"Being here is like surviving in the wilderness. Although I'm not Bear Grylls, I am still alive for now. And I want to make our home better together." - Diary Entry, Day 11. I set this goal for myself.

I haven't explored the environment outside the cave in detail, but while the two of us were taking a walk, the scenery around the nest gradually unfolded.

First, I needed to determine the directions. In a situation where I had no knowledge of the entire world, the simplest method was to take my home as the starting point and record the environments in various directions.

The entrance of the cave was facing north. I had walked there before, passing through about 300 steps of dense vegetation, transitioning into a larger area of shrubs, and finally reaching plains at the foot of the mountains. There was also a small path at the foothills.

So, let's start exploring from the east, the direction where I first hunted the long-necked rabbit. As I remembered the terrain in my mind, I pretended to take a leisurely walk.

"What is this called?"

I pointed to a red fruit on a tree and asked her.

"Oh, this is called the Energy Card."

"Energy Card?"

"Yeah, Energy Card."

Although I doubted that I misheard her, the name made me feel like it would bring energy when consumed.

"Oh... so, can we eat it?"

"We can, maybe." She seemed to be very familiar with it.

Hey, is it "can" or "maybe" after all!

The red fruit had a smooth appearance, about the size of a hawthorn fruit, but only one grew on each branch. It seemed edible. Fruits with attractive appearances like this one tend to subjectively be associated with a delicious taste. But I knew that this thing might not be edible...

I knew, even though I knew, I still plucked one down...

"I... can I eat this?"

"Yeah, eat it. Hehe..."

What's with the laughter? You can't hide anything by eating a fruit! Or did you intentionally trick me because you know this fruit is inedible?

Well, since I've plucked it, it doesn't seem poisonous anyway. If it were poisonous, she wouldn't have let me eat it. At most, it wouldn't taste good.

I took a bite, and a sour taste filled my mouth. Extremely sour, like vinegar mixed with the smell of freshly cut grass from a lawnmower, twice as sour as wild hawthorn. But I persisted and chewed up the fruit.

"Is it delicious?"

"Delicious... ergh..."

I couldn't keep up the act. I felt like my facial features were twisted together, and saliva uncontrollably flowed from the corners of my mouth.

I had to cough and spit it out. Eating more of it would be fatal.

As I exhaled to ease the sourness, I watched her hair sway with her uncontrollable laughter.

Damn it. Medusa, you're definitely a hoodlum who preys on outsiders in front of train stations.

Well, thinking about it, it doesn't matter. Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, and I'm just getting started.

Wiping away my tears, I forced a bitter smile. "It's not delicious, not delicious at all."

"Hehe." She smiled and held my hand. "Let's go."

If she's the one holding my hand, we'll move faster than if I were holding hers. So I usually don't like being "dragged" around by her. However, this time it didn't matter because I saw the legendary golden fruit.

I apologize for the cheesy name, but I really can't think of anything more suitable.

It was transparently yellow, and sunlight reflected off it, giving off a shiny golden light. Each fruit was almost the same size, like a work of art. Just by looking at it, one could guess that it must be delicious - there were many small insects flying around the bunches of fruits.

She quickly plucked a bunch and handed it to me. There were about 15 fruits in a bunch, and even just a few of them weighed as much as a bunch of grapes. Taking one and putting it in my mouth, biting into it released a highly fluid, liquid-like fruit flesh with a faint woody fragrance that curled back to the nasal cavity.

The sweet and refreshing feeling washed away the pain from earlier. If God eats fruits as well, this thing must be placed at the top of the fruit platter.

"What is this called?"

"Polisnair, nakka."

"Pol... Poli what?"

"Polisnair, nakka. How is it? Is it delicious?"

"It's very delicious."

As we divided and enjoyed a bunch of polisnair fruits, I recalled the path I had taken. If my memory served me right, this was the northeast direction.Furthermore, there are only five trees like this one, filled with golden fruits. It might be difficult to find another one in the future. After briefly memorizing the surrounding terrain, I continued my walk.

After leaving the forest, the entire east was covered in bushes. It would be impossible to walk through them all today, but it was clear that the mountain we were on had a curved shape. We measured the distance and changed our direction to the west.

Compared to the bushes, I chose to walk in the forest. It was terrifying not being able to see what was below my legs. And walking along the edge of the forest and bushes would ensure that I was going in the right direction.

Although I could hear birdsong in the forest, birds were rarely seen. The only type of bird I saw was a small yellow-feathered sparrow-like creature.

After walking under the shade of the trees for about half an hour or even longer, I finally found a small stream that could be considered a river. Based on my geographical knowledge, this river flowing from the mountain to the plain should be formed by melting snow. The water should be cool, and if that's the case, this mountain should be quite high...

Actually, everything I thought was just a guess, but the fact that the water was cool was true.

Squatting by the water, I tasted it and found it better than the spring water in the cave. Looking north along the direction of the river, I noticed that the river curved towards the west. It was possible that there were many small rivers like this on the other side of the mountain, eventually converging into a larger river.

But the water was really clear, reflecting my face faintly. Hmm, my hair has grown a bit long, and it's been a while since I shaved my beard. My glasses are still hanging firmly on my nose. Uh... your face is indeed more beautiful than mine, but could you please not press it against my back, it will affect the balance...

"Hmm? What are you looking at..." she asked me with a playful smile.

"Uh, I..."

"Ah!"

"This!"

With a huge splash, the two of us fell into the river. Even though I didn't do anything reckless, why did this happen! Don't you have any sense of your own weight, my dear?

In the bone-chilling cold river water, my first reaction was to make sure my glasses were still on my face. Then I quickly swam back to the shore with her because I was sure neither of us would enjoy the ice bucket challenge for too long.

In the sunset, a human and a Medusa hugged each other trembling like they were shipwrecked.

Damn, it's so cold. As a person from Northeast China, even I have to admit when it's too cold.

And besides, why would a Medusa like you also shiver from the cold!

"Cold."

With a limited vocabulary, I could only repeat this one word over and over again.

"It's very cold."

Even though she had a larger vocabulary than me, she only added two more words.

Our clothes clung to our bodies, making us very uncomfortable. The thought of her being soaking wet made me feel like I was holding a dangerous explosive in my arms that could blow me up, but at this moment, we were both very "cold" and calm.

There is a river in the northwest direction from the cave that can freeze people. I remembered that.

...

By the time we returned to the cave, it was already evening. We changed into clean clothes and, without planning, we both climbed into the large bed made of piled fur.

To hell with terrain records, all I wanted was to quickly fall asleep and feel warm...