Live Strong in the Wilderness-Chapter 232: What to Do About the Plague

Xu Yi stood up and walked to the door.

The rain had indeed stopped, and the sky had cleared up.

However, it was already close to 5 o’clock, and it was getting dark.

Crocodiles, Xu Yi didn’t see any of them; they seemed to have left already.

"We probably won’t get to eat crocodile meat," Xu Yi said with some regret. He really wanted to try it, but unfortunately, the crocodiles were gone.

"They probably need to live near water. Maybe there’s a big river in this jungle, and if we find that river, we can find the crocodiles," said Lu Ke, who had watched documentaries about crocodiles and was somewhat familiar with their habits.

"There should be a fairly large river since there were quite a number of crocodiles," Xu Yi nodded in agreement, thinking that the river probably had more than just crocodiles, possibly other fish as well.

After leaving the coast, they hadn’t had much fish or seafood. If they could get a few freshwater fish to make soup or grill, that would be delicious.

"Although it rained for so long, the water didn’t keep rising. At first, I thought it might eventually flood our stilt house," Lu Ke said, feeling that Xu Yi’s decision to build the stilt house was absolutely the right one.

Otherwise, many of their things would have been soaked and ruined today.

"After all, this jungle is vast, and there are streams, so there is a natural drainage system. Otherwise, this place would have turned into a lake long ago," Xu Yi said with a smile, his prediction was quite accurate.

"Come on, let’s play another game, and then we can have dinner. Hopefully, the water retreats quickly; otherwise, we’ll have to play chess all night again," Lu Ke said, then sat back down in front of the chessboard.

The two of them played another round and then had some jerky to finish their dinner.

"Lu Ke, the water below seems to have receded," Xu Yi said as he was about to go relieve himself, but noticed that the water had seemingly dried up below.

"Really?" Lu Ke immediately came out, finding that indeed there wasn’t much standing water anymore.

After all, it was not completely dark yet, and they could still see somewhat clearly.

"Really, we can go down now," Lu Ke said happily, watching as Xu Yi put the ladder down.

"Are there no crocodiles?" Lu Ke asked a bit worried, knowing that staying on the stilt house was safe, but going down was uncertain.

"There shouldn’t be, though I wish they were still here," Xu Yi said, feeling the machete in his hand.

Once on the ground, he drew the machete out.

"The ground is covered in mud and it’s slippery," Xu Yi said, looking up to remind Lu Ke. Even though Lu Ke wasn’t intending to come down yet, as long as it was safe, she would come down, so he needed to give a heads-up.

After getting down, Xu Yi found that several bundles of firewood stacked on the table weren’t wet at all, and he couldn’t help but grin.

When he returned from relieving himself, Lu Ke had already come down from the stilt house.

"Xu Yi, this mud is really nice, very fine, it can be collected to make pottery," Lu Ke said happily. Making clay from scratch usually required soaking and kneading, which was labor-intensive.

And after the water receded, the layer of mud left on the ground was very fine, meeting the requirements for making pottery.

This was an unexpected delight.

"Then let’s collect a lot of it, it’ll save us quite a bit of time," Xu Yi said, preparing to light the fire.

They had been cooped up indoors all day, so before sleeping, Xu Yi wanted to spend some time on the ground.

"No need to rush, when the sun shines tomorrow and the temperature goes up, this mud will dry and harden. Then, it will crack and become easier to pick up," Lu Ke said. With this mud, they indeed could save quite a bit of time.

Xu Yi nodded, agreeing that Lu Ke’s arrangement was better.

"The water stood here for a day, who knows how many rabbits and Forest Rats were drowned. I hope there won’t be an outbreak of some plague. Otherwise, we’ll be in danger," Xu Yi said while trying to light a fire.

"Plague?" Lu Ke was stunned; the word was somewhat unfamiliar to her.

Throughout history, humanity has faced countless plagues, some of which were particularly severe, having a significant impact on future generations: SARS, the Black Death, smallpox, flu, etc. Generally speaking, plagues are infectious diseases caused by highly pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses. They usually occur after natural disasters when sanitation is poor.

If a lot of rodents die and aren’t dealt with, it’s very likely to lead to a plague.

"What should we do then, do we need to relocate again?" Lu Ke frowned, knowing that diseases are scarier than wild beasts.

With beasts, they could still use weapons and traps to fend them off.

But with a plague, they had no medication to resist it.

Even for cleaning, it would be overwhelming for just Xu Yi and her.

"Tomorrow I’ll walk around and have a look, maybe we won’t need to." Xu Yi didn’t dare say for sure they wouldn’t need to move; it depended on the situation.

This jungle still had quite a few wild rabbits; if they could easily spot rabbit carcasses, they’d definitely have to find a new place.

If there weren’t many carcasses, it meant they didn’t drown, so they wouldn’t have to abandon their camp.

After all, they’d spent quite a bit of time and effort on this camp, unlike their last one, which was completely destroyed by a storm.

If there was another vacant camp like the one Su Yan and Yun Qing had, Xu Yi thought relocating wouldn’t be an issue.

But building a new camp again would be too time-consuming.

"Xu Yi really, he did mention that heavy rain could cause flooding here, yet he built the camp here. Now we might have to find a new spot and build a camp again, wasting so much time." 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Xu Yi mentioned it’s possible, but not certain that a plague will break out. Plus, rabbits and Forest Rats can swim; maybe not many died."

"It definitely won’t break out; it’s not the first time there’s been such heavy rain here. The last one lasted five or six days, yet there were still rabbits and Forest Rats everywhere."

"If it does break out, it’ll be too late to run. Diseases are the number one killer of humans."

"Wanzi and her cousin haven’t thought about this; they’re still happily gathering fish to dry for food. If they knew, would they move out overnight?"

"I think they should worry about the possible Fierce Beast lurking instead."

"Fierce Beast? What Fierce Beast, where? I don’t see it."

"Bottom right of the video, about ten meters away."

"Oh crap..."