Chapter 43 A New Camp

However, just having the earthen jar wasn’t enough; both Qin Tian and Ye Lin still lacked a place to store things like firewood and wild boar soap.

After discussing it, Qin Tian and Ye Lin decided to dismantle the wooden shelter they had originally planned to use as a kitchen, and instead use the materials to build a larger bamboo shed, which would serve as both a kitchen and a place to store miscellaneous items.

Of course, Qin Tian and Ye Lin didn’t really have to go through so much trouble—they could have just piled up all these items in the cave. But if they did, the already cramped cave would become even smaller, making it uncomfortable to live in.

For Qin Tian and Ye Lin, this was absolutely unacceptable. After all, now that they had the means to live comfortably, why should they settle for less just to be lazy for a moment?

Once they decided, they acted. The next morning, after having something to eat, Qin Tian and Ye Lin got busy—not with building the shed, but with weaving bamboo mats.

***

Ye Lin’s earlier idea—to have Han Pi guard the cave entrance while she and Qin Tian slept—was indeed feasible. In fact, Qin Tian had already thought of it before Ye Lin mentioned it.

However, back then there was only one place to sleep in the cave. Even if Qin Tian had wanted to, Ye Lin could never have agreed to squeeze together on a single wild boar skin. Knowing this, Qin Tian had suggested that they continue taking turns keeping watch at night.

But once the bamboo mats were finished, this would no longer be an issue.

The method for weaving bamboo mats was the same as weaving the framework when they made paper—just interlace the bamboo strips up and down.

Qin Tian was responsible for cutting and peeling the bamboo, while Ye Lin wove the mats. In just one hour, they had completed a single bed mat, and Qin Tian even received 500 Points for it.

After that, Qin Tian and Ye Lin finally started to build the bamboo shed.

The bamboo shed would serve as both kitchen and storage, so it couldn’t be too small. After calculating, Qin Tian planned to build a shed with a roof height of nearly three meters, an eave height of two meters, and an area of eight square meters.

To build a shed this tall, Qin Tian’s height wasn’t enough—he needed to make a ladder.

Making the ladder wasn’t difficult; he just had to tie two A-shaped bamboo frames together and then connect them with bamboo to create a bamboo ladder.

Making the bamboo ladder took a bit more time. By the time they finished, it was already noon. The weather was hot, and the grassland had no trees to provide shade. Helplessly, the two had to rest in the cave for a while.

Two hours passed quickly, and soon Qin Tian and Ye Lin were back to work building the bamboo shed.

For the location of the shed, Qin Tian chose a spot a little in front and to the left of the cave. First, he and Ye Lin selected four relatively straight bamboo poles and hammered them into the ground with stones.

The four bamboo poles were evenly spaced, one at each corner. When connected, they formed a perfect square with a side length of three meters.

Next, Qin Tian picked out the two longest bamboo poles from the pile and hammered them symmetrically between the stakes. With that, the six bamboo stakes for the shed were in place. All that was left was to lay the beams.

The beams were set very high, so Qin Tian had to use the bamboo ladder to position them.

The bamboo ladder was not very stable—when Qin Tian stepped onto it, it creaked and groaned. If Ye Lin hadn’t been holding it steady, he would have been a bit frightened.

Fortunately, nothing went wrong, and Qin Tian safely tied up the bamboo beams. By then, it was already around five o’clock in the afternoon. If the grassland soil hadn’t been so moist, they might not have even finished the frame by sunset.

Before it got dark, Qin Tian took Han Pi with him to the riverbank. With all the recent work and plenty to eat, Qin Tian hadn’t checked the Ground Cage for a couple of days.

He wasn’t sure what kind of fish resources were in the waters near the cave, so he was a little nervous. Thankfully, the results did not disappoint—there were seven or eight fish in the Ground Cage, and even the smallest was three fingers wide.

To Qin Tian’s delight, there were many different species of fish in the river: carp, catfish, silver carp, and even a river crab—far from the previous monotony.

He didn’t take all the fish back. As before, Qin Tian dug a pit by the river to temporarily keep the extra fish alive.

***

When night fell, Han Pi had already curled up at the cave entrance and gone to sleep. The firelight danced in the cave. Qin Tian and Ye Lin sat facing each other, not exchanging a single word.

After a while, Qin Tian broke the silence. “I’ll sleep first.”

With that, he got up, walked over to the bamboo mat, lay down facing the wall, giving the impression he was running away from something.

The sleeping area for Qin Tian and Ye Lin was at the very back of the cave, not very large—just enough for two single beds side by side. Right next to the bamboo mat was the wild boar skin, and that was exactly why Qin Tian had turned to face the wall in self-reflection.

Don’t be fooled by how Qin Tian always jokes with Ye Lin; that’s as far as it goes. Just the thought of Ye Lin sleeping beside him made him feel uneasy all over—one could even call him uptight.

It was understandable. For Qin Tian, who had never been in a relationship, sleeping beside a woman was certainly stimulating—especially since he was a perfectly normal man.

But under the exhaustion of the day, within a dozen minutes, Qin Tian fell fast asleep.

However, compared to Qin Tian, it was Ye Lin, as a woman, who was even more ill at ease.

Ye Lin stayed awake until nine at night, occasionally glancing at Qin Tian. Only when she was certain that he was asleep did she quietly lie down on the wild boar skin, also facing the wall.

The cave grew quiet once more.

Maybe it was a little cold at night, or maybe holding the same position for too long was tiring. Deep in the night, the two of them rolled over in their sleep, unconsciously inching toward each other.

The next morning, just after sunrise, Qin Tian woke up. At first, he still felt a little groggy, but the moment he opened his eyes, he was instantly wide awake.

At this moment, Qin Tian was holding Ye Lin in his arms. Needless to say, it must have happened unconsciously during the night.

Afraid of waking Ye Lin, Qin Tian carefully lifted his hand. Luckily, he didn’t disturb her.

He let out a sigh of relief and was about to get up, but as he moved, he realized that Ye Lin’s hand was resting on him as well—which meant that they had actually fallen asleep in each other’s arms.

In that moment of carelessness, Qin Tian woke Ye Lin. Before he could react, Ye Lin opened her eyes.

But the scream he expected did not come. Ye Lin blinked, blushed, turned over, and continued pretending to sleep. Unfortunately, her acting was so poor that anyone could see she was faking.

Of course, Qin Tian didn’t expose her—he just pretended not to know and got up to walk outside the cave.

Ye Lin got up after Qin Tian had left. As for what happened that morning, both of them tacitly agreed to forget about it.

***

As usual, after breakfast, Qin Tian and Ye Lin went back to the previous day’s work.

With the framework of the bamboo shed complete, the next step was to reinforce it. Using bamboo, they connected the stakes together to form three walls of bamboo.

At this point, only the roof was left before the shed would be finished.

The roof was an extension of the old wooden shelter, saving them a lot of trouble.

By the end of the morning, the bamboo shed was finally built. They even set up a clay stove inside and moved all the miscellaneous items in.

Standing among the trees outside the cave, Qin Tian and Ye Lin gazed at the newly completed bamboo shed from afar, smiles breaking out across their faces.

“Ding—Host has obtained a new camp. Reward: 3,000 Points!”

Just then, the System notification sounded. Qin Tian froze for a moment, then grew secretly excited. Unable to wait, he opened the Mall and said to Ye Lin, “Let’s go back and have a good rest at noon. In the afternoon, let’s take a walk near the grassland.”

Ever since he exchanged for the Beast King Package, Qin Tian only had 200 Points left. But over the past month, he had earned 1,000 Points by making the bamboo basket and the bamboo mat, and with the new camp task reward just now, he had a total of 4,200 Points.

But 4,200 Points weren’t nearly enough for Qin Tian to squander. After exchanging for the Wild Plant Encyclopedia, his Points dropped right back to a pitiful 200.

In the afternoon, with the sun much weaker, Qin Tian and Ye Lin took Han Pi and left the camp, heading to the stream.

“The water’s so shallow here.”

This was Ye Lin’s first time here, and everything seemed new to her. When she saw the shallow riverbed, she couldn’t resist taking off her shoes and wading into the water.

Seeing Ye Lin so happy, Han Pi couldn’t help himself either. With a low growl, he jumped in after her. Human and beast, like children, splashed water at each other.

“It really hasn’t been easy.” Not joining them, Qin Tian watched and sighed with emotion.

Back when they had first washed up on the deserted island, just finding food and a place to sleep was a problem. But now, those worries were gone, and they could even enjoy themselves playing in the water.

“Ah, ouch!” Just as she was having fun, Ye Lin suddenly yelped and bent down to pick up a thumb-sized, semi-transparent stone from under her foot.

Qin Tian, who had been watching Ye Lin, also saw the stone and thought of something. He immediately called out, “Ye Lin! Let me see that stone!”

Without waiting for Ye Lin to bring it over, Qin Tian waded over to her.

“Does this stone have any use?” Ye Lin handed it to Qin Tian, curiosity in her eyes. Just from the appearance, she could tell it wasn’t an ordinary stone.

Qin Tian didn’t answer immediately. He took the stone and held it up to the sunlight, then said after a moment, “This is silica sand.”

“Silica sand?” Ye Lin was startled. “Isn’t that one of the main materials for making glass?”

“That’s right.” Qin Tian nodded, squatted down, and scooped up a handful of gravel from the water. He found that about a tenth of the pebbles were silica sand—and the purity was quite high, nearly all semi-transparent.

“I don’t think we have any use for glass.” Ye Lin couldn’t help recalling the exhaustion from refining iron.

Silicon’s melting point was about as high as iron’s, and melting silica sand was even harder than smelting iron. She had no desire to go through that ordeal again.

“Maybe not now, but that doesn’t mean we won’t need it in the future.” Seeing through Ye Lin’s thoughts, Qin Tian gave a sly grin, making Ye Lin uneasy.

“But let’s worry about it when the time comes.” Qin Tian changed the subject, heading for the shore.