There was originally just a small hole, but when Lu Zhe dug it open, countless acorns came tumbling out in a clattering rush.
It was just like a malfunctioning vending machine.
Lu Zhe and Shen Bing exchanged a glance, quickly using their backpacks together to catch the acorns.
"It must have taken a lot of time to collect so many nuts," Lu Zhe said.
"Squirrels are natural collecting experts. Some squirrels hoard over ten thousand nuts a year. I remember reading a news story that on the other side of the ocean, a little squirrel hid walnuts in the hood of a car. When the owner discovered it, there were a full 140 pounds of walnuts inside."
"Practically a model worker in the squirrel world. What did the car owner do?"
"What else could they do but tearfully accept it?"
"All it needs is enough to eat. Why hoard so much?"
"For winter."
"But the winters here aren't even cold."
"The two squirrels we just met looked like Indian giant squirrels. They're distributed from the Tibetan Plateau south to Southeast Asia, from temperate coniferous forests to tropical rainforests. In the north they need to get through winter, so their genes carry the habit of hoarding food. Only squirrels native to the tropics don't hoard food when it's abundant."
"It's just like black bears. Even if they live in the tropics and don't need to hibernate, they'll instinctively dig dens, while native sun bears won't."
"Exactly!"
As the two chatted, they packed away a full ten pounds of acorns.
Squirrels aren't just great collectors, but great preservers too.
The acorns in the hole were dry, clean, and despite the large pile, not a single one showed signs of mold or insects.
"Are these things edible?"
"Acorns contain tannins, so eating them raw tastes a bit bitter. If we boil or roast them, season with salt, the texture will be much better. And it'll kill bacteria."
"I remember they're also a kind of grain!"
"That's right, and their history is even longer than rice or wheat. There are over six hundred subspecies of oak trees, distributed all over the world.
The Tang Dynasty poet Pi Rixiu even wrote, 'In deep autumn acorns ripen, scatter down slopes of brown brush. The hunched old woman with yellow hair picks at the frost-bitten dawn. Takes time to barely fill her palms, labors a whole day to fill baskets. Roast and steam them this many times, makes three winters' worth of grain.' That shows at certain times they could even be a staple food.
It's just that the forest is so big, we can't find the oak trees for now. Come to think of it, we owe thanks to the generous squirrels' gifts."
Shen Bing pictured the Ice Age squirrel's fixation on acorns, looking at the now empty hole.
"But we took everything. Isn't that a bit... inhumane?"
Lu Zhe thought for a moment: "You're right, even if we divide fields from landlords, we can't take it all. Leave a sliver to be human. We should leave them some."
With that, Lu Zhe took three acorns out of his pack and put them back in the hole.
Done!
"Goodbye little ones! Wish you a happy newlywed life!"
Lu Zhe took Shen Bing's hand and they continued on.
Along the way they encountered all kinds of unknown insects and birds.
There were also big and small snakes, up to seven in total.
But now Lu Zhe had a better protein source, no need to risk catching snakes to eat.
It was just that for the sake of a safer living environment, Lu Zhe casually killed any venomous snakes and properly buried them.
At three in the afternoon, they reached the other shore of the lake.
It was another patch of dense forest, covered in a thousand trees and shrubs.
There was even valuable wood like redwood, camphorwood, rosewood, and sour plum wood.
Lu Zhe patted a tree trunk, marveling: "Oh dear! Just this single measly rosewood, I reckon we could at least carve ten thousand pearls from it. Sell each pearl for thirty to fifty yuan, that's three to five million. Enough to buy a bathroom at Tangcheng One Mall!"
"You'd carve pearls from such a good tree?"
"What else?"
Shen Bing smiled, pursing her lips: "Sure, and how would you transport all that back?!"
Lu Zhe smacked his lips: "Good point!"
Then he patted a slightly larger tree: "This tangerine tree is perfect for making furniture and ships. It's a shame we don't have precise tools, otherwise we could make some. But everything comes slowly. Once we make a full set of woodworking tools, we'll build our own luxurious villa here."
Shen Bing also nodded, looking forward a bit: "Even though we don't even have a proper toilet now, it doesn't interfere at all with anticipating and longing for the good life... But transporting it will be quite a hassle."
"The main thing is getting across this lake. Later we can build two docks on either side, use bamboo rafts to ship goods over. Open up a road, get cattle to help us carry things back to camp."
Shen Bing nodded: "That's a good plan."
If they circled the lake via the northern shore, they encountered another extensive swamp area.
It wasn't impossible to traverse, just very difficult.
There was a risk they couldn't make it back before nightfall.
It seemed there was no way to circle the whole lake, so they could only retrace their steps.
But before heading back, Lu Zhe decided to go into the water for a look.
Shen Bing was a bit worried: "Won't it be very dangerous?"
Lu Zhe nodded: "But to understand it more deeply, we have to try."
"What if we run into crocodiles and pythons?"
"I can set them free still, right?"
Shen Bing was utterly speechless. She felt some mysterious barrier had arisen in communicating with Lu Zhe.
"Don't worry darling, I know how to avoid danger. You just wait by the shore and maybe start a fire."
"Then at least tie a rope, so if there's any danger, I can pull you back up."
"Alright, be careful."
"You be careful!"
Lu Zhe stripped down to just boxers and dove into the water.
It wasn't cold, about 28 degrees Celsius.
Gradually submerging into the water, he opened his eyes to a colorful underwater landscape.
All kinds of unknown freshwater fish swam freely among the aquatic plants, occasionally spotting frogs and shrimp too.
A 40cm black tan carp swam past Lu Zhe's eyes, completely ignoring this abruptly intruding invader.
Lu Zhe nodded to himself.
This guy just looked good to eat.
He swam towards deeper waters, seeing more fish and crustaceans.
The emerald water plants swayed with the waves, driftwood and sunken stones overgrown with algae, like an underwater primeval forest.
Massive swarms of tadpoles roamed about like clouds of black mist.
Medium and small fish like zebra danios and banded gourami schooled in the plants.
Occasionally he even glimpsed beautiful larger fish species.
Subspecies of arrowana and iridescent shark.
Similar to those in aquariums, yet slightly different.
There were also ruby barbs, smallscale archerfish, flagtail glass catfish, botiid loaches...
But the largest of these fish was only 70-80cm or so.
It seemed this lake's waters weren't suitable for even larger fish to survive.
Lu Zhe believed that even if they had nothing else, they could survive solely on this lake's resources.
It was time to head back.
Lu Zhe climbed out of the water. Shen Bing asked: "So how was it?"
Lu Zhe wiped his face: "Actually, if we went back and opened an aquarium shop, I think we could live quite well."
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
