Chapter 41: Bathing
After a full day’s effort in front, Su Ran obtained two bowls, three U-shaped bone knives, two winnowing baskets woven from willow branches, and one large basket.
Actually, that bone from yesterday should have been enough to make four bone knives, but later it was broken off a small section by the werewolf, so only three could be made.
But this was enough to use anyway.
Su Ran had also forced the unwilling werewolf that evening to take off the underwear it had just worn on its body for a day.
Then she took the underwear and sanitary napkin she had modified for herself from clothes the previous day, went to the riverside, and cleaned them with green fruit pits.
Early this morning, when the werewolf got up and went out, Su Ran woke up.
Outside, the morning light was dim, still carrying water vapor.
From time to time, the roar calls of beastmen came from outside, mixed with sounds of running, jumping, and wings flapping, very lively.
Su Ran got up from the sleeping bag laid under her body, took the mug and multi-tool axe, and took out the climbing rope from the bundle of survival gear in the bag.
There were still many fruits piled in the corner. She picked a green fruit from them, put it in her pocket, and after it quieted down outside, walked to the bird’s nest entrance.
The werewolf’s underwear hanging on the branch at the entrance was gone, leaving only Su Ran’s one and two sanitary napkins.
She poked her head out and looked down at the tree.
The ground under the tree was clean and dry; the werewolf’s underwear probably hadn’t fallen down.
That meant it had probably been worn away by the werewolf.
She pursed her lips and smiled.
On the left side near the bottom of the bird’s nest entrance, there was a tree trunk as thick as a wooden bucket.
The tree trunk was twenty centimeters below the bird’s nest, a distance she could reach by slightly stepping out.
From here, she could see marks on the tree trunk near the bird’s nest where many branches had been broken off.
It was probably branches growing from the tree trunk that had blocked the bird’s nest entrance, so the werewolf had cleaned them off.
Su Ran squatted down, carefully stepped toward the tree trunk, and once both feet were on it, she quickly changed from a squatting position to facing the bird’s nest, straddling the tree trunk.
After sitting steady, she poked her head out and looked down.
She was now about fifteen meters above the ground, while the rope in her hand was fifty meters long.
She untied the rope, held the two rope ends together, and threw the remaining rope part down the tree, so the whole rope unrolled itself as it fell.
Once the other end of the folded rope dropped to the ground, she pulled the rope up bit by bit.
The other end of the rope now had an arc bent out from the middle fold; she held that end of the arc, lay on the tree trunk, and groped with both hands to thread the rope body through the fold.
This meant the rope was tied securely.
Then she gripped the rope tightly in her hands and slowly let her body leave the bird’s nest tree.
The instant her body hung in the air, the sensation of weightlessness made her heart contract sharply.
She resisted looking down at the tree, imagining she was just hanging on a single bar, then kicked off the tree trunk with one foot, slowly released one hand, and moved down a bit.
With her actions, her figure gradually moved away from the bird’s nest tree.
When she had descended to about five or six meters from the ground, she paused slightly to rest.
Then she took a breath and quickly moved down another four or five meters, jumping directly to the ground when less than a meter remained.
After landing, Su Ran pulled on the rope, looked up, and exhaled.
She secretly decided in her heart that when she returned later, she would definitely make a ladder.
The open space under the tree was quiet.
At this time, the adult beastmen had probably all gone out hunting, with only the little beastmen still sleeping in the nest.
Su Ran turned her head to look around and walked toward the river beach.
After leaving the woods, Su Ran went directly upstream along the river beach.
On the way by the riverside, she also found some mint grass and picked a few leaves, planning to use them to clean her teeth later.
After walking forward about three hundred meters, she stopped and looked back.
At this distance, it shouldn’t be hard for the beastmen to find her.
But because the river beach here turned a bend, if the beastmen didn’t come over, they basically wouldn’t see her blocked by the trees.
This place was not far from the riverbank where the beastmen usually processed prey, still within the beastmen’s territory, so she didn’t need to worry too much about wild beasts appearing here.
After all, the beastmen were predators to the wild beasts.
At least yesterday, Su Ran had seen a tiger-type beastman catch prey that was the kind of beast like a pig crossed with an elephant she had seen on the second day in this world.
She quickly chose a spot right next to the riverbank. She stacked some stones as a base for a campfire, gathered some branches from the woods, and lit a campfire.
Then she used the stainless steel mug to heat a mug of water on a stone by the campfire, planning to drink a mug of hot water first to warm her body after bathing later.
At this moment, she somewhat regretted not having the werewolf make a larger wooden basin yesterday; that way, she could have heated water in the basin to wipe her body without going into the river.
But there was no way around it now.
She broke open the green fruit, took out the pit inside, and smashed it into paste on a stone.
Then she gritted her teeth, took off her clothes, and slowly walked into the river water.
But the instant she touched the river water, she froze for a moment.
The river water was cold, but not as piercingly cold as she had imagined; after adapting for a bit, it was still within an acceptable range.
She walked a few more steps into the river water, submerging her whole body, then began scrubbing her body.
Not having bathed for over a week, and with the previous days in that wind-and-sleep-exposed state, her body naturally wasn’t clean.
Even just getting wet, without soaking, she could scrub off guts.
Su Ran looked at the mud clumps she scrubbed off her body, wondering how the werewolf could tolerate being with such a her, sleeping pressed tightly against her every day, and always wanting to snuggle close.
After quickly scrubbing her whole body, even scratching and scrubbing her back with her arm for a while, Su Ran quickly grabbed a handful of the smashed green fruit pit paste, dipped it in water, and smeared it over her body.
Until she felt it was enough, she soaked her body in the water, letting the water flow wash away the foam.
And just as she was about to get out of the water, she suddenly heard a high-pitched wolf howl carrying anger and panic coming from deep in the dense woods far away!
She was startled!
She then realized this was the werewolf’s call!
The werewolf was back!
Realizing this, Su Ran’s heart panicked; she hadn’t expected the werewolf to return so early today!
It was clearly still a long time before it usually returned in the previous days?!
Now, if the werewolf saw she wasn’t in the bird’s nest, would it think she had escaped? Would it harm her because of her “escape,” or drive her away?
And just as Su Ran hadn’t figured it out yet, she suddenly heard the sound of wings flapping…
