Chapter 42
In the quiet morning, after washing up and eating breakfast in their respective tree hollows, the beastmen gathered in groups of three or five, chattering all the way as they walked on the dew-soaked muddy path towards the open camp ahead.
A tall, handsome beastman walked at the end of the group, with no one beside him.
The new tree hollow was far from the camp. No one would wait for him, and no one would accompany him. He walked alone day after day, silently watching the backs of his companions.
Like every other morning, as he passed by the strangely shaped crooked-necked tree, he would always deliberately slow down, lighten his steps, and then pretend to casually tilt his head and glance at the entrance of the hollow.
The sub-beastman living in the tree hollow didn’t like to open the door. All that awaited him was a closed bamboo door. The beastman didn’t seem to mind. His tightly pursed lips curved up slightly, and a smile appeared in his deep and sharp eyes.
Leaving the crooked-necked tree behind without any hope, the beastman withdrew his gaze and quickened his pace.
“Huaishan, Huaishan, come here for a moment.”
A soft call came from behind. The beastman, who had just quickened his pace, suddenly stopped in his tracks, as if he had stepped into a trap. He turned his head eagerly and in disbelief.
Under the crooked-necked tree, the bamboo door that had been blocking his view was open. A slender and elegant sub-beastman stood at the entrance, smiling and waving to him. “Come on, what are you standing there for?”
Seeing the person he wanted to see, the smile in the beastman’s eyes gradually faded.
As if extremely nervous, he walked towards the crooked-necked tree with stiff limbs, his lips pursed in a slightly awkward manner.
He was very obedient, coming as soon as he was called, but he didn’t get too close. He stood to the side of the entrance, keeping a distance from the tree hollow that was neither too close nor too far.
Is the tree hollow poisonous? Looking at the beastman’s reddened ear tips, Hua Shi’an chuckled softly and deliberately teased him, “Why are you standing so far away? Don’t you want to see me?”
“N-No, absolutely not. I just, I just…” Mo Huaishan was flustered and quickly waved his hands in denial. But he couldn’t get a clear sentence out, and his ears turned even redder.
His mouth was clumsy, and he couldn’t explain himself. Mo Huaishan quickly took a few steps forward, like a student being scolded by a teacher for making a mistake, and stood opposite Hua Shi’an with his head bowed.
Opening the bamboo door to its widest, Hua Shi’an walked into the tree hollow while waving to the beastman. “I was just about to go to the camp to find you, but I saw you as soon as I opened the door. It’s better to be lucky than to be early. Come in and sit. I have something for you.”
Mo Huaishan didn’t move. “N-No, can you just bring it out to me?”
Hua Shi’an pointed diagonally to the sky. “It’s already light. What’s there to be afraid of in broad daylight?”
Mo Huaishan stood stubbornly in place and quickly shook his head. “I, I’m a beastman. It’s not right for me to enter your tree hollow. It will affect… affect your future search for a mate.”
“Search for a mate?” Hua Shi’an repeated the three words and suddenly looked at him very seriously, the smile in his eyes completely gone. “Forget it, you can go. I don’t have anything for you anymore.”
With that, Hua Shi’an reached out and pulled the bamboo door to close it.
“Shi, Shi’an.” Mo Huaishan’s lips trembled, and he looked at him with a bewildered and helpless expression. Although he was in a state of panic and confusion, his broad palm betrayed his body and resolutely pressed against the bamboo door, preventing him from closing it.
For a moment, Hua Shi’an seemed to see a stray dog about to be abandoned by its owner. It was pacing back and forth at its owner’s feet, biting the leash, its eyes filled with urgency, repeatedly rubbing its head against its owner’s hand, wanting him to take the leash again.
Comparing the beastman to a stray dog was not very appropriate, nor very polite, but the way he looked at him with those wet eyes…
Sigh! Hua Shi’an’s heart softened. He let go of the bamboo door, went into the tree hollow, took two things from the bamboo table, and then quickly came out.
A bamboo tube with a lid and a pair of coir shoes he had woven some time ago. Hua Shi’an stuffed them into the beastman’s arms and gave a few simple instructions:
“The bamboo tube is filled with honey and blueberry jam. It’s not just for you. Take it with you on the road and share it with the beastmen of the hunting team, diluted with water. The coir shoes were woven a while ago. I accidentally made them too big. You should be able to wear them. But it’s best not to wear them in the mountains. You’re not used to wearing shoes yet, and you might fall easily on the mountain roads.”
The size difference between a beastman and a sub-beastman was quite large, and their feet were also a circle larger.
Mo Huaishan looked down at the delicate little feet wrapped in the coir shoes, then at the larger pair in his arms, which Hua Shi’an could never wear. Even a fool would understand.
His eyes inexplicably warmed. He didn’t dare to meet Hua Shi’an’s gaze. He lowered his head and bit his lip until it turned white, managing to squeeze out a sentence, “Thank you, Shi’an. I, I will work hard to become useful, to become strong, and I will also summon the courage… to fight for what I want.”
He couldn’t see the beastman’s expression, but he could hear his low, hoarse voice. Hua Shi’an let out a long sigh and grunted softly, “I look forward to that day.”
After the gathering team and half of the beastmen had left, the tribe became deserted. But no one had time to feel the desolation. Overnight, everyone became busy, making final preparations for the coming winter.
The beastmen were busy catching fish. In the morning and evening, when they went to check the fish traps and snares, they also had to help cut coir sheets. The tribe members who stayed in the camp were busy twisting coir rope. When the coir sheets were used up, they would pick up the coir rope and, using the method taught by the Lord Priest, begin to weave the extremely complex fishing nets.
Hua Shi’an and the sub-beastman team were also extremely busy. Every day, as soon as they opened their eyes, they would head into the forest with their back baskets, picking whatever they encountered. Sometimes they would dig for chives and konjac, sometimes they would pick chili peppers and sour jujubes. Sometimes, if they were lucky, they would even encounter a chestnut tree and pick up a few back baskets of chestnuts.
A team of four couldn’t accomplish much, but in the day-after-day of hard work, green chives were planted under many of the giant redwood trees. And the winnowing baskets that had been empty after the pine nuts were dried were gradually filled with golden chili peppers, sour jujubes, and withered wild vegetables…
The tribe members who were out and about were no less impressive. The gathering team returned every two days, bringing back basket after basket of plump, fresh potatoes. In just ten days, they had completely filled an empty tree hollow warehouse.
The beastmen who were collecting honey only returned twice in ten days. The first time took three days and was very successful, their back baskets filled to the brim with honeycombs. The second time also took three days, but the honeycombs were suddenly half as many. Only when Hua Shi’an asked did he learn that the first beehive they had found was already harvested, with only half left for the bees.
Following his words, they did not touch the other half. After resting, the beastmen went back up the mountain to explore and search for new beehives.
Time always flies when you’re busy. In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.
The temperature dropped sharply without mercy. Overnight, the colorful and tranquil autumn was replaced by the cold and desolate winter. The gentle breeze turned into a cold wind. The change of seasons was particularly abrupt and caught people off guard.
The lack of warm clothes was still a big problem. As soon as he entered the forest in the morning, a biting cold wind blew in his face. Hua Shi’an wrapped his arms around himself, his teeth chattering, shivering from the cold.
The accompanying sub-beastmen were no better off. Their faces were pale, their noses red from the cold, and their body hair stood on end.
Even though it was so cold and they were almost frozen, when Hua Shi’an had suggested making shirts out of coir sheets a few days ago, he had been met with their ruthless rejection.
The reason was simple. One was that they were too busy recently, and making clothes was troublesome, so they didn’t have the time to fuss with it. The second was that after storing enough food, when the weather was at its coldest, they would change back to their beast form, curl up in their tree hollows, eat and sleep, and only come out again when the weather warmed up. They didn’t need clothes at all.
And as for this stage, where it was cold but not deadly cold, they said:
“We’ll get through it.”
He could bear with it. After walking a short distance along the pine forest, they found a small patch of konjac in the bushes. The people dug with their stone knives and swung their hoes, and in a short while, they had warmed up.
Bearing with it for a while was not a problem, but the problem was—in an environment with no movies, no novels, and no entertainment, could he really, like the other beastmen, stay in a tree hollow for a whole winter?
No, he couldn’t. He couldn’t stay put. Hua Shi’an knew himself well enough.
So he still had to make some clothes. Although clothes made of coir sheets might not be very warm, it was better than being bare-chested and wearing nothing.
“Lord Priest, Lord Priest, come here for a moment!”
A loud shout interrupted his thoughts. Hua Shi’an looked up to see Hong Yinglan standing on the other side of the bushes, waving and jumping over the withered grass and bushes that were taller than a person. “There’s a plant here that I’ve never seen before. It has small red berries on its branches.”
“Berries? What kind of berries? Are they edible?”
“Let’s go, let’s go and see.”
Yan Zhile and Chang Yueyue threw down their hoes and squeezed into the bushes like a wisp of smoke.
Small red berries, could it be firethorn? Hua Shi’an dropped the konjac he had just dug up, patted the dirt from his hands, and slowly followed.
The plant the sub-beastmen had found was a shrub, not very conspicuous in the weeds. The weather was cold, and the leaves on the branches had almost all fallen off. The small, brownish-red berries hung sparsely on the branches, like exploded red beans, revealing the black seeds inside.
With a glance from a distance, Hua Shi’an’s eyes widened like saucers. His leisurely pace suddenly quickened, and he rushed to the bush in three big steps, reaching out without hesitation to pluck a few berries.
“The Lord Priest picked them. Does that mean the berries are edible?” Seeing Hua Shi’an pick the berries and bring them to his mouth, Yan Zhile quickly picked a few from the branch.
The berries were hard and shriveled, and didn’t seem to have much moisture. Yan Zhile hesitated for a moment, but since the Lord Priest had eaten them, it meant they were edible. He opened his mouth and decisively threw the small, brownish-red berries into his mouth.
With a gentle bite, the sub-beastman’s face changed drastically. It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck his mouth. A numbing sensation danced on the tip of his tongue and quickly spread between his teeth.
“—Ptui, ptui ptui!”
Realizing something was wrong, Yan Zhile immediately spat out the berries, but it was too late. In just two breaths, his mouth seemed to no longer belong to him. It was completely numb, with no sensation.
“My mouf, my mouf is numb! It’s poifoned, the berry is poifoned!”
Yan Zhile danced with excitement, his mouth puckered as he exclaimed in alarm.
Hong Yinglan, who had picked the berries but hadn’t had a chance to eat them, turned pale. She quickly rushed to Hua Shi’an and grabbed his hand, which was raised to his lips. “Spit it out! Yan Zhile said the berries are poisonous. Don’t—huh, you didn’t eat it?”
A rich and mellow numbing fragrance lingered. Hua Shi’an brought the Sichuan peppercorns to his nose and sniffed, unconsciously getting lost in thought. But in just half a minute, the few sub-beastmen were in a mess. One was anxious, one was at a loss, and one was particularly pathetic, bent over and spitting wildly.
“What’s wrong?” Returning from his daze, Hua Shi’an blinked blankly.
“Yan, Yan Zhile,” Chang Yueyue, who was usually calm and collected, pointed at Yan Zhile and stomped her foot anxiously. “He accidentally ate a poisonous berry. His mouth, his mouth is numb.”
Hong Yinglan was also terrified, her face turning green and purple, her eyes instantly reddening. “Lord Priest, you have to save him. He looks so uncomfortable. Is, is he poisoned? Is he going to die?”
What do you mean, going to die? Hua Shi’an raised an eyebrow and pointed to the bare Sichuan peppercorn tree. “What poisonous berry did he eat? This one?”
Hong Yinglan nodded vigorously. “Yes, this one! He thought you had eaten it, so—”
“Pfft!”
Hua Shi’an tried his best to hold it in, but he couldn’t help it and burst out laughing.
Without deliberately keeping them in suspense, seeing the anxious sub-beastmen, Hua Shi’an took a few steps forward and patted Yan Zhile’s back. “Don’t worry, you won’t die. This berry is not poisonous. Its name is Sichuan peppercorn. It has a pungent and numbing taste and is a delicious seasoning.”
“Delicious?” Yan Zhile looked up in disbelief, his teary eyes looking at Hua Shi’an as he stammered, “But, but my mouf is numb!”
Hua Shi’an couldn’t help but laugh again and explained gently, “Seasonings are for seasoning. How can you eat them directly? Sichuan peppercorns are very numbing. If you eat too much, your mouth will go numb. It will be fine in a while.”
So it was a false alarm. Hong Yinglan and Chang Yueyue were visibly relieved.
The konjac hadn’t been completely dug up yet. After comforting Yan Zhile, Hua Shi’an squatted down by the Sichuan peppercorn tree and beckoned to them. “Come and help. Let’s pick all these Sichuan peppercorns and take them back.”
“Okay!”
It was winter, and there weren’t many Sichuan peppercorns left on the tree. They were finished picking in a short while.
The Sichuan peppercorn tree was inconspicuous in the bushes and was a rare find. Hua Shi’an wanted to get some more to take back, so after picking the ones on the tree, he started picking the ones that had fallen on the ground and the black seeds that had fallen out of the split-open pods.
He was focused on finishing picking quickly so he could go and dig for konjac. His movements were quite nimble. A glance, a grab, and a few Sichuan peppercorns were in his hand.
He had almost finished picking around the tree. Hua Shi’an reached out to grab again, but this time, the texture was different, as if it were a circle larger. He opened his hand and looked down to see a round, brown, hard object mixed in with the Sichuan peppercorns and black seeds.
Without a close look, Hua Shi’an smelled a pungent, foul odor as soon as he picked it out. He threw it to the ground with a backhand and quickly grabbed a handful of wild grass to wipe his hands.
After wiping his hands, reason gradually returned. Hua Shi’an moved in the direction where he had found the object, pushed aside the messy weeds and bushes, and, as expected, saw a long string of scattered brown, hard objects.
This was… animal droppings.
