Ye Xi naturally didn't eat the tree bark. In his understanding, tree bark was something that people who were on the verge of starving to death ate, equal to cotton or leather.
Ye Xi returned the tree bark to the tribe members, went back into the cave, got some firewood, and started a fire in the clearing.
He cut off a large piece of snow-white insect meat and sliced it into smaller pieces. He then cut off a tree branch, skewered a piece of insect meat, and began to roast it over the fire.
The tribe members saw that Ye Xi was just roasting the meat, not eating it, so they didn't stop him.
As the fire slowly cooked the white insect meat, golden streaks appeared on it and an alluring scent filled the air.
Gulp.
At some point, the tribe members stopped gnawing on bark and grass, but their hands still gripped them. It was like someone had pressed the pause button.
All of them stared with blazing eyes at the golden and fragrant meat, swallowing their saliva.
Ye Xi sprinkled some salt on top and raised the roasted meat, his mouth already drooling. He was reaching his breaking point, and when he glanced at Horn, he saw that Horn was staring in a daze at the roasted insect meat.
Ye Xi grinned at him, revealing all his white teeth, and gently asked, "Is there anything wrong with your stomach? Can I eat now?"
"Ah?" Horn froze for a moment, then his rationality that had been drawn away by the alluring scent returned, and he said, "No, just…"
Before he could finish, Ye Xi took a big bite of the insect meat.
"…wait a little more," Horn weakly finished.
As Ye Xi bit into the insect meat, he found it surprisingly tasty, somewhat like fish or lobster. But rather than a fishy scent, it had a clear and refreshing one.
Ye Xi had originally planned to eat the insect meat to just fill his stomach, but to his surprise, such ugly insects were quite delicious, so he began to eat even faster.
Ye Xi wasn't satisfied after eating, so he swiftly skewered a few more pieces, holding the sticks over the fire in both hands.
The scent of the meat filled the air even more.
Tree bark dropped from the hands of some of the crowd, but they failed to notice, their eyes fixed on the insect meat.
"Can… can I have a little?" someone finally asked.
The insect meat was just about done roasting, and Ye Xi casually passed a skewer over. "Here; try it! It's just as good as any other meat!"
The man cautiously took the skewer and took a bite of the meat. As he slowly chewed, his eyes brightened, and he began to wolf the meat down.
"…How is it?" The bystanders grew even hungrier as they saw him eat.
"Delicious! Delicious!" The meat was so delicious that he couldn't help but lick his lips once he was done.
Everyone's restraint finally broke.
"Ye Xi, I'd also like one!"
"I also want one!"
"Can I have a little?!"
As all these people began to talk, Ye Xi chuckled and pointed at the insect corpse. "There's still a lot of meat on this bug. Everyone, please help yourselves, and don't worry about eating it all. There are still plenty more in the pits. Eat your fill!"
It was a good thing that they had dug out the pits, and they had dug even more after seeing their effectiveness. Once the insect flood had receded, it had left twenty-some insects in the pits. And since the insect meat was delicious as well, they wouldn't have to worry about food for the next few days!
One giant insect naturally wasn't enough to feed so many people, so they went back to the pits and dragged out a few more.
They no longer regarded the giant insects with disgust, but passion and enthusiasm. After all, this was food!
…
Ye Xi brought Scaly out from the cave.
Without food for the last few days, Scaly had fallen into a slumber. Now that it was awakened by Ye Xi, it was lacking in energy, its eyes half-open as it drooped across Ye Xi's shoulders.
But when Ye Xi moved some insect meat up to Scaly's mouth, Scaly's eyes flew open, its body rising up as it thrust out its tongue at the insect meat.
Snakes didn't eat things that were too hot, so Ye Xi fed it the insect meat raw.
Scaly gulped down the meat even more swiftly than the humans, and only after it had eaten around two catties of meat did it finally stop.
The tribe members surrounded the fire and happily feasted.
The disaster had finally passed. Now that they could come out of the dark cave to enjoy the sunlight and fill their bellies, they had everything they could want.
Suddenly, someone pointed at the cave entrance and called out in surprise, "Ye Xi, your flower has run out to find you!"
Ye Xi turned to look.
The little flower was slowly walking over on its thin root legs.
The flower had been starving over the last few days. At the start, it had loudly protested its hunger with groans and moans, but this sound had slowly dwindled away until it stopped entirely.
Whether it was because it was too hungry or had been in the dark for too long, the flower's green leaves had become streaked with yellow, and the large flower head had dropped so low that it was almost touching the ground.
Ye Xi quickly went to grab the little flower.
The little flower was much larger than when he had bought it, and it had some considerable weight now.
The little flower's hunger made it forget its fear of Ye Xi, and it tried to take a bite of his arm.
Hiss! Ye Xi yelped in pain.
This fellow seemed to be lacking in energy, but its mouth still had a lot of strength.
"Let go!" Ye Xi yelled.
"Woooooo!" the little flower weakly said, but its mouth continued to bite down on his arm.
Ye Xi began to pull on the petals of the flower.
The little flower continued to doggedly bite down.
With no other option, Ye Xi walked over to the insect meat, grabbed a skewer, and brought it to the flower's mouth.
The scent of the insect meat was incredibly tempting.
Ye Xi felt the flower's bite on his arm weaken a little.
Ye Xi moved the insect skewer closer.
The petals trembled. The little flower released Ye Xi's arm, turned its head to the insect meat, and opened its mouth wide. The head stretched out and savagely bit down on the insect skewer, devouring both the meat and the tree branch.
Ye Xi, who had been planning to feed it piece by piece, was speechless.
The little flower wasn't satisfied by just one insect skewer, and it began to groan for more.
Ye Xi looked at his arm and saw that only the skin had broken. He understood that the little flower was just complaining to him about its hunger and had not really intended to eat him. Thus he flicked its head and let the matter go.
Ye Xi placed the little flower next to an insect corpse and let it eat.
The little flower was truly starving. Other than the tough shell, it ate every piece of the giant insect, leaving nothing behind.
When Ye Xi saw that the little flower had eaten all the other parts of the insect, he told the other tribe members to not throw away the insect remains and let the flower eat them.
He silently decided on the little flower's diet for the next few days. Rather than feeding it the white meat, he would let it clean up the leftovers, killing two birds with one stone.