Ancient Eden

The ritual went on for a long time, and then later the elk was put up in the middle of the fire for cooking. The old woman kept dancing around the fire, while the string of clay bells at the top of the staff in her hand constantly made a vibrating sound. After listening to it for a long moment, Mu Qing surprisingly felt it brought some kind of ancient, simple and solemn feeling.

The cooked offering was to be offered to the gods, so Mu Qing did not see them eat the meat of the elk, they just let it burn until it shrunk and turned into a charred and black piece of meat. Only those two huge antlers that were now charred black on the head of the animal could help to identify what animal it used to be.

The sacrifice was over. But the people around the fire were still talking, it was rare for children to stay up this late and not be hurried to bed, so they also kept running around, scattered. Every face was red from the light of the fire and looked very excited. It was not until the moon was high up in the sky that the crowd slowly dispersed.

Immediately once the ritual was over, Naduo quietly pulled Mu Qing to go towards her hut. Mu Qing was a little puzzled, but she followed her. Once inside, Naduo inserted the torch in her hand into the hole in the ground, before taking out something and handing it to her with a smile.

When Mu Qing took it, she saw that it was that snakeskin that had been ripped apart, that was now made into a skirt. She had carefully sewn up with twine the upper and lower surface that had been cut before as well as some other ripped parts, according to the original pattern of the snakeskin. If one did not look carefully, it wasn’t very visible from the front.

Mu Qing was a little surprised. Since that day when Naonao had ripped that snakeskin and Naduo had taken it away, because Li Mang didn’t seem to have asked about it, she had completely thrown this matter to the back of her mind. Seeing this suddenly reappear at this moment, she was a bit dazed as she held it in her hands.

Naduo pushed her, gesturing for her to put it on. Mu Qing found it embarrassing to brush off her kindness, so she overlapped it on her body.

The snake skin was very soft, Naduo was especially thoughtful as she made it, and didn’t sew it entirely at the waist, leaving an opening, she had used a string to connect the upper part that could be tied into a knot, with probably the intention in mind to let her adjust the size by herself, according to her waist size.

Naduo started to pull down on her pants. Mu Qing laughed and took off her pants and put them aside, according to her wish. She saw that Naduo was examining her, revealing a smile of satisfaction on her face, she pointed to her pants, while saying something, with a look of disgust on her face, Mu Qing then understood her meaning.

Naduo seemed like she couldn’t stand to see her wearing pants, so what she meant was probably for her to wear this skirt like the rest of them did from now on.

Mu Qing pursed her lips and revealed a smile, while holding her hand to show her gratitude.

Wearing such a short skirt that showed at least two-thirds of the thighs was indeed much cooler than what she used to wear, but now that she had lost her underwear, it felt empty there without the pants, besides with the length of that skirt on her body, she had no sense of security.

In the future, she would still have to wear her own pants, as for the skirt, she would at least have to wait until she finds her underwear back to wear it or find a comparable replacement.

The voices of the people outside were getting smaller and smaller, and afraid that Youyou’s father would be back in an instant, Mu Qing took her pants, and was about to put them back on. That’s when the curtain was lifted and a man came in, bending his waist. It was Li Mang.