Riding the wind of rebirth

A row of green grass grows in the middle of the pebble path. Because it is close to the water and the air is humid, it remains a velvety green even in autumn, stretching all the way forward.

The road is lined with cedar trees, which grow straight up like guards waiting for inspection on both sides of the road.

Once you get to this kind of forest, the birdsong becomes much sparser, and even if there are birds, they are relatively large, such as great blue tits, blackbirds, and mynas.

The blackbird's call is particularly beautiful, and it also likes to imitate, able to sing the calls of many birds.

However, when it comes to the ability to imitate, the myna bird is the most impressive.

"Can wild mynahs speak human language?" Yan Xiao suddenly asked a very nonsensical question.

But Zhou Zhi was still able to answer this question: "Yes, Xiao Miao and I have discovered a myna bird that can imitate car horns and the Mandarin spoken on a radio station. Since the radio station broadcasts the news, the myna bird can also sing the opening theme of the news broadcast."

"Oh really?!" Yan Xiao said, "If we caught that myna bird, we could sell it for a lot of money, right?"

“We must protect wild animals and not catch them indiscriminately,” Mai Xiaomiao said.

“Exactly, Salt Rat’s awareness is worse than that of a child,” Liang Hong criticized.

“Actually, some of the budgies sold in the flower and bird market can talk,” Zhou Zhi said. “It’s just that they’re not easy to find, or rather, no one has given them special training, so they haven’t learned to talk.”

"Really? Those birds seem easy to keep and not expensive, right?"

"Well, at least they're easier to raise than wild mynas you catch," Zhou Zhi teased.

Seeing that Yan Xiao was about to make a scene, Zhou Zhi quickly changed the subject: "But fishing is fine. I've prepared the fishing gear, but I don't know if there are any fish in this mountain reservoir."

"It would be great if we could catch a few Ya fish. I heard that fish is especially delicious?" Yan Xiao asked.

"If you want to eat, just say so. We can't arrange it anywhere else, but we can get you a few Ya fish in Lianhe Township without any problem. Just call Mu Jialaha and the others, and we can get them for you in no time."

"You said it yourself, I'm not leaving until I get to eat!" Yan Xiao issued a formal but weak threat.

"Haha, don't worry. There are plenty of these in the Meigu River."

The horse team followed the forest path all the way to the end of the reservoir, where the slope was much gentler and there was a large, flat meadow at the water inlet, making it a perfect spot for camping.

After unloading their bundles on the grass, Azi led the horses into the woods to rest, while Zhouzhi led everyone to set up a canopy, tables, deck chairs, and a grill.

"Your equipment seems to have been upgraded again?" Yang He picked up the kettle and asked, "This isn't stainless steel, is it? The color and weight are all wrong."

"Guess what it is?" Zhou Zhi set up the stove. The stove had been modified to burn charcoal and firewood, satisfying the three functions of cooking, grilling, and baking.

"It doesn't resemble anything. It's definitely not sheet metal, aluminum can't be made this thin, the color of stainless steel is wrong, and copper is even more impossible." Yang He couldn't figure it out.

"This is made of aerospace materials; this metal is called titanium," Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "Titanium alloy."

"Wow, you're amazing! You even managed to get your hands on this stuff?" Yan Xiao jumped over upon hearing this. "Isn't this the material used to build airplanes and rockets?" Titanium alloys are relatively new, only being developed in the 1950s. China didn't start researching them until the 1960s. Because of their high strength, good corrosion resistance, high heat resistance, and working temperature that is much higher than aluminum, while their specific gravity is only half that of steel, they are mainly used in the development of aero engines and airframes.

Thanks to the unique advantages of China's rare earth industry, China has made rapid progress in this field. In the 1970s, a number of corrosion-resistant titanium alloys were developed, and since the 1980s, corrosion-resistant titanium alloys and high-strength titanium alloys have been greatly developed.

Since titanium alloys are mainly used to make compressor parts for aircraft engines, as well as structural components for rockets, missiles, and high-speed aircraft, and given that Panzhihua, the largest vanadium-titanium base, is not far from Liangshan Prefecture, it was not difficult for Zhouzhi to take advantage of the Xingqing project to obtain some scrap materials and have them customized into a set of camping equipment by Jinan Group.

However, this was not yet the time when China would become the largest producer of titanium alloys twenty years later, and various titanium alloy products would be readily available. Therefore, people were still very curious about this rare metal.

This camping gear is also quite ingenious. When packed, it consists of tablets that don't take up much space and are easy to carry. However, when combined, it is fully functional and can be used as a mobile kitchen.

"We got a lot of fresh ingredients from the village, let's eat these first, shall we?" Feng Xueshan said with a smile. "How should we cook the pig liver and sheep intestines? And there's also a chicken."

"We'll make soup with pork liver, dry pot with chicken giblets, braise chicken, and grill the sheep intestines with the other ingredients we brought," Zhou Zhi said. "But with so many good ingredients, we're afraid we'll have brought too much quick-cooking rice for nothing; we won't be able to finish it all."

"Then how about we change the pork liver to pork liver congee?" Feng Xueshan said. "Isn't braised chicken served with side dishes? Just the meat? And what side dishes do we use for dry pot chicken giblets?"

"Braised chicken with sweet potatoes, and dry pot chicken giblets with yams," Zhou Zhi said.

"Did we bring these two items with us?" Feng Xueshan had specifically checked when Yan Xiao brought the ingredients out of the kitchen, but she didn't recall them.

“These two things are plentiful in the mountains. I’ll have Azi lead everyone to dig them up in a bit.”

"You'll pick out the seasonings for the chicken giblets and pork liver, right?" Yan Xiao, though not a great cook, was still a foodie. "Did you bring all the seasonings?"

Zhou Zhi opened a titanium alloy box, inside which was a foam board covered with round holes. Each hole contained a glass tube, which looked like a test tube. Each glass tube contained either liquid or powder, as well as some small fragments. They were all kinds of seasonings, spices, and sesame oils, at least twenty different kinds.

Besides this spice box, there are three other plastic square bottles containing vegetable oil, soy sauce, and vinegar, respectively.

"Damn!" Yan Xiao laughed and gave Zhou Zhi a thumbs up: "You've really come up with all sorts of ingenious solutions to make picnics more convenient."

With all the equipment readily available, cooking was not a difficult task. Therefore, Zhouzhi was not in a hurry to cook. Instead, he had Azi lead everyone along the stream from the water inlet to the pine forest on the mountain to find food.

Yam is a very common plant in the mountains and is easy to identify, especially in planted forests where the vegetation is relatively monotonous. It often grows on the outermost edge of the plantation and is almost the only plant that dares to compete with pines and firs for the right to use sunlight.

Digging yams is a rather arduous task. It's relatively easy in red soil, but if there are many rocks in the forest, digging the yams out from the cracks in the rocks becomes much more difficult.

Fortunately, people don't have to do that anymore, because starting in autumn, kidney-shaped or oval bulbils will grow in the leaf axils of the yam vines, and these are the yam tubers.

Yam eggs and yams taste similar and have roughly the same medicinal effects. As a dietary supplement, both can nourish the lungs and replenish qi, strengthen the spleen and replenish deficiency, strengthen the kidneys and replenish essence, and benefit the heart and calm the mind.

The yield of yams is also quite considerable. During this season, you can easily harvest several kilograms from just one stalk.

However, it seems that yams don't grow everywhere. Yams are also produced in Jiachuan, both wild and cultivated, and villagers sell them on the streets. But no one has ever seen yams sold as raw yams. (End of Chapter)