King of the Wilderness

First, fold a wide bulrush leaf in half, clamping it around a pillar, then weave the two strands of leaves forwards and backwards, interlacing them between the pillars as if braiding a plait.

His fingers deftly flitted around, in the shelter, there was only the crackling sound of burning firewood in the fireplace and the rustling of bulrush leaves in his hands.

This was a serene yet creative atmosphere. ℯℯ𝘭.

He did not use the more time-consuming method of twisting rope, but instead opted for quick weaving using single or double leaves.

He did not care about the absolute neatness of the appearance, only pursuing speed and structural tightness. He constantly used his palm to press down the woven parts, ensuring every layer was tightly packed.

After an hour and a half, a large bulrush basket, ancient in style, filled with primitive aesthetic and extremely sturdy, appeared before him.

”Done. I need two such baskets to store those mussels.” He lifted the finished product and showed it to the camera.

Without rest, he immediately used the same method to start making the second one.

When two bulrush baskets of similar size were completed, there was still some time before nightfall.

He immediately took his mountaineering backpack and headed to the holding pond, starting his toughest task of the afternoon; he planned to transport all the hundreds of pounds of mussels from the holding pond back to the shelter.

The snow had stopped in the afternoon, and Lin Yu’an arrived at the holding pond, now filled with floating ice, using a ”strainer” made from tripwire and branches to start fishing.

Handfuls of slippery mussels were scooped up and packed into the large backpack he brought, quickly filling it to capacity.

Then, he vigorously swung the heavy backpack onto his back and trudged towards the shelter with heavy steps.

The route was not long, but trudging through the snow while carrying a load was extremely exhausting, his feet sank deep in the snow, and his breathing became labored.

Upon returning to the shelter, he poured the mussels from the backpack into a new bulrush basket with a loud ”swoosh”.

Then, without even catching his breath, he immediately turned around and headed back to the holding pond again.

He repeated this back-and-forth several times until two storage baskets were filled to the brim.

He moved these two ”granaries” outside the shelter, placing them by the door against the wall for easy monitoring, intending to guard against various small animals.

With the immediate worry of food storage resolved, Lin Yu’an’s attention promptly shifted to another critical issue discovered during his morning patrol: the failure of the land traps.

He returned to the shelter, changing into a spare pair of frozen gloves, and spoke sternly to the camera: ”Relying solely on seafood reserves is not enough to safely get through the entire winter.”

”I need a steady source of land-based protein, especially fat. We’ve already witnessed the value of rabbit brains. So, I can’t give up on the traps; I must make them effective again.”

He grabbed the roll of professional annealed steel wire tripwire, and some pre-carved wooden triggering mechanisms, heading back into the dense forest.

This time, he didn’t go towards the previously open trails he named ”rabbit highways.”

The ground had frozen solid, making elastic traps unsuitable, so Lin Yu’an planned to set up a different, lethal kind of fixed lasso.

”The previous mistake was setting the traps in overly open areas. Without snow, they were the only path, with scents and marks on the ground guiding rabbits habitually through.”

”But after snow falls, everything changes. A pure white landscape makes my traps stand out like a beacon in the night.”

”Rabbits are very clever; their survival instincts make them extremely wary of anything suddenly appearing in their familiar environment that seems out of place.”

”So now, I need to do the opposite; instead of relying on the rabbits’ habits, I need to utilize their nature!”

He began carefully searching the edges of the forest for low, dense thickets.

These thickets, with branches intertwined, formed natural barriers.

After the heavy snow, these places became natural shelters and hidden paths for animals.

He lightened his steps, bent down, and aligned his line of sight with the ground, carefully observing beneath each thicket for signs, seeking those secret paths frequently used.

Soon, he found what he was looking for under a dense juniper bush.

At the bottom of the thick thicket, near the ground, there was a clear, well-used tunnel-like passage.

On the snowy ground at the entrance of the passage, several strings of rabbit tracks, shaped like plum blossoms, were clearly visible.

”This is it.” Lin Yu’an’s eyes lit up.

”Look here, this passage is very low; any rabbit trying to get through would have to lower its head, almost crawling close to the ground.”

”In such a place, its vision would be greatly restricted, and its focus would be on the act of ’crawling through’ rather than observing the surroundings.”

”The success rate of a fixed lasso is ninety percent determined by the location. And here, is a perfect natural funnel that will precisely guide the prey to the trap’s slaughter point.”

He immediately sprang into action, kneeling in the snow to take out the roll of annealed steel wire tripwire.

First, he cut off a section about a meter long, then started creating the most critical part of the lasso—a sliding lock ring.