Volume 1: Farming Chapter 23 Thrall's Fear
The waning moon hidden in the clouds coldly shines on the earth. Under the dim moonlight, the vast grassland looks like a sleeping ancient beast. People walking on the land cannot feel its pulse, and occasionally hear a slight breathing, but regard it as an untimely monsoon.
The snow wolves dragged trawls made of vines through the thorns and weeds. The trawls, with large bellies and narrow mouths and a long tow rope on one side, were filled with acorns. Each trawl weighed more than several hundred kilograms. Even the snow wolves would feel tired under such a heavy burden. Their heavy breathing mixed with the white mist from their mouths disturbed the lonely and primitive beautiful night from time to time.
"Huh... This is more tiring than dragging a wild boar. We also have to be careful not to walk too fast and throw the acorns out." Niu Jiao panted with a long tongue. "Ayun, don't you have any good ideas to help us transport these acorns faster?"
"What good ideas can I come up with? How about using a crooked-horn ox to carry the bags?" Xiao Yun, who only carried half of the tribe's load, was almost vomiting from exhaustion. "Even if we use oxen to carry the bags, there aren't enough bags. We still have to drag them. Uh, using an ox to pull the trawl net might work, too."
"We'll use oxen to pull the cart next time." The chieftain said, "We'll lead the oxen and walk slowly."
I thought transporting acorns was similar to transporting wild boars, but when I actually started hauling them, I discovered that it was completely different. First, there was a chance that the acorns would fall off when loaded into the trawl, and they could not be towed by brute force. Second, there was a difference in quantity. The acorns piled in the oak forest weighed at least a hundred tons... After only two trips back and forth, the tribe leader began to feel desperate.
The third group of acorn-carrying teams returned to the tribe at dawn. After walking all night, the tribesmen were so tired that they could not get up. Xiao Yun saw that this was not going to work, so he forced himself to wake up the young cubs who were watching over the house, stewed several large pots of meat soup for the tribesmen to eat and then went to sleep. Then he asked Yangmao and his men to weave a trawl net for the cows, and he also climbed onto the kang.
After waking up from a long sleep, the whole tribe continued to be busy transporting acorns. The youngsters put the trawls they made on the backs of the oxen, and drove dozens of the strongest male oxen into the jungle.
Four-legged animals cannot match the grip and traction of two-legged intelligent creatures. This is why no matter how strong the snow werewolves are, they cannot withstand the charge of wild boars head-on. A 400-kilogram straight-horned ox can drag at least one ton of acorns at a time, and even more if the rattan net is wear-resistant. The snow werewolves are simply incomparable to this... Relying on the transportation capacity of the oxen and hard work for two days and one night, all the acorns in the oak forest were finally moved back, and they were no longer left in the wild to be exploited by various beasts and rodents.
Nearly 200 tons of acorns were dragged back, but storage became a big problem... Fortunately, the temperature had dropped to close to zero degrees at this time, so there was no need to worry about them going bad. Xiao Yun asked the tribesmen to dig a few large pits and bury them.
The whole tribe was mobilized to transport acorns, and everyone was exhausted. Even Oxhorn didn't have the strength to clamor for fried fish... Everyone slept for a whole day to recuperate, and then they came back to life and rushed straight to the jungle to pick mushrooms and cut oak trees - when it snowed, they would not be able to pick shiitake mushrooms and enoki mushrooms in the wild.
After picking all the enoki mushrooms that could be seen, whether they were deformed or underdeveloped... the snow finally started to fall.
"Heh... yawn (~O~)...hiss~~"
Ah Shan opened the animal-skin door curtain and yawned when the cold wind blew a mouthful of snowflakes. He quickly put the door curtain down, picked up a piece of wood next to it and held it down. He turned around and shouted to the tribesmen who were still lying on the kang, "It's snowing!"
"It rained a little last night, and I thought it was going to snow." The tribe leader who was sitting at the head of the kang slowly stood up and pulled the animal skin over his legs. "Fortunately, I finished picking mushrooms yesterday, so I don't have to go again today. It's too uncomfortable to walk in the snow."
"I didn't go far away for hunting this year, but I feel more tired than in previous years." Hongye sat against the wall, rubbing her arms with a tired look on her face. She had been up for a while, and because she was too tired, she rarely had time to spare, so she sharpened her bone arrows.
"This year we have a bigger harvest than in previous years." Ah Shan smiled proudly and looked at his oldest nephew who was still sleeping soundly. "We have a lot of meat, a lot of fodder, a lot of acorns, and we also have a house and a kang."
"It's a bit cold, add some firewood." The clan leader did not say anything to cooperate with Ashan's boasting, but waved his hand to urge him.
"Oh." A Shan squatted down, grabbed a few handfuls of firewood and stuffed them into the stove, then opened the lid and took a look at the broth simmering on the stove... It would be a waste if the fire was not used anyway, so after the kang was heated, a clay pot was placed on the stove for a long time.
The pot was filled with wild boar meat that had been soaked and drained of blood, and minced and seasoned mushrooms. As the aroma spread, the snoring Niu Jiao sat up like a spring: "Meat!"
Ashan & Chief & Hongye: "..."
"This guy, he's already looking for food before he even opens his eyes..." The clan leader stared at the ox horn that staggered off the kang, groped for the stove like a wandering soul, and took the pottery bowl to fill with broth. "He wasn't like this before. It was Ayun who spoiled him."
"Before, even if he wanted to eat, he had nothing to eat. Niu Jiao could only catch fish and grill them. He could eat a lot of grilled fish without salt." Hongye said, "Ah, Ashan, can you help me get a bowl too? Did you add bean sprouts to the soup?"
"No, I'll go get some bean sprouts to add to it." Ashan walked back to his sleeping place, picked up the animal skin clothes that served as a quilt and put them on.
"Then take some enoki mushrooms as well, and remember to wash off the mud." Hongye said.
"Hmm..." The clan leader wanted to suggest adding shiitake mushrooms, but suddenly remembered that Ayun said that there were too few shiitake mushrooms and they should be used as seasoning and could not be cooked and eaten casually like enoki mushrooms, so he didn't dare to say it.
A Shan moved the wood that was holding down the animal skin door curtain, lifted the curtain and walked out, and saw... the outside of the house had become a world of ice and snow: the mountain of pork piled on the rattan mat was all frozen, and the tents of each family that had been transformed into small warehouses were all covered tightly with snow, and some of the tents that were not built sturdily enough were collapsed by the snow, and even the straw shed built by the tribe specifically for growing bean sprouts was a bit shorter (it was inconvenient to grow bean sprouts by the river, so after boiling a water jar for easy water fetching, they moved the shed to the tribe).
"This year's first snow is heavier than in previous years ?" Ashan was a little surprised. He felt cold in the second half of the night last night, but the cold was not very obvious, so he didn't take it seriously... Now it seems that the kang is really very comfortable to sleep on. If it snowed so heavily in previous years, he would definitely wake up from the cold.
"...It's bad!" Ashan's eyebrows jumped and he rushed towards Sal's tent.
Sal's tent was a square-top tent with two sloping surfaces. It was built quite solidly and was not collapsed by the heavy snow, but... the thermal insulation performance of the wool felt tent was really not that good. The only difference between inside and outside the tent was that the wind was not that strong. Ashan rushed into the tent and saw that Sal was curled up in animal skins and lying beside the fire for warmth. The fire was not out and he was not dead, but his lips were purple and his face was pale, his expression was blurry and his eyes were out of focus.
Ashan quickly carried Thrall up and rushed out of the cold tent and ran back to the warm mud brick house. Without saying a word, he pushed away the tribe leader who was occupying the kang, put the frozen Thrall on top, and then grabbed the animal skin that the tribe leader had kept particularly warm and wrapped him up.
"...I almost forgot about leatherworking." The tribe leader slapped his head, "Oh, right, he never came to sleep on the fire bed... Strange, is there anyone who forbade him to come?"
"Huh? Is that so?" Asante was surprised, and Hongye was also puzzled.
"No, it's the leather worker who refused to come." Yangmao was woken up by the noise and sat up, rubbing his eyes. "I've called him several times... Yawn, was someone drinking meat soup just now? It smelled so good."
"Snoring..." Niu Jiao, who fell asleep again, swallowed his saliva.
"Maybe humans can't sleep on a heated bed?" Hongye guessed.
"Then put him down quickly." The patriarch said hurriedly.
"Wait, he's frozen like this." Ashan said, but he was not sure whether humans could sleep on a heated kang. He reached out his hand between Sal's buttocks and the animal skin on the kang to feel the temperature, then turned Sal over and pulled open his pants to see if he was burned. "No... Forget it, I'll watch him and turn him over, it shouldn't be a problem."
"Is it snowing heavily outside?" Hongye asked, "Last year, leather workers didn't get frozen so early."
"It's so big that your tent collapsed." Ashan said casually.
Hongye let out a roar and jumped off the kang and rushed out...but she still remembered to put on her shoes.
"Oh, the bean sprout shed is fine." Yangmao also quickly got off the kang and went out to check her own straw shed.
"Ayun said that when it snows too heavily, we must remember to clear the snow off the roof, otherwise the roof will collapse." The chief sat on the edge of the kang and put on his shoes. "Ashan, you take care of the leather making, and I will clear the snow."
"I'll remove the snow, and you can take care of the leather making. Ayun taught me how to do it." Ashan said hurriedly. The house was too important, and he was a little worried about others.
Many people got up in this room, and some people in the other room also woke up.
“Uh… huh!”
Qingyan, sweating profusely, opened his eyes with difficulty and found... a thigh was across his chest on the left, and half a shoulder and an arm on the right were tightly holding his stomach.
"...No wonder Ayun would rather squeeze into another crowded room and never sleep with you two."
Qingyan struggled to push away Qingcao and Dahe, who were sleeping in a very bad posture, and sat up while wiping the sweat off his face… Then he saw Dahe, who had pressed him with his thighs all night, holding a snow werewolf cub tightly in his arms, and the cub’s fur on the top of his head was soaked with sweat from being hugged so hard.
After silently rescuing the sleeping cub, Qingyan avoided the charmingly sleeping Dahe, went under the kang to put on his shoes, added some firewood to the stove, and then lifted the door curtain to look outside : "——Eh? It's snowing so heavily?!"
Outside the thick animal skin pressed down by wood, there was thick snow covering his calves just one step away. Qingyan, who had slept soundly all night, was startled.
"...The kang and the house are really great things. If I slept in a tent, I would be freezing to death in such heavy snow. How could I sleep so soundly without feeling anything? Sigh, I wonder what's going on in the tribe..."
Qingyan sighed. He liked life in the Snow Wolf tribe very much, but he still couldn't forget his people.
Ah Shan, who was preparing to clear the snow from the roof with a long branch, saw Qing Yan and waved his hand quickly: "Qing Yan, come and help clear the snow."
"Oh, what am I going to do?"
A Shan looked at Qing Yan's small body, stretched out his arms to hold him up and lifted him up: "Well... you are only a little heavier than the cub, the roof should be able to bear your weight, just climb up and push the snow down."
Qingyan was caught off guard by the "Holding Sister" move, and stared at Ashan blankly for a few seconds...
The two of them cleared the roofs of two kang rooms and a mobile house that had not yet been heated, and the tribesmen woke up one after another. In previous years, when it snowed so heavily, everyone was freezing and could only stay in the tent shivering and drowsy; this year, they had enough food and sleep, and everyone was full of energy. The adult tribesmen began to clear the snow in the tribe, and the cubs cheered and rushed outside to roll around on the white snow.
Xiao Yun slept until he woke up naturally, and when he opened his eyes, it was already past midnight. He stretched his body and curled up in the animal skin to stay in bed, and found that... there were many more tribesmen staying on the kang today than before.
"No need to herd, patrol or hunt... huh, it's such a relaxing winter." Xiao Yun sat up slowly in a daze. The atmosphere in the house was particularly relaxed as the tribesmen gathered in groups of three or four, chatting or weaving vines. Even he was infected and did not worry about the livelihood of the tribe as soon as he woke up like usual.
"Is it still snowing outside?"
"Well, the snow on the roof has been cleared once. Ayun, would you like some broth? There are still some bean sprouts and enoki mushrooms left." said Ashan, who was sitting with Hongye to grind the bone arrows.
“Have you washed the enoki mushrooms?”
"I added it. I washed it." The wool from the rattan grass looked over and said, "Everyone knows that you, Ayun, don't like mud in the soup. Now no one wants to drink broth with mud in it. It will taste bitter."
"Ayun, would you like some fried fish?" Niu Jiao asked eagerly.
"…Unicorn, can you tell me something else?"
"Oh." Niu Jiao swallowed his saliva, "Ayun, do you want fried beans? I want to play the chopstick war game."
Xiao Yun got off the kang with a gloomy face and put on his shoes...Then he was extremely surprised to find that Sal was curled up at the head of the kang. When he looked over, Sal turned his face away embarrassedly.
"This fellow..." Xiao Yun's mouth twitched, "Could it be that he was so stubborn about treating me like a monster and refusing to enjoy the benefits I brought him that he was arrogantly fighting with me... and now he can't hold on any longer and has forgotten why he disliked me in the first place?"
Thinking of this, Xiao Yun felt a little angry and a little amused, and said in a long tone: "Sal~~"
Sal gave him a guilty look and lowered his head.
"It's so cold and snowing, it's hard to sleep in the tent?" Xiao Yun asked deliberately.
"Cough, cough, cough!" Sal coughed twice and kept his head down without saying anything.
"Ayun, is it because you don't allow Zhipi to sleep on the kang?" Hongye disagreed, "Ayun, don't bully Zhipi. Humans are very fragile. If Ashan hadn't found him early in the morning, Zhipi might have been frozen to death."
"Hmm?" The tribe leader who was chatting with his tribe members looked over with a sharp gaze.
"What the hell? What does this have to do with anything?" Xiao Yun refused to take the blame. "I have never done anything like this. It's Sal who has a problem with me."
All the tribesmen in the room immediately focused their attention on Thrall.
Sar has been insisting on not eating bean sprouts and not sleeping on the kang these days. He is under great psychological pressure and has lost a lot of weight compared to when Xiao Yun first came. His beard is unkempt and his cheeks are sunken . Now that Xiao Yun is bullying him, his face turns blue and white, white and red, like he is running a dyeing factory, and he can't even lift his head.
"Leathersmith, why don't you like Ayun?" Hongye was particularly confused, and Ashan frowned even more.
"..." Thrall felt bitter, but he couldn't say it. Your own people didn't think that the cub Ayun was weird at all. What else could he, a human, say?
Xiao Yun didn't really want to force Thrall to do anything. First, it was too childish, like fighting with a child. Second, it was unnecessary. Third, Thrall was a human being with a certain level of education after all. If he could cooperate and devote himself wholeheartedly to the cause of improving the living environment of the snow wolves, he could be of some use - as the saying goes, every pair of underwear and a piece of toilet paper has its value, right?
With this in mind, Xiao Yun used his experience in working as a trainee in the modern workplace. He waved to the tribesmen to let them handle it, then sat down on the kang next to Sal's feet and said earnestly, "Sal, what do you think is the most important and precious thing in this world?"
Sal: “…”
There was no way to answer this kind of big question, and Xiao Yun didn't need him to answer it. He just used this kind of vague big question to elevate the conversation... Bosses like to do this when they are trying to trick their subordinates into giving them chicken soup: "It's life. When you're alive, there's infinite hope, but when you're dead, there's nothing. You were wanted by the nobles of the human kingdom, and you went through so much hardship to escape and sneak across to the prairie in order to survive, and you almost became a slave. You must have a deeper feeling about this?"
The first step to persuade others is to affirm them, start a conversation by talking about something they have done successfully, and give them a hint that "I understand you, we are one family." This is the basic skill of rhetoric. If you deny others completely right away, they will hate you. This is the reason why some parents who deny their own children always fail to discipline them. Even if they have the natural convenience of being direct blood relatives, they cannot pull others to their side before disciplining them. Even their own sons will turn against them.
Sar raised his head and glanced at Xiao Yun, his facial muscles twitching. Obviously, Xiao Yun's words touched him. He felt that his life was not easy... He made a lot of sacrifices to survive. But Xiao Yun's words seemed to threaten him, which made him even more afraid to express his opinion easily.
"In fact, all people, all races, and all intelligent creatures are the same. They are all doing their best to stay alive. If they can live a better life while saving their lives and can see hope that life will get better, then everyone will go all out. After all, only water will flow to low places, and people will always try their best to go higher, right?" Xiao Yun said.
His words were confusing. For example, the tribe leader who was listening in did not understand what he was saying at all. He only understood the superficial meaning and nodded repeatedly. However, Xiao Yun believed that Thrall could understand the deeper meaning hidden in his words. Human beings with complex minds like Thrall were actually much easier to deal with than the linear snow werewolves for someone like Xiao Yun who lived in the era of information explosion and had worked in the workplace for many years... because the former were more selfish and had clearer desires.
"People go to...high places?" Sal chewed over the meaning of this sentence several times and repeated it softly.
Xiao Yun slightly moved her sitting position, turned her back to the tribesmen in the house, and showed a kind smile that only Thrall could see - this was a persuasion and a threat. As a weak human living under the protection of the snow wolf, who are you showing off your weird and virtuous attitude to? I'm too busy to help you with your psychological preparation. You can either lick my ass or be stubborn and unyielding. Choose one yourself!
No matter how big the matter is, it is not as important as your life. Think carefully before answering!
On the surface, Xiao Yun still had a completely gentle and persuasive attitude, but all his threats were hidden deep inside. He believed that Thrall could understand, and Thrall did understand - his tense facial muscles collapsed, or to put it in a fancy way, his psychological defenses broke down.
Thrall felt an inexplicable fear. Snow werewolves all had a pair of beautiful emerald green eyes, and the eyes of simple-minded snow werewolves were always very pure; but this cub was different. There were too many things in his eyes, and they were too complicated, just like humans... For Thrall, who had a deep understanding of humans, this was the greatest fear: a snow werewolf with human eyes was countless times more dangerous than a pure snow werewolf.
"You..." Thrall's mind went blank. Frankly speaking, it was ridiculous, but he was indeed afraid of humans. As an exile from human society, he felt more secure from the alien snow werewolves than from those who wanted to earn a bounty with his head or those who regarded him as a commodity. At this moment, he discovered that there was such an alien with human eyes among the snow werewolves. The sense of security he had gained from the snow werewolf tribe instantly disintegrated and collapsed. He could no longer use the things he firmly believed in to give himself courage. After mumbling silently for a moment, he trembled and lowered his eyes, "...You are right."
"That's right." Xiao Yun patted his shoulder with a smile, "You are an educated human being, you have a good brain, you are smart, and you can remember things. Take a good rest for a few days to take care of your body. I will build a mushroom house later, and you can come and learn to grow mushrooms with me. Plant more shiitake mushrooms and enoki mushrooms. Everyone likes to eat them."
"...Okay." Sal responded with a stiff smile.
The snow wolves, who were totally unaware of the fight between them, looked at the two men shaking hands and making peace. The innocent and cute Yangmao even said to Thrall happily, "If you go to grow mushrooms, we can't call you a leatherworker. Leatherworker doesn't sound very nice. From now on, we will all call you Thrall like Ayun?"
Thrall… Thrall was even more sad. Why did the snow werewolves have to have a strange creature like the cub Ayun? How wonderful it would be to have a snow werewolf in its original ecology!
Xiao Yun had no time to sympathize with Thrall's anger and grief, as he had a lot of other things to do - so many acorns could not be used right after they were brought back, they had to be shelled at least before they could be used as feed or ground into starch to eat; and the shelled acorns needed to be dried, but now it was snowing and there were no conditions for drying them, so the only option was to dry them in a room with floor heating... Before the tribesmen had time to enjoy relaxing in the house with floor heating, the acorns enjoyed it first.
In the afternoon, the snow stopped. The adult members of the tribe carried wooden snow-clearing tools to the places where the cattle and sheep stayed to remove the snow and check whether there were any frostbitten livestock. Xiao Yun then took the cubs to start processing acorns... Qingyan, who was despised by the adult snow wolves for his strength, was also assigned to the cubs' team.
Qingyan: “…” He glanced at Thrall who was recuperating in the house. Okay… at least his role is greater than that of humans.
