The next morning, Gu Yu got up very early to prepare the tools for transporting the pumpkins.
The carrying pole they had been using before had finally “retired with honors” after more than ten days of heavy use.
Later on, whenever Gu Yu came across that same type of tree, he cut down a few branches that were suitable in thickness and length for making carrying poles. He planned to process them little by little and make several more as backups.
After all, the ones he made weren’t particularly refined—otherwise, a well-made pole could easily last for decades.
When Tang Jiao heard about his plan, she teased him,
“So if the quality isn’t great, you’re making up for it with quantity?”
Whenever Gu Yu had spare time, he worked on them bit by bit. By now, one pole had already been polished smooth. That morning, all he needed to do was secure two large vine baskets to each end.
By then, Tang Jiao had also woken up. Seeing the pot set up over the fire pit, she knew Gu Yu was already cooking breakfast, so she went to freshen up first.
She walked to the cave entrance and looked outside. Although it was still windy, the sun was fairly bright today, so she took out the mining lamp they had used yesterday to recharge the power it had consumed.
Tang Jiao had always had a weakness for multifunctional gadgets—especially ones that could be charged with solar power. Besides this large rechargeable mining lamp, she also owned a solar-powered phone power bank, a foldable outdoor solar charging panel, and a solar camping lantern. She had bought all of them back when she was obsessed with post-apocalyptic novels. If high-powered solar generators hadn’t been so expensive, she probably would have bought one too.
Ironically, after buying all that gear, she never really had a chance to use it. Solar charging was far slower than plugging into a wall socket, so after the novelty wore off, everything was packed away and left to gather dust.
It was only during the last couple of days, while organizing their supplies, that she rediscovered them in one of the boxes. The sunlight wasn’t especially strong at the moment, and charging was painfully slow—but as the saying goes, something was better than nothing.
At the very least, having some power meant their electronic devices could still be turned on. Otherwise, they’d just be useless bricks—no, worse than bricks. At this point, even bricks were valuable to Tang Jiao!
She laid out the rest of the solar-powered chargers in the sun as well, hoping to replenish their energy so their devices could stay usable.
Altogether, they had three mobile phones, one tablet, two large-capacity standard power banks, and several cute USB night lights. All of them could be powered using the solar equipment.
In fact, all the phones could still be turned on. When they arrived here, both high-capacity power banks had been fully charged. From the moment Tang Jiao realized they were stranded, she decisively shut down the tablet and two of the phones, leaving only one turned on to keep track of time—and even that was set to extreme power-saving mode. Thanks to that, there was still some battery left.
She cherished these electronic devices not just because they were useful, but because she hoped that after they had lived here for a long time—after adapting to this primitive lifestyle—modern technology could help them hold on to memories of civilized life. As long as those reminders existed, it felt as though they weren’t so far from their original home, or from their families.
Besides, the phones and tablets were filled with photos and videos of loved ones—things that were priceless to them.
Before long, An’an woke up as well. After breakfast, the three of them set off to transport the pumpkins.
Both An’an and Tang Jiao carried their new back baskets, which Gu Yu had stayed up late the night before to weave. The baskets were large, comfortable to carry, durable, and—most importantly—easy to remake whenever needed.
Originally, Gu Yu had only planned to make one for Tang Jiao, but when An’an saw it, he insisted on having one too. So Gu Yu made him a mini version just for him.
The shoulder straps of the back baskets had been padded with soft foam taken from discarded shipping boxes, so they wouldn’t dig into their shoulders. Gu Yu had wrapped his carrying pole the same way.
The family set out for the wild pumpkin patch along the same route they had taken the day before.
When they reached a steep slope, Tang Jiao suddenly lost her footing and slipped backward toward the downhill side. She cried out in alarm, flailing her arms as she grabbed at nearby branches and vines. Luckily, the vegetation here was dense—trees and creepers everywhere. Just before she hit the ground, she managed to latch onto a thick vine, though her weight dragged it downward.
Hearing her shout, Gu Yu immediately turned back to pull her up, but he was a step too late. Seeing that she had steadied herself by grabbing the vine, he finally let out a huge sigh of relief and hurried over to help her back to her feet.
After standing up, Tang Jiao stared at the vine for a long moment, then said to Gu Yu,
“Don’t you think this vine looks kind of familiar?”
Gu Yu studied it for a while. They had passed plenty of similar vines along the way yesterday, and he hadn’t noticed anything special, so he shook his head.
Seeing his reaction, Tang Jiao said,
“Doesn’t it look like wild yam? The kind we dug up in the mountains with my mom before?”
Gu Yu took a closer look, searching his memory of digging wild yams in the past, but he still couldn’t be sure.
It did look somewhat similar—only this one was much thicker, and most of its leaves had already withered away.
Tang Jiao had only noticed it because, when she had fallen backward and looked up, the vine suddenly felt familiar. When she pulled it down, she saw some leaves that hadn’t completely rotted yet, along with small yam bulblets hidden among the dried vines and leaves. That was when she became certain—it was wild yam.
She asked Gu Yu to pull the vine down harder until it came loose, then showed him the yam bulblets. Only then did Gu Yu see them clearly. With bulblets present, there was no doubt—it really was wild yam.
Gu Yu was thrilled. Just yesterday, without even looking for them on purpose, he had passed several patches of these vines, and they had appeared in clusters. That meant they could harvest quite a lot.
All three of them were buzzing with excitement. Their harvests over the past two days had been incredibly generous.
Was this another beginner’s bonus after unlocking a new map?
Yesterday it had been An’an, today it was Tang Jiao—would Gu Yu’s turn come tomorrow?
Just thinking about it was enough to make their hearts race.
They didn’t start digging up the yams right away, since that would take a lot of effort. Instead, they left clear markers, memorized the location, and reluctantly bid the yams farewell before heading off to move the pumpkins first.
They reached the wild pumpkin patch at roughly the same time as the day before. With the yams in the forest on their minds, both Gu Yu and Tang Jiao barely rested before they began loading pumpkins into the baskets.
The wilderness truly belonged to small animals. The pumpkins they had piled up and covered with grass the day before had been gnawed on by some unknown creatures. Fortunately, none of the damaged ones were large. Tang Jiao generously left the chewed pumpkins where they were—perhaps the animals would come back for them.
More importantly, they had no idea whether those animals carried diseases. Anything that had already been bitten into was something they simply didn’t dare eat.