Chapter 466: Empty Shelter
As the stream passes a corner, the water flow slows down. On one side of its winding path, the soil is covered with umbrella-like Houttuynia cordata.
Bifang pressed the Houttuynia cordata with a stick, scaring away all the insects and ants in it, grabbed a handful, shook off the dirt, and then washed it clean by the stream.
Leonardo on the side also did the same thing, but was more careful. The stick in his hand was longer, more than two meters long, and he would often hit the target three or four times before daring to get close.
After being tortured by the bamboo pit viper, white-limbed buffalo, and red dragon centipede, Leonardo became a little nervous, fearing that something would suddenly jump out of this pile of weeds.
It's only the first day, and we've encountered so many dangerous creatures. You know, Bifang still has to live here for another twenty days to make iron tools, so who knows what might pop up.
Can it really be done?
The audience is surprised by how fast Bifang searches for the medicine.
[Damn, how come Lao Fang can find everything?]
[Isn’t this too fast? ]
It's been less than half an hour.
"Because what I'm looking for is plants that are easy to find. If you really want to clear away heat and detoxify, there are many plants that can do it, but when surviving in the wild, what we need to find is what is readily available. Maybe it's not the most effective, but it must be the easiest to find, just like the dogtail grass that is available everywhere on the roadside."
Bifang plucked off the leaves on the top of the Houttuynia cordata, leaving only the stem in the middle. Bifang put it directly into his mouth, chewed it, spit it out after chewing it into pieces, and applied it to the wound that had been cleaned.
"It tastes like a faint Chinese medicinal herb, but it's still a good food source. We can collect more of it."
Bifang and Leonardo dug for a long time and only stopped when the two funnels were full. In the meantime, Leonardo also tried it.
Unfortunately, it seems that he is the extremely allergic person that Bifang mentioned.
As soon as I took a bite, I felt nauseous and wanted to vomit. An extremely strong fishy smell lingered in my mouth and tongue, which was even more severe than Bifang's discomfort.
At least Bifang just felt a faint smell of traditional Chinese medicine, which was not impossible to swallow.
"Maybe I'm not suitable for survival in the wild." Leonardo laughed at himself.
After eating a few bites to fill his stomach, Bifang's body was already covered with funnel bags made of plants, four in total, filled with all the harvest of half a day.
Bifang counted them in front of the audience and found that the largest one was filled with red earth powder, with a few sharp stone pieces and charcoal stuffed in it.
The other two bags were filled with freshly picked Houttuynia cordata as food reserves.
One of them was pressed with a milky white sac, shaped like a balloon. It was the stomach of the bamboo pit viper, filled with water.
The contents of the last small bag were more dangerous. They were several branches of the strychnos nux vomica, fresh and green, with milky white sap oozing out of the broken ends.
It looks no different from ordinary trees, but the audience knows that this is the thing. It is extremely poisonous and will cause death or injury if touched.
If it splashes into people's eyes, they will go blind immediately. The smoke from burning branches can also blind people.
Apply it on the arrow, and once it hits a wild animal, its blood will coagulate and its heart will stop beating within 3 seconds.
This was also Bifang’s most important harvest in half a day. The area around the branches was filled with unknown weeds.
That was when Bifang was collecting branches from around the strychnos nux vomica tree. Leonardo didn't know what those weeds were used for. They looked like ordinary grasses. He just thought they were used to wrap branches to avoid scratches and poisoning.
"This is the antidote for the deadly strychnos nux vomica."
Bifang seemed to see Leonardo's doubts and explained that when he found the strychnos nux vomica tree, he was only busy digging the soil underneath. He only collected some antidotes nearby and did not have time to explain.
"Antidote?"
[Is there an antidote for this thing? ]
[Wait, did Lao Fang just pick the fruits randomly next to the tree? ]
[Damn, the antidote to the curare tree is right around it? ]
[Is it true that there must be an antidote within seven steps? 】
"Although the arrow poison tree is poisonous, there is an antidote, which is the red-backed bamboo grass, which is the only antidote for the arrow poison tree."
Bifang took out the grass from the bag and showed it to the audience in front of the screen. One plant had several leaves and was covered with tiny thorns all around.
"If it is planted, there may not be any, but there will almost certainly be some near wild ones. They grow around the trees and look like ordinary grass. Only a few Yi elders can recognize them."
"This should be the principle of mutual promotion and mutual restraint of all things. As for whether there must be an antidote within seven steps of the poison, I am not sure, but it is not credible. For such a rumor to come out, it must be survivor bias."
[Fuck, survivor bias, this is too...]
[That’s right, everyone who didn’t find the antidote died, dog head.jpg]
These four backpacks alone contain food, simple tools, fire-making supplies, and self-defense means.
This shows how rich Bifang's harvest was in the past half day.
Even a simple funnel bag is not enough, it is too small. I need to find some other materials to make a larger backpack.
"The next step is to build a shelter." Bifang looked around. Although the stream was not wide, only about three meters, there were no large trees above it.
Although a large part of the tree canopy was exposed around, there was still a big gap. Through this gap, the golden sunlight completely revealed into the dense forest for the first time.
Leonardo raised his head and finally saw the sun. The fear of being in the dense forest was almost dissipated.
It seems that breathing is much smoother.
Although it is not completely dark in the primitive rainforest and you can still see things clearly, the deep feeling of depression cannot be eliminated.
Even though I knew I was live streaming, I couldn't eliminate the fear.
Look at Bifang standing aside, still looking contented. In just half a day, he has thrived in the jungle full of dangers, as if he is not affected by the outside environment at all.
A truly strong man.
"Let's go, there's nothing to see." Bifang didn't know what Leonardo was thinking. He patted him on the shoulder and prepared to find a good place to camp for tonight.
After we finish making camp, we’ll get a couple of wooden spears and see if we can catch some fish in the stream for dinner, and that’ll make it a successful first day.
"The campsite cannot be too close to a water source, otherwise it is easy to encounter wild animals coming to drink water. It cannot be too far away, otherwise daily water replenishment will be a big problem."
"Many large beasts have their own fixed range of activities. If you run a long distance every day, leaving behind scent and activity traces, it will be easier to encounter them."
"So 500 to 1,000 meters is a very suitable distance. It is not only convenient for getting water, but we can also try to fish."
Walking along the river bank, Bifang and Leonardo were about to leave when their attention was attracted by a cluster of plants hidden behind the trees.
"That is..." Bifang looked at the long pole hidden by the trees and felt it looked familiar.
He took Leonardo directly across the river and arrived at the other side.
After taking a few steps, several tangled long poles come into view.
Hey!
Bifang smiled happily.
The audience was equally amused as the long poles in front of them were segmented and topped with strands of green leaves.
Isn't it sugarcane?
[Damn, wild sugar cane! ]
[Lao Fang is so lucky that he can even eat wild sugar cane? ]
[June to August, October to December, it is the season for eating sugarcane! ]
[Wo Ri, I’m greedy]
Bifang was also extremely surprised. He didn't expect to find fruit near Houttuynia cordata.
Sugarcane is a tropical crop and has a very long history of consumption.
Qu Yuan wrote in his poem “Chu Ci: Zhao Hun”: “Boiled turtle and roasted lamb, with some mulberry juice.”
It means a family gathering with a variety of food, such as stewed soft-shelled turtle and roasted lamb, all dipped in fresh sugarcane syrup.
In terms of time, during the Warring States Period more than 300 years BC, syrup made from sugarcane was often consumed by at least the nobles.
There is also the story of Gu Kaizhi gradually getting better.
"Sugar cane?" Leonardo chewed on this unfamiliar word, as if he had never heard of it before. But judging from the audience's comments, it seems that it is a very popular fruit?
He quickly asked: "What is this?"
Bi Fang was hitting the roots of sugar cane with a stone. He was startled when he heard this question: "Don't you know sugar cane?"
Leonardo looked confused and shook his head.
He had never seen this kind of fruit in Ugly Country.
[Indeed, no. I studied in the United States for two years and never saw sugar cane for sale anywhere.]
[Yes, the ugly Chinese don’t seem to eat this thing, they only use it to make juice and sugar]
Many Westerners have been addicted to sugar all their lives, but have never chewed sugarcane and don't even know what it looks like.
After hearing the audience's explanation, Bifang suddenly realized that although he knew a lot about wilderness, this was the first time he heard of such a thing, so he explained: "This plant is called sugar cane."
"It is a very common fruit in China and is very sweet. However, it is not its ripening season now and it is still wild. We are not sure whether it can be eaten or how it tastes."
Almost all fruits eaten today are the result of long-term domestication by humans.
Not just fruits, all the food crops we grow were originally domesticated from "weeds."
Just like millet actually evolved from foxtail grass.
Wild fruit, the taste is worrying.
Bifang didn't expect the sugarcane in front of him to be very sweet, he just hoped it would have some flavor.
Leonardo became excited when he heard that the long pole in front of him was fruit.
Can I eat fruit here?
"Sugarcane has a very high efficiency in utilizing sunlight, so it can grow and survive without facing the sun directly, but insufficient sunlight cannot effectively accumulate sugar."
Bifang's implication was obvious: the fruit can still grow without sufficient sunlight, but it may not be very sweet, so Leonardo should not have any expectations.
“And some sugar cane can be poisonous.”
"poisonous?"
Leonardo was shocked. How could it be poisonous? Do Chinese people like to eat poisonous fruits?
Bifang smiled and said, "It's not that sugarcane itself is poisonous, but it is prone to mold."
"Before I came here, Director Zhou told me that experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences had conducted a survey on the wild poisonous plant resources in Banna. The survey found 289 species of wild poisonous plants in Banna, belonging to 79 families and 214 genera."
"Most of the plants are slightly poisonous, there are five species of highly poisonous plants, and 11 species of extremely poisonous plants. But sugarcane is not among them."
Leonardo breathed a sigh of relief. Bifang had almost smashed the sugarcane, and the two of them dug out one together.
"Every year, people get poisoned by eating sugar cane, so we must be careful and look for abnormal colors such as light yellow, brown, gray, etc. on the cross section of the sugar cane after it is cut."
"If it smells musty and tastes sour or alcoholic, you should not buy sugarcane like this."
Bifang picked up the sugarcane and showed the broken end. There was nothing unusual about it, it was white and juicy.
He took out a piece of stone and started peeling the sugar cane.
"The roots of sugarcane are the sweetest because they absorb more nutrients, some of which are stored and the rest are converted into sugar."
"Gu Kaizhi, a famous painter in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, had an allusion to the idea of 'gradually getting better and better', which means that if you start eating from the beginning, the more you eat, the sweeter it becomes."
Bifang peeled the root of the sugarcane, broke off a white section and handed it to Leonardo, then took a bite himself.
The moment he took a sip, Bifang's eyes lit up: "Mmm, it's sweet!"
Seeing Bifang also eating it, Leonardo couldn't wait to try it. His mouth was full of juice, but it was not as delicious as he imagined.
There is only a barely perceptible sweetness, and mostly a smell of clear water.
But it’s not bad either. After eating grilled centipedes, Leonardo has learned to be content.
The sugarcane was an unexpected harvest. The two of them ate a whole piece of sugarcane right there and spit out the fiber residue all over the floor.
The cycle in the rainforest is extremely fast, and these fibers may become fertilizer in less than a month.
Bifang cut down three more, only one with a red heart that was inedible, and he carried the rest towards the depths of the rainforest.
Sugarcane is not very sweet, but it is suitable for replenishing water. It is a natural water container. Just these two pieces can replenish two days' water.
The two strolled around and finally found a relatively open area about 800 meters away from the river.
There was no trace of feces from wild animals or any smell of territory being marked nearby.
If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools.
To build a shelter, you need to make some cutting tools first, and a stone axe is essential.
Bifang took Leonardo with him and made two stone axes using stones, sticks and vines, and looked for suitable materials nearby.
"In the jungle, the biggest concern is rain. The shelter you build has to be able to withstand the rain and provide a dry environment."
"In the rainforest, there are many palm trees, and their leaves are ideal materials for building shelters. Bamboo is another ideal material for building shelters. The rainforest provides abundant materials for building shelters, but the main difficulty is how to keep them dry. In addition, the ground conditions are also a serious problem."
Unlike in a forest, clearing the ground in a rainforest is almost useless, as it won't be long before insects and ants reoccupy the place.
There are so many ants and spiders in the rainforest that if you are not careful, a spider silk will fall from the leaves above your head, and it will be like Spider-Man doing bungee jumping. The little thing will land on your shoulder or even the tip of your nose, and your hands will be covered with sticky silk.
The bite of an inconspicuous ant can cause you so much pain that you doubt your life.
Plus there are many more venomous snakes, and such a large heat source lying on the ground is likely to attract them.
Bifang didn't want to wake up early in the morning and find a poisonous cobra coiled on his chest.
"So the shelter must be vacated!"
