Chapter 47
Across the entire tribe’s territory, aside from the places near the caves that were often stepped on, nearly every other area was covered in plants.
Having many plants had plenty of advantages. They could provide more food, fuel, and materials for making tools such as large baskets. The disadvantage was also obvious: they bred mosquitoes and insects.
It was not too obvious yet. After a while, when the weather became even hotter, there would only be more mosquitoes and insects.
When the sub-adults brought the honeycomb back before, Lang Shuo had already thought of making some cooling balm when he had time. It could repel bugs and mosquitoes, while also reducing inflammation and relieving itching.
The materials had mostly been collected. Their tribe’s gathering team had brought back some, and yesterday he had given samples to the Black Wolf Tribe’s gathering team to memorize. They would probably bring back quite a lot today too.
Lang Shuo used the materials they currently had to teach the young wolves how to process them.
They crushed all the cleaned mint and poured it into bamboo tubes, then added some camellia oil, covered the lids while leaving a small air hole, and steamed them in the pot for a while. After steaming, they filtered it with bamboo bowls and a tightly woven large basket. The filtered liquid was set aside to settle.
“Have you learned it?” Lang Shuo asked the sub-adults and Lang Hui’s group, who were also learning.
These sub-adults would officially start hunting by next breeding season at the latest. If he taught them this year, he would still have to teach Lang Hui and the others next year. Lang Shuo simply did it in one step and had both groups of young wolves learn together. That way, when Lang Hui led the other young wolves to make it next year, he would only need to check for anything missing from the side, without teaching from scratch.
Whether it was the sub-adults or the younger wolves, they all learned very seriously. Hearing Lang Shuo’s question, they nodded in unison. “We learned it.”
Although it was a little troublesome, the separate steps were things they often did, so it was not difficult to learn.
Lang Shuo nodded and taught them how to render beeswax.
The beeswax left after taking the honey last time had been set aside separately by Lang Shuo. He had originally planned to separate out the beeswax that day, but later, other matters delayed him and he forgot.
Beeswax had a low melting point and was solid at room temperature, making it impossible to filter out impurities. Therefore, water had to be added to dissolve it.
After dissolving, a slotted spoon was used to scoop out all the impurities inside, then it was poured into another container and left to cool naturally. The slightly yellow layer on top was beeswax.
It could continue to be decolorized, but Lang Shuo felt that was too troublesome. They were using it themselves. As long as it did not affect the effect, appearance was not important.
Lang Shuo took a little of the beeswax that formed first, poured out some of the mint oil that had just been set aside, mixed them together, and heated it over water. After the beeswax melted, he poured it hot into shallow bamboo tubes and placed them in cool water. Before long, they solidified.
“Tomorrow, we can make it in large quantities.” Lang Shuo demonstrated how to use it. “Tonight, you’ll be responsible for processing all the new mint.”
The young wolves agreed. After the gathering team returned, they began busily washing and grinding mint.
Lang Shuo separated out a portion of the mint cooling balm for the gathering team members, letting them apply it to places on their bodies that had been bitten by mosquitoes and bugs.
The gathering team dealt with plants every day and encountered a lot of mosquitoes and insects, especially when they stopped to gather. Therefore, there were many traces of mosquito bites on their legs and feet. However, they had been bitten many times and had experience. They knew the more they scratched, the itchier it would become, and scratching it open was useless. If they endured it, it would be fine. They did not react as strongly as the sub-adults.
It was also because the gathering team usually did not show it clearly that Lang Shuo had never noticed. Only after looking carefully today did he realize with surprise that the gathering team members all had red bumps on their bodies.
Lang Rong accepted it, smelled the somewhat familiar scent, dug out a small piece according to Lang Shuo’s method, then handed it to the next member and lowered her head to apply it to the bitten places.
After applying it, it felt a little cool and extremely comfortable. They had not scratched as viciously as the sub-adults, so they did not even feel stinging pain. Very quickly, they felt the itching on their legs slowly lessen.
“Shuo, what is this? Can we still make more?” Lang Rong asked tentatively. Behind her, the other gathering team members had expectant looks.
Being used to it did not mean they liked it. If they could avoid itching, who would want to be tormented by those bugs every day? Therefore, the gathering team members very much hoped there would be more of this thing.
Lang Shuo said, “Mint cooling balm. Use this bottle today. I’ll get you another bottle later. Use these two bottles for now. There will be more tomorrow.”
There was not much mint in the tribe today, and only a little camellia oil remained, so they only made a few small bottles. The gathering team and hunting party would each receive two, the members staying in the tribe would use one, and two more would be sent to the Black Wolf Tribe’s gathering team that helped collect herbs. Once they rendered new camellia oil tomorrow and made more with fresh mint, they could distribute more.
The gathering team members were very frugal. After the tiny bamboo tube went around once, there was still quite a bit left inside, enough for them to use one more time. Hearing that there would be more tomorrow, they immediately promised to go to other places tomorrow to look for mint.
The gathering team chose one route every day. Usually, they would not specifically consider which plants were more common and which were fewer. But if they specifically needed one type, they could go look for it, though it would take more time.
Lang Shuo shook his head. “No need. You brought some back today, and the Black Wolf Tribe’s gathering team will also pick quite a lot. Added together, it will be enough for the near future.”
They did not have containers with especially good sealing, and leaving it too long would affect the effect. Lang Shuo planned to make a batch every few days.
Only then did the gathering team members give up the thought of specifically searching for mint tomorrow.
…
The Black Wolf Tribe’s gathering team arrived a little later. It was clear that they had probably come straight after gathering and had not returned to their tribe. After putting down the back baskets, they first looked for Lang Shuo.
Beside Lang Shuo were two litters of little wolf cubs. Without the noisy Black Wolf hunting party around, the cubs did not react much to the appearance of other beastmen. They glanced into the distance, did not care at all who had returned, and continued running around.
In the middle of the cradle, several cubs were sleeping soundly.
Cubs’ personalities were not completely the same either. Some had been running around from noon until now and did not seem tired at all. Watching them made Lang Shuo want to make a few exercise wheels for them. Others lost interest after the novelty passed and were unwilling to play anymore, lying on the ground to sleep. However, they really enjoyed the swaying feeling and would wake up as soon as they were picked up.
This scene was completely different from what they had seen in the cave last night. Now, seeing such lively cubs, several black wolves who were clearly the cubs’ mothers and sub-beast fathers immediately had red eyes.
These past few days, they had been constantly worried about the cubs. At first, it was because the cubs had disappeared, and they worried the cubs would encounter danger in an unfamiliar place. Later, they worried that the cubs had been too badly frightened and would suffer aftereffects or other accidents.
Frightened cubs could show all kinds of reactions, such as refusing to eat, self-harming, or screaming. In severe cases, they could starve themselves to death. Cubs were too young. If they refused to eat, they could not last for many days at all.
Now, seeing the healthy cubs, the group finally let out a breath of relief.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness. The cubs were very healthy.
After they stayed for a while, the playing cubs stopped and raised their heads to look at this group of much larger fellows.
The cubs froze and stared blankly for a while.
Mm, a little familiar.
Seeing that the cubs did not reject them as strongly as yesterday, Lang Shuo picked up the liveliest one, gently stroked its head, and quietly asked while the cub clung to his hand and bit it for fun, “Whose family does this one belong to?”
A female beastman around the same age as Lang Rong answered softly, “Mine.”
In the eyes of beastmen unfamiliar with the cubs, all cubs looked about the same, but the cubs’ parents could easily distinguish which one belonged to them from among a group of cubs.
Lang Shuo beckoned for the other party to come closer and handed the cub over.
The cub did not show obvious resistance. Seeing a familiar beastman, it took the initiative to raise its paws and hook them onto the other party’s animal hide.
The other black wolf members watched with great envy.
Lang Shuo used the same method to pick up another one.
The following cubs were all handed to them in the same way. Once a cub showed clear resistance or struggling, he first placed it on his lap and soothed it for a while or placed it into the cradle, then tried again later.
Perhaps because the handover process was relatively quiet, and the black wolf members did not swarm forward to snatch their own cubs, coupled with the fact that the cubs were originally familiar with their own relatives, the cubs did not show too large a reaction. The few that resisted at first also recovered after being soothed.
The black wolf members excitedly held their own cubs, feeling as if the great stone in their hearts had finally landed.
They just did not know whether they could bring the cubs back today.
Just as they were thinking this, one black wolf cub suddenly howled in one direction.
The other cubs were led by it and also began crying in that direction.
The black wolves holding the cubs were startled and instinctively looked at Lang Shuo first.
Could they have frightened them again?
Lang Shuo shook his head, signaling for them not to worry, and looked toward the direction the cubs were facing. It was the hunting party members eating.
The hunting party members each had two bowls and were chatting while eating.
Because their voices were a little loud, in order not to frighten the cubs, Lang Shuo had Lang Yu take them to the other side to eat. When the cubs were in the cradles, their view was obstructed by the height and they could not see that far. But now that they were being held, they happened to be able to see over there.
Even though they had eaten not long ago, when they saw food, the cubs still could not resist.
They wanted to eat.
Lang Shuo felt that in the future, he had to build a wall outside. He soothed the extremely worried black wolf members. “It’s fine. The cubs are craving food. I’ll go get something, and you can feed them.”
As he spoke, he went to get some jerky and divided it among them.
The group of cubs did not care who fed them. They hugged the jerky and began gnawing.
Lang Shuo also did not leave out the snow wolf cubs. One strip per cub. Worried that the cradle swaying back and forth would affect the cubs’ eating, Lang Shuo used two more branches to wedge the cradle in place and waited until the cubs finished eating before releasing it.
Compared to the wolfing-down black wolf cubs, the snow wolf cubs were much more obedient when eating. They did not move around and ate slowly.
The sub-beastmen and female beastmen holding their own cubs looked at the cubs in their arms, then looked at the ones in the cradle. The beastmen, who had always felt that their own cubs were the best, suddenly fell silent.
At this moment, the black wolf cubs that had finished the jerky licked their paws and discovered they had been in the same position the whole time. It was uncomfortable, and there were no toys. It was not fun at all. They used their paws to push at the people holding them, struggling to return to the cradle.
The black wolf members: “…”
This cub could not be kept.
Next, the beastmen holding the cubs tried several times and came to two conclusions.
Good news: the cubs had not been too severely affected by the fright and were willing to let them approach.
Bad news: the cubs still refused to return to the tribe. As long as they held the cubs and walked a certain distance away until the cubs could no longer see the cradle or Lang Shuo, the cubs began struggling.
In the end, the Black Wolf Tribe’s two gathering teams left several back baskets full of medicinal herbs behind and departed in disappointment.
The black wolf cubs heartlessly pounced, bit, and played.
A cub’s personality could be seen from childhood. The two litters of cubs were about the same age, and there were even several three- or four-year-old snow wolf cubs. But compared to them, the black wolf cubs’ destructive ability was much stronger.
The same hollow ball could be played with by the snow wolf cubs for two or three days. But with the black wolf cubs, it became tattered after half a day.
The black fluffy bundles pounced onto the balls and fiercely gnawed them with tiny milk teeth. At first, Lang Shuo was afraid they would hurt their teeth. After all, cubs were too fragile. In the end, he discovered he had worried too much, because if they were not gnawing balls, they would gnaw the cradle. In short, they could not stay idle.
Thankfully, the cubs were young. Otherwise, the cradle might not have been able to contain them either.
The black wolf cubs had no idea how Lang Shuo evaluated them. After dinner, they ate an extra meal. After playing and fighting for a while, they were finally tired and lay together to sleep. Occasionally, if one woke up and moved around, before it could wake the other cubs, the cradle that started swaying because of its own movement lulled it back to sleep again.
Lang Shuo had originally planned to only send the baskets back to the cave. Seeing this scene, he immediately called the sub-adults. “Move the whole cradle into the cave.”
He had found a lazy method.
Cubs always slept intermittently. If the one that woke was quiet, even if it woke in the middle, it would obediently close its eyes and keep sleeping.
If a mischievous one woke, then it was like yawning. One after another would be kicked awake, and it would always take a while before they could fall asleep again. If the movement was loud, someone had to get up and check what was going on. Some members who slept lightly were also easily woken. If the cubs could use the cradle to lull themselves back to sleep, this problem would be directly solved.
The sub-adults worked together to move the cradle frame into the cave. Lang Shuo carried the basket, and after entering the cave, installed the basket back in place. He shook the frame again and only felt reassured after confirming it was sturdy.
The cradle was only a little above the ground. Straw and animal hides were spread on the ground, making it relatively soft. This way, even if a mischievous cub tumbled out, it would not be injured.
Lang Nuo watched Lang Shuo spread things here for quite a while and scratched his head. “Shuo, why don’t we make two new ones tomorrow? Then we don’t need to move them back and forth.”
Outside, the ground was earth and did not need to be this troublesome. If they had to spread it once every day, they might as well go through trouble once and make another one.
Lang Shi, who was watching the fun from the side, cut in, “Once this group of cubs is sent away, won’t one be freed up?” At that time, one could be placed in the cave, and one outside.
Hearing this, Lang Shuo immediately wanted to cover the cubs’ ears. However, there were too many cubs, and for a moment, he did not know which one to cover. In the end, he glared at Lang Shi. “If they cry, are you going to coax them?”
These cubs were clever. They could not understand other words, but words like send away, pick up, and take away could catch their attention. As soon as they heard them, they would begin whining pitifully.
Lang Shi touched his nose and slapped his own mouth.
Lang Shuo spoke again. “Make two new ones. You help cut branches tomorrow.”
The prey the hunting party brought back today was a huge curved-horned beast. In addition, the tribe was temporarily not lacking prey, so the hunting party would rest for one day tomorrow.
The hunting party’s rest was not pure rest. In reality, there was still a lot of work to do, such as patrols, weeding, and so on.
Work was work no matter what it was. Lang Shi agreed immediately.
When Lang Yu entered the cave, he heard the commotion on this side and casually asked what they were talking about.
Lang Nuo gloated and told Lang Yu about how Lang Shi had almost made the cubs cry.
Lang Yu glanced at the black wolf cubs, who had already fallen asleep. Clearly, they were cubs, but he could see the shadows of a group of sub-adults in them.
Lang Yu quickly withdrew his gaze and threw that terrifying thought out of his mind. Forget it. Out of sight, out of mind.
The one who should worry was the Black Wolf Tribe.
Since there was no need to worry about the cubs waking up, Lang Shuo did not stay in the cave for too long. He called over a young wolf to help watch them. Then, like the other members, he went outside to sort the food brought back by the gathering team today.
The weather was gradually becoming hot. If the gathered food was left in the back baskets the whole time, after one night, there would definitely be some that rotted. It would be too much of a pity for the food they had worked so hard to gather to be wasted like that. Therefore, no matter how late the gathering team returned, everyone would first process the food before resting.
It was not just various fruits and leafy vegetables. Prey were also processed the same day. The inedible parts were removed. Internal organs, bones, and other parts usually had to be eaten as quickly as possible. Internal organs were rich in nutrients and would be given first to the hunting party and members who needed them. Bones did not have many edible parts and took up too much space to store, so they had to be eaten quickly.
Meat was cut into chunks. What could not be eaten was either dried into jerky or smoked and hung up, doing their best to extend the storage time. Of the remaining parts, hides and fur were kept to be tanned and made into clothes, while curved horns were kept to make tools or containers.
In short, not a single usable part would be wasted.
Lang Shuo was not very used to the smell of blood, so he generally did not participate in work like slaughtering prey. He was responsible for sorting the food brought back by the gathering team and telling the members how to handle it.
The closer it got to growing season, the faster plants grew. Every day, when the gathering team returned, their back baskets were full. Added to the medicinal herbs and some fruits sent by the Black Wolf Tribe’s gathering team, the quantity was almost twice as much as usual. One look at the number of back baskets, and Lang Shuo knew they would work overtime today.
First, they poured out the medicinal herbs and sorted them. Some medicinal herbs needed to be washed, drained, and then dried for convenient later use.
Leafy vegetables were processed in a relatively uniform way. Those that could be stored were temporarily placed aside to be selected tomorrow when there was time. Those that could not be stored were washed clean and placed outside like the medicinal herbs to dry off the water. The next morning, they could be eaten directly. What could not be finished would be made into preserved dried vegetables.
Fruit-type foods were the simplest. Aside from some berries that spoiled easily, most fruits would not be affected by one or two days. They only needed to pick out those about to rot to prevent them from affecting the other fruits.
Fortunately, the whole tribe was skilled at the work. Even seven- or eight-year-old half-grown children could help. Only because of this did they manage to finish processing all the food in the back baskets in one night. Even so, aside from the gathering team that needed to wake early, the other members also went to sleep later than usual.
…
After a good night’s sleep, Lang Shuo was still a little dazed when he woke up. It seemed a little quiet today.
As he was thinking this, several sounds came from beside him.
Lang Shuo looked over. The cradle containing the black wolf cubs was swaying slowly. One glance showed that a cub had woken up.
He stretched lazily to dispel sleepiness and got up to look at the cubs.
He saw that the most active cubs from yesterday had started their exercise plan again.
For the sake of everyone’s sleep, Lang Shuo had not placed toys inside the basket last night. Now the cubs were very bored and could only treat their companions’ tails as toys. Once they bit too hard, they started fighting.
Before they could begin fighting, Lang Shuo tossed two balls in, got up to tidy himself, and carried the basket out of the cave.
Outside was already busy. Most members of the gathering team and hunting party were not here. The sub-adults and Lang Shi were making new cradle frames, while Lang Hui led several half-grown young wolves in steaming mint.
Lang Yun had already prepared breakfast for the cubs, so Lang Shuo went directly to find her.
“You’re awake?” Lang Yun handed him breakfast. “You eat first. Feed the cubs later.”
After the number of cubs increased, she had Lang Shuo eat first, because feeding the cubs took half the day. Unless he woke especially early and truly could not eat, he would definitely be extremely hungry after feeding the cubs.
“Mm. A little tired, so I woke late.” Lang Shuo did not stand on ceremony. They had rested too late yesterday, and he was indeed a little hungry. As he ate, he looked at the cubs’ food for today.
Today was still sliced meat soup. Among the different foods, this was more suitable for cubs to eat, and the cooking method was simple. It had both meat and vegetables. One food could satisfy all the cubs’ food needs.
It was just that after eating it a few times, the cubs began becoming picky. When eating meat, they wagged their tails and shook their ears with excitement. When it was time to eat leafy vegetables, all their tails drooped, looking pitiful as if they had suffered a great grievance.
Even knowing the cubs were deliberately acting spoiled, seeing it still made one’s heart ache.
Lang Shuo thought for a moment and discussed with Lang Yun. “Next time, why don’t we cut the meat smaller, chop the leafy vegetables, add less water, and cook it into porridge by itself?”
Eating it together would be easier to accept than eating leafy vegetables separately.
Lang Yun noted it down. “That works. We’ll try it tonight.”
Lang Shuo shook his head. “Tomorrow. Tonight, we’ll make fish balls for them.”
The cubs had been eating meat all this time recently. It was time to change the flavor. When making fish balls, he could add some vegetable juice inside, letting the cubs understand that foods of other colors were not necessarily unpleasant, and slowly correct their picky-eating habit.
“Fish balls?” Lang Yun had seen him make meatballs, but she had not seen fish balls before. However, she could associate the ingredients from the name and was rather worried. “Made from fish? Will they get stuck in the cubs’ throats?”
“We’ll pick out the bones first,” Lang Shuo explained. Making fish balls did not use the meat from the entire fish. They would only select parts without bones, chop them, and then make them.
Lang Yun immediately felt reassured. “All right. Tell us how to make it, and we’ll help.” When it came to cooking, listening to Lang Shuo was right.
Thus, after breakfast, Lang Shuo had the sub-adults and Lang Shi, who had finished making the cradle frames, go to the river to retrieve the fish traps.
Once fish entered the fish traps, they could remain alive. Therefore, they only went into the water to retrieve the fish traps when they wanted to eat them. After leaving the fish traps alone for several days, especially many fish were pulled up this time. Everyone only chose the ones they needed, while the others were released back into the water.
Lang Shuo picked several fish with fewer bones. After processing them, he cut off the boneless meat, let the sub-adults help chop it finely, and soaked some seasoning plants in water. The remaining parts with bones were used to stew soup.
The chopped fish meat was mixed with water and egg whites, then divided into three portions. One portion had chopped green leafy vegetables added, one had a kind of red fruit added, and the final portion had nothing added. Each was stirred until firm. Water was added to the pot. After it boiled, the fire was kept low, and the balls were slowly slipped into the pot.
One after another, evenly sized fish balls of different colors slid into the pot. Setting aside the taste, they looked beautiful. Before they had even boiled, the members watching the fun had already begun swallowing saliva.
When Lang Yu, who had taken a team of members out on patrol, returned, this was the scene he saw. Seeing the various colors of fish balls in the pot clearly, he inwardly cried that things were bad.
If they kept feeding them like this, forget a group of cubs who only ate and slept—even if Lang Yan himself came over, he might not necessarily want to leave.
