Chapter 22: Busy Day

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Hee hee.

Chen Rong and Chang Xia smiled at each other.

He was lucky to have met such a clansman.

“I’m trying to make a more delicious roast meat. It’s on the house.”

“Then I’ll have to work on making more good food.”

“Sure, sure. We’ll be waiting for your fruit paste.”

With that, everyone looked at the white fruits drying on the ground and laughed.

After the meal, everyone worked together to clean up the tables, chairs, and bowls. The sun was too strong, so Chang Xia and the others sat in the shade and chatted. They also dealt with the salt crystals they had brought back previously, grinding them into fine salt before storing them in clay pots.

“Chang Xia, you brought back enough salt to last you for years!” Nuan Chun said.

Chang Xia replied, “I was too lazy to go back and forth to collect salt, so I decided to hoard more at once. The pickled vegetables and meat at home can’t be separated from salt. If there’s anyone in the tribe who lacks salt and doesn’t want to go to the salt lake to collect salt, he can come over and exchange goods with me.”

“You!” Nan Feng poked Chang Xia through the air, but she didn’t dare to touch her.

After all, Mu Qin was sitting at the side and watching covetously. If she really poked Chang Xia, she might get scolded.

Soon, hundreds of kilograms of salt crystals were grounded into fine salt.

Chang Xia found a suitable clay pot and packed the fine salt. Then she covered the pot with a wooden lid wrapped in soft animal skin and stacked it in the farthest corner of the beast lair.

“A lair is too small,” exclaimed Mu Qin.

No matter how neatly Chang Xia tidied up the dozens of square meters of the beast lair, it still looked cramped. It was only right that Chang Xia wanted to build a house cave. Not to mention her, even Nuan Chun immediately felt that there was not enough space in the beast lair.

Nuan Chun nodded and echoed, “There’s no place to put the furniture. Once there are too many clay pots, the baskets can’t be piled up.”

As females, they were usually the ones cleaning up the beast lair.

Although the beasts were not in the habit of hoarding food, there would be no shortage of things needed for daily life. Collecting everything was enough to fill a nest.

The sky was clear. The stove was moved outside the lair.

However, once it was the rainy season, the stove could only be placed in the beast lair.

This way, there was not enough space in the beast lair. At this time, the location of the furniture had not been calculated.

A thought arose.

They immediately had a yearning for Chang Xia’s cave house cave.

“In the cold rainy season, the beast lair is surprisingly cold. Unless the beast maintains warmth in its beast form, even if a bonfire is lit, it will be very cold.” Nan Feng sighed.

Every time that happened, she’d want a mate to keep her warm.

“Don’t worry, a pan kang can be made in the house cave. With the cave, no matter how cold the rainy season is, we won’t be afraid of the cold,” Chang Xia said calmly. Nan Feng had said that the cold rainy season was difficult to endure, and she had experienced it deeply. At that time, three to five layers of beast skins were piled up, and two bonfires were burning in the beast lair. Chang Xia still didn’t even dare to extend her hand out of the beast skin.

Every year during the rainy season and cold season, Mu Qin would let the Nan Feng or other young females of the tribe come over to spend time with Chang Xia.

The Dragon Cat beast was small.

Of course, this petite beast was relative to the leopards of the Heluo tribe.

Even though Chang Xia had transformed, she was still unable to warm herself alone.

She had no choice but to choose to warm up with someone so that she wouldn’t catch a cold and fall sick.

“What’s a pan kang?”

Immediately, Chang Xia’s mention of the pan kang attracted everyone’s attention.

“It is a structure made of brick or adobe, covered with a vine curtain and hide, with a chimney and a cooking stove connected to the lower end, and a bed for a fire to keep warm. This creates an elevated platform that is much more comfortable to sleep in than if we lay on the ground directly. The ground is damp, and the body tends to get sick if you sleep too long,” Chang Xia explained, looking toward Root and saying, “Chief, it’s best if old men do not sleep on the ground. The heated beds can wait. We can make a couple of wooden beds first.”

As he spoke, she took a branch and started sketching on the ground.

With the table and chairs as the foundation, Root and the others quickly understood the structure of the wooden bed.

“Okay, leave that to me,” Root said seriously.

The elders of the tribe had once been powerful beast warriors. Even though they were old, no one in the tribe would despise them. Even though the tribe implemented private ownership, the tribe would prepare their food.

After all, the tribe had a hunting team to hunt. Apart from the hunting team splitting the prey equally, they would also reserve a portion for the tribe’s old people and beast cubs. Chang Xia was once among the beast cubs.

“I feel like the beast lair is getting smaller!”

At the side, Nan Feng complained softly.

The bed, tables, chairs, and other junk piled up in the beast lair made Nan Feng’s scalp tingle just thinking about it. Moreover, the premise was that Chang Xia did not create anything else.

The males might not think much of these things.

But the attraction to females was enormous.

It was not difficult to tell from the excited expressions of Mu Qin and Nuan Chun about how they treated the furniture. No one who liked cleanliness could resist the temptation of large pieces of furniture.

In the afternoon.

Root and Mu Qin left, returning to the tribe.

Nan Feng and the other three stayed behind. Chang Xia had wanted Nuan Chun to return to the tribe to rest.

After being rejected by Nuan Chun, she said that she wanted to stay and watch Chang Xia build the house cave.

It seemed that Nuan Chun wanted to compete with Nan Feng for the second house cave in the tribe. Her beast cubs would be born during the rainy season. Thinking of the harsh environment during the rainy season, Nuan Chun’s desire for the house cave was completely understandable.

Perhaps, she would be satisfied as long as the house cave had a tenth of what Chang Xia had described.

Nuan Chun would not hesitate to let Shan Kun take action.

The survival rate of beast cubs born in the rainy season was higher than in the cold season, but it was still dangerous.

Nuan Chun didn’t say what he was worried about, but Chang Xia could feel it. She calmly patted Nuan Chun’s arm and didn’t say anything unnecessary to comfort her.

No amount of talk was as convincing as experiencing it firsthand.

With the help of Nan Feng and the others, Chang Xia felt that they could quickly build the house cave.

The hillside to the west had already been repaired. In the afternoon, Chang Xia instructed Chen Rong and the others to start laying the foundation and digging trenches. She drew these with charcoal at noon. Chang Xia marked the places that were not easy to draw with branches. Chen Rong and the others only needed to follow the places drawn by Chang Xia.

After beastification, the solid yellow soil was quickly dug open.

The loess dug out was piled on the vegetable field that Chang Xia had mentioned. In that position, Chang Xia wanted to build a courtyard wall. The vegetable field was half inside the courtyard wall and half outside the courtyard wall. The vegetable field outside the courtyard wall was connected to the White Lake, and a neat road would be built at the same time.

As for foundations and gutters.

The general shape had been dug. The next step was to repair the surface.

Chang Xia did not pursue beautiful patterns. The clean and tidy cliff face did not need any additional patterns. It looked very beautiful and generous.

Once it was repaired, they could start building.

It was necessary to dig out the shape of the house cave and transport the soil. This kind of thing could not be rushed. The ice and snow had melted just after the cold season. The loess contained a lot of moisture. Digging too quickly or too anxiously could easily cause a collapse.

Chang Xia stood in front of the neat cave and looked at the sun on the horizon.

“That’s enough for today, Nan Feng,” Chang Xia said.

Building a house cave was meticulous work. Even if the beasts were strong and energetic, Chang Xia didn’t want them to overwork themselves. After working for most of the day, Chang Xia felt a little tired even if she didn’t do much.

Nan Feng looked up at the sun and nodded. “Yeah! It’s getting dark.”

“Building a house cave is much more complicated than building a beast lair!” Ya Dong exclaimed.

To build a house cave, one only needed to dig a pit, polish it with wood and stone, and build a roof. For more protection, a layer of wooden planks would be laid in the beast lair.

Although it would take years to prepare to build a house cave, it would take three to five days to build a beast lair. However, three to five days was not enough.

Building a beast lair in three to five days referred to the male building a nest alone.

However, Nan Feng and the others were helping Chang Xia with the house cave.

Nuan Chun helped Shan Kun wipe his sweat and said, “The cave is much more spacious than a beast lair.” Nuan Chun looked at the cliff and was tempted. She secretly decided that when Chang Xia’s cave was built, she would immediately build her own.

After cleaning up, Nan Feng and the others left to return to the tribe.

Ya Dong happily held the fried meat and fish balls and chased after Shan Kun and Nuan Chun, who were walking in front while bickering with Nan Feng.

Chang Xia stood in front of her beast lair and watched them leave.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like