Chapter 72
The sub-adults’ little calculations were destined to fail. Even if they had not let the truth slip, Lang Shuo could not possibly hand snacks over to them.
Letting sub-adults deliver food—especially food that was small in quantity and tasted good—meant how much was left by the time it arrived depended entirely on how far the journey was. For something like this, where the destination and departure point were in different tribes, at most, only the bottom would be left by the time it arrived.
Lang Shuo thought for a moment and finally handed the snacks to Lang Yu. “Brother, bring these with you when you go out tomorrow. If you run into members of the Black Wolf Tribe, give it to them. If you don’t, just treat it as an extra meal.”
He was not reassured handing the food to others, but the hunting party might not have time. Lang Shuo simply chose to let things take their course. If they encountered members of the Black Wolf Tribe, they would give it to them. If not, they could keep it for themselves to eat.
Of course, this kind of optional matter could only be handed to Lang Yu.
Hearing this, Lang Yu agreed. “All right. I’ll bring it tomorrow.”
The sub-adults beside them listened with faces full of envy.
Lang Shuo: “…”
Lang Shuo waved his hand to drive them away. “Hurry and go sleep. Didn’t you say you were tired?” Cutting blocks of meat into finger-thick strips was a bit harder than cutting slices and pieces. During dinner, these sub-adults had said they were tired, yet now they were energetic again.
The sub-adults told the truth. “Our hands are tired. Our mouths aren’t.” They could still eat more.
Lang Shuo said, “Have a little pity on your stomachs!” Their stomachs had to work overtime with them!
It was not that Lang Shuo was heartless. It was that the sub-adults had indeed eaten quite a lot tonight. After eating dinner normally, they had eaten snacks too. Eating more really would be too much. The stomach also needed rest.
For the sake of the sub-adults’ health, Lang Shuo firmly refused their suggestion of eating a little more and drove them to sleep.
Seeing that Lang Shuo really would not agree to continue adding a meal, the sub-adults sighed and went back to sleep.
Thinking about snacks in their hearts, the next day, several sub-adults woke up earlier than anyone else. The first thing they did after waking was take the leftover crispy fried pork from last night to the stove to heat it.
At this time, the members who cooked had not yet woken up. Only water was being boiled in the pot, boiled by the night-watch members. This was the tribe’s habit. On one hand, it increased cooking efficiency. Once the cooking members woke up, they did not need to spend time boiling water. On the other hand, the tribe had to preserve fire. In seasons with a lot of rain like this, they had to preserve several sources of fire to prevent them from going out. Starting a fire was too troublesome.
The sub-adults lifted the pot lid. Seeing that the water had already boiled, they scooped it into clay jars with a ladle, added new water into the pot, placed the crispy fried pork at the back of the stove, which was beside the chimney, and then added coal into the stove.
The fire inside the stove burned strongly, and the flames went all the way toward the back. Before long, the crispy fried pork that had been left overnight was warm.
It would have tasted better if toasted until crisp, but the sub-adults did not want that much trouble. After eating the crispy fried pork they had saved from last night, the sub-adults clapped their hands. One sub-adult asked Lang Nuo, “Nuo, where are we going to play now?”
The water had been boiled, and the snacks had also been eaten clean. The sub-adults instantly felt a little bored.
Their roasted meat skills were still all right, but their stir-frying and stewing skills were average. After all, there were members specially responsible for preparing food, so there were not many times when they needed to stir-fry dishes. Even though they were a little smarter than the sub-adult black wolves and would not change the steps themselves when cooking, without chances to practice, the finished product was only barely edible.
The sub-adults hesitated between doing it themselves and waiting for the other members to come cook, and chose the latter. It was just that they were awake now and could not fall back asleep, so they did not know where to go to kill time.
Lang Nuo thought for a moment. “Why don’t we go see if there are any fish in the fish traps?”
Recently, every time the hunting party went out, they could bring prey back. There was plenty of food, and they had not eaten fish for a long time.
“Let’s go, let’s go.” The other sub-adults immediately called out.
Thus, when Lang Shuo woke up and walked out of the cave, the first thing he saw was the sub-adults with wet hair, each carrying several fish.
Lang Shuo asked, “Why didn’t you take back baskets?”
As Lang Shuo spoke, he took a large basket and handed it over, letting the sub-adults put the fish down.
“We did. It got washed away by the water,” Lang Nuo put down the fish and explained. “There’s more water in the river now. A lot of the fish traps got washed away.”
They had previously placed quite a few fish traps by the river. When they wanted to eat fish, they could directly go look inside the traps without entering the water. But when they went today, they discovered that half the traps by the river were missing. Some of the remaining half were also damaged, and there were too few fish, not enough to eat. So they simply went into the water to catch fish. In the end, when they were taking off their animal hides, they accidentally knocked over the back basket.
Before they could stop it, the back basket rolled into the river and directly floated far away. Considering they were not very familiar with the middle of the river, the group of sub-adults decisively chose to abandon that back basket.
After hearing this, Lang Shuo immediately said, “If it got washed away, then it got washed away. There are still many in the tribe. Whether it’s a back basket or food, in the future, if anything falls into the river, you don’t need to fish it out. Understand?”
Fortunately, these sub-adults were smart and had not jumped into the river just for a back basket. He knew that all the sub-adults could swim, but a small item was not worth taking risks. As for why he emphasized food, of course it was because of the sub-adults’ personalities.
Lang Shuo believed that if he did not say it, if the thing that fell into the water next time was food, this group of sub-adults would absolutely take the risk.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, the sub-adults had regretful expressions. With visible heartache, they said, “Even if food falls in, we don’t fish it out?” That was such a waste.
“You can’t fish it out. If it falls into the water, it won’t taste good anymore.”
“Oh.” If it did not taste good, then there was no need to fish it out, the sub-adults thought in unison.
Seeing that they had listened, Lang Shuo shifted his attention to the fish. These fish were all quite large, and there were many of them. Added together, there were at least over two hundred jin. Lang Shuo decided to make fish balls.
They had made fish balls before, and even made different flavors, but at that time, everyone had been busy, and there were fewer people in the tribe. The fish balls made were not many. Only the cubs had eaten one meal, the other young wolves had tasted them, and the adult members had not gotten to eat any.
The sub-adults also remembered this matter. Hearing that Lang Shuo wanted to make fish balls, they immediately rolled up their sleeves, ready to help.
Lang Shuo said, “Rinse the fish with water. I’ll go get knives.”
After it rained, the river water would become muddy. Therefore, before it rained, they had stored water. If it stopped raining midway, they would replenish it once. Added to the long settling time in the clay jars, the water the tribe used now was much cleaner than the river water. Therefore, fish washed by the river still had to be rinsed again.
The sub-adults were very skilled at this work. They first poured out a basin of water, placed the fish inside, washed off the fine mud and sand on the fish, then each held a bamboo tube for scooping water and slowly tilted it, rinsing the fish clean with running water.
After all of them were washed clean, they were arranged by size and placed into an equally washed clean large basket.
By the time they finished washing on this side, Lang Shuo had also come out. Not only Lang Shuo, but Lang Yun as well. Each of them held a stone knife.
Both the cooking members and the sub-adults knew how to process fish, but the two of them had processed the most. This time, Lang Shuo did not cut them the same way as last time. Instead, he directly split the fish open, then scraped with bamboo strips. The scraped-out fish meat could be used directly.
Lang Shuo taught the sub-adults for a while, then handed this work over to them.
By the time breakfast was ready over there, the sub-adults were almost done as well.
The advantage of having many people was displayed to the fullest. If it had been only him and Lang Yun, they would have had to work all day to finish.
The scraped fish meat was checked once. After confirming there were no fish bones, scallion-ginger water, eggs, starch, and salt were added, and the strong Lang Shi was asked to stir and beat it until it became springy.
The step of poaching the fish balls was done by Lang Shuo and Lang Yun together, making the speed a little faster. Not long after lunch, all the fish balls were finished.
The members who had gone out on patrol were not there, so even though quite a few had already been made by noon, they were not used to cook soup. Lunch was still the usual meal.
They would definitely eat them at night. Only adding fish balls would be a little monotonous. Lang Shuo thought for a moment and found the stone slabs used for roasting meat before.
Many stone slabs contained moisture inside. If there was too much water inside the stone slab, it would explode after being roasted over fire for a long time. Therefore, the stone slabs they used had all been carefully selected. Even after they no longer used them later, Lang Shuo had not been willing to throw them away, instead keeping them in reserve.
Facts proved that keeping them was right. Were they not useful now?
Lang Shuo had the sub-adults crack half a jar of cluck-cluck bird eggs into a clay jar, then add some starch water and salt, stirring evenly.
The stone slab was placed on the stove and brushed with a layer of oil. A spoonful of egg mixture was scooped up and poured on top.
The eggs solidified immediately upon contact with the high-temperature stone slab. Lang Shuo waited a few seconds, used chopsticks to lift the edge and flip it over, paused briefly, then picked it up and placed it onto a plate.
Afterward, he continuously repeated this work.
The sub-adults grew anxious watching. One spoonful at a time—how long would it take to make the meal? Therefore, aside from the sub-adult tending the fire, the others immediately volunteered to help.
Lang Shuo did not refuse them and nodded in agreement. “All right. You won’t be skilled at first, so pour a little less.”
The sub-adults immediately agreed.
At first, the sub-adults could not grasp the amount of oil. If they applied too much, the stone slab became too slippery. After the egg mixture was poured on, it flowed to the lowest point before it could solidify, becoming a thick egg pancake. Seeing that Lang Shuo was not paying attention to his side, the sub-adult quickly picked it up, blew on it, and ate it.
As long as Lang Shuo did not see it, it did not count as failure.
Lang Shuo witnessed the sub-adults ladling several spoonfuls of egg mixture. When he turned his head to look, there was not a single finished product.
Lang Shuo: “…Don’t eat until you’re full.”
Sub-adult: “Oh, oh—no, I didn’t eat!”
Fortunately, the egg skins were not eaten for nothing. Later, the sub-adults slowly figured out the experience. At first, the egg skins they made were only palm-sized, but later, they slowly grew larger. The finished products became more and more similar to Lang Shuo’s.
However, every now and then, one or two “failures” still appeared.
Lang Shuo did not argue with them. After all, under normal circumstances, after helping finish work, they could all eat some. Now, they were only eating it early.
The sub-adults also did not dare go too far. Only when they could not resist would they make a failed product. After each person tasted one bite, they continued working seriously.
This clay jar was large. When full, it could hold over forty jin. The egg mixture just now was over twenty jin. After all of it was spread into egg skins, it filled two whole baskets.
Lang Shuo separated out a small portion and chopped it finely, then cut the rest into long strips.
One of the main dishes for dinner was egg skin and fish ball soup. Lang Shuo added a kind of fruit that was somewhat similar to tomatoes. The fish ball soup carried a little sourness and was very appetizing. The patrol team that had run around all day liked drinking it the most.
Today’s rain had become much lighter. As soon as the rain stopped, the sun came out. The water on the ground was dried by the sun in no time. In the afternoon, when the sun was at its fiercest, they returned hungry and thirsty.
Lang Shuo reminded Lang Yu, “Brother, eat slower.”
Lang Yu slowed his movements. Hunger was one aspect. The main reason was still that the food was delicious. However, only half of his bowl was left, and Lang Yu did not finish it all at once. Holding the bowl, he ate slowly while chatting with his younger brother.
“Today, we ran into the Black Wolf Tribe’s gathering team. I gave them the food.”
Lang Shuo said, “Then the cubs will definitely get to eat it.”
Whether hunting party or gathering team, they were all more reliable. Moreover, the team had the cubs’ parents inside. If the food was handed to them, there was no need to worry that they would be unable to resist halfway.
Lang Yu nodded. Seeing that the several pots not far away were all filled with fish balls, he asked, “This many fish balls. Were you busy all day? Are you tired?”
“It’s fine. Not that tiring. Nuo and the others helped.” Lang Shuo explained. The sub-adults were occasionally noisy and also liked pestering him for food, but when cooking, they were truly serious. Whatever they were told to do, they did it.
Having the sub-adults help had another benefit. He did not need to explain too much. No matter how complicated or strange-sounding the steps were, as long as he said that the final food would be delicious, the sub-adults would help without hesitation. They were very useful. After being busy for a day, only a small amount of egg mixture had been consumed.
Hearing this, Lang Yu did not say anything more and thoughtfully looked toward the other side.
Over there, the young wolf Lang Hui was holding a bowl and eating. The tribe had sufficient food, and the young wolves had grown delightfully. In several months, they had grown quite a bit taller.
Lang Yu was considering, after this batch of sub-adults participated in hunting, who could replace them and help his younger brother.
Before, the members of the tribe had prepared their own food. Now, all the food fell on the shoulders of a few members, and the cooking members had almost no free time.
In terms of food, their tribe was now divided into two situations.
If there were no new dishes, Lang Yun would lead several members in preparing them, and Lang Shuo would help when he had time.
If they wanted to make a new dish, Lang Shuo would generally bring Lang Yun along. The several members besides the two of them would be responsible for making foods everyone had eaten before. Therefore, if help was needed, the sub-adults were the best candidates.
If the sub-adults went out hunting, all the work would fall onto Lang Shuo and Lang Yun. That definitely would not work. Unlike the foods everyone was used to eating, almost every new dish had to be processed starting from the most basic ingredients.
Just like today’s fish ball soup. If they became skilled at making it in the future, the cooking members would make the egg skin and fish balls during free time, then directly put them in and boil them when cooking. But today, starting from poaching the fish balls, it naturally consumed more time and energy. If no one helped, the time needed would be even longer.
Lang Yu was considering whether the young wolves around Lang Hui’s age could replace Lang Nuo and the others.
There were six young wolves around Lang Hui’s age. Adding Lang Hui made seven. Their ages were between fourteen and sixteen, which was the age when they were about to enter sub-adulthood.
There were fewer of them than the sub-adults, and they were a little younger too. Lang Yu was somewhat worried.
If their tribe had not lost half its members, how good would that be… Thinking of what had happened to the tribe around this time last year, Lang Yu’s heart felt uncomfortable for a moment.
However, that loss of composure only lasted an instant. Lang Yu did not let anyone see it and quickly adjusted his expression. He asked his younger brother, “Nuo and the others will go out hunting in a few days. Should we have Hui and the others help you?”
Before Lang Shuo could answer, several sub-adults with extremely sharp ears paused in their eating movements and, as if by accident, looked in Lang Shuo’s direction.
Lang Shuo was just about to agree when his peripheral vision caught the sub-adults’ reaction. The words in his mouth turned a corner. “What? The sub-adults are going to hunt?”
Lang Yu’s first reaction was, why was his younger brother so surprised? Then he realized there was probably a scheme in these words and cooperated very well by nodding. “Yes. If they practice more during growing season, they can help during harvest season.”
In truth, the hunting success rate during growing season was not high. Rain interfered with prey’s sense of smell, but it also affected beastmen. However, this kind of situation was very suitable for tempering sub-adults with somewhat unstable personalities. Only after experiencing failure again and again would they quickly think of ways to respond when encountering similar problems in the future.
Simply put, there were many chances at this time, and the cost of trial and error was low. With adult members covering for them, they could fail however they wanted.
Lang Shuo also knew this point. At the same time, he understood that the sub-adults had recently been obsessed with various foods and might not be that focused when hunting. After listening to Lang Yu’s words, he did not immediately speak and remained quiet for a long time.
So long that the sub-adults became anxious.
Lang Yu quietly watched his younger brother fool the sub-adults.
Lang Shuo seemed extremely conflicted. After another while, he looked toward Lang Yu and spoke in a low voice. “There are a bit too few young wolves. Brother, help me observe them. In the future, it’s not as if all eight of them can join the hunting party. If anyone performs poorly, isn’t focused on hunting, doesn’t obey commands, likes acting without permission, or does other dangerous things, then take them out separately and have them come back to help me cook.”
Perhaps because he did not want others to hear, his voice was very soft.
The sub-adults who just happened to hear it: “!!!”
Lang Yu lowered his head and lightly coughed, then seriously agreed. “All right.”
After Lang Shuo finished speaking, he added, “Only the two of us should know this. Don’t tell them.”
Lang Yu said, “Mm, all right.”
Not far from the two of them, the group of sub-adults looked at one another, lowered their heads, and began fiercely shoveling rice into their mouths.
After eating, they would go ask the hunting party for advice!
They wanted to stay in the tribe and help Lang Shuo cook, but they had to be the ones to personally propose it. They absolutely could not be driven back because they performed badly. Although the result of the two was the same, the meaning was completely different.
So this time, they absolutely had to perform well and definitely could not become the worst one!
Lang Yu watched the sub-adults, who now regarded tomorrow’s hunt with incomparable importance because of a few words from Lang Shuo, and slowly drank a mouthful of soup.
Having a younger brother felt truly good.
Thinking of the situation the black wolf members had described at noon when he handed the snacks to the Black Wolf Tribe’s gathering team, Lang Yu’s gaze toward his younger brother became even more gratified.
His younger brother was so good. His younger brother was the best. Having a younger brother really was different.
A chief without a younger brother could only be tortured by sub-adults.
Lang Yu sincerely hoped that Lang Yan could hold on until growing season ended.
If it were someone else, Lang Yu would not have thoughts resembling schadenfreude like this. But Lang Yan always found chances to come to their tribe and get close to his younger brother, which made him very dissatisfied. Therefore, he was very happy to watch Lang Yan’s excitement. After comparing, he felt he himself was even happier.
Lang Yu was in a pleasant mood. After resting for one night, the next morning, seeing that the sub-adult black wolves had not come, he directly took several sub-adult snow wolves out to teach them hunting techniques.
He had brought the sub-adults out before, but at that time, the sub-adults had mostly observed, and their mood had been very relaxed. It did not look like learning to hunt, but more like going out to play. The sub-adults today were exactly the opposite. Their expressions were even more serious than the hunting party members’. Their eyes were bright and energetic, and looking at their posture, they would not stop until they caught prey.
Lang Yu reminded them as if unintentionally, “Shuo told you to pay attention to safety.”
The sub-adults’ expressions turned solemn. Thinking of what Lang Shuo had said yesterday, that not listening to commands and taking risks on their own would also get them sent back to the tribe, they instantly became even more serious.
Lang Yu was very satisfied with their current state. Beastmen in the sub-adult period always felt they were superior to everything and had no clear understanding of danger. There were countless examples of those who learned to hunt large prey and ended up failing to catch the prey while injuring themselves. Moreover, once certain bad habits formed, it was extremely difficult to change them later. Therefore, no amount of seriousness was excessive.
While the sub-adults followed Lang Yu and learned the precautions, Lang Shuo in the tribe was not idle either.
There were still fish balls and egg skin left from yesterday. Added to the fact that he had prepared unusual foods for two days in a row, he did not plan to cook today and decided to work on something else.
The lime inside the earth kiln had cooled properly. It could now be taken out and used.
Lang Shuo first took out some to prepare lye for making soap. Then he chose a large pit dug out when they had previously dug soil for making mud bricks and lined the surroundings with broken pottery shards.
Pottery was fired in the earth kiln, and there were often failures. At first, Lang Shuo had still recycled waste. Those that could not cook rice were used to hold water, those that could not hold rice were used to scoop water. In short, everything was used to its fullest to avoid waste. Later, as more pottery was fired, they did not need to be as frugal as at the beginning. Those pottery pieces with cracks too large to use were all piled together. Now, all of them were brought over.
Laying this layer was to separate it from the soil at the bottom. Bark and leaves would be corroded by lime and would lose effect after not long, so pottery shards were slightly better. However, this could not completely prevent lime and water from seeping into the soil. But he could not fire such large pottery, so he could only do this. The effect was better than nothing.
After preparing the bottom and surroundings, Lang Shuo had the beastmen who fired pottery transport the lime into the pit. Then he poured water inside and used a large wooden stick to stir the lime.
After lime encountered water, it reacted and released a large amount of heat. Inside, bubbles began to gurgle. There was a large amount of lime in the pit, and water would need to be added several more times later. It would only be used after the lime fully slaked. Lang Shuo was not anxious. He first went to make soap.
The tribe already had all the ingredients for making soap: oil, lime, plant ash, and salt.
Lang Shuo sorted through the information he had seen before. Making soap mainly consisted of three steps: preparing raw materials, mixing and making soap base, then shaping and curing.
There were two kinds of raw materials. Plant ash and lime were added to water. After filtering and standing still, lye was obtained. Animal fat was boiled to obtain oil.
After the boiled oil cooled appropriately, it was mixed with alkaline water, heated while being stirred, allowing the oil and lye to undergo saponification.
When the soap base became thick, salt was added. After cooling, it was placed into bamboo tubes and left to set. The set soap had to wait at least a month and fully cure before it could be used.
Because he was not sure how the finished product would turn out, Lang Shuo did not tell everyone what he was making. In the middle, he only called Lang Hui and two other young wolves to help. After placing the bamboo tubes properly, he used two red leaves to form a large “X,” reminding the other members that this thing could not be touched.
Lang Hui and the others were a little less bold than the sub-adults and more obedient than them. The sub-adults still had mischievous moments, but they were very serious and focused in everything they did. They would listen to whatever Lang Shuo said. It was just that occasionally, they made people feel they were overly cautious. If he said it could not be touched, the young wolves would absolutely not move it recklessly.
Lang Shuo looked at the young wolves working seriously and sighed in his heart.
The probability of cubs dying young was high. Therefore, when the cubs of each age group in the tribe were arranged by age, they formed a neat ladder. The younger the age, the larger the number.
However, there were fewer young wolves around Lang Hui’s age than there were sub-adults, because some young wolves of the same age had met with accidents. That they were able to survive was perhaps precisely because they were cautious. Added to having lost too many companions, the young wolves had become even more cautious.
Thinking this, Lang Shuo felt even more distressed for the group of young wolves. At the same time, his resolve became firmer. He had to make the tribe become better and better.
All The Furry Creatures In The Beast World Are Farming With Me
