The next morning, Yan Qing woke naturally along with the two bear cubs.
She didn’t start building the bridge immediately. Since she planned to stay in the valley for a few days, there was no rush. First, she wanted to make a hearty breakfast.
After eating, she boiled two pots of hot water, washed herself, and then bathed the two bears. By noon, the sun was already strong enough to dry them quickly, so she carried the cubs back to the cave.
She washed a plate of grapes and poured herself a cup of milk tea, then curled up on the sofa under a blanket. The two bear cubs rolled around on the carpet, occasionally tumbling over one another.
Yan Qing pulled out her tablet to watch a couple of episodes of iPartment. She had loved this series since childhood, watching it repeatedly from the first to the fifth season. While many criticized the later seasons, she still appreciated the director’s heartfelt effort. Growing up changed how one saw the world, and nostalgia often made the earlier, simpler days more precious.
After finishing two episodes, she put the tablet away and walked to the river. After a day and night of drying, the bamboo poles had lost some of their moisture.
She divided the sixteen poles into two sets of eight. Lining them up, she began weaving them together with nylon rope. Starting from the middle, she looped each pole twice, then threaded through the next, repeating along the four-meter length, wrapping each bamboo five times.
The two rows were then placed side by side. The ends were wrapped once, and the middle twice. Finally, she reinforced the ends and middle with iron wire.
She placed the finished bamboo raft over the creek, testing it by walking across several times and even jumping on it. Satisfied with the result, she finally rested.
Her arms were sore, fingers blistered—each bamboo pole weighed 20–30 kg. While she could lift them at the start, she relied on her storage space to manage the rest.
As dusk approached, she ate a simple dinner and went to bed early.
The next morning, Yan Qing woke to a body stiff and aching all over. After resting in bed for a while, she got up and prepared instant noodles, adding two fried eggs and a couple of vegetables. Before seasoning, she served each bear a bowl. The cubs had now grown as big as adult corgis, and their small bowls no longer sufficed.
She had also crafted two bamboo bowls while cutting bamboo yesterday, roughly the size of a regular noodle bowl, perfect for the bears.
After breakfast, feeling rejuvenated, she turned to her next project: building a firewood shed between the old locust tree and the cliff.
Using a hoe, she dug four deep holes close to the tree and cliff, placing four bamboo poles into the ground. She firmly packed the soil around them. On the side nearest the cliff, she hammered two 10-cm iron spikes into the rock.
Using nylon rope, she wrapped the locust tree, the bamboo poles, and the spikes to secure the structure. She then draped a suitably sized tarp over the top, fixing each corner to branches and spikes, creating a four-sided open shelter.
With some tree branches extending toward the cliff, the shed would keep firewood dry unless a heavy downpour occurred.
Finally, she placed the dry wood from the cave inside. Today’s work was complete.