LSLFBW: Chapter 65

All things grew, water gurgled, and the quiet winter was finally over. The mountains and forests seemed to become lively all of a sudden.

The little snow leopard pushed open a crack in the bamboo basket. He witnessed the sleeping earth stretching and waking up.

The trio were moving very quickly. The territory that usually took a hunting team half a day to reach was left far behind them before noon.

But after leaving the flat land outside the Black Mountain, the mountain road became unfamiliar.

Fortunately, they had a good guide. Even in an unfamiliar land, Lang Ze could always quickly find the most suitable direction to move forward. It was as if there was a clear destination guiding him.

Qi Bai, who stayed in the bamboo basket, was a bit too leisurely.

The mountain path was rugged, but Lang Ze’s back was very stable. Combine this with the thick animal skin, and Qi Bai felt like he was traveling in a car.

Qi Bai squinted and looked outside. The scenery was beautiful, but at the same time, he couldn’t see the specific details clearly.

Qi Bai soon gave up looking. He retracted his head into the bamboo basket, picked up the jerky on his belly, held it in both hands and continued to chew it slowly.

Perhaps it was because Lang Ze’s teeth were too good. The jerky he prepared for Qi Bai had been torn into small pieces, but Qi Bai still felt it was a bit hard. It was clearly dried meat, but Qi Bai felt like he was gnawing on bones.

Still, this was just right. It saved him from sleeping after being full while the others were on the road.

Qi Bai was a bit tired of the teething stick, so he opened the lid of the water bottle, leaned over to take a few sips of water, and turned around to continue chewing.

They traveled for a whole day before finally stopping when it got dark.

Lang Ze found a large rock near a stream in the forest and decided to build a temporary camp here.

The giant wolf and two horses stopped. They approached the big rock and slowly lay on the ground. Once the large rattan basket touched the ground, they changed into human form, found the animal skin clothes from the rattan basket, and put them on.

In fact, the temperature in the mountains was already around zero degrees. For the beastmen, they no longer needed to wear animal skin clothes to keep warm.

However, now everyone was accustomed to wearing clothes. They would feel a bit uncomfortable wearing only a fur skirt made from their own fur.

Lang Ze waited until everyone had put on their fur coats before he opened the bamboo basket where Qi Bai was.

Qi Bai ultimately couldn’t escape sleeping after eating. What Lang Ze saw was a little snow leopard sleeping soundly with a bulging belly.

Perhaps it was the cool breeze or the lack of usual bumps, but the snow leopard rubbed his nose and opened his eyes.

Lang Ze reached out and rubbed Qi Bai’s head. “Come out. Let’s rest here for a while tonight.”

Qi Bai meowed, turned around in the bamboo basket to stretch his legs, and then jumped out. Lang Ze was holding his animal skin coat.

Qi Bai didn’t think too much and directly changed into human form. However, Lang Ze deliberately stood in front of him and swayed slightly to block the sight of Ma Shu and Ma Ling.

“What should we do now?” Qi Bai asked as he tightened the animal skin rope on his body.

Everyone had brought dry food, but beastmen always hunted whenever they went out. They would only eat the food they brought with them when they couldn’t find prey.

As expected, Lang Ze planned the same thing. He said, “Let Ma Ling go hunting today.”

Ma Ling, who wasn’t far away, heard his name and immediately responded. “Okay.”

“Can Ma Ling do it alone? Isn’t it too dangerous?”

After all, this wasn’t the area of the tribe. The last time they went out together, three people went out hunting while two stayed in the camp.

Ma Ling grinned. “Of course, I can do it. Bao Bai, you underestimate me.” Then he walked in one direction.

Ma Shu also smiled. “Don’t worry. Even if he encounters something he can’t beat, he can run away. Everything will be fine.”

Ma Ling seemed to hear Ma Shu’s teasing. Despite already running a long distance, he turned around and whistled at everyone.

Since Ma Shu had already started to build a camp with sticks, Qi Bai took the initiative to suggest, “I’ll go collect some plants from the surrounding area.”

He had spent today in the bamboo basket like it was a spring outing, but Qi Bai hadn’t forgotten the main purpose of his trip. Once the group stopped, he needed to seize the time to look for plants.

Lang Ze naturally knew Qi Bai’s plan and said, “I’ll go with you.”

The mountain road covered with a thin layer of snow wasn’t easy to walk on. It was wet and easy to step on potholes.

Qi Bai and Lang Ze collected as they walked. There weren’t many edible plants in the forest at this time, but they could pick up a lot of mushrooms in the shade of trees and fallen dead trees.

For Qi Bai, who had been eating vegetable roots and radishes for the whole winter, these were considered fresh ingredients. He would pick them as long as they weren’t poisonous.

After walking around for half an hour, Lang Ze estimated that Ma Ling should be back soon, so the two of them walked back. As they passed by a stream, they rinsed the mushrooms in their hands.

In the camp, Ma Shu had built a wooden shed with branches and stones, covered it with dry leaves and started a fire in the middle of the camp.

What surprised Qi Bai the most was that not long after Qi Bai and Lang Ze returned to the camp, Ma Ling came back with two beautiful ducks in his hands. In addition, he had two… duck eggs in his animal skin coat!

There weren’t many flying birds in the Beastman Continent. The tribe had caught the flightless mountain phoenixes several times, but no one had ever brought back eggs. Qi Bai almost thought that the flying birds on the Beastman Continent were also mammals.

Unexpectedly, after such a long time, QI Bai finally saw duck eggs.

Seeing Qi Bai’s interest, Ma Ling stuffed the two duck eggs into Qi Bai’s hands. He seemed dissatisfied with his hunting results today. “I only found the nest of these two ducks by the reeds. These are the eggs in their nest.”

The two ducks looked a bit like water ducks and mandarin ducks.

The larger one had brightly colored feathers on its head and varied patterns on its back, so Qi Bai guessed it should be a male duck. The smaller one had a dark gray back while the feathers on its belly were snow-white and smooth. It should be a female duck.

However, compared to the mountain phoenix that was nearly one meter long, these two ducks were obviously much smaller. Of course, this was a beast world. It should be known that the size of these two ducks could be compared with the big geese on Earth.

Qi Bai held the duck eggs and was faced with a difficult decision.

These duck eggs were hard to come by. According to Ma Ling, the duck was already incubating these two eggs. This meant they should be fertilized eggs that could hatch ducklings.

Qi Bai, who was used to thinking three steps ahead, was now starting to think in his mind about whether it was possible to continue hatching them.

After all, it was said that the little birds would regard the first creature they saw as their mother. In other words, they should be easier to raise than Chuan Chuan.

Moreover, this duck was a ground-dwelling bird that couldn’t fly like the mountain phoenix.

The more Qi Bai thought about it, the more he felt that this egg couldn’t be eaten. “It isn’t easy to get these duck eggs. Why don’t I raise them?”

Ma Shu and Ma Ling looked at each other. They could see confusion in the other person’s eyes.

At the very least, the four-eared sheep could run and eat. How to raise two eggs?

Lang Ze saw Qi Bai’s fondness for these two eggs. He thought for a long time before finally shaking his head. “Duck eggs are easy to break. We need to hurry, and there is no way to guarantee their safety.”

“That’s right. We can’t waste time on them.” Qi Bai nodded with some regret before soon cheering up. “Then let’s eat scrambled eggs today!”

He hadn’t eaten eggs for a long time. The moment this thought came to mind, QI Bai started drooling.

The others didn’t know what scrambled eggs were, but they knew that Qi Bai always cooked delicious food. They also started to look forward to it.

Qi Bai found his animal skin bag in the rattan basket. Inside was a small animal skin bag that Qi Bai used specifically to store seasonings. There wasn’t much of each, but it could make everyone’s food a bit better when they were in the wild.

Qi Bai thought it was outrageous that he brought all of this with him. He didn’t expect that Lang Ze would walk to the side of the rattan basket and actually take out an open pottery jar from it.

Qi Bai couldn’t help looking at Lang Ze’s rattan basket a few more times out of curiosity. No wonder why he always felt that Lang Ze’s rattan basket was much bigger than others. It even had a pottery jar. Qi Bai really wanted to know what was inside.

Ma Shu and Ma Ling obviously hadn’t thought about the fact that they could bring the pottery jar with them when they went out.

After all, pottery jars were so precious and they were usually careful when using them. How could they possibly put a pottery jar in a rattan basket and shake it? It would be too late to regret it if it was accidentally broken.

However, the pottery jar was effective. Qi Bai had originally planned to just add some seasonings to roast the duck, but he immediately changed his mind. Why roast it? Wouldn’t it be more delicious to stew the duck?

Lang Ze and Ma Ling took the two ducks to the creek to clean them.

Taking advantage of this time, Qi Bai and Ma Shu split the fire into two, picked up some stones from the waterside, and built two low, temporary stoves.

He filled a clay pot with water, threw the mushrooms directly in, and boiled them on the stove.

Qi Bai also found a smooth, thin stone slab, rinsed it with water, and placed it on a stove.

He beat the duck eggs with chopsticks, fried them on a stone slab with the butter he brought with him and set it aside.

Once the mushrooms in the ceramic pot were cooked, he took out the mushrooms, drained the water, put them on the stone slab, added salt and stir-fried it. Finally, he added the scrambled eggs. The smooth and tender mushroom scrambled eggs were ready.

At this time, Lang Ze and Ma Ling brought back the cleaned ducks. Since they only had one pottery jar, it couldn’t hold two ducks.

Qi Bai chopped the smaller duck into pieces, placed them on the stone slab, and stir-fried them with oil until they turned slightly yellow. Then he poured the pieces into a ceramic pot filled with hot water and mushrooms, covered it with a stone lid, and simmered it slowly.

The slightly larger duck was chopped into four pieces in the middle, marinated with salt and pepper, skewered on wooden sticks, and grilled directly.

Qi Bai acted quickly, but conditions in the wild were limited. Qi Bai could only try his best to make sure that everyone ate well.

Of course, Ma Shu and Ma Ling were originally only planning to grill meat so they were already very satisfied with eating scrambled eggs with mushrooms and grilled meat. They could also smell the tempting aroma of the stewed duck in the clay pot.

You know, chicken stewed with mushrooms was a popular dish all over the country. The flavor wasn’t much reduced when replacing the chicken with duck. It was too easy to conquer the stomachs of beastmen. In the end, the entire pottery jar of soup was drunk up.

Ma Ling and Ma Shu savored the flavor of the scrambled eggs and stewed duck. Finally, they understood Qi Bai’s desire to raise ducks. They were so delicious and the taste was completely different from the usual way of roasting eggs by throwing them directly into the fire.

At the same time, they thought that they must find duck eggs when returning to the tribe so that their pregnant partners could also taste the eggs.

In the cool evening breeze, the four of them sat around the fire and had an incredibly delicious dinner. The only regret was that everyone was only half full.

Qi Bai, who had been idle all day, gave everyone a delicious meal, but more importantly, he strongly expressed that it was his turn to shine. “I’ve had enough sleep during the day, and I’m not sleepy at all now. I’ll keep watch.”

Lang Ze told him, “Then you go to sleep first. I will wake you up later.”

Qi Bai shook his head firmly. Lang Ze said the same thing last time by the sea and then kept watch for Qi Bai all night.

Qi Bai leaned closer to Lang Ze and put his hands over Lang Ze’s eyes. “You need to sleep well, so that you have the strength to carry me tomorrow. Go to sleep quickly. You are already so old. Surely you don’t want me to sing for you?”

After a long time, Qi Bai made sure that there was no sound and took his hand away from Lang Ze’s face. He looked at the stars in the sky and quietly clenched his palms.

Hey, you know what, this face with three-dimensional features was so comfortable to touch.

Of course, even if he agreed to let Qi Bai keep watch at night, Lang Ze couldn’t let him stay alone for the whole night. Therefore, he replaced Qi Bai in the second half of the night.

At dawn the next day, the half asleep Qi Bai was stuffed back into the bamboo basket. The three of them transformed into beast forms, put on the saddles and continued their journey.

However, this trip wasn’t as smooth as expected.

On the evening of the third day, everyone stood on a mountain. They looked at the continuous hills in front of them and couldn’t help frowning.