King of the Wilderness

He carefully cradled the bundle of damp fibers in his palms and picked the black fungus and two plump spring bamboo shoots he had discovered earlier.

Like a hunter returning with a full load, he made his way back to the temporary campsite in the center of the bamboo forest.

At this point, the sunset’s afterglow was slowly fading away, and the light among the bamboo was beginning to dim.

Lin Yu’an immediately began preparing for the night, first reigniting the slow-burning charcoal pile to light a bright bonfire, dispelling the night’s chill and darkness.

He found several flat stones and built a small stonetop about half a meter above the flames. Though the stonetop could not be directly burned, it could steadily receive the intense heat of the fire.

Then he spread the damp nettle fibers evenly on the warm stonetop, sitting beside it like a patient baker overseeing his dough.

He needed to precisely control the temperature and time to quickly evaporate the moisture from the fibers without making them brittle due to overheating.

From time to time, he extended his hand to feel the stonetop’s temperature and used a stick to gently turn the fiber bundles for even heating.

Gradually, the fibers changed from a moist milky white to a more textured flaxen color.

He pinched a bit and rubbed it between his fingers; the transformation from slippery to sticky resilience told him the moment had arrived.

"Alright, now we can start making the fishing line."

Lin Yu’an sat cross-legged by the fire, the flickering flames casting a vast elongated shadow of him onto the bamboo poles behind.

He used a method of twisting fibers in the opposite direction, lightly biting one end of the double fibers with his teeth for fixation.

With his right thumb and forefinger, he quickly twisted the two fibers clockwise, letting them form tight little cords.

Meanwhile, with his left hand, he twisted these two cords together in the counterclockwise direction, intertwining them.

As he focused on the task, he softly explained to the camera, "Forward and reverse, this is the oldest rope-making principle."

"The reverse tension causes the two fibers to lock together like a spring, never loosening."

When one fiber was about to run out, he skillfully picked a new one from the nearby fiber pile, overlapping its end with the old one and seamlessly twisting it into the main line.

The campfire crackled softly; Lin Yu’an’s actions were steady and rhythmic.

A centimeter, two centimeters... a thin, resilient pale yellow fishing line gradually took shape between his nimble fingers.

After over half an hour, a perfectly uniform fishing line approximately four meters long was carefully wound onto a piece of wood.

He securely tied the snakebone fish hook to one end of the line, finally completing a set of entirely handcrafted fishing gear!

Having finished this task, he began constructing tonight’s shelter. The bamboo forest provided him with the quickest and most ingenious building solution.

He didn’t cut down a single living bamboo but instead selected two lush clusters of mature bamboo about two and a half meters apart.

First, with a stone spear, he cleared away some lower branches and leaves of the bamboo, facing each other, making a relatively open space.

Then he walked to one of the bamboo clusters, selecting three poles on the outside.

Grabbing the upper part of the bamboo poles, he used all his strength to bend them slowly towards the opposite bamboo cluster, like drawing a giant bow.

When the poles bent into a graceful arc, he used vines he had prepared earlier to securely tie the tips of these three poles to the sturdy base of the opposite bamboo cluster.

Then he moved to the opposite side, using the same method to bend and tie another three poles in the reverse direction.

Thus, six forcibly bent bamboos intertwined in the air, forming a dome-like natural rib cage framework!

"This is a living framework shelter; it didn’t kill a single bamboo, just temporarily borrowed its resilience."

"This method has minimal environmental impact and is incredibly fast to set up."

Finally, he gathered a large amount of broad bamboo leaves and branches left from the felled bamboo, laying them layer by layer over the arched framework.

Quickly, a semi-circular, approximately one and a half meters high, green hut reminiscent of an Eskimo igloo quietly took shape in the bamboo forest.

He crawled inside to test it; the interior space was sufficient for him to lie down and store all his gear. The thick layer of bamboo leaves was enough to fend off the night dew and mountain winds.

The shelter was finished, but one crucial element remained.

He positioned the campfire about one and a half meters directly in front of the shelter entrance.

The flames rose, warmly illuminating his little hut, but Lin Yu’an knew it wasn’t enough.

"In the wild, an open campfire without a reflective wall wastes at least seventy percent of its heat," he explained while beginning a new project.

"The heat radiates in all directions, and only a small portion actually reaches me. So, we must capture the escaping warmth."

Using the finer remaining parts of a sweet dragon bamboo he had previously felled, he cut four bamboo sticks about one and a half meters long.

He sharpened both ends of these bamboo sticks, then forcefully crossed them into "X" shaped supports at the back of the campfire, away from the shelter.

Next, he cut several longer bamboo poles, stacking them tightly on these two "X" shaped supports horizontally.