LSLFBW: Chapter 51

Snowflakes were floating in the air. On both sides of the valley, the sub-beastmen were quietly crawling among the trees in the snow.

Suddenly, there was the chaotic sound of trampling feet in the distance.

Qi Bai took a deep breath and poked his head out slightly. He saw that the horned beastmen had formed a huge ‘V’ shape and were running forward while the sheep were firmly controlled in the horned beastmen’s formation.

If a frightened sheep tried to run away, a leopard would suddenly jump out and pounce on them from the left or right, scaring them back to the group. It was as if playing with them.

“They are back!” Qi Bai heard Yang Luo’s exclamation.

Qi Bai turned around and saw that everyone was stunned by the shocking scene. He asked softly, “Are you all ready?”

Everyone quickly grabbed the tools in their hands. “We’re ready.”

Qi Bai nodded. “The moment all the sheep enter the valley, we will immediately nail the last wooden stake at the exit.”

Seeing everyone nodding nervously, Qi Bai smiled and comforted them. “This is no different from what we did yesterday.”

In the time it took for him to speak, the flock of sheep had already come closer.

At Lang Ze’s command, the beastmen immediately tightened their formation, and the sheep were forced to flee into the valley.

“Go!”

A dozen sub-beastmen carrying wooden stakes and shovels rushed out from the forest. The horned beastmen made way for them, and they shoveled the wooden stakes into the pit.

The leader of the sheep noticed that the horned beastmen chasing them had left. The ones approaching them now were humanoid beastmen much weaker than them, and the sheep instantly felt like resisting.

Seeing the two horns of the leading sheep rushing towards the sub-beastmen, a giant wolf leaped high from the ground, flew directly over Qi Bai’s head, and jumped into the valley.

The flock of sheep retreated quickly. In the valley, a giant one-horned wolf instantly appeared and confronted the flock of sheep.

There was no interference, as well as the help of the brown bear and honey badger, so the sub-beastmen completely filled in the gap in the fence in just a few minutes. The thorns were wrapped around the wooden stakes. Qi Bai shouted loudly, “Lang Ze, it is done!”

The giant wolf turned around quickly and jumped over the two meter high fence again, leaving the flock of sheep pacing restlessly in place.

Yang Luo looked at the sheep in the valley through the thorn fence and wondered, “Is that all?”

Qi Bai didn’t know either. However, the sheep were getting restless, so he shook his head and said, “Let’s go back first. There are too many people here, and they might be scared.”

Yang Luo looked at the sheep in the sheepfold with some trepidation. Still, he knew that he couldn’t do anything no matter how anxious he was. He arranged for someone to stay behind to guard the place and waved to the others, indicating that everyone could go back to the tribe if they were fine.

Qi Bai noticed that Lang Ze wasn’t heading in the direction of the tribe, so he trotted after Lang Ze and asked, “Where are you going, Lang Ze?”

“I’m going to check the trap,” Lang Ze said. “Do you want to come with us?”

Qi Bai nodded. Ever since returning from Lang Ze, QI Bai hadn’t touched the prey in Lang Ze’s trap. Instead, he made two more traps. However, the harvest wasn’t ideal.

“Sure enough, there is nothing today,” Qi Bai said quietly as he looked at the trap that hadn’t been triggered at all.

Lang Ze looked around and pointed to the distance. “Put the trap over there in the leeward area and try.”

Qi Bai immediately did as he was told and collected the stone slab and bamboo sticks that served as a trap. He understood Lang Ze’s intention and asked as he walked, “Is it because I chose a bad location?”

“That place is more suitable for wild mice and rabbits to dig burrows. Maybe we can run into prey that came out foraging for food.”

Qi Bai’s eyes were sincere and his compliments flowed out like money. “I remember that the traps you set before were also in such positions. No wonder why the traps you set always yielded results. If I hadn’t come with you today, I would’ve wasted a lot of time on these traps.”

There was no change in the expression on Lang Ze’s face. Perhaps if he was transformed into his beast form, a person could see his big tail wagging happily.

Qi Bai only set two traps in total and both were empty today. However, they found a wild rabbit in the trap set by Lang Ze.

“Hey? During the time you weren’t in the tribe, I think I found a rabbit here.” The rabbit had fallen into the trap at some point and was now frozen. Qi Bai looked around and whispered in Lang Ze’s ear, “Is there a rabbit nest nearby?”

“Do you want to dig out the rabbit’s nest?” Lang Ze asked while tilting his head.

Qi Bai’s eyes lit up. “Is it okay?”

“You can try.”

Lang Ze lay on the ground and gently blew away the newly covered snow. Qi Bai looked carefully for a while before saying with some surprise, “There are still some footprints.”

“Yes, let’s go and take a look.”

Following the direction of the footprints, they did find a rabbit hole. Unfortunately, it was empty.

Lang Ze squatted down on the ground and picked up some stained soil. He put his hand in front of his nose and sniffed it. Qi Bai looked at him curiously and also went up to sniff it.

Both of them were squatting on the ground. Qi Bai was shorter than Lang Ze, so he had to raise his head and tiptoe slightly towards Lang Ze.

A boy with short white hair and a slightly red nose due to the cold weather suddenly came close to him. Lang Ze’s hand paused and even his breathing stopped for a moment.

It was just that Qi Bai was unaware of it. He sniffed hard, and his eyes were wide open. “I smell it. It is the smell of dry grass and… a little bit like stream water.”

“Yes.” Lang Ze nodded.

The snow was very quiet and the sound of flowing water could be heard in the distance. However, Qi Bai’s attention was completely focused on the shallow pit in front of him.

They searched along the stream for a long time and finally found a rabbit hole.

This seemed to be a temporary residence for a rabbit. The rabbit hole was very shallow. QI Bai immediately saw the gray rabbit still sleeping in broad daylight.

He stretched out his hand with excitement and grabbed the rabbit’s ear the moment it sensed danger.

The rabbit’s gray legs were waving wildly. Qi Bai jumped up and said in disbelief, “I really caught it!”’

This live rabbit and the frozen one in the trap meant they could have a good meal today.

After returning to the cave, Qi Bai opened the bamboo door. Lang Ze was hesitating over whether to go back to his own cave or not when Qi Bai put the rabbit aside, held up the rack where the wolf skins were drying and said, “The charcoal fire in my room isn’t extinguished yet. Come in quickly. It is too cold outside.”

There were no signs of hesitation in Lang Ze’s steps as he took two steps forward.

After he entered, Qi Bai blocked the door with the shelf.

The disadvantage of a house without windows was that if the door was closed during the day, the house would be dark. QI Bai’s current method was to block half of the door with animal skins. This could block the wind and let light in through the upper part that wasn’t covered.

There was a stone slab on top of the charcoal in the charcoal basin, and a clay pot was placed on the stone slab. Qi Bai touched the body of the clay pot with his hand, and the water inside was hot.

He took down a bamboo cup from the cupboard where tableware was stored. This was the cup he had specially prepared for Lang Ze.

He returned to the table with two cups of hot water only to suddenly freeze there awkwardly.

It was because next to Lang Ze’s hand was a mini wolf’s head. He was carefully studying the wolf frame made of bamboo.

Qi Bai felt that he must’ve been blown silly by the wind. He completely forgot that the ‘wolf felt’ he usually used to relieve stress was still on the table. He secretly used other people’s fur to make mini figures and was discovered by the person involved. This was definitely a scene of social death.

Qi Bai thought that he could explain…

Even though he shed some fur, it wasn’t like Lang Ze, who shed fur like catkins floating all over the sky. Didn’t Qi Bai want to make a mini snow leopard but didn’t have the materials?

In fact, he never understood why Lang Ze seemed to lose more hair than others even though they were both furry.

Lang Ze coughed lightly. He put the bamboo frame in his hand on the table, put his hands on his legs, and stammered in an unusual manner for him, “Because… our white wolf clan will change our original gray fur into white before we reach adulthood…”

Qi closed his mouth. He seemed to have accidentally asked what was on his mind. No, wait a minute…

Qi Bai asked uncertainly, “Before adulthood?”

Qi Bai looked at Lang Ze’s ears, which had started to turn red from the tip downwards. “I have reached adulthood, but those in the white wolf clan aren’t considered adults until we have shed our fur…”

There was a brief silence.

“Pfft.”

Qi Bai held back his laughter. “I didn’t mean to laugh, and I’m not making fun of you, hahahahahahaha.”

In fact, the beastmen’s definition of adulthood wasn’t solely based on age. It was because many beastmen couldn’t accurately judge their own age, height, body shape or whether they could have children or not. These were all standards that helped beastmen judge whether a beastman was an adult or not.

Of course, the most important method of judgment was expressed very vaguely by the adult beastmen. They just smiled wickedly and told Qi Bai, “You will know once you become an adult.”

Therefore, he might’ve always felt that Lang Ze had some youthfulness in him and that Lang Ze’s fur was indeed like the awkward period of a dog, but he never doubted that Lang Ze had reached adulthood.

Qi Bai couldn’t help wanting to laugh when he thought about how Lang Ze had been pretending to be an adult all this time.

The corners of Lang Ze’s mouth curved up along with Qi Bai’s laughter.

During the time when they had just arrived at the Black Mountain Tribe, he could only pretend to be an adult beastman so that they could live a better life. He had thought about whether to tell Qi Bai about this or not, but always didn’t speak up for various reasons.

Now that Qi Bai finally knew his life story, he felt a lot more relieved. Lang Ze supported Qi Bai, who was swaying with laughter, and said, “Even so, I am older than you. It will take you at least two more years to become an adult.”

Qi Bai stopped laughing. Yes, he almost forgot about this. His soul was already 23 years old, but his body was only 18 or 18 years old.

Then Qi Bai thought of another thing. “Will you still shed your fur after you become an adult?”

Lang Ze shook his head. “I will be similar to other beastmen after that.”

This meant that it would probably take several years to collect enough fur to make a felt wolf cub, which was similar to other beastmen.

“Then… before you finish molting, can I have some more of your fur?” Qi Bai was no longer embarrassed. He picked up the wolf’s head on the table and tried to sell it. “I made it pretty well.”

Then he said with some distress, “Of course, this is your fur. I will return it to you when I am done.”

Lang Ze blinked. He looked at the little wolf, who looked almost exactly like him, and asked, “Do you like this very much?

Qi Bai nodded tentatively.

Lang Ze asked, “Can I come and see it often?”

Qi Bai nodded frantically. “Of course.”

Since he had agreed with Lang Ze that he could go pet the wolf in the evening, no, help Lang Ze comb his hair, Qi Bai was visibly excited.

The work in his hands even became interesting. Of course, for Qi Bai, being able to eat fresh rabbit meat was a happy thing in itself.

Lang Ze pulled out a bone knife from his waist. This bone knife was also made of the bones of a red bird. However, except for the patterns on the handle that were the same as Qi Bai’s bone knife, the workmanship of the other parts was a bit too sloppy.

Of course, none of this could conceal the fact that it was a sharp bone knife.

Qi Bai placed the stone pot on the charcoal basin and filled it with water. As he was preparing the side dishes, Lang Ze had already neatly peeled off the rabbit skin.

“What should we do with this meat?”

Qi Bai looked at the two rabbits and thought for a while. “Cut the fresh meat into small cubes to make stewed meat. Put the frozen one aside to thaw it. Then marinate it to make a roasted rabbit.”

Lang Ze naturally had no reason to disagree. As long as it was made by Qi Bai, he liked it no matter which cooking method it was.

“Oh, what a pity. We have rabbits but no chili peppers. Rabbit meat that isn’t spicy is rabbit meat without soul.” Qi Bai sighed.

“Chili?”

Qi Bai knew that the beastmen in the tribe had no habit of heating chili peppers. It should be said that the spicy taste was a painful experience for the beastmen. It was just like when Qi Bai liked to eat garlic, which other beastmen couldn’t understand.

Qi Bai thought for a moment before saying, “Chili peppers are a type of fruit. They come in many colors, including red and green. They sting when you eat them, and your mouth will feel warm after you swallow them. But you will never forget it once you get used to the taste.”

Lang Ze asked, “Did your tribe have this type of fruit before?”

Qi Bai nodded. “I guess so, but I haven’t found any chilis around the Black Mountain. I can make more delicious food for you once I find some.”

Lang Ze thought for a moment. “I will definitely find it.”

However, they couldn’t eat it for the time being. Qi Bai could only swallow his saliva and put the chili behind him. After all, the existing ingredients were already sufficient for him now.

He put the diced rabbit meat into cold water and brought it to a boil. Then he added the ginger slices, filtered out the blood and took it out.

He added butter to a pot pan and fried the green onions, ginger, garlic and peppercorns. He added the rabbit meat and seasoned it with salt. Then he stir-fried repeatedly until it was slightly charred. After that, he added boiling water and cooked until soft.

Qi Bai took advantage of this time to split the rabbit meat that had thawed a bit on the charcoal fire in half. He skewered the whole rabbit body on a thick bamboo skewer, made a cut on the skin of the rabbit meat, and evenly applied the marinade.

Qi Bai chiseled a small grove on each side of the charcoal basin. This was the place where he placed the barbecue rack. BY placing the two ends of the bamboo sticks in the grooves, the sticks were fixed. Then he could turn them over and grill them while brushing them with oil.

The light pink rabbit meat slowly turned golden brown and then brown-red on the charcoal fire. The sizzling fat dripped onto the charcoal, causing sparks that looked particularly bright in the dim room.

After the roasted rabbit was cooked through, the moisture of the rabbit meat stewed in the stone pot had almost died up. He pinched a small piece of green onion leaf from the bamboo tube next to it and sprinkled it on the rabbit meat just out of the pot. Now today’s dinner was ready.

Outside the cave, snowflakes were flying like catkins.

In the cave, two people sat in front of a bamboo table with their legs covered by animal skins. Under the table was a charcoal basin covered with a stone slab. On the table was a large pot of braised rabbit meat. They felt warm and satisfied as they bit into the crispy roasted meat and drank the berry tea with steam rising from it.