Chapter 21
The hazy night mist dissipated, and the sky turned a fish-belly white. The silent forest was just beginning to awaken, but Hua Shi’an, with dark circles under his eyes, and Mo Huaishan were already carrying a bundle of green bamboo each, treading through the dew-covered weeds, and panting as they emerged from the bamboo forest.
They hadn’t washed their faces, rinsed their mouths, or eaten. They had gotten up early to cut bamboo just to avoid the hunting team. The beastmen’s resentment was heavier than a ghost’s. If they encountered them and were taunted again, the rough-looking but sensitive-hearted Mo Huaishan would undoubtedly be very upset.
There were still plenty of bamboo slats in the tribe, so the beastmen wouldn’t be coming to cut bamboo today.
And since it was almost dawn, the hunting and gathering teams should be setting out soon. It was the perfect time to go back and have some peace and quiet.
He had calculated everything, but he had missed one thing.
The two of them hadn’t gone far from the bamboo forest when a messy sound of footsteps came from ahead. Hua Shi’an had a bad feeling and looked up to see Ju Ming and Chang Yuansen from the salt-boiling team carrying bamboo tubes and coir sheets, and four beastmen from the hunting team carrying a stone pot, walking towards them.
No wonder they say enemies are bound to meet. Hua Shi’an helplessly rubbed his temples.
“Yo.”
The beastmen carrying the stone pot were walking quickly, but they all stopped in unison when they saw Mo Huaishan.
The beastman at the front gave Mo Huaishan a couple of dirty looks and started taunting him sarcastically, “I was wondering why I didn’t see you all morning. So you ran over to the Lord Priest to suck up to him. What, wasn’t harming the hunting team enough? You want to harm our Lord Priest too?”
“You jinx, just stay in your tree hollow. Don’t come out and harm others.”
“Did you hear that? I’m talking to you, you big oaf!”
They really had no intention of letting him go. The beastmen’s mouths were like poisoned knives, their words extremely harsh.
Faced with the tribe members’ accusations, Mo Huaishan lowered his head in shame. The color drained from his face, turning deathly pale, and his lips trembled slightly. “S-Sorry, I, I really didn’t mean to let the prey escape.”
“Is ‘I didn’t mean to’ all you have to say?” The beastman became more and more agitated, pointing at Mo Huaishan’s nose and cursing, “Do you know how many days it takes to encounter a prey? We were so close to catching it, so close to having meat! It’s all because of you, you jinx!”
Another beastman chimed in coldly, “You didn’t mean to, but you’ve made us lose face in the tribe. We’ve been empty-handed for so many days, and we finally encountered a prey… sigh, where are we supposed to put our faces now?”
“I, I…”
Mo Huaishan’s head drooped lower and lower. He didn’t dare to look his tribe members in the eye, but his trembling voice gradually became firm. “It’s my fault. I made a mistake and implicated everyone, but I’m not a jinx. I, I will prove it. I’m following the Lord Priest to learn—”
“Ahem.”
Hua Shi’an coughed lightly, cutting off the beastman’s unfinished sentence.
Just as he was about to speak, another beastman relentlessly shouted, “Prove it? You’ve already proven it, you big oaf. Wasn’t yesterday’s fall the best proof? Proof that you’re a good-for-nothing, you’re a—”
“Enough!”
Patience has its limits. Hua Shi’an looked up at the beastmen blocking his path, his brow slightly furrowed, and said with a hint of seriousness, “Yes, he made a mistake. But he’s been told off, scolded, hit, and he’s apologized. What more do you want?”
The beastman was stunned by Hua Shi’an’s shout. It took him a few seconds to come to his senses. He pouted and muttered, “He made a mistake, so we can’t even say a few words? Don’t be too biased, Lord Priest.”
Biased? It seemed he was a little.
Looking at the aggrieved beastman, Hua Shi’an suddenly smiled and said calmly, “I didn’t say you can’t. If he made a mistake, he should be told off and scolded, but that’s enough. Is he going to be pointed at and talked about for the rest of his life just because he made one mistake? We’re all human. Who can guarantee they’ll never make a mistake?”
“Who would make such a mess?” the beastman Ju Qifeng muttered.
Hua Shi’an’s eyes lifted slightly, his gaze passing over the others to look at Ju Qifeng. “Ju Qifeng, right? I’ll remember you. You’d better not make any mistakes in the future, or I’ll be pointing at your head and talking for three days and three nights.”
A chill ran down Ju Qifeng’s spine, and he quickly backed down. “Lord Priest, I, I was just saying.”
“It’s getting late. Hurry up and move the stone pots. The hunting team is waiting for you. Take your energy for scolding and use it in the forest. Maybe you’ll be lucky today and encounter another prey.”
With that, Hua Shi’an looked up at the beastmen blocking his path and smiled. “Huaishan isn’t going to the forest today. If you encounter prey, don’t let it escape, or there will be no one to blame.”
Blame shouldn’t become a vent. The beastmen’s words were still too harsh.
Sarcasm? Coincidentally, he could do that too.
After bidding farewell to the beastmen and continuing on his way back, Mo Huaishan’s mood remained low. The courage he had mustered last night seemed to have burned out. He walked with his head down, not saying a word, wishing he could bury his head in the dirt.
This won’t do. Hua Shi’an quickened his pace, dragging the bamboo pole, and walked side by side with the beastman. He deliberately cleared his throat. “Let the wind blow it away. Don’t be unhappy. Cheer up. We’ll need you to split bamboo and weave fish traps later.”
“I’m, I’m not unhappy,” Mo Huaishan lifted his arm and wiped his forehead, pursing his lips and glancing at Hua Shi’an. “I just don’t understand why you seemed to deliberately stop me from finishing my sentence just now. Shi’an, don’t you want them to know that I’m learning to hunt from you?”
Just now? Hua Shi’an remembered and nodded frankly. “Yes, it was deliberate. Don’t talk about things you’re not completely sure of. I know you want to prove yourself, but compared to telling them directly, bringing back prey will be more convincing.”
Success is achieved through secrecy, failure through leakage.
If he succeeded, it would be fine. Mo Huaishan could also prove himself. But what if he failed? Even with the “priest’s” blessing, he wouldn’t have succeeded, and the title of “ill omen” would be completely solidified.
The ridicule and abuse he would suffer then… was unimaginable.
After returning to the tribe to wash up and eat breakfast, Hua Shi’an and Mo Huaishan got busy.
Not only was he leading the beastman in work, but he also had to teach him how to make tools. So Hua Shi’an didn’t choose to divide the labor but instead, took a machete and split bamboo with Mo Huaishan under the crooked-necked tree.
The two bundles of bamboo were successively split into bamboo slats. Without even taking a break, Hua Shi’an immediately picked up the bamboo slats and taught Mo Huaishan how to weave fish traps, step by step.
Although he always said he was stupid, Mo Huaishan’s learning ability was not bad. He skillfully wove the bamboo slats, his speed comparable to Hua Shi’an’s. Of course, it could also be that the weaving method for fish traps and back baskets was similar, and practice makes perfect.
In just half a morning, four fish traps, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, were completed.
Hua Shi’an blew on his finger, which had been scratched by a bamboo splinter, and carried one of the fish traps into the sunlight, a hint of undisguised disgust in his eyes.
In his pursuit of speed, the fish traps were woven quite crudely. The gaps between the bamboo splinters were so large that you could stick two fingers in some places, and the splinters at the bottom were somewhat misaligned, crooked and not at all beautiful.
But the fish traps weren’t meant to be carried on his back; they were just for putting in the water. Aesthetics didn’t matter. To be able to weave something that was more or less right on the first try, Hua Shi’an was already satisfied.
The sun was bright, and the breeze was just right. After putting the fish traps back under the crooked-necked tree, Hua Shi’an and Mo Huaishan took their stone knives and went into a nearby thicket to cut two long, straight eucalyptus trees, as thick as a child’s forearm.
Eucalyptus was also known as the peeling tree, and its bark was particularly easy to handle. By making a vertical cut in the bark with a stone knife and then tearing it to both sides along the cut, the bark could be easily peeled off, just like peeling a shrimp shell.
After cutting off the crown and removing the excess branches, and estimating the required length, Hua Shi’an had Mo Huaishan help him cut off the nodes at both ends, leaving the smooth, flat trunk in the middle.
It was just right for one hand to hold, smooth and not rough, a perfect hoe handle.
Hua Shi’an tried swinging it a few times, placed it with the fish traps at the foot of the tree, and then called Mo Huaishan to hurry to the river to find stones.
There were plenty of stones by the river, but Hua Shi’an’s requirements were high.
He wanted to find ready-made stones to make hoe heads, which meant—the stones had to be hard, not too thick or too thin, and had to be wide at one end and narrow at the other. The narrow end had to fit perfectly into the hoe handle, and the wide end had to be relatively sharp.
The requirements were really too high. The two of them rummaged by the river, exhausted, and it wasn’t until noon that they found a few stones that were barely usable.
Grinding stones, chiseling hoe handles, tying hoe heads…
The two of them made two hoes as quickly as possible. At noon, under the bright sun, they carried the back baskets and hoes, and the strangely shaped fish traps, and walked upstream.
