Building a Civilization and Raising Cubs in the Beast World – CH12

Chapter 12

At the moment, Bai Tu was unaware that this one meal had already changed the tribe’s perception of fish. His full attention was on preparing the fish.

The small fish from the unpolluted river tasted like a long-lost memory—crispy and fragrant on the outside, tender on the inside. Even the bones didn’t need to be spit out. There was no worry about getting fish bones stuck in one’s throat.

There weren’t many fish, so each child only got one. They devoured every bite, even licking the seasoning off their fingers. Although they wanted more, the children were sensible enough not to ask. Instead, they helped Bai Tu gather a pile of firewood and fetched water for him.

Bai Tu noticed something interesting: while he could only carry half a bucket of water at a time, Bai Dong could carry about two-thirds of a bucket. Although Bai Dong wasn’t as strong as an adult beastman yet, his physical advantage as a beastman was already evident.

As an adult, Bai Tu could accept not being as strong as the muscular young beastmen like Bai Qi or Tu Xun. But realizing that even Bai Dong, a child, was stronger than him left Bai Tu silent for a moment. 

He began to suspect that when he crossed over to this world, he brought along his “garbage-tier” physical constitution and hadn’t inherited the beastmen’s naturally robust bodies.

With a few children helping him, Bai Tu’s workload was significantly reduced. They handled tasks like fetching water and gathering firewood, leaving Bai Tu with more free time. He decided to process all the herbs he had dried earlier. Using leaves to separate and organize the herbs, he prepared various medicine packs in advance.

He planned to take some of the medicine to trade for supplies. The market offered far more than just salt. However, in the past, the tribe had always focused on trading for enough salt to survive, leaving no opportunity to exchange for other goods. 

With their current progress and three days left until departure—or five days if they traveled with the Blood Wolf Tribe—it seemed likely they could catch at least one more large prey.

Combined with the higher price they could ask for their jerky, the tribe’s supplies should be sufficient for the salt trade. 

Bai Tu intended to use the prepared medicine to trade for seeds, tools, or even animal cubs. One calf was too few; if they could raise more livestock, the tribe wouldn’t have to worry about food every day. Hunting was too reliant on luck and carried the risk of injuries, while raising animals was safer and more reliable.

After finishing the medicine packs and storing them neatly, Bai Tu picked up his bucket and headed to the river to check on the fish traps.

When he arrived, he was surprised to see five or six children standing in the middle of the river, focused intently on the water and occasionally lunging to catch something. 

The tribe didn’t have enough tools for every child to use, as most of them were being used by the adults to process meat. These children had likely finished their chores and come to the river to fish.

Bai Tu: “…”

Bai Dong scratched his head, realizing they’d been caught. The other children also noticed Bai Tu and quickly hid their hands behind their backs, pretending they hadn’t been doing anything.

Just that morning, they had all said fish didn’t taste good. Now here they were, fishing in the afternoon. Even as young as they were, they couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed.

Bai Tu didn’t mind. Previously, the way they cooked fish had been too simple—gutting it without removing the scales or gills, then roasting it. 

Of course it didn’t taste good, and breaking the gallbladder during cleaning often made the fish bitter. Now that they had discovered how delicious fried fish could be, it was only natural for them to want more. Who wouldn’t enjoy good food? Especially children, who were at an age where they needed plenty of nutrition.

Seeing how inefficient their method was, Bai Tu pointed to the fish traps in the middle of the river and said, “Catching fish by hand is too much trouble. I’ve made fish traps. You just need to check them twice a day and add some earthworms. It’s much faster than grabbing them by hand.”

As he spoke, he dug into the dirt to show them the long, wriggling earthworms. “Earthworms are these little worms that live in the soil,” he explained.

With that, Bai Tu retrieved the three fish traps he had set earlier in the day. The middle trap had the most fish, with more than a dozen of various sizes. 

The other two traps combined held nearly twenty more fish. One of the traps had some loose reed leaves on top, which had likely allowed a few fish to escape—otherwise, the catch would have been even larger.

Since there were no tribes nearby that specialized in fishing, and even the White Bear Tribe avoided it because the small fish didn’t provide much energy, the river’s fish population had remained untouched. The fish were naive and easy to catch, swimming lazily through the water as if they had never experienced danger.

If this river existed in the modern world, it would undoubtedly be a paradise for fishing enthusiasts.

Bai Tu poured all the fish into his bucket, showed the children how to reset the traps, and added some fresh earthworms before putting the traps back in the water. He planned to check them again the next morning.

Among the fish caught, three were as large as the one he had caught in the morning. The rest were smaller, ranging from finger-length to palm-length. Bai Tu separated the smallest ones, intending to raise them.

The beastmen of the tribe often said that the rainy and snowy seasons were the hardest to endure. Stockpiling food was never a bad idea, and even small fish were still meat. 

There were still empty caves in the tribe, and with the Snow Rabbit Tribe’s impressive burrowing skills, they could easily dig out a fish pond.

Fish didn’t require much food, and fish soup was highly nutritious—perfect for providing extra nutrition to the tribe’s young cubs.

As he had done in the morning, Bai Tu cleaned the fish by the river, setting aside the intestines to feed the chickens. He carried the bucket of fish back to the cave, planning to use the four largest fish to make soup in the morning.

Back at the tribe, Bai Tu marinated the fish, stir-fried the portion of beef liver he had received, and fried the smaller fish.

Bai Qi arrived, drawn by the enticing aroma. He had heard earlier that Bai Tu had made some particularly delicious fish at noon and had been curious ever since.

“Dong kept talking about how good the fish you made was,” Bai Qi said. 

Despite having already eaten, the smell made his mouth water. He brought over some fruit he had received—this had become a habit recently. Whenever he ate Bai Tu’s cooking, he would trade it for something from his own share. However, Bai Qi couldn’t help but ask, “Tu, meat tastes so good—why do you like eating fruit so much?”

Bai Qi was genuinely puzzled. While beastmen could eat wild vegetables and fruit, their favorite food was always meat. Now that Bai Tu had discovered new ways to prepare it, the tribe loved meat even more.

“Exactly, meat tastes so much better. Fruit is so sour,” Tu Shi chimed in. He and a few others were waiting nearby for the fried fish. Every time Tu Shi saw fruit, he grimaced—it was too sour for his liking, and only one in many was actually sweet.

“Eating too much meat can make you overheat,” Bai Tu replied, placing the fruit on a stone table in his cave. The “stone table” was actually just a relatively flat boulder, used to hold food and other items that shouldn’t touch the ground.

“What does ‘overheating’ mean?” Bai Qi asked, confused. Beastmen, who had been eating meat all their lives, had no concept of such a thing.

“If your teeth hurt, you have sores in your mouth, or your gums bleed, it might be a sign of overheating,” Bai Tu patiently explained, listing a few common symptoms. “Sometimes, if your eyes hurt, that could be overheating too.” Overheating had many symptoms, too many to explain all at once. Instead, Bai Tu focused on educating them about the benefits of eating more fruit.

The beastmen had experienced some of these symptoms before but had never known the cause. Hearing Bai Tu’s explanation, the children had a sudden realization.

Tu You exclaimed loudly, “Then I’ll eat two fruits tomorrow!” He had been one of the many who disliked fruit because it was too sour, but from now on, he wouldn’t complain.

“Eating more wild vegetables helps too, and it’s best not to eat only meat,” Bai Tu added. When the fish in the pan finished frying, he divided them among the group, giving Bai Qi extra since he hadn’t gotten to try any at lunchtime.

The hunting team had good luck today—they caught a lone wild bull weighing over half a ton. It had been pure coincidence. Thanks to the efficiency of the traps, the tribe had dug two more in areas frequented by prey. This bull had fallen into one of the traps all on its own; no one had even needed to drive it there.

Who wouldn’t love food that delivered itself? With this bull, the calf could now be kept instead of traded. If the hunting team didn’t come back empty-handed over the next three days, the tribe might not even need to trade away the ten or so hens.

The plentiful prey made Bai Tu and the children the happiest. Bai Tu was pleased because it meant the tribe was moving toward sustainable development, while the children were simply attached to the animals they had been around for so long. 

They didn’t want to part with them, especially since some of the hens had started laying eggs. Following Bai Tu’s instructions, the tribe was carefully storing the eggs to hatch chicks.

To speed up their work, the tribe had split into two shifts—one worked during the day, while the other worked at night. Even after dark, there were still plenty of people outside working.

Bai Tu brought out the stir-fried beef liver as a snack for everyone, sharing it among the busy workers. Afterward, he ate a few bites himself before frying the marinated fish and slowly simmering it with water.

For beastmen, dealing with fish bones was indeed troublesome. Given their large appetites, it would take them hours to eat enough if they had to carefully spit out bones. Bai Tu decided to simmer the fish for a longer time, cooking it until the meat fell apart and the flavor fully infused into the soup. 

Once the fish was fully cooked, he strained out the bones, heads, and other debris, leaving behind a pot of creamy, milky-white fish soup.

The rich aroma of the fish soup spread far, catching Bai Qi’s attention as he finished eating the fried fish. He glanced toward the pot and said, “Tu, you’ve made something delicious again?” Bai Qi felt that he had eaten more tasty food in the past few days than in the entire first ten years of his life.

“It’s fish soup for the cubs,” Bai Tu replied. He had a soft spot for the tribe’s young ones. Adult beastmen could eat anything and be fine, but the cubs had far more dietary restrictions. 

Bai Tu had seen Tu Cai feed the cubs before, mashing cooked meat into a paste with a stone mortar and mixing it with broth. The texture looked plain and unappetizing.

Hearing it was for the cubs, Bai Qi immediately stepped back. If it had been food for the adults, he might have traded something to get a taste, but since it was for the cubs, he wouldn’t touch it. In most tribes, especially in the Snow Rabbit Tribe, people would go out of their way to save food for the cubs. Only the most careless tribes would let adults eat food meant for the young.

Bai Tu carefully checked the fish soup again to ensure there were no stray bones. There were more than a dozen cubs in the tribe, so even this large pot of soup was too much. He filled two-thirds of the pot for the cubs, leaving the rest for the adults to taste.

After handing Bai Qi a bowl and letting him serve himself, Bai Tu carried the rest of the soup to the main cave. Tu Cai was inside, coaxing the cubs to sleep. Recently, with the adults so busy, the cubs’ parents hadn’t been picking them up at night, so all the cubs were gathered here.

Knowing he couldn’t touch the cubs, Bai Tu took the opportunity to watch them while Tu Cai fed them. Although each cub was only about the size of a palm, they were adorably well-behaved. Since the beastmen didn’t typically use small utensils, the cubs ate from large bowls, sitting in a circle. The sight made them look even more like little pets.

Tu Cai was no longer as wary of Bai Tu as before. As long as Bai Tu didn’t touch the cubs, Tu Cai generally didn’t say much. Bai Tu stayed nearby, quietly watching until all the cubs had finished their fish soup.

Even at their young age, the cubs understood who had brought them the food. They shuffled over to Bai Tu, rubbing against him affectionately.

Bai Tu’s heart melted. Unable to resist, he tentatively reached out and petted the cub closest to him. The soft, fluffy texture completely conquered him, and he found himself whispering, “Be good, and I’ll bring you more tomorrow!”

After quickly pulling his hand back, making sure Tu Cai hadn’t seen his little act, Bai Tu casually said, “Cai, I’m going to make two more fish traps with some baskets. That way, we can catch more tomorrow.” Turning baskets into fish traps was convenient and saved a lot of time.

“The baskets are inside. Go ahead and take them,” Tu Cai replied, unbothered. He had no objections to Bai Tu using the baskets, as every time Bai Tu took something, he brought back useful goods.

Taking advantage of the moment, Bai Tu discreetly patted each cub before standing up. The little ones reluctantly shuffled back to their sleeping area. Full and content, the cubs quickly grew drowsy, and before long, they were snoozing soundly, sprawled out in all directions.