Chapter 79
After eating, drinking, and washing up, Hua Shi’an returned to his cozy little tree hollow and lay down on his back on the bamboo bed. He was tired, dead tired. He spread the sheepskin over his chest and was about to fall asleep in the next second when the bamboo door was suddenly knocked.
“Thump, thump thump—”
“Shi’an, Shi’an, are you asleep?”
The knocking, which disturbed his sweet dreams, was annoying. But when the visitor’s low voice came through the bamboo door, Hua Shi’an was no longer annoyed. He quickly sat up, holding the sheepskin, ran his fingers through his hair, and replied softly, “Not yet. Come in.”
“Creak,” the bamboo door opened. A tall beastman ducked and squeezed into the cramped and narrow tree hollow, which was not a match for his size.
He was quite composed when he walked in, but when he saw Hua Shi’an leaning against the head of the bed, he was slightly taken aback and touched his nose in embarrassment. “I’m disturbing you, Shi’an. I, I didn’t know you were about to—”
“Why are you being so formal? Come and sit.” Hua Shi’an patted the edge of the bed, a hint of a smile in his eyes, which had blended into the night. “Why are you looking for me? Or… did you miss me?”
He had just walked to the bedside, but at these words, Mo Huaishan froze.
He didn’t know whether to stand or sit. He looked at Hua Shi’an, at a loss, and his sun- and wind-tanned cheeks instantly turned red. “I, I’m not… I…”
“If you didn’t, then you didn’t. Why are you so nervous?”
“No.” Mo Huaishan was flustered. He quickly sat on the edge of the bed and, over the sheepskin, gently held Hua Shi’an’s hand, stammering, “I, I did, Shi’an. I missed you very much. I, I’ve been thinking about you every day.”
The broad, warm palm was covered with thick calluses, like a piece of rough sandpaper. It wasn’t very comfortable to hold, but it warmed his heart. Hua Shi’an held the beastman’s hand in return, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably lifting. “That’s more like it. Tell me, what did you need me for?”
He wouldn’t have come knocking on his door in the middle of the night for no reason. It definitely wasn’t just to hold hands.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, the smile in Mo Huaishan’s eyes faded a little. His grip on his hand tightened slightly, and his expression became serious and solemn. “Shi’an, in a couple of days, when we go to the forest to look for our tribe members, can you, can you not go?”
He had thought of many reasons for his visit, but he had never thought that he would also be here to persuade him.
He had just been persuaded by Hong Yong and Chief Mu in turn. Hua Shi’an’s head started to hurt a little. He rubbed his temples and sighed softly. “Why? There has to be a reason, right?”
“It’s dangerous.” Mo Huaishan said without hesitation, looking at Hua Shi’an’s eyes, one word at a time, “The dense forest is complex, and we’ll be eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew. This trip might take many days, and we might even encounter fierce beasts. Shi’an, I don’t want you to suffer, and I don’t want you to take any risks.”
So he was worried about him?
Hua Shi’an was instantly at ease. He squeezed the beastman’s hand and muttered, “I’ll change back to my beast form and stay in the back basket. I’m very small, so I won’t take up any space, and I’m not heavy. You can carry me. It won’t be dangerous.”
Mo Huaishan shook his head. “This trip itself is very dangerous. I can carry you, but what if I encounter danger? If I’m eaten by a wild beast, you’ll also—”
“Huaishan,” Hua Shi’an’s hand trembled slightly, and he tightened his grip on Mo Huaishan’s hand. “That won’t happen. Even if it does, we should face it together. Didn’t you say you’d be responsible for me? What, you want to abandon me?”
Hua Shi’an hadn’t said anything, but Mo Huaishan understood.
The reason he had to go… was because of him. It was because of him.
“I, I’ll go and find the captain!”
The beastman sitting on the bed shot up and was about to turn and leave.
Hua Shi’an quickly grabbed his arm and held him back, not letting him go. “No, what are you doing? Why are you looking for him so late at night?”
His throat inexplicably tightened, and the tip of his nose tingled slightly. Mo Huaishan looked down at Hua Shi’an, his eyes red. “I, I’m not going to the forest. I’ll have the captain find someone else to go.”
Going to the forest to look for the lost tribe members was something Mo Huaishan was very willing to do. Even though he had no relatives, and even though the journey was extremely dangerous, he was still willing to do his part for the tribe.
But it was different now.
He had something to worry about. He didn’t want the sub-beastman to go on an adventure with him.
The beastman’s thoughts were simple. Hua Shi’an vaguely guessed it, and he couldn’t let him go. He grabbed the beastman’s arm and pulled him back, pressing his shoulders to make him sit on the edge of the bed, and patted his back, comforting him softly, “Don’t be anxious, don’t be anxious. Let me finish first.”
“Hong Yong has chosen you. You have no way to refuse, and you can’t refuse. You know, Huaishan, you’re different from others. Now that you’ve finally gained a foothold in the tribe and have been accepted by the tribe members, if you refuse to go out this time, everything will go back to the way it was.”
“This is a chance to prove yourself. It’s precisely because you have no relatives and are still willing to take risks for the tribe that if you can successfully bring back the lost tribe members, your situation in the tribe will be much better in the future.”
To be honest, Hua Shi’an didn’t care what others thought of Mo Huaishan. Whether he was a brave and skilled warrior or an ill omen to be avoided, he was still his person.
But this beastman, who was rough and boisterous on the outside but sensitive and delicate on the inside, cared. He still remembered the black furball that had been driven out of the tree hollow, and the lonely and helpless beastman with tears in his eyes on the grass.
He had been isolated and targeted, but he still had a sincere heart and wanted to be recognized by the tribe. This was a knot that had to be untied. He was sensitive and had low self-esteem, so much so that he still foolishly thought he was not worthy of Hua Shi’an.
The tree hollow was quiet for a long time, so long that Hua Shi’an thought he had fallen asleep sitting on the bed. The motionless beastman finally came to his senses, his shoulders trembling slightly. “But Shi’an, I, I really don’t want you to take any risks. Can you stay in the tribe? Wait for me to come back.”
Going with him was not to add to his psychological burden. Hua Shi’an patted the beastman’s shoulder and chuckled softly. “You, don’t think so much. I’m not going on this trip entirely for you. Didn’t I say before? Since we’re living in the forest, we have to explore it slowly. I don’t want to be trapped in this one place. I want to go out and take a walk, look for more plants, and see the outside world.”
“The things you want to do are also very dangerous. I haven’t stopped you. How can you stop me? Besides, we might not encounter any danger. I have a beast form and can run fast. And I have you. You’ll protect me, right?”
He suddenly wanted to hug him. After Hua Shi’an finished speaking, he raised his hand. But before his fingertips could touch the shoulder that was so close, the motionless beastman suddenly turned around, grabbed his hand, and pulled him into a tight embrace.
“I will protect you, Shi’an, Shi’an…”
A low, hoarse murmur lingered in his ear. The beastman’s hands were wrapped around his waist, and his cheek gently rubbed against his neck as he repeated his name.
A warm breath fell on his shoulder, and a warm current flowed through his heart. Hua Shi’an wrapped his arms around Mo Huaishan and silently placed a kiss on his shoulder. “I don’t want to wait anymore, Huaishan. Let’s be together when we get back from our trip, okay? Be my mate.”
The last few words were very soft, but Mo Huaishan heard them clearly.
He tightened his arms around Hua Shi’an, as if he wanted to rub him into his body, but his voice was not confident. “I, I’m useless. I can’t give you anything now. I have nothing.”
Hua Shi’an smiled, a very soft sound. “The person I love has calloused hands and is down-to-earth and hardworking. I’m not afraid that he has nothing when he’s young. You have nothing, and I have nothing either. But we have two people and two hands. We’ll have everything in the future.”
Without asking any annoying questions, Mo Huaishan held Hua Shi’an tightly and buried his head in his shoulder, grunting sullenly. “We’ll be together when we get back. I’ll be good to you for the rest of my life, Shi’an.”
After a night of settling, the turbid kudzu root slurry in the pottery vat had turned into a vat of clear water.
The kudzu root powder had settled to the bottom, and the top layer was all water. Hua Shi’an and Yan Zhile each held one side and carefully tilted the pottery vat, slowly pouring out the slightly yellowish water.
This step had been done once after dinner last night, but the coir sheets were not as good as cheesecloth. The filtering was not clean, and there were still a lot of impurities in the slurry. The powder was not white enough, so he had added clear water again to wash the powder.
It was much cleaner after one wash. The yellow water was poured out, and a ball of pure white slurry had settled at the bottom of the vat. From a distance, it looked like a vat of snowflakes, but upon closer inspection, it was like a fine and silky white satin.
It was a perfect kudzu root powder. Hua Shi’an was quite satisfied.
It would be even more perfect if it were washed twice more, but they were setting off the day after tomorrow. There was no time. They had to dry it quickly and take it with them on the road.
He prepared a winnowing basket and found a bamboo spatula. Hua Shi’an bent down and leaned over the pottery vat. Just as he was about to use the spatula, he suddenly thought of something. He let go of the pottery vat and stood up straight, handing the bamboo spatula to Yan Zhile. “You do it. Take the bamboo spatula and poke it down hard.”
Yan Zhile didn’t think much of it and obediently took the bamboo spatula, poking it into the vat with force.
The bamboo spatula poked into the vat as if it had hit something hard. The seemingly soft slurry did not move an inch. For a moment, Yan Zhile thought he was hallucinating. He poked it a few more times with the bamboo spatula, but it still wouldn’t move, not at all.
What’s going on? Is this thing so hard? Yan Zhile was bewildered. It wasn’t until he heard a few soft laughs from beside him that he realized he had been tricked by the Lord Priest.
He was not annoyed at being tricked. Yan Zhile’s sparkling eyes suddenly looked at Hua Shi’an, and he said with excitement, “What’s going on, Lord Priest? The kudzu root powder has been soaking in water all night. Shouldn’t it be soft? Why is it so hard?”
What else could it be? The starch concentration had reached a critical value, and it had turned into a non-Newtonian fluid. It couldn’t be explained in a few words. Hua Shi’an directly ignored his question and gestured with his chin. “Try again, gently, not too much force.”
Yan Zhile’s interest was piqued. He took the bamboo spatula and probed into the pottery vat again.
With a gentle poke, almost no force was used, and the kudzu root powder, which had been as hard as a stone, was split open. Yan Zhile’s eyes widened in disbelief. He scooped up a piece with the bamboo spatula. Whether he pinched it or kneaded it, the kudzu root powder was soft, completely different from its state just now.
It became hard when you used force, and soft when you didn’t. After several attempts, Yan Zhile finally figured out the trick. He played with a small ball of kudzu root powder in his hand, no longer working, and chased after Hua Shi’an, asking, “What on earth is going on, Lord Priest? It’s so magical, so interesting!”
“That’s just how kudzu root powder is. There’s nothing to it.” Hua Shi’an casually made something up, covered his mouth, and let out a lazy yawn, getting down to business. “If you’ve had enough fun, then hurry up and get to work. The kudzu root powder is up to you. Dig it out, break it into small pieces, and put it in a winnowing basket to dry. When it’s half dry, crush the powder into a powder and continue to dry it.”
Yan Zhile stopped playing and tilted his head to look at Hua Shi’an. “You’re not going to be with us? Where are you going, Lord Priest?”
As soon as he finished speaking, a rustling sound came from behind the camp. A group of beastmen came out of the bushes, each dragging a not-so-big, not-so-small peeled tree that could just be held in one hand.
Yan Zhile looked back and immediately changed his question. “You’ve been polishing bones, washing beef tendons, and cutting trees all morning. Lord Priest, what are you teaching them to do?”
Hua Shi’an: “Weapons, weapons for self-defense and hunting.”
