Chapter 11 – Recording and counting numbers (2/2)

“It’s eleven!”

“Okay… Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen…It’s not right, Ah-Xuan, why are there only fourteen fish in our team? There are fifteen on the wall! One is missing! Who took our fish?!!!”

Before the sentence was finished, the kid, together with the other four in his group, grasped sticks and stones with ferocious looks and scanned at other kids in the cave with gloomy eyes.

Shao Xuan took a deep breath and pointed the wall with a branch, “Didn’t you see that the first fish on the wall is crossed with a thick slash? That means that you have already eaten the fish! Actually, you ate the fish last night! Will you vomit up the things in your bellies to confirm it? I – can – help – you – with – that!”

“…It’s true.” The kid thought for a moment with his head crooked, as he eased himself down. He put his stick down and sat with the other four kids, as they continued to weave straw ropes as if nothing had happened earlier.

“Ah-Xuan, I heard from Uncle Ge that tomorrow we will have good weather. Shall we go to the riverbank tomorrow?” A kid asked expectedly.

All the other kids’ attention was focused on Shao Xuan as they stared at him hopefully. It seems that they would all have their hearts broken, should Shao Xuan provide them with a “No” answer.

“Yes, tomorrow we will go there as usual.” Shao Xuan looked up at the sky as he walked out of the cave.

Now, these dozens of kids were all working together. Indeed, they were voracious and they would love to go fishing all day, but still, deep down in their hearts, they knew it’s for the best that everyone worked together. They had to, the main reason being that they could not find stone worms by themselves.

Shao Xuan had tried many kinds of worms that could be found in the tribe as bait, but stone worms were the best and most efficient ones. For those who did not obey orders and acted alone, Shao Xuan would not give any stone worms to them.

“Undisciplined but you still want stone worms? Fine, go and find your own.” Without Caesar, one would have spent all day searching and only capture a few of them. Those stone worms were much quicker than earthworms, one would only return empty handed if they could not catch them immediately upon seeing them. Everyone depended on Caesar’s help to get stone worms!

The second reason that they had to work together, was that they could not get the small black floats by themselves. To get those, they must catch a black worm that lived in the black swamp. It’s such a shame that aside from Caesar, no one could go near the black swamp.

Due to these reasons, Caesar had a higher position in the cave. At least now, the kids were not seeing Caesar as food. Some flexible kids even learned how to fawn over Caesar. Since they’ve seen Caesar gnawing animal bones, they would toss fish bones to him. However, Caesar was not interested in fish bones.

No matter what, these whelps had eased their relationship with Caesar, so Shao Xuan no longer worried about whether they would join together and roast Caesar alive.

The next day, Shao Xuan was woken up by the kids, and then together they ran to the gravel yard to dig stone worms. Every time Caesar caught one, Shao Xuan would distribute it to a team leader of a group.

One stone worm could be used for two or three times. After a stone worm was dug out, they would cut it into two pieces. After a few minutes, the two ends would grow into two separate worms. Given enough time, they could grow into the same length as before, as if they were never cut in half.

When they were all set, Shao Xuan led them to the riverbank.

The guarding warriors were different people from before, but Shao Xuan soon got to know them well.

These days they all watched those children fishing, and at the end of the day, Shao Xuan would give them one fish as a gift. So he left the warriors with a good impression, and warriors had changed their views on the children in the cave as well.

Seeing the waters, all the whelps got excited. They hurried to set the bait but were immediately stopped by Shao Xuan.

“Stop! Step back! All of you! Do not touch the water! Do not toss the bait yet!”

Shao Xuan held the first kid in the front and threw him backward as he stared at the surface of the water and frowned.