Early morning, not long after the sun had risen, the dew on the leaves had yet to drip off, and the forest was moist all around. Occasionally, a bird chirped, adding a touch of tranquility to the scene.
Suddenly, from a thicket somewhere in the woods, the rustling sound of leaves being brushed came through, and Qin Tian crawled out.
At this moment, most of Qin Tian’s clothes were already dampened by the dew on the branches. Coupled with walking for an hour, he felt overwhelmingly hot and stifled.
Stopping in place, Qin Tian brushed the leaves off the branches overhead, then shook his clothes to cool himself down a bit.
Glancing at the still smoldering Wood Conk in his hand, Qin Tian did not linger further but followed the route imprinted in his memory and continued moving forward.
***
Half an hour later, Qin Tian arrived at a relatively open area surrounded by large patches of low shrubs—the very spot where he had encountered a wild rabbit before.
“This should be the place,” Qin Tian looked around cautiously. On his way here, he had been a bit worried that he might not find this spot again.
Building the camp had taken Qin Tian and Ye Lin two full days. During that time, Qin Tian didn’t go out to search for food; the two of them had been filling their stomachs solely on eel meat.
But on the very night the new camp was completed—that is, last night—the eel meat was all eaten up by Qin Tian and Ye Lin.
Fortunately, while they were busy setting up the camp, Qin Tian had not forgotten to collect Cao Fish from the trapping trap and had even preserved them as smoked fish.
Thanks to this, Qin Tian and Ye Lin didn’t wake up hungry this morning. However, in the past two days, the trapping trap had caught only seven two-finger-sized Cao Fish in total, which were all consumed in one breakfast. This meant there was currently no food stock in the camp.
So, Qin Tian’s task today remained to search for food. But unlike before, when he relied on chance, he had set a clear target last night.
There is a saying that rabbits don’t eat the grass near their nests, but how many people know the rest of the phrase: “Why run across the mountain when there’s grass right beside the nest?”
With the dense vegetation here, wild rabbits don’t need to travel far from their burrows to feed. This means the wild rabbit Qin Tian saw earlier indirectly indicated that rabbit holes existed nearby.
Understanding this, Qin Tian returned here, planning to locate the rabbit holes and use smoke fumigation to flush the rabbits out, then catch them.
But saying it was easy was one thing; actually doing it was quite difficult. Qin Tian spent half a day—from morning until noon—searching but still failed to find a rabbit hole.
***
Having already invested so much time, how could he give up so easily?
Unwilling to quit, Qin Tian continued searching and finally found a rabbit hole around three in the afternoon.
“This is hidden well enough. If you’re not careful, you’d completely miss it,” Qin Tian said with some admiration as he looked at the rabbit hole.
The hole was concealed in an overgrown patch of weeds, its entrance covered by grass. Without a thorough search, it would be impossible to find.
“Cunning rabbits have three burrows,” Qin Tian reminded himself.
Centering on this hole, Qin Tian continued searching nearby and soon found four more entrances.
Not rushing to act—worried he might miss any holes—Qin Tian searched the area once more to confirm he hadn’t overlooked any. Only then did he use branches and stones to block three of the entrances, leaving two close to each other open.
Next, Qin Tian gathered wood and dry grass and started a fire. This was where the Wood Conk came into play.
Placing the Wood Conk on the dry grass, Qin Tian gently blew on it, causing the smoldering spots on the Wood Conk to glow red-hot like a branding iron, even briefly flaring into flames. This was enough to ignite the grass.
It was Qin Tian’s third time making fire, and with the help of the Wood Conk, this time the fire was lit much faster than the previous two.
Unfortunately, the Wood Conk was consumed rapidly. In less than a day, a third of it was burned. At this rate, one more outing would use it all up.
“Looks like I’ll need to collect more Wood Conk next time I’m out gathering resources,” Qin Tian thought as he pressed the Wood Conk against the ground to extinguish the remaining embers.
Thinking this over, Qin Tian felt it necessary to learn Fire-making by Rubbing Wood eventually. Relying on external materials to make fire wasn’t a reliable long-term solution.
Not forgetting his current objective, Qin Tian shook his head to clear distracting thoughts.
What he needed wasn’t just fire; it was smoke.
***
After the fire was well established, Qin Tian found some slightly damp grass and wrapped it around the burning stick. Soon, a thick plume of smoke rose.
Seeing this, Qin Tian quickly stuffed the smoking bundle into the rabbit hole in front of him, then hurried over to the other hole to wait.
Soon enough, blue smoke billowed from the hole Qin Tian was by, and faint noises came from inside.
The noises grew louder. Qin Tian extended both hands, ready to grab a rabbit the moment it appeared.
Patiently waiting, after about ten seconds, a gray rabbit suddenly darted out from the hole.
Prepared in advance, Qin Tian grabbed its ears and lifted it up. But at the sight of the rabbit, he was stunned.
It was much smaller than the rabbit he saw two days ago—this was clearly a rabbit kit.
Before Qin Tian could figure out what to do, another rabbit poked its head out.
Reacting quickly, Qin Tian used his body to block the hole, then tied the rabbit in his hands with the String he carried. Once he made sure it couldn’t escape, he temporarily set it aside.
Stepping back, Qin Tian bent down to peer inside the hole. Three or four rabbit kits were huddled near the entrance, their eyes full of fear. And this was just what he could see—deep inside the burrow, their parents were likely hiding.
Excited, Qin Tian began to catch the kits one by one and tie them up with String.
After half an hour, Qin Tian had caught all the rabbits in the burrow.
Counting them, he found a total of eight rabbits—six kits and two adults. It was obvious they were a family.
“A family should stay together,” Qin Tian murmured. That saying was indeed true.
It was worth noting that the two adult rabbits struggled fiercely when caught. They even tried to bite Qin Tian, who luckily reacted quickly enough to avoid injury.
Such fierce rabbits were a first for Qin Tian, completely shattering his previous image of rabbits.
But no matter how fierce, they still ended up in Qin Tian’s hands.
Looking at the eight rabbits in front of him, Qin Tian couldn’t hide his smile. This many rabbits would be enough to feed them for three days.
***
Survival of the Fittest was the law of the forest. Qin Tian didn’t spare the kits just because they were young; he took every single one with him.
With no bags or anything similar, Qin Tian could only tie all eight rabbits together on a single String and carry them by hand.
Of course, the rabbits didn’t go quietly. On the way back, they kept kicking him.
When Qin Tian returned to the camp, Ye Lin was crouching on the ground, using the Survival Knife to dig up weeds around the camp—the task Qin Tian had assigned her before leaving.
There were quite a few weeds in the camp, and every morning the dew on their leaves made the camp damp. If one wasn’t careful, it would soak their pant legs. Removing these weeds could prevent such a problem.
Probably due to being too focused, Ye Lin didn’t notice Qin Tian approaching, and Qin Tian made no sound. Seizing the moment, he quietly placed a rabbit kit down behind her.
As soon as it hit the ground, the kit mustered all its strength and dashed toward where Ye Lin was. Only in that direction was there cover to hide in.
Unfortunately, the kit was still underdeveloped and not fast. Before it could slip into the bushes, Ye Lin spotted it.
“A rabbit!” Ye Lin’s face lit up with delight as she scooped up the rabbit into her arms. It was at this moment that she noticed Qin Tian.
Seeing the rabbits Qin Tian was carrying, Ye Lin instantly understood what had happened.
Holding the rabbit, Ye Lin walked over to Qin Tian. “So many rabbits—where did you catch them all?”
Before Qin Tian could answer, Ye Lin suddenly became alert, her expression protective as if guarding her young. “The kits are still so small—you’re not planning to kill and eat them, are you?”
“I…” Qin Tian was momentarily speechless. He had forgotten that girls usually had no resistance to cute animals like cats and rabbits.
“If we’re going to eat them, it should be after they’ve grown up,” Ye Lin suddenly said.
“What?” Qin Tian was dumbfounded, wondering if he had heard her right.
Even the rabbit kit in Ye Lin’s arms startled and struggled wildly, only to be grabbed by the ear and lifted again by Ye Lin the next moment.
“You don’t know—I’ve raised rabbits before. Beneath their cute exterior, they’re not gentle and will bite,” Ye Lin said seriously, staring at Qin Tian. “I don’t like rabbits.”
“I’ve seen how fierce they are,” Qin Tian nodded in agreement. Well, that made things easier; no need to argue. “Then we’ll wait until they grow up before eating them.”
Qin Tian fully agreed with the idea of raising the rabbits until maturity. In fact, that was his original plan. Otherwise, he would have killed them outright instead of bringing them back alive.
***
After some time, Qin Tian made a cage out of wood and locked all the rabbits inside.
By the time Qin Tian returned to the camp, it was afternoon. After a short rest, dusk began to fall.
When it was time to prepare dinner, Qin Tian took out a male rabbit from the cage. Honestly, wild rabbits didn’t have much meat, and if not for the fact that the kits still needed their mother’s milk, the female rabbits wouldn’t have been spared either.
At the creek, Qin Tian first used the Survival Knife to cut open the rabbit’s major arteries to drain the blood, then removed its tail and genitalia. This process was to reduce the gamey smell as much as possible.
Unlike domestic rabbits, wild rabbits’ fur was not smooth but rather coarse and rough. Still, Qin Tian tried his best to skin the rabbit whole to see if he could make something useful from the pelt.