Chapter 3 Sour Fruit
The next morning, it was still dark.
Jian Mo was sleeping in the warm and soft animal skin, and he heard faint voices outside in a daze.
"Why so early?"
"Hahaha, when I got up in the morning, I felt very relaxed, so I turned into an animal and went out for a run. I didn't expect to be lucky enough to see this purple bird. Give it to Jian Mo, thank him for scraping me."
"I'll talk to him when he wakes up." "
Okay, then I'll go back first..."
After listening for a while, Jian Mo realized that it might be Wu Jiong and Hong Qiu outside.
Is Hong Qiu cured?
Jian Mo was much more awake, and he lifted the animal skin covering his body and planned to go downstairs to take a look.
Unexpectedly, when he walked downstairs, Hong Qiu was gone.
He leaned his head out to take a look.
Wu Jiong was boiling water by the fire. When he saw him coming down, he pointed outside and said, "Hong Qiu just came and gave you a purple bird, saying thank you for scraping him."
Jian Mo: "I heard it upstairs. Is his illness healed?"
Wu Jiong put firewood into the fire and nodded, "He said he's fine."
Jian Mo breathed a sigh of relief, "That's great."
Scraping is also useful for orcs, that's great.
Wu Jiong: "Put the purple bird by the door, take a look."
Jian Mo nodded happily and went to check.
By the door was a large blue-purple bird that Jian Mo had never seen before. It was bigger than an ordinary duck and looked quite plump.
Jian Mo checked it out and found that the purple bird's neck was broken, but its body was still warm.
Jian Mo brought the purple bird into the house, placed it by the fire, fiddled with it for a while, trying to find a way to deal with it.
It seemed that he had to bleed it first, then boil water to pluck its feathers.
Wu Jiong happened to have boiled water, and Jian Mo asked: "Can I use this boiled water?"
Wu Jiong: "I boiled it for you, use it as you like. What do you want to use it for?"
The beastmen did not have the habit of drinking hot water before, and Jian Mo was not used to drinking raw water. After asking Wu Jiong to boil water for him several times, Wu Jiong would boil a tank of water every day.
Jian Mo looked at the purple bird: "I'm going to pluck the purple bird's feathers."
Wu Jiong: "You don't need boiling water to pluck the feathers."
Jian Mo was puzzled. How can he do it without boiling water?
Wu Jiong: "Just pluck the feathers directly. I'll take them to the river, and you can cook at home."
It would indeed make the floor very dirty if you do it at home, especially if the floor is muddy and it would be bad if it gets wet.
Jian Mo nodded, then thought of something and said, "Can you bring all the feathers back?"
Wu Jiong was surprised: "Purple bird feathers?"
Jian Mo: "Yes, I'll see if I can keep them and do something with them."
Wu Jiong: "Okay."
Jian Mo smiled a little and asked, "Do you want barbecue or meat pie? Or both?"
Wu Jiong said without hesitation: "Meat pie."
After Wu Jiong left, Jian Mo went under the eaves to cut down the fat and lean meat, and found the side dishes to prepare meat pie.
Although the knife in his hand was a shell knife, it was sharpened very well, so cutting meat and vegetables was no problem at all. Except that it broke easily, there were no other problems. The only problem
was that the stone slab used for grilling meat was difficult to use. It took a long time to preheat it, and when it was really hot, the ingredients on it would easily burn, so they had to be turned over frequently.
Jian Mo was busy at home.
Wu Jiong soon came back with the processed purple bird, and Jian Mo's meat pie was almost fried.
Seeing him come back, Jian Mo quickly divided the meat for him.
The two sat by the fire and ate breakfast.
Wu Jiong said, "When I just came back, I met the beastmen in the tribe. They asked me to ask you if you want to go out with them to collect."
Jian Mo's eyes lit up: "Can I? I want to go!"
He has been staying at Wu Jiong's house for seven or eight days. He just walked around the tribe yesterday and couldn't hold it anymore.
Wu Jiong: "Go, they will collect near the tribe, there is no danger."
Jian Mo: "How to go? Should I go find them?"
Wu Jiong: "I will take you to find them when I go out hunting later."
Jian Mo nodded and used two sticks of appropriate thickness as chopsticks to pick up the meat pie and eat it.
He had just been ill, so he lost some fat and added more side dishes to the meat pie, which was a refreshing version of the meat pie.
Wu Jiong watched him eat the meat pie in a strange posture without saying anything.
After quickly finishing breakfast and washing the dishes, Jian Mo followed Wu Jiong out with a backpack on his back.
In the open space in the center of the tribe, orcs, sub-beastmen and the cubs who could not transform yet were already moving around there.
People gathered in twos and threes to chat, and when they saw Jian Mo following Wu Jiong out, many people came over to say hello and then cast curious eyes on Jian Mo.
It was a new thing for a strange sub-beastman to come to the tribe, and they could chat for a long time.
Wu Jiong took Jian Mo to a sub-beastman and said, "Qingkuan, Jian Mo is in your hands today. Please take care of him."
Jian Mo recognized that this sub-beastman was the one who looked like a model with cat ears on his head.
Today, he looked like a pure human, and his ears were ordinary human ears.
Qingkuan raised his eyes and met Jian Mo's gaze.
His eyes became sharp, and he slowly pulled up the corners of his mouth and agreed: "Okay, as long as he doesn't wander around."
I don't know if it's an illusion, Jian Mo always feels that his demeanor is particularly like a cat, or a feline, with a bit of fierceness.
Being stared at, Jian Mo said very tactfully: "I will listen to you when we go out."
Qingkuan looked at Jian Mo again, and curled his lips with satisfaction: "Then you will follow me later."
There were more and more people on the open space, and Jian Mo noticed that they were divided into several small teams.
Some of them walked up to Qingkuan, and they all looked like older beastmen.
Qing Kuang was obviously the leader of this team. Seeing that everyone was gathered, he briefly introduced Jian Mo to everyone, and then led everyone out.
Jian Mo walked among the crowd. He answered when someone asked him questions, and did not take the initiative to speak when no one asked.
After a while, everyone's attention shifted away from him and began to talk about various things in the tribe.
Jian Mo listened quietly beside him and learned a lot of things.
This world should also be in autumn. The wind blowing over was a bit dry and cold, and the sky seemed blue and high.
If the surrounding plants and people were not very strange, it should be a very pleasant thing to collect in such a forest.
Jian Mo looked at the snow-capped mountains in the distance and sighed in his heart.
He really couldn't go back.
This should be the jungle familiar to the Asian beastmen. Not far away, they found a fruit tree.
They dispersed and each found a tree to start collecting.
Qing Kuang motioned Jian Mo to follow him: "Let's go pick the energy fruit from that tree."
Jian Mo nodded.
They walked to a tree at the edge, Qing Kuang looked up, lowered the backpack, jumped up, and the nails on his hands and feet popped out, forming sharp hooks.
Then, he used his claws to firmly grip the tree trunk and climbed up, as light as a cat.
In just a blink of an eye, this long-armed and long-legged beastman climbed to a high branch, looked down at Jian Mo, and motioned him to come up.
Jian Mo opened his mouth slightly and looked up at the beastman standing on the tree crown.
This tree is at least twenty meters high and grows very straight, with branches only six or seven meters from the ground.
Jian Mo looked at the bare tree trunk, then at his legs.
It's over.
He doesn't seem to be able to do it.
Qing Kuang squatted on the tree, holding the trunk with his claws, frowning slightly: "What's wrong?"
Jian Mo was startled and quickly put down the backpack: "Nothing, I'll try."
When the beastmen go out, they can beastify some of their organs, such as releasing beast ears with pointed hair and inner and outer ears, such as pupils that can expand and shrink, such as curved claws.
These beastmen are also called beast marks, which can help the beastmen adapt to the environment better.
He also wanted to learn from Qing Kuang, but unfortunately he couldn't, so he could only use the purely human method, holding the tree with his hands and feet to climb up.
But the trunk was thick and slippery, with no foothold at all. He had just been ill and was not in very good condition. He climbed 30 centimeters but slid 25 centimeters. He tried hard for a while but to no avail.
Qingkuang saw Jian Mo struggling to climb half a person's height above the ground. Because of the effort, his cheeks were slightly red, and his lips were also amazingly rosy.
It was obvious that he had tried hard.
But it was useless.
Qingkuang found it unbelievable that a kid in the tribe who had just turned one month old could climb a tree.
Qing Kuang was sure that Jian Mo was not lazy and that he really couldn't do it, so he said, "Don't climb anymore, take a rest."
Jian Mo's face turned redder, and he panted and said, "I'll try again."
Qing Kuang said bluntly, "I guess it's useless no matter how hard you try, just pick them up from the ground, and I'll shake some fruits down for you."
Jian Mo's arms were already sore, and he struggled to climb up a few more times, but found that he really couldn't climb up, so he had to say, "Thank you."
Qing Kuang: "You go down first and stand farther away."
Jian Mo slid down the tree and left the range of the tree cover.
Qing Kuang saw that he had walked away, so he stood on the tree branch, hugged the tree trunk and shook it.
The tree rustled, and the fruits on it fell like rain, rolling on the ground.
This fruit called "energy fruit" was about the size of Jian Mo's fist, with a green skin and looked very bitter.
Jian Mo searched in his mind, but could not find any memory of energy fruit. He did not know what the edible part of energy fruit was, but it should be a good food. It can be seen from the fact that
Qingkuang and his men clearly knew the growing location of each energy fruit plant that they attached great importance to energy fruit.
After Qingkuang finished shaking the energy fruit, Jian Mo went over to pick it up.
Some of the ripe energy fruits had fallen to the ground before, and when Jian Mo picked them up, he could see the energy fruits that had been gnawed by animals.
These fruits are covered with a hard and thick outer skin, and underneath the skin is a ball of soft snow-white flesh. There are also black seeds as big as rice grains in the flesh, and there is a sweet fruity fragrance.
It should taste good.
Jian Mo picked them for a while, and the juice that seeped out of the outer skin soon oxidized and dyed his hands black. The skin on his hands began to turn red and itchy.
Allergy.
Jian Mo rubbed his hands with mud and continued to pick.
Qing Kuang quickly picked most of the fruits on the tree, and he picked most of the basket.
Jian Mo also picked all the fruits on the ground, but there was only a small basket, because the backpack was very large, and it was still heavy on his back, estimated to be forty or fifty kilograms.
Fortunately, the handles of the backpack were wide enough, so it didn't strain his shoulders. Jian Mo felt that carrying it from here to Wu Jiong's house would not be a big problem.
After picking the fruits, Qing Kuang took Jian Mo to meet up with the others.
They had almost finished picking, but the backpacks were not full yet, so they had to find other things.
Jian Mo followed behind.
Forty or fifty kilograms is not heavy for an adult man, but it is quite uncomfortable to carry it around all the time.
Qing Kuang was walking in front, turned his head and glanced at Jian Mo. He might have noticed that he was struggling, so he didn't deliberately give him food during the following collection.
Jian Mo followed the main group, slowly picking some wild vegetables and fruits.
There are a lot of ingredients in the forest, but not all of them are delicious.
The Asian beasts are not very picky, and they will try their best to bring back all the edible food.
They didn't go back until the sun was about to set in the afternoon.
Almost everyone's backpack was full, except for Jian Mo, who only filled half of it. This was
his first time to collect, and the harvest was already good, so he was quite satisfied with his harvest.
Everyone walked from the other side of the mountain. The way back was different from the way they came. On the way back, they could still find some food.
Jian Mo was walking in the middle of the team. As he walked, he saw pods hanging down from a sour tree. He raised his hand and broke off more than ten pods.
The orcs behind him saw him breaking pods and stopped to wait for him: "Why are you breaking these? This is not delicious. After eating it, your stomach will be sour and uncomfortable."
Jian Mo remembered this kind of fruit tree. The sour fruit was too plain and sour, and it was very fat-sucking. Eating too much would make people's stomachs sour and their bodies would become weak.
However, after eating meat for so long in the tribe, Jian Mo had some oral ulcers. He might be lacking vitamins. He needed to supplement some vitamins and eat more food.
Jian Mo put the sour fruits away and smiled at the beastman: "I'll take them back and see if I can make some other dishes to change the taste."
The beastman looked at the sour fruits silently and shook his head slightly.
Jian Mo didn't explain much, he quickly picked the sour fruits and continued on his way.
Back to the tribe, the beastmen first went to the open space of the tribe to put down half of the things they had collected.
——The adults in the tribe, whether hunting or gathering, must leave half of the harvested food for the tribe to redistribute.
Jian Mo followed everyone else's example and left half of the food, and then went back to Wu Jiong's house.
Wu Jiong hadn't come back yet.
Jian Mo put down the backpack, took out the wooden basin, and poured out a small part of the wild vegetables to wash them.
After washing them clean, he added some salt and mixed them evenly, and took them outside to dry.
Today's sunset is so brilliant, and it probably won't rain tonight. We can wind-dry the wild vegetables first and wait until tomorrow to dry them in the sun. There are no wild animals in the tribe, so it's okay to put them outside to dry.
Wild vegetables are more likely to spoil, so it's okay to wind-dry them.
Just as Jian Mo
was busy, the orcs in the tribe came back. An orc came in to get a knife to divide the meat, and saw Jian Mo busy, and called out, "It's time to divide the food, Jian Mo, come out quickly."
Jian Mo was stunned: "Me?"
The orc said enthusiastically, "Yes, you are also a member of our tribe, and you can divide the food. Go and see what food you want to choose?"
Jian Mo didn't expect this tribe to accept him so quickly.
After hesitating for a while, he turned off the fire, moved the meat off the stone slab, and followed him out.
He had to integrate into the tribe as soon as possible and couldn't refuse the tribe's kindness.
The people in the tribe were waiting in the small square outside, chatting while waiting for the food to be distributed.
Seeing Jian Mo coming out, many people fell silent and looked up at him.
He forced himself to smile at them and lined up at the back of the line.
Everyone quickly turned their eyes away and continued chatting.
Jian Mo breathed a sigh of relief, and then he had time to observe the surrounding environment.
He noticed that generally only one person from a family lined up, and there were orcs, sub-orcs, and teenagers who could transform but were not yet adults in the line.
Maybe according to the population, the amount of meat each person received was different, and the types and parts were also different.
The line gradually became shorter, and soon it was Jian Mo's turn.
"What kind of meat do you want?" The orc who was distributing the food was called Ye Luo. He looked at Jian Mo and said, "Or should I pick a piece for you?"
Jian Mo had already thought about it. Looking at the meat placed on the leaf, he said nervously, "I want a small piece of liver, just this kind of liver, any piece of meat will do."
Ye Luo said nothing and directly cut off a piece of liver for him with a shell knife, cut off a piece of meat the size of a fist for him, and then took a leg bone for him.
The orcs next to him distributed stems and wild vegetables to him.
Jian Mo whispered, "Thank you."
Ye Luo looked at him and said, "You're welcome. Eat more and replenish yourself."
Receiving the kindness, Jian Mo walked towards Wu Jiong's house in a good mood with the heavy food in his arms.
If he could get so much meat every day, plus the food he collected, it should not be difficult for him to support himself here.
While Jian Mo was busy, Wu Jiong came back with meat and vegetables.
In addition to meat, Wu Jiong also carried a bunch of small intestines.
Seeing Jian Mo's gaze, Wu Jiong only handed the meat over: "The intestines are a little difficult to deal with. Let's eat the meat first, and I'll do it myself tomorrow."
Jian Mo waved his hand: "No, I just didn't expect you to bring back the intestines."
Wu Jiong: "I exchanged them with someone."
Seeing that he took the initiative to explain, Jian Mo smiled, revealing his not-so-obvious little fangs: "I also want the liver, it's okay, I will deal with it, leave it to me."
Wu Jiong saw that Jian Mo looked serious, so he handed the small intestines to him.
Jian Mo took the small intestines, and then took a wooden basin filled with a large basin of wood ash, and washed them directly with the wood ash.
Wu Jiong had never seen this treatment method before, so he followed behind him to help.
Jian Mo explained, "The ash can absorb the odor, and the alkali inside can also clean up various mucus."
Wu Jiong didn't quite understand, so he just nodded.
Jian Mo worked quite efficiently, and quickly washed it several times, cleaning the small intestines cleanly. Then he used a shell knife to cut it into several sections, and then put it on the stone slab to roast.
Roasting small intestines is simpler than roasting meat, because it doesn't stick, and it's easy to roast tiger skin.
Jian Mo waited until the small intestines were almost roasted, then put the sour fruit on it, stir-fried it with the small intestines, liver, etc., and then added salt.
Because of the sour fruit, he deliberately added half a spoonful of salt.
After all the ingredients were fried together, he tasted it a little. It tasted salty and sour, which suppressed the odor of the innards very well and brought out the freshness.
It was quite delicious.
Jian Mo served the sour fruit fried innards, and also served the meat pie on the edge of the stone slab, and invited Wu Jiong to dinner.
Today's meat pie is also divided into pure meat and with stems. Both kinds of meat pie are baked on both sides and emit a rich aroma. They are delicious at first glance.
Wu Jiong looked at Jian Mo: "How much do you want to eat? You take it first."
Jian Mo was puzzled, and took two pieces of meat pie with stems and put them on the plate: "Okay."
Wu Jiong nodded and turned to the door: "Come in."
Just as Jian Mo was about to ask him who to call, he saw a group of dark-skinned children coming in from outside the house, and they all shouted in unison: "Chief."
Wu Jiong responded, drew the knife from his waist, cut the meat pie on the plate into even pieces, and said to the children: "Each of you take one piece."
The children looked at Jian Mo curiously with their big black eyes, stretched out their little paws, grabbed a piece of meat pie each, whispered "Thank you, Chief", and ran away quickly.
Jian Mo wanted to ask the children to wash their hands, but he resisted the urge to shout.
After the children ran away, only one-third of the meat pie was left on Wu Jiong's plate.
Jian Mo took a look and passed the pure meat pie on his plate to him.
Wu Jiong: "No need."
Jian Mo picked up the plate and rejected his idea of taking the meat pie back again: "I've had enough. If it's not enough, we can make another one."
Wu Jiong paused: "Then eat more vegetables."
The two sat opposite each other. Wu Jiong picked up a piece of small intestine, tasted it, and was surprised to find that this piece of small intestine had no strange smell, but was fragrant, tender, plump, hot, and very delicious, which was different from any other cooking method he had tried before.
He looked at Jian Mo with mixed feelings.
Jian Mo was tasting a piece of liver with satisfaction. When he met his eyes, a question mark popped up in his mind.
Wu Jiong: "It's great that you can join our tribe."
Jian Mo swallowed the food in his mouth, sat up straight, and said seriously: "I am also very honored to join the tribe."
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