Chapter 15 – He’s always up to something, just like you (2/2)

Since Ke was refusing, naturally he had his reasons, but…

Shao Xuan did some calculation. After this coming winter, he would be ten years old. Based on other kids’ former experiences, someone could awaken his totemic power at the age of eleven or twelve. So he should wait for at least one or two years. And the slow kids like Ku, would only awaken their totemic power until they turned thirteen or fourteen years old.

So there was still a lot of time to wait, if you thought about it that way.

Even if he could not learn the skills now, he could always watch. So Shao Xuan squatted down there, watching Ke craft and polish.

Bystanders would assume it was very simple but only after they truly got started on it, could they realize that it was completely different from what they imagined before. Seeing Ke’s short knife and then glimpsing at the short knife he made… Ah, only comparing could show the truth. Aside from different stone materials, one could tell which one was better based on their outlook. No wonder when Ke was looking at the stone knife Shao Xuan made, he showed a tolerant look. Perhaps in his heart he had criticized a lot, but he kept all his criticism to himself since Shao Xuan was only a kid.

When the night fell, Shao Xuan stopped watching and helped Ke set up a stone pot with fires underneath. Also, he chopped the fish before he took his leave, and then he returned to the cave with Caesar.

Soon after Shao Xuan left, Ke placed the completed stoneware into a box, and wiped his hand, preparing to cook the food. The water in that stone pot was already boiled, and at the time when he was placing fish chops into the pot, there was a slight noise coming from the window behind. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! Then there came the sound of arrows.

“Ah!”

Dong!

The person coming from the window fell on the ground.

Ke did not lift his head, while he stirred the soup in the stone pot with a spoon.

“Hey, Ke! Why did you change your tricks again? Huff…” one-armed Ge rubbed his butt as he complained. Earlier he hit the ground with his butt first, so he fell. Between his feet there was a leather rope tightly strapped, or else he would not have fallen so easily from just entering through a window. He lost an arm, not a leg, so under normal circumstances, how could he fall?

As he continued with his cursing, Ke continued stirring the soup in his stone pot, inattentive to Ge, who just climbed through his window and kept complaining.

Ge went through some troubles untying the leather rope, and he sniffed as he approached the stone pot, “Fish soup?”

Looking around the room, he saw the fish in the corner. Ge smiled, “Has that lad come already?”

“…” Ke remained silent.

“Ah-Xuan traded for a big bag of salt with me yesterday, with his fish. I think he’s really up to something. Today I went to the cave, and guess what? You have no idea how many fish they had stored on the top of the cave. They will have a nice winter this year, all those whelps. No wonder why you recommended Ah-Xuan as replacement for Ku. As you predicted, not before long, the situation in that cave has changed a lot! Now half of the salt I have would go to Ah-Xuan through trading.” Ge gasped in admiration.

In the mountains where the tribe was located, there was a natural-formed salt pond, which provided all the salt for the tribe. However, there were strict rules about the usage of salt, and a certain amount of salt would be given to each family, to meet their basic daily needs. One had to trade for more salt with his own things if he wanted more. Don’t ever think about stealing, for there were warriors guarding everywhere near the salt pond. People from the mountaintop district would be in charge of the distribution of salt, so whoever wanted to trade for more salt, needed to talk to the people living above. However, Ge was in charge of food, so he could save more salt than others. So Shao Xuan would take the fish and do trading directly with Ge.

Seeing that Ke remained silent, Ge found a stone stool and sat down as he kept talking himself, “The day before yesterday, I saw that boy crafting and polishing a stone knife, so I suppose that he wanted your comment on that, right? That was why he came, right?” Before Ke could answer, Ge continued, “In fact, that lad seems to be a nice person, and he is eager to learn using his smart head. I can tell that he is always up to something, just like you. He’s suitable for doing your job. Since he approached you and had enough integrity and sincerity, why not take him in as an apprentice?”

Ge kicked his legs in the air, as he glimpsed at the chopped fish on the table. Also, he noticed the stone pot which was already set up. It was not the same way as Ke used to set up the stone pot, and obviously someone did that job for him. It was less steady, and perhaps it was also the lad’s work.

Ke shook his head and finally said, “He will get hurt easily.”

“Indeed. Without totemic power, it would be severe if he had an accident. After all, what you’ve been dealing with is quite… dangerous.”

Ge pulled out an arrow from his armpit, as it was stabbed into his animal skin clothes. A few minutes before, when he entered through the window, he only paid attention to those coming arrows, but ignored the leather rope near the window frame, so he got pinned down like that.

It was just a small wooden arrow, and could easily be broken by a finger snap. But earlier, it stabbed into his animal skin clothes in the blink of an eye. Obviously it was at a very high speed.

Ge played with the half-hand long arrow in between his fingers for a while, and then he gently flicked his fingers, and the wooden arrow flew straight through the narrow-mouth of the wooden barrel hanging in a corner.

He was not sure where those small arrows come from, so he could only place them in the wooden barrel for now. Actually, the barrel was filled with things that he tossed into. When it became full, Ke would empty it and replace all the items inside properly.