On March 15, the rain became heavier. Often, it would rain for several days. The water level of the stream and river was rising rapidly.
"Chi Shao Chi Shao…"
Under the roof of the bamboo house, Jiang Xuan tried his best to dig a drainage ditch with a bone plow. Chi Shao and the others were doing the same.
As it had been raining, it was very easy for rainwater to accumulate under the eaves. If there were no drains, their bamboo house would be wet everywhere.
Fortunately, the top of the bamboo house was covered with two thick layers of bark, and it was a newly built bamboo house. The leakage was not serious.
After digging the drains around the bamboo house, the rain flowed back to the stream.
Because of the rain, the muddy water in the mountain rushed into the stream, causing the stream to become very muddy and the water flow to increase.
Jiang Xuan wiped the rain off his face and washed the bones before returning to the bamboo house.
"Everyone, have some ginger soup."
Because of the rain, the five of them were drenched. Although they were now one-color warriors and had stronger physiques, Jiang Xuan was afraid of catching a cold from the rain, so he used the cauldron to prepare ginger soup in advance.
Jiang Xuan wrapped the hot pot with a thick bamboo shell and poured a bowl of ginger soup for everyone.
The ginger was wild ginger, and it had a strong taste. There was no sugar in it, so the taste of the soup was quite unpleasant.
However, the tribesmen were more accepting. They had eaten worse food before, so drinking a bowl of ginger soup was nothing to them.
Soon everyone finished the ginger soup in their bowls.
The other cauldron contained bamboo shoots stewed with mutton. It had been stewing for a long time. Jiang Xuan used his chopsticks to pick up the mutton from the clay pot to eat.
As the weather warmed up and the rain increased, the bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest grew crazily. Even in the bamboo houses, bamboo shoots would pop out from the ground from time to time.
These bamboo shoots naturally became food. They were very good for stewing meat.
After drinking the ginger soup, eating the mutton, and warming up by the fire, their bodies quickly became warm. The wet and cold feeling brought by the rain was swept away, and their spirits lifted.
Hook Vine complained, "It's been raining every day. We can't go hunting even if we want to. The water in the stream has risen too much. The fishing traps we dug previously are all submerged. We can't use them at all."
Jiang Xuan looked up at the smoked mutton above the fire pit and said, "It's okay. This meat is enough for us to eat for a while. Besides, we have a lot of fish. We won't starve."
The others nodded. Only the meat hanging above the fire pit made them feel at ease. The feeling of hunger was too uncomfortable.
"It's not impossible to hunt."
Chi Shao suddenly stared outside the bamboo house and said, "Rain has its benefits. Some prey like to come out on rainy days."
She set down the bowl and suddenly picked up a spear. Then she walked out of the bamboo house.
"Gurgle…"
A loud frog's cry suddenly sounded. It was very loud and startling.
"Frog!"
Jiang Xuan's eyes lit up. He immediately took his spear and ran out with Chi Shao.
Hook Vine, Stone Loach, and South Star also went out with their spears.
Outside the bamboo house, a huge frog the size of a washbasin was squatting on the newly opened farmland. It kept using its tongue to catch the worms that emerged from the ground.
It was a rock frog.
It was greenish-gray and looked like a rock from a distance. That was why it was called a rock frog.
Because it had rained for a few days, the ground was soaked. The insects underground could not withstand it and came to the surface. These insects became the food of the rock frogs.
Jiang Xuan and the others had eaten a lot of these insects that came out on rainy days.
Perhaps to avoid the rain, insects of all sizes fled towards the bamboo house. Some climbed onto the walls, and some even crawled into the house.
Jiang Xuan had no reason to reject food that came knocking on his door. As long as they were edible, he would capture and roast them.
Since frogs were not afraid of water, hunting insects was easy on rainy days. It was a day for them to party.
Of course, they did not expect to be treated as food themselves.
Chi Shao did not run towards the rock frog. She even bent down behind it and waved at Jiang Xuan and the others, signaling to them to slow down.
Frogs were one of the foods on tribal recipes.
The long years of hunting had allowed them to accumulate their experiences dealing with various prey.
Frogs had very poor eyesight. They could clearly sense and dodge fast-moving objects.
The slower an object was, the harder it was for them to detect it.
So Chi Shao walked very slowly as she inched closer to the rock frog.
When she felt that she was close enough to the rock frog to stab it with her spear, she attacked.
"Whoosh!"
Abruptly, Chi Shao accelerated, raising her spear and stabbing at the basin-sized rock frog.
At this moment, it was too late for the rock frog to turn around and jump away. It could only jump to the side.
However, the Chi Shao was quick and stabbed it in the back before it could jump up.
"Gurgle…"
The rock frog glared at its four legs in its death throes.
Chi Shao pulled the stone knife from her belt and stabbed the back of the creature's head. The rock frog's limbs straightened. It was clearly not going to make it.
"What a big frog!"
Rushing over from behind, Jiang Xuan exclaimed. Be it insects or various animals, they were all very big in this world.
Chi Shao grabbed one of the rock frog's legs and held it upside down. "This is small. I heard from an old man in the hunting party that they used to catch a rock frog with legs thicker than a human's."
How big would that be? Jiang Xuanguang was shocked just by imagining it.
The three youths were also looking forward to it. They wished they could catch a rock frog as big as this.
"Let's go back."
Chi Shao grabbed the rock frog the size of a washbasin and walked back. Jiang Xuan and the three youths followed behind happily. No one even cared about getting drenched in the rain.
After returning to the bamboo house, Chi Shao laboriously cut the rock frog's abdomen with a stone knife. Then she removed the innards which Jiang Xuan threw into the pond to feed the carnivorous fish.
Then Chi Shao cut open the rock frog, skewered the frog's legs, body, and other parts with wooden sticks, and roasted them over the fire.
As the frog meat was roasted to a high temperature, it gradually turned from white to the color of roasted meat. The grease in the meat seeped out and sizzled.
The meat of the rock frog had a special characteristic. It contained a strange fat. After it was roasted, the fragrance was very strong, making people salivate.
"It smells so good!"
Jiang Xuan smelled the fragrance of the meat and could not help tearing off a piece of the roasted meat. He stuffed it into his mouth.
It had a completely different texture from ordinary beast meat.
The meat of the rock frog was very tender after it was roasted. Moreover, there was not much fishy smell. Even without seasoning, a single bite was an unforgettable experience.
"What a delicacy!"
After Jiang Xuan swallowed the frog meat, he exclaimed.
Chi Shao smiled. "If it's delicious, eat more. It's so big. It's enough for the five of us."
After the Rock Frog was roasted, the five of them began to eat heartily. Jiang Xuan took a huge frog leg and chewed on it, eating to his heart's content.
The warriors were strong and had a huge appetite. They ate up the rock frog the size of a millstone and were still not satisfied, so they ate some more meat before stopping.