Chapter 5: Rainstorm

Seeing that the sun had already gradually shifted west, Baifeng tidied up the Battalion, added some dry firewood to the campfire, moved the Smoked Fish rack aside, and prepared to go collect the Fish Trap.

Upon arriving at the pool and taking a look, the Fish Trap did not disappoint Baifeng; in half a day's time, the Fish Trap was packed full of fish—truly, resources were the most important thing.

While cleaning the internal organs and fish scales by the side of the pool, Baifeng gained another dozen or so large fish; he strung two strings of fish with bamboo and, carrying them like luggage, brought the fish back to the Battalion.

The fish smoked yesterday looked about ready today, so Baifeng made another rack specifically for storing food—not just fish, but also the wild fruits he had picked up along the way.

Baifeng also discovered many wild vegetables he was familiar with, but for lack of a pot to boil them in, he could only give up and wait until the pot was made to gather them.

Baifeng made another Smoked Fish rack to smoke the fish caught this time, otherwise a single Smoked Fish rack would not be enough to hold them.

Fortunately, the platform was large enough; Baifeng set aside two campfire piles to burn damp wood for smoking fish, using the one closer to him for cooking, so he would not have to worry about the thick smoke from the damp wood choking him.

Baifeng moved the Reed stalks and Reed flowers he had collected back from the side of the pool; this time he transported the Reeds used for making a mattress, while those used for making salt were still drying by the pool.

Salt could not be made today, because when Baifeng made the Pottery, he had not anticipated making Luyanyan, so he had not made a jar capable of filtering.

He would just have to make one casually when firing the Pottery tomorrow; in any case, there were no requirements, it was just a jar with a hole in the bottom, and even if the jar body were full of cracks, it could still be used.

The Reeds that had been drying for half a day were no longer brittle, but had more resilience; Baifeng arranged the Reeds in order, then wove them together by tucking one over two and one under two.

Fortunately, it did not need to be very meticulous, and it did not matter if the gaps were large; after finishing the four sides with the edge-wrapping method, Baifeng obtained a Reed mat that was not very aesthetically pleasing.

Putting the mat into his small wooden shed, the size was about right, and it fit quite well. He then sprinkled the Reed flowers evenly over the mat, and a very luxurious cooling mat for primitive society was born.

Baifeng was very satisfied, but felt something was missing—right, a pillow!

Baifeng turned around and looked everywhere to see if there was a suitable pillow for himself; after searching for a long time, he finally chose a large stone—although the shape was irregular, both sides were flat, making it the most suitable thing for a pillow.

Having tidied everything up and leisurely setting up the grilled fish, Baifeng began to review the day's work.

With the Fish Trap, there would be no fear of food sources in the future, but he still had to find other food to expand his menu.

There was already a direction for salt; he only had to wait until the Pottery was fired tomorrow to attempt salt production.

All the preparatory work for making Pottery was already very complete; first thing tomorrow morning, he would begin firing with a large flame.

Another matter could also be considered good news: the shadow of the wooden stick he had set up was still getting shorter today, indicating that the time was before the Summer Solstice. Firstly, he knew the approximate time, and secondly, Baifeng had more time to make sufficient preparations to cope with the cold and food-scarce Winter.

As Baifeng turned his grilled fish and felt it was almost cooked, a cool, moist breeze passed through the forest and blew onto Baifeng's body.

Baifeng shivered instantly, not because of the cold, but because of fear.

He hurriedly stood up, ran outside the Battalion, and found a high point to look into the distance; a pitch-black mass of clouds in the southeast was being blown by the wind toward Baifeng.

This was bad, Baifeng cried out in his heart, and he hurriedly ran back to the Battalion, but his Battalion only had a wooden shed that let in light; let alone rain, it could not even block the wind.

Baifeng did not care about the fish or anything else, but hurriedly used stones to pad up a small piece of high ground to avoid the rainwater on the ground, moved the campfire to this high ground, and built it up on four sides with stones, leaving only a small opening for ventilation and adding firewood, and also used stones on top to block and protect the fire.

Baifeng still felt uneasy, so he pulled out his mat, covered it on top, and folded many leafy branches to spread over the mat.

He also placed the Pottery Jar and the few pieces of Smoked Fish under the mat; he did not know how much rain it could block, but he could only do his best.

The wind grew tighter and tighter; Baifeng knew well that for a summer rainstorm in the north, basically once you see the cumulonimbus clouds rise, it only takes ten minutes for it to reach your head.

Severe convective weather does not reason with you.

Baifeng raced against time to stack the firewood, only hoping it would not be completely soaked through, so that he could preserve at least a little dry firewood.

He was still thinking about folding more branches to cover his small wooden shed when bean-sized raindrops already began to fall.

The raindrops hitting his body even felt a bit painful; the sparse, large raindrops hit the ground, and the range of the splashes was larger than an egg.

In less than a few seconds, the entire heavy rain arrived instantly, the whole sky turned completely black, and thunder rang out right above Baifeng's head; the roaring thunder made Baifeng feel as if his internal organs were resonating with the sound of the thunder.

The lightning was striking horizontally across the sky, and Baifeng knew this rain would likely last a long time. Thus, he hurriedly hid back in his small shed that leaked everywhere, and the water on the ground was already constantly flowing outward.

It did not even take half a minute before Baifeng was soaked through; the long-dried grass skirt stuck to Baifeng's legs, and Baifeng felt very uncomfortable, so he simply tore it off and threw it away, letting himself soak naked in the rain.

The rain grew heavier and more urgent; when the wind blew, the rain shot toward the ground like bullets. The sound of thunder exploding was like being right next to his ears, and the lightning was like striking right before his eyes.

Baifeng had never been so terrified; even when he was in the savage cave and treated as food, he had not been as afraid as he was now—the power of Nature is not something humans can compare to.

What Baifeng cared about most was his campfire; it must not be extinguished. If it went out, in this wilderness, he would not be far from death.

And now, one could not even call it rain; it was water pouring directly down from Heaven, with visibility less than two meters. Baifeng saw his fire swaying in the encirclement of water; water constantly poured down from around the stone pile, but the fire still burned tenaciously.

The water level on the ground was very high; Baifeng felt that if he stood up, the water would definitely submerge his Achilles tendons, but fortunately, the water kept flowing outward, and he had raised the position of the fire pile, otherwise the fire would have long since been extinguished.

He did not know how long it had been raining, and the rain showed no signs of stopping; Baifeng only knew the whole sky was black, constantly splashing water downward. He did not know when the sun had set, only that the thunder and lightning were constantly intersecting or resonating and flashing in the sky above.

Just when Baifeng thought this was the worst situation, a clattering sound rang out on the ground, and the surrounding trees also emitted painful wails.

Under the light of the lightning, white beads fell to the ground and bounced high; Baifeng's small wooden shed could not block them either, and they fell onto Baifeng through the gaps with a clatter.

He touched one with his hand; it was icy, and fortunately it was not too big, only the size of a soybean.

A gust of wind blew, and the hail smashed even louder; the ice shards that shattered upon hitting the ground and the intact hail, along with the cold rain, constantly beat against Baifeng's body.

The hail grew larger and larger; the hail rolling beside Baifeng's buttocks was as large as a quail egg. Although this small wooden shed could not block the rain or the small hail, it spared Baifeng the possibility of being smashed to death by the large hail.

The saturated moisture left the fire protected by the stones on the verge of death. But Baifeng no longer cared whether his fire would be extinguished; Baifeng now felt that he might not survive this rainstorm.