Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

The vegetation on this hill is mainly composed of Masson pine, with straight trunks, dark brown bark, and a thick layer of pine needles.

Rainwater seeps into the humus beneath the pine needles, forming a dark brown, sticky slurry with a strong pine resin smell.

She did not collect pine resin when she was in the sinkhole because there were no pine trees in the sinkhole, only bamboo and miscellaneous woods.

But when she was in Xuan County, she saw people scraping resin from pine trees.

Every autumn, the old man next door to my hometown would carry a tin bucket and a scimitar-like scraper to take a stroll in the pine forest on the mountain.

When you come back, there will be about half a bucket of golden stuff at the bottom.

The old man sold the pine resin to the herb dealer in town. He could get several yuan for a pound of it. He said it was a good thing, good for treating wounds and reducing inflammation, and even more effective than iodine.

After walking for about 15 minutes, Xu Xiaoyan discovered that some of the pine trees had resin on them.

Not every tree has this; it's found on older pine trees with thick trunks, long lifespans, and deep, numerous cracks in the bark.

Clumps of gelatinous substance have formed in the cracks of the bark, at the breaks of broken branches, and at the edges of scars left on the trunk after it has been struck by lightning or broken by the wind.

The colors range from light yellow to dark yellow, with some almost reddish brown, and the shapes are irregular, some being teardrop-shaped.

It seeped out from the cracks in the bark, trickled down the trunk a short distance, and then solidified.

Some are in chunks, the larger ones are as big as a thumb, and the smaller ones are only the size of a mung bean.

She stopped, squatted down, and took a plastic bag out of the side pocket of her backpack.

She shook the bag open, pinched the opening with her fingers, and gently pried the clump of resin off the bark along the deep vertical crack in the trunk with her fingernails.

Xu Xiaoyan would stop whenever she saw a tree with pine resin, peel the resin off the bark with her fingers or fingernails, put it in a bag, and then continue walking, scanning the next tree.

Lan Yue asked curiously, "Xiao Yan, what's the point of all this? Is it to start a fire?"

Lan Yue took a few steps before realizing that Xu Xiaoyan hadn't followed.

Turning around, I saw her squatting under an old pine tree, holding a transparent plastic bag in her hand. At the bottom of the bag, a small blob of golden, translucent stuff had accumulated.

Lan Yue didn't urge her. She just stood there, tilted her head and looked at it for a while, then took two steps closer, squatted down, and her line of sight was level with the bag in Xu Xiaoyan's hand.

In her mind, applying resin to sawdust or hay makes it ignite easily with a lighter, much faster than lighting wet firewood directly with a lighter.

On rainy days, pine resin is the best kindling.

Xu Xiaoyan shook her head, still picking at a piece of resin embedded deep in the tree bark.

The resin was in a bad spot, in a very narrow vertical fissure, where her fingernail couldn't fit. She had to pinch it with her fingers for a long time before she could squeeze it out little by little from the crack.

She put the small piece of resin into the bag before looking up at Lan Yue and saying, "Of course not, burning it would be a complete waste!"

Blue Moon's guess was reasonable, but she missed something more important.

They burned something that could heal wounds and reduce inflammation, just for a fleeting spark.

This is not resource utilization, it's wastefulness.

She straightened up and twisted the bag shut to prevent the smell of pine resin from escaping.

Then, looking at Blue Moon, his gaze was calm and resolute: "It has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, and promotes wound healing!"

On this mountaintop devoid of any medical facilities, anti-inflammatory substances are worth far more than compressed biscuits.

Wound infection isn't just a matter of pain; it's a matter of life and death.

"Think about it, no matter how good we are at logging, can we compare to a man's innate strength?"

This statement picks up on the logic of what Blue Moon said on the hillside yesterday afternoon, "I wanted to team up with a boy," and then makes a clever turn.

Xu Xiaoyan admitted that girls are at a disadvantage in terms of pure physical strength, but that doesn't mean they will always be at a disadvantage.

Disadvantages in physical strength can be overcome by differences in information and resources.

Logging is an open race; everyone can see you cutting, carrying, and running.

But pine resin is different; it's an invisible race with no competitors, at least not yet.

"Why not try a different approach?" Xu Xiaoyan said, a slight smile playing on her lips.

Sergeant Wu set a rule that five trees could be exchanged for a bag of biscuits, but he didn't stipulate that you couldn't do anything else.

If the rules don't prohibit it, then it's permitted.

"Pine resin is not easily formed; finding it is purely a matter of luck. Let's hold onto this money-making opportunity for now, collect as much as we can, and then exchange it tomorrow after we've searched the entire mountain area!"

Although she wasn't the only one who knew about the medicinal value of pine resin, not many people could immediately grasp it.

The formation of pine resin takes several years, so whoever takes the first step gains a first-mover advantage.

Lan Yue's eyes lit up, and she exclaimed in amazement, "Your brain..."

Before she could finish speaking, she quickly turned around and began scanning every pine tree along the roadside.

Lan Yue wasn't just a follower who would do the work. After Xu Xiaoyan explained the value of pine resin, she digested all the information in less than three seconds.

Then I made the right decision: I didn't ask, I didn't talk, and I started looking.

She squatted in front of an old pine tree thicker than her waist, ignoring the backpack that nearly slipped off her shoulder, and directly used her fingers to pick at a piece of resin the size of a thumb from the edge of a vertical crack in the bark.

The resin was very dark, almost brown, and the surface had hardened, but if you pressed it with your finger, you could still feel the soft, not-yet-fully-solidified core underneath.

She picked at it very carefully, her movements exactly the same as Xu Xiaoyan's.

First, use your fingernail to pry open a slit from the edge, then peel it off little by little along the natural boundary between the resin and the bark.

Then he put it into an old plastic bag he found in his backpack, tied a knot at the top, and stuffed it into the side pocket of his backpack, all in one smooth motion.

Then she got up and walked deeper into the woods, not missing a single pine tree.

Xu Xiaoyan watched her disappear behind a thick tree trunk, then looked away and continued scraping the trees one by one along the roadside.

The pine trees on this hill are not randomly distributed; those closer to the summit are younger and have less resin.

From the mountainside to the foot of the mountain, there are several older trees that are noticeably thicker, with deep and numerous cracks in their bark and a lot of resin.

She didn't even need to walk the entire mountain; the route from the summit to the trading point was enough for her to determine roughly where the pine resin resources of this mountain were distributed.

After scraping one tree, she stood up, tightened the bag, put it in the side pocket of her backpack, pressed it down to make sure it wouldn't fall out, and then continued walking forward to scan the next tree.

The wind blew up from the foot of the mountain, and the No. 23 trading point could already be seen. It was a gray-white flat area with several dark green flags stuck along the edge, fluttering in the wind.

She could vaguely see people moving things and people queuing. She glanced at her watch; it was 6:43.