King of the Wilderness

On the morning of the twenty-eighth day, before the sky had brightened, Lin Yu’an was awakened by his precise biological clock and an overwhelming sense of anticipation.

The shelter was shrouded in darkness, utterly silent, with only a few charred logs in the depths of the fireplace emitting a faint red glow, preserving the last bit of warmth in this cold darkness.

He didn’t get up immediately but quietly lay in his sleeping bag, feeling the warmth of the down bag enveloping him, listening closely to the outside world; the wind had weakened significantly from the fierce roar of last night, leaving only a low whimper, an excellent omen.

He placed the broth he had simmered all night with shrimp shells back on the fire; the cold broth had coagulated into an amber-colored gel, which once heated, transformed back into a thick liquid with a faint fresh fragrance, filling the small shelter with its unique aroma again.

Without adding anything, he drank the hot soup down in one gulp.

A powerful wave of warmth flowed from his stomach, quickly spreading throughout his body, dispelling the last bit of morning chill!

Lin Yu’an swiftly prepared his equipment for the excursion, some spare nylon ropes, a sharp logging axe, a wooden fish scaling knife meticulously polished for handling catches, and most importantly, the handmade ice drill that had garnered much effort.

Then, he walked rapidly towards the Ice River, stepping through the snow that resembled deep blue fine sand before dawn.

The snow beneath his feet made a crisp, pleasant ”creak, creak” with each step, full of irrepressible excitement.

Upon reaching fishing spot number one, the sun had just torn open a golden line on the distant horizon, dyeing the snow on the ice with a layer of pale gold.

The A-shaped ice fishing hut made of willow branches stood like a silent sentry on the snowy plain.

After slipping into the hut, he skillfully used kindling to ignite the dry wood and charcoal in the metal bucket; bright flames instantly soared, dispelling the stagnant cold air inside the hut, ensuring he could return to a warm environment at any time for warmth.

Only then did he take out the ice drill and begin the preparations for the net retrieval.

He muttered to himself, the white mist from his breath swirling inside the hut, ”Before retrieving the net, I need a large enough net slot.”

Then he walked to one of the ice holes plugged with pine needles, cleaning out the insulation with pine needles and snow one by one. A circular hole with a fifteen-centimeter diameter and edges lined with thin ice was revealed again.

”This size is enough for the net, but if there are fish in the net, especially larger ones, it would be very difficult to pull up both the fish tangled in the net and the entire net together from this small circular hole.”

”The fishing net might get stuck at the narrow ice hole edges; fish may fall off, and I might even damage my precious net. I can’t let everything fall apart at the last step.”

Without explanation, he directly used the heel of his boot to stamp out a clear straight line on the ice along the main rope’s direction, setting the baseline for the upcoming work.

Aligning the guide point of the ice drill about ten centimeters from the original ice hole’s edge on the line, he let his body weight sink down!

The guide tip immediately emitted a slight yet solid ”thud,” instantly ”biting” into the hard ice. (๑乛◡乛๑)

Lin Yu’an no longer engaged in slow probing rotations. Instead, he spread his legs apart, standing firm as a rock on the ice surface, his core muscles instantly tensed, exerting force from his waist.

With a stance full of explosive power, channeling all his strength through his waist and abdomen to his arms, he began to forcefully rotate the handle!

”Crunch—Crunch—Crunch—!”

The ice drill’s sound was no longer the gentle ”shh-shh” but like a beast gnawing on a bone, a deep and powerful cutting sound!

With each rotation, a large amount of dry powdery ice chips spewed forth like a fountain, efficiently pushed out from the hole by the helical blades, even splashing onto his pant legs.

He no longer needed to deliberately slow down as he could clearly sense the depth of the drill in the ice layer through the minute vibrations and resistance changes from the handle; just as it was about to pierce through, he suddenly withheld the downward pressure!

”Thud! Thud!”

The ice hole was drilled through, and a gush of icy river water mixed with white ice chips surged out.

Without a glance, he immediately aligned with the baseline and commenced drilling the second hole.

Soon, a line of five perfectly aligned ice holes joined the original one.

Then, using the thick back of the axe, he struck the thin ice walls remaining between those holes, effectively breaking the ice.

”Tap, crack!”

The first ice wall cracked in response.

”Tap, crack!”

The second... third...

He didn’t bother fetching the small fragments, instead using the axe back to skillfully push all the loosened ice chunks into the other end of the ice slot, then effortlessly dumped them beneath the ice layer.

Soon, a rectangular ice slot about one meter long and fifteen centimeters wide appeared before his eyes.

This large opening was enough for him to effortlessly lift the entire fishing net and all potential catches from the water surface.

Having completed all this, he went over to the ice anchor holding the other end of the main rope, untied the twisted stick that had been turned into a ”Spanish winch” by the immense tension.

As the stick loosened, the immense tension in the rope was released instantly, emitting a deep and forceful ”boom” as the whole rope ricocheted on the ice.