Chapter 106 - Storytelling (1/2)

Ch106 - Storytelling

The first snowfall that winter was particularly heavy. The snowflakes that fell down one after another soon accumulated on the trees and on the ground.

The broad leaved trees had already lost their leaves, and stood there tall and bare, but some trees that had relatively smaller leaves still had some left that could barely support the snow.

However, they would probably be a lot more ‘bare’ after this round of snow.

Zhou Ji very much enjoyed this kind of winter scene, but Xiong Ye wasn’t willing to let him stand outside and watch for too long, “It’s snowing so much, and the weather is so cold. Let’s stay at home and not go out, lest we get frozen.”

Xiong Ye was truly worried about Zhou Ji. Seeing that Zhou Ji hadn’t reacted, he continued, “You might not know, but a few winters ago, there was a child in the tribe that was too hungry and had run outside to look for food. As a result, they spent too much time walking around on the snowy ground, and their feet became frostbitten. After he came back to the tribe and thawed out by the fire, his two feet practically fell off his legs… He died soon after.”

After Xiong Ye finished speaking, both fear and sadness appeared on his face.

“Such a thing won’t happen again.” Zhou Ji hugged Xiong Ye.

Xiong Ye wasn’t very old and hadn’t reached adulthood a few years ago. The person he spoke of… Might have been a companion of around the same age. As for their feet being frozen off… It was easy for fingers and toes and so on to suffer from frostbite, and if it wasn’t dealt with properly, it was possible for the affected parts to fall off.

“That’s true!” Xiong Ye soon cheered up, “Nobody will go hungry in the future. A lot of people can be kept alive on earth eggs and barley alone, and we’ll have even more of those things next year.”

Zhou Ji nodded.

Tribes couldn’t grow and expand just by hunting and gathering. On the other hand, if they were able to start planting and farming… they could feed many more people.

Zhou Ji and Xiong Ye went back to their bedroom together.

Taking into consideration Xiong Ye’s animal form, their bedroom had been built to be quite large. It was five meters long and five meters wide, and other than the bed, there was also a large pit inside the bedroom.

Zhou Ji had laid out some animal hides by the pit and lit a fire inside. The room soon warmed up from the fire.

The walls were made of very, very thick mud, and the windows were sealed up, so the only light in the room was provided by the fire that had been lit… The room warmed up very quickly.

Zhou Ji had requested to be given all the seeds. What he had told others was that leaving the seeds with him would make it more convenient to plant them next year, but in reality… He had taken half of the seeds and made roasted pumpkin seeds––they didn’t need that many seeds to plant pumpkins with, anyway.

He had first heated up the pot with nothing else inside, then poured the pumpkin seeds inside and stir-fried them for a while before adding a little bit of dissolved salt water and roasting them again. With that, the mildly salty pumpkin seeds were ready to eat.

Unfortunately, there was too little of it.

“What is this?” Xiong Ye asked.

“Pumpkin seeds. Give it a try.” Zhou Ji said.

Xiong Ye grabbed a few pumpkin seeds and tossed them into his mouth directly. He chewed, then ate them, “They’re very tasty.”

Zhou Ji laughed lightly, “Have more if you like them.”

After saying so, he picked up a few and slowly started to crack them open.

Xiong Ye saw that Zhou Ji was peeling the shells for such a little snack and found it a little funny.

The shell that contained the pumpkin seeds wasn’t that hard and didn’t need to be peeled at all! However, it was probably tastier after peeling.

Seeing Zhou Ji eating the pumpkin seeds so slowly, Xiong Ye no longer picked up any more pumpkin seeds to eat. There was only a small amount of seeds, and he could finish them all in a few bites. He also didn’t find them particularly delicious, so he might as well not eat them and leave them for Zhou Ji to eat.

However, the peeling of the pumpkin seeds actually reminded Xiong Ye of something else he could do–-he went to find a big bucket of barley and the appropriate tools, then started to hull the barley.

After their new home was built, Zhou Ji had planted a lot of barley in the yard. This barley had been set out to dry and stored away a long time ago, but they hadn’t had time to remove the shells, and he just happened to be free right now.