LSLFBW: Chapter 38

What exactly Qi Bai wanted to do with so much bamboo had become a hot topic in the tribe.

After all, there were dozens of bamboo piled on the platform in front of Qi Bai’s cave. Even so, he would accept bamboo from anyone who gave it to him. Then he would give the person some snacks.

Qi Bai’s snacks had also been upgraded. In addition to the dried radix, Qi Bai also cooked some sweet potato chips on the stone slab.

This snack, which was so addictive in modern times, was also welcomed by the people of the Black Mountain Tribe in the beastmen world. Several horned beastmen boys would even go out of their way to cut some bamboo to exchange for Qi Bai’s dried sweet potatoes.

Qi Bai naturally had a great use for why he collected so much bamboo.

The progress of the charcoal burning at the kiln had stabilized. The tribe members had mastered the technique of burning charcoal, so there was no need for Qi Bai to go there.

Qi Bai’s pottery had already been put into the kiln yesterday. He just had to wait for the kiln to cool down before going over to check it.

The biggest change these days was to Qi Bai’s cave. The entrance of Qi Bai’s cave had been renovated by him into a gate about three meters high and half a meter wide. Inside was an empty room around ten meters long and five meters wide.

Such a large room was enough for Qi Bai to live alone. What he needed to do now was to slowly add furniture to the room.

In Qi Bai’s current room, apart from some food piled up in the corner, there were only three larger pieces of furniture. Two of them were concave charcoal basins with a diameter of around 50 centimeters that he had carved out while digging the hole.

These two charcoal basins were usually used to burn charcoal to heat the room. They could also serve as stoves when cooking. He could grill meat by putting a stone slab on the charcoal basin, or he could cook soup or boil water by putting a stone pot on it. It was very convenient to use.

The other one was his small hay nest for sleeping. This hay nest had been with him since the collective cave. It could be said that it had made great contributions. However, as Qi Bai’s room became more and more spacious, it was time for this small hay nest to be retired.

Therefore, the first thing Qi Bai needed to do now was to build a large bamboo bed that allowed him to sleep comfortably. It was unlike now where he didn’t even have a place to take a nap.

It was just that his goal was ambitious, but the reality was full of difficulties.

Making bamboo furniture wasn’t something that could be accomplished through strength alone. During the past few days of trying, Qi Bai had encountered various problems. By the time he officially started work, he had already prepared a long list of tools.

Qi Bai took two straw ropes and walked to the bamboo pile. He started to carefully select the bamboo. One of the straw ropes had several knots tied on it, which were marked by Qi Bai when he measured the room. They were the height of the bamboo bed pillars and the length and width of the bamboo bed. The other straw rope was used to measure the diameter of the bamboo. In order to make a bamboo bed, Qi Bai needed bamboo with at least three different specifications.

Qi Bai first found the four thickest bamboo and marked them according to their length. These four bamboo would be the pillars around the bamboo bed and would support the entire bed. Then he selected eight slightly thinner ones as beams connecting the pillars. The last number to be selected was the largest. These bamboo needed to be slightly thinner than the beams, to serve as auxiliary support between the beams and the bed surface.

Simply selecting bamboo was only the first step. The following work was the most time-consuming and laborious.

Qi Bai drew circles of different sizes on the pillars and beams according to the thickness of the bamboo at the joints. These were the interfaces between the parts of the bamboo bed, and they all needed to be chiseled open to assemble the bamboo bed into a whole.

Since a lot of debris would fly out when drilling holes in the bamboo, Qi Bai moved all the selected bamboo to the entrance of the cave. Then he moved a charcoal basin next to him and placed the stone pot full of water on the charcoal basin. This not only allowed him to keep warm, but he also had hot water to drink at any time.

After making the preparations, Qi Bai sat at the entrance of the cave. He held the red bird’s bone as a drill in one hand and slowly knocked on the bamboo tube with a stone hammer in his other hand.

It wasn’t known how much time had passed before Qi Bai raised his head and stretched his neck. Then he saw two figures hesitantly wandering outside. Qi Bai asked, “Who is there?”

There was the sound of footsteps behind the tree. Finally, two people came out.

They seemed to realize that the behavior was inappropriate and lowered their heads, grabbing their animal skins anxiously.

“XI (rhinoceros) Zhou, Hu Qiao, do you want to talk to me about something?”

Qi Bai stopped what he was doing. He recognized them. They were two beastmen slaves. They should be the same age as Qi Bai, around 17 or 18 years old. However, Qi Bai didn’t have much contact with them. This meant he was a bit confused when he saw them.

Xi Zhou shook his head and answered honestly, “We are here to find Lang Ze.”

Qi Bai and Lang Ze might live on the same stone platform, but Qi Bai’s side was always crowded with people, while Lang Ze’s side, separated by a wall, had few visitors. This was the first time Qi Bai had seen someone come to find Lang Ze.

Qi Bai looked at the sky. “Lang Ze went out early in the morning and should be back soon. You guys should come over here and warm yourself by the fire. It is very cold outside.”

Qi Bai pointed to the seat next to him, motioning for them to come over and sit down to wait.

Qi Bai went into the cave and carried out another charcoal basin. He passed by the corner where food was stored and threw in a few sweet potatoes.

But when Qi Bai wanted to go into the house to pour a glass of water for the two of them, he discovered with some embarrassment that every time the clan members came to his house, they would just drop off their things and leave. This caused him to never realize that there wasn’t even a cup in the house for guests to drink water.

Still, this was easy. There was so much bamboo out there. He could just cut off a piece and make a cup.

Xi Zhou and Hu Qiao naturally didn’t know that Qi Bai called them over to entertain them. After all, there was no such custom in the primitive tribe, not to mention that they were two slaves.

Nevertheless, the two men walked closer obediently. They sat on the ground and asked, “Master Bao Bai, where should we start cutting the bamboo?”

Qi Bai was amused by them. It seemed like they didn’t come to be a guest but to help him with his work.

However, Qi Bai didn’t refuse. He pointed to the black line drawn with charcoal and told them to cut the bamboo joints according to the black lines. Then he gave each of them a stone axe.

Xi Zhou never thought that charcoal could be used this way. He gently touched the bamboo tube with his hand and saw that a lot of the black marks had been wiped off. He quickly withdrew his hand, picked up the stone hammer, and started working.

Therefore, when Lang Ze returned to the cave carrying a mountain phoenix, he saw the two horned beastmen helping Qi Bai cut bamboo. Qi Bai was using bamboo tubes to carry hot water for them to drink.

Xi Zhou was the first to notice Lang Ze, who was standing not far away with a cold look on his face. He quickly stood up and pulled Hu Qiao, who was learning to drill holes in bamboo from Qi Bai.

In order to fix the bamboo in place, Qi Bai also prepared some bamboo nails. However, these bamboo nails couldn’t be nailed into the bamboo at will. Holes must be drilled in advance.

For this reason, Qi Bai specially made a hand-pulled drill. He strung the stone flywheel at the bottom of the drill pope. Then he wound the straw rope and the vertical pull rod above the drill pipe. After the whole device was completed, he only needed to pull the rod up and down. The drill pipe would be driven by the winding straw rope.

The hand drill was a useful tool for making fire in the wild. It could also be used to drill holes. However, when drilling holes, it was necessary to occasionally sprinkle some water on the contact point between the wooden cone and the bamboo to prevent the bamboo from changing color due to excessive temperature caused by friction.

Qi Bai followed Xi Zhou and Hu Qiao’s gaze and saw Lang Ze. He quickly called out, “Lang Ze, you’re back. Xi Zhou and Hu Qiao are here to look for you.”

Lang Ze asked in an expressionless manner, “Why are you looking for me?”

For some reason, Xi Zhou and Hu Qiao were both a bit scared when looking at Lang Ze. They didn’t dare to speak out of fear of saying something wrong.

Qi Bai also asked curiously, “Yes, why are you looking for Lang Ze?”

Xi Zhou said a bit awkwardly, “We… we want to go hunting with you, can we?”

Hu Qiao added with some apprehension, “Now the priest has allowed us to go out hunting, but we have been slaves since we were young. Except for the last time when the chief took us to the beach, we have never hunted alone..”

Hunting might be the talent of every beastman, but talent alone wasn’t enough. They had no experience in finding prey. They couldn’t even find prey, let alone practice attacking techniques.

Lang Ze was the strongest beastman in the tribe. No matter whether it was the bison that Lang Ze brought back during the competition or the red bird a few days ago, they both yearned for it.

The most important thing was that Lang Ze was also a slave. Before meeting Lang Ze, Hu Qiao couldn’t imagine that slaves could also become the objects of admiration.

Therefore, they had long wanted to follow Lang Ze’s footsteps, but they were used to obeying orders. After hesitating for many days, they finally made up their minds to ask.

Lang Ze pondered on it for a moment before saying, “You two, come with me.”

Xi Zhou and Hu Qiao glanced at each other. Then they quickly put down the tools in their hands and followed Lang Ze into the cave.

Qi Bai didn’t bother them. He stayed at the entrance of the cave, took out the roasted sweet potatoes from the charcoal basin with bamboo slices, and let them cool.

It didn’t take long for the three of them to come out. Lang Ze had probably agreed to them because Xi Zhou and Hu Qiao had unconcealed joy on their faces.

Since they had made an agreement with Lang Ze, there was no reason for Xi Zhou and Hu Qiao to continue staying here. The two of them smiled at Qi Bai and turned around to go down the mountain.

“Wait a minute.” Qi Bai quickly stopped them and picked up two sweet potatoes. “This sweet potato is to thank you for cutting bamboo for me this afternoon.”

“This…” The two of them stepped back again and again until they saw Lang Ze nodding slightly behind them. Then they took the sweet potato in a restrained manner.

Once the two of them left, Lang Ze didn’t go back to his own cave. He sat directly in the place where Hu Qiao had just sat.

He picked up the hand-pulled drill that Hu Qiao had been using. He had already seen Hu Qiao using it. Therefore, he only needed to study it a little bit and soon found the trick. He occupied this place in a natural manner and continued Hu Qiao’s actions.

Qi Bai grabbed his hair that was slightly sticking up, crouched down in front of Lang Ze and looked up at him. “Are you going to take them to hunt?”

Lang Ze nodded. “It is hard for horned beastmen to eat enough with only the food distributed by the tribe.”

Qi Bai sighed. “I hope there will be more food next year.”

“There will be.”

Lang Ze saw Qi Bai’s puzzled look and explained, “There are many plants around the Black Mountain, and I have seen the traces of wild animal activities. As long as there is no heavy rain next year, I believe they will come back soon.” Of course, Lang Ze didn’t say anything about his worries afterward.

“That’s great.” Qi Bai was very happy to hear the news. Then he asked hesitantly, “Can I still go hunting with you?”

The last time Qi Bai and Lang Ze went hunting, they only brought back an inedible red bird. He was secretly upset in his heart, and worried that Lang Ze would be unwilling to take him.

Unexpectedly, Lang Ze wasn’t affected by what happened before. Not only did he not object, but a smile appeared in his eyes.

Then after thinking of something, Lang Ze changed the subject and asked, “Is there any ‘tuition free’ this time?”

Qi Bai smiled. “Of course. Teacher, I’ll prepare whatever you want to eat.”

Lang Ze stopped Qi Bai from entering the cave. “I just brought back a mountain phoenix, but my roasted mountain phoenix isn’t tasty. The tuition fee is that you cook our dinner tonight.”

As he said this, he stood up and brought the mountain phoenix out of the cave.

Qi Bai looked at the big mountain phoenix that was as long as his arm and swallowed his saliva.

Okay, the last time the tribe hunted a mountain phoenix, he was thinking that it would be a shame not to make the big ‘chicken’ into a ‘beggar.’