LSLFBW: Chapter 68

Qi Bai’s hand, which was placed outside the animal skin quilt, was licked gently. He closed his eyes, turned his hand over, touched the other party’s head, and muttered softly, “Chuan Chuan, don’t make trouble. Dad hasn’t slept enough…”

No, Chuan Chuan?

Qi Bai opened his eyes. He looked at the faint light coming through the crack in the door and tried hard to recall what happened last night.

He took a hot bath yesterday and felt a bit sleepy, so he thought he would take a nap first. Then… it would be dawn soon?

Qi Bai sat up straight. He seemed to have forgotten to go to Ci Yi’s house to pick up Chuan Chuan!

No, that wasn’t right. What was licking the back of his hand just now?

Qi Bai turned his head. He saw a little lamb with smooth fur and bright eyes looking at him expectantly with a tilted head.

“Chuan Chuan! You went home by yourself!”

Qi Bai stroked the lamb a few times as he spoke. It seemed that Chuan Chuan was well taken care of during the days he was away.

However, Qi Bai himself knew that it was impossible for Chuan Chuan to run back to the cave by himself.

He got out of bed and saw the food bowl and hay arranged exactly as he usually did it. The knot of the leash hung on the wall was also his usual technique.

Even the bamboo tubes that usually contained sheep milk were placed by the wall. Qi Bai opened the lid and found fresh milk inside.

Qi Bai smiled. “It seems that Brother Lang Ze sent you back. When did you come back? Why didn’t I hear any sound?”

Qi Bai muttered to himself as he opened the door of the cave.

The air in the early morning was fresh. Looking down from the stone platform, he could see the bamboo sea in the distance swaying gently in the wind.

Yesterday’s drizzle had stopped. QI Bai propped up the bamboo door with stones and took a piece of pickled meat from the large water tank outside the cave.

As the temperature rose, Qi Bai had already eaten the frozen fresh meat or made it into jerky before going to the beach.

He still had a few fish that the tribe distributed to him, so he smeared salt on them and hung them outside the cave. Now they had become dried fish.

Qi Bai decided to keep breakfast simple this morning. He cut the salted meat and radish into diced pieces. He blanched them in a ceramic pot, added a bit of oyster sauce and covered the pot with a lid.

Chuan Chuan’s breakfast was even simpler. Just pour the milk prepared by Lang Ze into the ceramic pot and heat it.

After fixing the two pottery jars, Qi Bai took Chuan Chuan to the vegetable garden nearby and started working.

There was only a small piece of loose soil in Qi Bai’s vegetable garden, but it was completely enough for his use at the moment.

The land had just absorbed the rain and was moist and soft.

Qi Bai used a shovel to plow several regular furrows on the land. After thinking for a while, he shoveled a deeper furrow on the outermost side.

Qi Bai planned to make this ditch into a fence. After all, they now lived in the mountains. If some small animals came out to look for food at night and stole his vegetables, he would be at a great disadvantage if he couldn’t take them back.

He returned to the cave and took out the seeds he had prepared yesterday one by one.

The first batch of vegetables that Qi Bai planted in the small vegetable garden were the most practical and durable plants at this stage.

Qi Bai knew that these primitive crops, which hadn’t been cultivated and selected, wouldn’t necessarily produce a very good harvest even if they were planted.

But as long as the planting was successful, it didn’t matter if the harvest was only one-tenth of the modern one. The tribe members would be able to have a stable source of food.

In the first ridge, Qi Bai planted onions, ginger, and garlic.

He took the onions and garlic out of the bamboo tube. He carefully swept away the soil and separated the onions and garlic according to the roots. He divided the garlic into seeds one by one. He buried them in the ground with the roots facing down and the slightly thinner butt facing up. For the onions, he buried the roots directly in the soil.

Ginger was even simpler. He just picked out the ginger pieces that had sprouted and buried them in the soil.

The second ridge was planted with bean sprouts brought back from the hills, as well as what Qi Bai speculated were mint and cabbage seedlings.

On the third ridge, Qi Bai planted sweet potatoes.

Compared to other seeds that were planted closely, Qi Bai waved his hand and directly planted 50 sweet potatoes.

Qi Bai knew in his heart that apart from bean sprouts, sweet potatoes were the plants that he was most likely to expand in scale at this stage. Thus, he planted more this time.

As for the last ridge, Qi Bai decided to plant radish roots. However, when he was covering the radish roots with soil, Qi Bai felt something was wrong.

He remembered that tubers such as sweet potatoes and potatoes were the seeds of plants, which could germinate and provide nutrients.

But…

He compared the roots and sweet potatoes side by side.

Qi Bai’s face wrinkled. Was there such a big tuber?

After thinking about it for a long time without coming up with any result, Qi Bai finally decided to experiment directly. Practice was the only criterion for testing truth after all. He couldn’t figure it out just by thinking about it.

Compared to Qi Bai’s bold approach in cooking and making tools, Qi Bai could be said to have put in extreme concentration and rigor when it came to planting.

He had never farmed before, but he knew that seeds shouldn’t be planted too close to each other to prevent them from competing for nutrients.

Therefore, every time he planted each seed, he would measure it with a straw rope, trying to space them exactly. Finally, he watered the seeds thoroughly.

By the time Qi Bai straightened up from the field, more than an hour had passed.

Many tribe members were gathered in the valley in front of the tribe.

“Chuan Chuan, we have to hurry too.”

He poured the milk into Chuan Chuan’s food bowl. Then Qi Bai opened the lid of the pottery jar, poured the fragrant radish stewed with meat into the bamboo bowl, and took a bite of the marinated meat and radish.

In just a short time, he finished a large pot of stewed meat. Then he tied Chuan Chuan together and went to the square with the rattan basket on his back.

Today was an extremely important day.

The Black Mountain Tribe would begin the new year’s work starting from today.

Qi Bai carried a rattan basket on his back and stood in the middle of the crowd with his arms folded. His head was slightly lowered as he listened to Yang Luo praying for a good harvest this year.

Yang Luo’s slow and steady voice seemed to have some type of magic. Not only did the tribe members listen attentively, but even the two new members of the tribe, Xiong Shan and Yang An, who were only one month old, were fascinated by the voice. They stared at Yang Luo with their little ears moving constantly.

Hou Yan stood in front of the tribe totem and pounded his chest heavily. “Black Mountain Tribe!”

The hunting team faced Hou Yan and let out a thunderous roar. “Black Mountain Tribe!” They all took off their animal skins and transformed into tall beasts.

Qi Bai couldn’t help being shocked by the scene before him.

Their hunting team seemed to have been reborn.

Adequate food made the tribe members strong. More importantly, the training of warriors by Lang Ze made all the beastmen’s eyes become full of confidence and determination.

They were no longer the hunting team of ten people who went out and only brought back a few hares and mice.

Anyone who saw them would surely be convinced that this was a fearless team and a formidable opponent.

It was only after the hunting team disappeared that Diao Lan waved for everyone to gather.

Today’s gathering team was still divided into four small teams according to the arrangement in autumn.

It was just that Tu Ya was already pregnant and Shu Lin’s baby was still too young. They couldn’t go out to gather for the time being.

Out of the eight member team that Qi Bai was in, only six people were left: Diao Lan, Qi Bai, Niu Lu, Bao Yue, Bao Xing, and Li Li.

Among them, Bao Xing and Li Li were too young and basically couldn’t exert much strength. Niu Lu and Bao Yue were only half-grown beastmen in their early teens. They were still unhappy because they hadn’t successfully joined the hunting team.

The only two people in their team who could really work were Diao Lan and Qi Bai.

Tu Yu said shyly, “I think I can go out for gathering.”

Shu Lin also nodded. “Xiong Shan can already crawl around and play. He doesn’t need me to watch him now.”

Diao Lan shook her head. “We will gather more food and bring it back. You should just follow the priest’s instructions.”

In fact, there had never been such a concept as nurturing a baby or confinement after childbirth in the Beastman Continent. People didn’t regard childbirth as something that required rest. They usually just did what they should do.

Qi Bai looked at Shu Lin, who had finally recovered his energy and spirits after giving birth, and felt it would never be wrong to be cautious and conservative.

Of course, Qi Bai knew that Tu Ya and Shu Lin wouldn’t listen to his words. Finally, he persuaded Yang Luo to step in and convince them to be obedient and raise the baby well.

Qi Bai said, “The priest said that you can help him receive the food. It doesn’t sound easy. You have to work hard.”

Hearing this, Shu Lin shook his head faster. “I can only count to five now. It is too difficult for me to help everyone count.”

Shu Lin originally wanted to ask Qi Bai to teach him temporarily, but Yang Luo was already calling their names from behind. Seeing that She Li and Yang Ling were already standing beside him, the two of them could only hurry over.

Since Tu Ya couldn’t go out, Diao Lan was appointed as the temporary captain of the team. However, she didn’t mean to make decisions on her own. Instead, she turned around and asked QI Bai, “Have you decided where to go for gathering today?”

Qi Bai blinked his dark eyes and asked, “Can we go to the bamboo forest?”

After the spring rain, it was the best time to dig bamboo shoots.

Qi Bai came to the bamboo forest to dig bamboo shoots in winter. However, at that time, the bamboo shoots were hidden deep in the soil. Qi Bai took a lot of effort to find a few of them, and most of them were made into sour bamboo shoots.

Now it was completely different. Qi Bai had just arrived at the bamboo forest and had only taken a few steps when he saw a tiny sprout.

Use a shovel to dig downwards in the direction of the tender shoots. The bamboo shoots buried underneath would gradually reveal their original appearance. Then use a shovel to break the bamboo and he would get a bamboo shoot as long as his forearm.

Little Li Li said in surprise, “It is so big.”

Qi Bai smiled and handed the bamboo shoot in his hand to Li Li. “Yes, we are going to get a lot of food!”

Li Li held the bamboo shoot with both hands and tiptoed to put it in the rattan basket.

It wasn’t that Qi Bai was abusive towards children, but the children in the beastmen world were born with a spirit of not relying on others. Even if it was just helping with carrying things, they never wanted to just follow by the side.

Qi Bai reached out and rubbed her little head. He praised her and picked up the rattan basket. Then the two of them continued to walk forward.

Lili’s little face turned red due to Qi Bai’s praise. She ran and jumped forward. Before she had gone far, she saw a bamboo shoot that had pushed through a crack in the ground and appeared in front of them.

Li Li said in surprise, “Here is another one!”

Qi Bai naturally wasn’t polite about the food that was delivered to the door. Then he quickly put the big bamboo shoot into the rattan basket.

Not far from the two of them, Bao Xing also surrounded Diao Lan and exclaimed.

Bao Yue and Niu Lu no longer had any thoughts of resistance. They just felt that digging bamboo shoots was really fun. It was much more interesting than simple gathering. They could argue for a long time just over who dug the bigger bamboo shoots.

Of course, in addition to bamboo shoots, there were also mushrooms popping up everywhere in the mountains and forests.

These mushrooms, which were as big as an adult’s palm, soon became the favorites of Li Li and Bao Xing because they could collect them on their own.

Before long, the rattan basket was full and they had to go back to the tribe for the time being.

Qi Bai and his companions passed through the small gate of the tribe and entered the square. They immediately noticed Yang Luo and his companions, who were sitting under a big tree around the scale.

Seeing someone coming back, Shu Lin put the baby on his shoulder, stood up, and greeted them. “You are back so soon. Come and put the food on the scale.”

Shu Lin’s tone was very cheerful. “The priest said that everyone just needs to hand over enough food to the tribe. The rest will belong to the people who picked them!”

Diao Lan paused when she heard this. She turned to look at Qi Bai and found that Qi Bai looked very calm.

She lowered her head and smiled slightly.

The tribe collected the food gathered and hunted by the tribe members to ensure that the tribe members, especially the children, could eat enough. But at the same time, the tribe members were encouraged to own private property to make everyone more motivated.

Diao Lan didn’t think that Yang Luo would have such far-reaching plans. After all, she knew how difficult it was to give up power. If he had the courage to give it up so easily, he wouldn’t have become a defeated priest.

Diao Lan almost instantly guessed that this was Qi Bai’s idea.

The others didn’t think as much as Diao Lan did. They were just eager to gather more food.

Qi Bai put down the rattan basket and reached out to tease the little bear, who was waving his paws hard as if to agree with his parent.

At this time, a question came to mind. Qi Bai said with some hesitation, “We are digging bamboo shoots. Isn’t it unfair? Otherwise, why don’t we peel the bamboo shoots first and then weigh them?”

Qi Bai felt like an unscrupulous businessman carrying bamboo shoots with such a thick layer of skin.

Yang Luo had already noticed the bamboo shoots in their rattan baskets. After all, it had only been half a day, and Diao Lan had already brought the team back. This was too efficient.

He picked up the bamboo shoots with his hands. “Put these bamboo shoots here. We will help you peel off the outer skin. The inner core will be used as food for the tribe, and the outer skin would be left for the four-eared sheep in the sheepfold.”

Yang Ling said happily, “That’s great. We can help in the tribe too.”

Qi Bai also thought that Yang Luo’s suggestion was very good. This way, they would not only bring back food for the tribe members but also solve the problem of feed for the four-eared sheep.

After unloading the bamboo shoots and mushrooms in the rattan baskets under the big tree in the square, Tu Ya and Shu Lin returned to the cave. They took out their stone axes and bone knives to cut the bamboo shoots.

Qi Bai and Diao Lan continued to head into the bamboo forest with the other four children.

Qi Bai couldn’t help but think as he saw the dense bamboo forest not far away.

Spring bamboo shoots grew really quickly. In this world without refrigerators, he had to find a way to store as much food as possible.