Chapter 58 Relying on Plants and Shadows to Identify Direction
Seeing familiar traces appear on the tree, Ouyang Ming also fell silent.
And they passed by this place not long ago.
When passing by, Jiang Zhiyue pointed out the scratches on the tree to him and discussed with him what animal made the scratches.
Others in the team also heard the two of them talking.
So when Jiang Zhiyue asked Ouyang Ming to take a look, Mr. Jiang and the others also walked over and took a look, and they all saw the mark.
Everyone was silent. It seemed that they had indeed lost their way without knowing it.
They thought they had walked a long way, but they ended up walking back again after walking for so long.
Huang Huaihua asked worriedly: "What can we do? How about we turn back and take the mountain road?"
Wang Hao looked at his mother and explained: "Mom, since we are lost, it means that we have confused the direction. Now we don't know which direction to go even if we want to go out."
Huang Huaihua became even more anxious when she heard this, and kept mumbling: "What should we do? What should we do?"
Wang Fengshou's brain almost exploded due to her muttering, and he said: "Stop talking, your head is spinning. Let's think of a way together and we will definitely be able to get out."
Then he looked at Jiang Zhiyue and asked, "Girl Yue, do you have any good ideas?"
Jiang Zhiyue raised her head and looked at the sky. The leaves were too dense and the light that could shine down was very weak.
But it looked like they had been wandering around in the woods for a long time.
She thought of several ways to try them out, but since it was too late, she didn't want to worry about it now.
She nodded and said, "There are indeed several ways."
"Everyone has been tired for a long day. Let's stop here and take a rest. We will try again when it gets light tomorrow."
No one had any objections.
Originally, they had been waiting for Jiang Zhiyue and the others to come back outside the city gate without eating. Now that they had walked for so long, they were already tired and hungry.
Knowing that they were going to rest here, everyone started doing what they should do in an orderly manner.
Mrs. Zhang and the others picked up some stones from the surroundings and piled them up to make a simple stove and put the pot on it. Several children gathered dry branches from this area and brought them back to light the fire.
Because it was too dark in the woods and people could not figure out their direction, Mrs. Jiang told them not to run too far.
Wulang and Liulang obediently agreed, and then followed Sanlang and Shiro to pick up branches around here.
Jiang Yulai was not assigned a task and helped little Wang off the bullock cart to let her move around.
The baby in Xiao Wang's belly was already seven months old, and Jiang Zhiyue looked bigger than the big iron pot they used to cook.
Every time she came down to do some activities, everyone asked Jiang Yulai to follow her closely, for fear of any accident.
Old Mrs. Jiang looked on with her heart pounding and said, "Why don't you leave? Stop and have a rest."
Mu Qiqi advised: "Grandma Jiang, Aunt Wang is pregnant with twins. If you don't move around more now, it will be dangerous if you don't have the strength to give birth."
Mu Qiqi studied medicine with her father, covering a wide range of aspects. Although she was still an unmarried girl, she didn't care about these.
Old Mrs. Jiang was also experienced and knew how dangerous it was to have no strength during childbirth, so she didn't say anything else.
Others set up tents not far away.
Watching Mrs. Jiang and the others cooking, Jiang Zhiyue thought of the things she bought in the city in the morning and took some of them out of the basket.
Jiang Zhiyue took out a dozen eggs from the basket on her back, and also took out a few salted duck eggs, as well as steamed buns with meat, peppers, pork and roasted chicken.
Mrs. Sun looked at the things she took out one after another, and said distressedly: "I bought so many things, it must have cost a lot of money."
Jiang Zhiyue said with a smile: "It didn't cost much. How can we have the strength if we are traveling all day and don't have enough food?"
"When we get to the place, we can always earn back the money, so don't feel bad, Second Aunt."
Mrs. Sun thought so and happily took away the things Jiang Zhiyue took out.
Jiang Zhiyue took out the things for convenience next time and said, "I bought other things in the city. I will take them out when I need them, and they will be different."
Mrs. Jiang glanced at her and said, "Okay, just leave it alone."
When Wulang and Liulang saw Jiang Zhiyue bringing out so many things, they ran to her and shouted.
Rokuro asked: "Sister, have you bought candy?"
Wulang also answered: "I want to eat the white candy from last time."
Mrs. Zhang hit him on the head and reprimanded: "Don't mess around. It's good to have something to eat. I actually chose it. You can eat whatever your sister bought."
But she knew in her heart that the kind of expensive candy that Jiang Zhiyue took out last time must have come from the treasure box that the old fairy gave to her daughter.
Wulang covered his head and looked at Mrs. Zhang sadly. Jiang Zhiyue couldn't help but laugh and said, "Sister, I bought many kinds of candies in the city, but I can only eat one a day."
"Okay~"
When Rokuro heard that there were many kinds, he couldn't wait to ask: "Sister, let me see what kind of candies you bought."
Jiang Zhiyue did not continue to be pretentious and took out some candies in the space mixed with some pastries and candies bought in the city.
The two cheered excitedly when they saw so many candies.
Jiang Zhiyue picked up the white candy that Wulang mentioned, which was actually the Little White Rabbit toffee with Jiang Zhiyue's new packaging and distributed it to everyone.
She kept moving among the crowd, very busy.
After she distributed all the candies to everyone, the tent was set up, and Zhang and the other cooks also prepared the meal.
Today's dinner was very sumptuous, and Jiang Zhiyue basically brought it out.
There are hand-shredded roast chicken, scrambled eggs with chili, braised pork, fat white steamed buns, fragrant white porridge, and vermicelli pie.
I also rarely saw two vegetables. Of course, Jiang Zhiyue took the vegetables out from the space.
When Jiang Zhiyue was shopping, Ouyang Ming followed her closely, clearly remembering what she bought.
Ouyang Ming didn't see those vegetables and candies when he was shopping.
Ouyang Ming's lowered eyes darkened, these things seemed to be conjured by Jiang Zhiyue out of thin air.
He knew that Jiang Zhiyue had many secrets, but she didn't want to tell her, and he wouldn't force her to ask, so he just pretended that he didn't find out and ate silently with his head down.
Jiang Zhiyue secretly glanced at Ouyang Ming and felt that his expression had not changed. She thought that he probably didn't notice anything wrong, so she started eating with peace of mind.
Before going to bed, everyone sprinkled medicinal powder around each tent to prevent snakes, rats, insects and ants.
There was no daylight in the forest, and everyone was so sleepy that they didn't know what time it was when they woke up the next day.
Jiang Zhiyue secretly took out a digital watch from her arms. The time on it showed that it was already ten o'clock in the morning.
Jiang Zhiyue tidied up the tent and hurried out. Unknowingly, it was already so late.
Everyone walked out of the tent one after another.
Jiang Zhiyue raised her head and looked up. Because the top was blocked by intertwined branches and leaves, the light she could see was extremely weak.
The light projected from the leaves on the ground swayed in fragments on the ground.
Jiang Yulai walked out of another tent and looked up at Jiang Zhiyue.
Asked: "Zhiyue, is there any way to identify the direction?"
Everyone has not forgotten that Jiang Zhiyue said there was a way last night, and all eyes were focused on her.
Jiang Yuchao suddenly remembered that he had read in a book a method of identifying the direction based on the growth rings of tree stumps.
Then she asked: "Zhiyue needs to identify the direction based on the growth direction of the trees?"
Then he said to himself: "But we didn't see any broken tree stumps when we came in. These trees are so big, it's not convenient to cut down one."
Jiang Zhiyue naturally thought of this method, but as her father said, it was not convenient to rely on this method in this forest.
So she was talking about several other methods, and Jiang Zhiyue directly stated her own method.
"No need to look for tree stumps, just look at the shadows on the ground."
Everyone looked towards where Jiang Zhiyue pointed.
There were shadows of branches and leaves swaying on the ground.
Old Mrs. Jiang asked anxiously: "Zhiyue, please stop being so secretive and tell us quickly."
Jiang Zhiyue smiled and continued: "Don't worry, grandma. It should be around 1:00 a.m. now. The sun is rising in the northeast, and the direction of the shadow it casts is the southwest. Everyone, look carefully at the shadows on the ground."
Everyone looked again and found those dim shadows slanting in one direction.
After they arrived in the woods yesterday, they had been worried that someone would be chasing them, so they hurried on in a hurry. By the time they realized something was wrong, it was already afternoon.
The sunlight was so weak that naturally he didn't notice the method Jiang Zhiyue said.
Now that Jiang Zhiyue mentioned it, everyone felt that this was indeed a good method.
Jiang Dalang looked at the shadow on the ground and said excitedly: "So that's the southwest direction."
"Yes." Jiang Zhiyue smiled and said, "There is also this stone. The moss grows vigorously on this side, which means it is from the north. We can follow the shadow cast by the sun to identify the direction, and then just adapt to changes at any time."
Everyone thought it was a good method and couldn't wait to try it out.
Old Mrs. Jiang was also very happy to finally find the direction, but she still called out to the impatient people, "Even if we are going to set off, we have to rest our stomachs first, and put all our things away quickly. We will set off in a while."
Because of the excitement of finding the direction, everyone did not start cooking any more. After having a simple meal, they loaded everything on the cart and set off.
Originally, they had already used up the contents of a cart and an ox cart, but Mr. Wang was unwilling to throw away the cart, so he shared some of the contents of the other two ox carts.
It also takes strength to pull an oxen, but now that there are fewer things on top, it doesn't take that much effort anymore.
Everyone took turns pushing the cart, and occasionally they could sit on the bullock cart and drive along.
