Chapter 15 - Elephant Bird (1/2)
Ch15 - Elephant Bird
Zhou Ji hadn’t gone out today. What was the point in going out on a rainy day? He didn’t want to be caught in the rain at all.
However, after seeing that Xiong Ye and the others had returned, he swept some honey on Xiong Ye’s remaining Pentaceratops meat, added some spices, and reheated it for him over the fire.
The people of the Big Bear Tribe knew of several ways to preserve food, but the two most commonly used methods were curing it with salt or roasting it over the fire.
They would salt the food that they intended to store for a long time, and then hang it in a cool, ventilated place to let it dry out. For short-term food preservation, they would roast it or even roast it repeatedly.
Zhou Ji didn’t like either type of meat.
Because salt was very precious, the salt cured meat that the people in the tribe had was usually a little stale and carried a slight rotten taste. As for roasted meat… meat that had been roasted and left out for a few days wasn’t appetizing at all.
However, it seemed that food was scarce in this place, and they didn’t have much choice. Fortunately, the weather wasn’t very hot during this period and preserving food had been easy.
After roasting the meat in the fire again, Zhou Ji took the cured Scelidosaurus meat that Xiong Ye had given him and boiled it with some mushrooms.
Most likely, the people in the tribe didn’t eat mushrooms because they were unable to distinguish between the poisonous and non-poisonous ones, but this wasn’t a problem for Zhou Ji.
He finished cooking but didn’t eat any of it himself. He continued to gnaw on fruit and vegetables-Only dinosaur meat was available today, and he didn’t even want to try a mouthful of it.
Zhou Ji was already full by the time Xiong Ye returned, “I roasted your meat again and cooked some soup. Eat it while it’s hot.”
Xiong Ye soon noticed the improved meat and steaming hot soup.
Even his mother wouldn’t prepare food for him like this back when he was still living with her as a child-Back then, his mother would usually just tear off a piece of meat for him while roasting the rest for herself.
Xiong Ye couldn’t describe how he felt at that moment as he spoke in a low voice, “Thank you.”
“There’s no need for thanks, you’ve helped me a lot.” Zhou Ji said.
Xiong Ye put down the roasted meat he had been allocated today, then gave Zhou Ji approximately one kilogram’s worth of meat scraps that he had helped him bring back, “You didn’t go to get your meat again, so I brought it back for you! Also, what you cooked for me was made with your meat. That’s no good.”
When Xiong Ye had put down his meat, he had noticed that the amount of meat he had stored away hadn’t gone down at all. The meat that Zhou Ji had boiled for him should be the meat that he had given Zhou Ji yesterday.
“I don’t like to eat meat. This is for you.” Zhou Ji said.
“Don’t like to eat meat?” Xiong Ye stared at Zhou Ji in shock.
Zhou Ji calmly nodded.
Xiong Ye: “……” There are actually people in this world who don’t like to eat meat?!
“Will you be able to grow stronger without any meat?” Xiong Ye was very worried.
Zhou Ji felt that he was already very strong, “It should be fine.” As soon as he transmigrated into this body, he had already sensed that this body was full of energy and very powerful. Recently, probably because he had absorbed a lot of energy from the air, the white crystal core in his body had also grown much larger, filling his body with abundant energy.
Although Zhou Ji had said so, Xiong Ye still disagreed with him about not eating meat-He would have no strength at all without meat!
“You should still eat meat! Didn’t you eat fish yesterday?” Xiong Ye asked. Even if Zhou Ji didn’t participate in the hunts and therefore didn’t need to change into an animal form, he should still eat some meat.
“Fish tastes better than dinosaur meat.” Zhou Ji said.
Xiong Ye couldn’t help but envy Zhou Ji when he heard this.
It difficult enough for them to fill their bellies, but Zhou Ji could even afford to be picky about food!
Zhou Ji’s mother had really treated Zhou Ji well.
Xiong Ye was still thinking about it as he picked up the Pentaceratops meat that Zhou Ji had helped him heat up and took a bite.
He had been given approximately twenty kilograms of Pentaceratops meat. He had eaten about ten kilograms of it on the first day, then another five kilograms of it yesterday. Today, there were five kilograms left.
Generally speaking, meat that had just been sitting there for two days wouldn’t be very tasty, but Xiong Ye actually tasted a bit of sweetness when he bit down this time.
The sweet taste swept through his mouth, and Xiong Ye opened his eyes wide in surprise.
“This meat is sweet!” Xiong Ye couldn’t help saying.
“Yes.” Zhou Ji nodded. He had added some honey that he’d stolen from a beehive when he had roasted it… Sure enough, the little bear really liked it.
Xiong Ye was now a little reluctant to eat the meat too quickly, so he went to look at the pot of soup and was rather shocked, “Are those mushrooms in the soup? This kind of thing is poisonous and can’t be eaten!”
“Some mushrooms are poisonous, and some are not. This one isn’t poisonous and can be eaten.” Zhou Ji explained.
Xiong Ye glanced at Zhou Ji, then used his chopsticks to spear a mushroom. He first sniffed at it warily, then licked it, and finally took a small bite…
Zhou Ji added, “I’ve eaten it before. It’s not poisonous.”
After careful study, Xiong Ye also felt that it wasn’t poisonous and stuffed the mushroom into his mouth. He said, “You have to be more careful in the future and not eat this random stuff.”
Zhou Ji made a vague sound of agreement, then watched as Xiong Ye quickly gobbled down the soup and meat he’d cooked for him.
Xiong Ye’s appetite was really good, and Zhou Ji got hungry himself watching him eat. In a while, he would go back to his ‘room’ a bit earlier to make himself something to eat.
Xiong Ye finished eating five kilograms of Pentaceratops meat as well as a big pot of Scelidosaurus mushroom soup and didn’t eat anything else after that. He said to Zhou Ji, “I arranged to go hunting with Hu Yue and Xiong Bai tomorrow. I’m going to sleep first.”
He always used to think that Zhou Ji was really stupid and silly, but now it seemed that this was not the case.
Zhou Ji was actually very smart, he just didn’t like to interact with people-He had never seen Zhou Ji talk to anyone else but him!
“Alright.” Zhou Ji nodded.
Xiong Ye once again slept very well that night.
Zhou Ji, who had added a little bit of juice from the calming plant and tossed some calming grasses into the fire, kept his altruistic acts secret.
He preferred happy and energetic people, so he wanted Xiong Ye to sleep well instead of wallowing in melancholy.
After snacking on something, Zhou Ji, who had spent most of the day sleeping, went back to sleep.
In fact, he wasn’t quite sleeping… He was constantly using his spiritual power to reach for the energy around him and absorb it into his body while he was ‘sleeping’ with his eyes closed.
He would feel a sense of satisfaction after doing so; it was the same feeling as having eaten a full meal.
The next day, Zhou Ji woke up before the sky turned bright.
He yawned, then sat down near the entrance to the cave and grew two vines that struck two stones together to start a fire.
It wasn’t an easy matter to start a fire this way. People in the tribe would generally go to the collective cave where the fire was always burning to roast meat or start their own fires, but it wasn’t a big deal for him to use this method when he added his spiritual strength to speed up the process.
After lighting the fire, he put the meat scraps that Xiong Ye had obtained for him yesterday into the pot to make soup, then cut off a piece of the roasted meat that Xiong Ye had brought back yesterday, rubbing some spices on it before roasting it again.
The beastmen in the Big Bear Tribe were used to eating one meal a day, but Zhou Ji felt that it wasn’t healthy and casually made some breakfast.
When Xiong Ye woke up in the morning, he felt a hundred times more energetic.
He slept very well again last night!
Xiong Ye was a little puzzled by the situation, but he was also very happy. And when he smelled the aroma inside the cave, his heart inexplicably fluttered with elation.
After seeing that Shi Li had really gotten together with Lang Yin, he had thought that he would be very, very sad, but in reality, he hadn’t been sad at all.
He had in fact eaten well and slept deeply these past two days.