Chapter 3
The dim tree hollow was gloomy and oppressive, eerily quiet.
The rain had stopped, and the teams that had gone out in search of food had returned one after another, bringing back quite a few things. Yet, there was no joy of harvest in the tree hollow. A dense crowd of people huddled at the entrance, not daring to breathe loudly, their expressions grave as they stared at the empty space before them.
Squirrel beastmen were born of the jungle and were quite sensitive to the plants they depended on for survival. Although they had just entered a completely unfamiliar land, they still relied on their past survival experience to select some wild vegetables and fruits that looked edible.
A wild vegetable with red stems and plump leaves, a small round fruit of orange and red, a hard-shelled nut covered in sharp spikes, and four bunches of blackish-red, extremely tempting berries…
The strangely shaped plants were laid out in a row. Chief Mu’s brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
His expression already said it all, but the beastman Yong still held onto a sliver of hope, his expectant eyes fixed on Chief Mu. “Well, Chief? Do you recognize any? Is there anything we can eat?”
“I…” Chief Mu shook his head helplessly and sighed. “I’ve lived for half my life, and I’ve never seen these wild plants and fruits. This forest is too strange. The Lord Priest wasn’t trying to scare us back then. Not being able to tell what’s edible and what’s not is more terrifying than giant beasts!”
“Let’s not worry about that for now, Chief.” Yong was so anxious he was scratching his head. He grabbed the wild vegetable and held it right under Chief Mu’s nose. “Take another look. What about this one? This one? You really can’t recognize a single one?”
Chief Mu pushed his hand away. “I’ve never even seen them before. How can I recognize them just by looking?”
Yong’s hand dropped in disappointment. He then turned his gaze to a white-haired old man nearby. However, before he could speak, the old man picked up the spiky nut and said in a hoarse voice, “I don’t recognize it either, but this fruit looks like a stone fruit. Yong, crack one open for me to taste.”
“No way.”
Although Yong was anxious, he was the first to object upon hearing this.
Chief Mu also chimed in, “That’s not right. We can’t eat things we don’t recognize. You have to know that some fruits look delicious but are deadly when eaten. We can’t take that risk.”
“This isn’t the Clear Sky Forest we’re familiar with. If we don’t eat what we don’t recognize, what else is there to eat?” The old man looked back into the tree hollow, his cloudy eyes reflecting the bewildered faces of his tribe members. He sighed softly, “Now that the tribe has met with disaster, we must start anew. I’ve lived long enough at my age. It would be a good thing if I can find some food for you all.”
The old man was right. Faced with an unfamiliar forest, if they wanted to rebuild their tribe and start a new life, they had to find at least one type of food that could safely fill their stomachs.
They hadn’t even recovered from the grief of losing their loved ones, and now they were stumped by how to fill their bellies. Had the Beast God abandoned the Squirrel Tribe? Was this how it was all going to end?
No, someone had to step up. In that case…
“I’ll do it!” Yong gritted his teeth, grabbed a bunch of blackish-red berries, and stood up to face the crowd. “I’m young and strong. Even if I eat a poisonous fruit, I might not die. I’ll eat a little and try.”
“I’ll do it too!”
“Count me in!”
“One for each of us. I’ll eat this one.”
Yong’s words ignited their morale. The listless beastmen and sub-beastmen all stood up in unison, each picking up a wild vegetable or fruit from the ground.
Seeing this, the old man who had spoken earlier was so anxious he started beating his chest and stomping his feet. “Put them down, put them down! You fools! If an old bag of bones like me dies, so be it. You young people are the hope of the tribe. How can we let you eat first?”
No one paid any attention to the old man. The beastmen each chose their food, peeled and shelled them, and resolutely stuffed the unknown wild plants and fruits into their mouths. But just then, a loud shout suddenly came from outside the tree hollow.
“Chief, Chief! We found food!”
Chief Mu was stunned for a moment, then he quickly commanded the beastmen, “Quick, spit out the fruit! Don’t chew, don’t swallow. It’s Lang. Lang and his team are back with food!”
In the time it took to say that, the beastman Lang led the last team into the tree hollow in a grand procession.
He didn’t have time to share the joy of their harvest before he sensed that the atmosphere was not quite right.
Seeing the tribe members’ expressions of facing death with equanimity, and then looking at the wild vegetables and fruits in their hands, the smile on Lang’s face froze. “What are you doing? Can you just eat those things?”
They’re eating? Hearing the commotion, Hua Shi’an poked his head out and looked past Lang.
One look was all it took to nearly scare the soul out of him.
The round fruit that resembled a small tomato—Jerusalem cherry!
The blackish-red berries that looked like wild grapes—Pokeweed!
Are those things edible?! He dropped the spoils in his arms to the ground, rushed forward in three big steps, and snatched the half-eaten bunch of pokeweed from the beastman Yong’s hand. “Did you chew it? Did you swallow? This fruit is highly poisonous, spit it out quickly!”
“You, and you, spit it all out! After you spit it out, go find some water to rinse your mouths.”
The beastmen cherished their lives. The moment he finished speaking, the sound of “ptui ptui” echoed throughout the tree hollow.
There were no stubborn fools who refused to believe him. The beastmen who had been pointed out, and even those who hadn’t, all spat out the plants and fruits in their mouths and hurriedly ran out of the tree hollow to scoop water from a small puddle at the entrance to rinse their mouths.
He had stopped them in time. Although the fruits had entered their mouths, they hadn’t been chewed or swallowed. The beastmen who had mistakenly eaten the Jerusalem cherries and pokeweed should be fine. Hua Shi’an breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to throw away the highly toxic pokeweed in his hand, Yong, who had returned after rinsing his mouth, blocked his path.
“You recognize the wild vegetables and fruits in the Giant Tree Forest?” The beastman’s sharp eyes swept over the pokeweed and then fixed on Hua Shi’an.
It wasn’t just him. Chief Mu, the old man, and the beastmen who had returned one after another—dozens of pairs of eyes were all staring at Hua Shi’an, waiting for his answer.
The pressure is on…
He hadn’t intended to hide it anyway. Hua Shi’an nodded calmly.
Perhaps seeing that he hadn’t spoken for a long time, Lang, who was squatting at the entrance organizing their haul, stood up and pointed to the wild vegetables and fruits on the ground, answering for him, “He recognizes them. He said he does. We couldn’t find any food, but he told us that these fruits and vegetables are not poisonous and are safe to eat.”
In their rush to return and inform the tribe, the team hadn’t brought back many plants.
There were plump blueberries wrapped in leaves, purslane dotted with water droplets, spiky chestnut burrs, and freshly dug-up green-headed mushrooms with thick caps and stout stems.
Yong glanced down; he didn’t recognize a single one. He could only turn his gaze back to Hua Shi’an. “I remember you’re a sub-beastman from the Chipmunk Tribe. You’ve never left the Clear Sky Forest. Where have you seen these plants before? And how do you know they’re not poisonous?”
He had already prepared his story on the way back. Hua Shi’an’s face didn’t flush, and his heart didn’t race as he said with a straight face, “A long, long time ago, probably when I was ten, I met a stranger in the forest. He said he was very hungry and asked me for some food. But it was strange, there were clearly a lot of Ding beans growing along the path, but he wouldn’t eat them.”
“After talking to him, I learned that he wasn’t a beastman from the Clear Sky Forest and didn’t recognize the plants there, just like us when we first entered the Giant Tree Forest, where everything is unfamiliar. Later, I helped him find food and told him which fruits were edible. In exchange, he told me a lot about the food from his homeland.”
“I’ve never left the Clear Sky Forest, and I had almost forgotten about it. It wasn’t until this morning while looking for food that I saw some of the fruits the stranger mentioned in the grass and remembered.”
Without a hint of doubt, Chief Mu thoughtfully stroked his chin and continued along Hua Shi’an’s line of thought, “He didn’t recognize the plants of the Clear Sky Forest, but he knew the plants of the Giant Tree Forest… Could it be that the stranger you met was a beastman who lived in the Giant Tree Forest?”
Hua Shi’an had an innocent look in his eyes. “I wouldn’t know about that. He didn’t say.”
One must be cautious with things that go in the mouth. After Chief Mu finished his questions, the old man asked another, “So this is also the first time you’ve seen them. How did you recognize these fruits? Many wild vegetables and fruits look similar. How did you know that the ones you picked were the ones that person talked about?”
“By their color and shape. That person described them in great detail.”
Hua Shi’an pointed to the ground and patiently explained, “This is called a blueberry. It’s blue and oblate, with a layer of white bloom on the skin. It’s sweet and sour and can be eaten directly. This is called purslane, with red stems and plump leaves. It’s a common wild vegetable in the forest and can be eaten raw or cooked. This is called a chestnut…”
After introducing each of the wild vegetables and fruits they had brought back, the old man was already convinced.
He looked at Hua Shi’an and nodded repeatedly, the gloom in his eyes gradually brightening. A smile appeared on his wrinkled face. “Good, good, the Beast God protects us! There is still hope and life for our Squirrel Tribe!”
“So, can we really eat these fruits?”
“Silly, Grandpa Qing has already said so. Of course, we can.”
“That’s great, we have food!”
“From now on, whenever we find fruits we don’t recognize, we’ll pick them and bring them back for him to identify!”
Some were happy, some were worried. While the beastmen were immersed in the joy of finding food, Yong’s brow remained tightly furrowed. “Don’t get too happy too soon. He only heard about them, he hasn’t tasted them. We’ll only know if they’re poisonous after eating them.”
Hua Shi’an rubbed his empty stomach and spoke decisively, “If everyone is worried, I can be the taste-tester. I’ll eat one type of food at a time, at intervals. If there are no strange reactions, it will prove they are non-toxic.”
The unknown breeds fear. The beastmen knew nothing, so to them, delicious blueberries and chestnuts were like poison. But it was different for Hua Shi’an. Taste-testing was as simple as drinking water, with no psychological burden.
Of course, this was just a grand-sounding excuse. In reality—he was truly hungry.
“Hahahaha!” Chief Mu threw his head back and laughed, his gaze toward Hua Shi’an filled with a bit of respect and admiration. “Courageous and bold, with a great memory. Little sub-beast, what’s your name?”
Little… little sub-beast…
Hua Shi’an gave a dry laugh. “My name is An.”
“An, good, a good name.”
Chief Mu smiled and sighed, then raised his chin and scanned the crowd, as if speaking to Hua Shi’an, but also to all the tribe members. “You are the guidance the Beast God has given us. You are the hope for rebuilding our tribe. Anyone can taste these fruits, but you cannot be the first.”
Hua Shi’an: …
Let hope fill its stomach first!
