Fishing

After dinner, Penny and Phila both returned to the house to rest. Without either of them needing to do anything else, Li Wei received a room fee payment notification and a living expense payment notification.

[You received 0.2 Cooking Experience]

[You paid 2 Construction Experience]

Interesting. He finally had a proper income.

So far, he had three Family Contribution Points, 45 Farming Experience, 18 Construction Experience, and 0.2 Cooking Experience left. Not bad.

After making some plans in his mind, Li Wei did not choose to sleep. Instead, he crouched beside the fire, found a straight stick of suitable thickness, and used his short knife to sharpen one end to a point. Then he buried it in the hot ashes to carbonize the surface...

Hmm, that was probably how it worked. He did not know whether it was actually effective, but he had seen this method in a novel before.

This Wooden Spear would be one of his weapons for hunting tomorrow.

Yes, hunting was all he could do for now.

His axe was broken, so he could not gain experience by chopping trees. For the time being, he could not find any other scenarios that could earn experience either. Hunting was his only way out.

Of course, he could also fish.

He would try that tomorrow as well.

Next, Li Wei carved three Wooden Spears in one go. He had no way to assess the power of these crude spears, so he could only make more of them.

"If only I could make crossbow bolts."

Li Wei thought regretfully. Unfortunately, even back on Earth, the only chance he had ever had to touch a Bow and Arrow in his previous life had been at a children's playground.

A moment later, he lit another bonfire near his Wheat Field. That was right—he still had to guard it. Before the wheat sprouted, small animals could easily dig it out of the soil.

Especially at night. Li Wei knew that very well, so he would rather stay awake than leave it unguarded.

He did not know whether it had any effect, but he really did not spot any small animals that night.

Only when the sky began to brighten and Phila got up to cook porridge did Li Wei return to the house for some sleep. The inside of the house was crude enough, with no partitions at all, so he simply found a corner, spread out a sheepskin blanket, and treated it as a bed.

By the time Li Wei woke up, broad daylight had arrived. The sun rose in the east, painting the sky with red clouds that stretched for miles. Penny was already busy. From the look of it, she planned to build the Brick Kiln right beside the Wheat Field, completely cutting off the possibility of expanding it further.

Li Wei no longer cared about that. He quickly finished his bowl of Barley Porridge, then set off with his short knife and three Wooden Spears.

But his destination was not the forest. It was downstream along the creek. He planned to catch fish first, since fishing carried the least risk. Instinctively, Li Wei did not want to go hunting.

Following the creek downstream, he saw faint wheel ruts along the bank. They were easy to miss unless one looked carefully. These should have been traces left by this little family passing through more than ten days ago.

Li Wei was very curious about when this scenario had begun. Since every member of the family was a player, could it be a relay-style performance?

When one player was eliminated, a new player would continue along the existing storyline.

Whoever developed the family better and obtained more resources would become the head of the household. Perhaps in the future, it could even grow into a clan, or even a kingdom?

That was all Li Wei could guess.

After following the creek downstream for about two li, the terrain gradually became gentler. Even the hills on one side had grown much lower. Farther away, he could see peaks blanketed in snow, but there was no road. Heaven knew how this family had made it here.

As the terrain flattened out, the creek was affected as well. Its surface widened, reaching thirty to fifty meters across at its broadest point. It looked beautiful.

Li Wei stopped there. As a routine precaution, he first used his Wooden Spear to beat through the wild grass along the bank, hoping to scare away any venomous snakes hiding there.

He did not know whether he had scared off any snakes, but he did startle two plump wild ducks.

Even though Li Wei reacted quickly and hurled his Wooden Spear straight at them, he failed to hit them. When he retrieved the spear in great disappointment, he discovered a nest of Wild Duck Eggs to his delight. There were eight of them.

For Li Wei, who had only been half-fed these past few days, his eyes immediately turned red. He was just too hungry.

But he still suppressed the urge to have a picnic on the spot.

Instead, he carefully wove Twigs and wild grass into a small basket, packed up all eight duck eggs, and took them away.

For Family Contribution Points!

Next, he took out his short knife and cut down a large patch of wild grass along the bank to serve as his temporary campsite. After all, with grass half a person's height, if some wild beast quietly lurked nearby, one sliding tackle would be enough to finish him off.

Better safe than sorry.

Afterward, he placed two Wooden Spears and his short knife on the bank, taking only one Wooden Spear into the water.

The water was not deep, not even reaching his knees, but there really were fish in it, swimming in schools. The largest were thirty centimeters long, while the smallest were only a few centimeters. Most were loaches, while some might have been Grass Carp?

He was not sure, but it did not matter.

Li Wei gestured around in the water with his Wooden Spear for quite a while before returning to the bank. Spearing fish with a Wooden Spear was a foolish method. He had merely gone in to scout out the situation.

After returning, he used the Wooden Spear to clear a path and snapped off many flexible shrub branches. Using the simplest three-pronged weaving method, he made several crude "fishing nets."

Then he began carrying stones from all around. In the Riverbed, he used them to enclose a semi-sealed area of roughly a dozen square meters, then blocked the surrounding gaps with those crude fishing nets.

Next came driving the fish into the trap.

It was a very simple tactic, and highly effective. Anyone who had played in the water knew that.

Li Wei held his Wooden Spear and continuously drove the schools of fish. The fish were unbelievably slippery in the water, as though they had mastered some mysterious footwork technique.

Even with the right strategy and tactics, he still had to work tremendously hard before he successfully drove several fish into the enclosed area.

Then he blocked the entrance, leaving only the task of catching turtles in a jar. That part was quite easy. He scooped with the two crude fishing nets a few times and successfully caught them.

He then threaded the fish onto a branch, set them aside, and continued driving more fish. At that moment, he was overjoyed, feeling that he could rely on fishing to fill his stomach from now on.

But a moment later, Li Wei suddenly felt that something was wrong.

"Wait, why haven't I received any Fishing Experience?"

There were five fish in total, two large and three small. Together, they weighed at least two jin. Weren't they more valuable than a bowl of Barley Porridge? Why was there no Fishing Experience?

Li Wei froze for a moment, then warily glanced around.

Since no experience had been credited, these fish apparently did not count as his harvest yet.

Could it be that going out to hunt required triggering some hidden scenario?

After thinking briefly, Li Wei gave up on continuing to fish. Carrying the five fish, he prepared to go ashore. Today's hunt was over.