The Next Plan

Lu Zhe felt emotional: "Originally classified as shrubs and small trees, the crape myrtle has actually grown into the form of a tall deciduous tree, amazing!"

Qian Qian excitedly said: "Could it be that it has evolved?"

Shen Bing said: "Silly girl, it just means that it is very old already."

Lu Zhe went on to say: "There's another thing, this kind of tree is afraid of storms, its crown is large but its trunk is thin, so it's easily blown down by strong winds! It also fears being submerged, which would cause its roots to rot and die, yet here it's growing well, which shows that this place can block storms and avoid flooding! It has the natural climate conditions for growing strawberries and watermelons."

Shen Bing added: "And the rock walls provide sunlight, drainage to the north and south, and can also provide irrigation water sources..." But what about the bird disturbance and land reclamation issues you mentioned before?!"

Lu Zhe thought for a moment: "Relative to other issues, these two issues can at least be solved, it will just take some time! To protect against birds we can weave protective nets with ropes, and for planting, as long as you give me a suitable large axe and hoe, everything can be resolved."

"Why not just burn the mountainside? Simple and crude, it would solve both issues at once."

Lu Zhe shook his head: "I don't want to do that!

First, the vegetation here is too lush and the humidity is too high, making it not very easy to burn.

Second, this is volcanic terrain, and there's sulfur in the cave, large-scale burning of the mountainside could trigger other geological problems.

Third, humans and nature should harmonize, there's only one Earth, we have to consider not only ourselves but also future generations, we should try our best not to destroy wildlife habitats..." Eh? What's that?"

Lu Zhe was speaking when he suddenly noticed some yellowish artworks in the narrow cracks of the rock wall, shaped like small bowls, very beautiful.

Swallow nests!

Definitely swallow nests!

Lu Zhe recalled that exposed cracks on cliffs of Southeast Asian islands were prime spots for swifts to build nests.

And the nearby countries of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were all major producers of high quality bird's nests, so it was very normal for swifts to appear here.

"Haha, now I finally know why the plants in the volcanic cave are so abundant! Wait for me, we're going to eat well."

Saying that, he ran over, climbed about 25-26 meters up the rock crevice, and picked the lowest nest.

"Look at this, it's definitely not the kind of sugar water bird's nest sold by some companies, purely natural!"

"Awesome!"

Lin Qianqian thought for a moment, then asked: "What if the little swallows come back and can't find their home?"

"July... They should be in faraway Siberia now, they won't fly back until the depths of winter." Don't worry, they'll rebuild nests when they come back."

"Siberia, to Southeast Asia? I didn't know swallows could fly so far! Can they even fly across seas hundreds of kilometers away?"

"That's nothing!" Lu Zhe peeled off the dry parts of the matchsticks to use as tinder and said: "Scientists in Beijing fitted a tracking device on a swallow, guess where it flew for winter?"

Lin Qianqian, plucking feathers from the nest, shook her head.

"First north to Mongolia, then across the Asian continent into the Middle East, then across the Persian Gulf and Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula into Africa, finally passing through vast rainforests and deserts, flying south all the way to South Africa."

Lin Qianqian nodded: "Good heavens, no wonder people in ancient times said swallows fly south, I always thought they just meant south, didn't know they went all the way to South Africa."

Shen Bing smiled wryly: "Was there the term South Africa in ancient times?"

"There was!"

Qianqian thought for a moment:

"Song dynasty poet Chen Yuyi didn't like South Africa, he wrote: The south is not bad, the Chu guest is born sorrowful. Shake the scales of justice to cross, people want to come and plant trees."

Lu Zhe was shocked: "Qianqian, you can't just spout such eloquent nonsense without a bit of culture! Was that 'jiang' character just for show?"

Qianqian shyly smiled: "Oh, just joking!"

"So they'll bring back a lot of seeds and grass seeds from the temperate zone, let's eat first, then we can look around some more, maybe we can find some familiar fruits and vegetables."

"Will Team Leader Guo Yaoyao get anxious?"

It would be a shame not to check it out carefully when it's so hard to come here just once.

"Just a little late should be fine, let's hurry up and get to it!"

"OK, I'll go chop some firewood!"

The three got busy, and after half an hour, Shen Bing had chopped a bundle of sticks and wood, while Lu Zhe used his knife and rocks, along with kapok, matchsticks, and a little sulfur scraped from the wall to start a fire.

In the lunchboxes they cooked bird's nest, grilled kebabs on bamboo skewers, and python meat. The three ate a relatively abundant breakfast.

Then they wandered around the foot of the volcano all morning, exploring almost every corner.

The results were many pleasant surprises in terms of resources!

First were wild grapes!

There were lots of wild grapes here, although just the small sour-sweet berries, not as tasty as grapes from the supermarket, but still a very good source of vitamins.

There were huge amounts on the north-facing slopes, more than the birds could eat. Where they had accumulated in depressions in the terrain, they had fermented and tasted somewhat like wine. Lu Zhe found a relatively clean place to collect some in a bottle.

There was also a mango tree, several pawpaw trees full of fruit, some wild loquats, and some tropical vegetables.

Many fruits had been pecked open by birds, but there were still a lot of intact ones.

They gathered a large colorful assortment, just like buying from the supermarket!

Now they could take some back to share with their companions.

"What's next, do we still need to move camp?"

Lu Zhe shook his head: "No no no, this place works fine as an experimental farm for plants, not suitable as a campsite. For example, the ventilation is poor, smoke can't easily disperse, and the birds are too noisy. It's actually not far from our camp, I calculated it's around 800 meters or so, if we open up a mountain path, it probably takes 10 minutes to walk there."

Shen Bing nodded: "So for now our work focus is on clearing land?"

"Not exactly, we do need to clear land, but first we need suitable tools, the current camp is small but at least stable, we must upgrade our tools. Only with upgraded tools can we more efficiently expand the camp and clear land for farming."

He weighed the Type 30 bayonet in his hand: "Relying solely on this knife, the efficiency is too low."

"But that requires smelting iron."

"That's right!"

Lu Zhe nodded: "Now food and drinking water aren't a big concern. Even shortages can be quickly resolved! When we get back, let's start working on iron smelting!

Also, the soil around the volcano contains lots of mica, kaolin, and quartz, prime materials for making pottery. We can split into two groups and simultaneously start making pottery and ironware!"

"So... a man who has asked hundreds of thousands of why's must understand iron smelting, right!"

The three returned to the cave.

Sure enough the water temperature had recovered to 40 degrees.

Confirming Lu Zhe's guesses about the ocean currents.

They returned with their haul!

At this time, the other three girls were at the perilous marshland, looking nervous and carefully using sticks to fish a little shoe out of the mire.

They recognized the cute, silly little shoe.

It was Qianqian's.

The three girls looked at each other, then burst into loud sobs.