LSLFBW: Chapter 140 Part 2

Lang Ze wasn’t picky about food, especially when he was alone. He could eat a large piece of roasted meat as long as it was cooked through. So even though he had heard about many of Qi Bai’s cooking methods, he rarely tried them. This meant his culinary repertoire was still limited.

Tonight’s dinner mainly consisted of steamed sweet potatoes and roasted smoked meat.

It was clear that Lang Ze wanted to try the smoked meat rolls that Qi Bai had made at the housewarming banquet. The rolls weren’t entirely successful but they tasted quite good with the dipping sauce.

Qi Bai brought up the conversation between Quan Nan and Niu Xi, smiling as he said to Lang Ze, “I think Quan Nan isn’t indifferent to Hu Qiao. Has Hu Qiao actually expressed his feelings clearly?”

Lang Ze shook his head. “I don’t know.”

It was interesting. Beastmen who weren’t familiar with each other could express their love without restraint, but someone like Hu Qiao, who had been pursuing someone for a long time, was still missing the final step.

Qi Bai nudged Lang Ze. “Why aren’t you worried about Hu Qiao? He should at least make things clear.”

Lang Ze was by the kang and pinched Qi Bai’s leg after hearing this. “Let him keep it to himself.” Then he lifted the animal skin curtain and started clearing the table.

Qi Bai lay on the kang and carefully pondered on Lang Ze’s words.

Lang Ze washed the dishes and placed them in Qi Bai’s usual spot. He was just about to leave when a warm hand grabbed him.

Lang Ze ruffled Qi Bai’s hair. “What’s wrong?”

Qi Bai’s neck was a bit red. “Never mind… don’t leave today.”

Qi Bai and Lang Ze had become partners but they no longer slept together like before.

The reason was obvious. Young people, especially young beastmen in heat, found it difficult to control their bodies.

This was why Lang Ze said that Hu Qiao should just hold it in.

This statement had two layers of meaning. First, Hu Qiao deserved to be single for keeping things bottled up. Second, it was hard to say whether Lang Ze wanted Hu Qiao to keep it bottled up along with him.

Qi Bai himself was a man so he knew that some things couldn’t be kept bottled up forever.

Lang Ze’s hand paused slightly. “Didn’t we agree not to mate?”

Qi Bai felt like he was burning up as he stammered, “There are other ways not to mate. I… I can teach you.”

As if afraid that Qi Bai would change his mind, Lang Ze bent down, grabbed Qi Bai by the waist and strode into the bedroom.

The curtain swayed a few times before settling into stillness.

After an unknown amount of time, the faint sound of suppressed breathing could be heard from behind the curtain.

Qi Bai felt a gentle touch on his forehead.

He opened his eyes and saw Lang Ze’s clear eyes.

In human form, Lang Ze’s eyes were brown-black. At close range, a hint of deep blue could be seen at the base.

However, those eyes now seemed to hold a dangerous glint.

Qi Bai quickly remembered what they had done the previous night and immediately understood the meaning in Lang Ze’s eyes. He was so embarrassed that he wanted to burrow under the covers.

However, the blanket wasn’t safe. Qi Bai was now somewhat glad that he hadn’t agreed to go all the way with Lang Ze. Was that something a human could do?

Oh right, Lang Ze wasn’t human and he also wasn’t human now. Still, this was a bit exaggerated even if they were beastmen.

Qi Bai grabbed Lang Ze’s hand, a bit guilty. “It is daytime now…”

Lang Ze didn’t see any difference between day and night.

But if Qi Bai preferred nighttime… Lang Ze pulled the animal skin blanket up, covering them both.

After all this commotion, Qi Bai was completely awake although he felt like he had forgotten something.

Qi Bai’s gaze fell on the stone slab on the wall, a large circle coming into view. His eyes widened and he threw off the blanket. He ignored the chill in the air as he grabbed the animal skin coat and pulled it on.

Lang Ze’s tone carried a hint of satisfied laziness. “Why the rush?”

Qi Bai pulled the cloak over himself. “I have class today!”

He hurriedly lifted the animal skin curtain, glancing at Lang Ze before leaving.

Lang Ze slowly sat up, his well-defined abs revealed as the blanket slid down.

Yesterday’s snail girl was gone. Qi Bai felt that the Lang Ze before him was practically a demon in disguise.

Qi Bai inwardly shouted as he ran towards the school, ‘Beauty is a curse! Beauty has ruined me!’

The warm winter sun shone carelessly, casting colorful halos on the snow-covered rooftops like clusters of sparkling crystals.

However, Qi Bai wasn’t in the mood to appreciate these beautiful scenes. He leaned against the outer wall of the school, exhaling white breath as he took several deep breaths to calm himself down. Then he straightened his clothes and turned to enter the school.

The tribe members in the school were talking quietly and Qi Bai’s lateness didn’t attract much attention.

Qi Bai walked to the podium, hung his cloak and said to Tu Ya, “Thank you for today.”

Two addition problems were written on the blackboard. They were clearly hastily written by Tu Ya when Qi Bai hadn’t arrived by the appointed time.

Tu Ya smiled. “Everyone just arrived. If you hadn’t come over by the time they finished these two questions, I would’ve sent someone to call you.”

Qi Bai touched his nose apologetically, vowing never to mess around in the morning again. It would be so embarrassing if someone actually came to call him.

Once everyone had finished discussing, Qi Bai went to the podium and explained the two questions Tu Ya had written on the blackboard before beginning his literacy lesson.

Qi Bai wrote the character ‘月 (Moon)’ on the blackboard before drawing a crescent moon shape next to it.

Bao Xing immediately exclaimed, “It is the moon!”

This was the charm of Chinese characters. It was derived from pictographs, so the Chinese character system retained many similar-looking characters. This made people less resistant to them. When teaching, Qi Bai prioritized showing these easy-to-understand characters.

Just as Qi Bai was teaching everyone to write and reinforce their memory, Lang Ze quietly appeared at the school gate.

He didn’t go directly to the podium, but instead circled the crowd from the outermost edge. Finally, he stopped beside the wall. He took out a piece of animal hide from his cloak, gestured to Qi Bai and stuffed it back into the cloak.

Qi Bai hadn’t eaten breakfast this morning, so he could almost smell the aroma of roasted meat from the animal hide just looking at it from afar.

However, he was in class now. He might be hungry but he could only wait until the class was over.

Learning in the tribe was primarily based on interest. The school curriculum wasn’t mandatory, so Qi Bai didn’t use a rote learning approach.

Qi Bai’s literacy lessons were mainly divided into two parts. The first was explaining words that the tribe members used in their daily life, trying to help everyone associate the corresponding objects with their written characters.

The second was teaching everyone to write the character for an animal each day, mainly to help everyone write their own names as soon as possible.

Since they learned the character for ‘moon’ today, Qi Bai chose ‘bear’ as the animal character for the lesson.

Qi Bai pointed to Xiong Feng. “This is the character for ‘bear’ in Xiong Feng’s beast form.”

Xiong Feng was tall. Originally he sat behind a tree stump and towered over the other tribe members. Upon hearing Qi Bai’s words, he deflated like a punctured balloon, instantly slumping down.

Shu Lan, standing nearby, felt a wave of dizziness. He had finally learned the character for ‘rat 鼠’ and now his companion was a ‘bear 熊’. Why weren’t their beast forms something like cows, horses or sheep? Their names were so easy to write.

Qi Bai laughed. “We have to learn these characters sooner or later, and the character for bear isn’t that hard to remember. Just think of it as Xiong Feng. This is his head, body and four legs. Then add a fire under his body.”

Yang Ling asked in confusion, “Why did you set a fire beneath Xiong Feng’s body?”

Qi Bai paused, unable to describe it as a raging fire. The beastman language didn’t have some complicated adjectives.

Hu Meng raised a hand. “I know, I know. It is because the first big prey we hunted after arriving at the tribe was a black bear. We need to put the bear on the fire so we will have more food later.”

“That’s right.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Qi Bai was stunned but he had to admit that the explanation sounded reasonable and convincing.

The hour-long lesson ended quickly. Lang Ze handed over the roasted meat, secretly glancing at Qi Bai’s face. “This morning… you’re not angry, are you?”

Qi Bai replied between bites of meat, “It wasn’t your fault. I just forgot.”

What was there to be angry about? If he refused, Lang Ze definitely wouldn’t have continued. In the end, it was his own choice. He couldn’t entirely blame Lang Ze.

Lu Guo and Niu Xi had just approached when they saw the two of them being so affectionate. They both smiled and stood aside without coming forward.

Normally, Qi Bai wouldn’t be afraid to see this. However, the two of them just had some intimate contact. With everyone watching, he felt like they could see something and even the tips of his ears felt a bit hot.

Qi Bai coughed lightly, wrapped the remaining roasted meat in animal hide and stuffed it in his cloak. “We are heading to the kiln now.”

Lang Ze hadn’t taken his eyes off Qi Bai since entering. Upon hearing that Qi Bai was leaving, his first reaction was, “I’ll go with you.”

Qi Bai quickly replied, “There is still a lot to do at the training ground. Training Chuan Chuan is the priority now. Don’t forget that Tun Quan and the others are still freezing over at the thorny fence. You should go quickly.”

After walking quite a distance, Niu Xi sighed. “I never expected Lang Ze to be like this when with you.”

Qi Bai couldn’t help smiling.

Lang Ze didn’t talk much outside, giving off a cold impression. Only Qi Bai knew that he was a clingy, big dog in private.

Just thinking about Lang Ze’s various emotions that only he could see made Qi Bai feel a surge of emotion in his heart.

The three of them returned to the kiln. Lu Guo and Niu Xi went to check the kiln that had been sealed off the day before while Qi Bai went back to the house to continue tinkering with the stones.

Qi Bai placed the small stones from the ashes on the stone slab, hammered the stones into small pieces and ground them in a stone mortar.

The small stones that had been fired were no longer as hard as before. They quickly turned into crimson powder under Qi Bai’s hands.

At this moment, Lu Guo and Niu Xi moved the fired pottery into the house and placed it on a rack against the wall. Then they moved the already dried pottery blanks from the kang into the kiln.

The kilns had been running continuously with the tribe’s population increasing, but even so, the pottery produced was far from enough for the tribe’s needs.

By the time the two of them finished tidying up the pottery kiln’s work, Qi Bai’s stones were almost finished.

Lu Guo asked, “What do you need us to do now?”

“We need some bricks to build the stove higher,” Qi Bai said. “Today, we won’t use firewood. We will use charcoal to burn the fire.”

Since people moved into brick houses, their way of heating had shifted from using open flames in caves to burning fire under the stove. Thanks to the chimney for exhausting smoke, people didn’t have to worry about excessive smoke inside even when burning firewood. Charcoal was no longer a necessity in daily life.

Unlike the new tribe members, Lu Guo knew well the benefits of charcoal. Every so often, she would fire several kilns. This meant charcoal was the least lacking item in the kiln yard.

Lu Guo nodded, took a rattan basket to the warehouse and soon returned with a basket of charcoal.

Qi Bai looked at the charcoal that Lu Guo had brought back. It was somewhat different from the ones he had casually burned before. They seemed to be carefully selected, so he couldn’t help asking about it.

Lu Guo picked up the charcoal and said, “This charcoal is made from branches of the lai tree. This type of charcoal produces almost no smoke and is more resistant to burning than other branches.”

Qi Bai knew about the lai tree. It was a tall tree unique to the Black Mountain area. Normally, it never blossomed or bore fruit. He hadn’t expected it to be a good material for charcoal burning.

He placed the charcoal at the bottom of the stove, and evenly sprinkled the crimson powder over it. Once the charcoal was lit, he sprinkled another layer of charcoal. Next, he stayed by the fan, blowing air to boost the flames.

Ironmaking was a physical and time-consuming job. The group immersed themselves at the kiln. Lang Ze rarely saw Qi Bai except for the morning and evening.

By the time Qi Bai and the other two finally had some clues and could pick out some fine iron slag from the charcoal ashes, three days had already passed.

That afternoon, a sudden crowd came outside the kiln.

Niu Xi ran to the door and looked around. Then he turned back and said, “Chuan Chuan is here.”

Qi Bai also glanced outside and saw four or five people accompanying Chuan Chuan to the stone sheepfold.

Lang Ze had just finished training and was wearing only a thin animal skin coat. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing the smooth lines of his forearms. He exuded a unique wild beauty.

Before long, Lang Ze stepped into the house containing Qi Bai and the others.

Qi Bai, who was using the fan, looked at Lang Ze with some curiosity. “Don’t you need to train with everyone?”

Lang Ze sat down beside Qi Bai and took the task from his hands. “No need.”

Qi Bai, “……?”

“I’ve divided the hunting team into several groups. From now on, the daily training of the hunting team, including the sub-beastmen, will be handled by the group leaders.”

The tribe’s daily training content varied. The horned beastmen mostly focused on improving hunting skills and team coordination. The sub-beastmen’s beast forms weren’t suitable for hunting large prey, so they trained more on human-like combat and evasion skills.

“Our team’s recent task is to keep an eye on Chuan Chuan.” Lang Ze continued, “The fight between Chuan Chuan and the four-eared sheep can be watched by Xi Zhou and the others. I can help you with the work.”

Qi Bai looked at his unlucky sheep son and suddenly felt that Lang Ze used him as a tool sheep.