Chapter 46 The Helpful Old Man
There is a bamboo house outside the Teng tribe, where a mysterious old man and a terrifying giant eagle live.
At the beginning, the people in the tribe were not used to it and were quite afraid of the giant eagle.
After a while, they found that the mysterious old man was relatively kind and the giant eagle would not attack anyone at random, so they gradually accepted the existence of the old man and the giant eagle.
August 15th.
“Chirp…Chirp…”
By the stream, Nanxing kept practicing blowing the bone whistle. Now he has learned how to use the bone whistle to make bird sounds, and occasionally even cause the birds in the trees to sing along.
Then he tried to use a bone whistle to make the sound of a deer, but the sound produced by the bone whistle was always a little off, which made him feel a little frustrated.
"I've been blowing for so long, but it still doesn't work."
Nanxing has always wanted to be like the people in the Deer Tribe hunting team in the past and use a bone whistle to make lifelike deer calls to attract deer in mating season.
This matter has become an obsession in his mind.
Unfortunately, he tried many times but failed repeatedly.
"Young man, why do you look so unhappy?"
The mysterious old man walked over from a distance, stood in front of Nanxing, and asked with a gentle expression.
Nanxing didn't say anything. Like all the members of the Teng tribe, he was wary of this mysterious old man.
The old man seemed to be able to see through his thoughts and smiled and said, "Don't be afraid. I'm just an old man who is about to be buried. I have difficulty walking. I can't hurt you."
Nan Xing agreed when he thought about it. The old man was too old and looked a little frail. The giant eagle was not by his side. What was there to be afraid of?
He is a warrior! Nanxing relaxed his guard a little, but still said nothing and lowered his head slightly.
The old man looked at the bone whistle in his hand and said, "Let me guess, I think you are here because of this bone whistle? Can you show it to me?"
Nanxing was disappointed with the bone whistle, so he handed it to the old man.
The old man took the bone whistle, rubbed it with his hand, and said, "The material is good, but it's a bit rough after being polished, so the pronunciation is not accurate."
Nanxing raised his head, looked at the old man in astonishment, and asked, "How do you know it's not pronounced correctly?"
"You've been blowing here for so long, I heard it all."
"So that's how it is."
Nanxing lowered his head again, feeling a little embarrassed.
The old man pointed at the bone whistle and said, "The three holes are a little small and not round, so the sound is not accurate. If you don't mind, I can help you polish it."
"After polishing, will it be able to make the sound of a deer?" Nanxing looked at the old man expectantly.
The old man didn't say anything too confident: "Probably, it won't be worse than it is now."
"Then...then help me polish it..."
After Nanxing finished speaking, he remembered something and added: "I can give you some wild fruits, which are very sweet."
The old man smiled and said, "Okay."
After saying this, the old man found a relatively flat rock to sit on, then took out a small stone knife from a leather bag he was carrying.
This small stone knife is light yellow in color. It is only as long as a palm and a little over a finger wide, and looks very miniature.
On the side of the stone knife, there were a few ancient primitive pictographic characters engraved in lines, but Nanxing didn't recognize them.
Nan Xing's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but say, "What a beautiful stone knife! This should be a gem-grade stone, right?"
The old man nodded with a smile and said, "You really know what you are talking about. This stone knife has been with me for many years. It was not that small before. It has been used for a long time and sharpened countless times until it became what it is now."
Nanxing's eyes were full of envy.
For most tribesmen, a gem-grade stone knife is a coveted treasure.
Because ordinary stones are not hard enough, they are very easy to wear out during use and need to be replaced with new ones after a short period of use.
However, stone knives made of gem-grade stones are not easy to wear or break, and one can be used for many years, just like the one in the old man's hand, the handle of which is covered with patina.
The old man sat on a big rock and used a small stone knife to help Nanxing re-polish the bone whistle.
He put the tip of the knife into the hole of the bone whistle and rotated it continuously, scraping off layer after layer of bone powder and slowly expanding the hole, eventually making the three holes on the bone whistle round and almost the same size.
Then he found a rough stone by the stream, poured a little water on the stone, and then ground both ends of the bone whistle until they were very smooth.
Time passed bit by bit, and more than an hour later, the old man finally finished polishing.
"Try blowing it again."
The old man handed the bone whistle to Nanxing.
Nanxing took the bone whistle and was surprised to find that after being polished by the old man, the whistle was much better than before in both feel and appearance.
With excitement, Nanxing put the bone whistle to his lips and blew it experimentally.
"Chiu..."
The bird calls he blew first were very pleasant to the ear, much better than before.
With excitement, Nanxing tried to blow the deer's call sound again.
“Yo… Yo…”
This time it actually worked!
After being re-polished, the sound of the deer call produced by the bone whistle is almost like the call of a real big-horned deer.
"Very good!"
Nanxing jumped up excitedly.
He never imagined that the reason why he couldn't blow the bone whistle to make the sound of a deer no matter how much he practiced was because he hadn't polished it enough.
"Old man, I...I'm going to get you some wild fruits. Wait for me."
Nanxing ran back to the bamboo house excitedly.
Jiang Xuan was sharpening arrowheads in the room. He looked at Nan Xing's impetuous appearance and asked curiously, "Nan Xing, what are you so happy about?"
"Chief, look, my bone whistle can make the sound of a deer calling!"
Nanxing was like a child showing off his new stuff. He took out the bone whistle and blew it a few times in front of Jiang Xuan.
Jiang Xuan was surprised to find that the sound produced by the bone whistle was indeed the cry of a deer.
"The old man riding the giant eagle helped me polish this. I promised to give him some wild fruits as a reward."
Nan Xing looked at Jiang Xuan eagerly and said, "Chief, can I give him some red-haired fruits?"
"Of course, go get it."
Jiang Xuan agreed without hesitation. It was just some wild fruits. It was autumn now and there were plenty of wild fruits in the mountains.
"Thank you, Chief."
Nanxing happily ran to the corner of the bamboo house, found a large rattan basket, and turned over the dry bamboo leaves covering it.
This wicker basket contains a kind of wild fruit that the tribesmen call red-haired fruit, which looks similar to a kiwi.
The skin of this wild fruit is covered with a lot of red hairs. After peeling off the skin, there is sweet flesh inside, which has a very strong fruity aroma and is very sweet.
Nanxing pocketed a dozen red-haired fruits in his animal skin coat, then ran back to the stream and gave them to the old man.
"This is called red-haired fruit. You can eat it after peeling the skin. It's very sweet."
The old man did not refuse. He peeled a red-haired fruit, tasted it, and nodded with satisfaction, "It's really sweet."
"See, I didn't lie to you."
Nanxing smiled brightly, revealing a row of neat teeth.
In the following days, this mysterious old man often helped the people of the Teng tribe solve some problems. Gradually, although everyone did not accept him, they were not as repulsive to him as before.
Jiang Xuan felt a little confused about the mysterious old man's behavior, but he also realized that this mysterious old man had a wide range of knowledge and knew a lot of things, and he must have come from a large tribe.
Anyway, apart from the totem god, there is nothing worth plotting against in the Teng tribe. The existence of the mysterious old man is more beneficial than harmful at present.
However, Jiang Xuan was a relatively cautious person. He did not completely relax his vigilance, but just did not show it.
Thanks to the book friend "花开花落花满天" for the reward.
Thanks to the book friend "Wu Shudao" for the reward.
…
I changed the cover, what do you think? (End of this chapter)
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