Chapter 5: Surviving in the Wild – A Suspected Familiar

No way!

I have to stop and rest for a bit.

If this body gets too tired and sick, that would be trouble.

Luckily, just a bit further beyond this forest was a big mountain.

I should be able to find a cave or maybe a hunter’s old cabin to take shelter in for now.

Jiang Yu planned to rest a little more before going to look around.

Actually, she had thought about finding a family to temporarily stay with,

And maybe buy some clothes suitable for the outdoors.

But her current face was just too pretty and too young-looking.

Plus, she was wearing silk clothes — didn’t that just scream “rob me for money and worse”?

If someone with ill intentions noticed her, and if they were just ordinary people, her current fighting ability wouldn’t scare her much.

What scared her was if they had guns — that would be a problem.

Also, on the way out of town, she hadn’t seen a single household.

Instead, the further she went, the taller the grass and denser the forest.

Occasionally she’d see one or two people on the road, but they all looked fierce — definitely not good people…

Suddenly, a drizzle started falling.

Jiang Yu, who had been thinking to rest a little more, had to hurry up and climb the mountain.

Fortunately, halfway up the mountain she really did find a small cabin left behind by a hunter.

The cabin was small, about only ten square meters.

Inside, besides a fire pit in the middle with half a cast iron pot hanging over it,

There was just a pile of dry grass in a corner and thick dust everywhere.

Exhausted as she was, Jiang Yu didn’t care about much else.

She first took out a charcoal brazier from her space and quickly lit it.

After all, the weather was still quite cold.

Based on the cabin’s size, she took out a chaise lounge and four thick quilts.

She took off the already filthy outerwear and just went to sleep.

…

Jiang Yu slept very soundly this time, surprisingly with no nightmares despite her earlier worries.

She slept all the way until the next morning.

She was awakened by the cold as dawn broke.

Turning her head, she realized—oh no! The charcoal brazier’s ashes were already cold.

She didn’t know when the fire had gone out.

“Hiss!”

Just sitting up, despite being prepared, the ache all over her body made her frown deeply.

“I wonder if the ex-husband’s place and those little Japanese devils are all dead yet?

Sigh, looks like I still have to slow down the plan for now. At least I need to strengthen my body more…”

Gurgle gurgle…

Uh…

Forget it!

Better fill my stomach first!

But there was no ready-made food left in the space.

These past two days, this body had eaten and then thrown up everything, barely taking a few bites each time.

She had to make something hot.

After resting a bit more on the chaise lounge, Jiang Yu grimaced and put on her clothes.

She put away the chaise lounge, then took out the pots, pans, and ingredients she had collected from the ex-husband’s place.

She prepared to cook.

But…

Wait!

She had only cooked rice in an electric rice cooker before.

This iron pot didn’t have a one-button rice cooking function!

How was she supposed to cook?

Forget it!

Isn’t this just the difference between electric power and firewood?

If she put the right ratio of rice and water in the pot, it should work fine.

As for the dishes…

Afraid of oil splashing, Jiang Yu gave up on her favorite stir-fried dishes.

She chose the simplest stew.

Just toss all the favorite ingredients into the pot and boil — she could do that.

Time slowly passed.

Despite stumbling and fumbling, Jiang Yu finally made her first entirely self-cooked meal.

Though the rice was a bit burnt,

And the soup was a bit salty,

The taste was actually okay.

At least starving as she was, she ate it quite happily.

After eating her fill, she felt alive again.

Hehe!

Who would’ve thought she actually had a talent for cooking!

Pleased, Jiang Yu gave herself a silent thumbs-up and happily put the still steaming food back into her space.

She then energetically began to clean the cabin.

After all, she had decided to stay here temporarily for a few days — so the hygiene had to be decent.

She first piled the things already in the cabin — the half cast-iron pot and the dry grass — into a corner.

After thoroughly cleaning the cabin, she took out some necessary furniture from her space.

In just a few moves, she had the cabin arranged.

Then she rummaged in her space again and pulled out a chopping knife.

She planned to chop some wood near the cabin to build another small cabin.

Like building with blocks — a cabin with a base that could easily connect to her space.

She had been thinking about this while eating.

In this turbulent era, she would definitely have many more nights sleeping outdoors.

But it wouldn’t always be so lucky to find a cabin to stay in.

So it was better to build a small cabin now, while the surrounding trees were plentiful, and store it in her space for emergencies.

It would also be a good chance to train her body.

Although she had no experience building cabins, she had played with building blocks a lot as a kid.

Plus, she found a small box of nails of various sizes in her space earlier.

So the materials for building the cabin were ready.

As soon as she stepped outside,

Jiang Yu immediately picked a relatively straight tree, about as thick as a bowl, and started chopping.

But!

She clearly forgot that her current strength was much greater than before.

After putting her full strength into one chop, the tree immediately fell.

Fortunately, she reacted fast enough

Or else she would have been hit right on the head by the falling tree.

“Awesome!”

Still startled, Jiang Yu glanced at the fallen tree and was much more careful with the next trees.

Each time after chopping, she hurriedly pushed the tree toward the small cabin.

That would make things easier later.

“Crack! Crack…”

After chopping about twenty or thirty trees of similar size,

Thinking it was enough, Jiang Yu stopped.

She then cut these trees into uniform lengths of wood.

Then split the wood down the middle and stacked the pieces together.

Gurgle gurgle gurgle…

Just as she finished splitting the wood and took out the nails to start building the cabin properly,

Her stomach growled.

She took out the watch she had collected from the ex-husband’s place,

And found it was already noon.

So she had to stop first, take out the still steaming rice and soup from her space,

And quickly fill her stomach before continuing to build her small cabin…

Time passed bit by bit.

Until it gradually got dark, Jiang Yu finally completed a square-shaped small cabin.

Although it didn’t look very beautiful,

It had the necessary door, windows, and chimney.

And because the materials were solid,

This new small cabin was definitely sturdier than the old cabin beside it.

“Oh wow! I really am a little wilderness survival expert!”

Jiang Yu silently gave herself another thumbs-up.

After storing the new cabin into her space,

She went back to the old cabin and again took out the still-warm rice and soup to eat.

She was very glad that when she cooked the rice earlier, because she couldn’t control the rice-to-water ratio properly,

She kept adding water and rice, ending up cooking a whole big pot of rice.

A really big pot.

So big that she would need at least ten days to half a month to finish eating it.

After the meal, exhausted, Jiang Yu tidied up a bit and then went straight to sleep.

The next day!

She was again woken by the cold.

But for some reason — or maybe it was just her imagination —

She felt she slept more soundly last night than the night before.

“Hiss!”

Too bad!

The muscle soreness did not lessen at all despite sleeping better.

Jiang Yu got up and moved around a bit, which helped a little.

After breakfast, she packed up the things in the small cabin and prepared to go down the mountain to find some water.

No choice!

The mountain was beautiful but had no water sources.

She didn’t dare wander all over looking for springs or anything like that.

She was afraid she might get lost and couldn’t find her way back.

Even though the path down to find water was a straight road,

She still packed up before going down, just in case.

Unexpectedly, just after leaving the forest and making a marker,

From afar she saw a noisy group of people, driving several ox carts along the main road coming toward her direction.

“Damn! They’re still alive after all…”