Chapter 12

After treating the wound, the old ranger put down his backpack, took out a small leather pouch, and after removing the cork, he took a mouthful. He mumbled some incantation-like words and then forcefully sprayed it on Zhao Mai, one on the front and one on the back.

The substance had a minty flavor, which was not unpleasant. After some gestures and guessing, he finally understood its use. The forest at night is full of mosquitoes and other insects. Although being bitten is not necessarily fatal, the itching and pain are inevitable, and sometimes it can lead to illness. The rangers in the forest have multiple methods to deal with this, and insect repellent is the most convenient.

Neither of them had brought a tent, so the chimaera's hide was used as a canvas. By stretching it between two trees and using the heavy backpacks to hold down one side, a simple rain shelter was created. A small fire was lit, and the ground was heated with the fire before a layer of leaves, which Zhao Mai had never seen before, was laid down. This was where they would rest for the night.

Dinner was still roasted pork, without salt or seasoning. Karl ate very carefully, using a dagger to scrape every bit of meat clean, and then roasted the bones in the fire until they were soft, using them to grind his teeth. This might just be Karl's quirk, or it could be a ranger custom. Since he was under the other's protection, Zhao Mai followed suit, gnawing on the bones until they looked like they had been ravaged by termites.

The forest quickly turned pitch black, and beyond twenty feet from the fire, vision was not as acute as touch. The darkness did not mean silence; the sounds of insects and the rustling of leaves in the wind never ceased. Zhao Mai was nervous, several times he thought he heard footsteps approaching and even saw pairs of green animal eyes. But Karl remained calm and relaxed, so he had to suppress his fear and try to look confident.

The old man noticed his feigned calmness and smiled at him, "Don't worry, it's safe here." Seeing "Mike's" puzzled expression, the ranger pointed to the thick "dictionary" and indicated that he should learn the language as soon as possible.

Zhao Mai thought the same. By the firelight, he began to study the book with all his might. Since Karl had decided to rest early, he was not very sleepy, so he sat shoulder to shoulder with Zhao Mai, pointing to the words in the book and reading them aloud, then forming sentences to teach him the basic sentence structure and grammar.

Using this method of communication, he assigned Zhao Mai a task: while reading, he should periodically add some twigs to the fire to keep it burning. Before going to sleep, he should clear the area around the fire to prevent a fire.

After saying this, he wrapped himself in a cloak, closed his eyes, and fell asleep. Zhao Mai watched for a while, feeling that he was a light sleeper and would wake up at the slightest disturbance. When he was a child, the guard dog at his grandparents' house was like this. The old man said this was called light sleep, which was not as restful as deep sleep but could save one's life in a critical moment.

It was said that during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhang Fei could sleep lightly with his eyes open. The night he was beheaded, he had drunk too much and fell into a deep sleep, losing his alertness, which allowed the assassins to succeed.

Zhao Mai did not want to disturb him, so he closed his mouth and continued reading, even being careful when adding wood to the fire. The surroundings were pitch black, and his phone, which was running thirty times slower, could not be used as a clock. However, by his internal clock, he estimated it was already past nine o'clock at night.

Zhao Mai was a nocturnal creature, usually sleeping during the day. After a day of traveling, working, running through the forest, and constant learning, he should have been extremely tired, but he felt only a little sleepy and thought he could stay awake for a while longer.

When the phone showed it was nine o'clock in the morning, it was already the middle of the night in Kangjian Forest. Zhao Mai felt that if he didn't sleep soon, it would seem strange, so he tidied up the fire, squeezed under the chimaera hide tent, and closed his eyes. He soon fell asleep, and his light snoring woke Karl.

The old man looked at the sky, scanned the camp by the firelight, and smiled in satisfaction. He noticed that Zhao Mai was sleeping in his clothes without a blanket, so he covered him with his cloak and leaned against a tree, holding his weapon to rest.

The old man started working early in the morning. Breakfast could not be just pure pork, so he tore off some pieces and put them in the porridge. The porridge was made from oats, rice, and several types of beans, and it smelled very good, waking Zhao Mai as soon as it was ready.

The old man took out a paper packet and carefully opened it in his hand. Zhao Mai leaned in to see and found that it contained coarse salt. The unrefined salt was a yellowish-brown crystal, and a corner of the salt in Karl's hand still had some soil particles. Zhao Mai had heard of this but had never seen it, so he extended his finger to grab a bit. Karl pulled back at first, but after a moment, he handed it back.

Zhao Mai rubbed some on his finger and tasted it, but couldn't taste anything, so he tried a bit more. Besides the salty and fishy taste, it contained various strange flavors, and he swore he could taste some chemical substances. He grabbed the water-filled leather pouch and rinsed his mouth vigorously, spitting it out and refusing to let Karl put this salt in the porridge.

To him, this was not salt but a kind of poison. Although it was less harmful than gutter oil and Sudan red, it was enough to ruin his entire vision of a delicious bowl of porridge. He could go a day or two without salt and would try to filter and purify some edible salt when he had the chance.

Seeing Zhao Mai's strong reaction, Karl did not insist on adding the salt. After a day of interaction, he had come to see Zhao Mai as a kind and vulnerable junior, and he wanted to take care of him in certain aspects. This was the smartest young man he had ever met, hardworking and eager to learn, with a bright future. However, he did not believe Zhao Mai's claim that he could make the salt taste good, thinking it was a misunderstanding due to language errors.

Since he knew the salt here was scarce and unpalatable, Zhao Mai decided to make some good salt. He didn't have any gauze for filtering, but his cotton T-shirt could be used. He needed charcoal to absorb toxins, so he found some from the fire. He couldn't do the best, but he could definitely improve the quality of the salt.

The iron pot was being used to cook porridge, so he couldn't use it to boil salt for a while. Zhao Mai asked Karl and learned that there was a salt rock near his residence where animals often went to lick. Since that was the case, he decided to check it out first before taking action, as the ranger's residence might have better tools.

Always being taken care of by the ranger, it was time for him to show his skills. With this in mind, Zhao Mai jogged behind the ranger, moving quickly through the forest. His legs and mouth were both busy, and whether it was the imitation forest step or the common language, he was improving rapidly.