"It tastes so-so!" Chang Xia said.
She drank her soup, not hearing the rest of what Chen Rong said.
This pot of fishballs and wild vegetable soup was not bad, but it was still a distance away from being delicious. The main reason was that there was no fish, ginger, cooking wine, and other ingredients.
"This is the most delicious food I've ever eaten." Chen Rong narrowed his long and narrow phoenix eyes and praised. As he ate the fish balls and drank the delicious wild vegetable soup, he even felt the pain in his body lessen. Seeing that Chang Xia did not look up, Chen Rong's hand stiffened slightly. Without batting an eyelid, he retracted the Miracle.
"I'll make you something more delicious after I find all the ingredients. Are you full? If you're not, I'll make you a White Scorched River Shrimp. I'll steam the river crab also." Chang Xia asked, shaking her head in dissatisfaction.
After a busy morning, they were both hungry.
After cooking the fish balls and vegetable soup, the prawns and crabs had yet to be processed.
Chen Rong drank three bowls of fish balls and wild vegetable soup in a row. He rubbed his stomach and felt that he could eat two more bowls. Hence, he nodded and said, "I want to eat."
The bowls were made using wood.
Pottery bowls were fragile. Chang Xia was poor and could not afford more pottery.
All the pottery in the beast lair had been given to her by the tribe. The Heluo Tribe had a kiln—a stone kiln. Old men, who had lost the ability to hunt in the tribe, were responsible for burning the kiln. The tribesmen needed pottery, which could be bartered for with hides, animal bones, animal teeth, and food.
It was a pity that Chang Xia had never left the tribe until she reached adulthood.
Hunting was like a fantasy for her.
Rooterally speaking, river prawns needed to be soaked in water for a day or two to get rid of the sand.
But she was not so particular now.
Chang Xia picked out the small river shrimps and prepared to dry them. She grounded the shrimp skin and turned it into shrimp powder for seasoning. She finished all the fish balls and vegetable soup in the pot, washed it, added water, and cooked the river shrimps.
She waited for the river shrimp to begin to change color and flipped them gently.
Soon, all the river prawns turned red. Chang Xia quickly fished out the river prawns, placed two wooden chopsticks in the pot, and placed the river crabs tied with straws inside.
Then, she called Chen Rong to start eating the river prawns.
"Try it."
Chen Rong imitated Chang Xia and pinched the head off.
"How's it?"
Chen Rong exclaimed in surprise. The fresh and sweet taste of the river shrimp was different from fish balls. The taste of the river shrimp was fresher and more tender. It was bouncy, and when he gently chewed, he felt as if he could feel the shrimp meat jumping between his teeth. It was clearly very tender, but there was a hint of chewiness.
"If it goes with balsamic vinegar, or soy sauce, it'll taste even better!" Chang Xia lamented. She preferred this dish to fish balls.
Chen Rong glanced at Chang Xia and began to eat in silence.
After a few days together, he was used to Chang Xia's occasional "nonsense."
Four black carp, a few catties of river prawns, and a palm-sized river crab. The two of them were full and lay down, unwilling to move.
"In the afternoon, I'll cut some ivy and come back to weave a new fish basket." Chen Rong's mind was filled with the smell of fishballs, river prawns, and river crabs. He didn't need Chang Xia to remind him. He took the initiative to weave a fish basket, wanting to do something big.
Chang Xia nodded. "Sure. I'm going to clean up the weeds near the beast lair this afternoon and plant the onions. Tomorrow, we need to go out and collect them."
Chen Rong's injuries had yet to heal. Hunting was too dangerous.
Chang Xia didn't want him out hunting with the hunting party, but he could still participate in the gathering. She was too weak in her body and needed exercise.
They divided the tasks.
After resting for an hour, the two of them worked together to clean the dishes.
They separated and got busy.
Chen Rong took his stone knife and walked towards the bushes at the bottom of the mountainside. There were many green vines growing there. In addition to green vines, he planned to look for vines that were more suitable for weaving fish baskets.
Chang Xia, who had stayed home, planned to clean up the wasteland near the den of beasts.
She had her eyes on a house cave, which was located on the hillside to the west of the mountainside. Chang Xia wanted to build a mountain stronghold there as her home in the Heluo Tribe.
The loess layer of the Heluo tribe was very thick. Like the Ganning area of Earth, it was very suitable for cave construction. The cold season of the Twilight Forest was very dangerous. In the cold winter, wild beasts even dared to attack the tribe.
This beast lair could not give Chang Xia a sense of security. Creating a house cave had become her obsession.
With Chen Rong, Chang Xia planned to put building a house cave on the agenda.
This way.
As she could not act recklessly when cultivating new land, Chang Xia planned to plant the green onions on the left side of the beast lair. In the future, she could circle this place as a vegetable field.
Without a hoe, Chang Xia tied a long sharp stone with vines and sticks to make a simple stone hoe. She pulled out the weeds and used the hoe to dig out the roots of the weeds. She threw them aside and piled them up, waiting for them to dry before burning them into plant ash. Firstly, plant ash could fertilize the ground, and secondly, plant ash could be used to wash kitchen utensils and so on.
She hadn't found any soap yet. Even bathing and washing her hair required wood ash.
Beasts were mostly furry.
Basically, not many liked to shower.
Chang Xia took a shower and washed her hair. She didn't make friends, didn't play, and didn't fall in love, so she naturally became a weirdo in the tribe. Fortunately, she stayed at home, so the discussions of her clansmen didn't affect her much.
When Chen Rong returned with a large pile of green vines, Chang Xia opened up a third of the land. To the side, weeds were piled up, and the soil was very sandy and black. It was a good piece of land.
Chang Xia wiped the hot sweat from her forehead, looking forward to this land being filled with vegetables and fruits in the future. At the same time, she was preparing to build a few straw sheds not far from the vegetable field to raise poultry like chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep.
If people didn't have dreams, they were no different from salted fish.
Seeing that Chang Xia was sweating profusely and her yellowish face was in a sorry state, Chen Rong's heart ached. "Chang Xia, tell me what you want to do. I'll do it."
"It's fine. It's good for me to exercise more." Chang Xia waved her hand, completely unconcerned. Beast females were no weaker than males, and Chang Xia still wanted to learn to hunt. Physical exercise had to be on the agenda.
"I'm going to use the land for planting. For now, we only have scallions. We'll transplant them later when we find others."
"By the way, how did you cut so many vines?"
Among them, there were several Chang Xia had never seen before.
After hearing this, Chen Rong could only stop nagging and point at the vines in front of him. "The green vines are hard. I'll try the other vines and choose the most suitable woven fish basket. Other than the fish basket, there aren't enough baskets at home."
Hearing this, Chang Xia nodded.
"There's a shortage of back baskets, normal baskets, and dustpans. Try and see if you can tear the vines apart. It's easier to weave slender vines," Chang Xia said. She stood up and helped Chen Rong drag the vines back to the side of the beast lair. As she walked, she gestured. "Weave two vine curtains. They're very convenient for sleeping, hanging up to block the wind, and drying things. The back baskets, baskets, and other baskets of different sizes can be used to store and stack things in the house."
Chen Rong did not interrupt and nodded repeatedly.
He tried to picture what Chang Xia had said in her mind, while marveling at her proposal.
Together, the two of them dragged the vine back to the beast lair.
Chang Xia fetched water to wash her face and hands. "Chen Rong, come and wash your face and hands."
At the entrance of the beast lair, there was a stone jar that was half the height of a person. This stone jar had been left behind by the previous owner. Fortunately, there was this stone jar. Otherwise, Chang Xia and the others would have to go to the lake for water. It would take a lot of time to go back and forth.
At the moment, Chang Xia and Cheng Rong were too poor.
They could not afford to replace the pottery for the time being. The existence of the stone vat saved them a lot of trouble.
After cleaning up, Chang Xia was in no hurry to get busy. Instead, she walked into the beast lair and took out two green fruits to wash before handing one to Chen Rong.
She sat down on the stone bench at the entrance of the den.
"Chen Rong, I want to build a house cave." Chang Xia ate the green fruit and narrowed his eyes as he looked at the blue sky. A breeze blew across his face. It was warm and slightly cold. It was so comfortable that he wanted to return to his beast lair and sleep.
"Build a house cave?" Chen Rong tilted his head and looked at Chang Xia in shock. He hesitated and said, "You mean a new beast lair?"
"No, it's not the same as a beast's lair." Chang Xia shook her head and picked up a branch to gesture at the ground, sketching out her idea. At the same time, she pointed to the hillside to the west. "I want to build a house cave leaning next to the mountain, with vegetable fields to the left, a grass shed for chickens and ducks, and fruit trees to the right. Under the mountainside, the wasteland near the lake can be used for farming …"
Chen Rong was confused.
But that didn't stop him from understanding what Chang Xia meant.
This was a very different way of life from the current beasts. It sounded interesting.
"What do you need from me—"
"Help. We'll be out gathering in the morning and home digging for tadpoles in the afternoon. For now, of course, we'll weave fish baskets. We won't be able to join the hunt, and fish and shrimp are our current staple food. Also, I plan to stock up on food and invite my people to taste the delicious fish balls together."
"Okay, whatever you say."
Then they looked at each other and smiled.
Then, in tacit agreement, they began to deal with the pile of vines and sort them. The ivy Chang Xia had used to weave the fish basket earlier was harder and not very suitable for weaving the baskets. However, it was different after baking it.
The two of them fought the vines the entire afternoon.
Before sunset, Chen-Rong had woven three fish baskets out of soft, earthy vines. Two vine curtains, a dustpan, a wicker basket, and so on. The rest of the vines had been torn open and left to dry. They would continue tomorrow when there was time.
Chang Xia rubbed the torn vines and gestured toward her feet.
"Chang Xia." Chen Rong called softly in inquiry.
Chang Xia said, "I'll see if I can weave the thin vines into straw shoes. No, I should say vine shoes."
The beasts were thick-skinned and not particular about this.
Males often walked barefoot and hunted, and females would wrap themselves in hides. Chang Xia wasn't used to it and tried to drill two holes in the hide, tying it with straw rope to make simple hide straw shoes.
The grass rope was too brittle and easily snapped.
The thin vine in front of her was torn into thin strips by Chen Rong. Chang Xia carefully rubbed it. It felt like rough hemp rope, so she had an idea.