LSLFBW: Chapter 25 Part 4

Since everyone had to continue working at night, Qi Bai saw several bonfires burning in the square when he came out of the cave with his bamboo bowl for eating. They made the forest brighter.

Today, everyone in the tribe was processing pork and animal skins. There weren’t many fresh wild vegetables in the tribe, so today’s dinner used the vegetable roots that Yang Luo found in the cave.

In order to prevent everyone from working on an empty stomach, each person was given a few sweet potatoes in addition to a large bowl of pork stewed with vegetable roots.

Of course, it was called pork stew with vegetable roots, but it was actually pork bone stew with vegetable roots. After all, a lot of ribs and bones had been picked out today. Some of the ones with meat could be pickled, but those with less meat weren’t worth pickling and should be eaten first.

Yang Luo might’ve said that Qi Bai was stupid when seeing him rush to eat the bones yesterday, but the bones they picked out today would last for several days.

Qi Bai didn’t think he was at a disadvantage as he happily received his sweet potatoes. Qi Bai liked eating sweet potatoes very much. His stomach might be that of a beastman and meat was his staple food, but he was still a modern man at heart. He hoped that his food could be as diverse as possible. At least in terms of taste, he still hoped for a bit of difference rather than the same old stew every day.

Everyone was very busy today, but at this moment, they were all comfortable and relaxed as they sat around the fire.

Qi Bai buried his sweet potato in the fire. Then he lay casually on the ground, resting his head on his arms as he looked at the night sky above his head.

The sky in late autumn was high. Countless stars were twinkling in the dark blue night sky. A few thin clouds floated in the air like gauze.

Qi Bai hadn’t seen such bright stars on Earth for a long time. Unfortunately, the sky of the beastmen world with two moons always made Qi Bai feel that something was missing from this familiar appearance.

The little beastmen were always full of energy. They held their bamboo bowls and ran and played back and forth on the bamboo frame between two big trees. From time to time, they stopped and looked up to smell the meat in the air.

The bamboo bowl in their hands was already full of meat, but they still drooled at the countless meat on the tree.

As the weather turned colder, the beastmen’s human form was far less warm than their beast form. At this moment, some younger children turned into their beast form. They either followed behind the half-grown beastmen or rolled together and bit each other while playing.

Qi Bai smiled as he watched the children playing. He thought that such a day was really good…

However, this leisure time lasted less than half an hour. Qi Bai’s sweet potatoes weren’t fully cooked when Yang Luo started to get everyone working again.

It wasn’t until the moon reached its peak that everyone was able to return to the cave to rest.

Of course, rest was always the privilege of sub-beastmen and children. The five adult beastmen who stayed behind in the tribe, even the injured Xiong Feng, needed to take turns to keep watch. No one could relax for a moment until the pickled meat was pickled and stored in the cave.

The temperature was getting lower and lower. Qi Bai, who was sleeping near the cave entrance, had the most say about this. Moreover, as the open space outside the cave became larger and larger, without the cover of plants, the wind blowing in from outside the cave would become more and more wanton. However, Qi Bai had already gotten used to this location. In addition, the small amount of assets belonging to him and Lang Ze were piled up here. No one would rummage through them at will, but Qi Bai always felt that this was his territory and didn’t want to move away.

It was a pity that Qi Bai’s animal skin would take several days to be done. That piece of sheepskin with thick fur looked very warm.

Qi Bai went to the forest and brought back some hay. He spread it on the cold stone. Then he turned back into a beast and curled himself up into a ball.

At this time, Qi Bai no longer disliked his tail. There was nothing more comfortable than sleeping with a big furry tail that was almost as long as his body.

After waking up the next morning, Qi Bai jumped out of the warm hay nest. He lowered his front legs, stuck out his butt, and stretched his body. Then he took brisk steps to the open space on the right side of the cave to check on the wild boars. Sure enough, the four wild boars that were still alive before going to bed yesterday were now all dead.

Qi Bai ran to the waterfall to wash up before hurrying back to the tribe. Today’s work would still be very heavy, and there was no time to waste.

There was already a thriving scene in front of the cave. After a night of rest, no one looked tired any longer. Many beastmen even looked at the wild boars in the corner, rubbing their hands with anticipation. For the people of the Black Mountain Tribe, pickling meat wasn’t hard work but a type of enjoyment. After all, they might not be able to eat it but it was good to touch the meat.

There weren’t many wild vegetables left in the tribe. Autumn in the mountains meant there were changes every day. A tree that might’ve had half of its leaves green yesterday might’ve turned yellow overnight. Therefore, their task of picking wild vegetables and fruit was very urgent. Only half the people stayed in the tribe to pickle wild boar meat today, while Hu Xu and She Li took their two gathering teams out to gather.

Based on yesterday’s experience, everyone was very adept at handling today’s wild boar. They skinned, cut, marinated and dried the meat. It only took most of the morning for everyone to complete the marinating of the meat.

Qi Bai carried the child hanging the last piece of meat down from the tree. He turned around and saw Tu Ya holding Qi Bai’s rattan basket, waiting not far away. It seemed that Tu Ya didn’t intend to rest for even a minute and wanted to take everyone to collect meat directly.

Qi Bai put the child on the ground and said to Tu Ya, “Wait a minute, I am going to get something.” Then he hurried back to the cave.

The broom made by Qi Bai had spread in the tribe after being demonstrated by the children. Once everyone had nothing to do, they liked to sweep the open space with a broom. However, the wooden rake he had made before had been forgotten in the corner of the cave because he never had a chance to use it. QI Bai only remembered this wooden rake when he heard that Tu Ya was going to dig sweet potatoes.

Tu Ya and the others saw Qi Bai hurriedly take out a strange tool from the cave. He took his rattan basket and put it in.

Shu Lin asked curiously, “Is this also a broom? Why are you taking a broom to the sweet potato mountain? There is no open space to clean there.”

Qi Bai smiled at him. “You will know when we get to the sweet potato mountain.”

It wasn’t that Qi Bai was unwilling to give it to Shu Lin and the others. It was just that he had only made one wooden rake. On the day he made it, a child followed him and learned to make one. However, it wasn’t Qi Bai’s after all. The little guy seemed to be reluctant to let go of the wooden rake every day. This meant Qi Bai didn’t feel comfortable asking to borrow it from him.

Besides, this wooden rake wasn’t difficult to make. If someone saw him using it and wanted to make one, he could just teach everyone how to make it.

Since they left home at noon, everyone moved very quickly. The journey that usually took an hour only took 40 minutes today.

The moment everyone dispersed, Shu Lin found Qi Bai. He was extremely surprised after seeing Qi Bai easily dig up the ground with the wooden rake in his hand. If they didn’t need to work now, Shu Lin would’ve wanted to make one right away.

The help of the wooden rake meant Qi Bai’s efficiency was much higher this afternoon. After an hour, he had filled his rattan basket. It seemed that he could bring an extra rattan basket with him tomorrow.

Qi Bai gave the wooden rake in his hand to Shu Lin. The animal skin bag hanging around his neck could still hold some things. He planned to go to the place where he had picked chestnuts last time. Today, he had time to go there and patiently peel off the hairy shells to take back only the chestnuts.

Shu Lin happily took the wooden rake and told Qi Bai to put the rattan basket there without worry. He would keep an eye on it. Then Qi Bai walked towards the chestnut tree according to his memory.

Along the way, QI Bai discovered that the traces of animals biting the plants on the mountain had become more obvious. Obviously, there were more animals on the sweet potato mountain. It was a pity that they came back too late. Once winter came, it would be even more difficult to catch these prey.

He walked for a while before seeing a tall tree with many small red and black fruits. Qi Bai sniffed the smell in the air and found it familiar. He walked forward and put a small bunch of red fruits on his palm. At just one glance, Qi Bai’s eyes widened slightly.

Peppercorn!

This was a great tool for cooking meat dishes!

Qi Bai couldn’t help looking up at the peppercorn tree that was at least three or four meters tall. He always thought that judging from the appearance of peppercorns, they should grow on low shrubs. He didn’t expect for peppercorns to actually grow on trees.

It might be that the season for peppercorns to mature had passed. Many of the peppercorns had already burst open. The seeds had disappeared, leaving only some empty shells hanging on the treetops. However, this didn’t dampen Qi Bai’s enthusiasm at all. After all, the purpose of eating peppercorns wasn’t to eat the seeds but to enjoy the spicy and numbing flavor of the peppercorn shells.

Qi Bai didn’t hesitate and no longer thought about chestnuts. Now nothing could stop his passion for peppercorns. Qi Bai carefully avoided the thorns on the branches. He picked bunches of red fruits and put them into his animal skin bag.

This job might look easy, but by the time Qi Bai heard Tu Ya’s whistle, he realized he hadn’t picked too many in half a day. His animal skin bag was just barely full.

But this was enough to last for a while. Qi Bai tightened his animal skin bag and happily ran in the direction of the gathering point.