Chapter 485 Uninvited Guests
The eighth night.
The flickering bonfire illuminated Bifang's profile.
In the pit nearby were the hairs of two skinned squirrels.
As for the meat...
Bifang flipped over the two grills on the left and right in front of him. Both were very fat and sizzling with oil. He had to turn them over from time to time to prevent the grease from dripping.
Animal fats and oils are good things and should not be wasted at all.
The squirrel was roasted until it was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, but still not fully cooked. There was a string of roasted insects on the side, and before that there was the most important step.
Bifang picked up the bamboo tube beside him and carefully took it off the campfire.
The bamboo tube was split into two halves and was filled with water, which was now boiling. In the middle of the boiling water, pale yellow crystals stood up like a "hill".
This is a "salt mountain".
The freshly extracted mineral salt can be eaten, but it is not safe. First of all, there is the problem of bacteria. Perhaps the salt scraped off by Bifang was just licked by the white-lipped buffalo?
Even if it wasn't the buffalo, perhaps it could be some other animal?
Even if you haven't licked it, the ones in the Batcave are not safe.
Furthermore, mineral salts contain not only salt, but also many other impurities. Although it is okay to eat a little, eating too much is definitely not good.
So Bifang demonstrated the simplest way to minimize the risk.
He first dissolved the mineral salt in pure water, heated it with fire until the salt solution boiled, continued heating over low heat until a large number of white crystals appeared in the container and stopped heating.
Boiling water, on the one hand, sterilizes and disinfects, and on the other hand, utilizes the effect of temperature on solubility.
"The solubility of sodium chloride changes only slightly with temperature. At room temperature of 20 degrees, the saturated solubility is about 36 grams; when heated to 90 degrees, it is only 39 grams."
"Typical impurities, such as potassium chloride and magnesium chloride, have particularly obvious changes in solubility as the temperature rises. Take magnesium chloride as an example. At room temperature of 20 degrees, the saturated solubility is about 55 grams; when heated to 90 degrees, it has risen to 70 grams."
Bifang scooped out all the salt grains with a small spoon. This was the third time he had extracted salt.
Every time he would fill the pot with water, boil it over high heat, and it would take more than half an hour to extract enough salt.
" So when the solubility of sodium chloride in water reaches saturation, magnesium chloride is far from saturation. As the water temperature rises, the difference in saturation solubility between the two becomes larger and larger."
"Finally, in an aqueous solution heated to a certain high temperature, as the water evaporates, when the sodium chloride has crystallized, the magnesium chloride is still completely dissolved in the water. This is considered preliminary purification."
Bifang put down the branch after stirring it for a while and said with a smile: "These are all the contents of junior high school chemistry. I think everyone should know them, right?"
[Ah, yes, yes, yes, we all know that, dog head]
[Have you learned it? Going around in circles]
[Returned everything to the teacher]
[I have some impression, but I have completely forgotten why I did this]
[Sure enough, if you learn math, physics and chemistry well, you won’t be afraid to travel around the world. With Lao Fang’s ability, maybe he can even take the college entrance examination.]
[Am I here to learn? Am I here to learn how to cook? What did I learn today? Three questions to ask yourself every day]
[Shrimp, or pig heart? ]
Use a spoon to scrape the salt from the container, dissolve it in pure water again, and finally pour it into the container containing activated carbon. The top and bottom of the activated carbon are covered with clean large leaves with several small holes on them.
Bifang explained: "Because there is no gauze, my charcoal particles are relatively large, so I don't agree to take them out. Of course, there may be some charcoal ash, but it doesn't matter. There is no problem with eating some charcoal."
"The main purpose of this filtration is to absorb impurities. After this step is completed, the filtered brine is heated again to precipitate salt, and then it can be eaten."
By the time the salt crystals precipitated again, the squirrel was almost done roasting. This time, the Bifang was not burnt, but roasted to a dark yellow color.
The bamboo tube containing the salt water was taken down. Although it was not very clear under the firelight, the audience could clearly feel that compared with the original mineral salt, this pile of salt was much whiter, but the grains were large, which was very different from household table salt.
In fact, modern salt production is a highly industrialized and standardized process.
People have an accurate understanding of the composition of crude salt, and a modern industry has developed based on complete basic chemical research and industrialized salt production.
It is very difficult to "simply" purify the fine salt that we use for household purposes in the wilderness.
The wasted effort and energy is not worth it. Even if Bifang knew the process, he would not do it. It is enough to get coarse salt that can be eaten for a long time.
Bifang carefully picked up a handful of salt and sprinkled it evenly on the roasted squirrel. The large salt grains immediately melted into the bones and flesh and disappeared the moment they combined with the hot oil.
An even stronger fresh fragrance wafted into the air. Bifang tore the lemongrass into pieces and gently spread it on the skin, adding a unique lemon scent to the fresh fragrance.
Stirring up the smell, Bifang took a deep breath, savoring the taste for a long time before slowly exhaling.
“It smells so good!”
I am so hungry
[It’s nine o’clock, it should be time for a midnight snack]
[Wow, squirrels are so cute, how can you eat them, wow]
[So greedy, ugh, so greedy]
[Salt is the king of all flavors. I envy you.]
His stomach was already growling, so Bifang impatiently picked up the branch, bit off the bone and meat in one bite, and chewed it in big mouthfuls.
The rich fat exploded in the mouth, accompanied by a salty and fresh taste that I haven't tasted for a long time. The slender bones mixed with the meat were chewed into bone residue. Except that the meat was a little old, it was so delicious that even my tongue could swallow it.
The two squirrels were eaten completely, not even a bone was left; the insect skewers were also crispy and delicious.
After a full meal, Bifang bit a branch, brushed his teeth briefly, took a bath with warm water, and then went to sleep in the makeshift hammock.
The ninth day of survival in the Xishuangbanna rainforest.
Bifang got up early and followed the direction signs in the forest to head towards the campsite.
"If you do get lost in the forest, we can leave some clues for people who might come to rescue you, such as that you have been to this place before and which direction you are heading."
“A qualified logo must allow you to tell at a glance that it is man-made and contain a certain message.”
"There are many ways. If you have stones, you can use them. If not, you can use wood, grass, leaves, etc. to mark. And it is best to use two or more methods at the same time, so that you can increase the margin of error and avoid damage by animals or natural factors."
Stones, pebbles, sticks, and tall grass can all be used as markers.
Bifang uses stones and tall grass at the same time. Several fist-sized stones are stacked up and tied with tall grass. They are pressed in a certain direction and the distance is determined by the number of knots and bundles of tall grass.
One stick is fifty meters, and if three sticks are tied together, it proves that the next mark is one hundred and fifty meters ahead.
"It is best not to use stones in the rainforest, because the stones may be washed away by heavy rain. It is best to use stones larger than the size of a fist and pile them into different shapes to determine the direction, and use trees to determine the distance. These are basically the two elements."
"In addition, during the day, another effective way to attract people is to burn grass and leaves. The thick smoke can well indicate your location. At night, you can use the resources you have to light a large fire. If there is enough fuel, you need to build three large fires at intervals, making them in a triangle, with each pile about 10 meters apart. Of course, the premise of doing this is to ensure that you will not cause a forest fire. Once a forest fire is caused, you will almost certainly be buried in it."
Bifang chatted with the audience as they walked along the way, and nothing unexpected happened along the way.
It was not until noon that the familiar shed finally appeared in front of everyone again.
"Oh my god, it's finally here."
Bifang put the heavy bark frame on the ground and stretched his sore shoulders. His forehead was covered with sweat. He had been running for the whole morning and was almost exhausted. He drank all the water.
All the tools that could be thrown away were thrown away. Now, all he had left on his body was a grass skirt, a wooden spear, a stone dagger, red mud powder, some materials, a few bamboo tubes and funnel bags, and finally a bark frame containing the iron bacteria he had collected with great effort, covered with a conical hat.
Bifang even threw away his straw raincoat because it was too heavy.
"I haven't been home for almost four days. Let's not go in yet. The places I chose are all uphill, and rainwater doesn't gather easily. There may be a lot of insects gathered here. Let's smoke them away first."
Bifang pulled up the inconspicuous yellow chrysanthemum from her waist, tied it up with lemongrass, and set it on fire.
"This is pyrethrum I found on the road this morning. People now cultivate it and use it to kill insects because its inflorescence contains four insecticidal ingredients, including pyrethrin A, pyrethrin B and cypermethrin A, B. However, they are easily hydrolyzed and disappear, so don't let it touch water."
[Wait, isn't this the chrysanthemum used for making tea? ]
[Can this thing get rid of insects? ]
[Damn, is it okay for people to eat it? ]
[I can’t touch water, so can I touch fire?]
"This is not the chrysanthemum used for making tea. It just looks similar. You won't come across it normally. It's grown with industrial pesticides and is rare in the wild."
Bifang threw the burning and smoking pyrethrum into the shelter and waited quietly for the smoke to spread.
"The pharmacological effect of insecticide is to paralyze the nerves of insects. The effect is very strong. Generally, insects can recover within 24 hours after being paralyzed and drunk. After houseflies are poisoned, they are all paralyzed within 10 minutes, and the mortality rate is about 60-70%!"
"It is also toxic to segmented insects, fish, amphibians and reptiles; however, it is not obviously toxic to birds and mammals. So we don't need to worry too much about it causing any harm to humans."
The drone approached the ground near the shelter, and the audience could clearly see that one after another some inconspicuous little bugs were struggling to escape.
Some of them ran slowly, and their movements became sluggish before they even got out of the smoke. Soon they fell to the ground, motionless.
[Fuck, such a strong poison! ]
[Can it kill mosquitoes? They've been biting me to death these past two days]
[I also want to do it at my home]
About half a quarter of an hour later, Bifang entered the shelter and crushed the pyrethrum to death.
"If we don't have pyrethrum, we can also use pine needles or sage, which have the same effect, but we have to wait longer and need a sealed environment for the effect to be better. If you are at home, you can use this method to repel insects, but forget about pyrethrum, it is toxic anyway."
After rummaging through the shelter he hadn't returned to for a long time, Bifang picked up a few stiff insects that were high from smoking and threw them out.
By the way, he swept away all the leaves blown in by the wind, but as soon as he swept away a leaf, a huge paw print attracted everyone's attention.
