Chapter 17
Lang Shuo did what he said he would.
After resting for one night, he woke up early the next morning. First, he reported to Lang Yu, then began thinking about new food.
Among the foods he had prepared before, the one that made the young wolves happiest was the yam and red date balls. However, those two ingredients were relatively scarce. Making them occasionally for everyone to taste as a snack was fine, but there definitely would not be enough for them to eat freely.
What the tribe had the most of right now was still meat. Lang Shuo recalled the foods he had eaten before, doing his best to search for something delicious that did not require too many seasonings. After all, their tribe only had salt. They had none of the other seasonings.
After thinking for a while, Lang Shuo decided to make some jerky. Of course, what he planned to make was not the large chunks of roasted dried meat he had eaten on the day he woke up. Instead, he intended to air-dry it first, then steam it. It would be a little troublesome to make, but one batch could be eaten for a long time. It could also be used for the cubs to chew on.
The method for making jerky was not difficult. Lang Shuo simply omitted the seasonings the tribe did not have. If it were another season, he could still ask the gathering team to look for them. But in this weather, finding familiar food was already difficult enough. Lang Shuo did not want to add pressure to the gathering team. Besides, the tribe members had only ever eaten food seasoned with salt, so even without other seasonings, it would still be edible to them.
To make jerky, the meat first had to be cut into large pieces. Yesterday, the hunting party had caught three curved-horned beasts. Adding the ones sent by the Black Wolf Tribe, there were five in total. The tribe members had been busy until morning before finishing the cutting. Fortunately, wolves recovered their energy quickly. After sleeping for a while, they woke up still full of vigor.
Today, the hunting party and gathering team did not go out to search for food. Lang Yu mixed the two teams together and divided them in half, leaving one half in the settlement while taking the remaining members to patrol the territory.
Yesterday’s incident had reminded them that although their tribe had pitifully few supplies and was not worth other tribes coming over specifically to rob, members of other tribes might still wander in by mistake. Therefore, they planned to remark the edges of the territory and remind passing beastmen that this was another tribe’s territory, to prevent beastmen from accidentally entering again.
All the sub-adult young wolves were taken away by Lang Yu. The young wolves shouted every day that they wanted to join the hunt, but the hunting party was indeed not suitable for bringing them along right now. So Lang Yu planned to first take them to familiarize themselves with the territory, then let them move around freely. If they could find some food, of course that was good. If they could not, then it would count as training.
With the young wolves absent, Lang Shuo could only look for others to help. The members who remained behind happened to have nothing to do, so when they heard this, they all came over to listen. When it came to matters involving food, everyone trusted Lang Shuo very much. After all, the foods he had taught them recently were more delicious one after another.
Lang Shuo took a longer piece of meat and first demonstrated how to cut it. First, cut it into thick slices like the stone-grilled meat. Then cut it into strips. When cutting the strips, do not cut all the way through. Leave a small section connected in alternating places. This way, after one slice of meat was cut, it would become one long strip, making it convenient to hang.
All the cut meat strips were marinated with salt and snow fruit. The tribe did not have enough containers, so they directly used baskets instead. They lined the baskets with several layers of large leaves the gathering team had specifically found, placed the meat inside, and carried them into the cave to marinate. The cave was a little warmer, so the meat would not freeze so quickly.
The marinated meat strips were strung up with rope and hung from branches to dry naturally.
This kind of weather at the beginning of snow season was most suitable for making jerky. Lang Shuo tried to make as much as possible. Dozens of members busied themselves, and by the time Lang Yu returned with the others in the evening, several trees beside the cave were covered with hanging strips of meat. The scene was quite spectacular, with a touch of eeriness.
“What is this for?”
There was no need to guess to know it was Lang Shuo’s idea. This morning, his younger brother had said he needed meat to make some food, and Lang Yu had agreed. He simply had not expected him to make this much at once. Roughly estimating, even if it was not a whole curved-horned beast, it was at least half of one.
“Making jerky.” Lang Shuo did not hide it. After all, with this much meat hanging there, he could not hide it even if he wanted to. “Hang it here and sun it for two days. Once it dries, we’ll steam it.”
“Like dried snow fruit?” Lang Yu drew an inference from one example and thought of the dried persimmons and dried snow fruit Lang Shuo had mentioned two days ago. They all needed to be dried, so they should be similar.
“Yes.” Lang Shuo nodded. “Once made into jerky, it’ll be easy to store. It won’t matter if we keep it in the cave, and it won’t spoil as easily as raw meat. You can also bring some when you go out to search for food.”
In Lang Shuo’s view, the tribe’s current eating habits were especially unhealthy. In the morning, whether they had an appetite or not, they had to force themselves to eat a large amount because it had to support a whole day of physical activity. From morning until night, they ate nothing. Then when they returned to the tribe in the evening, they ate a huge meal, rested for a while, and went to sleep.
If they were pure animals, eating this way might not be a problem. After all, some carnivores only ate once every few days. But when it came to diet, beastmen were clearly closer to pure humans. They needed balanced nutrition. If they ate too little leafy vegetables and fruit, foods that supplemented vitamins, they would even develop heatiness symptoms.
These past few days, Lang Shuo had wanted to change this unhealthy way of eating. Yesterday, when he had some members prepare food in advance, it was also because he wanted the gathering team and hunting party to eat a little earlier. Eating too close to bedtime was not good for the body.
Previously, the tribe had not had enough food, so there were limited changes he could make. Now things were different. After two days of major harvests in a row, the tribe’s urgent food crisis was completely solved. Next, as long as the hunting party maintained a normal level of hunting, the tribe would not lack food in the short term.
Most importantly, making jerky was only changing the cooking method. The amount of food had not decreased, which was why Lang Shuo felt reassured enough to prepare it.
However, to prevent anyone from misunderstanding, Lang Shuo still explained, “The jerky made this way is similar to the meat chunks we used to roast before. It just won’t be as hard.”
The dried meat the tribe had roasted in the past was meant to be eaten during migration. To extend its storage time, they had basically roasted out all the moisture, making the texture extremely hard. What Lang Shuo was making was also jerky, but it would not be dried to the point of being difficult to swallow.
“It’s fine. Do it if you want.” If Lang Shuo had acted so extravagantly on the first day he woke up, even if Lang Yu would not have refused, he absolutely would have asked a few more questions and kept an eye on things just in case. But for several days in a row, the food Lang Shuo had taught them was all better than what they made themselves. Lang Yu believed this time would definitely succeed as well, so he did not touch the strips of meat hanging on the trees.
Moreover, not a single member who had stayed by the cave opposed it. That was enough to prove that everyone now trusted his younger brother when it came to food.
However, leaving so much food outside was not safe enough. There was also a pile of already divided curved-horned beast meat beside the cave. Lang Yu chose two members and had them eat dinner and rest first, then keep watch tonight.
The young wolves were also exhausted today. They were still not adults after all, and their endurance was inferior to that of adult wolves. After running around outside for a day, they were all listless now.
Lang Shuo felt a little distressed and pointed toward the stone pot. “There’s stewed meat soup inside. One bowl each.”
The tribe only had one stone pot. Even if they stewed a whole pot, it would not be enough for the entire tribe to divide. Lang Shuo had simply changed the method. During the day, when they did not need to cook for the cubs, they boiled several pots of soup and filled bowls with it. In the afternoon, when the members who had left the tribe were about to return, they placed the bowls in the steamer to heat. This way, they could drink it as soon as they got back.
After walking for a whole day, the young wolves were both hungry and thirsty. They originally did not want to move, but the temptation of food was too great. They forced themselves to perk up and went to get the meat soup.
They had thought it was sliced meat soup like the past few days, but when they bit into the meat inside, the group of young wolves suddenly discovered something was different. Lang Nuo bit into a food that tasted like meat but did not feel like meat and looked at Lang Shuo in surprise. “Shuo, what is this?”
“Meatballs,” Lang Shuo explained.
Jerky could not be eaten immediately, and he had promised yesterday to make something delicious today. He definitely could not make the young wolves wait three days. So when everyone was cutting meat, he had them cut the chunks that could not be sliced into strips into small cubes, put them into a stone bowl, mash them, beat the mixture until it became springy, then roll it into meatballs.
There was no meat grinder and no sharp metal knives, so making filling was slow. Because of that, they had not made much. After setting aside the portion for the cubs, what remained was only enough for everyone to taste something new.
The young wolves did not show the slightest disdain because there were not many meatballs in their bowls. Each one ate with great satisfaction. If they had been in beast form, the tails behind them would definitely already have been wagging.
Their bamboo bowls were a bit larger than the ones the cubs used, but it was still only a few mouthfuls. Yet for the young wolves who had been hungry all day, it was more useful than anything else. It did not restore them to full strength, but at least it brought back twenty percent of their energy, so they were no longer as weak and listless as before.
After recovering part of their strength, the sub-adults gathered around Lang Shuo and asked when the jerky outside could be eaten. The food over the past few days had improved day by day. Now, the two things they looked forward to most were what they would eat today and whether Lang Shuo had researched something tasty.
“In two or three days.” Lang Shuo estimated the time. During the day, the sunlight carried a bit of warmth, and with the constant wind, two days would be enough for it to air-dry almost completely. After drying, it had to be steamed once, then it could be eaten. If they wanted to store it for longer, it would need to be dried further.
Two or three days. That was not long. Lang Nuo was completely satisfied and shared good news with Lang Shuo. “The chief agreed to let us go out and search for food!”
Although Lang Yu would not let them hunt large prey and only allowed them to look for small prey, for the young wolves who had been staying in the settlement ever since they arrived here, being able to go out for a walk every day was already good.
“Then you must be careful,” Lang Shuo instructed. He glanced at his own leg and could not help sighing. If his leg were not injured, he could go out with Lang Nuo and the others. Now, he could only think about it.
“Mm-hm.” Lang Nuo agreed. “We’ll be careful.”
Mistakes like getting lost were not something they would make.
Beside them, Lang Yu watched the overexcited young wolves, lowered his head, and continued eating. Keeping the young wolves confined to the settlement was indeed safe, but it was not a long-term solution. Beastmen in the sub-adult stage were at an active and lively age. If they were not allowed out, over time they would lose their drive, just like the long-eared beast on the mountain. After a few days, even if they opened the cave entrance, the long-eared beast would not run outside.
The current young wolves were not suitable for hunting, but patrolling and gathering food were no problem. It was just that aside from Lang Yu, basically no one in the tribe could manage this group of sub-adults. Whoever they were handed to would get a headache. They might as well let them wander around the territory by themselves. Whether or not they could find food was another matter; at least no one had to expend energy managing them.
In the past, Lang Yu would still have worried that this group of young wolves might be careless and run too far. Now, he did not have that concern at all. During their time wandering outside today, the young wolves led by Lang Nuo had asked five or six times when they were returning to the tribe. All of them had been thinking about the food Lang Shuo had promised yesterday.
With the food in the tribe hooking them, there was no fear that they would run far.
After Lang Yu finished his portion of soup, he beckoned to the young wolves. “You’re not adults yet. You only need to hand half of the food you find to the tribe. You can keep the remaining half for yourselves.”
Beastmen in the sub-adult stage were still growing. Even though the food the tribe usually distributed to them was no less than what adult beastmen received, it was still not enough for them. At the same time, the tribe could not prioritize distributing food to them over members who worked hard to search for food. Therefore, under the premise of safety, the tribe also encouraged sub-adults to go out and look for prey. Only needing to turn in half of their harvest was one of the preferential treatments given to sub-adults.
This should have been something worth being happy about. However, when the young wolves heard these words, disappointment appeared on their faces.
Their disappointment was so obvious that not only others, even Lang Yu did not understand. “Do you insist on handing in all of it?”
Lang Yun, who was nearby, looked over in surprise. If another member insisted on handing in food, that would be understandable. But for sub-adults who shouted that they were hungry as soon as they finished eating, this was practically like a dream. There actually came a day when sub-adults thought they had too much food. It sounded too unbelievable.
Lang Nuo looked at Lang Shuo.
Lang Shuo: “???”
Lang Yu understood. In order not to disappoint the young wolves, he promised, “Your own food can be processed together with the tribe’s food. You just need to hand in a little more when the time comes.”
Within a certain range, the adult beastmen in the tribe did not mind giving the young wolves a little preferential treatment. After all, the growth of the young wolves was related to the tribe’s future.
Lang Shuo also understood. The sub-adults wanted to eat the recently improved foods, and improving food required the tribe’s collective tools. It was not like roasted meat, which could simply be thrown into the fire, so a little food would be deducted as a processing fee.
The group of sub-adults had no objections to handing over a bit more food. After receiving the promise that they could eat together, they went to wait for dinner in complete satisfaction.
Dinner today was similar to yesterday. It was still roasted meat skewers, stone-grilled meat, and bamboo-tube roasted meat. Because the sub-adults were going out tomorrow to look for food, Lang Yu gave them a little more meat.
Several sub-adults ate with great satisfaction. After they were full, they lay on the ground and hummed, not wanting to move.
Lang Shuo saw them lying sprawled all over the place and helped tug their clothes down to cover their stomachs.
The young wolves sensed someone approaching and were just about to open their eyes. After realizing it was a familiar scent, they fell asleep again.
It was still early. Aside from the somewhat exhausted sub-adults, the other members had no intention of resting yet. Lang Shuo looked at the jerky hanging on the tree beside them and asked Lang Yu, “Brother, why don’t we roast some jerky for them to bring?”
Jerky had to dry for at least two days before it could be steamed. If they were in a hurry to eat it, it could be smoked and roasted over fire.
The amount the young wolves had eaten that night was more than twice what they usually ate. They really had been terribly hungry. They normally worked in the tribe too, but their activity level was far from this great. Going out tomorrow would not be any easier than today. If they prepared a little food, they could pad their stomachs if they got hungry. At least they would not become like the Black Wolf Tribe’s sub-adults, who had nearly collapsed on the ground by the time they reached this side, without any strength left.
Lang Yu looked at him, then looked at the sub-adults sleeping in crooked, messy positions on the ground, and said, “Don’t spoil them too much.”
The tribe would give the sub-adults some preferential treatment, but it would not take care of them in every aspect like Lang Shuo did. He even helped cover their animal hides while they slept. If this went on, sooner or later these sub-adults would be spoiled until they became lawless.
“No, I won’t.” Lang Shuo’s thoughts were completely different. “They’re very obedient right now.”
They did whatever they were told. With such obedient young wolves, Lang Shuo truly did not mind taking a bit more care of them.
Lang Yu wanted to refute him, but suddenly realized that the group of sub-adults really were obedient in front of Lang Shuo. They listened to everything Lang Shuo said, even more effectively than they listened to him, the chief. For a moment, he actually could not think of anything to refute with.
In the end, Lang Yu sighed. “Forget it. As long as they listen to you.”
At least someone could control them. If the sub-adults remained this easy to deal with, then spoiling them was fine.
Lang Shuo looked at the meat again, asking with his eyes whether Lang Yu would let him roast it.
Lang Yu asked, “How much?”
Lang Shuo thought about the number of sub-adults. “Twenty strips.”
One strip of meat was more than a meter long. Two strips each, and the leftovers could be used for the rest of the tribe to taste.
Lang Yu nodded and helped take down twenty strips of meat. Lang Shuo took them and placed them beside the fire, slowly roasting them.
Slow-roasting over low heat made them taste good, but it also took a long time. In the end, this task was handed over to the few members keeping watch at night. They stayed outside the cave at night and would light several fires for warmth, so they could conveniently roast these strips of meat at the same time.
Thus, early the next morning, when the sub-adults were preparing to head out, they received an unexpected surprise: a small box woven from vines. Although they could not see what was inside, judging by the smell alone, it was definitely something delicious.
Lang Shuo instructed, “Don’t eat it the moment you leave. This was prepared for you to eat when you’re hungry. Only take it out when you’re so hungry you want to come back immediately. Understand?”
Lang Shuo strongly suspected that if he did not say this in advance, this group of sub-adults would finish eating everything the moment they walked out of the clearing.
Hearing Lang Shuo’s words, one sub-adult who had been about to reach into the box silently withdrew his paw.
Lang Shuo, who happened to see his movement: “…”
Without waiting for Lang Shuo to say anything else, Lang Nuo called the other sub-adults to set off. Even after walking out of the cave, he did not forget to promise Lang Shuo, “Wait for us to bring prey back!”
In the time it took to say that one sentence, they had already gone far.
…
On the other side, the sub-adults of the Black Wolf Tribe were also preparing to set off.
Sub-adults tired quickly, but their stamina also recovered quickly. The day before, after catching prey and returning, they had collapsed on the ground for a long while without being able to get up. Today, they were once again full of energy.
Lang Yan felt a headache the moment he saw this group of sub-adults. No matter how he taught them, he could not change their habit of charging around recklessly. In the end, out of sight, out of mind. He could not even be bothered to send someone to supervise them and waved his hand for them to set off.
The young wolves simply took off their animal hides and transformed into their original forms to run wildly, so they would not lose their hides and be scolded by the chief when they returned.
Lang Yan: “…”
His hands still itched. He wanted to beat wolves again.
Lang Qi, who was about to set out with another hunting party, saw this and comforted the chief. “It’s fine. Once they stay outside long enough, they’ll understand that animal hides can’t be taken off casually.”
Removing animal hides both reduced burden and prevented them from being lost. Their speed in beast form was also faster than in human form. But so far, the only ones in the entire tribe who did this were the sub-adults. Was it because the other beastmen could not think of this point? Of course not. It was because when beastmen transformed into beast form, they consumed physical strength more quickly.
With the same amount of food, one could walk the entire day in human form without issue. But in beast form, they could not even last half a day and would need to replenish food.
The young wolves were still young and had never experienced hunger halfway through a journey. Once they became so hungry outside that they had no strength and had to crawl back, they would understand that honestly using human form to search for prey and only transforming into beast form to chase it was the most efficient hunting method.
Lang Yan withdrew his gaze from the sub-adults’ figures, turned back to look at Lang Qi, then once again looked in the direction the sub-adults had left.
“Perhaps.”
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