When Zhang Heng woke up, he saw that Bell was really roasting the python that almost swallowed him last night.
"..."
"Zhang, you're awake, just in time for breakfast." The explorer stirred the bonfire with a twig in his hand, adjusted the flame, and then pointed to the bloody thing beside him, "Snake skin, I just peeled it off. , After cleaning, you can use it to make a water bladder or something, which is much better than the airtightness of a wooden barrel, or you can also use it to make a piece of clothing, which has a cooling effect, and it is still very useful when the weather is hot.”
"Thank you for what happened last night." Zhang Heng sat up from the ground and thanked Bell first. He could still see the red mark on his arm.
"Hey, you're welcome. You also saved me at sea. If you want to survive in the wilderness, you have to help each other, don't you?" Bell handed Zhang Heng a piece of grilled snake steak threaded with wooden branches.
The latter originally wanted to refuse, but then he thought that this might be the only chance in his life to eat a python without going to prison, so he accepted it.
Curiously, I took a bite and found that the taste was not bad, the fishy smell was not strong, a bit like chicken, but more chewy than chicken.
Remembering that this thing almost killed him last night, Zhang Heng decisively decided to add two more yuan.
...
After breakfast, the two set off again.
Bell continued to play the role of a qualified guide. While opening the way with a knife in front, he explained to Zhang Heng the various creatures he encountered along the way.
"The python we encountered last night was not the only hunter in this forest, because pythons usually choose to swallow their prey whole from the head when eating, they have poor eyesight and sometimes The prey is too big to burst their stomachs alive, but the digestion ability of snakes is very powerful, and often even the meat and bones can be digested together, and the few animal skeletons we encountered before, there are relatively preserved ones. Complete, it doesn't look like it died in its hands."
Zhang Heng silently memorized these cold facts. Many things usually seem useless, but they might come in handy at any time.
For example, Ed and the boy in shorts did not teach him how to use seawater to make salt, but he obtained relatively pure edible salt by heating crystallization and repeated filtration with the help of a small video he saw on a barrage website before. , to make the food more delicious.
Speaking of which, when Zhang Heng was in elementary school, he once went to Xishuangbanna with his grandfather, and the forest park there left a deep impression on him.
However, it is artificially developed after all. Considering the safety, only a small part is open to tourists. This is the first time Zhang Heng has seen such an absolutely natural tropical rainforest, and according to Bell, the biome here is very rich. This also opened Zhang Heng's eyes.
For example, he once saw a small frog with translucent abdominal skin on the side of the road, with a body length of only 1-2 cm. Its heart, liver and digestive tract can be clearly seen from below, which is very miraculous.
"Glass frogs generally inhabit the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. There are 134 known species of glass frogs in the world, of which 60 are endangered." The explorer carefully put the small things in his hand while talking. Back to the leaves.
"What about this one?" Zhang Heng pointed to a protruding tumor-like part on a banyan tree, on which new branches even grew.
"Oh, staghorn ferns, epiphytes of the Staghorn fern family, are tender green when they are young, and turn light brown when they mature. They usually grow on the trunks or branches of other trees, and they are quite common in tropical rainforests."
In addition, Zhang Heng also saw a cat monkey, but this thing is neither a cat nor a monkey. It has bat-like wings that wrap its neck, limbs and tail. It glides in the air and looks very good at playing; Kipling Bagheera jumping spider, the only vegetarian spider in the world, feeds on leaf buds, this name is too mouthful, Zhang Heng confirmed with Bell three times or I can't believe it; the bird of paradise, also called the bird of paradise, sounds like a gunshot. When I first heard it, Zhang Heng was startled, but it looks very beautiful, especially the tail feathers, and the color gradient...
Bell couldn't help expressing emotion, "This place is simply a biological paradise. It's the first time I've seen so many tropical animals and plants from different regions gathered together. It's incredible. Biologists will love this place if they know about it." land."
At this moment, Zhang Heng seemed to have stepped on something. He bent down and picked up a tooth of an unknown animal with a circular hole at the bottom.
"This thing seems to be made by hand, and the naturally formed holes are generally not so regular." Bell took the tooth, looked at it carefully, and said, "I know that some indigenous people use the teeth of their prey as ornaments to wear around the tooth. neck, to show off their strength, the more powerful the prey, the more powerful they are, so that it is easier for them to choose the one they like when choosing a partner. The beautiful woman went alone to hunt lions in the grasslands and never came back."
"..."
There is a reason why there are few foreign people. Zhang Heng does not comment on the wisdom of this behavior. In contrast, he is more concerned about another issue, "So there are still indigenous peoples on this island? They can't be cannibals. Bar."
Bell shook his head, "It's not very likely. The size of the island itself cannot be considered large. You said you have lived on it for more than a year. If there are other people on the island, you have no reason. Met...and this thing looks a little bit older."
"So there were indeed indigenous people living here before?" Zhang Heng was also shocked into a cold sweat. If those native people were still alive, maybe he and Ed were caught by the other party to cook soup on the first day on the island.
"Well, let's go down and take a look."
Bell is also interested. He is an explorer himself, and this kind of lost civilization has an indescribable attraction to him. He even forgot that he came to find a way to leave the island and return to the civilized world. The two continued to the center of the island. go ahead.
So far, they have already traveled half of the distance, and as they continue to go deeper, they have discovered more and more traces of human existence.
Bell looked at the disfigured huts that had been completely decomposed, and the stone tools covered with green pagodas. He was sure that an indigenous tribe lived here in the distant past.
What happened to them, why are they all gone today? Explorers are getting more and more curious.