King of the Wilderness

After this round of efficient processing, he transformed a fragile piece of raw material into a finished stinging net with a sturdy frame on all four sides that could withstand a tremendous impact.

Then, he fully unfurled the stinging net he had reinforced by hand and laid it flat on the ice.

The next step was the most ingenious in the entire system: attaching the top edge of the fishing net—a line threaded with rows of small plastic floats—to the main rope on the ice every meter using a short piece of string.

The bottom edge of the fishing net, lined with a series of heavy lead sinkers, remained completely free, not connected to any ropes.

These lead sinkers allowed the fishing net to unfold underwater, making the entire net like a ”garment” donned onto a conveyor belt.

He detached the axe that had been used as an anchor point and began to pull on the huge rope circle. His movements were steady and powerful, and the top edge of the fishing net, guided by the main rope, was calmly dragged into the first ice hole and slowly sank beneath the water.

Meanwhile, the completely free bottom edge of the fishing net sank naturally and vertically toward the riverbed due to the weight of the lead sinkers.

The floats on the top edge provided upward buoyancy, pulling the top of the net up, while the sinkers provided downward gravity, pulling the bottom of the net down.

The two worked in perfect harmony, ensuring that from the moment the fishing net entered the water, it unfolded vertically as a ”wall,” guided by the main rope, and moved laterally through the dark world beneath the ice.

Meanwhile, the clean section of the main rope below the water was pulled up through the same ice hole and returned to the ice surface.

He continued pulling until the entire fishing net was completely underwater, and sensed through the tension of the rope that it had reached the optimal position between the two ice holes.

Next came the final step, the most clever ”lock-in” phase of the entire operation.

He walked to the exact middle of the fourteen-meter main rope on the ice surface.

Picking up a solid short stick, about one meter long, which he had previously whittled, he threaded it under the taut main rope. Then, he lifted one end of the stick up, allowing the main rope to rest securely in the center of the stick.

Holding tightly onto both ends of the stick, he took a deep breath and began to turn it forcefully, as if winding a giant spring!

”One turn, two turns, three turns...”

With each rotation of the stick, the main rope was wound around the shaft of the stick.

Then, it became clear that the rope was being tightened symmetrically on both sides, forming two spiral twists centered around the stick, like two entwining giant snakes, distributing the enormous tension evenly towards the ice holes at both ends.

When he felt that the tension in the rope had reached its limit and the stick began to creak under the immense pressure, unable to turn any further, he stopped.

He carefully laid the stick, locked by immense torsion, down on the ice surface. The massive tension of the rope pressed it firmly against the rough ice, making it immovable and preventing it from loosening.

The lock-in was complete!

This stick, lying quietly at the center of the main rope, required no anchor points; its torsion and the tension of the rope securely fixed the enormous underwater fishing net in place.

This was a perfect ”brake” system constructed purely based on physical principles, extremely simple yet unbreakable.

After completing all this, the sky had started to turn westward.

Lin Yu’an stood on the ice, looking at the two distant ice holes and the twisted rope on the ice, shaped like a pretzel by the stick.

His face showed no sign of fatigue, only a great sense of fulfillment after completing a magnificent task.

This invisible ”underwater wall” would become his most reliable and efficient granary on this Frozen Throne!

He did not immediately return to the ice fishing cabin, as there was one more important task to complete. In the harsh polar cold, these two twenty-centimeter-diameter ice holes would freeze solid overnight, and if he wanted to retrieve the net tomorrow, he would have to laboriously chisel them open again.

To ensure that these two critical ”ports” were well insulated, he walked over to the area where he had previously cut down spruce trees to hold down the underwater pole, and picked up a pile of spruce needles.

Then, he returned to the ice holes and stuffed the dry, fluffy spruce needles into them handful by handful. These needles were filled with countless tiny air pockets, making them nature’s cheapest and most efficient insulation material.

He kept filling until both ice holes were fully packed with spruce needles, leaving only a small gap for the rope to pass through.

This method, which he had demonstrated in principle when clearing the ice holes in the morning, greatly slowed down the freezing rate of the holes and disrupted the structure of the ice.

By doing this, it would greatly delay the freezing of the ice holes. Although a thin layer of ice might form on the surface by the next morning, it could be easily broken with a gentle poke of the hand, unlike other ice surfaces that require significant effort to carve open again.

Finally, he added a thick layer of dry snow on top of the spruce needles.

With that, a simple yet efficient ”insulation plug” was completed.

After finishing this final touch, he clapped his hands with satisfaction, packed up all his tools, and returned to the ice fishing cabin.

As for what bounty the net might yield tonight, that would be tomorrow’s surprise.

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