Chapter 13
Ever since waking up, every time Lang Shuo entered or left the cave, someone had to carry him on their back. It was extremely inconvenient.
His leg had still hurt a little over the past two days, so Lang Shuo had not tried to force himself. Now that it no longer hurt, he felt he could try moving around on his own. Maintaining the same posture for too long was not good for blood circulation.
In front of the cave where they lived was an open space the tribe had cleared out for eating and processing prey. Around the clearing were many withered reeds, and only farther away were there trees. The distance was somewhat far, so Lang Shuo did not go along. Instead, he described the kind of branches he wanted and had Lang Nuo look for them.
Although Lang Nuo was a wolf, he had climbed plenty of trees before. Very quickly, he returned with branches that matched Lang Shuo’s requirements. There were six or seven in total. Each was about as tall as a person, with one forked end.
Lang Shuo selected two branches suitable for crutches and set them aside, using the rest for practice first.
What he wanted were “T”-shaped branches. He cut the horizontal forks shorter, polished the sharp areas smooth, adjusted the height of the crutches, and also slightly polished the bottoms.
After making the crutches, Lang Shuo tried taking a few steps with Lang Nuo supporting him. His speed was a little slow, but he could move freely. Even if he was slow, he was still happy.
Lang Shuo was enjoying walking around, while Lang Nuo watched from the side with his heart in his throat, terrified that Lang Shuo might accidentally fall. For the past few days, every morning before Lang Yu left the tribe, he had given Lang Nuo the same instruction: take good care of Lang Shuo.
To Lang Nuo, Lang Yu was both the chief and an older brother. Either identity alone was enough to suppress him completely. He could not disobey Lang Yu’s words. If he dared to go against Lang Yu, Lang Yu would not even need to act himself—Lang Yun could beat him up first. Not to mention, this was about taking care of Lang Shuo. If he failed, neither Lang Yun nor Lang Yu would spare him.
Now, seeing Lang Shuo moving like this, Lang Nuo felt his future turn completely bleak.
Lang Nuo felt that when Lang Yu often said their group was hard to manage, it was because he had never seen Lang Shuo like this. Lang Shuo was hopping forward on crutches, and he was not at all more worry-free than them. After all, their legs and feet were fine. Lang Shuo was injured and still refused to settle down.
This could not go on.
Lang Nuo made up his mind, walked in front of him, and blocked Lang Shuo’s path. “Shuo, let me carry you instead.”
Lang Shuo was not heavy. Lang Nuo could carry him by himself with no problem. Forget carrying him occasionally—even carrying Lang Shuo all day would be better than worrying like this.
Unfortunately, his plan was destined to fail.
Lang Shuo shook his head. “I can’t always let you carry me. I need to move around a little.”
One leg was injured, but the other leg was still fine. If he did not move, he felt both legs would become useless.
Lang Nuo wanted to cry but had no tears.
If he had known earlier, he would not have found branches for Lang Shuo. Without branches, he could not make crutches. Without crutches, he could not walk. If he did not walk, Lang Nuo would not have to worry every second that he might fall.
Lang Shuo knew Lang Nuo was worried about him. He slowly hopped back to the spot where he had been resting and sat down before explaining, “Don’t worry. I have two crutches, so I won’t fall. Besides, I need you to support me before I can stand up. If you’re not here, I won’t wander around.”
Lang Shuo cherished his life very much and would not take risks. Proper movement helped blood circulation. He would not blindly move around.
However, Lang Nuo was somewhat suspicious.
The members he had been around the longest were the sub-adults of his own age. If he imagined them breaking a leg, and they truly wanted to go out, then even if someone tried to stop them, they would simply transform into beast form and run out on three legs. Stay quietly? Impossible.
Originally, Lang Nuo had not thought Lang Shuo would run around, but Lang Shuo’s behavior just now had made him vigilant. He kept feeling that the moment he was not paying attention, Lang Shuo would run out.
Lang Shuo saw his distrust and felt somewhat helpless. He pointed at Lang Yun. “Yun is right here. How could I possibly mess around?”
Even if he did not trust him, he should at least trust Lang Yun, right?
Lang Yun had listened to their conversation for a while from the side and nodded. “I’ll be here the whole time.”
Lang Yun had never considered that Lang Shuo would run around. Compared with the other sub-adults, Lang Shuo was much more reassuring. Besides, Lang Shuo had also said that he would only move around occasionally and would not keep walking.
With both of their assurances, Lang Nuo thought for a moment and added, “Then if you fall, you can’t blame me, and you can’t let the chief beat me.”
Lang Yu’s beatings hurt a lot. When he was little and mischievous, Lang Yu had pinned him down and beaten him.
Thinking of this, Lang Nuo muttered resentfully, “Even if he beats me, you’re not allowed to hold me down this time!”
Back then, Lang Shuo still had not spoken to them, but he had helped hold him down!
Lang Shuo was confused for a moment. Had he done something like that before?
At the same time as this question arose, a vague memory did indeed appear in his mind. A younger version of himself had both hands firmly pressing down on Lang Nuo’s legs, while beside him, Lang Yu, who was nearly an adult, did not even blink as he landed slap after slap on Lang Nuo’s bottom. Lang Nuo, still a child, cried until tears and snot flowed everywhere.
The scene was a little frightening. It looked like a bullying scene. Lang Shuo began to doubt his life. Had he been bad at thinking before, yet still known how to bully people?
Before Lang Shuo could think further, Lang Yun rolled her eyes at Lang Nuo and said irritably, “Why don’t you say why you were beaten? You nearly drowned in the river. Beating you was already light.”
Unlike Lang Shuo, who had not made people worry since childhood aside from disliking talking, Lang Nuo had been troublesome even as a cub. Before he turned three, he had already crawled out of the cave. After turning three, he ran all over the tribe.
Their previous territory had been laid out similarly to this one, very close to a river. During the harvest season when Lang Nuo was eight, the entire tribe was busy. He disliked the heat and, while the tribe member watching the cubs was not paying attention, ran to the river to play. In the end, he had nearly failed to climb back out. Fortunately, Lang Yu had picked something tasty outside and returned to the tribe to find Lang Shuo. He discovered that one cub was missing from the cave and only then rescued the struggling Lang Nuo from the water.
That time, Lang Nuo first received a beating from Lang Yu. In the evening, he was beaten again by his father and mother. At night, after hearing about the matter, the chief at the time—Lang Yu and Lang Shuo’s father—also taught him a lesson. Later, every adult wolf in the tribe used that incident as a negative example when educating cubs.
Lang Shuo: “…”
After his dark history was exposed, Lang Nuo was embarrassed for a moment. But it lasted only an instant. After the embarrassment passed, he tossed the matter to the back of his mind. “Anyway, this time you all have to stand on my side.”
Lang Shuo agreed good-naturedly. “Don’t worry. Even if I fall, I won’t blame you. Have you rested enough? If you’re not tired anymore, go cut some bamboo back. I need it.”
Lang Shuo had figured it out. As long as he did not assign Lang Nuo something to do, Lang Nuo would keep staring at him. Since the stone pot could be used to steam many foods, he might as well make the steamers first.
As expected, once he heard the arrangement, Lang Nuo stopped worrying about Lang Shuo’s leg injury. He sprang up like a carp flipping over and called the other sub-adults to go cut bamboo.
There was a bamboo grove not far behind the mountain. The bowls they were using now were all made from bamboo cut from there. In order to cut bamboo, the adult beastmen staying behind at the settlement began sharpening stone knives whenever they had time.
Because Lang Shuo had not said how thick the bamboo should be, the group of sub-adults cut some of all thicknesses. Lang Shuo had them split the thick ones open and set the thin ones aside for now.
Making steamers was a little more complicated than weaving baskets, but for beastmen, it was not too difficult. They were strong and could easily bend bamboo strips into the curve they needed.
The injury on Lang Shuo’s arm no longer hurt, but he still did not dare use too much strength. Therefore, he only took a few of the thinnest bamboo strips to demonstrate. The sub-adults followed along. After they made theirs, Lang Shuo adjusted them to make sure the steam would not leak out too much when they were used.
After the steamers were finished, Lang Shuo had Lang Yun test them. They placed the steamer over the stone pot and put in the yams and red dates the gathering team had brought back yesterday. Once they were steamed, the date skins and pits were removed, and the yams and red dates were mashed separately into paste.
The sub-adults, who were busy making the second batch of steamers, looked at the contents of the stone bowl with disdain. Sticky and mushy. It looked unappetizing at a glance. Only unpicky cubs could eat that.
Lang Shuo looked over.
The sub-adults’ expressions changed, and they immediately became docile.
Lang Shuo: “…”
Lang Shuo ignored this group of little actors. After washing his hands clean, he pinched off a ball of yam paste and flattened it into a cake. He placed a little red date paste in the middle, rolled it into a ball, and set it aside.
Lang Yun had nothing to do. The cubs were all in the basket and could not run out, so she simply followed along and helped.
Very quickly, the two of them turned all the yam paste and red date paste in the stone bowl into yam and date paste balls. It was only a change in shape, but the food seemed to have become entirely different. The spherical yam and date paste balls were snow-white overall, and when broken open, the filling was red date paste with a sweet fragrance of red dates.
Finally, they were placed back into the steamer for a second heating. The weather was too cold. After all this handling, they had already cooled. Neither of them dared to feed the cubs cold food.
When the steamer was lifted again, the fragrance was much more obvious than before. The scent of yam carried the aroma of red dates.
Having witnessed this magical moment with their own eyes, the sub-adults swallowed and stared as Lang Yun handed the top layer to Lang Shuo.
Lang Shuo picked one up and blew on it twice. Just as he was about to feed it to the cub closest to him, he suddenly felt several scorching gazes. He raised his head and looked over, then lowered his head and looked at the cubs clinging to the edge of the basket, waiting to be fed. He fell into doubt.
Were the ones in front of him really wolves?
The way they begged for food really was too much like puppies.
Lang Shuo did not know what others would think upon seeing this scene. In any case, he could not refuse.
He calculated the quantity in his heart. The yam balls were rather small, only a little bigger than a thumb. There were more than thirty in one layer, and three layers in total, which made over a hundred.
His original plan had been to divide them equally among the cubs, but the sub-adults had been busy for most of the day and deserved a bit of a reward. In any case, there were still some yams and red dates left. They could make more next time. The ingredients were not actually scarce; it was only because they had never eaten them this way before that everyone was so greedy.
Thinking of this, Lang Shuo said, “Come take them yourselves. Two each. Line up properly. Don’t crowd.”
The cubs needed to be fed, but those this big did not. Afraid that they would be too excited and bump into the cubs, Lang Shuo specifically emphasized the last sentence.
The sub-adults had been waiting for exactly those words. Hearing him, they immediately went over to take some. As for lining up, they would obey that even without Lang Shuo teaching them. If they bumped into a cub or into Lang Shuo, then when Lang Yu and the others came back in the evening, a beating would definitely be unavoidable.
The fragrance of yam and the sweetness of dates blended together. The sub-adults, who had never eaten food with this texture before, ate until their eyes grew brighter and brighter. Two were simply not enough. But several of them tacitly did not ask for more. Instead, they asked Lang Shuo, “Shuo, do you want to keep making this? We’ll help.”
They could help roll them, and then they could eat to their heart’s content!
Lang Shuo looked at the sky and shook his head. “Not today. There isn’t enough time. Go cut the remaining thin bamboo into sections. Cut beside the joints and leave whole bamboo tubes. I need them.”
Hearing that there would be no more yam and date paste balls today, the sub-adults’ expressions drooped. Their invisible tails behind them all seemed to hang down.
Lang Shuo added, “Today we’re making bamboo-tube roasted meat. It tastes even better than yesterday’s stone-grilled meat.”
Hearing this, the little wolves visibly perked up in an instant.
Once he grasped their weakness, managing them required no effort at all. Lang Shuo pointed toward the place where the bamboo was placed. “Go. We’ll roast a portion first to test the flavor. If it tastes good, we’ll help roast some for the hunting party and gathering team too. That way, they can eat as soon as they return.”
The little wolves happily went off to cut bamboo. Only then did Lang Shuo begin feeding the cubs.
The cubs’ sense of smell was not worse than that of adult beastmen. From the moment the yam and date paste balls finished steaming, they had smelled them and anxiously whined nonstop. Now that they had finally waited until they were fed, they were so excited their tails wagged.
Little wolf cubs wagged their tails when happy, just like puppies. It was just that the way they wagged their tails was different. Wolf cubs’ tails did not spin in circles, but swayed left and right. Still, they were equally adorable. A group of little wolf cubs eating while acting spoiled made people want to take out all the food they had.
Each cub was fed two. The rest were not enough to divide among the cubs, so Lang Shuo did not keep feeding them. He and Lang Yun each tasted one, leaving a dozen or so. Lang Shuo beckoned and called Lang Hui over. “Take these and share them with your friends. Two each. No one is allowed to take extra. If anyone doesn’t listen, tell me, and next time I won’t give them any.”
“Okay!” Lang Hui answered loudly. He carefully carried the steamer Lang Shuo gave him and went to divide them with the children around his age.
The yam and date paste balls were a success, and the steamer had been tested. Once the sub-adults returned with the bamboo, Lang Shuo began teaching them how to make bamboo-tube roasted meat.
Cut the meat into slices, marinate it with snow fruit and salt, stuff it into the bamboo tube, seal the opening with a wooden plug, place it over the fire, and turn it occasionally like roasted meat.
The tool used for turning it was a clip made from bamboo, two fingers wide and as long as an arm. After each time they used it to turn the bamboo tubes, the clip needed to be soaked in water or placed in the snow to cool down, to prevent it from catching fire.
This time, it took longer than stone-grilled meat. Just as the impatient sub-adults were almost unable to wait any longer, they smelled a faint aroma of meat.
“Take them down.”
Lang Shuo felt that the timing was about right and had Lang Nuo and the others use the clips to remove the bamboo tubes.
After placing them in the snow to cool slightly, they used a stone knife to pry open a crack. In an instant, a rich fragrance wafted out. A gust of wind blew past, and even the beastmen busy by the river smelled it.
At the same time, several lost sub-adult black wolves stopped in their tracks.
“I smell food,” the leading black wolf said with certainty. “That must be the direction of the tribe.”
