Chapter Ten: Bear Creek Camp

The energy spent on gathering and hauling the meat back and forth had nearly exhausted him. After returning to the cabin, Qin Fei took another short nap.

[You have survived: 7 days, 4 hours, 33 minutes]

When he woke again, daylight had already arrived. Qin Fei intended to go out and continue collecting venison, but as soon as he stepped outside, a gust of wind hit him head-on... In such conditions, it was impossible to build a fire on the ice.

Qin Fei was in no mood to wait any longer. The carcasses of the gray wolves and reindeer outside couldn't just be left there forever. If passing wolves or even crows found them, parts of the meat would be eaten.

Gray wolves would eat their own fallen packmates. If a brown bear happened by, it would be even worse—rather than eating just a portion, it might drag the entire corpse back to its den to feast at leisure. In that case, Qin Fei might not be left with a scrap.

Time was of the essence.

Qin Fei made his way onto the ice, pulling a hacksaw from his backpack, intending to cut the reindeer carcass into pieces and bring them back in batches. But in reality, sawing through the reindeer’s bones wasn’t as easy as he’d imagined. In these temperatures, the frozen carcass was as hard as iron. The meat was manageable, but the bones—especially the larger ones—were nearly impossible for him to cut through alone. Factoring in the effort to haul it all back, the physical toll was immense.

The reindeer’s body was already frozen solid to the ice, so dragging it whole was out of the question. All Qin Fei could do was brace himself against the icy wind, sawing the animal into smaller pieces and carrying them back bit by bit.

Each time he worked for a while, the cold would become unbearable, forcing him to retreat to the cabin and rest until he warmed up, before returning to continue cutting. With this method—factoring in the repeated trips and the need for breaks—it took Qin Fei more than two days to completely harvest all the meat from the reindeer and wolf carcasses.

Of course, he didn’t just collect meat. Qin Fei took the bones as well; he’d previously found salt and some garlic powder in the coastal cabins. With these seasonings, the bones could be used to make broth.

Aside from the meat he consumed during those days, the total amount of wolf and venison he managed to gather amounted to over 40 kilograms. He also obtained an incomplete deerskin and a wolf pelt, and several reindeer and wolf stomachs—not large, but elastic and durable. Lastly, he salvaged some animal intestines.

All these resources needed to be dried before they could be stored or used. But with limited space indoors, he couldn’t dry everything at once, so he stored some of the hides and intestines in the neighboring cabin.

The temperature inside the wooden cabins hovered around 10 degrees, so meat couldn’t be preserved for long. Leaving it outside risked it being taken by wolves. So Qin Fei spent another two days building fires outside and drying the meat into jerky, which would greatly extend its shelf life.

In fact, the jerky would last even longer if he had more salt, but his supply was far too limited. He could only sprinkle a little on his food as he ate, careful not to use it up too quickly.

During those two days, Qin Fei also took some time to look after the maggots he was raising in a tin can—he’d found them earlier in a refrigerator in one of the cabins. Maggots didn’t eat much; even now, they hadn’t finished off the single rotten fish he’d given them. Their hardiness was remarkable: even in the sub-10-degree temperatures of the polar region, they survived and developed, though their growth slowed considerably. In such cold, it would take at least a month for them to mature into flies.

Of course, flies could also be used as bait for fishing, and worked quite well. In the maggot can, besides the rotten fish, Qin Fei added some water to maintain humidity.

With his food supply now ample, Qin Fei decided to prepare for crafting a bow and arrows. The place he was staying in was called the Fishing Camp. The leftmost cabin had a workbench for making and repairing things, complete with hand tools like chisels, planes, and clamps.

He’d need these tools for making bows, arrows, and fur clothing. With the tools from the workbench, plus the utility knife from his backpack, he had most of the equipment needed for crafting.

What he still lacked were materials. The maple saplings had been drying for four or five days and would need two more before they could be used for making the bow limbs. He would also need a furnace for forging arrowheads, and birch saplings for arrow shafts—these would also need to be dried indoors.

This would take several days, whereas forging arrowheads would only require a day or two. So Qin Fei chose to search the mountainside for birch saplings first.

He stored most of his supplies at the Fishing Camp, taking only essentials like his knife, matches, and hacksaw as he set out for the mountain nearby. Across the road lay snow-covered peaks.

Midway up the mountain, Qin Fei found a collapsed wooden cabin, apparently destroyed by a blizzard; the roof and walls had caved in, rendering it uninhabitable. But nearby, he unexpectedly discovered some rose hips.

To survive two hundred days on just fish and venison would almost certainly result in vitamin and mineral deficiencies, leading to illness and death. Rose hips, however, were rich in vitamins and minerals, and could be used medicinally—brewed as tea or eaten to promote circulation and reduce bruising.

Delighted, Qin Fei picked all the rose hips he could find and stuffed them into his backpack. He even popped one in his mouth as he worked.

He grimaced at the taste—somewhat salty, slightly astringent, and not particularly enjoyable. Normally, rose hips should be soaked in sugar water to soften before eating, but Qin Fei had no such luxury.

With the rose hips gathered, he continued on. Not far ahead, he found a stream running down from the mountain—though it was frozen solid. Near the stream, a few cattails grew, not many but enough to catch his eye.

Seeing the cattails, Qin Fei’s mouth watered—not because he particularly liked them (they were coarse and barely edible), but because they contained starch and a bit of sucrose—sugar! After days of nothing but meat, any carbohydrate was a treasure.

Humans feel satisfied only when consuming both protein and carbohydrates. So, spotting the cattails, Qin Fei couldn’t help his reaction.

He followed the stream upstream, harvesting the cattails along the way. Before long, he came upon a cave with a wide entrance. Saplings grew at the mouth, their bark marked with white rings.

From the appearance, Qin Fei immediately recognized them as birch saplings! Further inside, many stumps—remnants of felled trees—were dotted with what looked like mushrooms.

Qin Fei reached out to touch one—hard as wood. Not a mushroom after all. It was probably lingzhi, the medicinal reishi fungus.

Lingzhi could treat stomach issues and detoxify the body—highly valuable.

He started collecting them, but before he’d gathered half, the cold became unbearable. That was life in the polar region: no matter how many layers you wore, unless you were indoors, the chill would soon have you shivering uncontrollably.

Qin Fei decided to set down his sleeping bag and rest in the cave, warm up, and continue once his body temperature recovered.

But before he reached the entrance, a thunderous snoring echoed from within. Adjusting his position to peer inside, Qin Fei saw a bear with brown-black fur sprawled just inside the entrance, sound asleep!

There was no true winter in the polar regions, so the brown bears didn’t hibernate. While not as aggressive as wolves, they were highly alert to intruders on their territory. If Qin Fei got too close, the bear would likely attack immediately, killing any trespasser.

An adult brown bear was in another league entirely—even a wolf was no match. When starving, a brown bear would even steal food from tigers.

Although Qin Fei longed to cut down those birch saplings, he stood at a distance, daunted by the sight of the bear at the cave mouth.

He certainly couldn’t slide in unnoticed.

If he wanted to get those birch saplings, he’d have to wait for the bear to leave or find a way to drive it off.