Shelter
“I told you to let go!” Nan Huaixu’s tone was ice-cold.
Liu Yinxi hastily released her hand, pretending her legs were weak as she staggered to the side. “I’m sorry, jiejie, I suddenly feel so sick, my head’s spinning. When I stood up just now, my vision went black, and I almost fell… Ugh…”
Nan Huaixu backed away suspiciously, flexing the hand Liu Yinxi had squeezed red and massaging it gently. “Dizzy? Didn’t you say you don’t have hypoglycemia?”
Liu Yinxi stammered, hastily concocting an excuse. “I was in the first group to land. I woke up too late this morning and didn’t have time to eat breakfast.”
Nan Huaixu’s expression froze. Maybe it was because she was standing in the shade of the trees, but Liu Yinxi thought her face had turned gray.
“This is the 《Survivor》 competition. We landed in the competition zone at six this morning. Didn’t you know?”
“I knew.”
“You knew? You knew, and you still woke up late and skipped breakfast? Stamina is crucial for wilderness survival. Is this your attitude from the very beginning?”
“…” Liu Yinxi clamped her mouth shut. So fierce.
She squatted at the base of a tree, and Nan Huaixu looked down at her from above. “What do you think this competition is? A game of playing house?”1
Liu Yinxi shook her head.
“Have you prepared for this competition seriously? Have you made a plan?”
Liu Yinxi nodded, her eyes glistening. “Nan-jiejie, my ex-girlfriend doesn’t want me anymore. I used to live at her place, and now I’m homeless. I want to win the competition and get the prize money.”
“…” Nan Huaixu leaned on her wooden stick and looked away, taking several deep breaths. The robot dog camera followed her turn, tilting its head.
Liu Yinxi knew she was in the wrong, but she really couldn’t think of a better excuse. Saying she’d squeezed Nan Huaixu’s hand red because she was engrossed in the system was just too absurd.
She deserved to be scolded. She’d find a chance to make it up to Nan Huaixu later.
Nan Huaixu checked her compass, wanting to head east. Before landing, she had looked down from the helicopter and seen that the largest river in the forest park was to the east.
Further ahead, the vegetation grew denser. A wide variety of tropical plants crowded together, blocking the path forward, and she had to take out her knife to clear the way.
“Can you keep up? The river isn’t too far. There should be a tributary of the main river nearby. As long as we find a small stream, we can build a shelter.”
Hearing her words, Liu Yinxi not only didn’t get up but plopped right back down on the rock.
“Nan-jiejie, let’s just build the shelter here.”
Nan Huaixu turned back as if she had heard a child’s joke and let out a dry laugh. “Here? What about this place meets the standards for a shelter? The terrain? A water source? Food? Defenses?”
She glanced around the area and pointed above her head. “The only thing that could be considered useful is the sunlight and the tree shade, but those two things aren’t what a shelter needs most.”
Liu Yinxi’s expression was composed as she replied calmly, “We can get sun here. You understand how important sunlight is in a humid rainforest, jiejie. The canopy of these trees can block some of the rain. If we build the lean-to underneath, it’ll be enough to shelter us from the rain. The production team will give us time to adapt at the beginning of the competition. I predict the first few airdrops will be by the sea, and it’s very close to the sea from here. We can drink coconut water, go shore foraging2 for fish and shrimp, and find some roots and fruits in the rainforest.”
“Nan-jiejie, the standards you mentioned are all correct, but we’ve only just arrived. Our focus should be on understanding our surroundings as quickly as possible with the least amount of cost. Building a shelter and gathering food both take a lot of time. The sooner we settle down, the more important it is to rest comfortably. Besides, you said the river isn’t too far. We can settle here for now. It won’t be too late to head east to find the river in a couple of days.”
As Liu Yinxi spoke, her eyes scanned the ground. She picked out a few thick, short wooden sticks and gestured with them in her hands.
Seeing her playing with the sticks, Nan Huaixu frowned. “What you said makes some sense, but the most important thing for camping outdoors is a stable source of fresh water. I’m sticking to my principles.”
Liu Yinxi selected a short stick, scraped off the bark with her knife, and started carving a hole in one end. “We can drink coconut water for now. Once we have the energy tomorrow or the day after, we can look for a stream. We can either fetch water or move our camp there then.”
“Then? A lean-to can’t be moved; it can only be rebuilt. Why do pointless work? Can’t we make a good plan and get it right the first time?”
“Huh? Nature is unpredictable. How can there be an absolute plan? If there’s a better way, use it. If you encounter a problem, solve it. How can a plan ever keep up with changes? You just need to grasp the key points and prepare. The wilderness requires adaptability more than anything.”
While they were talking, Liu Yinxi had already hollowed out a groove a finger’s length in the stick. She cleared away the grass and moss from under a large rock and found a flat piece of stone from a pile of rubble. Picking it up, she began to grind its sharper edge against the large rock.
Nan Huaixu observed her actions, puzzled. “Are you making a stone axe?”
Liu Yinxi was focused on her work and didn’t even look up. “Bingo~ Jiejie is so smart. When I was little, I stayed with my grandma in the village, and a carpenter taught me how to make lots of things. I can even make a slingshot to shoot birds.”
Speaking of slingshots, Liu Yinxi looked up and made an aiming gesture. “Biu!” She smiled and continued grinding the stone.
Nan Huaixu instinctively dodged, then glanced at Liu Yinxi. Seeing her engrossed in her work, Nan Huaixu took a breath, and her solemn expression relaxed slightly.
She pondered for a moment before speaking. “How about this. Even if we build the shelter here, we still need to gather materials. Since you’re not feeling well, you can rest here for a bit. When you feel better, gather some banana and palm leaves nearby. I’ll go a little further ahead and see if I can find a stream and some fruit.”
Nan Huaixu glanced at her wristband. “It’s seven-thirty in the morning now. I’ll be back before ten.”
Liu Yinxi stopped what she was doing. “By yourself? We’re not familiar with the environment yet. We shouldn’t split up.”
Nan Huaixu sized her up. “Are you scared to be alone?”
Liu Yinxi snorted. She was a woman like a female eagle, one who had traveled south and north3 for over a decade. What was there to be afraid of?
She was worried about Nan Huaixu.
“I’ll go with you to look, but we have to agree to come back at ten to build the shelter.”
“Forget it. You’re dizzy and your vision is blurry. You’re so tall, if you faint, I won’t be able to carry you. You rest here. We can talk after you’ve found something to eat and have your strength back.”
Nan Huaixu chopped away a branch blocking her path and walked into the thicket, not forgetting to turn back and remind her, “Remember to gather leaves. We’ll need them for the roof.”
Liu Yinxi blew on the stone flake and smiled at her. “I’ll remember, jiejie, don’t worry.”
“Oh, right. This is for you.” Nan Huaixu came back and took a lanyard from around her neck. On it was a multi-function survival whistle. She pressed a clasp at the bottom of the whistle, and a mini whistle popped out from a circular plate. She handed it to Liu Yinxi. “This is my personal item. If there’s an emergency, SOS is three long, three short, three long.”
Liu Yinxi took the small whistle in her palm. “Wow, thank you, jiejie!”
Nan Huaixu waved her hand and turned to leave. “If you want to win the money, then fix your attitude and work hard. If you’ve broken up with your girlfriend, then stop thinking about her. Never rely on anyone else.”
Liu Yinxi straightened up and turned to watch Nan Huaixu’s upright back, her lips curving into a smile.
Luo Ling’s little aunt was quite a caring person.
Just a bit fierce, a bit stubborn, and a bit of an armchair strategist.4
The sunlight above the forest grew brighter. The closer it got to noon, the hotter the sun became.
The temperature in the mountain forest rose quickly. After grinding the stone for a while, Liu Yinxi was covered in sweat. She took off her hardshell jacket and hung it on a branch with her backpack, then wiped away her sweat and continued grinding.
After about ten minutes, Liu Yinxi picked up the stone flake and blew on it. The edge wasn’t sharp enough yet, but it was good enough to cut thinner trees. She still had her Mora knife5, after all.
Many tree trunks were entwined with parasitic vines. They started small, absorbing the host’s nutrients and growing stronger, eventually ending the host’s life. This phenomenon was called “strangulation.”6
Liu Yinxi cut a few vines about half a little finger thick, trimmed off the nodes, and placed them on a rock to scrape the skin with another stone, making them more pliable. Then, she fitted the stone flake into the prepared groove in the wooden stick and used the vines to tie both ends of the flake to the stick, securing it with a knot. A simple stone axe was complete.
The airdrop points would change later on, and the shelter would have to be moved accordingly, so this temporary shelter didn’t need to be too elaborate.
Liu Yinxi planned to build the simplest A-frame shelter, using three logs—two short and one long—to fix the frame. The shape would resemble the edges of a tetrahedron. Each joint would be tied with vines, and the main support pole would lean against the corner of the large rock, using the rock’s strength to stabilize the frame.
She would need three more logs to tie to each support pole as a base for a bed frame, then use slightly thinner sticks to create a slatted base to lay bedding on.
Using her own body for measurement, Liu Yinxi planned to build the bed frame to be about the height of her lower leg off the ground.
After estimating the approximate length and number of logs needed, Liu Yinxi got to work with her stone axe.
There was no shortage of wood in the rainforest. At a time like this, Liu Yinxi wasn’t picky about the type of tree; if the wood was the right thickness, she chopped it down. The A-frame shelter wasn’t large, so the trees she cut were relatively small and their bark wasn’t very thick. The knife broke the bark, and the stone axe widened the impact point. The process went smoothly, and in two or three hours, she had collected a bundle of wood.
Drenched in sweat, Liu Yinxi sat on the rock to rest. She took a green coconut from her pack, chiseled it open with her knife, and held it up to drink.
She only took a few sips to quench her thirst before putting it down. She had been in a hurry earlier and had only brought one with her. Nan Huaixu would need to drink some coconut water when she got back.
Liu Yinxi looked at her hands. They hurt a little. The web between her thumb and index finger was red and scraped raw from the vibrations of the stone axe. Although she had chosen a stick with the most suitable length and thickness for leverage and had smoothed it down as much as possible, a self-made primitive tool was, after all, no match for modern equipment. Minor injuries were unavoidable. The competition rules didn’t allow gloves as part of their personal clothing, and they had no better protective measures.
She sighed at her pair of fair hands. Ah, a young body, so full of life and beautiful. If this were her body from her original world, in her thirties, her hands would be covered in thick calluses and wouldn’t fear this level of abrasion.
Liu Yinxi counted the pieces of wood, separating them for the shelter frame, the bed frame, and the slatted base.
She raised her wrist to look at her wristband. It was already past ten.
She gazed into the dense rainforest. The thick green foliage was layered upon layered, obscuring the view of the distance.
Nan Huaixu wasn’t back yet.
Liu Yinxi waited until ten-thirty. Still seeing no sign of her, she decided to go look for Nan Huaixu.
She shouldered her pack and headed in the direction Nan Huaixu had left. Along the way, there were traces of Nan Huaixu’s path, cleared with her knife. For someone with extensive hiking or hunting experience, tracking a target was easy.
Liu Yinxi blew her whistle every so often as she walked. Along the way, she saw some shriveled, unripe wild fruits that made her mouth pucker.
Passing a grove of ferns, Liu Yinxi pushed aside the low-lying leaves and picked a few handfuls of tender fiddlehead ferns, stuffing them into her pack. This stuff could be cooked and eaten to supplement various vitamins.
A few pale red leaves poked out from a cluster of green grass. Liu Yinxi’s eyes lit up, and she zipped her pack shut and walked over.
Behind the fern grove, several pitcher plants were growing in the shrubs. They were thriving, their pale red, pitcher-like leaves hanging from the petioles like long lanterns.
This was a carnivorous plant. Its leaves were specialized into pitcher-shaped traps that secreted nectar to attract insects.
The inside of a closed pitcher was relatively clean. The liquid within was its digestive fluid, a bit viscous and slightly sweet. In a survival situation where water is scarce, one could drink it in an emergency. However, this plant’s digestive fluid contains a small amount of harmful substances that could cause physical discomfort. Unless it’s a special situation like wilderness survival, non-professionals should never try it casually.
Liu Yinxi checked each pitcher for insects and undigested fluid, picking a few clean ones. Each was as large as her palm. Liu Yinxi tied their petioles together and carried them in her hand.
Along the way, she also saw some cassava and wild kudzu leaves. Liu Yinxi noted their locations, marking them with two crossed branches, and continued east.
After walking for more than half an hour, her whistle finally got a response.
From the southeast, about half a li7 away, came a long whistle blast—a signal to confirm location.
Liu Yinxi hurried over, slid down an earthen slope, and saw Nan Huaixu under a tall South Asian pine.
“Nan Huaixu!”
Liu Yinxi rushed to her side.
Nan Huaixu, sitting at the base of the tree, looked up with a complicated expression. “Didn’t I tell you to stay back and rest?”
Liu Yinxi’s voice was soft. “It was ten-thirty and you weren’t back. I was worried about you.”
Nan Huaixu softened her stern expression and looked down, pressing on her sore calf. “Sorry, I didn’t get back on time. I got lost on the way back.”
Her previous hiking and private training had always been with team leaders and coaches, with professional teams and equipment. This was her first time truly surviving independently, and everything she faced was a hundred times more difficult than she had imagined. The river had looked so obvious from the plane, but searching for a water source on the ground in the rainforest was like a blind person groping for fish8—she couldn’t find her way at all.
She had underestimated nature.
Liu Yinxi noticed Nan Huaixu’s dejected eyes and her dry lips. She didn’t need to guess to know she had failed.
Sigh, climbing up and down in the rainforest with a pack, hiking for over three hours without water. She must be dying of thirst.
Thirsty, hungry, and feeling defeated—anyone who’s been there knows how awful it feels.
Newbies who start out with grand female ambitions9 to conquer nature are all like this at first.
They’ll learn their lesson after starving for three days at the start, ahem.
“Nan-jiejie, drink this.” Liu Yinxi handed her the string of pitcher plants.
Nan Huaixu was surprised. “Drink this?”
“Yes, it’s a plant unique to Jinzhou Island. It secretes sweet water to attract prey. I’ve checked all of these; the clean ones are safe to drink.”
Half-convinced, Nan Huaixu inspected the inside of a pitcher. The leaf was fresh and clean, and it did indeed hold clear liquid with a faint, fresh scent.
She licked her chapped lips. Unable to resist the temptation of water, she took a sip. It was sweet and delicious, a refreshing sensation that seeped into her heart.
The sweet liquid moistened Nan Huaixu’s lips and tongue, relieving her thirst. A cool breeze blew past, instantly dispelling her fatigue.
Nan Huaixu drank from two of the pitcher plants and offered the remaining bit to Liu Yinxi. “You have some too. We still have a ways to go to get back.”
Liu Yinxi gave it back to her. “You drink it all, jiejie. There’s still a coconut back at the shelter. You rehydrate first. I left markers along the way, so we’ll be back soon.”
“Don’t you have hypoglycemia? How did you walk so far?”
“Uh, I drank some coconut water and ate some coconut meat. I feel much better now.”
Nan Huaixu looked at her doubtfully, but seeing that Liu Yinxi’s complexion was decent and thinking about all the work that still needed to be done, she didn’t have the energy to dwell on unnecessary things, like suspecting her teammate.
She checked the time on her wristband—eleven o’clock. She pushed herself up with her wooden stick. “Let’s go.”
Liu Yinxi walked ahead to lead the way. “This way, Nan-jiejie.”
Perhaps because the rainforest thinned out as they headed west towards the sea, Nan Huaixu felt that the return journey with Liu Yinxi was much easier. There were no earthen slopes or gullies, and they never went in the wrong direction.
Every so often along the path, they would see crossed branches—the markers Liu Yinxi had made. Nan Huaixu had also made marks by scratching tree trunks, but the rainforest was too vast. All you could see were trees and grass, and the scratches on the trunks were invisible unless you were right up close.
They arrived back at the large rock just before twelve.
The dense, overlapping canopy cast a cool shade, while a nearby “skylight” opening let in bright sunshine. The flat patch of grass had been cleared, and a pile of rocks formed a stove, on top of which lay banana leaves holding a fresh green coconut.
Nan Huaixu looked at the rough outline of the shelter, and her eyes stung a little.
If Liu Yinxi hadn’t suggested setting up camp here and hadn’t come to find her with the pitcher plants, the two of them would have been running around the rainforest, exhausted and thirsty, without even a shelter to rest in. She couldn’t imagine how miserable they would have been.
Suddenly, Nan Huaixu saw a large pile of wood on the ground behind the stone stove. She looked at Liu Yinxi in disbelief. “This wood! You chopped all of it?!”
The author has something to say:
This story is set in a fictional world. The survival content in the text is purely fictional. Please do not take it seriously!!!
Whatever the characters eat, drink, or use in the wild is completely fictional! In real life, please do not try any of it out of curiosity! Stay safe!!!
This novel is just an entertaining story and does not contain any professional survival knowledge. If there are any errors, please point them out. Friendly discussions are welcome!
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