Gone early, returned early as well.
At noon, Ye Lin was weeding in the Camp when she heard movement behind her. Turning around, she saw Qin Tian returning.
Stopping her work, Ye Lin was about to go greet him, but she noticed Qin Tian was carrying a bamboo pole on his shoulder. At the front hung a bundle of pork fat wrapped in wild boar skin, and at the back were four large wild boar legs.
Just by looking at the curved bamboo and Qin Tian’s face flushed red from exertion, it was clear how heavy those things were.
Seeing Qin Tian rush forward, Ye Lin stepped back repeatedly, hastily making way for him.
Qin Tian quickly entered the Camp, but could no longer hold on and dropped the burden, sitting down heavily on the ground to catch his breath.
Although the bamboo pole helped bear the weight, after such a long walk from the bamboo forest to the Camp, Qin Tian was exhausted, relying solely on sheer willpower to finish the last stretch.
Seeing this, Ye Lin quickly grabbed a fan nearby and began fanning him.
The fan was made by tying banana leaves onto a wooden stick. Ye Lin hadn’t seen it before, so it must have been something she made while Qin Tian was out today.
The fan was small but sturdy, and with Ye Lin’s continuous waving, it showed no signs of breaking. Thankfully, this made Qin Tian feel cooler in the scorching noon heat.
While fanning, Ye Lin looked over the things Qin Tian brought back.
Her eyes lit up when she saw the four wild boar legs, excitedly saying, “This much meat should last us half a month, right?”
As she spoke, Ye Lin looked at the pork fat bundle. “By the way, what’s this?”
“Pork fat,” Qin Tian replied in surprise, “You don’t know?”
Ye Lin shook her head. “Is it tasty? It looks really greasy.”
Not knowing what pork fat was for, to Ye Lin, it just looked like a lump of white fat.
Qin Tian was speechless, thinking, how could she not even know this? But then he understood.
In the city, most people bought packaged food from supermarkets. Pork fat isn’t a common edible meat product and rarely appears in supermarkets. It was only natural she wouldn’t know.
“It’s used to render lard,” Qin Tian explained.
Ye Lin then asked, “I’ve only heard of peanut oil, blended oil, Golden Dragon Fish oil, rapeseed oil… this is the first time I’ve heard of pork lard.”
“They’re all just oils anyway,” Qin Tian dodged the question, afraid that if he explained more, Ye Lin would keep asking.
“There’s so much to handle, better get to work.” After resting a while, Qin Tian recovered enough to stand and instructed Ye Lin, “Make me a frame about two square meters, and four more frames around half a square meter each.”
“Okay,” Ye Lin nodded without asking what all those frames were for.
***
After assigning Ye Lin’s task, Qin Tian carried the four legs to the Creek and used his Survival Knife to strip off the skin and then pulled out the tough tendons inside the thighs.
These tendons were very resilient, like elastic ropes, perfect for making bows and crossbows. To just eat them here on this deserted island would be a waste.
Finally, Qin Tian cut the thigh meat into long strips for making jerky.
Processing the legs took a lot of time, and by the time Qin Tian returned to the Camp, two hours had passed. During that time, Ye Lin had already finished making the four smaller frames.
Using the smoking racks, Qin Tian carefully arranged the wild boar meat. Unlike the yellow eel meat before, this pork had to be preserved for a long time, so it couldn’t be treated carelessly.
Next, Qin Tian spread out the skins from the wild boar legs and tied them onto the frames Ye Lin had made.
The raw skins weren’t cleaned thoroughly—there were still meat scraps and a layer of fat stuck on them. If left unattended, they would soon rot, breed maggots, and emit a foul stench.
Qin Tian had asked Ye Lin to make the racks to stretch the skins, making it easier to scrape off the meat scraps and fat with the Survival Knife. More importantly, stretching prevented the skins from shrinking.
Qin Tian planned to have Ye Lin handle this work. After giving the instructions, he returned to the Creek and dove into the water, feeling around for a palm-sized stone. He smashed it hard against another stone.
With a sharp crack, the rock split into several pieces. After a quick glance, Qin Tian continued searching.
When dealing with the Tusks Boar earlier, his Stone Axe was lost. He needed to make a new one to avoid being unarmed when needed.
Making a Stone Axe wasn’t difficult; the hard part was finding suitable stones. Whether a rock would break into the right shape was unpredictable—just luck.
After breaking many stones, Qin Tian finally got two suitable pieces and spent an hour crafting them into two Stone Axes.
***
By the time he finished, the sun was setting, but Qin Tian still had one more task.
Without rest, he grabbed the broken stones and found a flat spot nearby to start digging.
The Ground Cage they used for fishing produced nearly ten fish daily—more than Ye Lin and Qin Tian could eat. So, he planned to dig a pit by the Creek to keep the caught fish temporarily as a food reserve.
The soil by the Creek was moistened by the water and softer than other places. Even without proper tools, Qin Tian easily dug a pit about one meter long and half an arm deep.
Not done yet, Qin Tian dug a small water channel connecting the pit to the Creek and filled it with water.
By the time he finished, darkness had fallen. It was just in time to collect the Ground Cage.
Today’s catch was decent—seven Cao Fish of various sizes. Qin Tian put all of them into the water pit, then covered it with shrub branches and leaves to prevent the fish from jumping out.
***
As evening settled, the forest grew lively with endless birdsong. Occasionally, rustling sounds came from the surrounding trees.
After a long day’s work, Qin Tian and Ye Lin sat by the Campfire, happily chewing on wild boar jerky.
Like all wild game, it had a certain gamey smell—similar to wild rabbits—but the wild boar’s was much milder, enough for Ye Lin to tolerate.
Putting that aside, wild boar meat was incredibly delicious.
Perhaps due to their constant running, wild boars had a high lean meat ratio, and the meat lacked the dryness that gets stuck between teeth. The texture was tender and elastic.
Most importantly, the satisfaction of stuffing your mouth with chunks of meat was far beyond anything they had eaten before.
After filling their stomachs, the two shared a cup of Mint Tea to cut the grease, their expressions utterly content.
“Qin Tian, what do you plan to do with the wild boar skins? Make clothes out of them?” Ye Lin asked, looking at the four skins drying nearby.
Except for the one still wrapped with pork fat, she had already cleaned the other four skins that afternoon.
“Why? Want to change clothes?” Qin Tian smiled knowingly, seeing right through Ye Lin’s thoughts.
“I haven’t changed this outfit since we got here. It’s starting to smell,” Ye Lin admitted when Qin Tian pointed it out.
But her reason for wanting new clothes wasn’t just because of that.
Looking at Qin Tian with worry, Ye Lin said, “More importantly, this outfit won’t last much longer, will it?”
Qin Tian’s pants were already full of pulls and tears from brushing through shrubs, but that was the least of it. His shirt was worse—torn by the Tusks Boar attack, a gaping hole revealed the skin beneath.
“Wild boar skin is too hard and thick. Wearing clothes made from it wouldn’t just be uncomfortable—it would be pure suffering,” Qin Tian explained. “So, I plan to make blankets with them.”
After thinking it over, Ye Lin agreed, but still sighed. If things continued this way, sooner or later they’d be running around naked.
Changing the topic, after a few more casual words, Qin Tian retreated into the wooden shelter.
***
A night passed, and the sun rose from the east.
The morning air was refreshing. After breakfast, Qin Tian stretched deeply, then looked into the distance, enjoying the unique tranquility, a smile naturally tugging at his lips.
“What are you smiling about?” Ye Lin, noticing Qin Tian’s expression, chuckled. “Got something good to share?”
Hearing this, Qin Tian was taken aback. “Am I smiling?”
“Yes,” Ye Lin confirmed.
“Maybe it’s because we’re still alive,” Qin Tian’s smile widened. “Being alive is the greatest blessing.”
Since arriving on this deserted island, he’d been running around constantly looking for food. Even during the time they had yellow eel meat, he was still worried about their next meal.
But now was different. The fishing Ground Cage produced more Cao Fish daily than they needed, and they had stored dozens of pounds of wild boar jerky. Unless something unexpected happened, they wouldn’t have to worry about food anymore.
Without the biggest worry hanging over him, Qin Tian naturally felt much lighter and more lively.
Having spent some time together, Ye Lin could tell Qin Tian was brushing her off, but she didn’t mind and instead asked, “What are we doing today? And what about that pork fat? I feel like it’s starting to spoil.”
Qin Tian turned his head. “Have you ever played with mud?”
“Mud?” Ye Lin was momentarily stunned, then quickly understood and got a bit excited. “You mean you want to make pottery?”
“To cook pork, we need a pot,” Qin Tian smiled.
***
Making pottery was an extremely time-consuming task. With the plan set, Qin Tian and Ye Lin immediately got to work.
The clay for pottery didn’t have strict requirements—basically any soil could work—but to fire good pottery, the clay had to be of good quality.
However, on this deserted island, they couldn’t be so picky. Qin Tian and Ye Lin simply dug around the Camp using bamboo shovels they had carved.
Although any clay could do, the finer the better, otherwise the pottery would crack easily after firing. For this reason, the two worked hard all morning.
Standing at the edge of the pit, they used the ground as a reference point and dug about half a meter down. The soil near the surface was brown and contained many leaves and stones.
Below half a meter, the soil turned yellow. Judging by the naked eye, this yellow clay was clean and much finer, exactly the material Qin Tian needed.
They dug nearly half a meter deep before finding the clay they wanted.