Li Younan was instantly delighted, but he did not rush to pull the fish with brute force. Instead, he skillfully controlled the fish’s movements, patiently maneuvering with the struggling fish in the water for a good ten minutes before gradually guiding its trajectory bit by bit toward the shore.
When he reached a position perpendicular to the steep bank, Li Younan suddenly exerted his strength and lifted upward, causing a large half-meter-long fish to break out of the water.
Upon closer inspection, Li Younan was overjoyed; it turned out to be a very large rainbow trout.
This type of fish is widely distributed in Chilco Lake, and its taste and texture are very similar to salmon. In fact, some unscrupulous merchants use this fish as a substitute for salmon, making it nearly impossible for the average person to tell the difference.
Rainbow trout in China are an invasive species, whereas here is the true home of the rainbow trout.
Because Li Younan hadn’t made a landing net, at the moment when the fish was lifted into the air, he swiftly pulled out the hunting knife from his waist and precisely stabbed it into the heart of the rainbow trout.
Thanks to his level two butchery skill, the stab was extremely accurate, and the fish passed peacefully.
Of course, this scene was completely recorded on camera.
Unlike many contestants, Li Younan always sets up the camera in advance whenever he does something, so when he successfully hunts, none of the footage is lost.
Additionally, he keeps an action camera recording in first-person view to capture this wonderful moment.
The show’s requirement is that every hunt must be filmed, but in reality, many contestants still miss capturing the critical moments of hunting.
After all, such events are highly unpredictable.
Afterward, Li Younan threaded his fingers through the fish’s gills, hooked it, and then with a backward slap against a stone, the hunting knife moved swiftly, slicing open the fish’s belly and cleanly removing all the inedible parts, leaving only the essence of the fish meat.
The only minor drawback was that he hadn’t brought the woven basket from yesterday, so he had to carry the fish home by hand.
Li Younan waved the fish in front of the camera, saying, "This is an exceptionally large rainbow trout. Honestly, I didn’t expect a rainbow trout to grow this big. The edible part is at least over 12 pounds, which is enough to provide us with at least three days of protein."
To be honest, if this statement of Li Younan’s were broadcast, there’s a high chance he would be criticized.
Even in an urban environment, an average of 4 pounds of meat per day is a high standard of living for an ordinary person.
After catching this fish, Li Younan didn’t plan to continue fishing. He said, "With the current climate, fish meat cannot stay fresh for long, so we should focus on eating fresh fish as much as possible, so that’s it for today."
Since he managed to catch the fish early today, he had plenty of time for shelter construction during the rest of the day.
Li Younan returned to the camp, hung the fish on the wooden rack built yesterday, and then found several relatively flat stones nearby, stacking them to form a makeshift stove. In this way, lunch today could be prepared with a different flavor.
Li Younan took the camera, set it up in front of his stove, lit a fire, and placed a flat, large stone on top. He faced the camera and said, "Today’s lunch is stone-grilled rainbow trout."
He then expressed a bit of regret, saying, "Because we just started living Alone in the Wilderness, our resources are limited, and we don’t have much fat to use. Otherwise, cooking this rainbow trout with animal oil would enhance the flavor."
As he spoke, Li Younan took the wild ginger from yesterday, using the hunting knife to chop it into ginger bits, and also grabbed some blackberries, cutting them on a clean stone slab to make a jam-like substance.
He expressed a bit of regret, saying, "The available seasonings aren’t abundant, but we’ll try to find some suitable ones later. Now, let’s start grilling the fish."
After all, Li Younan is a person with professional chef skills, so even in such primitive wilderness conditions, his chef instincts enable him to effortlessly manage the heat.
Rainbow trout is a fish with relatively high fat content, so even without extra oil, as long as the heat is controlled properly, it can still be deliciously fried.
While doing this, Li Younan’s level of focus even surpassed that of fishing, pouring on his special sauce. Soon, slices of rainbow trout grilled to perfection with a crispy exterior and tender interior were ready to be enjoyed.
Li Younan picked up a slice of meat with his homemade chopsticks, facing the camera and said, "Fans first."
Then he put it in his mouth, savoring it carefully, involuntarily nodding, with a satisfied expression on his face, saying, "I must say, the water quality here is very good, and the cold water of the plateau makes the texture of the rainbow trout much better than farmed ones."
After finishing lunch, Li Younan cut the remaining rainbow trout into slices and hung them on the rack built yesterday for smoking, taking a brief rest before starting the afternoon’s work.
Li Younan did not plan to make a nontraditional house; he chose the traditional Chinese wooden frame house.
Of course, since it’s just for one person, there’s no need for very thick or long beams, and once the scale is reduced, one person can still build it.
Yesterday, the foundation was already laid, and today’s task was to first erect the framework of the house.
To be honest, although the houses built by some experts in previous seasons were solid, in Li Younan’s view, they were still too crude. He wanted to showcase the art of traditional mortise-and-tenon joint construction to the global audience.
Before doing that, he needed to process the wood, so the entire afternoon was spent on one task, which was felling trees and then sawing the wood into suitable sizes and lugging them back.
This is relatively labor-intensive work.
The house structure Li Younan planned to build is the beam-lifting structure, and the first step was to prepare the materials for the beam-lifting frames.
Fortunately, since Li Younan’s house only needed to accommodate one person, just two sets of beam-lifting frames were enough, but even so, the amount of work required could not be completed in one day.
But he wasn’t in a hurry; according to his plan, getting the beam-lifting frames erected in three days would be enough.
Thanks to his mountaineering skills, moving these logs didn’t take much effort.
Before the sun set, Li Younan had already prepared the wood for erecting the beam-lifting frames.
Next, he needed to spend about two days processing these logs, which included peeling the wood and then using the mortise-and-tenon technique to assemble the two beam-lifting frames.

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