Chapter 70: A Belated Qixi Festival Gift

"I'm alright, not really that hungry."

Su Keke answered honestly.

For her, hungry meant hungry, and not hungry meant not hungry; there was no need to tell Xu Yi any falsehoods.

"Let's just have some smoked fish for lunch today, and boil a little soup with chicken mushrooms."

Xu Yi had foraged some chicken mushrooms yesterday. Boiling a simple soup to go with the dried smoked fish would be enough to get them through a meal.

For now, he had no way of knowing whether those pterosaurs had left.

Therefore, it was better not to take the risk of going down to the river.

"Okay, chicken mushroom soup is delicious too."

Su Keke agreed obediently, then happily shook the bowl in her hand and went back to processing the salt fruits.

There was still some water left in the bucket. Xu Yi poured it into the fine soil he had brought back from the termite mound, mixed it thoroughly, and then went back out to fetch another bucket of water.

At the same time, he wanted to find out if those pterosaurs were still around.

Fetching water took very little time—unlike going to the log bridge to catch fish, which required at least fifteen minutes in total.

If he went to the river to fetch water and actually spotted a pterosaur, Xu Yi would still have enough time to run back and hide in the jungle.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have taken the risk.

Before reaching the riverbank, Xu Yi paused for a moment to listen.

Hearing no calls or screeches whatsoever, he made a quick dash to the riverbank and hurled the wooden bucket into the water.

Having filled one bucket, Xu Yi immediately turned back.

At a time like this, it was best not to linger by the riverbank.

If he wanted to continue harvesting thatch grass in the future, he would need to use some camouflage at the very least.

Animals relied heavily on sight and shape, so Xu Yi could easily drape thatch grass over himself to confuse the pterosaurs.

Of course, pterosaurs weren't around every single day.

At least, in all the days they had spent here, today was the first time they had encountered a flock of pterosaurs flying over the river.

Normally, there was no such phenomenon.

Perhaps, once they flew past, they simply departed without lingering above.

Returning to the camp with the water, Xu Yi poured most of it into the fine soil.

The remaining water from earlier was not nearly enough to bring the soil to the moisture level Xu Yi needed.

Only after pouring in the bulk of the fresh water did he feel it met his requirements.

The little water he kept back was meant for boiling the chicken mushrooms.

He tore the chicken mushrooms into strips because Keke had said that tearing them by hand made them crispier.

Previously, when Xu Yi had roasted them, slicing them worked best.

Now that he was making soup, tearing them by hand was just right.

The soup took only a few minutes to cook, and soon Xu Yi and Su Keke sat down to eat lunch.

After lunch, Xu Yi prepared to go dig another bucket of soil from the termite mound.

Since he had decided not to harvest thatch grass that afternoon and instead focus on pottery making, he needed to gather more termite soil to make a larger batch.

The success rate of pottery firing was not high unless one had a professional kiln.

However, Xu Yi lacked the knowledge and experience to build a kiln, so he could only make up for the low success rate with quantity.

Su Keke wanted to tag along, so Xu Yi agreed.

After all, with pterosaurs having appeared just that morning, Su Keke might be afraid to stay at the camp alone.

Thus, the two of them set off in the direction of the termite mound.

"Dad, will there be any animals in those traps today?"

Su Keke felt that the dried smoked fish tasted rather mediocre and she didn't particularly care for it.

Ideally, they could have some other meat for dinner.

Even if there were no animals, getting some cassava to serve as a staple food would be wonderful too.

Hearing Su Keke's words, Xu Yi instinctively rubbed the back of his neck.

"Let's hope we get some harvest."

After walking for a while, they arrived at the spot.

Unfortunately, there were no animals in the traps; none of them had been triggered.

Moreover, Xu Yi noticed fresh traces of chicken mushrooms having been nibbled on.

This indicated that animals still came here to forage, yet they hadn't stepped into the traps he had set.

"Dad, I'm going to look around nearby. I won't go far and I'll be right back."

Xu Yi needed to dig up soil, and since there were only two chicken mushrooms left—which she had already picked earlier—Su Keke wanted to wander around the vicinity.

Who knew, maybe she would make a new discovery?

After a short while, Su Keke suddenly cried out in excitement.

"Dad! Dad, come quick! There's a little deer here!"

Hearing this, Xu Yi immediately ran over to Su Keke's side.

What? A little deer? Keke, you're showing off a bit too much, aren't you?

[Damn, Keke's luck is insane!]

[What did you expect from the show's ultimate lucky charm?]

[Hey experts, did any challenger shoot a deer today?]

[Don't think so, let me go check.]

[Two days ago, Old Seven shot a deer, but let it escape. Could this deer be the one Old Seven shot two days ago?]

[Whoa, could it really be such a coincidence? They're camping this close?]

[There are no arrows on it, how do you know it was shot?]

[Didn't you see the bloody hole on its backside? It's so obvious, are you blind?]

[Could be that the deer impaled itself on something, doesn't mean it was shot by someone.]

[I really hope this deer was shot by Old Seven so she can reunite with Number One. This fate is too explosive! Even TV shows wouldn't dare script an entire family of three reuniting in the wilderness like this!]

[Scripts wouldn't dare, but you sure dare to dream, little bro.]

[I bet this deer was Old Seven's belated Tanabata gift to Number One, except the deer acting as the delivery courier wasn't up to scratch and arrived a day late.]

[What the hell kind of Tanabata gift? You guys have wild imaginations.]

Most of the bullet-screen chat comments were invisible to Xu Yi.

Because the information being revealed was plentiful and the viewers could see it amongst themselves, they were very eager to chat about it.

Gossip always managed to capture everyone's attention.

Xu Yi sprinted toward Su Keke, and as he drew closer, he understood the situation.

A deer had its neck wrapped in Su Keke's arms, pinned down beneath her.

He accelerated, rushed forward, and pinned the deer down himself.

Only then did Xu Yi realize that the deer actually had very little strength left in it.

"Keke, your luck is seriously unbelievable. You actually managed to run into an injured deer."

With Xu Yi pressing down on it, Su Keke stood up.

This was a relatively small species of deer with very short antlers, looking somewhat smaller than a goat.

Judging by its appearance, it wasn't a fawn; it appeared to be fully grown.

After Xu Yi struck the deer's head a few times, it stopped reacting.

Therefore, Xu Yi deduced that it was on the verge of death.

Standing up, Xu Yi inspected the wound on its body.

"This wound is already infected and inflamed. Something must have pierced this spot previously."

"There's blood all around this area, so what's causing it to die is likely severe blood loss. That means Keke and I should be able to safely eat this venison."

Xu Yi analyzed the situation while letting out a sigh of relief.

If this deer had no wounds, it likely would have been sick.

In that case, it would have been completely inedible.

This deer probably weighed around forty or fifty pounds.

After removing the bones and inedible parts, there would still be at least thirty pounds of edible meat.

This was the rhythm of getting rich! It had been thirteen days since they entered the wilderness, and this was their first harvest of such a scale.

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(End of Chapter)