In the blink of an eye, it has been nearly two months since they settled in this plain, and the jungle under the distant mountains is deep and shallow red and yellow, and the leaves have withered and exposed the oblique bare branches.

Winter is coming.

At this time, Qin Yue also tried to go out with Liang Jian, Liang Jian hunted, she collected wild fruits and nuts from the trees, but most of the wild fruits have dried up recently, and there are a lot of leftover nuts.

The mushrooms that grow on the rotten wood in the jungle are also picked by her to stew in broth, which is very delicious in the original. The rest of the Tai Ban was dried in the open space of the yard and stored in rattan baskets, which she had woven four or five of these large round frames, and placed them on the side of the wall, filled with dried fruits, nuts, and dried mushrooms that she had collected.

Liang Jian has hunted more beasts recently, he made bone spears and bone arrows with sharpened animal bones, the penetration is much stronger than wooden arrows, and when an arrow hits dozens of meters away, the beast has no chance of survival.

Qin Yue was envious when he saw that his arrows were not missing, so he erected a target in the courtyard and asked Liang Jian to make her a bow and arrow, and practiced in the courtyard when she had nothing to do.

Liang Jian went out to hunt almost every day, and the meat and fur piled up at home were getting more and more, and in the tradition of not wasting it, Qin Yue pickled most of it and hung it all over the hall.

When the weather is cold, the cold wind often hangs in the window, and Liang Jian takes the nitrate animal skin and nails it in front of the window with a bone needle to keep the cold wind out of the house.

The tiger skin that he hunted before, Qin Yue sewed another layer of fine hair animal skin inside, made it into a thick quilt, and took it out to cover it when it was completely cold.

Qin Yue's sewing skills are better than before, she used animal skins to make a dress for each of them, a simple shirt and pants, the clothes are one big and one small in the same color, and the two of them are dressed like lovers.

She is busy like a little mouse every day, busy moving all kinds of things from the outside to her home, but her heart is extremely full. Even if she didn't have any experience in the wild, she knew that food would be more difficult to come by, and that they would have to stock up on enough food to survive the harsh winter and the spring months.

Because of the salting of too much animal meat, Qin Yue's stored salt was a little insufficient, so she and Liang Jian carried the basket on their backs and went to the salt well in the cave again to bring back enough salt crystals.

Didn't encounter the bear again this time.

Qin Yue searched for a long time and found a stone with a concave arc at the bottom, which could barely be used as a stone pot. The salt crystals are mixed into the water and filtered, then poured into a stone pot, and a large fire is burned at the bottom to evaporate the excess water, and the salt with high purity is quickly obtained.

The salt they ate later was filtered in this way, and the sand and impurities in the salt bar were reduced, the bitterness and astringency were greatly reduced, and the pickled meat was more delicious than before.

In addition to steaming salt, this pot can also stir-fry vegetables, and the wooden spatula turns the meat slices in the wok, although it is cooked slowly, but there are many cooking methods, and they eat all kinds of delicacies in different ways, and they have a very comfortable life for a while.

Except for Qin Yue's archery skills, which had not grown at all, she looked at the wooden arrows more than a meter away from the target in frustration, how could Liang Jian be able to hit every shot, she couldn't even hit the target.

In the past few days, it has been difficult to pick wild fruits from the trees, and even the nuts have been moved home by various small animals, leaving only the fruits scattered and hanging at a height of more than ten meters, so she did not go out with Liang Jian.

Alone in the yard to practice archery, but the wooden arrow seemed to be against her, obviously not far away, but the wooden arrow always missed the target.

Liang Jian noticed that her mood was lower than before, so he asked her, there was nothing to hide, Qin Yue told him one by one, and looked at him with complaining eyes.

He looked amused and knew what she was thinking, "Let's go, I'll see if you shoot a few arrows." ”

The two walked to the open space in front of the wooden house, and there was a target next to the trench on the east side, and several thick layers of thatch were tied to the two-meter-high wooden stakes.

Liang Jian saw that her slender arm tightened the bowstring, and shot out arrow after arrow, shooting three arrows in a row, but none of the arrows hit the target, and they all landed one meter in front of the target. ”

"Lack of strength?" she pinched the small bulging muscles in her arm, dissatisfied with his words, "I think I have more strength than before when I come here, and I can carry two buckets of water in such a heavy barrel." ”

"The bowstring made of bark rope is not as strong as that of animal tendons, it lacks elasticity, it has a short range, and you must be strong to hit the target, and you may be able to shoot a wooden rake with other bows and arrows with your strength, but not now. Liang Jian patiently explained, took her bow and arrow in her hand, took out a wooden arrow, and shot it at will, and the wooden arrow was firmly nailed to the wooden rake.

She stared at the muscles on Liang Jian's arms, and then at her own thin arms and legs, and sighed again in her heart at the disparity in strength between men and women.

Seeing her sighing, Liang Jian was afraid that the blow would be too heavy, so he comforted her: "You don't have to worry, some of your strength is natural, and some of you exercise it after the fact, start exercising with me tomorrow." ”

Although he wants to protect her under his wing, if she can protect herself, she can also deal with danger independently. He often went out hunting, and the trenches outside the hut could keep the beasts at bay, but not the cunning humans.

"Good. Qin Yue's eyes lit up when he heard this, and then he looked at the tense bowstring, "Since the beast tendons are better than the bark of the tree to make the bowstring, then the next hunt until the beast cramps first." ”

Liang Jian didn't go out hunting in the next few days, and ran with Qin Yue against the autumn wind in the early morning, so tired that he was out of breath and collapsed on the dry grass. For most of the remaining day, the two of them took a short break and went to the lake to fish.

They made ropes out of tree bark and braided a large fishing net, which was scattered on the sparkling surface of the lake, and the net gradually sank into the water.

This large lake is rich in fish resources, probably no one has ever fished, and the fish in the lake are not only big, but also surprisingly stupid, and the nets are accurate.

The two of them laboriously dragged the fishing net ashore, and the heavy big fish jumped in the fishing net, and there were all kinds of fish with white and dark stripes, some of which were almost more than a meter long, and they were lying on the shore on the beach of the lake, and they couldn't stop trying to jump back into the water.

Qin Yue grabbed it with a smile and held the big fish with both hands, "Great harvest." ”

Liang Jian looked at it and smiled, fishing is much easier than hunting, the place where the hunt goes is far away, sometimes I can't see a prey for most of the day, and occasionally I meet one, and I run away at a little wind. It's not like the fish in the lake, stupidly burrowing into the nets.

After several days of fishing in the lake, the two stopped, dug a half-sized pond in the open field and raised some live fish, and slaughtered the rest to dry. Qin Yue looked at the salt and made preserved fish, the custom of the older generation in her hometown is to have preserved fish and bacon to have a good year.