"I have a friend..."
Several girls all widened their big eyes looking at Shen Bing, their gaze emitting Conan-like wisdom!
Which made Shen Bing very uncomfortable.
"You guys... What are you doing?!"
Ning Shu thought: "Nervous gaze, slightly panicked expression..."
Qian Qian said confusedly: "Sister Bing, aren't you always teaching us that these are the reactions when boys are lying?"
Jiang Yao sighed: "With this poor concealment ability, if you were an undercover agent, you wouldn't last three days!"
Tang Xiaoguo grinned evilly: "Hmph hmph, just bravely admit it, isn't that 'friend' you?!"
......
"That's enough!" Shen Bing blushed, biting her lips, and finally helplessly sighed: "Must I say it, that a female police academy graduate, in order to earn pocket money, went with classmates to step on wine lees at a winery for a month?"
"Pfft... Hahaha!"
"I knew it!"
"I really didn't expect, Sister Bing also has this dark history!"
"Very impressive!"
The girls ridiculed while trying to hold in their laughter!
"What's so funny, I was also an ignorant young girl tricked by my roommate back then!"
After laughing for a while and seeing that Shen Bing was really embarrassed, they started comforting her.
"But, it's not like you did anything illegal. Anyone who earns money through labor deserves respect..." Lin Qianqian said with a red face to comfort her.
Ning Shu approved: "At least it's better than those who cling to rich men as mistresses, working at bars."
Jiang Yao nodded: "Dr. Hu Yifei also worked as a hand model after her graduation, stepping on wine lees for a month after graduating from the police academy isn't shameful."
Tang Xiaoguo contemplated: "No wonder men love to drink, so it turns out it's because of this? Lu Zhe, isn't that also why you like to drink?"
"Xiaoguo, can your thoughts be a bit more normal? We're trying to survive here! I can drink but I'm not an alcoholic. Our goal is to conserve more resources, not to satisfy some weird desires!"
Lin Qianqian admired: "Right, Brother Zhe is still so discreet!"
Lu Zhe sighed: "Isn't it more promising to be a police officer?!"
"What prospects, stranded on a deserted island? If Sister Bing was still stepping on wine lees, she wouldn't have had the chance to take the same plane as us, and wouldn't have been stranded on a deserted island. Maybe she would have become the most professional wine lees stepper in China by now!"
Lu Zhe was astonished: "That actually makes sense."
Jiang Yao smiled smugly: "Right?!"
"I never intended to develop in that direction!"
Shen Bing was exasperated, then continued: "Let's be serious. The most important thing is to pick out all the damaged and moldy grapes, because mold is most likely to produce methanol!"
Ning Shu nodded: "As expected of a professional."
"As for who will step on them..."
Shen Bing went on: "This pottery basin can only withstand one person's weight at most. First consideration is to not break the basin. Xiaoguo is the lightest among us, so she's the most suitable."
Tang Xiaoguo widened her eyes: "Me?"
"Yes!"
Tang Xiaoguo blushed: "It sounds quite fun, but you guys won't dislike me, right?!"
Jiang Yao said: "You'll need to wash first!"
Shen Bing nodded: "Usually before stepping, you wash with wine several times, but without that condition, washing with water might wash away the bacteria and affect fermentation! So I suggest Xiaoguo directly scrub herself with grapes, then throw those away!"
"Oh!"
After preparations, they put the grapes in the pottery basin. Helped by Ning Shu and Jiang Yao, Tang Xiaoguo stepped into the basin and started stomping.
Finally the grapes were stomped into grape pulp, the pulp was stomped into white foam, giving off a light grape aroma.
The purple-black pulp adhered to the fair toes, looking quite beautiful.
"Sister Bing, how much can you earn in a month doing this?"
"Over 10,000 yuan."
"Hmm, not bad! When we get back, I can also be self-reliant doing this!"
Ning Shu nodded: "So you need to keep a certain distance from Lu Zhe."
"Why?"
"To maintain your virginity!"
"Hmm, inheriting the family fortune also sounds good."
After Tang Xiaoguo stomped all the grapes into grape pulp, they poured the pulp along with the grapes into bamboo cylinders, tying them with ropes and plastic bags to seal the openings, then poked a small hole in the bags with an earring to allow fermentation while letting the methanol evaporate.
Just hanging them in the banyan tree's shade, seal the openings completely after a month, then brew for some time more, and it would basically be safe grape wine.
And in the days to come, they could continue brewing to ensure a steady supply of grape wine in the camp.
Next, Lu Zhe wanted to build a pool!
Don't think that just because there was a stream in the camp, everything would be fine and dandy. Look at how there hasn't been a single day of rain from August until now.
There's no guaranteeing when this mountain stream might dry up one day.
Although they could still run to the lakeshore hundreds of meters away to draw water, with the need to feed the cows, wash up, and build the second vegetable garden near the camp, the demand for fresh water would be huge.
If there were three months of drought, the workload of going to the lake to fetch water every day would be too great.
Building a reservoir was very necessary!
And to build a reservoir, construction materials were needed.
Clay, ant nests, and tree resin to waterproof, the more the better.
He wanted to build a big reservoir that could store tons of fresh water, so even more materials were needed.
After lunch, Lu Zhe took Qianqian, bringing bows and arrows, baskets, paratrooper knives, down from the highlands, entering the shrub forests of the shallows, with the goal of looking for ant nests.
Lin Qianqian was rather curious: "Lu Zhe, how big of a pool are we making this time?!"
"I want to build a big one."
"For everyone to bathe together?"
"Of course not. The pool's main function is to store water! To use for bathing, irrigation, feeding cows, and in the future we can build more as freshwater fish ponds."
"Then we'd have to destroy a lot of ant nests, right?"
"Yes..." Lu Zhe nodded: "So in the future, we need to exploit sustainably. If we come across ant queens, we can't greedily eat them. We need to let them continue breeding, keep giving birth to little white ants, so we have a steady supply of construction materials."
"Won't they be very pitiful?"
Lu Zhe nodded: "Therefore, we need to protect them, give them as much chance to survive as possible, prevent predators from eating them."
Soon, they discovered an ant nest.
But next to the ant nest, Lu Zhe seemed to spot a familiar figure again.
Only to see a Malayan bear crouching next to the ant nest, extending its long tongue to happily lick the white ants inside.