Chapter 35 Part 2
The beastman ran all the way with the bamboo tubes. The water he had just fetched splashed out with the violent shaking, but Yan Qiuyu didn’t care. He held up his right hand, clutching a plate-sized, pitch-black object.
Yan Qiuyu was very fast and reached him in the blink of an eye. Through the hazy night, Hua Shi’an finally saw clearly what he had been clutching all this time: a river clam and four or five river snails.
There were fish and crabs in the water, so it wasn’t strange to find snails and clams. But wasn’t this clam a bit too big? It was bigger than a dinner plate and could probably be used to—
“Well, well, Lord Priest, is it edible?” His hand was almost sore from holding it up. Seeing that Hua Shi’an hadn’t spoken for a long time, Yan Qiuyu couldn’t help but ask.
Hua Shi’an nodded. “It is, but we don’t have any seasonings now, so it might not be very tasty, a bit fishy. And don’t be fooled by its size. There’s actually not much edible meat inside.”
“Such a big thing has so little meat? And I thought it was something good. I even went into the water to pick it up and washed it clean! What a waste of effort.” Yan Qiuyu’s face showed disgust. After speaking, he lifted his hand and threw the clam and snails out.
“Hey, don’t throw it!”
It was too late to stop him. The clam and snails all fell into the bushes.
Fortunately, the clam was large and conspicuous. Hua Shi’an pushed aside the weeds and bushes and found it at once, picking it up again. “What are you throwing it away for? It’s not tasty, but it’s still useful.”
“What’s it useful for?” Yan Qiuyu blinked blankly.
Hua Shi’an tossed the clam to Yan Qiuyu. “Instead of a bamboo tube, as a bowl for eating.”
“Isn’t a bamboo tube good enough? Why replace it?”
A bamboo tube was suitable for soup, but what about stir-fried dishes? It was still a bit far to talk about that now. Hua Shi’an waved his hand and squatted down again to dig in the soil. “You’ll know in the future.”
One question after another. The matter of the clam was finally over, but looking down at the two people busy digging in the dirt, Yan Qiuyu asked again, “What are you two doing? What good thing are you digging for?”
“Potatoes.”
“What are potatoes? A fruit that grows in the soil?”
“It’s for eating. You’ll know in a bit!”
…
The temperature at the foot of the mountain had returned to normal, so there was no need to make a fire for warmth. But in the dead of night, the forest, which had returned to silence, was still filled with smoke, and the firelight grew brighter and brighter.
He was tired and sleepy. Before the potatoes were even roasted, Yan Qiuyu had already slipped away.
Although Hua Shi’an had described the potatoes as being more delicious than meat, he really couldn’t hold on any longer. He ate some pine nuts and chestnuts to fill his stomach, changed back to his beast form, climbed up a tree branch, and slept on his back.
Hua Shi’an was also about to give up. He rested his chin on his hands, his head nodding.
It’s been in there for a while. It should be cooked by now, right? Hua Shi’an forced himself to stay awake and picked up a wooden stick to rummage in the fire. In a short while, seven or eight round, charred “coals” rolled out of the fire, steaming.
They were overcooked. As soon as he pulled them out, Hua Shi’an smelled a burnt smell. But upon closer inspection, they weren’t completely burnt. A familiar and rich fresh fragrance was mixed in with the burnt smell.
His sleepiness was instantly half gone. Hua Shi’an held the branch and poked it gently. The texture was very soft. The burnt skin of the potato caved in. It was obvious that it was soft and cooked!
“We can eat! Come, come, while it’s hot.” The familiar sweet fragrance stirred his cravings. Hua Shi’an pushed a few to Mo Huaishan and immediately reached for the potato closest to him.
It had just been pulled out of the fire. The potato was hot to the touch. Hua Shi’an tossed it from his left hand to his right, instantly becoming a circus performer juggling fire sticks. And the “performance” even failed. With a careless move, the hot potato fell back to the ground with a thud.
“Pfft.” Mo Huaishan, who was watching from the side, burst out laughing.
It wasn’t a mocking laugh, but a genuine laugh out of amusement. Because in the beastman’s eyes, Hua Shi’an had always been a calm and composed priest. It was rare to see him act like a child, getting all flustered over food.
The scorching gaze was hard to ignore. Hua Shi’an lowered his head to avoid the beastman’s gaze and awkwardly touched his nose. “It’s not that I’m impatient. You haven’t tasted it, so you don’t know. Potatoes are really delicious, fragrant, soft, and melt in your mouth. Most importantly, they can be eaten in many ways. They can be stir-fried, stewed, or fried, or roasted like we’re doing now.”
“Have you eaten potatoes before, Shi’an?” Mo Huaishan suddenly asked very seriously.
Hua Shi’an was stunned for a moment and quickly shook his head. “No, I just heard about it from a stranger. He said potatoes were their staple food, and they ate them every day for every meal because they were delicious and filling.”
Mo Huaishan didn’t respond, just stared at him with pursed lips.
Thinking he had accidentally let something slip and the beastman had noticed something, Hua Shi’an became inexplicably nervous. But the next moment, Mo Huaishan lifted his finger and pointed to his face, reminding him in a gentle voice, “You have some ash on your nose. It’s black.”
“Don’t, don’t wipe it with your hand!”
Hua Shi’an subconsciously lifted his hand to wipe his nose, but Mo Huaishan couldn’t stop him in time.
After wiping it twice, he belatedly realized. He looked down at his hand—the hand that had just held the potato, pitch black.
Well, no need to think. He had become a clown, a comical black-nosed clown.
There was water that Yan Qiuyu had fetched in the bamboo tube. Hua Shi’an looked around, looking for the bamboo tube, when a slightly rough finger, carrying another person’s body temperature, gently landed on the tip of his nose.
His body reacted before his mind. Not understanding why he had reached out, by the time Mo Huaishan came to his senses, his fingertip had already crossed the boundary between a beastman and a sub-beastman and had touched the other’s nose.
His fingertip slid across the smooth, warm skin. Mo Huaishan’s breath hitched, and his mind went blank. And when he saw the astonishment in Hua Shi’an’s eyes through the firelight, he was like a thief caught in the act, bewildered and flustered as he withdrew his hand.
But he was given no chance to regret it. Just as his fingertip left the other’s face, his wrist was suddenly grabbed. Mo Huaishan looked up in surprise to see a faint smile on Hua Shi’an’s lips, his beautiful eyes filled with amusement.
“If you’re going to wipe it, wipe it clean. What’s with just touching it?” Hua Shi’an lifted his chin and rubbed his nose against Mo Huaishan’s hand. “Quick, help me wipe it clean. I can’t see it myself.”
“Shi’an, I, I’m a beastman.” Mo Huaishan’s lips trembled, and he was as stiff as a piece of wood, not daring to move.
Hua Shi’an did not speak, but instead let go of the beastman’s wrist and looked at him with a half-smile.
Without the restraint, his hand still hung in mid-air. Mo Huaishan finally realized that he was the one who had reached out, and he was the one who wanted to get close. Hua Shi’an was just giving him a way out, not necessarily wanting him to wipe the ash.
His heart was thundering, and his head was buzzing. Mo Huaishan’s hand, suspended in mid-air, trembled slightly and slowly approached, but in the end, he was defeated by reason and let it fall limply.
“The, the potatoes have cooled down. We can, we can eat them now.”
The low, hoarse voice broke the romantic atmosphere. Hua Shi’an chuckled softly, wiped his nose haphazardly with the back of his hand, and picked up a blackened potato to peel.
Tearing away the charred skin, the golden, tempting potato steamed, and a mouth-watering aroma filled the air. There was no oil or salt, only the rich fragrance of the potato itself and a strong smell of firewood.
The taste was simply amazing. The small interlude was instantly forgotten. Hua Shi’an was only halfway through peeling when he impatiently brought it to his mouth and took a bite of the soft roasted potato.
It was a little overcooked, and the potato was very soft. It was rich, sweet, and melted in his mouth. At the end, there was a hint of a burnt taste. The taste was not as amazing as honey, nor as delicious as pine nuts and chestnuts, but Hua Shi’an just liked the satisfaction of chewing food in large mouthfuls.
He couldn’t help it. He was the type of person who, no matter how delicious the dishes were, had to have a bowl of rice at the end.
After eating a hot potato, his fatigue was greatly relieved. Although his stomach was not yet full, Hua Shi’an did not rush to eat the next one. He patted the remaining plant ash from his palm and stared at the beastman beside him, who was eating the potato in small bites.
The small interlude was over for him, but not for the beastman.
Sensing Hua Shi’an’s probing gaze, Mo Huaishan’s shoulders trembled slightly, and his head drooped lower and lower, like a student being scolded for doing something wrong, as if he were looking for a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Hua Shi’an suddenly smiled. “What’s wrong? Am I that scary?”
“N-No, I, I just…” The beastman was inexplicably flustered, so nervous that he was incoherent, unable to form a complete sentence for a long time.
Hua Shi’an: “Eat up. I didn’t hear you speak, so I thought you didn’t like potatoes.”
The beastman quickly shook his head, his speech no longer stuttering, and he commented eagerly and seriously, “I like them! Potatoes are delicious.”
Potatoes were not found everywhere. Although if there was one, there would be a second, it still took time to find and dig for potatoes in the mountains. The tribe was short on manpower, and it was a critical time to store food for the winter. Whether or not to take a group of people into the mountains to find potatoes depended on whether the tribe members liked the taste of potatoes.
There was no doubt about the filling nature of potatoes. Whether they were delicious or not was not for Hua Shi’an to say alone. His taste was different from the tribe members, so he needed to know Mo Huaishan’s opinion.
This “like” was clearly just to please him. Hua Shi’an’s smile faded, and he looked at the beastman seriously. “Don’t say you like it just because I said it’s delicious. Think about it carefully. How does it taste? Should we take the tribe members here to find some later?”
“We should,” Mo Huaishan nodded very seriously. “Potatoes are big. One potato is better than a handful of pine nuts. It’s very filling. The taste, I think it’s not as good as pine nuts and chestnuts. It’s only a little sweet and a bit bland. Maybe we can eat it with some honey?”
It was a fact that plain potatoes were bland, but with honey…
Hua Shi’an sucked in a breath of cold air. “That’s fine too. There’s no fixed way to eat food. You can eat it however you want. Your taste is similar to the tribe members, so they should like it too.”
“Don’t worry, Shi’an. The tribe members will like it. Especially the chief and Uncle Qing. Their teeth are not good, so they like this kind of soft food the most.” Mo Huaishan took a bite of the potato, thought for a moment, and then added in a low voice, “Even if they don’t like it, I, I will still come and dig for it. I like potatoes, I really like them.”
The dry wood was almost burned out, and the flickering firelight was gradually dissipating. Through the hazy night mist, he met the beastman’s bright and exceptionally gentle eyes, and Hua Shi’an’s heart inexplicably skipped half a beat.
“Mm, eat up. We’ll go to sleep after we’re done.”
“We’re going home early tomorrow morning.”
