The soil was piled in the expanded space behind the bathroom, forming a thick mound on the ground, with several gray sweet potato plants planted in the dirt.
Although it looked a bit rough, sweet potatoes have always been tenacious plants.
"Scree~"
The Crowned Eagle stood on the very top of the Beast Cage, squeezing its head through the cage gaps, screeching at the four rabbits below.
The four rabbits huddled together in fear, clinging to each other as they crouched in the corner by the feeding trough.
Qin Ziwen patted the Crowned Eagle's wing, "What are you doing? Don't scare my rabbits to death."
"Scree scree~"
The Crowned Eagle jumped down from the cage and landed on Qin Ziwen's shoulder. Even without using much force, its sharp claws pressed into him with a dull ache.
The Crowned Eagle was thrilled that its master had actually raised four little snacks for it at home, screeching happily.
Qin Ziwen admonished it, "Keep your voice down."
The bathroom door was closed, but he wasn't sure if the noise would carry downstairs. He didn't know where this creature got so much energy all day, as if it were on stimulants.
Before dinner, Qin Ziwen had his younger brother take a loach to Deng Guang's family.
Dinner was simple—a bowl of loach, crocodile, and smoked meat soup.
Around seven in the evening, Xiao Meixue came knocking and delivered another power bank.
Qin Ziwen was somewhat surprised, "Sister-in-law, this power bank is fully charged."
Xiao Meixue explained, "I charged it in the garage using the car charger during the day. Use it for now, and let me know when it's drained. I'll swap you another power bank then."
In the evening, Qin Ziwen took out the solar flashlight and set it to the dimmest setting.
Then he brought out paper and pen to draw a more detailed map.
This time, the map focused mainly on the downstream area of the river.
He pulled up the aerial footage recorded by the Crowned Eagle during the day, cross-referencing it to pinpoint their final location from earlier.
He discovered that the spot where they found the hippo wasn't actually too far from the tributary downstream. Since they had been walking along the riverbank during the day, their path was curved rather than straight.
The straight-line distance from the Backwater Eddy where the hippo was to the tributary was only about one li. Following the riverbank would add roughly half again to the journey.
He drew a circle around the hippo's activity area, specifically adding a hippo illustration.
"Bro, is that a wild boar?"
"That's a hippo! Do you have any artistic sense at all?"
Qin Ziwu retorted, "Look who's talking."
By the time he finished the map, it was almost nine o'clock.
Outside had long since turned dark.
Qin Ziwen lay in bed.
Suddenly, a heavy object impact sound came from outside the window.
"Thud."
In the quiet night, the sound was exceptionally clear.
Qin Ziwen pulled the bedroom curtain aside slightly, peering through the gap.
Below Building 7 across the way, a person lay on the ground.
Someone had jumped.
He saw someone leaning out from a balcony opposite.
"Someone jumped! Which family are they from!"
Someone shouted, though it was unclear who.
One by one, balconies filled with people standing and watching.
Hearing the commotion outside, Qin Ziwu opened his bedroom door and went out to the balcony.
"Bro, someone jumped."
"I saw."
"Should we go down to look?"
"No, go to sleep. Don't meddle in others' business. You go to sleep too."
"Oh......"
Qin Ziwen closed the curtain, lay flat on his bed, hands crossed over his chest, staring blankly at the ceiling. He didn't know when he fell asleep.
The next day at five in the morning, Qin Ziwen was awakened by his biological clock.
He checked yesterday's daily settlement.
「You have successfully survived safely in the wilderness for the ninth day. Today you drew a rough map of the surrounding area and also created an ordinary map of the downstream riverbank. Comprehensive score: 20 points」
「Rewards obtained: 【Building Card】Level 1 Blacksmith1, 【Building Card】Level 1 Root Cellar, Mosquito Repellent1」
A blacksmith?
Qin Ziwen was taken aback, his mind instinctively recalling Huang Tao's Carpenter's Hut.
One was a carpenter, the other a blacksmith.
What he really wanted most was still the Blank Expansion Card.
But these two buildings would do—one blacksmith, one cellar. This would just allow him to upgrade the cellar to Level 2. He wondered if a Level 2 cellar would have better storage capacity.
He first looked at the cellar in his bedroom.
He directly chose to use it.
The Level 1 Root Cellar card in his hand transformed into a beam of light that merged with the original cellar.
The previous single-layer wooden door was replaced with a double-layer thick pine door.
The outer layer was reinforced with three forged iron bars, and the central iron ring was wrapped in oil-soaked cowhide.
Pulling open the door, a cool breeze rushed toward his face.
The cellar was noticeably colder than before.
The stone steps remained the same style, but both the walls and steps had become more regular, with fine anti-skid grooves carved into the step surfaces.
Though natural stone edges still remained along the sides, their sharp corners had been knocked off.
Descending the stone steps to the bottom, the square blue-brick room had expanded significantly in volume compared to Level 1. The spacious area was considerably larger than his living room.
Two additional four-tier wooden shelves now stood against the walls.
Simultaneously, two wooden beams had been added overhead for hanging items.
The most obvious change was the temperature inside the cellar. If before the cellar temperature was only about ten degrees Celsius lower than outside, now it was probably just a few degrees above zero.
In just this short time, Qin Ziwen felt goosebumps rising all over his arms.
With the temperature this much lower, food could be stored for much longer.
He walked around the cellar, his palm brushing against the cool wall bricks.
He felt quite satisfied.
Exiting the cellar and closing the door, he then went to the expanded area behind the bathroom.
He took out the Level 1 Blacksmith building card, which required a 3*4 area.
This wasn't a small area. Qin Ziwen looked around and finally decided to place it in the empty space to the right of the entrance.
The card transformed into light that merged with the empty ground. When the light faded, a semi-subterranean earthen house stood in its place.
The exterior walls were made of yellow mud mixed with straw, rammed into place, with a roof layered with thick thatch.
A spacious wooden door stood in the middle.
He pushed the door open, and it emitted a creaking sound from the wooden axle friction.
The interior sank downward. Looking from the floor up to the roof, it was about three meters high.
In the middle of the shop stood a very prominent blue-black old anvil. A hammer lay across the anvil, with brand new tongs tied to its left side, and an earthen water jar placed on the ground to its right.
Against the north wall behind the anvil, a simple furnace was constructed from fire clay mixed with stones, with a push-pull bellows attached to the furnace side.
Primitive, rugged.
A strong sense of familiarity washed over him.
His mind conjured an image of a bare-chested blacksmith vigorously hammering iron.
The floor was made of compacted yellow earth, feeling hard underfoot. He stomped his foot forcefully. Now that he had the blacksmith, all he needed were metal ores, coal, and an actual blacksmith. Once he had all these, he could forge various iron tools himself.
......