The Primitive Adventures of a Chipmunk 97

Chapter 97

After three days of smelting iron with the beastmen and forging all the small iron tools the tribe needed, Hua Shi’an was finally free. He confidently handed over the matter of smelting iron to Chang Qing.

Time flew by when he was busy. In the blink of an eye, it was summer. The weather was getting hotter day by day. Under the careful care of the tribe members, the crops in the fields sprouted and grew, and the growth was excellent.

In the early morning, a leisurely walk along the ridges filled Hua Shi’an’s heart with great joy.

The blueberry and cranberry flowers had withered, and tender green fruits dotted the branches. The wildly growing potatoes were as tall as his calves, and the potato eggs were thriving in the soil. The chives had been cut once and had grown again, even more lush than the wild grass growing around them.

The rice that Hua Shi’an had been paying close attention to was slowly growing past his knees. It seemed to have entered the jointing stage, shooting upwards. And from its gradually widening leaves, which had turned from dark green to light green, it would not be long before it could produce flower spikes.

The sweet potato vines had started to grow horizontally. The wheat, glutinous rice, soybeans, and peanuts that the Tree Shrew Tribe had given them had all successfully sprouted. He really wanted to fast-forward to the harvest season. At that time, he wouldn’t even know which of the dazzling array of foods to eat first.

So good.

They had a future worth looking forward to.

He had been working non-stop since he returned from the dense forest. Suddenly being idle, Hua Shi’an was a little unaccustomed to it.

The gathering team had gone out early in the morning. After finishing the tribe’s chores, Hong Yong had taken a group of beastmen into the forest. Everyone was busy, and of course, Hua Shi’an couldn’t just stand around and play. It was time to start renovating the camp, starting with the stove.

After a stroll, he happened to walk to the grass in front of his door. Hua Shi’an looked at the messy camp and let out a long sigh. There were too many things, and it was messy and cluttered. To build a stove, he had to tidy up first and dismantle the fire pit first.

This was not a job that one person could do. He had to find some helpers first. Hua Shi’an started to walk towards the kiln, but suddenly, a loud female voice came from behind.

“Lord Priest, Lord Priest, wait a minute!”

His attention had been drawn to the farmland, and he had ignored his surroundings. Hua Shi’an followed the sound and looked back to find that a group of people were also busy on the opposite side of the riverbank.

Under the guidance of the beastmen, they had chiseled a tree hollow, and the Tree Shrew Tribe had moved to the other side of the river seven days ago. They only recognized a part of the nearby plants. For this reason, Chief Mu had specially sent two sub-beasts over for the first few days to help them familiarize themselves with the terrain and identify the plants.

It had been almost half a month since they had come here. With a place to live and food to fill their stomachs, they seemed to be adapting well to life here, and the number of people working had also increased from the original twenty or thirty to fifty or sixty.

Gathering food, weaving bamboo utensils in the camp, boiling salt by the salt spring…

They were copying the model of the Rangrang Tribe and starting to operate.

Seven days after they had moved, several neat fields had appeared on the grass on the other side of the river. The skinny beastmen were working together. Some were swinging their hoes and sweating, while others were bending over and sowing seeds, in an orderly and not-so-chaotic manner.

The one who had called out to Hua Shi’an was Fei. No, she now had a name, Shu Fei.

It seemed that she had been chasing Hua Shi’an all the way from the farmland. Shu Fei stood on the riverbank and called out to Hua Shi’an, still holding a stone hoe in her hand, her breath a little short.

The distance was a bit far. Hua Shi’an moved a little closer to the riverbank and waved to Shu Fei from across the river, greeting her with a smile, “Morning, Chief. You’re turning the soil so early? Aren’t you planning to go hunting?”

Shu Fei let out a hot breath and shook her head. “There’s no hurry to hunt. Now that we have wild vegetables and fruits to fill our stomachs, we won’t hope for meat for now. I heard that your peanuts and wheat have all sprouted. We have to hurry up and plant them too.”

A patch of grass was left in front of the door, and the fields were dug upstream and downstream, aligned with the farmland of the Rangrang Tribe across the river. It was extremely satisfying for someone with OCD to look at. Hua Shi’an scanned the area and then unhurriedly withdrew his gaze. “More than ten plots of land. You should be almost done planting, right?”

“We’re far from it. It’s not enough! We also have to learn from you and dig some more wild vegetables and fruit trees from the forest to plant. In the future, we’ll be able to pick vegetables and fruits right at our doorstep. It’s so comfortable just thinking about it.” Speaking of the future, Shu Fei’s bright eyes flashed, and a smile appeared on her lips.

You can’t get fat with one bite. Hua Shi’an thought for a moment and added a few more words, “It’s certainly a good thing to plant more land, but you can’t just throw the seeds down and not care about them. In the future, you can’t skimp on watering, weeding, and fertilizing. You have to take good care of them and be patient to have a better harvest.”

“These chores also require manpower, and before the crops are ripe, we still have to rely on gathering and hunting to get food. You’ve just arrived. Don’t be greedy. You have to take it one step at a time.”

It was clear that she had not thought about this problem. Shu Fei stroked her chin and fell into deep thought.

After a long while, she nodded thoughtfully. “I understand, Lord Priest. We’ll take it steady, one step at a time.”

Thinking that the Tree Shrew Tribe currently had no conditions for composting, Hua Shi’an added another sentence, “After the seeds have broken through the soil and have taken root, you can dig some loose soil from a place with thick fallen leaves and sprinkle it around the crops. That kind of soil is called humus. It’s nutritious and can promote plant growth.”

In just a few sentences, she had learned some useful knowledge. Shu Fei’s face lit up with joy, and she quickly thanked him, “Thank you, Lord Priest. I’ll remember.”

The small talk was almost over. Hua Shi’an waved his hand to show that she was welcome and was about to turn and leave when Shu Fei quickly spoke, “Lord Priest, I, I have something to discuss with you.”

“What?” Hua Shi’an’s footsteps faltered slightly.

It seemed a little difficult to say. Shu Fei touched her nose, pursed her lips, and made a thousand fake movements in a second. Under Hua Shi’an’s increasingly puzzled gaze, she finally composed herself and took a deep breath.

“I heard that you’ve been picking up stones recently and smelting iron from them to make tools, right? I wanted to ask if you could also teach us how to smelt iron? Oh right, and your pottery pots and basins. We also want to learn. The main thing is that the tribe has too few tools. To be honest, we’re now cooking wild vegetables… bit by bit. Some people eat first, and some eat later.”

They had just arrived, and the Tree Shrew Tribe only had a group of people, nothing else. Even the stone knives and axes for chiseling the tree hollows, and even the hoe in Shu Fei’s hand, had been borrowed from the Great Chief.

The two tribes were face to face. They would see each other when they looked up and down in the future. He had not intended to hide these methods of making utensils from them. Hua Shi’an barely hesitated and smiled, pursing his lips. “We can, we can, but smelting iron is not just complicated. It’s useless for you to learn it now. You don’t have the time to make tools and find materials. Let’s talk about it in the future, when your tribe is more stable and has no worries about food and drink.”

Uncle Qing and a few old men were pinching unbaked pottery not far away. Hua Shi’an looked back and continued to say to Shu Fei, “You can learn to make pottery. This is very practical. You can have a few people come over and learn later. There’s no hurry to dig a kiln. We have a ready-made one. You can use it when we’re not using it.”

“Thank you so much.” Shu Fei was visibly relieved. She stared straight at Hua Shi’an’s eyes from across the creek, a heartfelt gratitude in her eyes. “You’ve helped us so much. I don’t even know how to thank you. How about this? We’ll give you a portion of the tools we make—”

“No, no, no,” Hua Shi’an decisively refused. “We’re not short of tools. In the future, if you see any plants or animals you’ve never seen before in the forest, just remember to share them with us.”

There were still quite a few small stone pots piled up in the camp. They hadn’t been used since they got the pottery pots. They were just gathering dust there. He would leave a few large ones as mortars and lend the rest to the Tree Shrew Tribe, which was short of utensils.

The matter was settled. It was really time to go. But after walking a few steps, Hua Shi’an suddenly thought of something and quickly called out to the not-so-far-away Shu Fei, “Hey, Chief! I’m about to teach the tribe members how to build a stove. Are you interested?”

Shu Fei’s steps came to a halt, her face filled with confusion. “A stove?”

“It’s for cooking, a more… exquisite fire pit?” Hua Shi’an didn’t know how to explain.

Shu Fei immediately nodded. “I’m interested. I’ll have a few more people come over later!”

Hua Shi’an chuckled. “Okay.”

He had been worried about not having enough manpower, and now he had it.

As the saying goes, an apprentice is equal to a coolie, equal to free labor.

Not only did he exploit the people of the Tree Shrew Tribe, but he was also ruthless in exploiting his own people.

After a lot of hard work, the blast furnace was built. Yan Zhile and his sub-beastman companions had just returned to the camp and were caught by Hua Shi’an before they could even have a drink of water.

He had gathered more than a dozen people from here and there. He would do it as soon as he thought of it. Hua Shi’an walked to the front of the crowd and immediately began to arrange things, “You few, go and pack things up. Leave a few pottery pots of different sizes. Move all the other pots, bowls, ladles, winnowing baskets, and back baskets to the grass. You three, go and move the dry firewood. Put it in the woods next to you first. You go and knead the clay, the same as the clay for building the blast furnace. Mix in some reed fragments.”

“Okay, Lord Priest!”

“Let’s go, let’s go. Let’s get to work.”

“My heavens, such a large mountain of dry firewood. When will we finish moving it?”

“Hurry up and find a back basket to pack it. If you have time to complain, you might as well do more work.”

The crowd was obedient and scattered in a noisy manner.

Everyone had been assigned a task by Hua Shi’an, except for Yan Zhile.

He was not in a hurry to ask what he should do, but was concerned about the matter itself. He curiously poked Hua Shi’an’s arm. “Lord Priest, we’re moving pots and bowls, and back baskets and winnowing baskets. What on earth are we going to do?”

“You guess.” Hua Shi’an kept them in suspense.

Yan Zhile tilted his head. “Moving house?”

This was too outrageous. Hua Shi’an ruffled his hair and chuckled softly. “We’re living well. Where are we moving? The camp is too messy now. I plan to renovate it. First, we’ll build a few stoves, and then we’ll build a kitchen and a dining hall to shelter from the wind and rain.”

Logically, he should have built the house first and then the stove. But a house couldn’t be built in a day or two, and the tribe couldn’t go a day without a stove. So he had to build the stove first. When the fire pit was dismantled later, he would at least have a place to cook.

“What are a kitchen and a dining hall?” Yan Zhile asked, not understanding.

“A kitchen is a place for cooking, and a dining hall is a place for eating.”

Now he understood, but Yan Zhile didn’t understand. “Why go through all this trouble? We have a place to cook and eat now.”

Hua Shi’an glanced at the messy and chaotic camp, his brow unconsciously furrowing, but the corners of his mouth were slightly lifted. “We have a place to cook and eat now, but the rainy season will be coming soon. An open-air kitchen, an open-air dining hall. Do you want to add some water when you’re cooking, or do you want to add some soup when you’re eating?”

“Of course, this is secondary. Even if it doesn’t rain, I still want to renovate the camp. The situation in the forest is complex, and we have no choice where to live. But now that life is getting better and better and conditions allow, why can’t we make ourselves a little more comfortable?”