Chapter 14 – Stoneware Crafter (2/2)

Seeing that, all kids jumped up and down in excitement, and when the familiar hideous face exposed itself from the water, the kids finally rested assured completely.

It was only one day, but they missed it dearly. They were quite eager with straw ropes at hand, and at Shao Xuan’s command, all the whelps began to fish expertly with their group members.

“Mo-Er, you stay with them. Tu, tell Mo-Er the things that he needs to know when fishing, while I take Caesar to dig out more stone worms. The stone worms we have now are far from enough. But remember, no should enter the water and no fighting. If you have the time to fight, you may as well pull out more fish. Take your time, for winter will come in a few days. Go seek help from the guarding warriors if anything’s wrong.” The latter part of Shao Xuan’s words were spoken to all the kids at the bank.

In fact, Shao Xuan didn’t need to say that much, for all the kids cherished today’s chance of fishing very much after yesterday’s incident. No one knew whether those fish would leave tomorrow, so the more they captured, the better. Who would bother to fight one another?

Just at the same time when the kids from the cave were pulling out fish from the water, some residents in mountain foot district also came and joined the army of fishers.

Those situations were seen often lately, and unlike old times, guarding warriors would not go and warn them if they saw someone go near the waters. Now they would only observe from afar, and from time to time they would remind them not to go down the water, and that they should report on time if they notice anything unusual.

These fish had indeed helped solve the pressing needs of some people. In a few families, the totemic warriors were wounded in recent hunting missions, so they could not participate in the last hunting before winter. No hunting led to less food. All family members shared the same trouble as how to survive the cold. However, now they were pretty relieved, for who could’ve anticipated that the things in the river could be captured so easily? Even the weak and the old people in the tribe could come and help.

Also, through all the things, Shao Xuan was gradually known by the residents in mountain foot district. In the past all they remembered was that a kid was wandering around with a wolf. Now because of fish, and their trade with him for black floats, they finally remembered Shao Xuan’s name. When the word that Shao Xuan was planning to trade for all standards of animal skins got around, many families cleared out some spare animal skins that they wouldn’t be using, and rushed to do trading with Shao Xuan.

When Shao Xuan arrived at the gravel yard, there were already seven or eight people there. They even greeted Shao Xuan, and after they heard that today was a day for fishing, their eyesight on him grew much warmer. How they wished that they could find the stone worms’ hideout, and take them all as fishing baits as soon as possible.

Recently, the stone worms in the gravel yard were all in trouble. As soon as they revealed their head a little from the gravels, people would rush forward and dig them out. The quick ones could cut itself into half to survive, and the slow ones could only be dragged out as a whole. In the previous years, they would get no one’s attention even if they creeped above the ground slowly. However, now it was totally different. Aside from revealing their heads, even a slight move of gravels would draw someone’s attention, and people would turn the gravels over to see if there are any stone worms hidden inside.

But, compared with Caesar, these people were far from efficient. He was very coveted when people in the gravel yard searching for stone worms saw that Caesar could easily dig one out with a bit of sniffing.

This wolf had such a fucking sharp nose!

Also, one would think that perhaps they could weave a giant net with the straw ropes, and use that to capture the fish. However, the truth proved different. Indeed, one could capture many fish with a net, but before the net was pulled up, it was torn apart by those fish. And there was no fish left when one collected the net back. Thus everyone had no alternative but to use the inconvenient way to go fishing, and capture their game one at a time.

In the afternoon, all the kids were summoned back in their cave by Shao Xuan. After they had been fed with the food provided by the tribe, no one wanted to stay in the cave to weave straw ropes. Because after yesterday’s hard work, they now had enough straw ropes. Instead, they wanted to go back to the riverside and continue fishing before it got dark.

Shao Xuan raised no objection, but he did not tag along in the afternoon. He got plenty of stone worms in the morning so it should be enough for five groups.

Judging from the moons last night, winter should be just around the corner. They have to capture more fish before winter comes, for as long as winter came, the temperature in the outside would rapidly drop and there would be thick ice along the bank. And then, people with no totemic power would basically always stay inside. They had no strong or thick animal fur clothes to fight against the blizzard, so they could easily get frozen to death.

Instead of following those kids to the riverbank, Shao Xuan took two fish and left the cave. Shao Xuan dragged one fish and gave the other fish to Caesar. He also took an animal skin bag with him, in which there were the stones of fine quality that he had collected from the training ground earlier. Since there were more people searching for stone worms in the gravel yard, it was not safe as a hiding place anymore. Shao Xuan moved those stones and kept them in the cave. Unlike old times, no whelp dared to rob Shao Xuan’s stuff anymore.

Every time when Shao Xuan had found fine stones that could be made into tools, he would trade them for food with a stoneware crafter. Also, the man he chose to do trading with was also fixed. Shao Xuan made the decision after he had observed a few stoneware crafters in the mountain foot district.

The stoneware crafter was named “Ke”. People said that he was in charge of placing traps back in the hunting team. It’s just that during a hunting mission, he lost one of his legs, so he had to retire from the hunting team and become a stoneware crafter near the mountain foot district. And now he made stoneware for people to earn a living.

Shao Xuan took the fish and came in front of a wooden house. There were no doors in many houses, as people used thick leather curtains or plant-woven curtains to block others’ views. It was also the case with Ke’s house. Shao Xuan called out, “Uncle Ke!”, as he could hear sounds of polishing the stoneware in the house.

No one answered inside, but the leather curtain moved a little bit, which meant that the owner allowed you to come inside. Without permission to enter, Shao Xuan would never be able to lift the curtain. Many things that Ke used seemed quite simple, but were in fact very much complicated than the things in other residents’ houses. You can directly lift other people’s curtains, but it won’t work in Ke’s house. You would definitely be the one who suffered, if you tried to enter by force.