Returning home, Qin Ziwen played back the video footage from his phone that he had stored in the crowned eagle's chest pouch during the day, comparing it against his memories.
He then drew a rough route map.
On this route map, he specifically marked the locations where he had harvested wild kiwifruit and encountered the wild boar.
The main reason he hadn't harvested all the kiwifruit today was insufficient backpack space; tomorrow he could consider going there first to pick the remaining fruit.
He remembered fruits were divided into two types: climacteric fruits and non-climacteric fruits.
If climacteric fruits weren't fully ripe but were close to maturity, they could continue "ripening" after being harvested.
After finishing the map, Qin Ziwen picked up the master map he had drawn earlier, his gaze falling on a marked "mountain cave" on the northern section.
Currently, both known card acquisition locations were related to "caves," so what about that mountainside cave he had seen in the video? Could there also be an altar inside?
And it wasn't just that location—the crowned eagle could fly, so by leveraging its aerial advantage to conduct more high-altitude reconnaissance, they could likely find other undiscovered caves.
A one-time altar that only yielded one card versus an altar that could stably provide cards every day—the strategic value between these two was worlds apart!
It was worth him deliberately searching for them.
In the evening, he went to check on the small livestock in the beast cage; the rabbits, field mice, and hedgehog were all quietly staying in their respective areas.
After two days of accumulation, the huge stone pit was nearly half full, showing that the Level 2 spring indeed produced water quite quickly.
He scooped a bowl of clear spring water, performed a simple wash-up, then lay in bed quietly waiting for the next day.
"You have successfully survived safely in the wilderness for the tenth day. Today you harvested one field mouse and one hedgehog through snare traps, gathered a sufficient quantity of wild kiwifruit, and created a rough map. Comprehensive score: 40 points"
"Reward obtained: [Expansion Card] Blank Expansion Card (Micro) *2"
Qin Ziwen's eyes lit up—they finally appeared.
He got up and went to the expanded space behind the bathroom, using the two cards on the empty area. Thanks to the conscious blank space left during previous expansions, when the two new cards activated, a large new square of empty land appeared ahead!
Then Qin Ziwen took out the prepared Level 1 Farmland Card and activated it.
A vast glow enveloped the land ahead.
Soon, a patch of dark brown soil measuring 20*20 meters, covering an area close to a standard basketball court, came into view.
He walked to the edge of the farmland, his shoe soles stepping on the soil. There was no sticky feeling like ordinary dirt; instead, it felt fluffy.
He crouched down, reached into the soil, and grabbed a handful.
The dark brown soil trickled through the gaps between his fingers with a fine granular texture; his fingertips felt it was soft, with a moist yet non-sticky quality.
He didn't know much about farming, but he could clearly tell this soil was definitely not poor.
Qin Ziwen murmured to himself, "Such good soil—it'd be a real shame not to plant something in it."
He turned and went to the second bedroom to wake his brother, calling him over to help transplant the gray sweet potatoes together.
They detached the tubers from the gray sweet potatoes, cut them into small pieces, and buried them separately in the soil.
"Brother, will these actually sprout? They won't just rot in the end, will they?"
Qin Ziwen hesitated, then nodded: "They will. Trust me."
He hadn't grown them before either, only having picked up fragments of knowledge from books or the internet—that crops like sweet potatoes and potatoes could be cut into pieces, buried in soil, and might sprout into full plants.
As for whether it would work, they had to at least try.
"Brother, this space is getting bigger and bigger, and now there's a huge farmland—you're really good at digging things up," Qin Ziwu joked.
"Haha."
Qin Ziwen laughed: "We still need to go to the riverbank to find more gray sweet potatoes, and harvest the things we didn't pick yesterday."
"Gray sweet potatoes—are they this thing?"
"Yes, I saw their root fruits were dull gray, so I named them gray sweet potatoes."
"That name is easy to remember."
When they came out of the stairwell, Deng Guang had already been waiting downstairs for a long time; he went out very early every morning.
This morning there were quite a few people in the residential complex, gathered in small groups. With just one glance, Qin Ziwen could tell something had happened.
Deng Guang said: "Something happened last night—that Wang Mingchao died."
Qin Ziwu exclaimed: "Died?"
Deng Guang said: "Yeah, he was discovered early this morning, his body lying right at the entrance of his building complex. He had over a dozen stab wounds in his chest, but the fatal injury was a cut on his neck—his head was almost completely severed. The killer probably had venting intentions."
Qin Ziwu muttered to himself, "Who could have done it? Could it be that Zhang Bo?"
Deng Guang shook his head: "Don't know. No surveillance, no eyewitnesses. But many suspect Zhang Bo did it. Even if it wasn't him, it should be related to him."
In the crowd, Zhang Bo had a blister forming on his lip from anxiety, "It wasn't me, really it wasn't me! He just said those words yesterday—if I killed him, wouldn't that be admitting guilt without being pressed! Am I that stupid?"
A large group surrounded him, flying the banner of avenging Wang Mingchao.
They blocked Zhang Bo in the middle, not letting him leave.
One onlooker shouted: "If you didn't kill him, then let us go check your salt well, prove it! Let's see how your structure is different from Huang Tao's."
Zhang Bo's mind went blank—what did proving he didn't kill someone have to do with checking his salt well?
Looking at the people's expressions around him, he suddenly understood: whether he killed him or not wasn't important; the fact that his home had a salt well was what mattered.
......
After watching the commotion, Qin Ziwen was about to leave when a woman rushed over from behind, only to be blocked by Qin Ziwu.
Qin Ziwu looked unfriendly, "What are you doing?"
The woman had a sallow complexion and dark circles completely surrounding her eyes. She loudly demanded: "Qin! Where is my husband!"
Her shrill voice attracted the attention of many people nearby.
Qin Ziwen looked closely before recognizing that this disheveled, mentally unstable woman was Liu Changgen's wife.
Qin Ziwu, standing behind his older brother, said impatiently: "How would we know where your husband went? We're not close with him."
Liu Changgen's wife muttered: "My husband has been missing for two days. The night he disappeared, he put on his clothes and went straight out. I've been looking for him for two days! No sign of him alive, no body dead."
At this point, Liu Changgen's wife's eyes filled with resentment, "Yesterday I went to find that guy he fished with. At first he didn't dare to say, but after I pestered him all day, he finally told me that during the day when they were fishing, they saw you using fish traps! My husband urged him to go steal them together at night, and then my husband went missing! Was it you!"
These words caused many surrounding neighbors to point and whisper about Qin Ziwen and his brother.
Deng Guang was astonished and said doubtfully: "Xue E, are you mistaken? Brother Qin has been with me these past few days. Liu Changgen might have been snatched away by a crocodile when he went out—such things have happened before, it's not the first time. You can't just randomly blame Brother Qin."
Xue E's lips quivered, a flash of confusion in her eyes.
She had also considered the possibility that he might have been taken by a crocodile or some other beast, but she couldn't accept it.
A perfectly fine person, suddenly gone.
What was she and her child supposed to do?
"I don't care, it's related to you anyway! If it weren't for your fish traps, why would he go out at night! Then he wouldn't have had an accident. According to humanitarian principles, you should compensate!"