Shao Xingyang stared at the secretive Lu Shiyu, who was secretly fiddling with something.
Lu Shiyu looked at the glass jar in her hand, letting out an obsessive smile every now and then before returning to normal as if nothing had happened.
Something was wrong, very wrong—it was eleven-out-of-ten wrong.
Shao Xingyang wanted to investigate, but Lu Shiyu hid the jar every time. Taking advantage of the moment Lu Shiyu and Yan Hong went to the bathroom, he secretly rummaged through Lu Shiyu’s backpack to find the glass jar she treasured so much.
“What are you doing?” Chen Yunliang’s voice came from behind. Shao Xingyang jumped, thinking Lu Shiyu and the other had returned.
“You scared the life out of me! Why do you walk without making a sound?”
Shao Xingyang continued rummaging as if no one was there. Chen Yunliang frowned. “Are you secretly going through Lu Shiyu’s bag?”
“What do you mean ‘secretly’? I’m doing this out in the open,” Shao Xingyang said shamelessly. “And aren’t you curious about what’s in that jar?”
Shao Xingyang wasn’t the only one who had noticed; Chen Yunliang had also seen Lu Shiyu hiding a jar that seemed to contain something white.
“Going through someone else’s bag isn’t right.”
“I’ll just put it back before she returns.”
Shao Xingyang searched for a while but couldn’t find the jar with the mysterious white substance. Refusing to believe it, he searched again but still found nothing.
“Strange, how can it be gone? Did Lu Shiyu take the jar to the bathroom with her?”
Chen Yunliang knelt down and watched him search. He suddenly noticed a divider on the side of the backpack meant for a water bottle. He reached out to unzip it, and sure enough, there was something inside.
“It’s here!”
Shao Xingyang pulled the glass jar from the compartment. It was half-filled with an unidentified white solid containing many bubbles of various sizes.
Shao Xingyang opened the lid and sniffed it, his face twisting for a moment.
“Why does it smell so sour? Could it be spoiled?”
Chen Yunliang gave him a sharp smack on the back of the head. “Who taught you to sniff things like that? Did you return your middle school chemistry lessons to the teacher?”
Shao Xingyang scratched his head and argued stubbornly, “Could Lu Shiyu be hiding something poisonous?”
He held the jar, turning it left and right but couldn’t figure it out.
“Could it be spoiled yogurt she can’t bear to throw away?”
“You idiot, where would she get yogurt here?” Chen Yunliang snatched the jar away. After observing it, he reached a conclusion. “This is…”
“What are you two doing?”
Yan Hong had returned with Lu Shiyu. Upon arrival, they found the two men squatting suspiciously next to the bag, which was wide open and clearly rummaged through.
“Uh… well, we were…” Shao Xingyang’s eyes darted around. Suddenly turning aggressive, he pointed at Chen Yunliang and said righteously, “I saw him secretly going through Lu Shiyu’s bag! I came over immediately to stop him. It’s good you’re back—quick, seize this guy who rummages through other people’s bags!”
Yan Hong: “…”
Lu Shiyu: “…”
Chen Yunliang: “…Impressive.”
When Tang Zeyu returned with wild fruit and firewood, he saw Shao Xingyang tied with hemp rope and hanging from a tree.
“Captain, waaaah, save me, waaaah.”
Shao Xingyang swung his body, causing the rope to sway. He was like a pendulum swinging in the air.
Tang Zeyu was also silent.
“What did he do this time?”
“Captain! Why did you assume I did something?! Can’t you see I’m the victim here?!” Shao Xingyang protested Tang Zeyu’s prejudice.
“Alright, then. What happened?”
Chen Yunliang was the first to answer. “Shao Xingyang was caught red-handed rummaging through Lu Shiyu’s bag, so Yan Hong tied him up and hung him from the tree.”
Tang Zeyu turned to Shao Xingyang. “Do you have anything else to say?”
“Hehe, no.”
“Then stay up there for a while. We’ll let you down when it’s time to eat.”
Lu Shiyu walked over to the hanging Shao Xingyang and asked why he went through her bag.
“It’s that jar you’ve been hiding,” Shao Xingyang feigned dissatisfaction. “It’s just a bottle of spoiled stuff. Is it really worth keeping it hidden?”
“Spoiled stuff?” Lu Shiyu didn’t understand. “What are you talking about?”
“He’s talking about your jar of yeast,” Chen Yunliang finally clarified.
“Oh, that,” Lu Shiyu finally understood. “That’s a yeast culture I made using ant honey. It’s not spoiled.”
“Yeast?” Shao Xingyang swung back and forth on the tree. “Isn’t yeast made from yeast powder?”
Chen Yunliang laughed at his ignorance. “Shao Xingyang, did you even finish your nine years of compulsory education? If not, go back to the base and catch up. It’s embarrassing for a grown man to make such a joke.”
“If we have yeast, can we make flour-based snacks?” Yan Hong asked.
“Of course. And calculating the days, this jar of yeast is just about ready,” Lu Shiyu took the glass jar from Chen Yunliang. “How about we eat buns today?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Shao Xingyang, still hanging from the tree, had no self-awareness. He started swaying with joy at the mention of buns. “Buns are my favorite.”
“Shut up. Is there anything you don’t like to eat?” Yan Hong poked him.
“But to make buns, we need filling. We’ve mostly finished the ingredients we collected over the last few days.”
“Simple. We’ll go find ingredients for the filling while you prepare the dough. Division of labor doubles efficiency,” Shao Xingyang struggled. “So hurry up and let me down!”
“So noisy.”
Yan Hong impatiently cut the rope with her knife. Shao Xingyang fell to the ground and untied himself.
Finally, through rock-paper-scissors, it was decided that Tang Zeyu would stay with Lu Shiyu to guard the camp, while the other three went to find filling materials.
Lu Shiyu rolled up her sleeves, pulled out half a bag of flour, and began kneading directly in the pot. She added an appropriate amount of water, flour, and a spoonful of oil, then added the homemade yeast and mixed it. After a moment’s thought, she added a spoonful of ant honey. With one hand holding the edge of the iron pot, she struggled to mix the dough.
Worried there wouldn’t be enough, she had added a lot of flour, and now she found it difficult to knead.
“Let me do it,” Tang Zeyu rolled up his sleeves and washed his hands. He said to Lu Shiyu, “Help me hold the pot steady.”
“Okay.”
Tang Zeyu was much stronger than Lu Shiyu. The dough that had been as stiff as cement was as obedient as soft silicone in his hands. He mixed it until no dry powder remained; that was when the real kneading began.
Tang Zeyu used the base of his palm to push and knead. After about ten minutes, the dough became smooth and rounded, feeling soft to the touch.
He left the dough in the pot and covered it with a lid, letting it “be alone” for a while to ferment.
Tang Zeyu raised a hand to wipe the sweat from his face, seemingly forgetting there was flour on his hands. He streaked white flour across his cheek, completely unaware.
Lu Shiyu stood up and patted her hands after setting the dough aside, only to see that Tang Zeyu had turned himself into a calico cat. The white patches on his face were particularly prominent. She couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
“What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” Tang Zeyu hesitantly wiped his face, which immediately added another white streak.
“Pfft, hahahahaha! Stop wiping, you’re making it worse,” Lu Shiyu finally couldn’t hold back and said through her laughter, “Let me wipe it for you. Stop using your hands.”
Tang Zeyu looked at his hands and finally realized they were covered in flour. His ears turned bright red.
Lu Shiyu rinsed her hands and used a damp paper towel to help wipe his face, but she froze just as her hand reached out.
Wait, why was she wiping his face? If it was dirty, couldn’t she just give him the paper and let him do it himself?
Realizing her action was overstepping a bit, Lu Shiyu tried to stop. “Uh, well, here’s the paper, do it yourself…”
Before she could finish, Tang Zeyu had already bent down and brought his face close to hers, even closing his eyes.
“Go ahead.”
Now it was Lu Shiyu’s turn to blush. Caught in a dilemma, she decided to push through and said stutteringly, “O-okay.”
The cold, damp paper towel pressed against his skin. Tang Zeyu didn’t dare open his eyes to see her expression; he could only stay still and feel the cold sensation sliding across his face.
“Alright, you can stand up now.”
For some reason, the atmosphere between the two became subtle. After the wiping was over, they both avoided each other’s gaze by unspoken agreement, sitting back-to-back in silence. Their hearts were bubbling like the fermenting dough in the pot.
On the other side:
Chen Yunliang walked aimlessly in one direction when he suddenly noticed several bright spots ahead. He walked toward them and found several waist-high trees on a hillside. They were hanging with red and yellow fruits that looked very eye-catching.
Chen Yunliang picked a red fruit and took a bite. It tasted a bit like a bell pepper, but sweeter, and was full of seeds inside. He figured it counted as a fruit.
Yan Hong also had a harvest. After walking for a distance, she noticed several large birds circling in the sky. It looked like two males were fighting for mating rights with a female. The two males were fighting fiercely in the air while the female sat calmly on a tree cleaning her feathers, waiting for a winner to emerge so she could mate and produce stronger offspring.
Yan Hong took off her shoes and climbed the tree without a sound. She moved quietly behind the female bird without being detected. Aiming at the female bird’s position, she quickly grabbed it as it was about to fly away. Before the bird could struggle or scream, Yan Hong twisted its neck and climbed down with her trophy.
Just as she finished putting on her shoes and was about to leave, a male bird, blinded from pecking, tumbled down and hit the ground. Having lost its sight, it struggled for a long time but only crashed into trees. Yan Hong stepped forward and gave it a swift end. She headed back with her buy-one-get-one-free trophy, leaving the male who had finally won to look around in confusion on the tree, finding the female gone.
Shao Xingyang found a thicket of berries that tasted sweet and sour. Unfortunately, they were only the size of grapes. He picked as many as he could until his pockets were full and his hands couldn’t hold any more.
The three returned from different directions, only to find the atmosphere between Lu Shiyu and Tang Zeyu was awkwardly indescribable, as if they were stiffly trying to maintain their distance.
The three looked at each other, none of them knowing what had happened between the two while they were gone.
“Did they have an argument?”