26 Cooking Meat

◎ She couldn't pull it any further, so she tied it around her waist and struggled to crawl forward.◎

Although it looked a bit like a quagmire and there wasn't much water in it, she was too small to reach the bottom of the pool to retrieve any solid matter.

If there is a quagmire with a lot of salt here, then it means that the water will definitely corrode the body, so she has new troubles.

Standing up, Qiao Jinnian walked around the mud puddle, found a place with the least water, and picked up a branch to test how deep the water was.

After touching the bottom, she picked up the branch to check how deep the water was and saw that the water mark was about one meter away from the branch.

After thinking about it, Qiao Jinnian decided to weave a net bag for herself. She used the saved hemp ropes to weave a very rough net bag to see if she could scoop up some solid objects.

This is a very big project, and for her, as a little girl, it is more difficult than making clothes for herself.

Because she was alone and her strength was too weak, even though the net bag was already woven, how could she pick up such a heavy object?

But, you have to start writing it. Everything is difficult at the beginning, but you can always find a way, because she needs salt.

Therefore, she must stay in this grassland during this period of time, because she may not be able to find this place next time.

Pointing at the black quagmire, Qiao Jinnian whispered to Ryan: "Awoo, awoo--"

She repeated this action several times, indicating that this place was very important to her and she could not leave.

She didn't know whether Ryan understood or not, but if he wanted to go back to the original grassland, she would not leave and would show with her actions that she wanted to stay here for a while.

Ryan squinted his eyes, yawned lazily, and began to lick his big paws without looking at her.

Qiao Jinnian felt that the temporary place he found should be very safe, and there were many herbivores here, so it was okay not to go back for the time being.

With the arrival of the rainy season, water and grass are abundant again, and the relationship between carnivores has eased somewhat. There are not so many fights. Instead, the herbivores are crowded together, and there are some minor frictions from time to time.

Qiao Jinnian took out the hemp ropes she had saved, sat on the grass, leaned against Ryan, and began to weave a net bag using the most clumsy method.

She spent several days on this weaving work, mainly because she was not skilled enough and had to tie knots in every place, otherwise it would not be strong.

Almost all the hemp ropes were used up, and she had no extra. She had to soak some more and dry them in the sun so that she could use them to make some mats or quilts.

After making the hemp rope, Qiao Jinnian pulled Ryan to the edge of the mud pit, wanting Ryan to help her fish out the solid matter because she definitely couldn't pull it out.

This wasn't the first time Ryan had been tied a rope around her stomach, but this time the thing was a little strange and big, and instinctively, he began to feel uneasy.

It seemed really scary to see the net bag he had woven. It would be easy to catch animals, so it was no wonder that he started to feel uneasy.

So, Qiao Jinnian rubbed his head and whispered, "I need something from this quagmire. Can we stand on both sides?"

This kind of complicated communication was too difficult. Qiao Jinnian wanted to express that one man and one lion should stand on either side of the mud pit, and after she put the net bag in the water, they would pull it forward together. However, no matter how many times she said it, she had no way to express her meaning clearly.

As a lion of the grassland, Ryan has given Qiao Jinnian the greatest patience. This is actually the time for him to rest and recuperate, but he is willing to come here and play this strange game with her. However, he doesn't understand why they have to play this game.

So, Ryan was a little irritated. He kept rubbing his paws on the grass, opened his mouth wide, and growled in a low voice: "Roar, roar——"

After yelling, Ryan lay down impatiently and didn't plan to play anymore.

Qiao Jinnian felt a little disappointed because she really couldn't communicate such a complicated matter with Ryan, so she had to go forward and untie the rope on him.

She didn't blame Ryan for being irritable. He was a lion to begin with, and he was willing to be tied up by her. He was already a very good lion father.

It doesn’t matter. Qiao Jinnian could only think of another way. She simply threw the net bag into the mud and pulled it back with the rope, but the net bag did not sink to the bottom and nothing came up in the net.

So, she put another stone into the net bag, cast the net again, let the net bag sink to the bottom, and then slowly pulled it forward. In addition to the weight of the stone, there were obviously a lot more things in the net bag.

However, she couldn't pull it at all, so she could only tie it around her waist and crawl forward desperately.

At this time, Ryan, who had been lying there, saw what she had just done and seemed to finally understand what she was doing.

He looked down at her and licked her face and hair: "Roar--"

Qiao Jinnian untied the rope around her waist and was about to tie it around him, but he moved away.

She thought he was just coming to lick her, but Ryan bit the ropes directly, held them tightly, and moved his whole body backwards, quickly pulling the net bag out again.

Qiao Jinnian opened the net bag and found that in addition to the stone, there were several black crystals of different sizes in the net bag. These should be salt blocks!

She was a little excited and rolled around in Ryan's mane, saying, "This is salt. I'll be able to eat salt soon. Thank you, Ryan!"

I don't know what she is happy about. Ryan doesn't know what these things are, but the cubs are always tinkering with some messy things.

Although everything she did was strange, Ryan saw with his own eyes that the cub was able to hunt on its own, so he no longer worried about not being able to support her.

Seeing that there was nothing for Ryan to do, he lowered his body, stretched out his front paws, yawned loudly, and then went back to sleep.

Qiao Jinnian went to find the irregular stone pot and started to cook the salt blocks on his fixed stove.

Seeing that she had lit the fire again, Dazhuang came over to see what she was cooking. Seeing that it was black water, he wanted to pick up the pot to see if he was seeing things, but his hand was almost burned by the fire.

"Da Zhuang, be careful!" Qiao Jinnian slapped his hand, causing Da Zhuang to bare his teeth at her.

"Roar--" Ryan, who was dozing not far away, suddenly straightened up and roared at Dazhuang, as if warning him not to bare his teeth at the cub.

Da Zhuang was a little disappointed and ran away shouting "Wow wow wow".

Qiao Jinnian knew that in the eyes of the animals, she was a weirdo. After finally starting a fire, she was actually boiling black water.

Even Silverback and Cape didn't want to come over because there was no smell of meat.

There is no shortage of food here, and Ryan's injuries have healed. Every time he hunts, he will give her a piece of meat. Even though the piece of meat is very small in his eyes, she can't finish it. She will make it all into jerky and eat it slowly.

There are more edible fruits now. Qiao Jinnian followed Dazhuang to find many edible fruits. There are both meat and fruits. She finally stabilized her diet.

The water in the pot boiled and gave off a foul smell, so much so that even Ryan ran away.

However, Qiao Jinnian could only watch the fire from the side. If an animal came to make trouble and overturned the pot, then the fire would destroy the grassland.

The stench should be the impurities in the mud. Qiao Jinnian didn't know how to boil salt specifically, so he could only figure it out on his own. Maybe salt would appear when the water was boiled dry.

Stirring the mixture, she spent the entire afternoon slowly boiling the black salt water.

It was not until night fell and the water boiled dry that Qiao Jinnian put out the fire and prepared to continue boiling it tomorrow.

Sure enough, the next day, she found that there were still too many impurities in the salt blocks, so she had to continue boiling them. But while boiling, she started grilling the meat on the other side.

This method is particularly stupid, but she must make sure that the salt is not poisonous. It is always better to cook it a few more times. Also, this stone pot is a very poor conductor of heat. If it were an iron pot, it would have been cooked long ago.

Alas, Qiao Jinnian could only comfort herself. After all, she was the only creature in the vast grassland that needed to eat salt, and she was the only species that needed to wear clothes. If she didn't do it, who would do it?

After boiling for three days, Qiao Jinnian actually got a little bit of salt. It was rather rough and tasted a bit bitter, but fortunately it was real salt.

She used the largest leaves and wrapped them in several layers, then put the salt into the leaves as her seasoning.

With salt and a stone pot, Qiao Jinnian was eager to try it out. She immediately started to cook broth for herself. She also broke up various fruits and put them into the broth as side dishes.

This time, Da Zhuang saw that she had changed her cooking method, and he became interested again. He sat over automatically, eating the fruit while watching the meat in the pot gradually emitting fragrance.

The meat was ready. Although Qiao Jinnian knew Ryan didn't want to eat it, she still asked him as usual if he wanted to eat it. Sure enough, she got a speechless expression from him.

He gave a few pieces to Dazhuang, and a few pieces each to Paofeng and Yinbei. Qiao Jinnian ate all the rest, after all, cooked meat could not be stored.

This was the meat Ryan gave her, and she didn't want to waste it. After she finished eating, she felt a little full. She ran over, hugged Ryan's big paws and acted coquettishly: "Awooo."

With salt, life seemed to have returned to normal. She also wanted to develop her own recipes. After all, she was not a baboon who could rely solely on fruits. She also wanted to find some edible vegetables, if possible.

As the herbivores continued to move forward, they finally had to set off again, otherwise there would be a lack of food here.

After eating the food cooked by it for several days, Qiao Jinnian was still reluctant to throw away the irregular pot when moving, but the pot was too heavy and had to be thrown away.

Lying on Ryan's back, the large army began to move towards a further south.

Qiao Jinnian didn't calculate the total number of kilometers, but they really walked for a long time until the familiar breadfruit trees appeared in front of them.

At this moment, Qiao Jinnian actually felt like he was back home.

However, they returned home, and the baboons and ostriches also had to return to the green grassland further south.

Qiao Jinnian waved goodbye to these neighbors she had been with for several months, but her sadness did not last long because she actually saw Yoyo, and Yoyo was still alive!