The Primitive Adventures of a Chipmunk 48

Chapter 48

A typical three-lobed mouth, long and upright ears, fur that was mainly gray with specks of yellow, the color looked a bit mottled, but it was fluffy and soft to the touch. It was undoubtedly a wild rabbit.

The wild rabbit was not small, bigger than all the tribe members’ beast forms, almost as big as Mo Huaishan’s beast form. Hua Shi’an held the rabbit’s ears and weighed it, estimating it to be around ten pounds.

Unfortunately, the wild rabbit was dead. Its body was cold and stiff.

“Well, well, Lord Priest, is this little beast edible?”

Seeing Hua Shi’an turning the little beast over and over in his hands without saying a word, Yan Qiuyu couldn’t help but ask anxiously.

A ten-pound little thing was quite heavy to hold for a long time.

Hua Shi’an handed the wild rabbit back to Yan Qiuyu, unaware that this action had been misunderstood. Yan Qiuyu’s little face fell, and his sparkling eyes, like burnt-out candles, gradually dimmed. “What is this thing? I went through so much trouble to catch it, and it’s not even edible.”

As soon as he finished speaking, with a “thump,” the wild rabbit hit the ground hard, raising a lot of dust.

Quite a temper. Hua Shi’an raised an eyebrow and let out a helpless laugh. “What’s the rush? I haven’t said a single word yet. Yan Qiuyu, pick it up the same way you dropped it. This wild rabbit is not only edible, but it’s also very delicious, no less than a red sheep!”

“Really?”

It only took one sentence to turn cloudy to sunny. Yan Qiuyu’s frown instantly turned into a smile. He immediately bent down to pick up the wild rabbit, carefully patted the dust from its fur, and held it in his arms like a treasure. “A wild rabbit, so it’s called a wild rabbit. Hehe, it’s good that it’s edible. I won’t throw you away if you’re edible.”

“It, it looks a bit like our beast form. It’s so cute. Are we really going to eat it?” Yan Zhile reached out several times, wanting to touch it but not daring to, looking at the wild rabbit with pleading eyes.

Yan Qiuyu suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with disbelief. “Why not eat it? Yan Zhile, have you lost your mind? This is the prey we worked so hard to catch. Do you care if it’s cute or not?”

“I was just saying. Why are you so fierce!” Yan Zhile glared at him, puffing out his cheeks.

The child was crazy for meat. Seeing that the two were about to argue, Hua Shi’an waved his hands. “Alright, alright. Rabbits are so cute, of course we have to braise them.”

After smoothing things over, Hua Shi’an turned his gaze to Yan Qiuyu and gestured with his chin. “This wild rabbit should be very fast. How did you catch it? Where did you catch it?”

The fact that the wild rabbit was edible proved that this was a successful hunt. Yan Qiuyu decisively threw Yan Zhile out of his mind and said proudly, “The big oaf and I saw it first. A gray shadow squeezed into a dirt slope. We went over and found a lot of holes on the slope, and then we tried to go in and found the wild rabbit in the hole.”

“Lord Priest, you were right. This little thing is very fast. Its burrow has more than one exit. We chased it from one side to the other. It was a real hassle to catch one.”

It can dig holes, so it must be a burrowing rabbit. Hua Shi’an nodded. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly thought of something, and the smile in his eyes deepened. “A wild rabbit’s burrow should be very small. You guys… squeezed in?”

“Yes, our beast form is smaller. It’s easy to get into that kind of hole.” Yan Qiuyu didn’t realize anything was wrong and was even very proud.

Squirrels squeezing into a rabbit’s nest, chasing rabbits all over the mountains…

Hua Shi’an imagined it and burst out laughing, his chest trembling.

“What are you laughing at?” Yan Qiuyu was very confused.

After laughing for a while, Hua Shi’an suppressed his laughter and patted his chest, praising them sincerely, “It’s nothing, it’s nothing. You guys are very smart and capable, to have caught such a difficult-to-catch wild rabbit. Although there’s only one, it’s still a new species discovered.”

“One?” Yan Qiuyu chuckled, a proud look on his face, his chin held high. “We found the wild rabbits in the morning. How could there be only one? They—”

“Yan Qiuyu, come and help!”

“Bring a few back baskets over, hurry up. We’re about to lose them!”

“This little thing is quite strong. It almost kicked my hand.”

He had been so busy talking that he hadn’t noticed his surroundings. By the time he heard the commotion, the hunting team was almost at the camp.

After being gone for half a day, the high-spirited beastmen were all more pathetic than the last, as if they had rolled in a pile of dry dirt. Their arms, shoulders, and hair were all covered in dirt, like a group of moving little mud men.

They hadn’t brought back baskets on their hunt. The lively prey was held by the ears by the beastmen, tightly clutched in their hands. One, two, three… Hua Shi’an’s eyes swept over them, and he roughly counted. There were at least twelve wild rabbits, and they were all alive!

Hua Shi’an was stunned. Was he dreaming?

These were live rabbits, a group of lively wild rabbits!

Rabbits were much easier to raise than red sheep. They were small, ate little, and had extremely strong reproductive abilities. It was said that a doe could reproduce non-stop all year round, giving birth to 5-8 kits per litter, and could produce 40-60 young rabbits a year.

Among the dozen or so rabbits, there were at least three or four does. Then in a year…

Hua Shi’an’s hands, hanging at his sides, gradually clenched into fists. His nails dug into his flesh from the force, but he seemed not to feel the pain, his eyes bright and fervent.

“Come, come, put them in, put them all in.”

The hunting team arrived at the camp. Yan Qiuyu and the sub-beastmen brought over a few back baskets and turned them upside down on the ground. And the beastmen who had returned with the wild rabbits consciously lined up to hand them over, stuffing the lively, struggling wild rabbits under the back baskets.

The wild rabbits were strong. Worried that they would knock over the back baskets and escape, the beastmen, without even taking a break, dutifully moved some stones from the fire and pressed them down on the three back baskets covering the wild rabbits.

To prevent the prey from escaping, the hunting team used to kill the prey on the spot. Since they had brought back live rabbits this time, they must have been prepared to raise them… right?

The prey was caught by the beastmen. How to deal with it still required their opinion. Fearing that he had misunderstood, Hua Shi’an looked around and found Hong Yong, who was getting information from Yan Qiuyu, in the crowd.

“Hong Yong.” Hua Shi’an walked to the beastman’s side, one hand on the stone pressing down on the back basket, and asked directly, “How do you guys plan to deal with these wild rabbits? We’re not short of meat recently. Can we raise them?”

He seemed not to have expected him to ask this. Hong Yong raised an eyebrow in surprise and suddenly burst out laughing. “Lord Priest, you are the priest of the tribe. On the premise of benefiting the tribe, you have the right to make any decision. You don’t need to ask me at all.”

After the last hunt, Hua Shi’an had gotten to know this captain quite well. Hearing his words, Hua Shi’an smiled and shrugged, deliberately teasing, “I have the final say? Alright, then you go and cook now. Tonight’s offal is up to you.”

Hong Yong’s eyelids twitched, and the smile on his face instantly froze. “No, Lord Priest. You might as well have me go back to the forest and catch a few more wild rabbits than have me cook.”

Beastmen were not good at cooking, and Hong Yong was even worse.

“Just kidding.” Hua Shi’an’s smile widened, and he patted his arm. “Then it’s settled. We’ll raise all these wild rabbits. They have strong reproductive abilities. It won’t be long before their numbers double.”

Hong Yong nodded. “The wild rabbits are quite strong. We’ll help tie them up after we’ve had a bath. But there are a lot of rabbits. Are we going to raise them in the camp like the red sheep?”

Rabbits and red sheep, eating, drinking, and defecating all in the camp. Hua Shi’an couldn’t imagine how smelly it would be. That was secondary. The main thing was that the weather was getting colder and colder. If they raised the small animals in the camp, they probably wouldn’t survive the winter.

Where would be a good place to raise them? Hua Shi’an thought for a moment and immediately had an idea. He clapped his hands and said to Hong Yong, “Alright, you guys go and take a bath first. After you’re done, get your tools, and we’ll go and chisel a few tree hollows.”

“We live in tree hollows, and the beasts live in tree hollows too?” Hong Yong’s brow furrowed slightly, with a hint of dissatisfaction. “Why does that feel strange? We have to get them food and chisel tree hollows for them. Are we raising them like cubs?”

The cubs he was talking about were children. Hua Shi’an nodded and chuckled. “You know, it’s actually quite similar. They don’t have to do anything. We’re responsible for all their food, drink, and defecation. But when they give birth and grow fat, it’s time for us to enjoy the fruits of our labor.”

The corner of Hong Yong’s mouth twitched. “If it weren’t for the fact that they’d be eaten in the end, it seems quite nice to be a domesticated beast.”

Isn’t that just a pet? His mental state is quite advanced.

Business was important. Hua Shi’an waved his hand. “Go and take a bath. It’s already getting dark. Let’s try to get the tree hollows chiseled out tonight.”

“I’m not going to wash. I’ll get sweaty from chiseling the tree hollows anyway. We’ll wash together after we’re done.”

With that, Hong Yong turned his head and shouted to the camp, “Hunting team, get your tools and chisel some tree hollows!”

The sheep pen and rabbit hutch were finally decided to be in front of the camp, in three relatively close giant redwood trees. It wasn’t too close to the tree hollows where people lived, so the smell wouldn’t drift over, but it wasn’t too far either, so it wouldn’t be that no one would notice if the animals ran away.

Red sheep were social animals. The three sheep could be raised together. The tree hollow just needed to be chiseled a little taller and larger. Wild rabbits were usually solitary animals, but fortunately, the ones they had caught were burrowing rabbits, one of the few social rabbit species. Twelve rabbits living in one tree hollow was not a problem at all.

And the extra tree hollow was for backup, in case a doe gave birth and needed to be separated from the rest of the rabbits.

After choosing a location, they started chiseling directly. The beastmen’s knives rose and fell, splitting the bark and digging out the rotten wood.

They were all experts at chiseling tree hollows. And now that they had proper tools, they were incredibly fast. Hua Shi’an and the sub-beastmen had just finished making the bamboo doors and bamboo fences when they started calling for the Lord Priest.

After installing the bamboo doors and laying a layer of coir sheets in a corner of the tree hollow, the three red sheep were escorted to the entrance by a group of beastmen, and the coir ropes around their necks were untied. Having been deliberately starved for a day, the red sheep were too weak to struggle. Under the beastmen’s urging, they panicked and squeezed into the tree hollow.

The bamboo door couldn’t block the sheep’s horns and could only be used temporarily. Hua Shi’an and the beastmen went to the river to move some large stones to block the entrance.

The rabbit hutch was more troublesome. Burrowing rabbits could dig holes. If they didn’t add an extra layer of protection to the tree hollow in time, they would probably all have run away by the next morning. So Hua Shi’an led people to fix the woven bamboo fences to the walls of the hollow, and then laid thick bamboo slats of varying lengths on the ground, leaving no gaps, essentially embedding a bamboo cage inside the tree hollow.

By completely isolating the soil, their digging ability would be useless.

All the wild rabbits were thrown into the tree hollow, and the bamboo door was closed. The busy day was finally over.

After running around with the beastmen, Hua Shi’an was drenched in sweat. The mixture of dirt and sweat was dirty and sticky, very uncomfortable. But Hua Shi’an did not, like the others, rush to the river to take a bath. He stood blankly in front of the tree hollow, a joyful and satisfied smile on his face.

The era of gathering and hunting was slowly passing. Before long, they would welcome a brand new—

Agricultural era.