." Lu Ke saw Xu Yi seemingly spacing out and called out.

"Oh, coming." Xu Yi snapped back to reality and went to wash his face.

"Xu Yi, what were you thinking about just now?" Lu Ke asked curiously, as she rarely saw Xu Yi spacing out. She couldn’t help adding, "Were you... thinking about Su Yan?"

"Think, think about her for what." Xu Yi’s face turned red uncontrollably, even though liking Su Yan was a thing of his body’s previous self, it still had a bit of impact on him.

"I was thinking about whether there would be winter here and if there is, how much should we prepare to safely make it through the winter."

Winter?

Lu Ke blinked her big eyes, somewhat puzzled, "The weather here is so hot, would there be winter too?"

"Hard to say, roe deer live in places with winter. It’s really hot here, but you can’t be one hundred percent sure there won’t be winter and it won’t snow." Xu Yi said, feeling his neck, somewhat worried.

"Then we should prepare for a possible winter?" Lu Ke thought that since it couldn’t be confirmed, they should prepare for the worst.

"Yeah, that’s indeed how we should think and do it. So, we’ll be working even harder from now on." Xu Yi nodded towards Lu Ke, preparing for winter naturally meant a lot of work and preparation.

It’s best if the camp is remodeled into earthen walls, with an earthen fence built, to better defend against animal attacks.

Also, a large amount of wood needs to be prepared to ensure fire and heating needs during winter.

The last thing is food reserves. After all, if they can’t catch any game the whole winter, they will have to rely on stored food to get through.

"No matter how hard it is, it’s better than being eliminated." Lu Ke said nonchalantly. Now she could carry seventy or eighty pounds on long treks. So she was no longer afraid of hard work.

"That’s true, working hard now will make winter a bit more comfortable." Xu Yi smiled, feeling Lu Ke’s optimism. Such a mentality was suitable for perseverance.

After the two finished dinner, they continued working.

After a while, the two went to bed one after another.

In the middle of the night, Xu Yi and Lu Ke were woken by a series of roaring sounds.

When they woke up, both immediately grabbed their weapons.

"Xu Yi, what animal’s roar is that?" Lu Ke glanced around, her face showing no fear.

"I don’t know, sounds like it got caught in our noose, which is why it’s roaring." Xu Yi explained while glancing at the Star Chart.

It was just past three in the morning, three hours until dawn.

"Should we go take a look?" Lu Ke turned to look at Xu Yi.

"Forget it, let’s wait until dawn, it’s too dangerous now." Naturally, Xu Yi wouldn’t venture into the woods at night, it was too dangerous. If it was just him, he might take the risk.

"Could it be that leopard?" Lu Ke asked curiously as Xu Yi put the Hunting Bow back.

If they could catch that leopard, things would be a bit safer around.

"Hard to say, we don’t really know what animals are around here." Xu Yi replied. Like the Steel-Clawed Earth Wolf mentioned in Wang Jin and Lu Yao’s assignment, Xu Yi had never seen it.

So it might not be the leopard Lu Ke had seen.

"Our noose is pretty effective, we can set more traps, it’s less effort than hunting." Lu Ke also put down the short crossbow and sat back on the bed.

"Yeah, tomorrow we’ll make more hemp rope, so we can set more traps." Xu Yi agreed that traps were less effort, just had a lower success rate.

"If there’s enough hemp rope, we can also make fishing nets, right?" Lu Ke followed Xu Yi to where they stored the wine.

Xu Yi nodded, fishing nets were a very useful tool, not only for catching fish but sometimes for other animals too.

Xu Yi opened the lid for a look, then said, "The wine’s about done fermenting. Tomorrow we can filter it and seal it for secondary fermentation."

"Then we’ll have grape wine to drink?" Lu Ke had never drunk wine before and was curious about its taste. So she wanted to try it. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Yes, secondary fermentation should take about a week. In a week, we’ll have our homemade grape wine. Oh right, let’s pick the wild grapes tomorrow and dry them into raisins." Xu Yi felt if they didn’t pick them, they might all fall to the ground.

"Great, I’ve never drunk wine before, I didn’t think my first time would be homemade grape wine." Lu Ke leaned over to take a whiff, catching the fruity aroma, and she expected the wine to taste good, so she was even more eager.

Xu Yi smiled lightly, not intending to spoil Lu Ke’s excitement.

After all, grape wine could not only be drunk but also added to meat soup to remove some of the gaminess.

Xu Yi had never found wine to taste particularly good. He wasn’t someone who enjoyed drinking. Whether it was beer, red wine, or white spirits, none were to Xu Yi’s liking.

Outside, the animal’s roars continued.

After all, being caught in the noose wouldn’t end its life.

Until it’s exhausted, it would defiantly keep roaring.

Unless another predator appeared to attack it. Otherwise, these roars would continue for quite a while.