Starting from Robinson Crusoe

Snow doesn’t necessarily signal the arrival of the harsh winter, only the ever-decreasing temperatures indicate the unusual cold of this year.

Mount Baihar truly lives up to the "white" in its name, blanketed by layers of snow, changing its color.

Usually, the tall trees with their green branches covering the mountains have also become adornments among the white snow.

...

This kind of weather dramatically increases the risk of going out; no one knows if a blizzard will hit tomorrow, so all you can do is make every effort to stockpile fuel and food.

However, unlike before, ever since Chen Zhou returned, Paul’s life has been a bit more interesting—

Chen Zhou brought back a new companion.

Even though Paul didn’t know how Chen Zhou bypassed the challenge’s rules, nor where Chen Zhou found this person or how he persuaded him, out of trust and respect for his companion, he politely expressed friendliness to this person called Bi Kai.

Unfortunately, this person doesn’t understand Russian, and his Chinese sounds completely different from Chen Zhou’s Chinese.

He has been in the Shelter for several days, yet Paul still relies on hand gestures to communicate with him; speaking was utterly ineffective.

...

In this cold and primitive world, any wise human is a valuable resource.

Bi Kai’s arrival not only added new enjoyment to Paul and Chen Zhou’s lives but also brought a herd of deer and a large amount of Rock Salt carried by the deer.

Because the quantity of this Rock Salt was so great, the storage space Chen Zhou and Paul had reserved was completely insufficient to contain them, so they could only stack the Rock Salt neatly outside.

As for the indoor space, since there was an extra person, the two beds weren’t enough, so they added another one, which undoubtedly made the already cramped space seem even narrower.

Due to this, expanding the Shelter or building a new house for Bi Kai, or finding a suitable cave has all been put on the agenda.

Before setting off, Chen Zhou instructed Paul to pay attention to finding hibernating animals in tree holes or caves while chopping firewood.

This was originally a plan made to stockpile food and fat. Unexpectedly, Paul did indeed find several caves.

In total, there were five caves of various sizes, two of which were too shallow, one could see to the end at a glance, one was too narrow, barely enough for half a person to enter.

Of the remaining two, one was located down the mountainside, about 3 kilometers from the Shelter. The entrance sloped downward; Paul looked down from above and felt it was at least 5 meters deep. The walls were smooth and steep, worried about encountering a beast after descending and being unable to climb back, so he didn’t try to explore it deeply.

The other cave was located at the foothill, with an unusually large entrance about 6 to 8 meters in diameter, getting narrower as it went inward.

Paul cautiously walked a short distance inside the cave, discovering some skeletons gnawed by wild animals, and some old dried feces of carnivorous animals, but didn’t find any fur of presumed hibernating animals.

Following Chen Zhou’s advice, he didn’t dare to go too deep, remembered the location, and then exited.

...

Paul’s exploration of the mountain provided Chen Zhou with a lot of useful information.

Now, the other two people in the group all look to him for leadership, whether it’s about expanding the house or relocating, it’s up to him to decide.

Seeing the wind on the mountainside getting stronger and the temperature dropping daily, and the soil on the mountain frozen as hard as rock due to the extreme cold, making it nearly impossible to dig.

It’s definitely too late to expand the house, and building a new Shelter from scratch is out of the question, so Chen Zhou decisively opts to take advantage of nature’s craftsmanship.

However, before moving, he needs to do some exploration, at least to "invite" out the "original inhabitants" inside the cave, and then move in.

Human coexistence is naturally harmonious, but if animals are involved, the atmosphere may not be so pleasant.

According to Paul’s introduction, the small cave on the mountainside fascinates Chen Zhou the most—

The downward sloping entrance is discreet enough, and they can add wooden panels at the entrance to prevent wind and snow from entering.

The properly sized entrance prevents heat loss inside the cave and allows building a chimney along the sloping path to emit smoke generated during burning inside.

Of course, this cave also has its inconveniences, namely the lighting issue.

Compared to a straight entrance, the light inside this cave will be particularly dim.

As for the cave at the bottom of the mountain, the entrance is just too large, practically inviting the wind to blow inside, and there are obvious traces of beast activity inside.

From what Chen Zhou knows, many dwelling beasts have the habit of dragging prey or found carcasses back to their lairs, if this cave is also like that, moving in would mean being constantly exposed to stench from carcasses, and there may be a considerable amount of excrement inside the cave.

Chen Zhou isn’t sure about Paul and Bi Kai’s tolerance for bad odor, but he knows very well how sensitive his own sense of smell is.

Living in such a place, being constantly tormented by stench, he would undoubtedly be driven crazy by the smell.

...

Upholding the principle of preferring smaller over larger, Paul and Chen Zhou headed to the two cave locations, and after confirming the positions, Chen Zhou armed himself and prepared to explore ahead.

While he was exploring the caves, Paul and Bi Kai were not idle either.

Paul had to spare some time each day to crush the Rock Salt, then boil it in the field pot, pour the saline into simply baked clay bowls, and wait for it to crystallize.

This method of purifying salt obviously cannot remove all harmful substances from natural Rock Salt, but it can at least have some effect.