The soil was piled up in the extended space behind the bathroom, forming a thick heap on the ground, with several gray sweet potato plants planted in the soil.
Although it looked somewhat haphazard, sweet potatoes are known for their tenacious vitality.
"Awooo~"
The harpy eagle stood at the top of the cage, its head squeezing through the gaps, howling at the four rabbits below.
The four rabbits, frightened, huddled together, crouching on the edge of the feeding trough.
Qin Ziwen patted the harpy eagle's wing, "What are you doing? Don't scare the rabbits to death."
"Awooo~"
The harpy eagle jumped down from the cage, landing on Qin Ziwen's shoulder. Even without force, its sharp claws squeezed him, causing a slight pain.
The harpy eagle was overjoyed that its owner had kept four little snacks for it at home, howling happily.
Qin Ziwen scolded, "Keep your voice down."
The bathroom door was closed; he didn't know if the noise would carry downstairs. He didn't know where this guy got all this energy from, like he was on stimulants.
Before dinner, Qin Ziwen had his younger brother take a loach to Deng Guang's house.
For dinner, he simply cooked a bowl of loach and crocodile smoked meat soup.
Around 7 PM, Xiao Xuemei knocked on the door, bringing another power bank.
Qin Ziwen was somewhat surprised, "Sister-in-law, the power bank is fully charged."
Xiao Xuemei said, "I charged it in the garage during the day. You can use it for now, and let me know when you're done, and I'll get you a new one."
That night, Qin Ziwen took out his solar-powered flashlight and turned it to its lowest setting.
Then he took out paper and pen to draw a more detailed map.
This time, the map mainly focused on the downstream area of the river.
He took out the aerial video recorded by the harpy eagle during the day and compared it to confirm their last known location.
The place where they found the hippopotamus wasn't too far from the downstream tributary. Because they had walked along the riverbank during the day, their path was actually a curve, not a straight line.
The backwater where the hippopotamus was located was only about a mile away from the tributary as the crow flies; if they had walked along the riverbank, it would have been about half again as far.
He drew a circle around the hippo's territory, carefully adding a hippo's image.
"Brother, is that a wild boar?"
"It's a hippo! Don't you have any artistic talent?"
Qin Ziwu exclaimed, "Big brother, don't talk about second brother!"
It was almost nine o'clock when they finished drawing the map.
It was already dark outside.
Qin Ziwen lay in bed.
Suddenly, a heavy thud sounded outside the window.
"Bang!"
The sound was exceptionally clear in the quiet night. Qin
Ziwen pulled open the master bedroom curtains a crack and looked out.
Below the seven buildings across the way, a person was lying.
Someone had jumped.
He saw someone peering out from the opposite balcony.
"Jumped! Whose is it!"
someone shouted.
People gradually filled the balconies of each household.
Hearing the commotion outside, Qin Ziwu opened the door to the second bedroom and went to the balcony.
"Brother, someone jumped."
"I saw it."
"Should we go down and see?"
"No, go to sleep. Don't meddle. You go to sleep too."
"Oh."
Qin Ziwen drew the curtains, lay flat on the bed, crossed his arms, and stared blankly at the ceiling. He didn't know when he had fallen asleep.
At five o'clock the next morning, Qin Ziwen was awakened by his biological clock.
He checked yesterday's daily settlement.
"You have successfully survived safely in the wilderness for nine days. Today you drew a rough map of the surrounding area and a regular map of the downstream riverbank. Overall score: 20 points." "
Rewards: [Building Card] Level 1 Blacksmith Shop *1, [Building Card] Level 1 Cellar/Granary, Mosquito Repellent *1"
A blacksmith shop?
Qin Ziwen was taken aback, his mind instinctively thinking of Huang Tao's carpentry hut.
One was a carpenter, the other a blacksmith.
Actually, what he really wanted was a blank expansion card.
But these two buildings were fine too—a blacksmith shop and a cellar. He could upgrade the cellar to level 2, and wondered if a level 2 cellar would have a stronger storage capacity.
He first looked at the cellar in the bedroom. He
directly selected to use it.
The Level 1 Cellar Card in his hand transformed into a beam of light and merged with the original cellar.
The original single-layer wooden door had been replaced with a double-layered thick pine door.
The outer layer was inlaid with three wrought iron strips, and the central iron ring was wrapped in a layer of grease-soaked cowhide.
Pulling open the door, a gust of cool air rushed out.
The cellar was even colder than before.
The stone steps remained the same, but the walls and steps were now more regular, with a fine, non-slip texture carved into
the surface. While the edges still retained natural stone ridges, the sharp corners had been smoothed out.
Reaching the bottom of the stone steps, the brick-lined room was much larger than the first level, a spacious area considerably larger than the living room in the house.
Two four-tiered wooden shelves had been added against the walls.
Two more wooden beams had been added overhead for hanging items.
The most noticeable change was the temperature in the cellar; if it had previously been only a dozen degrees lower than outside, it was now probably only a few degrees above zero.
In just a short while, Qin Ziwen felt goosebumps rise on his arms.
With such a lower temperature, food could be stored for much longer.
He strolled around the cellar, his palms touching the cool brick walls.
He was quite satisfied.
Emerging from the cellar, he closed the door and went to the expansion area behind the bathroom.
He took out a Level 1 blacksmith shop building card; this card required a 3x4 area.
This area was quite large. Qin Ziwen looked around and finally decided on the open space to the right of the entrance.
The card transformed into light and merged into the open space. When the light dissipated, a semi-subterranean earthen house appeared.
The exterior was a wall made of rammed earth mixed with yellow mud and straw, and the roof was covered with layers of thick thatch.
In the center was a spacious wooden door.
He pushed the door open, and the wooden door creaked as the wooden axle rubbed against the floor.
The interior of the house was sunken, appearing to be about three meters high from the bottom to the top.
In the center of the shop was a very conspicuous dark blue-black old anvil, with an iron hammer lying horizontally on it. To the left of the anvil were brand new iron tongs, and to the right of the floor was a ceramic water jug.
Against the wall to the north of the anvil, a makeshift furnace was constructed from a mixture of fire clay and stones, with a sliding bellows on its side.
Primitive and rugged.
A strong sense of déjà vu washed over him.
An image of a shirtless blacksmith hammering away at iron flashed through his mind.
The ground was compacted yellow earth, hard underfoot. He stomped his foot hard. Now that the blacksmith's shop was there, all that was missing was metal ore, coal, and a blacksmith. Once those were ready, he could make all sorts of ironware himself.
(End of Chapter)