"Chang Xia, the sun is scorching at noon. You should rest at home first. There's no hurry to study the rice noodles. I'm leaving." Chen Rong retracted his gaze from Nan Feng and reminded gently.
He had to finish building their house cave as soon as possible before he could free himself to hunt and make the ointment for Chang Xia.
Immediately, he instructed Chang Xia and left with Shan Kun and Ya Dong.
"Ya Dong, you and Shan Kun take care of Chen Rong. The insect poison in his body hasn't been cured, and his body hasn't recovered yet. He can't be too tired." Chang Xia stood on her tiptoes and waved, watching the three of them walk towards the neighboring mountain.
The house cave of Nuan Chun's family was built on the next hillside.
The straight-line distance was a few hundred meters, and it took about ten minutes to walk there. After the house cave was built and the road was cleared, it was estimated to take three to five minutes.
Similarly, the location that Nan Feng and Ya Dong had chosen was not far away.
All of them spread out using the Chang Xia family as the center,and faced the White Lake.
"Okay!" Shan Kun said.
Then he exchanged a glance with Ya Dong.
Chen Rong's body had not healed—
Him beating them up was as straightforward as beating the cubs of the tribe. After the poison was detoxified, it would probably be difficult for them to even fight back.
When had the wolves become so tough?
"Chen Rong—"
Facing Chen Rong's amiable smile, the two of them shivered.
Shen Rong smiled and said, "I don't eat people, what are you afraid of? Do you know when Kong Shan will come? Hurry up and try to get your caves ready within two days. We have to hoard some food before the rainy season."
"Kong Shan will come directly after the hunt," Ya Dong said.
"We're not part of the hunting party these days," said Shan Kun. "It's true that we have to hurry up and build the house cave. Even if we can't hunt, we have to stockpile more white fruits and wild vegetables."
He was under a lot of pressure. Nuan Chun was close to delivering, and the situation was treacherous.
If not for the fact that the chief and Chang Xia had repeatedly assured him that Nuan Chun was fine, Shan Kun would have taken Nuan Chun to the birds to find a shaman.
Shan Kun's tone was grim, and Chen Rong and Ya Dong understood his concern.
"Shan Kun, Nuan Chun is just sleepy," Chen Rong said calmly.
Ya Dong raised his hand and patted Shan Kun on the shoulder. He revealed a confident and hearty smile and said loudly, "Shan Kun, listen to Chen Rong. He said that Nuan Chun is fine so she would definitely be fine. Have you forgotten where he came from? The Western Continent. That's the Western Continent that's even more prosperous and powerful than the Eastern Continent."
"Yes!" Shan Kun nodded emphatically.
After being comforted by Chen Rong and Ya Dong, Shan Kun felt a little better.
The three of them headed straight for their destination. They shapeshifted and began to tidy up the surroundings of the cave before starting to build the house cave.
On the other side, Chang Xia and the other two, who had stayed in the beast lair, were sleeping soundly on the bed. Chang Xia and Nan Feng carried the fruit powder and began to sift it. Chang Xia planned to try handmade rice flour. The fruit powder was a little rough and needed to be sifted. After a few sieves, it was separated into the fine powder and coarse powder. The coarse powder was grounded again, and the fine powder was prepared for usage.
"Chang Xia, is this enough?" Nan Feng carried the wooden basin to her so she could see the powdered fruit in it.
The sieve was woven of reeds that were small and the size of a wooden basin.
Chang Xia turned to look and shook her head. "Sieve it again. The thinner the powder, the better the rice noodles."
It was too rough, and Chang Xia was worried that the heat would be uneven while steaming.
Putting beauty aside, it might affect the taste.
Therefore, the two of them sifted the fruit powder over and over again. It took them nearly an hour to sift through the entire barrel of fruit powder.
The sifted fruit powder was fine and white.
It was completely different from the fruit powder from before.
"So white!" exclaimed Nan Feng, grabbing a handful of powdered fruit.
The fruit powder they ground was generally yellowish. After collecting it for a few days, it would be a little damp and grayish-black. It looked like it was moldy.
After sifting through the powder, the fruit powder seemed to have been reborn. How magical.
As she spoke, Nan Feng suddenly opened her mouth and bit down.
"Wow!"
Chang Xia was shocked.
Was this really the Nan Feng she knew?
Could it be that she had been switched by some mysterious force?
"Was it good, Nan Feng?" Chang Xia asked quietly.
Nan Feng's body stiffened as she smiled sheepishly at Chang Xia. She chuckled foolishly and whispered, "The filtered fruit powder looks delicious. I just wanted to try—"
Chang Xia said nothing.
Leopards probably didn't have husky attributes.
What's with the stupid Nan Feng?
"Nan Feng, what are you eating… I want it too." Nuan Chun opened her eyes and crawled up in a daze. She found herself lying in the beast lair. She patted her forehead and muttered, "Chang Xia, did I fall asleep again? Shan Kun is gone. Where did he go?"
"I didn't eat much," Nan Feng said quickly.
She refused to tell Nuan Chun about her earlier foolishness.
At the same time, she gave Chang Xia a pleading look, telling her not to say anything either.
Chang Xia shook her head helplessly and said, "Is Nuan Chun hungry? Shan Kun and the others have left to build the house cave. Nan Feng and I are screening the fruit powder. We plan to make flour noodles later."
"I think I'm… a little hungry." Nuan Chun touched her big round belly and licked her mouth. It didn't seem long after lunch that she felt hungry again.
Apart from being sleepy, Nuan Chun was especially hungry recently.
She had to eat at least seven or eight meals a day. She also felt hungry again not long after every meal.
"Nuan Chun, there's food in the stove pot. Get up, I'll bring it to the table for you. Sit down and eat slowly." Chang Xia patted the fruit powder off her hands and stood up to serve Nuan Chun some meat and bone soup.
"Is there any more bone soup?" Nuan Chun stood up with the help of Nan Feng. Thinking about the bone soup she had drunk at noon, she remembered it again.
Chang Xia nodded. "Yes, as much as you want."
As she spoke, she scooped up soup.
"Give me a bowl of that, too, Chang Xia," Nan Feng said.
Smelling it, she felt that she could drink another bowl if her stomach was full.
Hearing this, Chang Xia was speechless. However, she didn't refuse and scooped two bowls of soup and brought them to the table. Then she walked into the beast lair to get the tools to make flour noodles: the frying pan and vine container made of animal bones.
The bone pan was taken from the shaman's place in Mount Kana.
This pot was previously used by the shaman to brew medicine for Chang Xia.
When Chang Xia moved, she brought it with her.
Chang Xia had asked Chen Rong to weave the vine container with thin vines. The workmanship was exquisite, and it was more detailed than the powder sieve. Initially, the powder sieve was also woven with thin vines. It was too tight and difficult to sieve.
"Chang Xia, do you want to brew medicine?"
Nan Feng drank his soup and chatted with Nuan Chun.
She saw Chang Xia take out the bone pot that she had used to brew medicine in the past. She was shocked and quickly stood up to check Chang Xia's body. After confirming that there was no problem, she heaved a sigh of relief.
Beside her, Nuan Chun said nothing.
However, she put down her bowl and stared at Chang Xia.
Could it be that she was tired from building the house cave recently?
Sensing Nan Feng and Nuan Chun's nervousness, Chang Xia quickly explained, "I'm fine. I took the bone pot to make handmade rice noodles. It's not convenient to steam the flour noodles using a stone pot…"
"I'm glad you're okay," Nuan Chun murmured.
Nan Feng blinked and let go of Chang Xia. "How do you steam the noodles?" she asked curiously.
"Mix the fruit powder with water, add some salt, and pour it into the bone pot to make it even. Then put the powder in the stone pot with the bone pot and put a wooden lid on it to boil."
With that, Chang Xia washed the beast bone pot with wood ash.
After washing the bone pot, she used a bowl to scoop out half a bowl of fruit powder and mixed it with water to stir it into the powder. She added salt and continued to stir. Then, she poured the powder into the bone pot. Finally, she placed the bone pot on the stone pot with wooden chopsticks and started to boil it.
It was not difficult to make handmade rice noodles, but Chang Xia was still a little apprehensive about doing it for the first time.