Spicy stir-fried cow placenta, greedy cry girl

After a while, the cow walked over to the calf and let it suckle a few mouthfuls of milk, then lay down. It was too weak and would need one or two weeks to recover. The calf also lay down in the cow's embrace and fell asleep peacefully.

Lu Zhe looked at this slightly heartwarming scene and couldn't help nodding: "Live well, I won't eat you for now." But beyond the original plan, he still had to build a cow pen and prepare fodder, so there was even more to do.

A few girls were busy building a tree house again, and Lu Zhe started making mosquito repellent from bitter oak and bamboo charcoal ash.

Shen Bing walked over and sat next to him: “How's it going, have you reached the lakeside yet?”

Lu Zhe shook his head: “Oh, I was almost at the lakeside, but then I met this old buddy with a big belly taking a walk. He happened to be molested by a python and I rushed to his rescue...”

Speaking of which, Lu Zhe suddenly remembered: “That’s right, the python is still in the woods. I have to bring it back as food!”

As he was about to get up, Shen Bing held him back: “Hey, take a break! We’ll talk about everything else after the rain stops!”

Lu Zhe thought for a moment. It wouldn't go bad in a short time either, so he said "Okay" and continued making mosquito repellent.

Shen Bing curiously asked: “I wonder, for such a big cow, how big would the python have to be to want to eat it?”

"Not as big as the one that wanted to eat you!"

Lu Zhe thought for a moment more: “I used to be very puzzled too, but now when I think about it, maybe the python was after not the cow, but the calf that was about to be born! They have extremely sensitive sense of smell, and may have been able to detect some scents secreted by the cow before giving birth, planning to eat the newborn calf after the cow gave birth.”

"That makes sense!" Shen Bing nodded: “I really didn’t expect so many species on this island.”

"The biodiversity is indeed quite rich. Based on our current understanding, the species at the top of the food chain are leopards, bears, pythons and wild boars. Further down there are cattle, sheep, monkeys and other creatures. The predator and omnivore animals control the population of the herbivore animals, maintaining the ecological balance of the island!"

“Do you think our arrival might disrupt that balance?”

"Our presence will definitely have some impact on the island's ecology, but it won't be too big. For example, we eliminate some predators, but at the same time we also replace them by hunting some herbivorous animals ourselves. As long as we don't hunt recklessly, eventually it will tend towards balance again.”

As Lu Zhe spoke, he added some dammar resin to the mosquito coil mix to knead it, which increased the stickiness while masking the irritating smell of bitter oak so it wouldn’t reduce its efficacy against snakes and insects.

Finally he rolled it into finger-thick strips, coiled it up like mosquito coils, and baked it on rocks next to the campfire.

“Wait for it to dry, then we can use it tonight. This is just the basic version, improved versions can be made later.”

By now, the girls had built the main frame of the shelter.

In fact, it was just tying two parallel reversed "open box" brackets with bamboo at about half a meter above the ground on several aerial roots.

Ning Shu said: “When we string ropes between the wooden frames to form six rope beds, and stack layers of banana leaves on the branches above to shield from rain, our simple shelter will be done. I guess we can finish it before sunset. "

Lu Zhe took a look. The days of surviving on this deserted island had greatly enhanced the DIY skills of the four girls. The quality of this bed frame they built was no worse than what ordinary boys could produce.

Lu Zhe gave due praise: “Not bad!”

Lin Qianqian said: “Shen Bing designed it, we did the execution.”

Shen Bing just smiled lightly: “The advantage is that it's relatively easy to build. The downside is you can't see the sun.”

“It's already a pretty good initial shelter. After we get through the transitional period, we can build a better tree house, prune the canopy to let in some sunlight."

"Oh..." Tang Xiaoguo rubbed her arm: “My arms hurt so much from all that. Little Zhe, can you massage them for me?”

Jiang Yao reminded her softly: "Give up, no amount of massage will make them bigger!"

Tang Xiaoguo said angrily: “I meant my arms!”

Jiang Yao nodded: “Oh arms, then let me massage them for you."

Then she went ahead rubbing Tang Xiaoguo’s arms relentlessly, making her very uncomfortable all over.

Ning Shu reminded: “Hey ladies, stop messing around. It’s already 3 pm. If we don't finish by nightfall, you two will be standing to sleep."

Tang Xiaoguo and Jiang Yao hurried back to tie ropes again. Shen Bing also went over to help.

Come to think of it, everyone had been busy for half a day and still hadn’t eaten lunch yet.

Lu Zhe nodded: “My beauties, keep working. I’ll cook lunch today, let’s have a feast!”

The five girls were all very much looking forward to it!

What would he make?

Lu Zhe had it all planned out. He picked up a bloody object from the ground, the cow's placenta, also called fetal membrane.

He washed it clean with water, pickled it briefly with salt, then boiled it in his helmet pot, fished it out when cooked through and cut it into strips to set aside.

Next he peeled some bamboo shoots’ hearts and chopped some small hot peppers.

Then he wove a simple steamer with palm leaves, with peeled banana fruits inside.

Steamed bananas had no sourness and tasted even better, definitely fine as staple food. Below the steamer he cooked some kelp and shellfish in his 92 mess tin double boiler style, to steam the bananas while also cooking up a seafood soup.

Finally, he poured palm oil into the helmet pot, stir-fried the cow placenta strips in batches with bamboo shoots and hot peppers.

Soon a mouthwatering aroma wafted out.

The hungry girls couldn’t stand it anymore. They tossed their tasks aside and rushed over to gorge themselves.

“Oh god, the beefy flavor, so crispy, I’m crying from how delicious it is.”

“Wait, beef flavor? What did you do with the calf?”

The girls looked over at the calf sleeping in its mother’s embrace.

Lu Zhe told them: “This is cow placenta!”

“Placenta?”

The girls glanced at each other.

“This shouldn’t be something just anyone can accept...”

“Should we react?”

“How to react, scream? Oh my god, this is actually placenta, how scary, how could we frail fairy maidens eat something like this?” Ning Shu kept saying, while eagerly grabbing mouthfuls for herself: "Who wants first dibs?"

"Hey class president, don't hog it all!"

"Don't choke!"

"Class president is so sly!"

"The pot is too small to stir-fry much at once, there's still plenty left, enough for you all to eat your fill."

Lu Zhe said as he stir-fried another batch and dished it out onto the banana leaves.

Shen Bing smiled and said: "Ah, it would be great if we had a big pot."

Jiang Yao said: “That’s right, Lu Zhe, didn’t you want us to make clay pots? When can we start on that?"

Lin Qianqian added: “And planting too!”

Lu Zhe sat down as well: “These past few days still won't work. We just got here, everything needs to be done in a clear order! First we need to solve food and shelter. Then I have to fully scout the surroundings, the lakeside, jungles, wetlands, volcano, to see what usable resources are available.

After that, further improve the campsite, like adding fences, building cattle pens, woodsheds, warehouses, water reservoirs etc.

Once these things are done, then we can consider making clay pots, planting seeds and such.