I am a local in North America

Chapter 10 Aurora

Chapter 10 Aurora
The next few days.

The cold wave arrived suddenly, with strong winds and blizzards, allowing Su Jerry to clearly appreciate the power of nature and feel deep awe for it.

The entire Great Slave Lake was frozen over, rendering the rafts completely useless and making it very difficult to catch fish.

The daylight hours are very short, only about four or five hours each day. The rest of the time it is either dark or pitch black at night.

Su Jierui felt that each day was like a year, and it became more and more difficult to endure. After participating in "Living Alone in the Wilderness" for so long, negative emotions kept piling up and accumulating, and he fell into a dazed state, as if he was in a semi-dormant state, in order to slow down the consumption of energy.

In modern society, it is too easy for people to obtain high-calorie foods. Fried chicken, French fries, cakes, cola, milk tea and the like are all "calorie bombs".

Obesity rates are rising steadily, and the percentage of people who are not getting enough to eat is very small, with the majority concentrated in Africa and West Asia, due to a combination of factors.

Su Jierui never imagined that one day he would be troubled by the struggle to make ends meet.

He currently has a sufficient food reserve, and theoretically, if he only eats enough food to meet his own calorie needs each day, he can last for about 120 days.

If they were to go hungry for a while, or continue hunting other prey, they might be able to survive until the 130th day.

So for the next few days, he focused on finding firewood. To keep warm, he used more firewood than he had expected, otherwise the shelter would have frozen over.

Another key point is to be extremely careful and do everything possible to avoid injury or illness. If you feel itchy, just wipe yourself with hot water in a homemade wooden basin and don't dare to take a bath easily to prevent catching a cold or fever.

He already exuded the air of a homeless person, and with his beard becoming even more unkempt and his hair even greasy, most people wouldn't recognize him at first glance, even if a friend stood in front of him.

However, Su Jierui doesn't look in the mirror and is too lazy to care about his appearance. If he smells, it's just a nuisance to him. For a huge prize of $100 million, this little trouble is not worth mentioning.

"These past two nights, I used my time before bed to make a small toilet so that it would be convenient to use the toilet indoors."

“It’s too cold outside, especially at night. Whether you’re No. 1 or No. 2, if you’re squatting outdoors at night, where the temperature drops to minus twenty degrees Celsius, you’re at risk of severe frostbite in just a few minutes. I’m not married or have children yet, and I don’t want to get frostbite on my vital parts and have lifelong regrets. It’s not worth it, even for the $100 million prize.”

"This little toilet is simple but very practical. You can empty it outside after you're done. You need to be careful to avoid the growth of bacteria and odors, so I usually try to keep it outdoors..."

Americans like to call urination "No. 1" and poop "No. 2." As for why, Su Jierui isn't quite sure either; that's just how everyone refers to them, probably to avoid sounding vulgar.

The toilet he made was rather simple; he simply took a 30-centimeter-high piece of dead tree trunk, hollowed out the middle with a dagger, and the recess was about 20 centimeters deep, which was enough for use.

"It's probably because I ate some inner bark of spruce trees and my stomach is lacking in oils that I've recently found myself a little constipated."

"Eating spruce bark directly is no longer feasible. Perhaps I should try crushing the inner layer of bark, which contains nutrients and starch, and then cut off the inner lining of a pocket to filter out the starch and other nutrients."

"Although doing this may reduce the feeling of fullness, it's very good for my gut."

Before participating in the show, Su Jierui certainly wouldn't have discussed constipation in front of the camera.

However, having long faced the most basic survival needs, he had already let himself go. Taking advantage of the burning firewood and the perfect temperature inside the shelter, he even openly showed off his upper body muscles and quickly wiped himself with a towel dampened with warm water.

As for his thermal underwear, he had already turned it inside out. This is a common technique for extending the wearing time of clothing in the wild. By using the relatively clean outer part of the underwear to contact the skin, he can last for another week.

I don't want to go through the hassle of washing clothes right now; changing my underwear is enough.

Before going to sleep.

After calculating the time, Su Jierui felt a little excited, thinking that tomorrow was the day the program team would send someone over for a physical examination.

As the competition continued, the medical check-up cycle was adjusted to once a week. He rarely had the opportunity to spend time with people and talk to them, and even if the time was very short, it was enough to make him look forward to it.

Worried that lack of sleep would affect his medical examination results, he forced himself to rest as soon as possible. He was even woken up twice at night by the cold because the firewood had burned out, so he added more firewood. Overall, he felt quite comfortable.

Last month, I was bothered by mice when I went to sleep at night. Now, the nighttime temperature is so cold that the mice dare not go out and will freeze to death in a short time.

Early the next morning.

The blizzard finally subsided temporarily, and he couldn't wait to go out of the shelter for some fresh air.

Before dawn, Su Jierui chopped firewood for half an hour after washing up, then drank a full wooden bowl of warm water, hoping to make the urine test results look cleaner and avoid being criticized by the production team for dehydration or abnormal indicators.

Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. I saw a green band of light floating in the air, mixed with yellow and pink, just like a computer screensaver.

The breathtaking beauty is simply indescribable; its magnificence can only be truly appreciated by witnessing it firsthand. "It's the aurora borealis!"

Su Jierui eagerly turned on his action camera, pointed it in the direction of the aurora, and said:
"I don't know how the photos turned out, but they're absolutely gorgeous!!!"

"This is the first time I've seen the aurora in all this time. I may have seen it before, but I just stayed in the shelter and slept."

"We're so lucky to be able to share such beautiful scenery with you all..."

The aurora lasted quite a long time, only gradually disappearing as the sun rose and the sky turned white.

Su Jierui was still enjoying himself, but he quickly turned his attention to the grilled yellow perch. He needed to eat as much as possible to gain weight before the program's medical team arrived.

Since hunting reindeer, I have been eating whenever I can to maintain my weight and wait for winter to arrive in the best possible condition.

In the third season of "Living Alone in the Wilderness", there was a contestant who clearly hoarded 33 fish but couldn't bear to eat them. As a result, he was forced to withdraw from the competition by the production team because he lost 42 pounds.

Su Jerry will not repeat such an absurd thing a second time.

On the eighty-ninth day of participating in the program, he felt physically stronger and healthier, but he was under considerable psychological pressure. Today, however, he found some relief by seeing the beautiful aurora.

While the sun is out.

After finishing his grilled fish, Su Jierui, who was so full he was burping, quickly went out fishing.

The ice cave that was recently dug is about 600-700 meters away from the camp. If the production team sends a helicopter over, we can walk back in time.

The snow on the shore was so thick it covered your calves, but there wasn't much snow on the ice. It was probably because the ice was too open and the snowflakes were blown away by the wind and couldn't accumulate.

The ice surface is uneven, but walking on it is relatively stable. The lake bottom, which seems lifeless, actually has quite a few fish swimming around.

Since hunting the snowshoe hare, which provided him with a day and a half's worth of food, Su Jerry had caught nothing in the following days.

While out chopping firewood during a break in the snowstorm, I encountered only one gray squirrel that had been dead for who knows how long. I didn't dare eat it, but I could use it as bait for burying animals.

After reopening the ice cave, Su Jierui sprinkled some gray squirrel meat scraps and bone fragments into the water.

After baiting the area, it did have some effect.

Before long, he saw fish swimming towards him.

Name: Lake Trout (Female)

[Age: 9 years old]

[Health Status: Excellent]

【Name: Arctic Grayfish (Male)】

[Age: 2 years old]

[Health Status: Excellent]

……

【Name: Male Cod】

[Age: 5 years old]