The gathering team returned to the Xia clan from the forest.
A light rain fell on the grassland in the middle of the night, but fortunately, the temporary shelters had already been set up, and the working orcs who stayed overnight at the Xia clan did not get wet.
The Xia clan's cubs slept peacefully in their brick-and-tile houses with heated kang beds at night, listening to the sound of rain pattering on the tiles. Jiang Yunlan didn't huddle together with the cubs to sleep; instead, she slept alone in a corner of the kang. A transparent slime nestled beside her hand, keeping her company as she slept.
022 remembers the analysis of sleeping postures by humans on Earth. Lan, who sleeps curled up, is a cub that feels uneasy about its surroundings; it wants to guard Lan.
The drizzling rain didn't stop until dawn. Rockflower, who had been on night watch, handed over his duties to the orcs patrolling the tribe's territory that morning, happily leaving his post and running towards the residential area. He was going back to sleep.
Yan Hua skipped back to the residential area and immediately spotted Yan Shaofeng walking out of the shelter. He quickly went over to him, carefully observing Yan Shaofeng's complexion, and said with concern, "Your injuries were serious. Lan said you'd need a long time to recover. Now that you're able to walk out, does that mean you're much better?"
"You can come out for a walk, but you can't run or do any strenuous movements. That's what Lan said," Yan Shaofeng explained with a smile, indicating that he didn't need to worry.
Hearing this, Yan Hua felt relieved. He raised his fist and tapped Yan Shaofeng's shoulder, his tone serious, "When you come back after you've recovered, I'll take the hits for you on the next hunting trip."
If Yan Shaofeng hadn't pushed him away in time during the last hunt, he would have died from the attack of the land scale beast.
Yan Shaofeng's eyes flickered, but he casually turned away from his gaze and said vaguely, "Let's talk about it later. My injury needs to heal for a while, so I can't go on the next hunting trip."
After saying that, Yan Shaofeng subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. For the first time, he was glad that his injuries hadn't healed quickly enough. Because his injuries weren't fully healed, he had a reason not to participate in the hunting operation.
Yan Hua sighed and rattled off a long string of words, telling him not to be sad and that there would be another chance.
He nodded guiltily, then interrupted Yan Hua after a while, "You just came back from outside, you should go and rest, right? If you don't go to sleep soon, it will be breakfast time."
"It's alright. We orcs who are on night patrol don't need to eat breakfast with you. Lan said we can have breakfast whenever we wake up; food is always prepared for us." Yan Hua smiled broadly, waved to him energetically, and walked back to her sleeping place.
The beastmen in the hunting team were all in excellent physical condition and could easily stay up for three days and three nights without sleep. However, after only one night, Yan Hua didn't feel tired at all.
As Yan Shaofeng watched Yan Hua enter the shelter, his tense nerves instantly relaxed. Yan Hua's expectations had put immense pressure on him; he hadn't dared to reveal his reluctance to return to the hunting team, and now he was even more afraid that his retreat would be discovered by his teammates.
He let out a heavy breath, then turned around to see Yan Dahe standing not far away, watching him expressionlessly. He couldn't help but stiffen.
Yan Dahe seemed to have stood there for a long time, seeing through his thoughts, so instead of coming up to talk to him as before, he turned around with a cold face and left him behind.
He instinctively wanted to run up and ask, but then remembered Lan's instructions, and forced himself to walk as he chased after Yan Dahe, his voice hesitant: "Wait! I can explain, I'm not going to participate in the hunting expedition just because my wound hasn't healed!"
Yan Shaofeng still didn't tell the truth. He was afraid that Yan Dahe and Yan Duoyu would find out about his cowardly thoughts, and he was even more afraid that Lan would be disappointed in him.
How can a warrior shirk battle?
He didn't want to be looked at like that by his people. The kind of look he used to give when he looked at the leopard-beastmen who had abandoned them and fled.
Yan Dahe stopped and turned to look at him, saying coldly, "You'd better be what you say."
Most leopard-like beastmen aren't delicate-minded, and she was no exception. She shouldn't have noticed his avoidance of hunting, but she herself happened to be a beastman who was afraid to face wild beasts, and she could read his avoidance from his body language and words.
Yan Shaofeng lost his voice and felt a chill run through his body. Yan Dahe noticed.
"What happened? Are you two... angry with each other?" Jiang Yunlan opened the door and saw two orcs facing each other stiffly.
Her eyes showed a lot of doubt. She remembered that the two of them had played together very well, like siblings. When Yan Shaofeng was recuperating in the shelter, it was Yan Dahe who came to get him food.
Yan Shaofeng trembled, looking at Lan in a panic, his mouth opening and closing several times but unable to utter a single word.
"No, we weren't arguing," Yan Dahe denied, giving him a look that signaled him not to reveal what had just happened.
Seeing the two orcs exchanging glances, Jiang Yunlan sighed and considerately refrained from pressing them further, though she knew in her heart that the two of them were having a disagreement.
"Is Lan going to wash up? I'll come with you." Yan Dahe spoke softly, his previous coldness completely gone.
Jiang Yunlan readily agreed, and with 022 above her head, she led the two beastmen to the cleaning area. She had only gotten up a little earlier than the cubs, and after washing her face, she saw Mo Rong leading the cubs over.
Before long, the other orcs from the tribe and the working orcs also arrived.
Breakfast is over.
Yan Dahe got up and returned to the enclosure. After taking over the care of the large eggs, she also took care of the other animals, becoming a beastman specializing in animal husbandry. Now, her daily tasks are to check on the eggs, feed the animals, and take them for walks in the farmland.
The cubs were relieved of one task—feeding animals—but gained another task: learning Chinese and arithmetic.
The school was still under construction, so Jiang Yunlan casually found an open space and set up wooden planks for outdoor teaching. The orcs still used the familiar sand table and branches as their writing tools.
Every day after lunch, Jiang Yunlan would lead the beastmen to an open space and spend some time teaching them.
At first, only the Xia clan orcs came to learn, but because she would reward the orcs who did well with delicious snacks, the working orcs gradually joined in as well.
The reward given by Lan was the only way they could obtain food that belonged only to them.
At this time, the beastmen did not have the concept of private property, but they knew that the rewards Lan gave them belonged to them and no one could take them away, because they were theirs.
Something that belonged only to them, and that thing was food. This realization ignited the beastmen's passion for learning. When cultivating fields, building houses, tanning animal hides... the beastmen would randomly choose another beastman and recite the spelling of a word or mathematical addition and subtraction to each other.
How is the Chinese character for "four" written?
"One is one horizontal line, two is two horizontal lines, three is three horizontal lines, so four must be four horizontal lines!"
"Haha, it's obvious you weren't paying attention in Lan's class. In Chinese, the number four doesn't have a horizontal line after that."
"Tch. Of course I listened carefully to Lan's lecture. I remember Lan told the story of the number 'three'. Lan said that the number 'three' is composed of heaven on top, earth on the bottom, and us, who are connected to heaven and earth, in the middle."
The orcs chattered amongst themselves, discussing and learning, sometimes even putting down their work and arguing with each other when things got heated. They actually preferred to fight, but orcs who fought without cause would be punished by being barred from rewards for seven days and would be dragged out by Lan as a negative example.
It's too embarrassing, I won't fight.
As Jiang Yunlan passed by the orcs discussing the writing system of the Chinese language, she nodded inwardly with satisfaction and turned to find Qiu Guo. The wick for the oil lamp in the mushroom sanctuary had run out, and she needed to go to Qiu Guo's treasure chest to get a new one.
"Qiuguo, I need a wick." The little squirrel-beastman cub stretched out its hand to Qiuguo, who was sitting on the stool.
Upon hearing this, Qiu Guo, who was sewing animal clothes, took out a roll of lampwick thread and handed it to Lan.
Jiang Yunlan took the lamp wick, hung it on her arm, and asked, "How are the beastmen who come to work here? Are they all adapting?"
“I can do a lot of work here, and they have all found jobs that suit them,” Qiu Guo said.
She glanced at Yan Shaofeng, whose injuries hadn't fully healed and who couldn't build houses but could only do light work, and then slowly said, "Yan Shaofeng is the same. He has a strong sense of observation and is very meticulous; he can already sew animal clothing. Lan doesn't need to worry too much about him."
Most leopard beastmen are not used to doing meticulous work, so Jiang Yunlan was surprised to find that he was one of the few patient and meticulous beastmen among them. He had only come to Qiuguo's place to work yesterday from the sanctuary.
"I understand." Jiang Yunlan looked away from Yan Shaofeng.
She hadn't found a suitable orc to cultivate the mushrooms and thought she'd have to wait for the gathering team to return before she could choose one. Now it seemed the right candidate had appeared. Yan Shaofeng was observant, meticulous, and patient enough to stay in the house for long periods—exactly the cultivator she wanted.
But Yan Shaofeng is a warrior, and he certainly wouldn't want to leave the hunting team. Jiang Yunlan felt a little regretful.
The leopard beastmen of the hunting team have always aimed to "become excellent warriors," and their greatest pride lies in becoming warriors. She knew that if she spoke up, Yan Shaofeng would leave the hunting team to cultivate mushrooms, but he would also be very sad.
The orcs obeyed her, but that didn't mean she should ignore their feelings.
"Lan, the clan only has a few raw stones left, and we'll soon be unable to make new stone tools." Qiu Guo's voice pulled Jiang Yunlan back to reality.
"I see. Then I'll send a few orcs to search the forest tomorrow," Jiang Yunlan said, once again reminiscing about ironware.
She had long wanted to smelt iron. Without ore and iron tools, it was difficult to develop new technologies, and many ideas remained just that—ideas. She wanted to lead her people to find ore, but before that, she needed to bring back the orcs from the gathering team.
Today marks eleven days since the orc gathering party set out, and they still haven't returned. This is no longer a matter of them going far or getting lost; it's highly likely they've encountered difficulties and are trapped somewhere.
Jiang Yunlan had made up her mind. Tomorrow, she would arrange for the orcs who were working to go to the forest to find stones, and then she would lead her people to find the gathering team by following the trail markers.
Whether they are dead or alive, she needs to know their whereabouts.
Just as Jiang Yunlan was taking 022 to check the supplies they had collected, she heard the news that the orcs from the gathering team had returned.
"Lan! The gathering team is back! They brought back strange orcs with feathered ears." Feng Hong ran over, excitedly sharing the good news with Lan.
Her leg injury had mostly healed, and she could run and jump again. When she saw the gathering team in the distance during patrol, she would quickly run over. She knew that Lan had been worried about the gathering team's situation, and Lan had been smiling much less lately.
"They're back?" Jiang Yunlan was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, "Feng Hong, let's go greet them."
She put aside the list in her mind and followed Feng Hong to the gathering team, where she immediately spotted the orc with feathered ears that Feng Hong had mentioned.
The long-haired beastmen, dressed in fluffy clothes, nodded slightly as they looked at her. "Hello, Chief of the Xia Clan. We are feathered beastmen from the Yan Clan, which is located on the other side of the mountain."
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Author's Note: With the addition of 20 units of nutrient solution by the little angel "Nan Shige", Yan Shaofeng's injuries have been repaired and the wounds are healing faster.
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