Wen Siqiang came over carrying a bundle of firewood. Seeing me holding the glass shard and focusing the sunlight, he asked, "Can this thing start a fire?"
I replied, "It won't catch fire if you just shine it directly. You need to find the right angle to concentrate the light. Hurry up and find some firewood, we'll need a lot to keep the poisonous snakes at bay."
Hearing that it could keep snakes away, he quickly put down what he was carrying and ran off to find more.
I told him that thicker pieces were fine, the bigger they were, the longer they would burn and last.
I devised a plan: later, I would build a wall of fire inside the cave to separate us from the poisonous snakes, and then start a bonfire outside to scare away wolves, tigers, and other beasts.
However, I wasn't sure how much firewood we could gather, nor if Xiao Qing and Bai Niangzi would allow my grand plan to succeed.
My arm was getting sore from holding it up, but the firewood under the concentrated light showed no reaction. I figured the wood was still too hard; I needed something like dried grass. Paper would be the fastest, but where could I find paper here?
I looked around me, but there was nothing useful. The sun was setting, and if I couldn't start a fire soon, it would all be in vain.
Just then, Wen Siqiang returned with another pile of firewood. I spotted a few pieces of dried bark among them, looking like pine bark. Pine bark contains oil and is easy to ignite. I quickly asked him to bring them over.
He placed the branches on the ground and searched for bark. There wasn't much. He handed them to me, looking at me with confusion, still not understanding how I could start a fire.
Now there are wilderness survival training courses, offering many methods to start a fire, but that's with tools brought along. We not only didn't bring anything, but we were also searched. This was survival in the truest sense, because if we couldn't survive, we could only seek death.
The pine bark proved effective. After a short while of focusing the light on it, I smelled the scent of pine oil, a pleasant aroma that drew Wen Siqiang over to look.
He said, "Boss, why does it smell so good?"
I explained, "This kind of pine tree secretes oil, which is what we see as rosin in the market. It ignites easily. See, I've only focused the light on it for a moment, and I can already smell the fragrance."
Wen Siqiang stood there, waiting for a miracle to happen with curiosity.
After a while longer, a spot in the center of the bark began to emit smoke. Wen Siqiang exclaimed excitedly, "Boss, it's smoking, it's smoking!" His expression was as if the fire starting meant his life was saved.
I smiled and said, "Hurry and gather more firewood. Even if it catches fire, without enough wood, it's all for nothing."
He said with difficulty, "There's very little firewood here. I've picked up everything I could, this is all there is."
I asked, "There's a huge pile over there, why don't you drag it over?"
He said with difficulty, "Boss, over there..."
I replied, "You call yourself a man? It's just a pile of white bones. I'm not asking you to touch them, just drag the wood and branches next to them."
Reluctantly, he went to drag them.
Next to that pile of white bones were a few dead trees. He was hesitant to get them because they were too close to the bones.
The smoke grew thicker, and the sound of burning bark came from the center. Soon, sparks flew, and a small flame flickered from the bark.
I quickly added small, easily ignitable twigs to the fire. The flame grew larger, finally forming a pile of fire.
I continuously added small branches to make the fire burn bigger and last longer.
Wen Siqiang dragged the large branches over, looking at the burning fire with excitement. His earlier timidity had vanished.
I added some harder wood to the fire. Only by igniting the harder wood could we create embers and preserve the flame.
After arranging these, I went to help Wen Siqiang drag the wood from beside the white bones into the cave. Later, when leopards attacked, the cave would be the safest place.
Wen Siqiang was responsible for dragging the firewood to the cave entrance, and I arranged it inside.
It seemed he was still apprehensive about the inside of the cave.
I didn't expose his fear. I looked outside at the flame, which was burning vigorously. Once it turned into embers, our mission would be accomplished.
There were many branches next to the white bones, along with some thicker trunks. Dragging all of them over would be enough for us tonight.
However, I wondered what would happen after tonight.
It got dark early in the mountains. As soon as the sun set, the sky turned dark, almost instantly plunging the surroundings into a grim stillness.
Looking up, except for the mountain tops, the rest was dim. Since we were at the bottom of the valley, it felt like dusk.
It was even darker inside the cave, but luckily, I had already brought the flame in. I started a small pile, and the smoke didn't linger in the main chamber. Instead, it streamed upwards through the cave ceiling, as if a giant range hood had sucked it all away.
I assumed this cave must be connected to another exit, and that exit was higher than where we were, thus forming a chimney that drew away all the smoke.
I had been worried that once the firewood ignited, it would be filled with smoke, which would be an unpleasant experience. I never expected such a natural range hood to draw away all the smoke.
This was an unexpected bonus.
However, it also meant the firewood was burning rather quickly. All this wood and grass were dead, inherently short-lived, and the draft only accelerated their burning.
I called out to Wen Siqiang, telling him not to linger outside, lest he attract leopards. With the fire in the chamber now, even if the snakes wanted to come out, they would have to reconsider. They had never seen fire before, and I imagined they would spend until dawn just studying it.
Before dusk, I had already surveyed the surroundings. The ground was clean and smooth in most areas, likely polished by the countless snakes that had slithered across it. This was definitely not the work of just a few snakes; it had to be thousands.
If they coiled around you, even without biting, they could crush you to death.
Even though I was braver than Wen Siqiang and less fearful, my heart was still pounding.
Although Wen Siqiang was reluctant, it was also very unsafe outside now. Seeing me walk around with ease, he hesitantly started to walk inside.
This was the first time he had entered the cave since descending to the valley floor. Apart from the light from the fire casting a dim glow on the main chamber, the areas behind the strange rock formations were pitch black. Eerie, hollow sounds echoed from within, quite terrifying.
Coupled with the deepening darkness and the constant flight of bats, it added to the eerie and terrifying atmosphere.
Wen Siqiang and I found some smaller pieces of firewood and placed them on the other side. Using a stick, we retrieved some larger embers from the fire and lit this second pile.
We still needed to light a fire at the cave entrance to deter any reptiles that might want to eat us.
After lighting the fire outside, we finally breathed a sigh of relief.
As we finally relaxed, we suddenly remembered something. We had been so engrossed in our fear of being eaten that we hadn't thought about anything else. Now that our hearts were at ease, we realized we were hungry.
It had been more than half a day since we arrived here at noon. We hadn't eaten a single bite, let alone had a drink of water.
Those beasts, even death row inmates get a last meal, but these people had simply thrown us here and abandoned us. If we were bitten to death quickly, it would be one thing, but if we weren't eaten right away, we would die of thirst, let alone hunger.