Lin Jing untied the silk cord at the mouth of the small pouch and gently poured the contents into his outstretched palm.
These items were all very dainty. The most eye - catching one was a triangular talisman on a vermilion base. The red string threaded through the talisman was adorned with two shiny and moist pearls. This was obtained when his mother - concubine took him to a Taoist temple to pray for blessings. It was said to keep him safe. The red string was also woven by his mother - concubine herself.
There was also a small seal carved from Hetian greenish - white jade, inscribed with the characters "Chengyao". However, the carving was not very elaborate because it was carved by his father himself as a gift for his initiation into learning.
Next to the small seal lay a smooth and round cyan pebble. His mother - concubine picked it up by the garden pond. There were some patterns on it that vaguely resembled a small fish. He was very fond of this pebble for a while.
Under the stone was a golden ginkgo leaf, given to him by his tutor when teaching in the garden. Since he learned that leaves could be used as bookmarks, he had gone to collect many, and he had put this one into the small pouch.
Looking at these items that carried his past memories, Lin Jing's eyes gradually welled up with tears. He blinked hard, trying to hide the tears, but unexpectedly, the tears squeezed out of his eyes and rolled down.
Lin Wu gently wiped the tears off his face with a handkerchief and then patted him on the shoulder. Her voice was soft: "These things are very precious. We have to hide them well."
Then the two of them used a wooden stick to dig the soil beside the circle of stones. After digging a small shallow pit, Lin Wu wrapped the small pouch with a handkerchief and handed it to him.
After Lin Jing put the pouch into the pit, Lin Wu found a relatively flat stone to cover it.
After finishing all this, Lin Wu straightened up, took off her outer cotton - lined short jacket, shook off the dust forcefully, and laid it on the leaf - made bed.
"The night will be cold. You can use this as a cover." The thick cotton - padded jacket she was wearing was warm enough to keep her from the cold, so the short jacket could be used as a quilt.
Looking at the cave that could barely accommodate them, Lin Wu felt a bit more at ease. But this was far from enough. They still had to ensure their safety at night.
"I'll go find some big stones to see if I can block the cave entrance." With that, she walked out of the cave and looked around.
They needed to find stones of a proper size. If they were too big, they couldn't be moved; if they were too small, they wouldn't work.
Fortunately, she found several stones around the cave. Among them, a flat, gray - blue sandstone was particularly suitable.
After clearing the loose soil and weeds around the stone, she leaned forward slightly, pressed her shoulder against the stone, and used her whole body weight to push the stone towards the cave entrance little by little.
After finding a few smaller stones, she started to build a small door at the cave entrance.
First, she pushed the big stone into the cave. Then she went outside and piled up the smaller stones to block half of the cave entrance, leaving only a small hole through which a person could barely crawl in.
She straightened up and wiped the sweat off her face. "We'll sleep inside tonight and block the entrance with this stone from the inside. Then we can prevent wild beasts from coming in at night."
Lin Jing was small and didn't have much strength, so he couldn't help. He could only sit on a stone and watch Lin Wu bustling around. When he saw the sturdy big stone, he immediately felt safe.
Looking at this newly - formed fort, the tense string in Lin Wu's heart slackened a bit. But after all the work, she felt even hungrier. Wild fruits were simply not enough to satisfy hunger.
"A Jing, I'll go look around nearby to see if there's something more filling. You stay here and guard the place, okay?" Lin Wu asked.
An obvious look of uneasiness flashed across the little boy's face. He wanted to go with her. His lips moved, but he swallowed the words back and just nodded vigorously.
"I'll be nearby. Call me if there's anything. I can hear you." For safety's sake, she let Lin Jing crawl into the cave first and then loosely covered the entrance with stones and some bush branches from the outside.
Lin Jing obediently curled up in the innermost corner of the cave, hugging himself into a ball.
Carrying a rattan basket on her back and holding a wooden stick in her hand, Lin Wu started to search around. Her eyes scanned the trees, and she used her hand to push aside some bushes in front of her, trying to find some familiar plants.
Suddenly, a patch of vines clinging to an old tree not far away caught her attention.
She quickened her steps and walked over. These were climbing vines with heart - shaped leaves, very similar to the vines of Chinese yam she had seen in the countryside when she was a child. Chinese yams were very big and very filling.
Thinking of this, she quickly used the wooden stick to push aside the vines and then dug into the soil below.
A long, brown rhizome emerged.
"It's wild yam." Yes, it probably wasn't suitable for Chinese yam to grow here. Chinese yam usually grew in the warm south. But still, she was overjoyed. Finding wild yams in this desolate mountain was really good luck.
She continued to use the wooden stick to loosen the soil around it and carefully dug out the yam. It wasn't until the rattan basket was filled with several thick, strong yams and she was holding a few in her hands that she got up and walked back.
In the cave, Lin Jing was sitting with his knees bent, hugging himself, with his chin resting on his knees. He was pricking up his ears to catch any sounds outside. When the footsteps outside gradually approached, he immediately became as alert as a little wild animal. He went close to the entrance and, when he saw A Wu's figure through the crack, his eyes immediately lit up.
Lin Wu moved the stone aside. Meeting Lin Jing's eyes full of dependence and delight, her tone became a bit lighter. "Look, we're so lucky! We dug up wild yams. They'll be fragrant and filling after being roasted. We won't go hungry tonight."
But soon, a problem followed. The wild yams were right in front of them, but to turn them into something edible, they had to solve a huge problem - they didn't have fire.
The most primitive method Lin Wu knew was drilling wood to make fire. But she had only seen it in wilderness survival videos before and had never tried it herself.
She wasn't confident. This method sounded simple, but in fact, it was very difficult. It not only required skills and patience but also a bit of luck. But anyway, this was the only way she had at present.
"We have to give it a try and see if we can make a fire." Her tone was also uncertain.
But Lin Jing responded actively and had already crawled out of the cave. "I'll go collect firewood."
"Don't be in a hurry," Lin Wu pulled him back and explained in detail, "We need to find those completely dry dead branches on the ground. Pine branches are the best because they have resin and are easy to catch fire. Also, find some things like fluff, such as fine, thin dry bark, or dry moss, dry mugwort. We have to be quick. We must come back before it gets dark, whether we find them or not."
Although Lin Jing listened carefully, he didn't know what dry moss and mugwort looked like. He just nodded seriously and followed Lin Wu like a little tail.
As twilight fell, the light in the forest quickly faded. The two of them searched carefully around. Lin Wu was lucky and found a bunch of dry mugwort.
When they finally returned to the cave entrance with a bundle of dry firewood and a small handful of dry mugwort, the surrounding area was already a hazy gray - blue.
Lin Wu sat on the stone, trying hard to recall the wilderness survival videos she had watched before.
After roughly formulating a plan, she fetched a piece of hardwood and a straight dead branch. First, she used a pair of scissors to carve a shallow pit on the dry hardwood and then made a V-shaped notch beside the pit. This notch would allow the sparks to fall more easily. This was the base wood she had prepared.
Next, she picked up the dead branch and used the scissors to sharpen one end of it to make a drill rod.
After everything was ready, she stepped on the base wood firmly with her foot, placed the tip of the drill rod in the shallow pit, clasped her hands together around the drill rod, and rubbed it vigorously.
Even though her arms ached from the exhaustion, Lin Wu didn't dare to stop. After rubbing for such a long time, she had no idea if the area under the drill rod had become hot, but her palms had gone from feeling warm to completely numb.
Lin Jing squatted beside her, so tense that she almost held her breath. She clasped her small hands tightly and stared intently without blinking.
After rubbing the drill rod until her hands ached countless times, having to stop and start over again, Lin Wu finally grasped a little trick.
The stinging pain in her palms became more and more distinct, and blisters formed on her hands. The blisters burst under the repeated friction, causing a burning pain.
But since she had already started, she couldn't let the blisters form for nothing.
After an unknown amount of time, a thin wisp of white smoke wafted out from under the drill rod.
"Got it!" Lin Jing whispered in a short, excited gasp, her little face flushed with nervousness and excitement.
Lin Wu's heart raced wildly. The exhaustion was instantly dispelled by the joy, but she forced herself to calm down.
She quickened the speed of rubbing. When she saw the wisp of white smoke becoming more obvious and the edges of the groove were worn out into charred powder, she stopped. She carefully poured this hard - won black powder onto the prepared tinder.
Then, she bent down. First, she held her breath, cupped the tinder in her palm, and then blew gently.
Finally, a tiny scarlet glow appeared in the tinder and soon blossomed into a small flame.
"It worked!" The two of them almost cheered out.
