By linking my account to the check-in system, I became a leisurely traveler.

Chapter 200 Green of the Wilderness [Second Update!]

Six days have passed since the second physical examination.

Li Younan certainly didn't sit idle during those six days.

First, there's the matter of food – once he finished building the shelter, he had more time to gather food.

Besides fishing for a torpedo every day that couldn't be hit, he also spent the time he used to build the shelter searching the forest.

Thanks to the extensive search conducted earlier, we've basically gathered all the readily available food in the vicinity. Fortunately, it's now July, and many new berries have ripened.

In addition to the blackberries, Li Younan also found a lot of blueberries and cloudberries.

There were so many berries that he collected a whole basket full.

However, these berries do not keep as long as edible tubers.

Li Younan recalled an episode where a contestant stored berries inside a tree trunk, only to find that all the berries had rotted by the time he remembered to retrieve them.

This problem could also be solved for Li Younan. Once he finished making the pottery, he could make jam from the berries or extract the sugar directly from them.

The purified sugar can be stored for a long time.

Speaking of extracting sugar, Li Younan extracted starch from all the tuberous rhizomes he collected.

The process is quite simple. The principle is similar to when you cut potato shreds, you soak the shredded potatoes in a basin of water, and after a while, a layer of white powder will form at the bottom of the basin.

After filtering the water, it may even stick to the bottom of the bowl; this is the starch from the potatoes.

These tuberous root vegetables contain just as much starch as potatoes, so starch can be produced using a similar principle.

However, to ensure that more starch is extracted, this step needs to be done more thoroughly.

Li Younan made a wooden mortar and pestle, crushed all the tuberous rhizomes into a fine powder, and then soaked them. In this way, he could extract more than 85% of the starch from the tuberous rhizomes.

Li Younan collected a huge quantity of tuberous rhizomes, enough to fill three full baskets, conservatively estimated to weigh twenty to thirty kilograms.

These 20-30 kilograms of starch provided him with about 5-6 kilograms of pure starch.

Of course, these starches are far inferior to the industrial starches sold in modern civilized society in terms of both purity and taste, but they are still a rare delicacy.

This starch is different from flour, and it's not cost-effective to use it directly.

For Li Younan, these pure starches serve two main purposes.

One is to enhance the texture of food. As we all know, an excellent chef can use the properties of starch to give food, especially meat, different layers of texture.

With the addition of starch and ghee, Li Younan was able to create food that rivaled that of modern civilized society.

Another function is to provide the carbohydrates needed daily.

Carbohydrates are extremely important for wilderness survival.

Many people believe that as long as there is meat, they can survive, but this is actually a misconception.

If a person completely stops consuming carbohydrates, the first things that will happen are difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and, worst of all, negative emotions.

Previously, a survivalist had hunted a large animal, but because he had been consuming only protein and very little fat and no carbohydrates, he broke down emotionally and was defeated by an opponent who had been starving for a long time and was surviving on plant roots. It was a real pity.

Li Younan roughly calculated that, given his current weight, he needed to consume at least 120 grams of carbohydrates as an energy source in order to stabilize his weight and mood.

If starch is used as the sole source of carbohydrates, these five or six kilograms of starch could sustain him for about 50 days.

However, this 120 grams of starch is just the minimum, so thinking about it this way, this amount of carbohydrates is still somewhat insufficient.

Fortunately, he still has some berries to replenish his carbohydrates, so overall, he currently has enough carbohydrates to last for about two months.

But it doesn't matter, there's still plenty of time, and Li Younan will have ample time to collect carbohydrates in other areas.

Besides food, Li Younan's shelter has finally reached its final form in the past few days.

First, there's the rammed earth wall, which is basically completely dry.

Thanks to the previous wooden pile structure, this rammed earth wall is extremely stable. The thick wall gives people a sense of security, like a fortress. As long as you stay inside, even if there is a black bear outside, you can't get in.

In addition, the thick walls are like a building that can breathe.

It was summer at Lake Chilco in Canada. Because of its high latitude, the temperature was not very high, even in summer. The temperature was only around 25 or 26 degrees Celsius at the height of the sun, which was quite cool.

But at night, the temperature drops sharply to around five or six degrees Celsius.

However, with these thick walls, even if the fireplace doesn't have a big fire, just a little burning embers can keep the whole house warm.

It rained twice after the house was built.

When it rained, Li Younan deliberately observed the roof's rainproof performance.

The raised beam structure naturally forms an attic. Although Li Younan's attic was only about 30 centimeters high, he still climbed a ladder and stuck his head into the attic to observe, making sure that there was double protection from the waterproof cloth and birch bark when it rained, so that not a single drop of rain would seep in. Only then did he feel at ease.

He had previously considered firing another batch of tiles to cover the roof if there was a possibility of leaks, but it seems unnecessary now.

Today he is going to do a very important job, which is to fire pottery.

The pottery made about a week ago has completely dried in the shade, as evidenced by the fact that it feels almost at room temperature and has no coolness at all.

Making pottery in the wild is not an easy task.

While doing this, Li Younan turned on the camera: "Hey guys, now I'm going to do something very important, a project that might overturn your understanding of the show 'Living Alone in the Wild', which is to fire real ceramics." "In fact, I believe you have all seen some videos of firing earthenware pots in the wild. Those rough earthenware pots are a world apart from the ceramics that the Chinese exported all over the world and even earned the name 'China'."

“We have already completed several important steps, and the next two steps are very important. The first is that we need to dig a kiln to fire pottery, and I have already completed that task.”

As he spoke, Li Younan pointed the camera at the earthen kiln that had been dug beforehand.

In addition, charcoal and firewood prepared in advance for firing pottery had already been piled up there.

Li Younan added, "The next step determines whether what we fire is pottery or porcelain."

At this point, Li Younan closed his eyes slightly, as if making final preparations—of course, this step was actually unnecessary; he was just putting on a show for these foreigners, pretending that he was very ceremonial and mysterious.

Open your eyes and pretend there's a glint in them.

"Please don't blink. Next, I will demonstrate to you an ancient technique passed down from China—the firing of porcelain."

"The biggest difference between porcelain and pottery is the glaze."

"The essence of glaze is glass, which gives our porcelain a smooth film."

"So we need these three things: First, a cosolvent. As anyone who has studied chemistry knows, the role of a cosolvent is to lower the melting point—we need to lower the melting point of silicon dioxide."

“These things are easy to find in the wild: wood ash, snail shell powder, which is rich in calcium oxide, and animal bone ash... which contains calcium phosphate.”

"Next are these materials: quartz, gravel, granite particles, these are the main components that form the glass network, which is silicon dioxide."

"Finally, we need some pure clay, which acts as a stabilizer."

Li Younan then began to prepare his glaze.

After preparing the necessary materials such as wood ash, quartz powder, and bone ash, Li Younan suddenly smiled slightly: "Next, we need one more ingredient to give our pottery a soul."

As he spoke, he took out a piece of copper wire—this copper wire was naturally unscrewed from the roll of copper wire that the program team had given him when he chose his equipment.

Not much copper wire was needed; Li Younan only took about a few centimeters and crushed it into copper powder with a stone.

Copper wire is a colorant; it turns green after oxidation, giving the finished product its color.

Li Younan relied entirely on the intuition given to him by the system to mix the glaze. After completing this step, he began the actual firing process.

He mixed the dry powders evenly in proportion, slowly added water to adjust it to the viscosity of thick milk, and then applied a thick layer to the completely dried clay blank.

While applying the glaze, Li Younan explained, "This pen was made from the wool of my lovely little lamb... so it played an important role in the firing of this batch of porcelain, haha."

Next, Li Younan placed the glazed pottery blanks one by one into the earthen kiln.

He took a deep breath. At this point, even Li Younan himself was getting a little nervous.

At this point, he no longer had the energy to speak to the camera and focused all his attention on the kiln.

In the wild, without precise thermometers, the temperature is judged entirely by observing the color of the flames, the smoke, and feeling the radiant heat of the kiln.

Soon, Li Younan became completely immersed in the process, adding fuel by feel until the flames completely enveloped the pottery, turning the kiln a brilliant red.

After confirming that things had stabilized, Li Younan breathed a slight sigh of relief and explained to the camera, "The formal firing stage, also known as high-temperature sintering, takes about 4 hours."

"Fortunately, it's still early, and the weather looks like it won't rain, which is great for us to complete this most important step."

The following process was a bit boring. Li Younan briefly showed the camera and then turned off the video.

He, on the other hand, had to wait patiently and add firewood as needed, depending on the condition of the kiln.

The entire firing process lasted four to five hours.

Li Younan stopped adding firewood, and the temperature inside the kiln began to drop naturally.

So far, he hasn't made a single mistake.

He breathed a slight sigh of relief, then sealed the kiln and turned on the camera.

Gently wiping the sweat from his brow, Li Younan said, "Guys, I think we've succeeded. But we can't take the contents out yet. We need to seal the kiln and allow it enough time to cool slowly in the quiet night. Then we can go and harvest tomorrow with anticipation."

Although there wasn't much physically demanding work today, it was still very energy-consuming.

In the afternoon, Li Younan coated the rainbow trout with starch and made himself a delicious pan-fried rainbow trout dish. After a satisfying meal, he milked the little dragon to make ghee and then went to bed early.

The next day, Li Younan slept until sunrise. He stretched and then immediately perked up.

He turned on the camera and said to the lens, "Guys, the moment we've been waiting for is about to arrive. Let's go see if yesterday's porcelain was a success!"

Li Younan walked outside to the earthen kiln and knocked on the sealed kiln.

The next moment, he couldn't help but feel his heart race.

Light seemed to be shining through the cave dwelling.

Li Younan slowly took out a bowl from inside. The bowl was pale yellow with a hint of green.

A gentle breeze blew by, and a few birds chirped from the woods.

Li Younan put the bowl down, then held the camera and showed its details.

By this time, he had calmed down and said seriously, "Guys, what do you think of this color? I want to name it—Wilderness Green!"

(End of this chapter)