Making mud bricks involves adding sand and crushed straw to mud, then adding water to form a paste. The paste is then poured into a wooden mold, pressed firmly and flattened by foot or hand pressure. After removing the brick from the mold, it is left to dry on the ground for a few days until it is completely dry and becomes a solid mud brick.

For those who grew up eating meat and doing manual labor, making fifty mud bricks was not difficult. A man with Man's strength could easily make a hundred bricks a day.

Hui and Heiye, unable to bear the shame of following the others in hunting or gathering, chose to make mud bricks. They made fifty bricks a day, earned a piece of meat, and with some wild vegetables, they could at least feed themselves, rather than eating the rations of their children and grandchildren.

Hui and Heiye work all day to support themselves. Everyone else is working, leaving only Ming's family at home doing nothing.

Although he was a tribal elder and was entitled to a share of meat every day, he still had a wife and three children to support.

Qiao Yu's principle was to keep no idlers. While Man and Liushui didn't have specific tasks, they were always busy, working harder than anyone else in the tribe. It was understandable that they were paid more generously than the average person.

Even if the elders paid a salary like Ming, it wouldn't be much. So the meat Ming received each day was only the size of a woman's fist, not enough for him, so how could he support his wife and children who also stayed at home with him and lived off the food?

For the first two weeks of their stay in the Long Tribe, their family ate only the dried meat they had brought from the Shanyin Tribe. Seeing that the dried meat was almost gone, and that the small amount of meat they would receive each day would not be enough to feed the family, Qiu had taken his children to gather more meat more than two weeks ago.

"What should I do? I'm a useless person in the tribe now. They don't need me at all. They didn't remove me now, just to appease the hearts of the original Shanyin tribe. After a while..." At this point, Ming smiled bitterly, "Not to mention after a while, even now, if Yu removes my position as elder, I guess no one will speak up for me."

Hui and Heiye, who had spoken up for him, had already been dismissed. As for the others, they would support whoever kept them fed. Who would fight against Yu and the others for him?

Qiu was silent and didn't speak for a long time.

In fact, she had thought about this issue long before she had to take her youngest son, who was only five years old, out to gather meat. She had always wanted Ming to find a job. The little meat Ming was given as an elder couldn't even feed himself. Did he really need women and children like them to feed him?

As proud as I was when I married Ming and how much I admired him, I am as disappointed now.

It was only when she got here that she realized her husband was actually a useless man.

But Ming couldn't lift or carry anything, and even Hui and Heiye couldn't bring themselves to follow the women to gather. As the son of the Shanyin tribe leader and an elder of the Long tribe, how could he afford to do such a thing? Even making mud bricks would be a loss of face.

So what can Ming do?

Now that Ming mentioned it, she asked the question that had been pent up in her heart for half a month: "Then what can you do?"

Ming stared into the void, silent.

Thinking of what he had just seen at the door, Qiu's eyes lit up and he said, "I just saw Ji. He was talking to Qinglang, the son of the neighboring Fire Elder, as they came out of the house. It seems that the two of them have a good relationship. Why don't you go talk to Ji and ask him to ask Qinglang to plead with the Fire Elder. Doesn't the Fire Elder manage the Fire Hall? Ask the Fire Elder to give you a position there. You don't have to do anything there, just keep the fire burning."

Ming's eyes lit up: "That's a good idea."

There was nothing to do in the Fire Hall except guarding it, which was perfect for him. And since Elder Huo was also working there, it wouldn't be a loss of status for him as an elder to do the same.

The only problem was that the Fire Hall had a rotation of three people on duty. Would adding him be too much? Would Yu agree? Since Huo was the elder of the Valley Tribe, Yu should probably give him some respect, right?

Thinking of this, Ming said to his wife, "See, you've been telling me to stay away from Hui and Heiye for a while now, but when something happens, I still need their help, right?"

He sighed and said, "No matter what, apart from my father, mother and you close relatives, the only ones who can always support me are Hui and Heiye. I can't let them become estranged."

As he said this, he glanced at Qiu.

There was something he didn't say.

When Qiu was in the Shanyin tribe, she was the most docile and virtuous person. She never questioned his decisions and did whatever he asked her to do.

But since arriving at the Dragon Tribe, when his income as an elder was no longer enough to support her and their children, her gentleness and kindness disappeared. She also frequently interfered with his interpersonal relationships, telling him not to associate with Hui and Heiye.

He was very disappointed with such a wife. In comparison, Hui and Heiye, who had always been loyal to him, were rare.

Qiu didn't know what he was thinking, but this time she didn't refute him.

In contrast to the depressed Ming family, the Fang siblings, who had just moved in and were still living next door to the Heiye family, were lying in a house that truly belonged to them. They were full of hope for the future and felt they had endless energy.

Although the new house had three rooms, it was perfectly fine for them to each have one. However, the three siblings had been dependent on each other since childhood and were used to living together. Moreover, Xiaoyuan was only eight years old, and the brothers were worried about letting her sleep in a room by herself, so the three of them continued to live in one room.

Anyway, the kang is very big, and they use animal skin to separate a small part of it for Xiaoyuan, which is more than enough for three people to live in.

"Did you hear what our team leader said just now? Hehe, our breeding team is going to kill a large number of rabbits soon, and then I will be able to get a lot of meat. If we can't finish it, we can roast it into jerky and store it. This way we won't starve during the snow season." Shi's triumphant voice came from the darkness.

Xiao Yuan, who was used to arguing with her little brother, couldn't help but throw cold water on him: "But brother, isn't the meat you usually bring back from the breeding team counted as part of your allotment?"

"Even if we deduct the usual points, there are still a lot." Shi said unconvinced.

"There's too much to eat. It'll stink in the summer."

"Hehe, I'm not happy if it stinks, it's better than having nothing to eat. Hey, you know what, we've never worried about too much meat going bad before, because we always have enough to eat. I love the Dragon Tribe so much." Shi sighed.

This time, Xiaoyuan didn't refute him, but nodded in agreement: "I like it too, I like it very much."