Chapter 49

Titus recovered quickly. Just two days after finishing the medicine, he was already running around on the hillside wrapped in a blanket. After consuming a large amount of dried meat during these two days, some issues that were somewhat inconvenient to mention also saw significant improvement.

Yesterday morning, Cloudy and Titus did something significant. They heated a lot of water and placed it inside the wooden house. Then, they closed the door and used a cloth dipped in hot water to clean their bodies, scrubbing off the accumulated dirt from the past few days.

Today, seeing Titus recovering very well, Cloudy had him do a little task - mainly filling the toilet pit with a layer of mud to cover up the dirt from the previous days to prevent any odor. After completing this task, Titus started to become restless.

"It's hot! So hot!" he muttered while running around, "After taking the medicine, my whole body feels hot. Can I take off the animal hide?"

"No, you can't!" Cloudy was crouched in front of the workbench, dismantling her phone and organizing the components inside.

The sound of rain still echoed in the cave but had become a mere background noise. Cloudy and Titus no longer listened carefully or remained alert. However, it's worth mentioning that fish had entered the water pool that had accumulated in the cave.

Cloudy hastily made a fish trap yesterday, tying vines and throwing them into the water pool by the hillside. So far, the trap hasn't caught anything, but the food used as bait has been completely eaten.

"Cloudy, what are these things?" After running around the hill, he stood behind Cloudy, watching her fiddle with the strange objects on the table. He couldn't describe the pile of small, shiny things in front of him, resembling miniature animal skeletons.

"These are important things," she said, but she knew very well that she couldn't build anything powerful with the components from her phone based on her knowledge. She couldn't even name all these parts!

"What are you going to do with these?"

"...I want to see if there's anything useful here," Cloudy gathered the dismantled metal into a small pile, weighing it in her palm.

Dismantling the phone wasn't a sudden impulse. After all, this broken phone was a kind of emotional support for her. But now, with no hope of returning to modern times, keeping this support was not very useful. It was better to dismantle it and extract its remaining value.

And that "value" was the metal pieces she had collected. Since fishing had failed, she kept thinking of making some improvements to overcome the disadvantage of only being able to fish with traps.

She picked out all the long, sturdy, and sharp needle-like metals, arranged them on the table, and selected one to sharpen with a stone. With sturdy needles, she could not only fish but also sew things together, of course...
The material of the silk thread will need to be replaced soon.

Titus stood behind Cloudy, not understanding what she was doing: "I want to help, it's so boring."

"Don't just stand there, come sit by the fire." She didn't want to make another trip to the settlement. "I'm making something that can catch fish."

Titus caught on and wandered to the edge of the slope to look down at the pool below. "Hmm, there are some pretty big ones. Is Cloudy trying to catch them?"

"Yes."

"But we have plenty of food."

"Fresh fish is good for you, I want to catch some for you to eat." The house was stocked with dried goods from over ten days ago, or dead bugs. Having fresh meat would naturally be better for Titus's recovery. Plus, she wanted to reward herself for all the hard work she had put in - staying up late, tending to Titus, she really needed something special.

"Meat isn't good enough?" Titus couldn't quite grasp what Cloudy meant by fresh fish being good for you. Perhaps it was a custom in her settlement? To Titus, eating lots of meat and bugs seemed good for the body.

Dried meat is outdated.

Cloudy felt ashamed at her quick aversion to the food, but having a modern palate, having tasted all kinds of delicious food. Although none of the food she had made so far could be called delicious, some animals' fatty meat, grilled with spices, was decent, but still couldn't compare to the pork belly and beef that had been marinated heavily.

She licked her lips, craving some pig trotters rice...

After this brief chat, Cloudy stopped hammering the phone parts. She held the very sharp part in her hand for a moment, then placed it back on the stone slab. She continued to shape the tip into a fish hook and hammered a large round socket at the back to tie the fishing line.

"Done." Cloudy excitedly raised the fish hook. "Titus, tonight we're having fish soup!"

Not knowing why Cloudy was so excited, Titus just stood next to the slope, looking at her holding up that small, strange object, flipping it on the work table. "Can I help you?"

"Go sit by the fire, don't catch a cold!"

"I don't feel cold today." Titus unfolded the layers of fur he had draped over himself, almost like a pervert exposing himself to Cloudy. "I'm recovering well."

After saying that, Titus quickly wrapped the fur back around himself tightly. "We can work together now!"

"If you're not cold, why did you wrap the fur back so quickly?"

"I'm just not cold."

Not only was he lying, but he was also stubborn. Cloudy impatiently looked at Titus holding the fish hook. "If you get sick again, I'll have a hard time going back to the settlement."
"Fall, get beaten by Matriarch."

"...Titus fell silent, wrapped in animal skins as he sat by the stone kiln, staring at Cloudy as if trying to see through her. 'I think Cloudy doesn't need me anymore.'

'It's because she needs you that she wants to catch fresh fish. Rest well, and once the rainy season ends, you can do whatever you want,' she said, rummaging through her materials box. Before the rainy season, she had stored plenty of vines and some very tough plants that could be used as rope substitutes. However, most of these were only as thick as one or two fingers, and the thinner plants were not long enough.

After searching through the basket for a while, Cloudy couldn't find a suitable rope substitute, or more accurately, a 'rope' that could pass through the fish hook hole. Should she just find a way to secure the hook to one end of a vine... but Cloudy was afraid that it might not hold well and she would lose the precious hook.

Titus sat by the stone kiln, watching Cloudy anxiously fiddle with a pile of vines at the workbench. This reminded him of when he first met Cloudy just before the rainy season, when she was always in a hurry with a pile of inexplicable things. Thinking about it, Titus chuckled.

'Are you laughing at me?' Cloudy, feeling particularly irritable, turned to glare at Titus. 'Why are you laughing at me?'

'Because, Cloudy, you seem in a hurry.' The straightforward wild man couldn't stand Cloudy's mood, so he stood up and walked to the tool table where Cloudy's wooden spears were placed against the wall, unused. Titus picked one up, weighed it in his hand, and casually grabbed a shriveled fruit that was no longer edible. 'Fish won't be a problem, come here.'

He walked to the edge of the slope and tossed the fruit into the water, waiting for a while. Soon, there were ripples on the water surface about five meters away from the slope, caused by the prey. In the next instant, Titus fiercely threw the bone spear towards the center of the ripples.

The speed, strength, and posture were all similar to when he taught Cloudy how to catch birds. The sound of the bone spear piercing the water indicated a successful hit, followed by more intense struggles in the water. About a minute later, the unfortunate fish, carried by the wooden spear, floated belly up to the surface, motionless.

'Look, a fish!' Titus embraced Cloudy standing beside him, shaking her a few times. 'Hmm, I've indeed recovered well! Although I'm not as strong as before, I'm good enough now.' When Titus was weak from illness before, he was on edge every day, fearing that Cloudy would abandon him or find him useless. As a hunter, he needed to maintain strong strength and not hold back the team...

While Titus was jubilant about his recovery, Cloudy, on the other hand, fell silent once again due to the stark difference in strength."
After struggling for a while, Cloudy suddenly felt surpassed by the savage again! She felt stifled.

...

The fish that Titus stabbed was finally retrieved by Cloudy diving into the water. After dragging the fish ashore, any lingering dissatisfaction due to the gap in strength had long dissipated. Why did she feel the need to compete with Titus in strength when they were of different races? It was as foolish as a monkey trying to fight a tiger. Moreover, she and Titus were partners, and partners should complement each other's strengths and weaknesses!

"What a big fish!" After getting ashore, Titus swiftly ran to help Cloudy drag the fish. Both of them marveled at its size. This fish was at least a meter long, possibly due to the excessive rain during the season, it was exceptionally fat, like a wild boar.

The scales covering its body felt sturdy and thick, suitable for making weapons.

"Titus, you're amazing." Cloudy chuckled as she dragged the fish, her face beaming. "We'll have fish soup tonight!"

"Can we put bugs in the soup? The last bugs."

"No." Her refusal wasn't because she didn't want to eat bugs, but because the last bug had rotted and emitted a foul smell. She didn't throw it away simply because of the pitiful look Titus gave when he glanced at the bug. "Today, we're only eating fish."

Due to Cloudy's firm stance, Titus could only grimace and not mention the last bug again.

Sitting around the stone kiln, they roasted the huge fish over the fire, slowly processing it with bone fragments. They chatted about trivial matters, the crackling of the fire mixing with the sound of rain. It seemed like all the troubles they had experienced before had vanished.

"If every day is like this from now on, it would be great." Titus tore apart the fish's innards. "Together with Cloudy, sitting by the fire, the rainy season will soon pass."