Chapter 30
It took a certain amount of time for potatoes to grow from sprouting to seedlings. During this period, the roots grew more noticeably than the parts above ground. Worried that the roots would tangle together when transplanting later, after covering them with soil, Lang Shuo used a layer of branches to separate the potatoes into small grids. This way, after snow season, they could transplant each seedling along with its soil. It was similar to a seedling tray, just without preparing separate containers like a proper tray.
After placing the dividers, he sprinkled some water over the soil to keep it moist.
Once this was done, Lang Shuo had the sub-adults place a circle of back baskets around the area, leaving only one entrance and exit. The back baskets only came up to their thighs, so they would not affect observation of the potatoes’ growth, but they could prevent a careless tribe member from stepping on the potato seedlings.
Even with Lang Nuo and the others helping, by the time everything was finished, it was already late. Lang Shuo moved his slightly sore arms and went nearby to wash his hands.
Another benefit of having heated beds was that they no longer needed to worry about running out of hot water. After all, in order to keep the cave warmer, the stoves were always burning. They only stopped at night, and even then, not all the fires were extinguished. One or two had to be left to preserve the fire source.
Their water source was ice from the river and snow from outside. Both could be placed into the pot, and in a short while, they would melt into water.
Lang Shuo had originally been worried that the water quality might not be good and had specifically observed it. In the end, he found that he had been worrying for nothing. The surface layer of snow melted into clean water without any impurities at all. It was fine even for drinking, let alone washing hands and vegetables.
Because they had heated beds, the temperature inside the cave was now considerably higher than a few days ago. When Lang Shuo washed his hands, the group of children nearby was still washing pumpkin seeds.
Lang Shuo calculated the time. More than half a day had passed, but there still seemed to be half left in the back basket beside them. Logically, their efficiency should not be this low. He simply walked over to look at the results of their labor.
Containers of various sizes were filled with water and pumpkin pulp. The children reached their hands in to feel around. When they touched a pumpkin seed, they took it out and placed it into the large basket beside them, then went back into the water to feel for the next one.
Lang Shuo: “…”
No wonder they were slow.
Lang Shuo crouched down, took a slightly larger bowl, filled it halfway with water, grabbed a handful of pumpkin pulp and put it inside, then began rubbing it back and forth. After rubbing, he took out the pumpkin pulp floating in the water, poured out the water, and only a shallow layer of pumpkin seeds remained in the bowl.
The children were shocked. “Wow!!!”
The watching sub-adults: “!!!”
Lang Nuo rolled up his sleeves. “Me too, me too.”
How had he not realized before that this work was this fun? He had thought they had to pick them out one by one. How was this any different from playing in the river?
Lang Shuo: “…You can wash them in turns.”
This was his oversight. Pumpkins were something the tribe members had all seen for the first time. The way to eat them had all been taught by him, so they were naturally unfamiliar with pumpkin seeds as well.
With Lang Shuo’s demonstration, the two groups of young wolves washed them together, and their speed indeed became much faster.
Lang Shuo did not continue watching here. Crouching too long made his leg uncomfortable, so he got up and went to check the food being dried.
Ever since the jerky and dried fruit were steamed, an enticing aroma had drifted through the cave. After a full day, everyone was almost used to it, but whenever they passed by the heated bed, they would still look at it a few extra times.
Now the jerky was already dry, while the dried fruit needed to dry a little longer. Lang Shuo looked at the missing chunk in the corner, thought for a moment, and still said nothing.
In the tribe, no matter what kind of food was being processed, as long as it was edible, the finished amount would more or less be less than expected. These foods were placed inside the cave, and there would always be young cubs or sub-adults passing by who conveniently tasted one. You ate one, I ate one, and in the end, it was normal for a little to go missing.
Fortunately, the adult members of the tribe were relatively self-disciplined and would not casually touch them. Otherwise, it would not be as simple as one corner missing.
Lang Shuo stacked several large baskets containing jerky together and had Lang Hui bring over a back basket, pouring all the jerky inside.
The back baskets were all new, the same as the ones the sub-adult black wolves used to transport supplies. However, after several trips back and forth, Lang Shuo had made some improvements.
The earliest back baskets were woven with an extra section left unclosed at the top. After loading supplies, the top of the basket would be woven shut, then dismantled after reaching the destination. It was safe, but after being opened, the back basket had to be finished at the opening, otherwise it would easily break. After being used once, it could only be used as an ordinary back basket, which was very wasteful.
After modification, the back basket became the kind with a lid. The lid was slightly larger than the basket opening and could be folded slightly. The edge had a small pattern woven in when finished, allowing a rope to pass through. This way, every time it was filled, they could tie the lid and basket together with rope. When unsealing, they only needed to untie the rope, and it could be reused.
Now the back baskets specially used by the tribe for stockpiling were also this kind. After packing the jerky, they tied it securely with rope and placed it in a low, cool corner. It could be preserved for longer that way.
Seeing Lang Shuo’s movements, all the underage young wolves revealed regretful gazes, practically confessing without being asked.
“We’ll steam another batch tomorrow,” Lang Shuo kindly comforted them. Because the snow was too thick and made moving inconvenient, the vast majority of the food made during these last few days had first been distributed to the Black Wolf Tribe. Their tribe mostly had semi-finished products. The weather was cold, so air-dried jerky would not spoil in a short period of time. Next, they would steam some every two or three days.
Hearing this, the young wolves’ expressions became extremely pleasantly surprised. Immediately afterward, they realized they had exposed something and pretended not to have seen anything.
The young wolves’ expressions were too easy to understand. Not only Lang Shuo, but the other members of the tribe also realized something was wrong. An adult snow wolf angrily patted the young wolf beside him. “All day long, all you think about is how to eat.”
The adult snow wolf had not used any strength at all. The young wolf chuckled. Hit him if he wanted. As long as he could eat jerky every day, even a few more pats were worth it.
The next morning, not only jerky and the previously undried fruit were laid out on the heated bed, but pumpkin seeds had also been added.
The pumpkin seeds were placed in the most conspicuous spot. Lang Shuo’s original intention was to use the pumpkin seeds to separate the young wolves from the food and reduce losses. In the end, he was wrong.
Young wolves with nothing to do during snow season were not picky at all. Even pumpkin seeds were eaten without hesitation.
Yesterday, the surface mucus had already been washed away. One pumpkin seed after another lay flat on the large basket, looking unlike food they usually ate.
Cubs who had just changed into human form the day before yesterday passed by and grabbed a handful.
Half-grown children in their teens passed by and grabbed a handful.
Sub-adults passed by and grabbed a handful. After a while, they came back and grabbed another handful.
Pumpkin seeds needed to be peeled. One handful could be eaten for half a day. Sub-adults did not have that much patience. As they peeled and peeled, it turned into gnawing them with their mouths.
After one day, the pumpkin seeds shrank by nearly half.
Lang Shuo urgently changed their position. If this continued, they would be eaten before they even dried. At least let the other members taste them too.
In truth, to the young wolves, pumpkin seeds did not taste especially good. The key lay in the fun of matching wits with Lang Shuo. Eating while playing was happier than simply eating.
Lang Shuo was somewhat helpless. “Can’t you wait until they’re dry before eating?”
Peeling pumpkin seeds was probably the most patient they had been recently. Sure enough, whether human or beastman, no one minded being tired when secretly doing bad things.
However, pumpkin seeds were not anything particularly important. Lang Shuo merely emphasized that they were not allowed to take any more and that the rest belonged to everyone.
The young wolves, including the sub-adults, nodded.
Lang Shuo did not continue making an issue of the pumpkin seeds, until he was woken in the middle of the night by the cubs’ voices.
At first, more than thirty cubs had all slept beside him. After the dozen or so cubs transformed into human form, they also rested not far from him. This sound came from their side.
Lang Shuo opened his eyes and discovered that he was not the only one awake. Quite a few members around him had sat up, including Lang Yu.
Lang Yu was usually strict with cubs, but at this moment, he was also the first one to go over. Immediately after him was Lang Yun, who was responsible for taking care of the cubs, along with the cubs’ relatives. A group of members gathered over and asked about the situation.
“My stomach hurts.” The group of children clutched their stomachs and said, “My stomach is making sounds. I need to…”
Lang Yu reacted fastest, picked one up, and went outside. The other members also reacted. Each person carried one and went out.
In the blink of an eye, only Lang Shuo and the group of cubs who had been woken and looked confused remained in place.
Lang Shuo: “???”
Visibility at night was not as good as during the day, and Lang Yu and the others had been in such a hurry. Lang Shuo thought for a moment and did not follow them out. He stayed in place to coax the cubs.
The cubs had only been woken by the noise in the first place. After Lang Shuo coaxed them, they quickly fell asleep again.
Before long, Lang Yun returned holding a child. The child had been clutching his stomach and crying in pain just now, but now he was already curled in Lang Yun’s arms, sleeping.
The other members also returned one after another. Most of the children were asleep. There were still a few awake, so Lang Shuo asked them about the situation.
The child who was asked shook his head. He did not know why his stomach had hurt. He only knew that he could not dirty the cave and had to hurry outside. Now his stomach no longer hurt, and he felt very comfortable.
“Was it a problem with today’s food?” Lang Shuo frowned. Young wolves of the same age had problems together, so the only thing he could think of was food. If their stomachs had hurt last night, he could still suspect it was from soaking too long in the water. But today during the day, they had not done anything.
Before Lang Shuo could grasp the clue, several whining sounds came from the other side.
Unlike the cubs’ usual spoiled whining, these few sounds seemed uncomfortable. Listening closely, they were about the same as the voices of those children just now.
Lang Shuo looked toward the source of the sound. The first thing he saw was Lang Hui sleeping on the edge. At this moment, Lang Hui was clutching his stomach, his expression full of pain.
“Brother, go look at them.” Lang Hui and the others slept a little far from here, with many people in between. Lang Shuo was worried that if he went over, it would be easy to aggravate his injury, so he could only call Lang Yu for help.
Lang Yu went over, shook the children awake, and asked them what was wrong.
Before long, the familiar operation appeared again.
Lang Shuo could only wait for them to return. In his mind, he recalled the food they had eaten during the day, but no matter how he thought about it, nothing was wrong. Whether it was potato stew or steamed jerky, they had all eaten them countless times. They had also eaten the two together before, and there had never been any adverse reaction.
As he was thinking, a familiar figure appeared at the cave entrance, supporting himself against the stone wall and slowly shifting forward.
“Nuo?” Lang Shuo tentatively called.
“Shuo? You’re still not asleep?” Hearing a familiar voice, Lang Nuo grew excited and walked a few steps faster. Just as his foot landed, he howled. “My leg’s numb, numb, numb—”
Lang Shuo: “…”
How long had he been crouching outside?
Lang Shuo gave him an idea. “Pat your thighs and butt, then raise your arms.”
Lang Nuo followed his instructions. Before long, he exclaimed in surprise, “It’s not numb anymore!”
Before Lang Shuo could ask him, Lang Nuo shouted outside, “Pat your thighs and butt, raise your arms!”
A series of slapping sounds rang out outside.
Lang Shuo: “???”
At this point, Lang Shuo could no longer care whether they would wake the other members in the cave. Frowning, he asked, “Did all of you have stomachaches?”
Lang Nuo nodded. To be precise, their stomachaches had started even earlier than the cubs’. It was just that the sub-adults were usually too active. When they left the cave, the members beside them thought they had slipped out to play and turned over to continue sleeping.
Lang Shuo fell into thought. All the young wolves had stomachaches together, while the adult members and he felt nothing. Lang Shuo recalled everything that had happened during the day and suddenly found the source.
“Pumpkin seeds,” Lang Shuo murmured.
“What?” Lang Nuo did not hear clearly.
Lang Shuo said, “You ate pumpkin seeds.”
Aside from the cubs who had not transformed into human form, the food the other members of the tribe ate was the same. Only the portions differed. The sub-adults and adult members had more, while young wolves between ten and sixteen had less.
If there were a problem with the food, never mind the adult wolves, he, a patient whose injuries had not completely recovered, would definitely react faster than healthy sub-adults like Lang Nuo and the others. Yet he did not feel anything at all. The problem could only lie with food the young wolves had eaten and the other members had not.
Only those pumpkin seeds. Today, the young wolves had spent most of their time peeling pumpkin seeds, especially the sub-adults, who had eaten quite a lot.
Pumpkin seeds… Lang Shuo recalled a description he had read before. Pumpkin seeds could deworm dogs.
For dogs. Deworming.
The reason for the stomachaches in the middle of the night had been found.
Lang Shuo looked at the young wolves slowly walking back into the cave and, for a moment, did not know whether to feel sorry for them or calculate how many they had eaten.
Still, it could be considered a reminder. There were parasites here too. They had to pay attention to food in the future.
The deworming had a limited effect on the young wolves. The young wolves who had taken turns going outside in the middle of the night were lively and energetic when they woke in the morning, and their appetites had increased quite a lot. In Lang Nuo’s words, the extra food was compensation for spending half the night outside in the wind.
Lang Yun ladled him a spoonful and, hearing this, complained, “If you hadn’t eaten so many pumpkin seeds yesterday, would it have hurt that long?”
Of those washed pumpkin seeds, the sub-adults had eaten the most.
Lang Nuo slapped his own mouth. He would stop talking.
Lang Shuo had already placed the pumpkin seeds somewhere least visible, planning to collect them after they dried.
When everyone first woke in the morning, they had discussed what happened during the night. One of the key points was whether pumpkin seeds could still be eaten. After understanding what deworming was, they only had one thought: could they eat some too?
They felt they also needed to get rid of worms.
Lang Shuo weighed the remaining quantity of pumpkin seeds in his hand. “After boiling pumpkin porridge a few more times, once there’s enough, we’ll deworm everyone together.”
Deworming definitely needed to be done. Too many internal parasites would affect health. If they had no conditions, so be it. Now that they had the conditions, they could deworm the tribe members every so often in the future. Now he tried his best to ensure raw and cooked food were separated. Before this, everyone had eaten all kinds of things messily.
Every promise Lang Shuo made was eventually fulfilled. With his words, everyone was reassured. Then they condemned the sub-adults again. If not for them stuffing themselves yesterday, there would not be only this little left today.
The sub-adults, who had reacted even more than the young wolves because they had eaten more, felt very guilty.
However, everyone only said a few words verbally. After speaking, they let it pass and continued working.
There was no need to go out during snow season, but in reality, the workload was not small at all. The adult members were sharpening tools, and banging sounds inside the cave were almost nonstop.
Beastmen used stone knives and bone knives the most. They could already sharpen these two kinds of tools extremely well, but whether stone knife or bone knife, neither could last too long. After being used many times, they would slowly become dull and needed to be sharpened again or replaced.
Stone knives and bone knives that had been used many times would become narrower. Continuing to sharpen and use them made them easy to break, so it was better to replace them. Therefore, whenever there was time, everyone would make a batch of tools. This way, when growing season and harvest season came, the two seasons with many prey, they would not need to specifically take time to sharpen knives.
Lang Shuo watched them work and asked, “Can you make a tool larger than a stone knife? This big.”
Lang Shuo gestured with the size of his palm.
The ones making stone knives were members of the hunting party. They were strong, and when they were free, they took the initiative to handle work in the tribe that required strength, letting the older members do lighter tasks such as weaving.
Lang Shi was also here. Hearing Lang Shuo’s description, Lang Shi agreed, picked up a larger stone, grabbed a hard stone with his other hand, found the right angle, and struck it.
Before long, the whole stone became a palm-sized stone flake, thin around the edges and thick in the middle.
Lang Shuo nodded. “Right, just like this.” Avoiding the sharp edges around the stone, he carefully took it into his hand.
“What do you need this for?” Lang Shi, who had helped make it, was curious. The thing Lang Shuo wanted was completely different from the stone knives they usually made. There was no place to grip it. The unsharpened part at the back was too short and could not be held at all.
Lang Shuo said, “To make an axe.” As he spoke, he called Lang Hui to bring a longer wooden stick and had Lang Shi beside him split a section down the middle.
Lang Shi did as instructed. He was strong, and with an ordinary stone knife, he could pry it open.
Lang Shuo watched the wooden stick. Once the split was wide enough to fit the stone flake in his hand, he immediately called for a stop. “That’s enough. Just like this.”
After speaking, he placed the stone flake inside.
The middle of the stone flake was the thickest. Once placed inside, it was immediately caught by the wooden stick. Lang Shuo used rope to tie the wooden stick and stone together. After ensuring it was firm, he swung it at the remaining branch beside him.
“Crack—”
The branch broke into two pieces.
“Eh?” Lang Shi had not expected the axe to be this easy to use. He reached out. “Let me try?”
Lang Shuo handed it to him.
Lang Shi took it in his hand, examined it, then went to chop the grass mats and wood and other objects on the ground.
He was strong, and it showed even more clearly. Wherever he chopped, not a single item remained intact.
Lang Shuo: “…If you keep testing it, you’ll have to work overtime tonight weaving grass mats.”
Even if there were many things in the tribe, they could not withstand being wasted like this.
Lang Shi quickly stopped, but he still held the stone axe, unwilling to let go. “Shuo, this is easier to use than a stone knife.”
Lang Shuo nodded. Of course it was useful. If it were not, why would he make it? A stone axe saved more effort. He said, “Make a few more like this. In the future, when cutting bamboo or trees, use stone axes directly.”
Although beastmen were strong, due to tool limitations, cutting bamboo and wood was still slow. Using a new tool would be better.
Lang Shi nodded.
Seeing him like the axe so much, Lang Shuo could not help saying a few extra words. It was the principle of the lever. Many tools made use of this point, such as hoes.
Lang Shi seemed to understand but not fully. However, there was one thing he understood: a longer handle could save strength. So on the spot, he made another tool: a stone hammer.
The completed stone hammer had a handle one meter long. At the top, a stone the size of an adult wolf’s palm was tied. Lang Shuo’s eyelid twitched at the sight. “What are you planning to do?”
Lang Shi pointed at the stones on the ground. Lang Shuo understood. He planned to use the stone hammer in place of striking.
But understanding was one thing. Watching him swing such a large stone hammer still felt rather dangerous. Lang Shuo said, “You can’t hit things here. Go outside.”
It was too dangerous inside the cave.
Lang Shi had just worked himself into a sweat. Hearing this, he had no objection and went directly outside the cave. He found a hard place, placed the stone he wanted to work on there, swung the stone hammer behind him, then used force in his arms and smashed it down toward the stone.
“Bang—”
The huge sound startled members who had not been paying attention. Their first reaction was that the cave was about to collapse. They scooped up cubs and ran outside. Only when they reached the cave entrance did they realize something was wrong. No one else was moving.
The wolves at the cave entrance stopped them and explained a little.
Outside the cave, Lang Shi looked at the stone that had shattered into tiny pieces, picked up his stone hammer, checked it, and scratched his head. “It seems I used too much strength.”
It was shattered too thoroughly. It could not even be made into needles, let alone stone knives.
Lang Yu walked to Lang Shi’s side, first looked at the shattered stones on the ground, then took a larger one and placed it in the original position. He said, “Try again. Same strength as just now. Don’t hold back.”
Lang Shi did not understand why, but he still did as told.
With one hammer strike, the scene repeated itself. The only difference was that this time, the stone was larger, and after being smashed, the pieces were also larger.
Lang Yu took the stone hammer and checked the rope. After striking twice in the same place, half the rope had snapped.
Looking again at the shattered stones on the ground, Lang Yu made a hypothesis. “If this hit prey on the head…”
Prey animals’ skulls were hard, but at the same time, the head was also one of their weakest parts. Some prey, when dodging pursuit, would crash into stones. If other parts of the body were injured, it would at most affect running speed. But if the head was struck, they basically would not last long before dying.
Some tribes could not run as fast as prey and had no way to chase prey for long periods. They would throw stones and sharp wooden sticks at prey. This could also catch prey, but wounds caused by stones were generally not fatal, and hunting took longer.
If they used a stone hammer… even if one hit was not fatal, the effect would still be better than throwing stones.
Lang Shi listened until his head hurt, but what Lang Yu said was somewhat tempting. He could not help following Lang Yu’s hypothesis.
When hunting, if he smashed one hammer down, would that not be faster than pouncing on prey?
Lang Yu thought for a while and discovered one problem. Throwing the stone hammer out would be useful, but the question was, how could they throw it to ensure the hammer struck the prey? Lang Shi used great strength to smash the stone because the stone was close to him. During hunting, there would not be such a good opportunity. They could not possibly transform into human form and chase prey while carrying hammers. Just hearing it sounded unrealistic.
Lang Shuo considered Lang Yu’s words. After thinking for a while, he said, “Brother, do you want to try spinning it first before throwing it?”
This way, the force would be greater than throwing it directly.
After hearing this, Lang Yu selected two hunting party members, including himself and Lang Shi. The four of them each made a hammer and threw them there.
Holding the hammer in the hand, spinning it a few times, then throwing it made it fly farther than direct throwing. The pit it created after landing was also larger. The only drawback was that it was easy to accidentally injure their own people. The hammer could easily slip from the hand, and the stone at the other end could also fall off. Although the fallen stones this time did not hit anyone, during actual hunting, there were many members distributed densely. The stones were very likely to fall onto members.
Lang Shuo sat at the cave entrance and observed. He felt that this method’s flaws were too obvious. Tools were originally meant to reduce casualties. If the tool caused additional casualties, was that not putting the cart before the horse?
However, the movements of the members in front of him reminded him of another ancient tool: a sling.
Using a rope to bind a stone, spinning it, and then throwing it toward prey to slow the prey’s movements.
After catching up to the prey, they could use a stone hammer to kill it with one strike. This both ensured the hunting party’s safety and shortened hunting time.
Update Posting Schedule: Starting next chapter, posting schedule change from posting every day to 2 chapters every Wednesday and Saturday~
