Just as he was thinking like this, the luck that had been eluding Li Younan for so long finally turned, and in that patch of forest he had already searched countless times, a wild rabbit wandered by.

This was incredible. Li Younan quickly strung his bow and stealthily approached.

This type of wild rabbit living in the wilderness was extremely alert. Just a faint noise from Li Younan, and it immediately took flight, its speed incredibly swift, quickly disappearing without a trace.

Li Younan wasn’t discouraged. Instead, he patiently searched slowly in the direction where the rabbit vanished. He knew very well that the rabbit was merely hiding in a hard-to-detect spot; startling it could still flush it out as long as his direction was correct.

In such tense and thrilling moments, there was no time or energy to set up a stationary camera. Li Younan spoke to the action camera, "Unfortunately, I didn’t choose to set up hunting traps, so for the rabbit almost in hand, we can only try our luck with the bow and arrow. Let’s see how our aim is today. Can we hit it in one shot?"

Just as he was speaking like this, suddenly, a rustle came from the grass twenty-odd meters ahead. Li Younan’s heart leapt with excitement as he looked over, and the next moment, the rabbit darted out and continued to sprint wildly in a certain direction.

Drawing the bow and shooting the arrow, Li Younan did it all in one swift motion. At that moment, muscle memory took over his body with a conditioned reflex, without the slightest aim, the arrow shot out directly, and after being released, the bowstring still gently quivered.

In the lens of the action camera, the running rabbit seemed hit by a shooting star, tumbling instantaneously into the grass beside it.

Running over, Li Younan saw that this arrow had pierced right through the rabbit’s abdomen, pinning it directly to the earth. He saw the rabbit still gently struggling, and quickly took out the hunting knife, ending its suffering with one swift motion.

Li Younan said to the camera, "Guys, it seems my archery still hasn’t slipped despite no opportunities for practice. Next, we need to take this rabbit back; today’s rations are secured, and we can improve our meals a bit."

Back at the camp, with time still early, Li Younan efficiently performed a dissection on the rabbit.

With his level two butchering skills, he was highly efficient, completely skinning the rabbit with great precision.

This was also the first furred animal he had hunted, making Li Younan extremely excited because the rabbit’s fur could be used for many things.

However, this freshly skinned rabbit hide was rawhide. An important process was needed before it could be directly usable as tanned leather; if not processed, the hide would become very hard once dried.

In modern civilized society, you might use salt, alum, or similar chemicals to soften it, but here in the wilderness, conditions for that were nonexistent. But no worries, the rabbit itself carried the necessary substance.

This method is called brain tanning, a technique passed down for thousands of years, using the animal’s brain matter to uniformly smear and rub onto the rawhide. After a few days of rest, the fur would become soft.

Li Younan first set the complete rabbit hide out to dry, then gathered the rabbit’s brain matter, planning to handle it carefully later in the evening. For now, he needed to solve the problem of eating first. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Having caught a rabbit today, plus the daily catch of fish, he wouldn’t need to go out searching for food for the next three days.

Rabbit is so cute, rabbit is delicious.

His fish curing technique had improved in recent days, maybe because his pickiness had somewhat disappeared. In any case, the fish not finished on the first day could still be eaten the next day.

Li Younan planned not to leave the camp for the next three days, concentrating on finishing the fireplace and then constructing the rammed-earth walls.

Building a fireplace required a lot of stones. Fortunately, there were many stones nearby, so he didn’t have to go far to carry over enough materials.

After a lunch of roasted rabbit, Li Younan started setting up the fireplace under the drafty eaves.

To be fair, it was easy to find angular stones here, which were very suitable for building a fireplace, as their own gravity made them quite stable.

Li Younan spent most of the day transporting stones from nearby, constructing a semi-circular fireplace, and filling the gaps with clay.

The outside of the fireplace was piled with a nearly half-meter-high slope of stones, not only to stabilize the fireplace but also to create an anchor point for the later construction of an earthen wall. He had prepped the smoke vent, to be finished with earthen bricks for the final chimney.

Next, it was time to make the rammed-earth wall.

Rammed-earth walls are also a part of China’s intangible cultural heritage, and making them is quite simple, requiring only plant ash, earth, and wooden molds.

Even though earthen walls are outdated now, rural earthen walls need annual repairs, or else they risk collapsing. However, on one hand, Li Younan’s wall didn’t need to be built so high, and with foundation piles, it was quite stable; on the other hand, it wouldn’t be in use for more than a year, so it suited perfectly.

Li Younan observed that the soil’s cohesiveness here was quite good, although not as good as loess, but sufficient to make an earthen wall lasting a few years.

Many human ancestors used this method to initially start modifying nature, gaining the ability to withstand harsh weather.

The only trouble was that Li Younan currently lacked water storage tools, and making an earthen wall required a lot of water. Fortunately, for a woodworking expert, this was no issue.

Even with limited materials, with Li Younan’s skill, he could still make a wooden barrel. The only problem was finding material for the hoops. Luckily, during previous attempts at weaving rattan baskets, he found a type of vine with a relatively firm texture that, once dried, could be used for barrel hoops.

That night, Li Younan was still diligently busy. He lit a fire under the drafty new house, completing the final step of hooping the barrel by the firelight.

The only regret was not having a planer, making the wooden barrel look quite rough, so much so that he skipped making a handle, making it more like a wooden basin. But it didn’t matter; as long as it didn’t leak, it was a good barrel.

Coincidentally, thunder began to roll.

In the pitch-black surroundings, it seemed rather eerie.

Li Younan looked up at the roof, without tiles or waterproofing, and through the gaps between the rafters saw the pitch-black sky.

He sighed slightly, stood up, placed the newly made barrel on the open ground, and obediently crawled into the temporary shelter.

Even though the temporary shelter was cramped and not very comfortable, it was, indeed, the only place he had to shield from wind and rain at the moment.

Outside, the rain poured down, yet inside was mostly dry, though somewhat damp.

At that moment, he realized how essential a shelter was for human beings.

His thoughts naturally drifted back to thousands or even tens of thousands of years ago, to some human ancestor, outside lay marauding beasts, snow and wind, darkness, yet inside the shelter lay warmth, safety, and reassurance.

This was the first rainy night since entering the wilderness.