Lan, Fanfan, a mixed race clan in the Fragrant Forest...
Jiang Yunlan didn't stand on ceremony and pointed directly at the fish, stating matter-of-factly that all beastmen should eat meat.
If she weren't afraid of scaring Maple Syrup, she would have given each beastman a fish. After all, she would bring back more food. But in order to be able to share food with Maple Syrup again next time, she was a little reserved and only took six fish and some fruit for the beastmen's dinner that night.
Maple Syrup stared at the food she was pointing to, her expression slightly taken aback.
Just when Jiang Yunlan thought she had asked for too much food, Maple Syrup handed her all the food she had ordered. Now she was the one who was stunned.
Does this mean she's to distribute them? She looked at the maple syrup, her movements hesitant, her deep black eyes filled with profound confusion.
She suddenly felt helpless and instinctively looked at the flames burning in the cave. Could it be the fire that brought about the change? But the orcs didn't seem unfamiliar with fire; they must have used it before, or seen other orcs use it.
Jiang Yunlan still doesn't understand why the beastmen trust her so much. From their initial acceptance, to their later obedience, and now to handing over the position of chieftain to her.
They were so sincere, like a blanket filled with the warmth of the sun suddenly slipping off the drying rack and covering her as she passed by.
It felt warm, but it didn't seem to belong to her.
She was silent for a moment, then she moved. She did not refuse to distribute food, nor did she refuse to become the clan leader.
She will stay here for a long time. She will repay their kindness to her in other ways.
The fish that the beastmen caught varied in size; the largest one was longer than Maple Red's forearm, while the smallest was only about one and a half times the size of her palm.
The middle-aged deer-beastman was skilled at dissecting various prey, so Feng Hong carried her to the platform outside the cave and learned her knife skills to scale and gut the fish together, removing the bloody smell left by the fish.
After the fish were prepared, Cotton and Ah Bai picked up six fish and ran to the fire to hand them to Lan.
The two orcs stared curiously at the yellowish-brown stems and water that Lan had taken from the fire. Why was Lan cooking these yellowish-brown stems that hurt her tongue?
Seeing their expressions, Jiang Yunlan chuckled and pointed to the leaves she had just laid on the ground, indicating that they should put the fish on them.
Seeing her movements, the two orcs haphazardly stacked the fish. This was how orcs always stored their food.
Seeing this, she shook her head and smiled helplessly, then laid the fish out neatly one by one herself. The two orcs, having finished setting out the food, didn't leave, watching her actions with clear, bright eyes, as if they understood something.
Lan likes to arrange things neatly, so they should do that from now on.
Jiang Yunlan arranged the fish in order of size, and when she looked up, she saw two orcs squatting dumbfounded in front of her.
"Ginger soup, drink it." She held up a bowl of ginger soup that was drinkable and handed it to them, gesturing for each orc to drink half.
Ah Bai understood, his ears immediately perked up, and he froze on the spot, as if he had been startled. He gestured and asked cautiously and uncertainly if he could not drink it, but Lan decisively refused. He lowered his head dejectedly, took the bamboo tube obediently with a wronged look, and frowned as he drank a few mouthfuls.
The ginger soup felt warm and comforting as it went down. Ah Bai was pleasantly surprised; the water with the stems tasted much better than eating the stems raw.
He was delighted and quickly handed the ginger soup to Mianhua. Mianhua instinctively took it and, at his soft urging, drank one sip, two sips, three sips…
After finishing the ginger soup, Cotton put down the bamboo tube, its tail drooping unhappily, looking aggrieved. "It tastes awful."
"It tastes better than eating it directly," Ah Bai whispered, looking at Lan with a hint of relief in his eyes. Luckily, Lan hadn't made them eat the stems directly.
He didn't know why Lan wanted them to eat such unpalatable food, but Lan must have her reasons for doing so.
Jiang Yunlan sighed and waved to them, telling them to go play by themselves. But to her surprise, the two orcs remained squatting beside her, as if curious about what she was going to do with the food.
Seeing this, she pointed to the bamboo tube filled with water beside her and told them to pick up their things and follow her to the platform outside the cave.
After washing her hands and stone knife with water outside, Jiang Yunlan turned back to the fire, heated the stone knife in her hand with the fire, and then used the stone knife to cut the meat off two small fish. As she sliced the meat, she threw it into a bamboo tube that had already been mixed with water and ginger slices, and then placed the bamboo tube on the fire to cook.
She skewered the remaining four fish with long, sharpened twigs, squeezed on some sour juice, sprinkled with ginger to remove the fishy smell, and roasted them over the fire. The smallest roasted fish was given to one orc, while the other three roasted fish were divided into six portions, plus four portions of boiled fish, ensuring that every orc could have some fish.
"Sizzle sizzle..."
The fish was roasting over a fire, emitting a delicious aroma, while the boiled fish also emitted a different fragrance from the roasted fish.
The orcs had never experienced anything like this before, and they were immediately drawn to gather around the fire, their eyes fixed on the boiled and grilled fish placed on the fire.
Feng Hong sat on the ground and twitched her nose. Her short deer tail swayed happily up and down, and her eyes were bright. "Sister, this smells so good! I want to eat it!"
"Bear with it, Lan hasn't distributed the food yet," Maple Syrup said, her eyes completely glued to the food.
Jiang Yunlan heard a "coo coo coo" sound, and the beastmen were talking restlessly. For a moment, she thought that the beastmen would not be able to resist the temptation and rush over to grab the food and start eating. But when she looked up, she saw the beastmen swallowing repeatedly and staring at her expectantly, their eyes conveying the same meaning.
Chieftain, I'm hungry!
She hesitated for two seconds, feeling inexplicably guilty, then lowered her head to flip the grilled fish over, saying, "Wait a little longer, wait a little longer."
Orcs: QAQ
The orcs waited anxiously for a long time before finally getting to eat the food they had been longing for.
Feng Hong got half a grilled fish, and devoured it with all her might, almost choking on a fish bone, yet still exclaiming with satisfaction, "Delicious!"
Today was another day she liked Lan even more. If Lan hadn't made her drink that awful stem water before distributing the food, she would have liked Lan even more. But since all the beastmen who went down to the river drank the stem water today, she decided not to be angry with Lan.
The orcs, busy eating fish, had no mouths to speak, so they could only nod frantically in agreement with what she said.
Seeing that they were enjoying their meal, Jiang Yunlan picked up a plate of boiled fish and handed it to the middle-aged deer-beastman, saying, "Qiuguo, this is your food."
Qiu Guo blankly accepted the food, watching the new clan leader return to the fire, her mind somewhat blank. Her legs were immobile, and she hadn't been brought before Lan to have her name spoken. When had Lan remembered her name?
She was puzzled and silently watched Lan. She saw Lan hand three bamboo tubes to Feng Hong and the others, and then utter the names of three old beastmen, instructing the beastmen who had finished eating to feed the elderly deer beastman who was unable to move.
Seeing this, she belatedly realized that Lan had remembered them when the other tribesmen called their names, even though Lan was not very good at their language.
She understood, and no longer looked at Lan's returning figure, quietly eating the boiled fish in her hand. She didn't know how to describe the warm feeling in her heart, but she knew she liked Lan very much, just as she had liked the Deer-Beastman clan of the past.
The fish was delicious, and the mist was wonderful too.
Jiang Yunlan sat back down in front of the fire, bent her legs, and picked up her half of the grilled fish. Just as she was about to take a bite, she saw a 022 float past her eyes.
The transparent slime circled around the orcs once more before landing by the fire. It was recording the orcs' first experience with cooked food.
Jiang Yunlan hesitated for a moment, but with the idea of getting along well with it, she asked, "022, do you want something to eat? I can share some of my fish with you."
The orcs couldn't understand her language and wouldn't know she was speaking to creatures they couldn't see, so she could speak freely.
022 never expected that she would voluntarily give up her food when there was a food shortage. She turned to look at her for several seconds and said in a flat tone, "022, thank you. But, I have no sense of taste and cannot eat food."
“…I see.” She understood, picked up the slightly charred grilled fish, took a bite, and couldn’t help but frown.
The fish wasn't prepared well enough; the fishy smell wasn't completely masked, and it still tasted a bit fishy. She felt that this grilled fish had flaws in every way, but the beastmen thought it was the best meal they had ever eaten since they were born.
The orcs happily finished their fish, then contentedly munched on their assigned fruit, their eyes fixed on the fish Lan had only just begun to bite into. They paid little attention to Lan's mutterings. They knew Lan would occasionally say something when she was lost in thought, like when she was starting the fire.
"Could Lan be sick?" Feng Hong couldn't help but worry when she saw Lan eating the delicious fish slowly, as if she couldn't eat anymore.
Maple Syrup's heart skipped a beat when she heard this. Looking at Lan's reaction, she increasingly felt that her sister was right.
How could a cub not like to eat? Is Lan eating so slowly because she can't eat anymore...?
The beastmen were worried; cubs were prone to dying if they couldn't eat. Lan, who had been rescued, had already nearly starved to death, and they feared she would die from lack of food. They discussed what to do, groaning in distress.
When Jiang Yunlan heard them call her name, she looked up while biting the fish tail, a question mark popping into her mind.
What are the beastmen thinking now? Why are they staring at her with strange looks again, as if they're about to pounce on her?
022 remembered more of the orc language than she did. Amidst the "yo-a-yo-a" sounds mixed with "Lan," she could barely make out words like "hungry," "eat," and "food," and speculated, "The mixed clan decided to find more food after eating cooked food for the first time. 022 noted this down for now."
Jiang Yunlan overheard this and suddenly realized. They really hadn't eaten enough. She happily decided to cook the remaining fish the next morning and get rid of the spoiled food as well.
She wouldn't let the beastmen eat spoiled food. There would always be more food.
As night deepened, the beastmen huddled around the fire, fast asleep, sprawled out on their backs. Jiang Yunlan glanced at the dirty haystack and silently moved up the time she would bring the beastmen back the next day.
Tomorrow night, we'll clean out the haystacks inside the cave and replace them with fresh hay, and then we'll have a clean and fresh living environment.
Jiang Yunlan silently planned what she needed to do tomorrow, then picked up the supple vines and began weaving a fish trap. She rarely made traps, so she made one as she recalled what she was doing, sometimes even having to dismantle it and start over, which naturally slowed her down.
The fire burned, occasionally making a soft crackling sound.
Qiu Guo, who stayed up all night watching the fire, glanced at Lan again and again. Seeing that Lan was reluctant to go to sleep, she gently patted the ground and said softly, "Lan, go to sleep."
Jiang Yunlan was brought back to her senses and realized how late it was. She looked up at the twin moons approaching each other outside the cave, decisively put down what she was holding, and lay down to sleep.
Before she closed her eyes, she noticed that 022, who had been beside her, had floated into the air and drifted out of the cave. She immediately realized that 022 had gone to observe the outside world.
Perhaps, 022 will find a new clan one night and choose to stay in it.
She suddenly became very curious about what kind of clans lived in the forest. Were there wolf-men or bear-men? Were those beastmen friendly like Feng Hong and her companions?
What exactly did the orcs of this clan go through to come together and form a new clan?
On her third day in the beast world, she began to want to understand this world.
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