The news did not go into detail, only saying that poachers appeared in the undeveloped area of the Xishuangbanna rainforest. With the help of several enthusiastic citizens including Mr. Xu, the local police successfully controlled the poachers. Currently, the young Asian elephant's vital signs are all good.
[Xishuangbanna? Tropical rain forest? Mr. Xu? How did I connect with Xu Qiao?]
[You're overthinking it. Wasn't Xu Qiao filming a documentary in the rainforest? How could it be him? Although it's a coincidence 2333]
[Poachers are really lawless, I hope they can be severely punished]
Here, Xu Qiao returned to the oil nan tree he had discovered before, cut a small piece of bark with a knife, and scraped off several layers of the thin inner core with a strong pungent smell.
"Look." Xu Qiao took out a small piece and placed it in his palm, then pointed it at the camera and introduced, "It's very thin, and contains a rich oily liquid. It's a very good material for making tinder."
"If I have a straw and a bag, I can drill a hole in the tree trunk, insert the straw into the bag, and collect more than five liters of oil in two to three hours. This oil is similar to diesel and can be ignited easily."
After collecting enough tinder, Xu Qiao started his return journey.
There were marks along the way, and even though the jungle vegetation was so dense that it was difficult to tell the direction, Xu Qiao still returned to his shelter safely.
In addition to Xiaowen and Daniel following him, the young Asian elephant also followed Xu Qiao with one leg curled up, touching Xu Qiao with its nose from time to time, as if inviting Xu Qiao to play with it.
Xiaowen and Daniel were jealous and wanted to come over to touch the elephant, but just when they took a few steps closer, the elephant became aggressive.
On one side were Xiaowen and Daniel who were disappointed at failing to pet the elephant, and on the other side was Xu Qiao holding a knife and looking at the baby elephant with a frown.
He turned his gaze away from the baby elephant and looked back at the camera: "Wild Asian elephants retain their wildness, so even if it shows signs of being friendly to you, I would still advise not to have too much contact with it and to remain vigilant at all times."
Xiaowen: “…” It’s so cute, just touch it. You are invited.
The baby elephant followed Xu Qiao back to the shelter, paced along the stream for a few steps, then put its trunk into the stream and drank water.
"The harvest this time is pretty good." Xu Qiao placed the harvest in the hammock of his shack to prevent it from getting wet by raindrops condensed on the leaves in the forest.
When the camera turns to the side, you can see a few non-toxic wild fruits on the hammock, plus a pile of oil nan tree core and bark. Also attached is a medical kit left by the staff of the Forestry and Grassland Bureau to treat the baby elephant's wounds.
Xu Qiao was sitting in a hammock. There was a pile of wood inside the hammock. He had put it in there after he set up the hammock in the shack yesterday.
"These woods were placed here yesterday. I hope they can be dried and used as firewood. After all, it rains all the time in the rainforest, and the branches are wet."
Reaching out and touching the pile of wood, Xu Qiao said helplessly: "It's still a little damp."
There is too much moisture in the rainforest. The hammock is protected by the shed so it won't get wet, but it is difficult to completely dry the wood in a short period of time.
Touching his empty stomach, Xu Qiao sighed. He couldn't wait to light a fire, boil some water and cook some hot food.
"The wood is not that dry, so drilling wood to make fire may not be successful, but now we have the core of the oil nan tree to make tinder, so we can still give it a try."
Getting off the hammock with the wood in his arms, Xu Qiao looked around and chose an open space more than ten meters away from the hammock.
This open space is located on a higher ground with a gentle slope, so rainwater will not accumulate.
Since it is difficult to start a fire, it is even more important to preserve the fire.
Xu Qiao built a small foundation with stones here to isolate the damp ground, and then built a simple shack around the stones. He covered the roof with several thick layers of banana and palm leaves to make sure that rainwater would not seep in.
After completing all this, Xu Qiao moved all the materials over and started selecting from them.
"If you want to make fire by drilling wood, you must first find suitable wood to make the drill board. The drill board should be made of dry, soft wood. This one is more suitable." Xu Qiao gestured to the camera at the wood he had chosen.
"Then there's the drill bit. The drill bit should be made of a hard branch. This branch will work. It's hard and straight, so it will be easier to exert force when drilling."
Xu Qiao sat on the ground and used a knife to cut the branch into a spindle shape.
"There are three ways to make fire by drilling wood: hand drilling, rope drilling, and bow drilling. Bow drilling is more labor-saving."
He chose a relatively soft branch and tied the parachute rope to it to make a bow. He fixed the selected drill bit to the rope, and then Xu Qiao took out a knife and drilled a hole in the drill board.
"Look here. The drill will soon be inserted into this hole, and sparks will be generated through high-speed rotation and friction."
After drilling the hole, Xu Qiao turned the drill plate over and used a knife to make a groove on the side: "You need to make a groove like this on the side of the hole to drain the burning chips and promote air circulation to help combustion."
After finishing these tasks, Xu Qiao grabbed a handful of relatively dry soil from the ground and sprinkled it into the drill hole: "Putting a little soil and sand is to increase friction. Okay, I'm going to start."
Everyone in the program crew who were watching the real-time footage couldn't help but start a discussion about this scene.
"I haven't heard that Xu Qiao had any experience in surviving in the wild before. Didn't he study hard and then enter the entertainment industry? How did he learn this?"
"Yes, and the movements are so skillful, it feels like he has done it more than once or twice."
Director Gong Sheng stared at the screen, listened to the discussion and sneered: "What's so strange about that? You know nothing about the world of top students."
"… "
Xu Qiao stepped on the drill board and rubbed the bow back and forth, increasing the force from light to heavy.
Xiaowen and Daniel pointed their cameras at him and held their breath to record this scene.
There are many myths and legends about fire. In the West, there is Prometheus stealing fire, and in the East, there is Suiren drilling wood to make fire. In the history of human civilization, no other invention has had such a profound impact as fire.
The hard wooden drill bit rubbed against the drill plate at a high speed.
In the camera, beads of sweat gathered on the tip of Xu Qiao's nose. He tilted his head to wipe them off on his shoulder. His lips were cracked and white due to lack of water: "Don't let the sweat drip in. Try to keep it dry."
The voice remained steady and calm.
After rubbing for five or six minutes, the contact area between the drill plate and the drill bit became charred and smoke slowly emerged.
Xiaowen and Daniel suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
There is smoke, and it will probably be sparks soon.
When Xu Qiao saw the smoke, he bent down and blew out the fire carefully without even taking a breath to rest.
Soon, tiny red sparks appeared. Xu Qiao quickly piled the tinder that he had prepared long ago on top and continued blowing.
These sparks are easily extinguished and must be slowly blown into flames before they can ignite the branches.
There was no movement for a long time.
Xu Qiao put his hand aside to prevent the wind from blowing away the hard-earned sparks. The red dots hidden under the tinder flickered and seemed to be about to go out at any time.
"There's a fire..."
"Get up, hurry up."
Xiaowen and Daniel felt very anxious and kept praying in their hearts.
Whether or not he could successfully start a fire was related to whether Xu Qiao could drink boiled water and eat cooked food.
Just when the sparks were completely extinguished and the two thought that they had failed to make fire by drilling wood, a small flame suddenly appeared in the next moment. Then it quickly grew with the help of the tinder and burned up.
"That's great!" Xiaowen shouted softly, his face full of joy.
Xu Qiao continued to add tinder and branches. The branches were not particularly dry and were barely ignited, but there was a lot of smoke.
After the fire stabilized, Xu Qiao moved the burning branches to the shack that had been built in advance, added firewood, and panted as he said, "Drilling wood to make fire is troublesome and physically demanding, so this spark must be well protected. I hope it can last until the end of this survival mission in fourteen days."
Spreading out his palms, one can see that even with the relatively labor-saving bow drilling method, Xu Qiao's palms still had a row of blisters due to the intense friction.
Xiaowen felt pain when looking at the rows of blisters, but Xu Qiao was as calm as ever. He took a knife and warmed them over the newly lit fire, and directly pricked the blisters with the tip of the knife.
After stretching his stiff fingers, Xu Qiao took out a bamboo tube, scooped some water from the stream, and started to boil it over the fire.
He has been short of water since arriving in the rainforest yesterday. Because he dare not drink the raw water in the jungle directly, Xu Qiao's only water supply comes from the few wild fruits.
Now I can finally drink water.
While the bamboo tubes were roasting on the fire, Xu Qiao walked around the stream and pointed at the water surface and said, "Look, there are a lot of proteins swimming around."
Xiaowen: “?” What the hell
When the camera turned over, Xiaowen saw a few small fish swimming around in the stream.
…
"It's not easy to catch it with bare hands. We need to make a tool." Xu Qiao looked around and broke off a forked hardwood branch.
Using a knife to sharpen the two forked ends, Xu Qiao felt the sharpness with his fingers and raised the corners of his mouth in satisfaction.
A natural harpoon.
Holding a freshly made harpoon, Xu Qiao took off his shoes and walked into the stream, slowly approaching the small fish in the stream that were unaware of the danger.
"What's Joe going to do?" Daniel asked.
Xiaowen thought for a long time and finally came up with the word "hunt".
Daniel looked at Xu Qiao in amazement, wondering how could he catch fish with just a branch without a fishing net
Xu Qiao got close enough to maneuver and quickly moved towards the fishbone in the water.
Because of the refraction of light, there is a certain deviation between the position of the fish seen underwater and its actual position.
It doesn’t matter for big fish, but for small fish like this, it’s easy to get the stab wrong.
But this did not affect Xu Qiao. The harpoon was firmly nailed into the mud, stirring up turbid water.
The other small fish fled in panic.
Xu Qiao walked over and carefully took out the harpoon.