Volume 1: Farming Chapter 41: Remembering a Vengeance
This elf suddenly appeared in the rain. He had a pair of slender pointed ears with the tips exceeding the top of his head. His long light golden hair wet by the rain lay softly on his scalp. He was wearing thin and smooth clothes woven from some unknown plant fiber. He carried a longbow on his back, and a row of palm-length daggers were attached to the belt around his waist. In his left hand he held a wooden scabbard, and in his right hand he held a long sword with the handle wrapped with vines. Judging from his attire, no one would mistake the identity of this elf warrior.
At this moment, the elf warrior seemed to adapt to the rain, and he squinted his deep blue pupils. He glanced at the naked snow wolves wearing hats and shoes, and paused for a moment on the dark Qingyan. When he looked at the others, Xiao Yun seemed to... see a hint of doubt in his expression?
"..." Xiao Yun silently turned his head and glanced at Ashan beside him. That's right, the snow wolves were forced to be cleansed by him. If this elf warrior knew the snow wolves, he would definitely be confused now - even Qingyan didn't dare to recognize them at first.
Xiao Yun secretly swallowed his saliva. It would be a lie if he said he didn't feel guilty. After all, many of the supplies behind them were taken from the elves... It would be strange if he didn't feel awkward when meeting the victim in this situation! It was so awkward!
Normally, in such a rainy and deserted place, it would be unreasonable for him to feel guilty about the weaker victim who came to him because he relied on the power of numbers. However, Xiao Yun did not want to experience the feeling of being rubbed the fists by millions of elves ready to slaughter your whole family - who knows what technology these elves who can use magic have to call the police? He did not have the ability of Han Lao Mo to make up his mind to do a job and then escape thousands of miles away!
But if you want to be sensible and immediately surrender and lick the snow wolf, that won't work... Now that the Snow Wolf is so big, even if you want to lick the snow wolf, they won't look down on you. You are not even qualified to be its younger brother! Besides, it's not like the Snow Wolf has no grudges against the elves. Didn't they run away to be mercenaries for the Beast King because they were greedy for the reward? What if the elves are vindictive? What's the difference between licking the snow wolf and offering to kill?
The above thoughts flashed through his mind quickly, and Xiao Yun gritted his teeth and decided... it would be better to quickly get rid of this guy who showed up at a completely inappropriate time.
"Hello?" Xiao Yun blinked his eyes, his eyes were full of mist, he opened his mouth to show his big white teeth, and smiled very innocently and purely, "Are you an elf?"
The elf warrior turned his gaze away from the others and looked at the cub who had spoken. After a moment of silence, the elf warrior spoke uncertainly, "Are you snow werewolves?"
"Yes." Xiao Yun took off his straw hat to expose his ears, then put it back on. "We were just about to go back to the tribe, but we ran into such a heavy rain."
If the Snow Werewolf Tribe had become prosperous now and Xiao Yun had the confidence to deal with the elves, he would have put on an innocent face and asked for help, shamelessly trying to establish a relationship with the other party, but since the time is not right... forget it!
The elf warrior stared at him for a few seconds, then looked at the others, and took a half step back: "Are you really snow werewolves?"
Xiao Yun: “…” Damn it! He was so busy worrying about the situation of the snow werewolf that he forgot that the other party should worry about his own safety when he was alone!
If the elf warrior turned around and ran away, it would be even more troublesome for him to call his friends to catch up and explain that the snow werewolf had no ill intentions!
Xiao Yun immediately put on an aggrieved face and turned to look at Ashan: "Uncle Ashan, why doesn't he believe that we are snow werewolves?"
Ah Shan scratched his head, looked at the unfriendly elf, and said, "How about we turn into wolves to show you?"
Qing Yan was completely shocked: "..."
The elf warrior who couldn't keep up with
Xiao Yun praised Ah Shan's true performance in his heart, and looked at the elf with a shameless innocent face: "My uncles and the others are very tired, how about I transform for you to see?"
The corner of the elf warrior's mouth twitched noticeably: "No, no need, I believe you are snow werewolves."
Xiao Yun made a very satisfied expression, and relaxedly put the salted fish in his hand into his mouth and took a bite: "What do you want from us?"
The elf warrior's expression suddenly became more serious.
"Oh, you are hunting because you are hungry!" Xiao Yun pretended to be enlightened before the other party could come up with an excuse, "We have dried fish here, we can give you some if you want." As he said that, he took out two palm-sized pieces of dried fish from the oil-skin pocket beside him and handed them over innocently.
Elf Warrior Kai: "..."
A group of snow werewolves and a tribe of cats. The adults all seemed exhausted, and only the cubs were energetic. Such a team... didn't seem to be threatening?
But this did not completely dispel Kai's concerns. After all, this area was where the water from the grassland flowed into the sea. The terrain was low and it was flooded by the river every year. The snow wolves who relied on grazing never came here. As a patrolling soldier, there was no reason for him to ignore such a group of snow wolves appearing nearby - he had seen the power of the snow wolf warriors with his own eyes, and he was not so easily deceived by the harmless appearance of these guys!
The elf warrior raised his hand and pointed at the huge package behind the Snow Wolf People: "What is that?"
Xiao Yun: “…” Damn, this guy is hard to fool!
Tell the truth? That's definitely not possible. Who knows what the status of salt is in the elves' place? What if they see that you are capable and take you in as their brother and make you a general of salt making? How can you expect the elves to be kind to you in the future?
With his mind racing, Xiao Yun held the bag of dried fish tightly with a vigilant face, staring at the other party defensively: "What do you want to do? We worked hard to dry it, we can't give it to you." He handed over the two pieces of dried fish in his right hand again, "This is the most I can give you."
"..." Qingyan & the tribesmen looked at Xiao Yun silently, and then silently focused their attention on the elves.
Elf Warrior Kai: "..."
Snow wolf cubs become adults at the age of 30, while elves become adults at the age of 100. As an elf warrior in the tribe, Kai is over 260 years old this year. Even though the social structure within the elves is not as complicated as that of humans, it is still not easy to deceive an elf of this age with lies and sweet talk.
Kai could see that the snow wolf cub was pretending to be naive, but at the same time, he could also tell that he was not lying... The huge burden behind them seemed to be the fruit of the labor of the snow wolf people. When he asked directly, the cub's reaction at that moment showed that he was really worried that the elves would plunder the fruits of their labor.
This made Kai very upset - no matter what, the forest elves would never fall to the point of robbing these guys who were so poor that they were running around naked!
Kai glared at the clever little Snow Wolf Cub. His good mood for the day was ruined by his malicious speculation: "...Don't go deep into the forest."
After leaving this warning, the elf warrior disappeared into the rain.
Xiao Yun stared at the guy's figure until he completely disappeared in the rain, and beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead.
"Damn... these elves are really smart!" Xiao Yun, who had been on edge the whole time, now felt relieved that he had escaped a disaster. His tribesmen were unaware of it, but he was frightened by that guy's half-closed eyes. He even had the illusion that he was back in junior high school and was caught by the dean for skipping school and lying - the elves' blue eyes seemed to be able to see through people's hearts. He was halfway through his acting when he vaguely felt that the other party knew he was acting!
If he hadn't noticed that this guy was a little arrogant and took advantage of the elf's tsundere mentality, it would not have been so easy to get through this level!
"There's no thunder anymore, hurry up and leave, the farther away from this broken place the better!" After putting the dried fish back, Xiao Yun immediately urged the tribesmen to leave. They didn't care whether they were hungry or tired, the most important thing was to get away from the dangerous wall as soon as possible.
It rained heavily all night long. When the sky was slightly bright, the rain gradually subsided, but it was still dripping, and was unwilling to give up the air and land positions that it had occupied for a long time.
Two figures jumped and shuttled between the treetops. When the rain water accumulated on the swaying leaves dripped down, they appeared several meters away.
"You know how to deceive and lure your Snow Wolf cub? Kai, are you serious?"
"I can't be sure whether he has the intention to mislead me, but I can confirm that he is hiding something, Helin."
Hailin jumped out of the woods, landed on the grass with a lot of water on her toes, and turned to look at her companions: "Are you sure that it is really a snow wolf cub, not a human?"
"I'm not so bad that I can't even distinguish the smell of humans." Kai landed lightly beside his companions, led the way, and frowned, "They appeared here, so they could only have gone to the seaside. A group of snow wolves left their tribe to go to the seaside to fish and dry fish. This doesn't seem like something snow wolves would do, right?"
Hailin disagreed: "What else? Do they want to build a ship and go out to sea?"
"The things they used to wrap the supplies were the sails from human sailboats. After I went back and thought about it carefully, I remembered...it seemed to be the sails of the merchant ships we removed." Kai said a little annoyed.
"Huh?!" Hailin was surprised. "So, there really were snow werewolves near us at that time?"
"I told you at that time, but you didn't believe it."
"No matter how you look at it, it's too strange. I really don't think the snow wolves on the grassland would collude with human merchant ships. If those guys were so smart, they wouldn't be willing to be the Beast King's knife for a little profit. It's more likely that they looted those merchant ships afterwards. The snow wolves are capable of doing such a thing." Hailin shook her head.
"I don't think the Snow Wolf people colluded with the merchant ship. If so, there was no reason for them not to attack us. After all, there were only two of us. But those Snow Wolf people did take something away from the seaside, and they didn't want us to know about it."
"So what's the difference between the two of us going there now and our previous situation?"
"Don't you think we need to confirm what they wrapped in the sail and took away so carefully?" Kai asked back.
"I think you were just angry because you were fooled by the snow wolf cub." The companion said bluntly, "The snow wolf cub didn't dare to attack you, which made you arrogant, so you looked down on them. You are always like this, Kai, exaggerating what you encountered and then showing off your ability to solve problems."
"Helene!"
The two elf warriors quickly found the slope where the snow werewolves had rested last night. The place was naturally empty, and even the footprints and traces left by the snow werewolves had been washed away by the heavy rain all night.
Hailin looked at her companions with a half-smile: "I'm beginning to think that the 'smart' snow wolf cubs you described are real, Kai. After coaxing you away, they didn't delay at all and ran away overnight... Maybe they even laughed at you, a fool who is so easy to deceive, behind your back?"
Kai: “…”
The elves are a proud race. No matter the Dwarf King, the Beast King, or the overlord humans in the south, they cannot ignore or despise the existence and status of the elves. With their strong individual combat power and thriving population, the elves have enough capital to look down on all creatures on this continent. The green dragons living in the same forest have maintained friendly relations with the forest elves for thousands of years and will not easily show their fangs to the elves.
As a warrior of the elves, Kai was naturally inflated... Whether he admitted it or not, when he was alone facing a group of down-and-out naked snow werewolves, who obviously outnumbered him but did not dare to touch him at all, his tail was almost up in the air.
So Kai was very angry at being fooled by a snow wolf cub...
Enduring the sarcasm and ridicule of his unscrupulous companions, Kai secretly made up his mind on his way back: if he meets that shameless kid pretending to be innocent again, he must teach him a lesson!
The naked and destitute Snow Wolf people finally returned to their tribe four days later...
There was no "close contact" with outsiders along the way, no chance of catching lice, no need to shave one by one, just washing inside and out and having a meal was considered a welcome meal.
After they had eaten their fill, they immediately counted the harvest, and naturally everyone was celebrating - the hard work of the past month and a half had not been in vain, as they brought back more than a hundred bags of salt, each weighing about 50 kilograms. With so much salt piled up in one piece, it was pure white with only a hint of green, crystalline, and top-quality salt. The clan leader almost died of laughter on the spot...
In addition to salt, there are more than a hundred bags of dried salted fish and dried shrimps - there have never been any fishing boats on this side of the inland sea close to the grassland, and the fishing nets woven with tree bark fibers can yield a good harvest. Given the foodie nature of the snow wolves, it would be strange if Hongye and the others didn't go fishing like crazy... Nearshore fish don't have as many bones as freshwater fish, and are easier to eat.
After storing the fruits of the labor of the Snow Wolf people, which accounted for the majority, into the warehouse, the next step was to count the supplies that were found. Under the gazes of the tribesmen who formed a human wall and waited eagerly for a glimpse of the rare things, Xiao Yun opened the first wooden box and found half a box of copper coins...
The tribesmen were very quiet.
Xiao Yun threw away the box of useless copper coins with a droopy look, untied the canvas, pulled out the hay inside, and took out a large round iron pot that was more than half a meter wide.
"Ohh ...
Xiao Yun then laid out two large boxes of cloth.
"Wow wow wow wow!" The tribesmen rolled on the ground with joy. There were so many fabrics; it was the first time they had seen so many!
Xiao Yun spread out the bags of sweet potatoes and the boxes of potatoes.
The tribesmen were very quiet.
"...Is it really okay to be so realistic? Please give some support!" Xiao Yun was angry.
"Oh, okay, okay~~" The tribesmen shouted perfunctorily.
Xiao Yun wiped his face and explained the importance of these two sacred objects himself: "Don't underestimate these tubers. Cut them into pieces according to the buds on them and plant them in the fields when the temperature is right. Next year or the year after, we will be able to eat potato cakes and sweet potato noodles that taste no worse than wheat cakes!"
"Ah ...
Xiao Yun: “…” I really don’t know whether I should be moved or not. These guys really make me feel complicated.
The important sweet potatoes and potatoes were put aside. It was already past the season for planting these two crops, and Xiao Yun was unwilling to delay it until next year. He could instead build a simple greenhouse to try planting them later.
The rest of the harvest was just some odds and ends, a nice-looking but not very useful pocket watch, a handful of steel needles that could be used to sew clothes, a merchant ship medical kit that looked very useful but also very limited, and more than a hundred iron weapons of various types, some complete and some incomplete...
With an iron pot, they could eat stir-fried dishes. Under Xiao Yun's influence, the tribesmen had already developed a habit of storing animal fats. They would save a lot of fats from killing sheep or catching wild animals while doing work. That night, Xiao Yun showed off his skills and let the tribesmen experience a third way to eat the vegetables they grew, besides boiling them and using them as fillings for wheat cakes: stir-fried Chinese cabbage, stir-fried small green vegetables, stir-fried Chinese cabbage with minced meat and sliced meat, stir-fried small green vegetables with minced meat and sliced meat...
There is no doubt that stir-frying tastes richer than boiling. The iron pan, which performs well when boiling salt, immediately won the most sincere love of the tribesmen...
Two iron pots were placed on the big stove and were used to boil hot water and cook food. One was used exclusively for cooking, and the others were used in rotation... The clan leader wanted to collect the remaining pots, but Xiao Yun stopped him and told him that iron pots would break more easily if not used for a long time.
The clan leader is really becoming more and more like a hamster.
The next morning after returning to the tribe, Xiao Yun got up and ran to the river. The tribesmen didn't seem to be too worried about the recent flooding, but based on their outrageous behavior...to be honest, Xiao Yun didn't really trust them.
When Xiao Yun arrived at the riverside to set up the waterwheel, he almost couldn't breathe - the water from the Nima River was almost reaching the bearings of the waterwheel!
The canal is full of water and the three water wheels are still working!
"Don't be angry, don't be angry. I raised them myself... I was raised by them, I can't be angry!" Xiao Yun's face turned pale and he pressed his chest hard to suppress his anger. He asked Ashan, who came with him, and Niu Jiao, who hadn't seen him for a long time and was unwilling to leave, to dismantle the three water wheels and put them on a high place on the river bank. Then he ran to the downstream and dug open the sluice gate at the outlet of the canal to release the water.
I went to check the fields again. Well, the alfalfa fields were on higher ground, and only a small part of the alfalfa roots were rotten. The vegetable fields had directly become paddy fields...
He hurriedly dug open the outlet in the vegetable field for flood discharge and released the water in the vegetable field into the canal. An angry Xiao Yun planned to find trouble with Qiuqiu - he had clearly reminded him to keep an eye on the water level when he left, but he still has no memory at such a grown-up?
Halfway through the walk, Xiao Yun reacted and turned his head quickly... Really, his brain was stuck. He expected Qiuqiu, a caracal, to pay attention to the water level when the water was released? Could he go out when it was raining heavily? Would he dare to approach the river when the water level was high?
"Fuck..." Xiao Yun wiped his face, admitted that he was an idiot, and ran to check the water storage pond further downstream and drain the water in the pond into the swamp...
Xiao Yun's mood improved when he checked the river bank repaired by the Snow Wolves on the north bank. The river bank was built with mud bricks, earth cement mixed with a lot of reed stems, and compacted loess. It was very thick, about four meters wide, and more than two meters higher than the original river bank. It was built from the river bend towards the tribe to the lowest swamp on the north bank. If the water was not too outrageous, it should not have rushed here.
Climbing up the river bank, Xiao Yun looked far into the distance at the upstream of the river which had become turbid and surging due to the continuous heavy rains. He then looked at the surface of the opposite bank where the water had not receded yet and was basically soaked in muddy water. His mood, which had just recovered a little, became bad again... The highest temperature has passed now, but the tail of summer is still lingering on earth. According to the Minotaur's advice, the period when floods are most likely to occur is still a long way off!
"Maybe, we should go upstream and take a look at the river channel above?" Xiao Yun was a little undecided. To build water conservancy projects, it is not enough to just build a river embankment. All Chinese who have learned about Dayu's flood control in elementary school know that it is better to dredge than to block... To manage this tributary of the Earth River that supports their tribe's farming industry, the best way is to start from the source and use diversion to slow down the flow of the river and reduce the possibility of flooding.
But here is the crux of the matter… In ancient times, the Chinese worked together to control floods with tens or even hundreds of thousands of people. It is not an exaggeration to say that it was a nationwide effort. Where on earth did they get such a large number of manpower? !
After staring blankly at the rushing river for several minutes, Xiao Yun suddenly had an evil idea in his mind: "Why not... open a hole upstream to divert the excess river water to irrigate the forest, or to the underground world?"
...There is no doubt that it would be much easier to run to the upstream of this tributary before it turns to this side and open a flood discharge hole than to madly exploit the labor of the tribesmen to dig an entire river channel. As soon as this evil idea came up, Xiao Yun couldn't control himself...
Especially when he thought of the elven warrior's arrogant look that seemed to be able to see through his heart, Xiao Yun was very inclined to the former - even though he knew in his heart that the flood here might not be able to flood the place where the elf lived, but it seemed very pleasant to take a little revenge on them~
"...Forget it. If those elves come up to look for the source of the flood, our small tribe living on top of their heads will be easily exposed." Thinking of the consequences, Xiao Yun felt a little uneasy. It's not that he was a coward, but it was really stupid to mess around and get himself into trouble when he didn't have the ability to bear the consequences.
"First, organize a rescue operation to harvest the vegetables... If we don't rush to harvest these vegetables, they will be left to rot in the fields. If I can't think of another solution after harvesting the vegetables, then... we'll talk about it later!"
