Tropical rainforests are the ecosystems with the highest resistance stability, with a high degree of species diversity and rapid biome turnover.
The white pillow has lived in the tropical rainforest in the south of the empire since childhood, and because he is familiar with it, he is more aware of its dangers. Species on tropical islands in particular are highly specific and very different from those she is familiar with, so she has always maintained the highest vigilance.
The two continued their journey north, finding some basil, rubber trees, and hibiscus along the way, and Hua Mu even saw a plant similar to sugar cane.
But other than that, the two found nothing more, and it was getting late.
Almost the entire north coast is sandy, until the White Pillow bypasses the North Shoreline and the road is again shaded by cliffs.
Topographically, the west side of the island is part of the mountain. As if it was cut off by some huge force, the entire West Bank was filled with sheer cliffs.
White Pillow found some good stuff here.
Several thick trees more than ten meters high grow on the hillside, and with the eyesight of the white pillow, the fruits growing on it can be clearly seen. Many of them have matured, and the original green peel has turned yellow.
The white pillow is most familiar with this plant, and she has used it as a staple food for more than ten years.
Hua Mu saw that there was no road ahead, but Bai Zhen looked at the top of the hill and did not turn back immediately, and asked, "Aren't we going back?"
Finding water and spices put her in a good mood, because it at least ensured that she wouldn't look too embarrassed when she went back.
The white pillow seems to be in a good mood, and the questions asked are a little less nervous.
"Miss, do you want to eat bread?"
The location of the bread tree is not far from the coast, and if you climb up from the cliff on the side, you don't even need to go through the rainforest.
Hua Mu did say this when she was most vulnerable yesterday, she wanted to eat bread.
But now that I think about it, this sentence is really shameful, and it is not fundamentally different from those faint kings who "why not eat minced meat" in ancient times.
There is no wheat on this island, so where does bread come from
"Why do you say this all of a sudden, I just say it casually."
"I saw the bread tree, have you eaten it?"
The bread tree exists as a food crop in the tropics. The fruit is rich in starch, and it is named after the soft taste of bread after being roasted.
At first hearing this name, Hua Mu thought it was similar to the candy tree and chocolate syrup lake in fairy tales, but the sentinel is obviously not this type of girl, so she quickly realized that the name of this tree It's called the bread tree.
"I haven't eaten...is it delicious?"
The white pillow put Hua Mu down, and there was a look of nostalgia on his face.
"It's very starchy, it tastes like bread when it's cooked, it's sour and sweet, you might like it."
Is that why it is called the bread tree
Hua Mu is about to drool.
She hasn't eaten carbs for almost a month, and now she can chew on a dry, hard baguette.
"You, where did you see it?" Hua Mu looked at the hillside, but unfortunately she couldn't see anything because of her limited eyesight, "Is there any danger?"
Bai Zhen is not worried about herself, what she is worried about is Hua Mu.
"I won't be in any danger. I'll be back in ten minutes at most. But I'm not worried about you being here alone."
Hua Mu wanted to eat bread, even if it just tasted like bread, she also wanted to eat it. Protein doesn't make people feel full for long, and she doesn't think she's had enough since she came to the island.
"What danger could there be on this beach? Coconut crabs? I won't be frightened anymore," she gestured with her cane. "It's really here to give us another seafood dinner."
It was only after taking a bath, Hua Mu looked a lot in good spirits and looked high-spirited.
"Well, wait for me here, I'll be right back."
"go Go."
Hua Mu couldn't wait to eat the sweet and sour bread, and White Pillow seemed to be unable to wait, and ran towards the cliff before her voice fell.
There are many plants growing on the cliff, especially the large vines that cover the mountain like a net.
The white pillow jumped up, using both hands and feet, and climbed a distance of five or six meters in just ten seconds.
How did Hua Mu know that she was going to climb directly from the cliff? He looked frightened and screamed.
Isn't that called no danger
"White pillow, I, I don't want to eat, you come down!"
She shouted at the sentry, but the white pillow just turned around and waved to her, indicating that she was okay.
Hua Mu looked at her with one hand hanging, her heart was hanging in her throat, she covered her mouth nervously, and didn't even dare to scream.
She was afraid that it would distract the white pillow and really make her fall.
Come back and settle accounts with her!
White pillow is agile, and it only took a few minutes to climb from the bottom to the hillside. The two bread trees are more than ten meters high, with thick branches, clumps of branches, and oval leaves with cracked feather edges are very lush. Because the bread tree is a stem-flowering plant, the flowers grow directly on the branches, so there are fruits growing from the roots all the way to the top of the tree.
The yield of the bread tree is very high. It can produce fruit for more than nine months a year, and one tree can support a family. Although Baizhen's parents died early, they left her with more than a dozen bread trees. With the care of her clan, she never worried about food since she was a child.
She really misses this kind of food and picks a lot without knowing it. When she saw that she couldn't bring it back, she strung the breadfruit on her back with a climbing line, and then climbed down the cliff.
At this point the tide starts to rise and many nocturnal animals seem to be preparing to leave their nests. There are many large and small caves on the cliff, and the white pillow suddenly sensed something.
Hua Mu nervously watched Bai Zhen climb down the cliff with a string of football-sized fruits on her back. She was less agile than monkeys, and could drop more than ten meters in a blink of an eye.
But halfway down, the white pillow suddenly changed direction for some unknown reason, grabbed the vine and swayed to the outside of the cliff for a distance of five or six meters, seeing that Hua Mu almost fainted. Not long after the white pillow changed direction, a group of black long-winged creatures fluttered out of nowhere directly below her original path, and disappeared in the direction of the rainforest after flying around.
The white pillow waited for a while before starting to climb down again. Hua Mu saw that his legs were weak, but he didn't dare to look away. When the white pillow was about to end, he shuffled over.
"Didn't I say don't eat it? What else are you going to pick!"
As soon as she came to White Pillow, she couldn't help but put her fists and feet together. Although the force was not really powerful for the sentinel, she expressed her anger very well.
Although the white pillow can't always understand the mind of Hua Mu's nine-sentence and eighteen-sentence girl, but she knows some aspects of her well.
Naturally, she changed her mind midway not because she really didn't want to eat it, but because she was afraid that she would be in danger. After years of groping for the way the eldest lady cared about people, she could finally see it.
Bai Zhen didn't care about the little fist that fell on him, and while putting down the fruit on his back, he comforted: "Miss, I'm fine."
"It's okay, you were almost scared to death just now... Cough, I mean if you fell, wouldn't the scene be scary? I don't care about you."
Seeing that she was so calm, Hua Mu felt that she might as well feed the dog with her worry.
Knowing that she should not be exposed at this time, Bai Zhen smiled and changed the subject.
"Miss, I picked a lot of them, and you can eat bread at night."
Only then did Hua Mu look at the seven or eight yellow-green fruits as big as footballs on the ground, "What is this, it's so ugly, it's a bit like jackfruit."
"Miss, you are really knowledgeable. The bread tree is also a plant of the genus jackfruit."
Like jackfruit, breadfruit is an aggregated fruit, so the skin has many nodular protrusions, and the fruit is relatively large.
"Hmph, that's it." Hua Mu was touted, and suddenly forgot the dissatisfaction in his heart, and became curious about the breadfruit, "How do you eat this thing, do you want to cut it?"
It was getting late, and Bai Zhen was afraid that the two would not be able to go back later, so he suggested: "Let's go back to the water source, I will tell you on the way."
On the return journey, the white pillow was still carrying Hua Mu on his back, because there were more supplies found along the way, and the white pillow was full of things.
Hua Mu supported a few breadfruits to lighten the burden on White Pillow's shoulders, while listening to her knowledge of the popular science bread tree.
"So, you are considered to be from a big family? A dozen or so bread trees, you can't starve to death in your life."
Bai Zhen didn't hear Hua Mu's ridicule, and said quite seriously: "Our patriarch has more than 100 trees, and my family is not too many."
"… "
I can't even understand a joke, who really cares about those dozen or so bread trees!
"What did you encounter on the way?"
Hua Mu decided to change the subject.
"It's a bat. I didn't expect there to be bats on the island. There are a lot of caves on the cliff, and some of them are not small. I didn't notice that there were bats in it at first, and only found out when I came down."
"Bat!" Most of Hua Mu's impressions of bats come from vampire novels, and she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy, "Can you suck blood?"
"It shouldn't. It looks like a fruit bat, and it's not too threatening." Fruit bats are the largest bats, and the larger individuals can even spread their wings up to two meters. Although the group I saw just now is not too big, it should be closer to fruit bats in terms of physical characteristics.
Generally, vampire bats are very small, weighing no more than 40 to 50 grams.
Hua Mu was a little relieved, and said with lingering fears: "I once heard Derek say that there was a sentinel whose spiritual body was a vampire bat, and he sucked his guide alive."
White pillow frowned, "It's impossible, Master Derek probably doesn't understand us."
Derek's father is the Queen's cousin and fifth in line to the throne. There have been some indications that he may have participated in the plan to assassinate Hua Mu, but there has been no evidence.
And Derek is neither a guide nor a sentinel, which prevents him from being sixth in line to the throne.
Bai Zhen has always had no affection for this young master, not only because of his father, but also because of his rambunctious style, and because he loved to scare Hua Mu since he was a child.
The author has something to say: The bread tree is in the genus Moraceae and jackfruit, which is not the same as the baobab tree. Baobab is a plant of the kapok family, which grows on the savannah and adapts to dry climates, but cannot grow in tropical rain forests.
But the fruit is delicious.