Chen Qi didn’t know how big the house needed to be. Ideally, he hoped to build at least 100 square meters, but he didn’t know if the construction methods here would support his hope. He preliminary imagined that the house would have two rooms, one living room, and one bathroom. One of the rooms would be for himself and the other for Aze. Chen Qi had not told Aze about this matter, but he was determined to invite the other party to move in after the house was completed. Chen Qi was really worried about whether Aze might develop some problems after living in that dark house for such a long time. Of course, the other man had probably already lived there for many years and it may only be Chen Qi himself who would develop problems if he lived there for a long time.

Reaching the back of Aze’s house, Chen Qi noticed that there was an obvious crevice in the ground not far away. When he approached it, it turned out to be a trench that was about half a person deep, more than one meter wide, and that extended out a distance. He was pleasantly surprised to find a few dandelions scatteredly growing on the edge of the trench.

Chen Qi squatted down to take a closer look. These dandelions bloomed with pale yellow petals. Chen Qi was very familiar with this common plant. He once worked on a project with various flowers as the theme and learned that dandelions were actually edible wild vegetables. For Chen Qi, who had been eating meat for several days in a row, he could already imagine how the dandelions would turn out after they were cooked.

He ran home to get a piece of hide and went back to the trench. He spread the hide on the ground, took out the dragon-horn knife, grabbed the dandelion stalk, cut it, and gently placed it on the hide. The dandelions grew quite sparsely. Every time he picked one, he had to reposition himself to the next one. Some of them were hidden within the withered grass and he had to dig through the grass to discover them.

After harvesting a large pile, Chen Qi found that he had been gone from the house for a long time. He stretched out his waist, which was a little sore from squatting, and discovered that not far away was a… banyan tree with small yellow flowers all over it?

Chen Qi walked closer to it. The banyan tree was blocked by a tall acacia tree, so Chen Qi hadn’t seen it earlier. Compared to the ten-meter-tall acacia tree, the banyan tree was not very tall. By visual inspection, it was only about three or four meters high. Its branches were also not as thick as the acacia’s, but each branch had roots* that resembled silky hair. Chen Qi tugged some off. The roots were very sturdy but also very flexible.

*The banyan trees have long aerial roots that grow down from branches to the ground. (term, prop roots) so while they resemble vines they are not vines.

Earlier, he’d been thinking that it was too inconvenient to have to use some hide to carry dandelions and how great it would have been to have a bag. He didn’t expect to find these roots right after. Chen Qi thought these roots would be suitable to make twine to sew a hide bag.

The trunk of the banyan tree was indented. He could only call it a banyan tree since, from the tree structure to the leaves, it looked very much like a banyan tree. The trunk was only a little over two meters tall. Chen Qi gave it a try and it seemed like he would be able to climb it. He planned to cut these roots for later use. He hoped the roots would not become brittle and break after they dried out.

When he climbed further up the tree, Chen Qi found that the small yellow flowers on the tree were actually golden lilies. If they were dried, golden lilies would be sold in supermarkets. Chen Qi had stopped worrying about how the golden lilies grew on banyan trees. These kinds of flowers were also called “daylilies” and could be boiled and eaten directly. However, since they were growing on this strange tree, Chen Qi was not sure if these golden lilies were different from the ones he was thinking of. He was going to take some of them back and ask Aze before making a decision.

Chen Qi climbed the branches carefully, lest he fell off. He took out his dragon-horn knife and cut off a handful of the roots. The roots were very long, hanging nearly to the ground from branches more than two meters high. There were already dozens of roots in this small handful, and Chen Qi was not greedy, so he only cut two bunches and decided to go home to test their usage.