“Hungry… Huzi, I’m so hungry…”
Lin Xi leaned weakly against a large tree, her vision darkening in waves. A full day had passed since she had made her solemn vow.
That night, she and Huzi had shared those pine nuts and took a risk by cracking open a wild egg with two stones, leaving the girl and the cat only half-full. For a growing child who had undergone such immense physical strain, that tiny bit of food was like trying to put out a burning house with a cup of water.
Hunger was like an invisible hand tightly gripping her stomach, making her dizzy and drenched in cold sweat with every step she took.
She knew she couldn’t go on like this. Passively waiting for “gifts” from animals was unreliable; she had to take the initiative!
She needed meat! She needed protein!
But she was only a three-year-old child, completely unarmed. To go out and wrestle with the beasts of the mountains? That was nothing more than a pipe dream.
What to do?
Lin Xi forced herself to calm down, her mind racing as she searched through the sparse memory bank of her previous life.
In that era of information explosion, although she had lived in abject poverty, she had spent time in a sweatshop dormitory passing the hours on a second-hand phone with a spiderweb-cracked screen. Among the videos she’d watched were those from creators teaching wilderness survival.
A trap!
The idea ignited in her mind like a spark.
She remembered one of the simplest types: a snare trap. By using a flexible branch, a piece of string, and a trigger mechanism, one could capture small animals passing by.
This method… it could work!
No sooner said than done! The desire to survive overrode all her weakness and discomfort.
First, she needed a sturdy rope. She looked at her own clothes—already reduced to tattered rags—and shook her head; the fabric was too frail.
Her gaze shifted to a dark brown vine wrapped around a tree trunk.
She remembered the village elders saying that this “Ox-Tendon Vine” was incredibly strong and became even more supple after being soaked in water—perfect material for bundling firewood.
She pulled out the [tool] hidden in her, she pulled out the shard of broken porcelain from her waist—the very piece that had saved her life multiple times—and began laboriously sawing at the vines.
The porcelain wasn’t sharp enough, so she had to use every ounce of her strength, grinding away bit by bit. Her palms grew flushed and raw from the rough bark of the vines, but she didn’t care.
It took nearly an hour of grueling work before she managed to cut down a vine about two meters long.
Next, using her teeth and the porcelain shard, she stripped away the outer bark to reveal the white, resilient fibers inside. Relying on the memories of videos she had seen in her previous life, she repeatedly rubbed, twisted, and braided these fibers, coiling them into a single rope of uniform thickness.
This was incredibly delicate work, and for the tiny hands of a three-year-old, it was exponentially more difficult. Her fingers were rubbed raw and began to bead with blood, but she simply sucked on the wounds for a moment before continuing her task.
By the time a reasonably sturdy “rope” finally took shape, Lin Xi was drenched in sweat and on the verge of total collapse.
Next came finding the right spot.
Once again, she sent out a mental plea for help to the surrounding animals.
『I need a path—a trail frequently used by small animals.』
Soon, a bamboo rat, usually known for its cowardice, poked its head out of a hole in an earthen bank. It looked at Lin Xi, then at the vine rope in her hand, seemingly understanding her intent. With a few “squeaks,” it waddled along, leading Lin Xi to the edge of a thicket.
There, she found a very inconspicuous trail where the grass had been trampled firm, dotted with a few black, rabbit-like droppings.
A game trail!
Lin Xi felt a surge of joy; she had found the perfect spot!
Nearby, she located a sapling about the width of a bowl, supple and full of elasticity. She used all her weight to bend the top of the small tree down, securing it firmly with one end of the vine rope.
The most critical step was crafting the trigger mechanism.
Following her memory, she found two Y-shaped branches and one straight stick, using the porcelain shard to carve out notches. The process was fraught with failure; her hands were too small, and her strength was lacking. the mechanism kept failing; it was either unstable or would fall apart at the slightest touch.
Sweat trickled down her forehead and into her eyes, stinging and acrid. Hunger and exhaustion made her want to give up more than once.
“No! Lin Xi, you cannot give up!” she told herself. “Think of Li Guilan’s face! Think of Wang Cuihua’s cane! Do you want to be trampled under their feet forever? Do you want to starve to death here and let them clap their hands in celebration back in the village?”
Her towering hatred transformed once again into boundless motivation.
She took a deep breath, focusing all her attention and mental energy into her hands.
This time, she succeeded!
A trigger mechanism—crude, but seemingly functional—stood steadily in the center of the game trail. She carefully fashioned the other end of the vine rope into a slipknot and laid it gently over the trigger.
A primitive snare trap was complete!
Lin Xi collapsed directly onto the ground, so exhausted she didn’t want to lift a single finger.
Now, only one step remained: waiting.
She hid in a patch of grass dozens of meters away, not daring to even draw a loud breath.
Time ticked by, minute by minute, as the sun slowly began its westward descent.
The mountain forest was quiet; aside from the sound of the wind, there was nothing.
Could it be… a failure?
Just as her heart was sinking and she felt all her efforts had been in vain, a plump wild rabbit appeared, hopping along that very game trail!
Lin Xi’s heart instantly leaped into her throat!
The rabbit seemed completely oblivious, approaching the lethal snare step by step.
Closer!
Even closer!
Just as its head was about to hit the trigger mechanism, it suddenly stopped!
It twitched its nose, looking warily at the abrupt, protruding branch mechanism sitting in the middle of the path.
Lin Xi’s heart nearly stopped beating! She stared fixedly at the rabbit, screaming frantically in her mind: ‘Go on! Just go! I need you! I need food!’
She funneled her intense, focused will of “longing” toward that rabbit.
Perhaps her willpower actually worked, or perhaps the rabbit simply couldn’t resist the temptation of this “safe” path it had trodden a thousand times before. It hesitated for a moment, but ultimately took that fatal step.
Its front paw brushed against the horizontal trigger branch.
Snap!
A crisp sound rang out!
The mechanism was triggered instantly!
The bent sapling lunged upright, and the immense tension snapped the noose shut in a flash!
Before the wild rabbit could even let out a squeak, the noose tightened firmly around its neck. It was hoisted into mid-air, its four legs kicking frantically in the void.
Success!
Watching the wild rabbit struggle in the air, a massive, indescribable surge of ecstasy and achievement instantly washed over Lin Xi!
Using her own intelligence and her own two hands, she had captured her first true piece of prey in this cruel mountain forest!
She was no longer a pathetic creature who could only passively accept gifts; she had become a hunter!
However, the joy lasted for less than three seconds.
A grimmer, bloodier, and more practical problem now loomed before her.
She looked at the rabbit—still lively and struggling violently—and then looked down at her own tiny arms and legs, which weren’t even as thick as the rabbit’s haunches.
How was she, a three-year-old child, supposed to… handle this prey that was much larger and more powerful than she had imagined?
She had no knife, only a jagged shard of porcelain.
She didn’t even know how to make it die quickly and painlessly.
On television, survival experts always made it look easy—snapping a prey’s neck or dispatching it cleanly with a blade. But now that it was her turn, the sight of a vivid life struggling before her eyes and the feeling of being about to personally end a life made her small face turn deathly pale.
Clutching the cold porcelain shard, she walked toward the rabbit still struggling futilely in the air, one step at a time.