Chapter 51: Suke Ke's Proposal

Chapter 51: Su Keke’s Plan

Hearing Xu Yi’s question, Su Keke stood up excitedly.

“Dad, did you see the honey?”

In Su Keke’s village, three households kept bees, and her family received two bottles of honey every year.

Honey water was undoubtedly Su Keke’s favorite.

Although Xu Yi sent her snacks every month, including chocolates and the like, she preferred honey water brewed with dried tangerine peel.

“Yes, the hive is quite large, probably has four or five jin of honey,” Xu Yi replied. He wasn’t sure of the exact amount, but it was at least four or five jin.

“That’s so much, wonderful!”

“Dad, we can weave a bigger basket from vines to cover our heads, then smear mud all over our bodies. After that, if we light a torch under the hive, the bees will be driven away,” Su Keke proposed a complete plan, as this was how their village dealt with wasps.

“Good idea. Then you take charge of weaving the basket.” Xu Yi thought Su Keke’s method was practical. Smearing mud all over would prevent the bees from stinging them.

“But not right now. Our containers are limited. Once Dad makes a few more small wooden barrels, we can go get the honey.”

“Right now, the most important thing is to make some fish traps. Can I leave that task to you?”

Weaving was not difficult or tiring for Su Keke. The vines had all been gathered and cleaned by Xu Yi.

After all, out here in the wilderness, there wasn’t much else to do, so Su Keke had to be kept busy. Otherwise, she would surely get bored.

And in this place, she couldn’t wander off freely. Staying at the campfire was the safest option.

“Sure, Dad. You can trust me with this,” Su Keke said happily, patting her own shoulder to show she was fully capable of the task.

“Great. Then start weaving the fish traps this afternoon. Once we have the traps, we can set them in the river and catch fish.”

Xu Yi said this with great anticipation. Their cassava supplies were running low, and they had no other food reserves.

There were plenty of fish in the river, ready to be caught.

Fishing with a rod would be too time-consuming.

Fishing was a leisure activity; for survival, fishing nets and traps were the correct choice.

“Dad, I need eight small branches, about as long as I am tall.”

Xu Yi nodded, went inside, and cut eight small branches for Su Keke.

“Then insert them into the ground, crossing them at the bottom to form a circle.”

Xu Yi immediately understood—this was the skeleton of the fish trap.

He quickly planted them upright.

Su Keke had already made a circular ring from vines and fixed it to the end of the fish trap’s frame.

Then she took a thin vine and wove it around the eight branches, layer by layer.

Xu Yi didn’t go anywhere else that afternoon. He took the leftover snake skin from the snake-skin shoulder bag he had made before from his backpack.

After wrapping it around his right hand, he began preparing to make a ladder.

He aligned the ends of two small trees and tied them together.

Then he carved notches into the small trees.

This ensured the notches on both trees were at the same height.

Once the notches were ready, Xu Yi cut a short piece off the end of each small tree.

He then tied these thinner sticks into the notches.

He spent over an hour making the first wooden ladder.

The ladder was nearly three meters high, which would allow Xu Yi to raise the floor beams of the wooden house higher.

A stilted watchtower was the shelter style Xu Yi planned to build.

Raising the floor to about two meters would be relatively safe.

First, Xu Yi needed to level the ground.

His phone still had some battery left, and it had a leveling function.

If he didn’t use it now, he might lose the chance later.

Of course, he had to select four trees as pillars and cut down the trees within that area.

Finally, he chose a spot.

Four trees formed a rough rectangle, about two meters wide and four meters long.

There was only one tree in the middle, which Xu Yi took more than half an hour to fell.

After resting for a while, Xu Yi began leveling the ground with his spear.

He couldn’t guarantee the bases of the four pillars would be perfectly level, but at least relatively flat.

[Number One, you’re out here in the wilderness—why bother with such precision?]

[Yeah, you’d be better off resting instead of leveling the ground all this time.]

[You’ve been working since morning and look exhausted. Take a break. If you collapse, who will take care of Keke tomorrow?]

[Right. Don’t let any animals attack you, or you won’t be able to hold your spear steady.]

Xu Yi admitted their points made some sense.

His pursuit was admittedly a bit lofty.

But he believed that people needed some goals and persistence.

He wasn’t staying here for just one or two days.

What was wrong with building a comfortable camp?

A home, for humans, represents warmth and belonging.

So, he ignored the viewers’ comments.

He continued leveling the ground for over an hour.

Then, he took a small shrub branch, measured it against his head, then added the length of a palm and a fist.

That length, combined with his height, should be about two meters—no more than five centimeters of error.

He marked the positions on the four pillars.

He carved two notches at the marked spots on the trees.

By the time he finished carving, night was falling.

Su Keke had spent the entire afternoon weaving the fish traps.

“Dad, I finished weaving the fish trap and the small entrance basket,” Su Keke said happily when she saw Xu Yi return, eager to report her work.

Xu Yi saw on the ground a fish trap over a meter long, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, like a funnel.

Because it was large, the trap was quite heavy.

“Sweetheart, you’re amazing. Thank you for your hard work,” Xu Yi crouched down and said tenderly.

Originally, she should have been at home, living a comfortable life.

Because of him, she had come to the wilderness.

Every day, besides being on edge, she had to do so many things.

“It’s not hard at all. Weaving is fun. Keke likes it,” Su Keke said cheerfully, hugging Xu Yi’s neck and kissing his cheek.

“Dad’s the one who’s worked hard. Keke’s kiss is to comfort you,” she added.

Xu Yi felt his fatigue lift by more than half, his low spirits vanishing.

“Let’s go. Before it gets dark, we’ll set the fish traps in the river and see how much we catch.”

Saying that, Xu Yi prepared to lower the traps into the river.

(End of chapter)