Bai Sasa and Xiao Shan hurriedly handed her water in fright.
Speechless, Bai Junjun spat out the fruit and rinsed her mouth, but there were still three kinds of small fruit untested on the table. Bai Sasa quickly placed these fruits into the newly dug food box.
"Let’s try again when the weather gets better. These fruits don’t seem ripe yet, let’s nurture them for a few more days."
"..." Bai Junjun glanced at the remains of those two strange fruits; she felt indifferent, but sensing the growing tension from Bai Sasa and Xiao Shan, she decided to give up.
Picking the fruit was originally meant to comfort them, but achieving the opposite effect was certainly not ideal.
Then, the rain outside stopped again, and as night was fast approaching, Bai Junjun went downstairs once more.
At this moment, even Xiao Shan couldn’t help but feel nervous, sensing the unreliable soul beneath Bai Junjun’s seemingly reliable nature.
"Where are you going?"
"Ah... I am going to make an oil lamp," replied Bai Junjun nonchalantly.
Bai Sasa and Xiao Shan looked at each other in confusion. How easy could it be to make an oil lamp?
However, Bai Junjun soon showed them just how easy it was to make an oil lamp.
Earlier, while roasting the suckling pig, a lot of fat had rendered out, which Bai Junjun had collected in a wooden bowl, amassing half a bowl from just one small pig.
Carrying this half bowl of oil, Bai Junjun walked directly to the edge of the shrubbery and used a stone awl to slice open the tree bark one by one; some exuded sap, others oozed sticky latex.
Seeing the latex, Bai Junjun immediately collected it in the bowl, not returning to her kitchen until she had filled one bowl.
Upon seeing this, Bai Sasa quickly helped to get the stove going, and then Bai Junjun, with the help of the fire, continuously stirred the bowl of pig fat mixed with latex.
It didn’t take long for it to turn into a milky white substance.
Bai Junjun found a few strands of grass, twisted them into a wick, and placed it inside, thus creating a simple oil lamp.
In fact, lighting in the late apocalypse relied entirely on petroleum or solar energy, and only madmen used zombies’ corpse oil as petroleum. Though largely scorned, Bai Junjun’s inspiration for the oil lamp indeed came from that of the madman.
Xiao Shan curiously stared at the bowl of white paste, somewhat skeptical.
"Can it really light up?"
"It should work with no problems, once it solidifies, it can basically be used like a candle."
"That’s not how my family makes it," said Xiao Shan.
"How does your family do it?" Bai Junjun was also intrigued.
"I don’t remember, but it also requires a long time to simmer, but it’s not quite the same as this," Xiao Shan pointed at the opened rubber.
In fact, ancient lighting did not incorporate rubber. The nobles directly used clean oil or paraffin wax, but these methods were complex and costly, with techniques largely held within the artisan community and not shared outside.
Rural families, however, made their own animal fat oil. This simmering method was simple, but the burning of animal fat paste produced an unpleasant odor and a lot of smoke, which nobles disliked.
Currently, without complex and cumbersome techniques or enough animal corpses to render fat from, Bai Junjun had to use pig fat, and the added tree gum was intended to prolong the burn time.
Otherwise, such a small bowl of oil would burn out before midnight, which would indeed be distressing.
Bai Junjun patted Xiao Shan’s head, "Then compare tonight, and see whether this candle is more useful or your family’s."
"Okay," Xiao Shan nodded happily.
As Xiao Shan looked forward to it, night finally fell. The group brought the roasted pork and water back to their room to eat, and for a sense of ceremony, they specially lit the oil lamp.