Live Strong in the Wilderness-Chapter 41: Home Alone

Xu Yi moved quickly along the way, so it only took him an hour and fifty minutes to reach the Umbrella Tree Forest.

The journey was quite peaceful, encountering some animals which were quickly scared away by Xu Yi.

There were deer-like animals, which Xu Yi estimated to be muntjacs.

Besides encountering muntjacs, Xu Yi also encountered a small herd of goats, consisting of eight in total.

This showed that there are still plenty of wild animals.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a bow, otherwise he could have hunted one.

Upon arriving at the Umbrella Tree Forest, Xu Yi immediately chose the thickest umbrella tree, which was even thicker than the mouth of a bowl.

With his 18-chop technique, it took three chops to cut it down.

Then, Xu Yi cleaned the tree crown and peeled off the bark.

Next, Xu Yi cut five very thin umbrella trees, cleaned them, and fixed them together with the thicker tree.

After that, Xu Yi started peeling bark.

Since he was there, he naturally had to peel more bark to take back. The bark is quite useful; paired with his dagger, it can be turned into fine twine.

With twine, he can weave it into linen cloth to make clothes.

Of course, Xu Yi hadn’t thought that far ahead.

He stayed in the Umbrella Tree Forest for five hours, peeled enough bark to fill a backpack, and carried the bundled umbrella trees back.

The bark and tree trunk weighed over 80 pounds, but it didn’t seem to affect Xu Yi much.

He set off at 14:09, and because he carried more things back, the return trip took half an hour longer than going.

So, when Xu Yi returned to the camp, it was 16:32.

"Xu Yi, you’re finally back. If you didn’t return soon, it would have been dark,"

Lu Ke saw the umbrella trees and immediately ran to the gate of the fence, feeling very eager.

Having been alone most of the day, she felt an emptiness and couldn’t stop worrying about Xu Yi encountering trouble outside. She deeply regretted not going with Xu Yi to the Umbrella Tree Forest.

"Sorry for making you worry." Xu Yi moved aside the gate and spoke with a grin.

This feeling of being cared for and worried about was rather nice.

"How are things at home?" Xu Yi asked, though he hadn’t found any signs of animal attacks.

"Everything is good, safe. I didn’t go out." Lu Ke stuck out her tongue, although she actually went out twice to fetch water, but quickly.

"Good to hear." Xu Yi set down his backpack and placed things on the ground.

Lu Ke immediately offered him water.

Xu Yi drank it all in one breath, then brought the umbrella trees inside.

"Why did you chop down so many?" Lu Ke noticed that Xu Yi carried six umbrella trees back and asked.

"Besides making bows, we need arrows. And there’s a clothesline to make, so I chopped more." Xu Yi said with a smile, carrying them was not tiring at all.

"Are you hungry? Should I cook something?" Lu Ke asked with care, knowing Xu Yi didn’t take much smoked rabbit meat with him.

"Not hungry, still full." Xu Yi grinned, then untied the bark from the umbrella tree and set up the longest tree as a triangle corner support on the fence.

"This makes drying things more convenient. The rest we’ll keep for now." Xu Yi felt satisfied with the clothesline he brought back.

Lu Ke nodded, with this clothesline, drying intimate clothing would be much easier next time.

"You rest for a while, I’ll fetch some water for the clay." Lu Ke said to Xu Yi, then went to fetch water with her tools.

Xu Yi didn’t accompany her but divided the big umbrella tree into four parts, each over a meter long.

These four parts were for making bows and arrows.

With his machete, Xu Yi started carving one piece of umbrella tree.

After creating a flat surface, Xu Yi drew the bow and arrow design with charcoal.

Thanks to his sharp knife and dagger, otherwise, he couldn’t use this method to make a bow, only using more basic methods.

But those kinds of bows are limited in power and range.

The bow ’carved’ by Xu Yi was different, powerful and with a remarkable range.

However, it took quite some time.

For Xu Yi, the time before sleeping at night was free, just right for making and keeping himself occupied.

After sketching the bow, Xu Yi began shaving off the excess wood, leaving only the necessary parts.

Using a segmented method, he removed the tree piece by piece, layer by layer.

Meanwhile, Lu Ke went back and forth several times, brought back enough water, and stirred the soil into clay to make bricks.

It wasn’t until past six that Lu Ke began preparing dinner.

As daytime was limited, she made the most of it.

"Xu Yi, did you encounter anything dangerous today?" Lu Ke asked while cooking fish slices.

Women love chatting, and remaining silent all day is quite uncomfortable.

"No dangers, but a few good things." Xu Yi paused his work; after carving for so long, his hands were sore.

"Good things, what good things?" Lu Ke got all curious, her eyes brightened.

While playing with clay at the camp, she kept wondering what Xu Yi would do if he encountered wolves or more ferocious animals.

Thinking about random things seems to be a woman’s nature.

"I met muntjacs and goats." Xu Yi shifted his position, thinking the camp needed tables and chairs, as sitting on rocks hurt and made his legs numb.

"What kind of animal is a muntjac?" Lu Ke was hearing this name for the first time and was curious.

Xu Yi glanced at Lu Ke; women’s interests were indeed different.

"It’s a type of deer, believed to be the most primitive deer-like animal. It prefers solitude or pairing. Its movement is often swift leaping, very fast. Ears are upright, senses keen, hard for humans to approach." Xu Yi explained.

"You know a lot, once your bow is ready, can you hunt this muntjac? Its meat sounds delicious." Lu Ke blinked, looking like she was drooling.

"It’s quite tasty; in this world, probably even better. Wonder if there are wild boars; catching one for twice-cooked pork would be great." Xu Yi brightened when talking about food.