Chapter 15 That evening, Cang Li cooked a large...

That evening, Cang Li cooked a big pot of minced meat, cabbage, and millet porridge, added some chopped shiitake mushrooms, and sprinkled some salt on top. It smelled delicious.

Having eaten and drunk his fill, Cang Li lay there, too lazy to move. All he needed was a phone. Sigh…

Er pulled Zhong and Yu to lie down beside Cang Li's bed, and Zhong's cute little voice rang in Cang Li's ear:

"Ah~ Sister~ What happened to Martin later? Is he a god?"

Er also looked at Cang Li curiously, and even eagerly pulled Yu to massage Cang Li's legs.

Cang Li crossed his legs, leisurely enjoying the service from the cub.

"Martin, he's turned into a fire-breathing dinosaur again..."

Jihejie finished tidying up and also leaned over to listen with great interest, looking at Cangli with great amazement, even though they didn't understand a large part of the content, such as what an astronaut was? What an alien was? But that didn't stop them from listening to the story.

Cang Li was also bored, so telling some stories was a way to entertain himself.

The children were getting sleepy from listening, so Cang Li directed them to go back to their own beds to sleep. The children wobbled back to their beds and crawled up like little turtles, falling fast asleep.

Cang Li turned over and looked outside the cave. She was always worried that another heavy rain like that would come at any time. She hadn't been sleeping well these past few days. Cang Li sighed. No wonder the common people in ancient times often had no harvest. In such cases, the harvest depended entirely on God.

The next day was another sunny day, and Cang Li felt relieved. Then she started to worry about tomorrow. After worrying for a while, Cang Li woke up the kids and made some meat soup for breakfast. They had run out of steamed buns, so they ate some cantaloupe with meat soup or cooked millet porridge in the morning.

After they finished eating, Cang Li led the children up the mountain from the other side. They had already explored the previous area, and the items they collected no longer increased the gathering points, so Cang Li decided to change locations, also hoping to find some bamboo.

Following the sparse vegetation and relatively gentle slope, Cang Li settled Yu An under the shade of a tree and instructed Ji Hejie to lead the group to gather edible and usable items in the surrounding area, and to be careful and safe.

Then Cang Li started harvesting unfamiliar plants nearby and unexpectedly discovered an orange tree. The oranges weren't ripe yet, so Cang Li picked a few and gave them to the collector to exchange for a collection point. After marking it, she realized that she had already found pear trees, apple trees, jujube trees, chestnut trees, and now an orange tree on the mountain. She wouldn't have to worry about fruit anymore.

This mountain is quite amazing. These trees don't seem like they could grow on the same mountain. But in primitive society, the geological environment was probably different from later. Maybe the continental plates are still connected now. It's reasonable for several trees with different habits to grow together.

Cang Li calmly convinced himself that geography was something that anyone who studied it would be confused about, and Cang Li was too lazy to think about geography.

After collecting more than twenty collection points, Cang Li turned around and pulled Yu, who was entertaining herself, to walk inside. She also left marks along the way. Since she was already here and it was still early, she had to walk further in.

The trees were denser here, and as Cang Li walked further in, he could clearly feel the temperature drop. There were also more rotten leaves on the ground. Cang Li thought for a moment that with so many rotten leaves and wood, there might be wood ear mushrooms. Wood ear mushrooms are quite delicious, and they can be preserved for a long time when dried.

Cang Li picked up a hoe and started searching under the tree, clearing away the fallen leaves. At first, he didn't find any wood ear mushrooms, but he picked up quite a few other fungi. Later, he dug out a piece of wood that was half rotten and covered with palm-sized wood ear mushrooms. They looked delicious. Cang Li picked the wood ear mushrooms and threw them into his basket. He then slapped Yu Yi, who was stuffing a handful of wood ear mushrooms into his mouth.

"You're not allowed to eat it, it's raw, you can't eat it."

Cang Li snatched the wood ear mushrooms from Yu's hand, then stuffed a small cantaloupe into Yu's mouth to eat while he continued picking wood ear mushrooms. The wood ear mushrooms on one piece of wood filled half a basket. Cang Li buried the rotten wood back into the fallen leaves and continued on his way.

As Cang Li walked, he noticed that there were more bamboo leaves among the fallen leaves. He even picked them up and examined them, and they were indeed bamboo leaves.

This discovery brought a glimmer of joy to Cang Li, who had been in a bad mood for days. She turned around, picked up Yu, and quickened her pace. After turning around a large rock, she indeed saw a bamboo forest. Cang Li put Yu down on the ground and ran over to take a look. The bamboo was very dense and growing very well. The largest bamboo was thicker than her waist. She could cut it down and make a lot of things.

Cang Li took out his axe, looked back at Yu's position, turned around, picked up a few bamboo stalks thicker than his thigh, and began chopping with the axe.

Bamboo is much easier to cut than big trees. After about ten cuts, the tall bamboo slowly fell down. Cang Li put the bamboo into her backpack and continued to cut down the next one. She planned to cut down three or four bamboos to take back today.

After chopping down four bamboo stalks, Cang Li, panting, put away her axe and sat down to drink water. Bamboo was better than straw for weaving and lasted longer. Once she took it back and processed it, it could become her main craft material.

After resting for a while, Ji and his men also came over. When they saw that Cang Li had cut down four bamboo trees, they all looked at their elder sister with admiration.

Cang Li packed the fresh bamboo into his backpack, waved his hand, and said in a good mood, "Let's go home!"

Ji hurriedly picked up Yu and led the group of people to follow Cangli down the mountain. He also used an axe to cut down the weeds along the way, clearing a relatively clear mountain path. This area was still quite large, and Cangli planned to come here to collect some mountain produce and store food for the next few days.

The temperature rose noticeably after descending the mountain. Cang Li fanned himself with his straw hat, handed water to the children behind him, and walked in the shade.

Back in the cave, Cang Li didn't want to stay outside. Looking at the bare cave entrance, he even thought about planting a couple of trees to provide shade from the sun.

The cave was relatively cool. Cang Li sat on the ground and emptied the wood ear mushrooms from his basket to clean them. Others came over to help him.

Cang Li carefully selected and removed the wood ear mushrooms from their roots, removing any wood chips. He then placed them on a straw mat and had the servants carry them out to dry in the sun. Fresh wood ear mushrooms are poisonous, and drying them helps break down the toxic substances inside, so they need to be dried before soaking and cooking.

The sun was shining brightly outside, so Cang Li rarely went out at this time. It was too hot, and Cang Li didn't want to cook. She simply took out the leftover meat soup from the previous meal and the millet porridge from the meal before that from her backpack. They were still in almost the same condition as when she put them in, so there was no need to heat them up. She could just eat them directly.

After eating, Cang Li wanted to drink mung bean soup, but there were no mung beans or white sugar.

Cang Li lay on the bed and sighed. It's not easy to find something to cool you down in the summer.

When the sun began to set and it wasn't so hot outside, Cang Li took the others to the river to fetch water. The water in the cave was almost used up, and Cang Li wanted to use the water to rinse the cave entrance to cool it down. The water from the rinse could also flow into the vegetable garden to water the vegetables.

When Cang Li arrived at the river, he saw that the river water had become clear again. The water level had dropped to about the same level as before and was very stable. The current was not very fast. Some dead branches and pebbles on the bank had been washed away. The traces left by Cang Li and the children had also disappeared. Cang Li looked in the direction of the current, but the view of the opening where the river flowed out was limited, and he could not see much.

The situation upstream was similar. Cang Li looked around and estimated the distance. She wanted to walk along the river out of the mountains, but it would probably take a whole day. She wouldn't be able to return to the cave at night, and there were still these children. If she wanted to go out, she had to prepare in advance and bring everything she could. She couldn't go out for the time being. Cang Li also needed to prepare for the dangers she might encounter outside and have countermeasures.

"Have you guys been outside?"

Cang Li pointed to the upstream of the river and asked the person who was drawing water into the pottery jar.

Ji followed Cang Li's hand and looked over, then shook his head and said, "No, does Sister want to go? But... um, we can't go, it's too dangerous outside." Ji didn't know how the Mother Goddess would express herself in the language his sister had taught him, so he omitted the title in the middle.

Cang Li asked with some doubt, "How do you know it's dangerous if you haven't been there?"

The man shook his head, somewhat bewildered: "I don't know, it's just very dangerous."

Cang Li frowned, sensing something was wrong again. She had to go outside the mountain to see what the danger was!

After returning, Cang Li released the water from the compartment of his backpack to wash the ground. Er led the group to play in the water, and Yu also climbed over. Seeing this, Cang Li threw Ji and Jie into the water to be washed as well.

After rinsing with water, the heat was carried away by the evaporation of the water, and it was indeed much more comfortable. The sun had completely sunk behind the mountains. Cang Li was too hot to eat, so he cooked some millet porridge in a pot. You don't need to watch it; just throw the ingredients in.

The moon came out at night, making the outside very bright. The sky was full of stars. Cang Li lay on the clean platform, fanning himself. Behind him, someone extinguished the fire in the stove, opened the pot lid to let the porridge cool, and then brought a bowl to Cang Li, followed by a few children.

After eating and cleaning up, Ji Hejie lay down next to Cang Li and turned his head curiously to ask:

"Sister, what are you looking at?"

Cang Li said slowly, "Look at the stars. I heard there are fairies on the moon."

Cang Li originally wanted to tell the story of Chang'e flying to the moon, but considering that mythology might not have developed in primitive society, Cang Li decided not to tell it.

Yu and Zhong climbed onto Cang Li and giggled. Cang Li, annoyed, picked up the chubby Yu and tossed him to the others, saying, "You're so heavy, don't climb on me."

After saying that, he reached out to help the others up and said, "You're heavy too, lie down on one side."

Everyone burst into laughter and planted a kiss on Cang Li's cheek: "Sister, you smell so good~"

This left Cang Li speechless, muttering, "I wonder who gave birth to you all, you're so good at sweet-talking people..."

Ji, with his sharp ears, asked Cang Li curiously, "Sister, what does it mean to have us?"

Cang Li thought for a moment. He couldn't very well explain biological concepts like the harmony of life and the instinct for reproduction to a few children, could he? So Cang Li simply said:

"So, the ones who created you... oh, the ones who created us, we are human, but what about the people who created us? Hey, come to think of it, I haven't even asked you, are we the only ones here? I mean, have you ever seen any other creatures that look like us?"

Person: ? ? ?

Huh? How could my older sister not know this? They all know it, even when they couldn't speak or express themselves.

The five children stared blankly at Cang Li.

A note from the author:

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