Chapter 86
“Stop eating and talk. Don’t you usually talk a lot?”
The sky was gradually darkening. Hua Shi’an’s wound had been treated, and the water had boiled. The four of them, each holding a bamboo tube of hot and sticky wild vegetable and kudzu powder, were eating with relish around the fire.
He had been embarrassed by his indignant shout in the evening. Yan Qiuyu was too ashamed to show his face. He squatted on the ground like a quail, burying his head in his mouth and shoveling kudzu powder, without a word.
Hong Yong had teased him several times, but he knew he was in the wrong and didn’t dare to talk back.
But he kept chattering on and on, and his ears were starting to get calloused. He looked up and glared at Hong Yong, letting out a small burst of anger, “Is it all my fault? As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw you guys holding down the Lord Priest, grabbing his hands and holding his head. And the Lord Priest was covered in sweat, his face full of resistance, and he was even biting the big oaf. Anyone would have misunderstood, okay!”
After waiting for a long time for such a sentence, Hong Yong laughed. He stared at Yan Qiuyu with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Anyone can misunderstand, but you can’t! Yan Qiuyu, is this the first day you’ve known us? Are we that kind of people in your eyes? Bullying the Lord Priest when he’s injured. Is that something we would do?”
Treating his companions as heinous criminals was too much.
Mo Huaishan, who never interrupted when others were talking, couldn’t help but chime in, swallowing his wild vegetables and adding in a low voice, “That’s right. Qiuyu, how could you think that? We knew each other in the Clear Sky Forest. You should know that Brother Yong and I are definitely not that kind of beastmen.”
“Sigh! Who knows.” Hong Yong sighed. “Maybe he never considered us as companions in his heart and has always been on guard against us. So when something like this happens, his first reaction is that we’re doing something bad, that we’re bullying people.”
He didn’t understand the joke. Mo Huaishan took it seriously. He blinked and looked at Yan Qiuyu, a little sad in his eyes.
The back and forth was almost driving Yan Qiuyu crazy. He had suddenly become a sinner of all ages.
The kudzu powder was no longer fragrant. He put down his bamboo tube and held his head in his hands, his face filled with despair. “I was wrong, I really know I was wrong. My two good brothers, please spare me!”
“Oh my, you are my best companions. How could I be on guard against you? I, I really didn’t think so much at that time. I had just woken up from hitting my head, and my brain wasn’t working right, so…”
Hong Yong: “Hmph, don’t use hitting your head as an excuse. If you really trusted us, if you really considered us as companions, you wouldn’t have thought that way at all.”
Mo Huaishan fed Hua Shi’an a chopstickful of wild vegetables and nodded. “Exactly.”
A single tree cannot stand alone. One mouth cannot win against two. Yan Qiuyu scratched his head fiercely, his mouth pouted, and he turned to Hua Shi’an for pity. “Lord Priest~ you have to help me. I’ve already said I didn’t mean it, but they’re still relentless and are bullying me!”
The wound was sutured. Hua Shi’an’s upper left arm was clamped with twelve ant heads, and the surface of the wound was also covered with mashed purslane powder. The wound was red and swollen, and with a string of ants, it looked quite scary. But with the army ants and purslane, Hua Shi’an felt much better than when it was untreated.
After being tortured on the execution ground, his body had not yet recovered from the intense pain. Hua Shi’an leaned weakly against Mo Huaishan’s shoulder and ate with the beastman’s hand, listening to their teasing and joking.
It was actually quite interesting. The talking and laughing had diluted the fear of being dominated by the wild beasts. But when he was suddenly called upon, Hua Shi’an couldn’t just pretend to be deaf and dumb and watch the show. After all, Yan Qiuyu had also become the target of everyone’s criticism because he was worried about him.
After swallowing the food in his mouth, Hua Shi’an pursed his lips and chuckled softly, saying unhurriedly, “To be fair, I don’t think Qiuyu had any ill intentions. He was just worried about me, and in his haste, he misunderstood.”
“Right!”
With someone to back him up, Yan Qiuyu’s back straightened. His chin was suddenly lifted to the sky, and he smiled proudly at Hong Yong. “I was just worried about the Lord Priest. I didn’t—”
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly heard Hua Shi’an say:
“You guys don’t know, his brain is sometimes good and sometimes bad, sometimes smart and sometimes stupid. It’s not strange for him to say anything. The child’s brain is already broken at such a young age. It’s quite pitiful. You should just let him be.”
Yan Qiuyu: “?”
He was helping him, that was for sure, but there was something strange about it.
After two seconds, he finally reacted and wailed at the top of his lungs, “Lord Priest! I was worried about you, and you actually said I’m stupid, and that my brain is broken!”
“I’m just telling the truth. You’ve been quite confused recently.”
“Have I? Where have I? Tell me clearly.”
“Hahahaha…”
Hong Yong smiled with satisfaction. Before Yan Qiuyu could make a fuss, he waved his hand. “That’s enough. Hurry up and eat. We’ll go to sleep early after we’re done. We haven’t rested for almost two days. I’m tired.”
The marks on the tree trunks were like the stars in the night sky, one after another, one after another, endlessly. The four of them got up early and worked late, walking for another two days. The water droplet-shaped marks still guided them deep into the forest.
They had been plundered by the black bear, and the water and food they had brought with them had long been consumed. Fortunately, the rainforest was rich in resources. There were wild vegetables and fruits to fill their stomachs, and clear and sweet coconuts to quench their thirst.
As expected of a tropical jungle known as a “fruit paradise,” bananas, pineapples, baccaurea ramiflora, momordica cochinchinensis, wild lemons… they picked as they walked, eating their fill of fruit, and the food in their back baskets actually increased.
The sun had set, and it was almost dark again. Hong Yong led the way out of the bushes, which were taller than a person, intending to find a place to rest. But just then, Yan Qiuyu, who had not yet come out and was hidden by the bushes, suddenly exclaimed.
“Wow, what is this? It’s so big!”
He had seen too many strange things along the way. Hong Yong didn’t take it seriously and shouted with a frown, “Let’s go. Don’t delay. It’s almost dark. Let’s hurry up and find a place to rest.”
“Coming, coming.”
The voice came first, but the person was slow to arrive. Yan Qiuyu fussed around in there for a while.
When he came out of the bushes, there were three oval-shaped, unknown objects, larger than a coconut, in his arms.
At a glance, Hong Yong thought it was a wild fruit he had never seen before. But upon closer inspection, the white shell was so smooth it was reflective, and there was no stem. It didn’t look like a plant’s fruit at all.
“What is this? Where did you get it?” Hong Yong’s interest was piqued. He took a white ball from Yan Qiuyu’s arms, held it in both hands, and gently shook it. “There’s something inside. Is it water? It looks a bit like the coconut the Lord Priest was talking about.”
Yan Qiuyu shook his head. “I don’t know. I picked it up in that grass. These three round things were next to each other. Why don’t we ask the Lord Priest to take a look? If they’re edible, we’ll take them. If not, we’ll throw them away. They’re quite heavy.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a sleepy chipmunk and a high-spirited black furball both poked their heads out of the back basket and let out a lazy “squeak.”
Both squirrels were in Hong Yong’s back basket. Hearing the call, Hong Yong immediately took the white ball from Yan Qiuyu’s hands, then turned around and had him take the little squirrel out of the back basket.
Hua Shi’an was very interested in the white ball. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he quickly changed back to his human form, moved a few steps to the side, and bent down to get closer to Hong Yong.
Milky white, round and plump, with an ivory-like texture and luster. There was no doubt that these were three eggs, three huge eggs.
They’re too big. What kind of animal’s eggs could they be? Hua Shi’an subconsciously thought it was an anaconda, but after two seconds, he realized he was being stupid. Anacondas were different from pythons. They didn’t lay eggs, but gave birth to live young.
He would know if they were edible by cracking one open. Hua Shi’an didn’t explain much and turned to the crowd, waving his hand. “Take these three eggs with you. Let’s go. Let’s find a place to rest first.”
He felt that there would be more delicious food. Yan Qiuyu rubbed his hands in excitement. “Let’s go, let’s go!”
From this afternoon, they seemed to have entered a different jungle.
This area was full of weeping figs, also known as strangler figs. Their thick aerial roots were like flexible giant pythons, winding and clinging to the tree trunks, dressing the large trees in a sturdy, net-like coat.
At first glance, the branches and vines with green leaves were nestled against the large tree. In reality, it was dependent on the tall plants for its life, taking their nutrients. It was a barnacle that couldn’t be shaken off a whale, until it had hollowed out its host, entangling it to death.
It was not friendly to plants, but it was very friendly to small animals and the jungle explorers who ate in the wind and slept in the dew. Its thick branches and vines were tightly wrapped around the large tree, and the gaps in between were perfect “tree hollows.” The larger gaps could even accommodate a person.
There were tree hollows everywhere, so it wasn’t hard to find a place to rest. The four of them followed the marks and walked a little further, finding a relatively flat open space at the foot of a tree, with not so many weeds and bushes.
After taking off his back basket, Yan Qiuyu attacked the giant egg under Hua Shi’an’s direction.
He placed the giant egg vertically, clamping it between his legs. Yan Qiuyu first used a bone knife to draw a circle on the top of the giant egg, leaving a not-so-deep mark. He then picked up a slightly heavier stone knife and gently tapped the eggshell with the back of the knife.
The eggshell was not very hard. After less than ten taps, with a “crack,” a crack appeared in the circle that the bone knife had drawn. Yan Qiuyu picked up the bone knife again and pried open the eggshell along the crack. A translucent white membrane came into view.
He couldn’t wait any longer. Hua Shi’an took the initiative to tear open the membrane and quickly looked inside the eggshell.
Through the crystalline, gelatinous liquid, he saw a bright orange-yellow. The corners of Hua Shi’an’s mouth lifted, and a faint smile spread from the bottom of his eyes.
There was a yolk, a complete yolk, almost identical to a chicken egg.
This was not a reptile’s egg. It was edible. A beautiful extra dish for tonight!
Although they were out and about, and they should do whatever was convenient, this was the first time he had found an egg in this world. Hua Shi’an didn’t want to eat a plain, tasteless boiled egg.
So after the fire was started, he had the beastmen stir the egg liquid and pour it into a coconut shell, add some salt, add some coconut water, and stir it again, then roast it slowly by the fire.
A giant egg, much larger than an ostrich egg. The three eggs filled eight coconut shells.
This was not just an extra dish. Two coconut steamed eggs per person, with some fruit, and dinner was happily solved.
It didn’t take long to cook the eggs. Hua Shi’an took a nap, leaning against a beastman. When he opened his eyes again, the yellowish egg liquid in the coconut shells had already solidified. When he tapped it with a stone knife, it was Q.Q and springy.
He was hungry. Without caring about the heat, the beastmen held the coconut eggs with leaves and brought them to their faces, picking up their chopsticks and feasting.
Smooth and tender, with a rich coconut fragrance, it was super delicious. After a bite of the springy steamed egg, Hua Shi’an was refreshed and squinted his eyes in satisfaction.
Eating fruit as a meal was always a bit lacking. After two days, to be able to eat hot food again, the beastmen ate with their heads down, without a word, as if they had been starved for three days and nine meals, wolfing it down.
Dinner time ended early. The four of them were very satisfied. But just as they were extinguishing the fire and preparing to change back to their beast forms to sleep in the trees, a rustling sound suddenly came from the surrounding tree trunks.
“Rustle, rustle rustle—”
The sound came from all directions, like the sound of wind blowing through leaves. The sound was very light, but also very dense, more like an animal crawling on a tree.
The beastmen reacted extremely quickly, grabbing their spears and standing back to back, protecting Hua Shi’an in the middle.
The only light source had been extinguished. The dense forest was pitch black. The trees were covered by layers of branches and leaves, and the ground was covered with weeds and bushes. He could barely see anything.
The sound continued to approach. It felt like there were a lot of them. What could it be?
A snake? A bird? A monkey? Hua Shi’an held his breath, bit his lower lip, and stared intently at the large tree closest to them.
It was coming with a great momentum. It seemed that a fierce battle was about to break out.
The leaves on the branches and vines above his head moved. Hua Shi’an’s body hair instantly stood on end. But the next second, a small, cute, and furry little head poked out from under the leaves.
