Chapter 1039 - May You Bear A Child Soon (1/2)

”Have you ever considered that even though you can turn your fellow tribespeople into copper corpses after they pass away from their illnesses and keep them around to commemorate them, they're actually still dead?” Li Shentan asked. ”So wouldn't it be better to treat them medically with scientific methods while they're still alive? I know of a place that has a pretty good standard of medical treatment. It's called the Northwest….”

Lian Yi glared at him. ”Our Lian tribe will not leave Xiuzhuzhou. Even if we lack medical care here at Xiuzhuzhou, it's still better than leaving to suffer the hardship of war.”

When Li Shentan heard that, he knew he could not just use a simple ploy to lure her to the Prosperous Northwest.

From the looks of it, the Lian tribe was quite determined to avoid the rest of society.

However, he was still a little curious. ”By the way, you just said you went to gather herbs. Have you found some medicinal herbs to treat the illnesses?”

Lian Yi answered, ”It's not enough to make them recover fully just yet, but it can help ease their suffering. This medicinal herb is also quite miraculous. It can help ease their pain quickly when applied on external wounds, but they'll become quite immobile after the application.”

Li Shentan thought to himself, 'Isn't that just an anesthetic?'

So it appeared the Lian tribe's way of treating a fever was just to use anesthesia? By numbing the patients, they would not feel pain anymore, and that was equivalent to curing their illnesses?

Li Shentan pondered this for a long time and realized he could not fault the logic of such a method!

The village stronghold of the Lian tribe was located ten kilometers south of the underground parking garage. From the outside, it did not look like there was anything special about the small stronghold. However, it looked quite unique and refreshing as it was situated amid lush greenery.

Most of the households in the village were two-story buildings constructed out of trees. Some of the windows were open, and colorful floral garlands hung on the window handles. It looked like the flowers had just been freshly plucked.

Curious, Si Liren asked, ”Why are there garlands hanging on some of the windows but not the others?”

Lian Yi answered, ”The houses with the garlands identify the women who are open to walking marriages.”

Walking marriage was probably a very unfamiliar term to the Central Plains people.1

Over here, only the women were allowed to live on the second floor of their houses. Once they opened their windows and hung out the garlands, it signified men could climb in through the windows in the middle of the night to consummate the marriage. If the garlands on the windows were no longer there and got replaced by a hat instead, it would mean the woman in the house had already chosen her partner, and no one should disturb them.

In the village, the women called their male lovers ”ah'zhu,” while the men called their female lovers ”ah'xia.”

When the men went to their ah'xias' homes to spend the night, they would have to leave before dawn the next day. Otherwise, it would be considered very rude.

This was why there was a very strange phenomenon going on in the village. During the day, all the men would be cooped up at home, and it was possible that seven brothers could be cooped up together until they headed out to find their ah'xias at night.

If one of the seven brothers had not found their ah'xia yet, he would be the only one left at home during the night. This would put them in an exceedingly miserable state.

A grand bonfire party was held every night in the village to create opportunities for the tribespeople to find their ah'xias and ah'zhus.

As a result, it was very joyous in the village every single day… that was, if no one was sick.

In this village, the men did not have to do any work. A lot of people thought that in a matriarchal society like this, the women could enjoy everything like a queen bee. But actually, the women here were very hardworking. They were very capable and used their copper and silver corpses to provide themselves with free labor.

Many people would probably have the same thoughts as Li Shentan if they heard about the Lian tribe's corpse refinement practice. They would probably assume the copper and silver corpses were definitely used for killing people like how such things were described in tall tales.

But in fact, the copper and silver corpses of the Lian tribe were mostly used only to farm.