LSLFBW: Chapter 6

Qi Bai found a long branch and tied a piece of vine grass to the front of the branch. A simple fishing rod was made.

The fishing rod he made didn’t need to bear any weight, as long as it could throw the bait into the air above the river. The real fishing came from the rattan basket that was just made.

Lang Ze couldn’t let go of the rattan basket in his hand while Qi Bai looked around along the way.

Qi Bai stopped when they passed by the red fruit tree that he had visited during the day.

Lang Ze looked at Qi Bai in confusion.

Qi Bai stopped because he remembered what Tu Ya said about the piranhas being ‘bitter and fishy.’

Freshwater fish would have some fishy smell, but such a smell could be completely eliminated by cooking. Usually, cooking wine, vinegar, onion, garlic or ginger could reduce the fishy smell of fish.

It was a pity that Qi Bai didn’t have any of the above.

But he thought of another way. It was acidic fruit.

Adding some lemon when cooking fish would make the fish very delicious. Of course, Qi Bai didn’t have lemon so he thought of red fruit.

In any case, it didn’t take much effort now. It had only been an afternoon and there were already many red fruits that had just fallen to the ground.

Qi Bai picked up some intact ones and put them in the small animal skin bag on his chest.

It was very late by the time the two of them arrived at the Man-Eating River, but neither of them was sleepy. Qi Bai was eager to try it.

The two of them walked along the river bank for a while before Qi Bai found a tree that met the requirements.

This was a tall tree. The most important thing was that it had a thick branch that stretched above the river.

Piranhas were too aggressive. Lang Ze might’ve promised to only fish on the shore and not fall into the river, but Qi Bai still didn’t agree to let Lang Ze do it directly.

He had already made all the preparations. How could he let Lang Ze take risks?

Therefore, according to Qi Bai’s original idea, they looked for a big tree along the shore that could support Lang Ze’s weight.

But Qi Bai stopped him again when Lang Ze wanted to nimbly climb the tree.

Qi Bai took out a spare green vine from the vine basket and wrapped it around Lang Ze’s waist. Lang Ze struggled awkwardly and said anxiously, “Climbing trees is a skill that every beastman must practice. I don’t need to tie vines for such a thick tree.

Qi Bai looked up at him. “But it is so dark. Will you be able to see clearly?”

Lang Ze turned his head away. “Us wolves have good eyesight and can see clearly.”

He wanted to struggle again, but Qi Bai’s seemingly slender arms were very powerful. He pursed his lips slightly and said to himself, “But the piranhas will struggle hard. I’m afraid they will pull you off the tree.”

Lang Ze suddenly stopped moving. His Adam’s apple moved up and down. Finally, he didn’t say anything else.

Qi Bai tied the other end of the vine to the tree trunk. Then he waved to Lang Ze with satisfaction, signaling him to climb up quickly.

Lang Ze turned around in a hurry. He held the vine basket in his hand and jumped up the tree in a few moves.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say ‘jumping.’ Lang Ze stepping on the tree trunk was no different from being on flat ground.

Qi Bai touched his nose with a bit of embarrassment. Oh, it seemed that the vine wasn’t very useful. He still didn’t fully understand the physique of beastmen.

Lang Ze finished his preparations, and the two people’s fishing business finally began.

Lang Ze crouched on the branch and used vines to sink the vine basket into the river below.

Qi Bai found an earthworm and tied it to his simple fishing rod.

“Are you ready?” Qi Bai asked Lang Ze loudly.

After receiving Lang Ze’s response, Qi Bai hooked the earthworm on the fishing rod vertically between the vine basket.

Splash!

The piranhas rushed from all directions to grab food as if it was daytime.

Qi Bai felt the fishing rod in his hand being pulled. A large piece of the grass on the fishing rod was bitten off. Of course, this included the earthworm used as bait.

However, before the piranha that grabbed the food had time to shake its tail to show off, it was already trapped in the vine basket that sank in the river. The same fate also happened to three of its kind.

“They are trapped! Throw them to the shore!”

Lang Ze heard Qi Bai’s voice. Of course, he could tell that the fish were trapped from the sudden increase in the weight of his hand. They were even quite big.

The sharp teeth of the piranha could easily bite the vine basket, so Lang Ze tightened the vine in his hand without hesitation and threw the fish in the vine basket onto the rocky beach at the edge.

The piranhas continued to struggle after falling to the ground. They could jump half a meter high every time. However, no matter how powerful they were in the water, they could no longer make waves after reaching the shore.

Qi Bai picked up a big stone and started to hit the fish in a hurry.

Qi Bai was a bit hesitant at first since the piranhas were very flexible. But by the time he hit the fourth one, he could already step on the fish body with one foot and knock the piranha unconscious with two hits.

Qi Bai happily waved towards Lang Ze on the tree. “Success! Each one is as long as an arm. Let’s catch some more.”

Lang Ze nodded, and Qi Bai went into the grass to look for earthworms again.

This was repeated twice. They caught seven more fish for a total of eleven.

Now it was just drizzling, and there was no thunder. The two of them sat under a big tree. Lang Ze watched Qi Bai start to deal with the piranha.

Qi Bai chopped off the piranha’s somewhat scary head. The fish head might be delicious when stewed in soup or chopped with pepper, but based on their current background, such methods were out of the question at the moment.

The little meat in the fish head was negligible compared to the fat fish body.

Lang Ze thought that this would be enough, but Qi Bai took out a small bone knife and cut open the entire fish belly.

Lang Ze asked in confusion, “What are you going to do?”

Qi Bai had previously guessed that the reason why the fish cooked by beastmen was bitter might be because they didn’t deal with the bitter gall in the fish belly. Once he heard Lang Ze ask this, he felt that this was indeed the case. “Fish and rabbits are the same. Before grilling fish, the fish also needs to be cleaned.”

Lang Ze also cut open a fish himself and took out some internal organs from it. It was just as Qi Bai said.

“You must be careful when cutting the fish. There is the bitter gall inside. Once the gall is broken, the fish meat will taste bitter. In addition, eating too much isn’t good for your health.”

Qi Bai rinsed the cut fish and placed it on the leaves. The body of the piranha was a bit like salmon, with only some small scales on the skin. This meant Qi Bai didn’t have to process it too much.

He also smashed the red fruit that he had previously picked up on the leaves. The texture of the red fruit was a bit like hawthorn. Its flesh wasn’t full of juice, so the juice couldn’t be squeezed onto the fish meat like lemon.

Qi Bai made the second best choice and mashed the red fruit first. Then he put the mash on the processed fish belly to marinate.

Thanks to Lang Ze’s help, the eleven fish were quickly processed. Qi Bai put the fish wrapped in leaves into the rattan basket layer by layer.

Lang Ze easily lifted the rattan basket with one hand.

By the time the two of them returned to the cave, only Hou Yan and a few others were left by the fire. They looked like they were discussing tomorrow’s arrangements.

Due to the shortage of firewood, the fire that was originally lit had been extinguished. Now only the fire under the stone pot was burning.

Hu Huo was the first to see the rattan basket in Lang Ze’s hand. At first, he didn’t realize what it was used for. It wasn’t until Lang Ze put down the rattan basket and took out the piranhas wrapped in leaves one by one that Hu Huo immediately noticed the difference of this tool.

At this time, the tribe had learned to use rattan, branches, grass and other soft plants and animal skins to tie knots and simply weave.

However, there was no regular rattan basket like the one made by Qi Bai. This would only appear in later generations.

Based on the fact that everyone needed to use leaves to carry food back and forth today, it could be seen how important a rattan basket that could hold more supplies would be.

Yang Luo inquired about it and found that this rattan basket was actually woven by Qi Bai. His fingers trembled slightly with excitement.

Qi Bai was surrounded by Yang Luo and several others, but Qi Bai only had the grilled fish in his mind now, not the rattan basket.

Looking at the silent Lang Ze, Qi Bai took a step back and pushed Lang Ze to the front.

It wasn’t difficult to weave a rattan basket. Lang Ze had seen how Qi Bai weaved it with his own eyes, and was obviously very interested in the rattan basket. He just couldn’t go forward directly because of his identity.

Yang Luo seemed a bit dissatisfied with Qi Bai’s behavior, but Qi Bai kept saying that he wanted to grill fish.

Yang Luo saw the piranhas brought back by Qi Bai and Lang Ze. His eyes widened instantly. “Didn’t I say that the Man-Eating River is very dangerous and no one is allowed to approach it? What if you go to fish privately and fall into the river? Even your flesh and bones will be eaten up!”

Qi Bai quickly raised his hands in surrender and recounted the method that he and Lang Ze used.

Yang Luo’s expression eased after hearing this, but he still frowned and said, “You can’t act alone when it comes to such dangerous things in the future.”

Yang Luo had no choice after seeing Qi Bai’s appearance. Since Lang Ze had already learned to weave a basket, he asked Lang Ze to start demonstrating to everyone.

Qi Bai sat by the fire, strung the piranha on small branches, and started to roast it on the fire.

Hu Huo couldn’t hold back after hearing Lang Ze’s description. He went straight out of the cave and soon brought back a pile of green vines. It could be seen that he was trotting back and forth all the way.

Lang Ze also wanted to try to make one himself, so he slowly weaved a vine basket while following Qi Bai’s method.

Lang Ze taught seriously, and the others were even more fascinated. No one could smell the aroma of grilled fish in the air. Instead, many sleeping beastmen smacked their lips together as if they were eating the delicious grilled fish in their dreams.

At this moment, Qi Bai only had the grilled fish on his mind. The oily fish skin sizzled under the flames. There were few fine fish scales left. The fat and thin fish meat, stimulated by the red fruit, had no fishy smell. It left only the perfect combination of a fish and fruit aroma.

Qi Bai looked at the fat dripping from the fish meat and swallowed his saliva silently.

Sure enough, ‘high-end ingredients only needed the simplest cooking method.’

Teacher Li didn’t deceive him!

Once the fish was grilled, Qi Bai couldn’t wait for it to cook down and bit off a large piece of meat.

The crispness of the fish skin and the mellowness of the fish meat complemented each other. At this moment, Qi Bai only hated his tongue for not being able to eat the food just taken off the fire.

Before Qi Bai could react, a fish had already gone into his stomach.

Qi Bai glanced at the people who were still busy and came back to his senses. He quickly grilled two more.

Lang Ze was concentrating on weaving a rattan basket when a grilled fish was handed to him. The smell was fragrant, and the fish meat was right next to his mouth. He took a bite without thinking too much.

The moment he took a bite, the sweetness of the fish burst into his mouth. Lang Ze almost subconsciously lowered his head to chase the grilled fish.

Suddenly, he heard a chuckle in his ear. He realized that his head had actually stretched far away following Qi Bai’s hand. At this moment, Qi Bai was crouching on the side and looking at him with a smile.

Lang Ze couldn’t help feeling a bit embarrassed. Then he soon found the key point. What he just ate was actually a piranha that had been fished out of the Man-Eating River. he had no hope for the taste at all, and only thought that the piranha could fill his stomach a bit.

He asked in surprise, “This… piranhas are so delicious?”

Lang Ze’s voice finally attracted the attention of others. Everyone smelled the aroma of grilled fish floating in the air as if they had just awakened from a dream.

It was just that the fish they grilled in the past was also very fragrant, but didn’t taste good.

Then after Yang Luo ate the grilled fish cooked by Qi Bai, he could no longer remember the reserve he needed to maintain as a reserve priest. He slapped his thigh and made a prompt decision. “Everyone will go fishing together tomorrow!”