The Tuo Tuo Beasts would still take some time before they could start producing milk. For now, Jian Mo remained focused on the Hunting Competition.
The Hunting Competition lasted for a total of nine days.
Not everyone in the tribe participated throughout the entire event. They took turns attending, while others stayed behind to hunt, forage, and prepare for the winter.
When the Mengshui Tribe heard about Jian Mo’s reputation, they invited him to oversee their activities at the festival, compensating him daily with supplies. This meant Jian Mo needed to attend every day.
In the morning, after finishing his breakfast and feeding both the Winged Beasts and the Tuo Tuo Beasts, Jian Mo set off with Wu Jiong for the Mengshui Tribe.
They rode directly on the Winged Beasts, flying in a straight line, which significantly reduced their travel time.
Despite this, the distance between the Riverside Tribe and the Mengshui Tribe was considerable, and even with the Winged Beasts, they didn’t arrive particularly early.
By the time they reached the festival grounds, many others had already arrived. Stalls were set up, people were chatting, and the entire place was bustling with life.
Upon arrival, Wu Jiong took the Winged Beasts to tether them securely, while Jian Mo headed to the space reserved for him by the Mengshui Tribe. He placed down his medical kit and prepared for any treatments he might need to provide.
Jian Mo had barely settled in when a sub-beastman from the Mengshui Tribe approached, holding a clay pot. “Doctor Jian Mo, please try our sweet drink. It’s made with cooling leaves and sweet fruits. Does it taste the way you described?”
—The beastmen had initially wanted to address Jian Mo as a priest or shaman, but Jian Mo found those titles too heavy to bear. Instead, he asked them to simply call him Doctor.
Jian Mo stood up and reached out to take the pot. “Thank you.”
The sub-beastman hesitated, placed the clay pot on the table instead, laid out a few bowls he’d brought along, and smiled as he asked, “Did Chief Wu Jiong not come with you today?”
“He’s here, just tying up the Winged Beasts,” Jian Mo replied, lifting the drink for a sip. The cool, sweet taste made him squint slightly in delight. “Delicious!”
Sub-beastman: “Right? When we made it this morning, everyone in the tribe said it was delicious. Your method really is the best.”
As they spoke, a panicked voice called from behind, “Doctor Jian Mo—”
Jian Mo turned to see two anxious figures rushing over, carrying a small child.
The child’s eyes were tightly shut, and he was wailing loudly. Every time he opened his mouth, blood poured out in a steady stream.
Jian Mo’s heart clenched. He quickly swept the items on his table to one side. “Lay the child down here! What happened?”
The sub-beastman holding the child tightly said, “He fell from a tree just now and has been vomiting blood ever since!”
Jian Mo noticed the sub-beastman’s hands trembling and near spasm. He said calmly, “Let me take a look first. Lay the child on his side.”
The child was placed on the table, still crying loudly, his cries full of energy.
Generally, a loud and strong cry indicated that the injury wasn’t critical. Jian Mo felt a bit of relief. This little beastman seemed to be in decent condition.
Jian Mo quickly pried the child’s mouth open and examined it carefully. Then, he pressed his ear to the child’s chest to listen intently.
The surrounding crowd held their breath, standing tensely behind him.
After a few minutes, Jian Mo looked up and said, “It doesn’t seem to be internal injuries. The blood in his mouth is from a deep cut caused by his teeth. One tooth has also chipped.”
He demonstrated, prying the small beastman’s mouth open again to show the two parents.
Sure enough, there was a gaping, bleeding wound inside.
Seeing this, the two fathers visibly relaxed, and their expressions softened.
Jian Mo opened his medical kit, took out a bladder filled with saline, and began rinsing the child’s mouth.
Before long, the blood in the child’s mouth was cleaned out, and Jian Mo stuffed the wound with a clean cloth to stop the bleeding.
He soothed the small beastman and asked the parents, “He was due to lose this tooth soon anyway, wasn’t he?”
The child’s a-ba and a-fu nodded repeatedly. (T/N: “a-ba and a-fu” are synonyms for father)
Jian Mo leaned in again, listening closely to the child’s chest to ensure no further issues. Then, he said, “Let’s extract the tooth. It’s already half-broken, and leaving it there could lead to infection.”
The two fathers didn’t fully grasp the concept of infection, but Jian Mo’s confident handling left them fully trusting his judgment.
Jian Mo looked at the humanoid form of the small beastman and found it a bit tricky to work on him this way. After all, he was more familiar with animals.
He suggested to the parents, “Can he shift back to his beast form? It would be easier for me to treat him.”
The small beastman, still sniffling, looked nervously at Jian Mo. His large tears clung to his cheeks.
Jian Mo bent closer, his voice soft. “Can you do that?”
The parents had no objections, and the child obediently nodded.
The boy’s a-ba untied the small animal-hide skirt he was wearing. Still lying on his side, the child shifted into his beast form.
It turned out he was a little weasel-like creature.
Seeing the familiar beast form on the table, Jian Mo relaxed.
Now this was something he knew how to handle.
With the small beastman secured, Jian Mo picked up his wooden tweezers and expertly grasped the fractured tooth. With a quick, precise motion, he pulled the broken tooth out in the direction of its looseness.
Jian Mo was so swift that the little guy barely registered the action before Jian Mo was rinsing the area with saline. Once he confirmed that the extraction was clean, he placed a small piece of sterilized cloth over the wound.
“Bite down on this,” Jian Mo instructed gently.
The little beastman blinked his wide eyes and obediently closed his mouth. He was far more cooperative than Jian Mo’s usual animal patients.
Unable to help himself, Jian Mo praised, “What a brave little one. You’re amazing.”
The little beastman’s ears twitched. He looked away shyly, his cheeks still streaked with tears.
Jian Mo turned to the parents. “That’s it. For the next two days, try to keep him from eating on the side where the tooth was removed. And tell him not to lick the area.”
The bleeding had finally stopped, and though tears lingered on his cheeks, the child’s spirit had already returned.
One of the fathers asked, “No medicine needed?”
Jian Mo, carefully storing the used instruments to be sterilized later, shook his head. “No need. His saliva has natural healing properties, and the wound will heal on its own.”
The two fathers nodded uncertainly, beginning to grasp Jian Mo’s explanation.
Then, the child’s a-fu brought over a basket from behind, expressing his gratitude. “Doctor Jian Mo, please take this.”
Earlier, when they rushed over with the child, their kin had also brought along their supplies. Now, a-fu presented the basket they’d carried.
Jian Mo lifted the leaf covering and saw large, egg-sized brownish-yellow fruits inside. Curious, he asked, “What are these?”
“Oh, wrong one!” A-ba quickly tried to take the basket back. “These are mien fruits for feeding the Winged Beasts and Tuo Tuo Beasts. I meant to give you Wooden Root.”
If it was safe for the beasts, it wasn’t toxic.
Jian Mo picked up one of the fruits, sniffing it, and scratched at its smooth, hard surface with his fingernail.
A bitter scent wafted up, mixed with an unpleasant but not foul smell. Jian Mo tried to squeeze the fruit open but it wouldn’t budge.
As he hesitated, debating whether to bite into it, Wu Jiong returned, took the fruit from his hand, and easily cracked it open before handing it back.
Jian Mo smiled at Wu Jiong and sniffed at the round kernel inside.
“This kernel is the edible part, right?” Jian Mo asked.
A-ba nodded. “Yes, but it doesn’t taste great. In years of famine, people would eat it, but normally, it’s just used to trade with tribes raising Tuo Tuo Beasts.”
Then, realizing something, he added quickly, “Oh, Doctor Jian Mo, you’re raising Tuo Tuo Beasts too, right? Then take this basket of mien fruits. I’ll go grab some Wooden Root for you as well.”
Jian Mo held the mien fruit in his hand. “Just the mien fruit is fine. You don’t need to give me the Wooden Root. I didn’t do much.”
The small beastman’s a-ba shook his head in disagreement. “No way! Just giving you mien fruit would be too stingy.”
He added, “Our rivers are full of these mien fruits. We’ll just gather more tomorrow.”
Surprised, Jian Mo examined the smooth, chestnut-like surface of the fruit. “They grow in the river?”
The a-ba nodded. “Yes, though I don’t think your tribe has them. They’re found in lowland areas like ours.”
Jian Mo smiled. “That’s great to hear. Just give me the mien fruit, trust me.”
With Jian Mo’s firm stance, the two parents relented. They left him with a basket of mien fruits, basket included, before departing with their child.
Jian Mo stayed behind, ready for the next patient. Fortunately, the rest of the day went smoothly without any tricky cases.
By evening, Jian Mo said his goodbyes to the Mengshui Tribe and returned home with Wu Jiong.
Back at the tribe, Jian Mo poured out part of the mien fruits to feed the Tuo Tuo Beasts.
Wu Jiong stopped him. “You need to crack them open first. They can’t digest the shells and might overeat to death.”
Jian Mo looked at the tough shells. “Don’t they have strong enough teeth?”
Wu Jiong replied, “Even so, it doesn’t work. Let me borrow a shell-cracker.”
Wu Jiong soon returned with a shell-cracking tool. The device had a round groove where the mien fruit was placed. A stone blade with a wooden handle sat on top. Pressing and rolling the blade created a circular cut in the shell. A gentle squeeze popped out the inner kernel.
The kernels were sizable, about the size of longan fruits, and surprisingly heavy for their size. However, the smell was quite unpleasant.
The odor was so strong that Jian Mo felt a wave of nausea.
Once Wu Jiong finished cracking the fruits, Jian Mo took the kernels to feed the Tuo Tuo Beasts.
The Tuo Tuo Beasts couldn’t eat too much, so Jian Mo mixed the kernels with fodder to avoid upsetting their digestion.
With part of the mien fruits still left, Jian Mo decided to feed the Winged Beast, Chipy next.
Chirpy approached cautiously, sniffing the fruit curiously with their noses. It clearly disliked the scent. After a few sniffs and hesitations, it refused to open its mouth.
Seeing this, Jian Mo said, “If you don’t like it fine, I’ll bring you something else later.”
But Chirpy grabbed the basket with its teeth and refused to let Jian Mo take it away. Its glossy black eyes stared at him as it whimpered, “Ehh?”
Jian Mo sighed. “You’re not eating it, so why whimper?”
The Winged Beast held the basket stubbornly, hesitated for a moment, and then finally took a small mouthful. It began chewing, but most of the crumbs fell out of its mouth. It resembled someone drinking wine sloppily, spilling half of it.
Jian Mo helplessly patted its large head. “If you’re not going to eat it, don’t waste food!”
The Winged Beast glanced at him guiltily, showing the whites of its eyes, before it couldn’t resist anymore. It spit all the chewed-up crumbs back out with a loud “Bleh!”
Jian Mo was speechless.
The regurgitated mien fruit, now a milky white pulp, formed a messy pile that smelled even worse.
Disgusted, Jian Mo fetched some ash from the side and poured it over the mess to sweep it away.
Just then, he noticed something familiar about the crushed mien fruit—it looked remarkably like ground beans.
Jian Mo paused, cleaned up the mess, and carried the remaining mien fruits back home.
He used a small stone mortar to grind the remaining kernels into a paste. Adding water, he stirred it into a slurry and strained the mixture.
As expected, the result was a milky white starchy liquid. It seemed the mien fruits were rich in starch, much more so than Mao Roots.
Unfortunately, the smell was awful—Jian Mo gagged again.
Wu Jiong walked in and saw Jian Mo busy at the hearth. “What are you doing?”
Jian Mo looked up. “I think these mien fruits are high in starch. Maybe we can extract it and make something useful.”
Wu Jiong dipped his finger into the starchy water and rubbed it between his fingers. “It is starchy, but it’s not edible.”
Jian Mo bent down to sniff it again and quickly turned away, breathing in fresh air.
Wu Jiong explained, “Some other tribes grind mien fruits into flour to make cakes, but only people with unusual tastes can eat them.”
Jian Mo stared at the bowl of mien fruit water. “Does it cause any discomfort?”
Wu Jiong shook his head. “No.”
“Then I’ll give it a try,” Jian Mo decided.
That evening, along with their usual meat patties and root vegetables, Jian Mo made a special batch of mien fruit cakes, frying them with various spices.
The cakes, however, were as unappetizing as the mien fruits themselves. Even pickled vegetables couldn’t mask the strange flavor.
Despite not being a picky eater, Jian Mo couldn’t finish them.
Disappointed, Jian Mo sighed. “I thought mien fruits were so abundant—maybe they could be a new food source. But winter’s coming, and we don’t have much food stockpiled.”
Wu Jiong shrugged. “We’ll eat less and manage. It’s not like we go out much in winter.”
“Being hungry is miserable,” Jian Mo muttered.
Since the kernels were already shelled, Jian Mo decided to soak them in water to see if it could remove the unpleasant smell.
Normally, soaking could reduce bitterness or odd flavors, like with bitter bamboo shoots on Earth.
Wu Jiong observed Jian Mo’s effort but said nothing.
*
The next morning, Wu Jiong spoke first. “I checked the mien fruits. The water turned yellow.”
Jian Mo perked up. “I’ll take a look!”
The mien fruits had soaked overnight and swelled slightly, though not too much.
Jian Mo picked one up and squeezed it, finding it still resistant to breaking apart.
After being crushed, the mien fruit in Jian Mo’s palm still carried a faint, unpleasant odor, though it was significantly reduced.
Jian Mo scrubbed the fruit thoroughly, replaced the water, and decided to soak it for a few more days to see the results.
While the mien fruits soaked, the Hunting Festival concluded successfully.
Their tribe ranked second overall in the competition, which was an excellent outcome considering their population was much smaller than that of the Mengshui Tribe.
With the festival over, life returned to its usual calm rhythm. The beastmen resumed their hunting trips, while the sub-beastmen went out to forage. Whenever people left the tribe, they couldn’t help but discuss the highlights of the festival or share bits of gossip.
Jian Mo, who had participated in the entire festival, rarely joined in on these conversations. Though he had plenty to say, he was not one to chat casually, and everyone accepted his quiet demeanor without concern.
After several days of soaking, Jian Mo retrieved the mien fruits again. The peculiar smell persisted, though it was now faint. Despite this improvement, the tribe’s sharp senses made it difficult for anyone to fully accept such an unconventional ingredient.
Zhou Fu, after trying Jian Mo’s mien fruit cakes, commented, “I’d rather eat less during the winter than have to stomach these strange cakes.”
Jian Mo glanced at the cake in his hand. “I’ll keep experimenting.”
That day, after returning from a foraging trip, Jian Mo took the dried grass he had gathered and burned it in an open area. He then scooped up the resulting pale ash and stored it in a bucket.
Grass ash, being finer than wood ash, felt almost powdery with no noticeable granules.
Wu Jiong observed Jian Mo’s actions, picked up a handful of the ash, and asked, “Making soap today?”
Jian Mo looked up from his work. “Nope, I’m planning to make mien fruit cakes using lye water.” (T/N: Also referred know as Lime Water)
Wu Jiong paused. “What?”
Jian Mo explained, “The mien fruits have this odd smell no matter how I treat them. I thought I’d try adding lye water.”
“Lye? Can people eat that?”
Jian Mo chuckled. “Of course. Back where I’m from, we have plenty of foods made with lye water.”
He reminisced about lye water dumplings and lye noodles from his childhood, which had tasted quite good. What stood out most in his memory, however, was his grandmother using lye water to make konjac tofu. The strange-tasting konjac, when cooked with lye water, had transformed into a delicious dish. It was a miraculous technique.
He wondered if this method could work its magic on mien fruits.
Wu Jiong remained skeptical but offered his help without complaint.
Mimicking his grandmother’s methods, Jian Mo and Wu Jiong crushed the mien fruits, mixed the pulp with lye water to create a slurry, shaped it into blocks, and then boiled them.
It wasn’t clear whether the lye or the boiling made the difference, but the mien fruit slurry solidified into a cake-like texture in the boiling water.
Jian Mo scooped out the cakes and sniffed them. The strange smell was noticeably reduced.
After several changes of water and a half-night of boiling, the cakes were transferred into a large basin filled with cool water for further soaking.
Jian Mo planned to soak them for another day before finishing the process.
As he straightened his aching back to head upstairs, he noticed Wu Jiong staring at the cakes and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Wu Jiong replied, “When I was soaking them, I pinched off a corner and tried it. It’s edible now.”
Jian Mo laughed. “It was edible before—just not tasty.”
Wu Jiong turned to him with a look.
Jian Mo raised his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine, I won’t argue. Before, beastmen with sensitive taste buds couldn’t eat it. Now they can. Better?”
Wu Jiong nodded.
Jian Mo smiled. “It might taste even better tomorrow. I’ll add some spices and fry it up to see if I can completely mask the odd flavor.”
Wu Jiong nodded again. “Get some rest.”
“I’m going now,” Jian Mo replied.
As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he paused and said, “By the way, do you want to sleep upstairs?”
Wu Jiong glanced over.
Jian Mo gripped the railing, speaking faster. “It’s getting cold, and the lower floor is damp. Sleeping there for too long can’t be good for you. The second floor is spacious—you can sleep on one side, and I’ll take the other. Plenty of room.”
Wu Jiong considered this for a moment and replied, “Once I’ve aired out the bedding in a couple of days, I’ll move up.”
Jian Mo nodded quickly and scrambled up the stairs.
The next morning, the first thing Jian Mo did was check the mien fruit cakes.
After multiple rounds of soaking, washing, grinding, boiling, and more soaking, the cakes were nearly odorless. They now carried a faint sweetness from the starch and a subtle plant aroma.
Jian Mo tasted a piece. Ignoring the faint trace of the odd flavor, it wasn’t bad at all.
In fact, compared to the bitter or fibrous wild vegetables and roots they usually ate, the carefully prepared mien fruit cakes were a significant improvement.
Wu Jiong entered the room and saw Jian Mo crouched by the basin. Curious, he walked over and picked up a piece of cake to try.
Jian Mo’s eyes sparkled with anticipation. “Well?”
Wu Jiong said, “I used to think mien fruits were inedible. Now it seems we just didn’t know how to prepare them.”
That was high praise. Jian Mo smiled. “Wait here. I’ll go grab some sour fruit and cooling leaves to fry it with. It’ll taste even better.”
After spending so much time in this world, Jian Mo had a thorough understanding of the land and where to find ingredients. He no longer needed to venture deep into the forest every time he wanted to gather herbs or spices.
“I’ll come with you,” Wu Jiong offered.
The two of them returned with additional ingredients. Jian Mo sliced the mien fruit cakes and stir-fried them on a stone griddle with pickled lean meat, sour fruit, cooling leaves, and shellfish powder.
The resulting dish was soft and tangy, with a delicate sauce that contrasted with the chewy texture of the cakes.
The odd flavor was completely masked, and Wu Jiong could only taste the well-seasoned sauce, finding the dish unexpectedly delicious.
Jian Mo picked up a piece of the cake with his chopsticks and stared at it.
Wu Jiong asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jian Mo replied, “This tastes just like a snack I used to eat back home.”
Wu Jiong stared at the mien fruit cake as well. “What’s a snack?”
Jian Mo thought for a moment. “It’s a kind of food you eat outside of meals to satisfy a craving. The key is that it’s enjoyable—and this mien fruit cake really hits the spot.”
There were still plenty of mien fruit cakes on the stone griddle.
Unable to resist, Jian Mo scooped a portion onto a large plate. “I’ll let Zhou Fu and the others try it too and see what they think.”
Wu Jiong grabbed his arm before he could leave. “Finish your meal first. A few minutes won’t make a difference.”
