Volume 4: How big is the heart, how vast is the earth Chapter 109 The Snow Wolf Tribe Will Change
Isaac and his three companions returned the materials of the hunted Sharp-clawed Thunder Lizard to the hotel. After a short rest, they looked at each other for a long time. In the end, they could not resist the temptation of delicious food and went out to the east of the port...
It would be fine if you eat dark food until you die, but if one day you eat normal food and are asked to go back to eating dark food, you would firmly refuse - even if this normal food is cooked by the super ferocious beast Snow Wolf, there would be no second choice.
The Snow Wolf tribe's shop was located in the area designated for the Snow Wolf tribe at the easternmost part of the port. The first floor of a two-story wooden house was opened up to serve as a storefront. In the open space in front of the shop were several sets of long tables made of poorly crafted square wooden blocks. When Isaac and his companions entered the Snow Wolf tribe's area, those square wooden blocks, from which even the bark had not been peeled off, were already full of diners.
Smelling the aroma of grilled skewers and thick soup in the air, the dwarf Arnold took a deep breath and sighed with trembling lips: "Even if this is the aroma from hell, I, Arnold, have chosen to fall."
Then the dwarf left his companions who were walking slowly behind, and ran all the way to the long queue with his short legs...
Isaac, Malcolm, and Alex: "..."
"There are no seats left. Either wait for a seat or take your food to the side and eat while squatting!" Mumu, who was cooking noodles, shouted when he saw that there was a new group of people lining up.
"Who cares if there's a seat or not, just give me my powder quickly!" the guy at the front urged.
"Don't be in a hurry. Here are the toppings. Do you want more or less spicy?" The snow wolf man, who had worked in the cafeteria for half a year, asked as he added the toppings skillfully.
"It's all right, give it to me quickly, I'm starving!" The copper coin in the elder brother's hand was almost crushed by him. When he saw the cub finally handed the bowl to him, he quickly stuffed the copper coin in it, took the bowl, moved two steps away, and started eating while standing.
Isaac looked around at the number of people queuing in front of the noodle table and the grill and found that they were about the same. He was just hesitating whether to eat noodles or barbecue first when he saw a cylindrical iron barrel at least 1.5 meters high and 1 meter wide floating horizontally behind the wooden house of the store...
Isaac: “???”
"Please make way, I can't see what's ahead!"
This cylindrical iron bucket actually spoke, which scared not only Isaac, but also the people queuing in front of the noodle table. Upon closer inspection, they saw a pair of feet under the iron bucket, and a pair of claws on the iron handles on both sides... It turned out to be a large iron bucket that was carried out by people .
"Nanfeng, put it over here, put it over here!" A snow wolf cub ran out of the store, holding an iron stove in his hand, and placed it in the open space between the noodle table and the grill.
"Hey~ whoosh!" The cub Nanfeng, who was holding a large iron pot, put the heavy pot gently on the stove with great effort, then he straightened up and rubbed his belly, "It's too heavy, and a little hot."
"We should have said that we would move together, but you insisted on going alone."
"What? That's not what you said just now—"
"Stop playing with Xiaoyu, Nanfeng, come and move the things." A cat shouted in the store.
"Here we come." The two cubs turned and entered the store.
The people queuing on both sides stared at the middle curiously. Isaac, who had not yet joined the queue, walked forward and looked into the iron pot. The pot was filled with soup that looked very oily and thick. He could faintly smell a strange aroma, but this aroma could not be associated with any of the smells he knew. Isaac couldn't even find an adjective to describe it.
"Mumu, what is this?"
"Braised pork." Mumu still remembered Isaac and replied casually.
"Brine...? Brine? Isn't brine poisonous? How can it be used to cook things?" The elves know a lot of things. An elf warrior who was sitting on a square wooden block and eating barbecue looked at him in surprise.
"It's not that braising liquid, it's a braising liquid made from marinade. It's made with a variety of spices. The food cooked in it is delicious. You'll know when you try it later." Mumu said confidently.
As they were talking, two cubs and a cat brought out a lot of things: a wooden table, a row of jars and cans of seasonings and side dishes, a bucket of soaking sweet potato flour, two stacks of large bowls, a wooden cutting board, a pair of pointed scissors, a wire scoop net, and a pair of extra long chopsticks.
The cub Xiaoyu was a little surprised to see Isaac standing in front of the braising pot. He turned to his companion and said, "Why are there people lining up before we even start selling?"
Isaac: “Uh…”
The cub Nanfeng smiled and said, "I know the stewed meat is delicious just by smelling it. This is called 'knowing what's good', you know."
Isaac: “Hmm…”
The two cubs looked at Isaac and said in unison: "Eight copper coins for one portion. Do you want it spicy or not?"
"..." Isaac had no room for refusal, so he had to bite the bullet and said, "I want it spicy."
"Okay~" The cub Nanfeng grabbed a handful of soaked sweet potato flour (about two taels) and threw it into the scoop net and put it into the pot to heat. He flexibly picked up the long chopsticks in his right hand and fished out things from the stew pot that looked like a witch's dark dish. "One portion should contain a potato, a piece of fried tofu, a piece of konjac tofu, a piece of tofu skin, and a piece of square meat..."
Xiao Cub Dayu handed the bowl over and took it, using scissors to cut the stewed potatoes and the two-liang cube of pork belly, and cut the three kinds of tofu products into blocks. At this time, the sweet potato flour was also blanched, and it was poured into the bowl, and a little soy sauce, vinegar, and chili sauce were added. Then put in a chopstick head of blanched bean sprouts, sprinkle some chopped green onions and stir-fried beans, and scoop half a spoonful of braised soup.
"Alright, eight copper coins!"
Isaac picked up the braised noodles, which had a really weird color. After hesitating for a few seconds, he picked up the fork and started eating... He had eaten a lot of insects when he spent the night in the wild. This thing just looked like a witch's dark cuisine. The aroma was still very tempting, so there was no need to be pretentious.
Once you try it, you can't stop eating it - the charm of braised cooking lies in its rich aromatic substances, mellow flavor and long-lasting aftertaste. The marinade used for braised cooking is not as strong as the marinade for braised meat. It looks thick but is actually lighter in taste, and the light taste has a mellow taste, which can be said to be interesting regardless of the taste.
Xiao Yun uses the "exclusive secret recipe" developed by his sister to make stewed pork, which includes spices such as star anise, cardamom, fennel, tangerine peel, cinnamon, licorice, pepper, bay leaves, chili peppers, sugar, salt, pepper and 100 ml of distilled liquor produced in the laboratory, and then boils them with water to make the marinade. Use pork bones and fish bones to make a large pot of broth, and add the marinade to the broth to make the braising liquid.
The brine can be reused as long as it is not contaminated and properly preserved. If the taste becomes bland, just add broth, marinade and salt to it. The longer it is used, the mellower the taste will be. It can also be used to consume commodities in the tribe that are not suitable for bulk transactions - such as potatoes that are not made into vermicelli, various soy products, and konjac tofu made from wild konjac... Especially the latter, konjac is really difficult to sell at a good price in this world. The poorest people rely on potatoes and sweet potatoes to survive, and konjac cannot be cheaper than these two. People who are not that poor don't like this thing.
Isaac finished a whole bowl of braised pork without realizing it. After finishing it, he felt full to a certain extent, but at the same time he was still reluctant to leave - this is the most magical thing about braised pork. The aftertaste lingers in the mouth after eating it, making people can't help but have the urge to "I can eat some more".
Since no one was lining up, Isaac simply didn't give up his seat. He looked at the two snow wolf cubs in charge of stewing the food with a sharp gaze and said, "Give me another serving."
"Okay~" The cub Nanfeng quickly grabbed the noodles and put them into the pot.
The dwarf Arnold struggled to look at the row of buttocks in front of him, gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, pulled himself away from the team, and ran towards Isaac.
As soon as he moved, the people at the end of the line could no longer sit still and subconsciously followed him...
If the direct and overbearing taste stimulation given by hot and sour noodles and skewers is a gorgeous and fiery girl, then the stewed pork is a little goblin who is reluctant to resist and will not let go once it sticks to you. When Isaac finished the fourth bowl of stewed pork beyond his personal limit, he couldn't bend down and let out a complex groan of pain and pleasure...
"Burp, I'm so full, burp!" Arnold also exceeded his personal limit. As a dwarf with a rather worrying appetite, he collapsed directly against the wall of the store and couldn't move. He rubbed his belly weakly, "Too bad, why is the food of the Snow Wolf so delicious? Burp!"
"Is the food cooked in that weird big pot really that good?" asked Melken, a loyal fan of hot and sour noodles, curiously.
"It tastes as if a demon is tempting your tongue." Arnold said painfully.
Malken shrugged and turned to look at Isaac, who was sitting on the wooden block and couldn't get up. "If you keep eating like this, will you still be able to wear your current clothes when we return before winter comes?"
"This is such a difficult question to answer." Isaac sighed, touching his belly.
"Maybe the snow werewolves will sell us clothes then?" Alex, who had a belly full of skewers, joked.
"Eh? Our clothes?" The peak dining period was over and most of the guests had left. Mumu came over with a bucket to get water to wash the dishes. Unexpectedly, she heard the guests talking. She looked down at the small thief Alex and said seriously, without any joke, "You can't wear them."
“…” Ali’s face turned green and then white.
"Hahahaha!" Arnold slapped his thigh with joy.
After Mumu walked away, Ali turned to look at the leader who was still laughing secretly: "Isaac, is he serious or joking?"
Isaac spread his hands innocently.
"Aren't there some short cats among them? I can't be shorter than those two cats!" Alex said annoyed.
Melken blinked wildly: "Uh..."
Ali was stunned for a moment and turned his head to the other side... and saw two cats holding a pile of dirty bowls looking at him straight.
Pearl, the shorter of the two cats, squatted down and put down the dirty bowl. She walked to Alex and stood beside him. She raised her paw and gestured from the top of her head to the top of Alex's head. Her golden vertical pupils stared at the stiff-faced thief without blinking: "Not counting the ears, I am so much taller than you."
Alex: “…”
Snow leopard Pearl proudly picked up the dirty bowl and strode away with her companions.
"Ahahahahaha—" Arnold slapped his thigh again.
"Forget it, Alex, they must be joking." Isaac tried hard to hold back his laughter.
Ali didn't want to say anything...
"Ashu, let's go have some fun!"
"Is everything packed?"
"So spicy!"
"Go ahead, don't run too far."
Two snow wolf cubs, about 1.8 meters tall, ran out of the store, frolicking through the four humans who were sitting in pairs and resting, and ran to the edge of the port, which was higher than the beach. Before the four people could react, the two cubs jumped down with their teeth and claws bared, and couldn't wait to start fighting and biting each other in mid-air. With a "bang", they fell into the sand, then suddenly jumped up again, one pressing the other down, and soon the one being pressed down was kicked away, and the two sides started chasing each other, and the sand and dust flew everywhere...
"...play?" Ali's eyelids twitched and he turned his head stiffly to look at his companions.
"Uh... that's what they seemed to have said just now." Isaac's eyes were also straight.
"Are they really going to fight?" Arnold was a little scared when he saw how hard they were hitting each other. What was going on? One of them bit the other's arm and didn't let go even after being hit on the head?
The bitten fish cried out, "Nanfeng, you are cheating. You said you would let go after 10 bites!"
Nanfeng let go and immediately bit his other arm.
“Ahhh Nanfeng (╬◣д◢)!!”
"Hahahaha, who told you to count so slowly? Idiot!"
The two cubs were laughing and fighting as they got farther and farther away. The dust they raised was like two groups of people fighting...
Isaac and the other four: "..."
"Shall we go back to the hotel?" Alex asked uninterestedly.
The other three said nothing and stood up silently...
They didn't know the upper limit of the Snow Wolf Clan's combat power, but they knew enough about how tough the Snow Wolf Clan was... The cubs were so tough, how could this be justified?!
The Snow Wolf tribe that appeared in the Elf Port before were all relatively stable warriors. This time, two naughty cubs came and wanted to play and romp to vent their energy after work. Adventurers from all races finally realized how inhuman the Snow Wolf tribe was. As more and more people saw the two naughty kids playing on the beach, the occasional discussion about the "worth" of the Snow Wolf tribe in the tavern was no longer heard... It was a fuss! Not to mention that there were four adult Snow Wolfs and two cats following them. Just trying to capture the two cubs would be a big deal!
Some people also took a different approach, trying to approach Nanfeng and Xiaoyu, two seemingly easy-to-attack cubs, and use language to deceive them. But the result was… when they were playing, it was difficult for outsiders to get close to them, and when they were not playing, they were busy stewing in front of everyone. Most importantly, it was very difficult to quiet these naughty kids during non-working hours! It was even more difficult to get them to listen quietly to a stranger's eloquence!
That afternoon, Isaac and his friends ate too much as usual and sat on the empty wooden blocks to catch their breath. Even Melken, who had not touched the braised pork at first, was so full that he only had the strength to roll his eyes.
Most people left after they were full, and those who remained were mostly full like Isaac and his friends. Only two people sitting opposite each other at the table were still enjoying the food with gusto.
"Sure enough, the correct way to eat braised pork and grilled skewers with wine. It's a complete waste of food to just stuff them into your stomach without any care." The mustached branch chief of the Adventurer's Association took a sip of rum and a bite of braised tofu, squinting his eyes and sighing with satisfaction.
"Don't say that, the young guys will dislike you. In fact, it's just that we old guys can't enjoy . We have to calculate the amount we can eat carefully." Opposite the branch director, the gray-robed spellcaster who seemed to be only thirty years old but had a hoarse voice like an old man pushed down the glasses on the bridge of his nose and said with a smile.
"Sean, it's only right for old friends to properly maintain each other's face." The branch manager pretended to be angry and glared.
"Forget it. It is precisely to maintain our face that we have to wait for others to eat first. Face is really harmful to people." The gray robe spellcaster still smiled. "If we had thrown away those meaningless things earlier, you and I wouldn't have stood there pretending to be cool and unrestrained and enjoyed the sea breeze for so long in vain."
"Well... I should have come here earlier. That little girl Benjamin only knew how to enjoy herself, and she didn't even explain the situation here earlier. Alas, she's getting old, and young people don't care about old guys like us anymore." The branch director sighed.
Ms. Benjamin, who was sitting at the next long table, looked over awkwardly: "Teacher Primo, I——"
The gray-robed spellcaster raised his hand and made a gesture to stop him. "Ignore him, Benjamin. That bad old man Primo is deliberately delaying the departure of the fleet. Before setting off, he was worried that his old bones wouldn't be able to endure the hardships of the barren land in the north, so he delayed the time and stayed in the port city to eat and drink... If he hadn't drunk all the wine on the ship, he wouldn't have dragged me off the ship and rushed over first. In his own words, no matter how unrefined the elven port is, at least you can drink rum, so you see, this guy is really not a good person."
"Cough cough cough cough!" Branch Chief Primo coughed violently and glared angrily at his friend who had exposed his past.
Ms. Benjamin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She had to pretend that she didn't hear what Sean said: "How long will it take for the fleet to arrive, Mr. Sean?"
"If Captain Beavis discovers that Primo is missing, he should be here tomorrow morning." The gray-robed wizard spread his hands.
"Then I will go and see General Kleist to inform him of this matter. Please allow me to take my leave first." Ms. Benjamin stood up and saluted the two of them respectfully, then hurried away with her deputy.
Isaac, who was just planning to take a break, inadvertently listened to the whole thing, winked at his three companions, and quietly stood up and left.
After walking out of the Snow Wolf Tribe's residential area, Arnold couldn't help but say, "The association really invested a lot of money to let Primo, the God of War, be the branch director, and also invited Sean, the End of Illusion, to come over."
"After all, it's a big deal to be allowed to enter the Elf Forest. The Association will certainly take it seriously." Isaac looked a little serious. "I just don't know... how many gold medal hunters are here this time."
"Isaac, what are you worried about?" Melkan was stunned.
Isaac nodded, then shook his head, and hesitated before saying, "I was thinking, the Snow Wolf Tribe lives deep in the Cursed Land. Now adventurers like us only appear on the west coast, and the Snow Wolf Tribe doesn't care. But if someone goes deep into the Cursed Land and invades the Snow Wolf Tribe or other tribes, will it cause resentment among the Snow Wolf Tribe?"
As soon as these words were spoken, Arnold and the others became nervous... What if the Snow Wolf Tribe became hostile to adventurers, and they closed up their stalls and went home without doing business? Where would they be able to eat in the future?
Enjoy your adventure in the Cursed Land, but your quality of life will be greatly reduced~!
While Isaac and others were worrying about their stomachs, Mumu, who was packing things at the door of the store, also heard the conversation of the customers outside.
"Primo...what a difficult name to pronounce." Mumu thought in his mind.
After putting the dirty dishes aside and wiping the table, Mumu suddenly let out an "ah".
"Ah?" Ashu, who was squatting in front of the cupboard and sorting sauce jars, tilted his head and looked over.
Mumu turned around and glanced at the two humans who were still sitting there chewing their food slowly, then he rubbed his chin like Ah Yun did, "Is that so... a lot of people are coming again..."
"What are you talking about, Mumu?" Ashu asked curiously.
"Another batch of new customers are coming. Ah Shu, do we have enough ingredients for the sauce?"
"Let me take a look. The chili sauce is being consumed very quickly. I need to replenish the soybean paste. And I've used up almost half of the sweet potato flour..."
"I'll write it down first and ask the person who comes to deliver the ingredients to take it back." Mumu took out bark paper and charcoal pencil from the cabinet and wrote quickly, "Chili sauce, soybean sauce, sweet potato flour... Is there anything else you want to add?"
"Let's get some fresh soybeans. In addition to sprouting them, I think we can also grind some tofu pudding to increase the variety of dishes. Um... let's get a stone mill, and we also need konjac and potatoes, but we don't need anything else."
Ashu is rather shy and introverted with strangers. He is much more reliable when he only hangs out with people he is familiar with and close to. He is much more careful than the somewhat careless Mumu.
"I've written it. Come and keep it. I'm afraid I might lose it."
"Then don't lose it..."
"How can I say that for sure?"
The gray-robed spellcaster Sean tried to hold back, but finally couldn't resist his curiosity and turned around to look behind him.
In the Snow Wolf Food Store without a sign, two Snow Wolf men were still talking and organizing things. With their tall bodies, strong physiques, solid muscles, and white fur ears on both sides of their heads, you would not mistake them even if you were blind.
Sean looked away stiffly. Even though he was experienced and knowledgeable, he couldn't help but show a look of surprise on his face...
It's not that Sean hasn't traveled to the Orc Empire, but the Snow Wolf Tribe was exiled before he was born, so he has never come into contact with real Snow Werewolves. But judging by the comments from the friends Sean made in the Orc Empire, he can roughly form a rough impression of this ancient race in his mind - optimistic, good at fighting, stubborn, sticking to their covenants, never turning back, and being tricked by the Tiger Tribe to the point of almost being wiped out.
It was incredible at first that the Snow Wolf Tribe would actually walk out of the cursed land to trade with forest elves and humans, and even appear in the elven port to sell food. But after coming here with Primo and seeing that there were cats among them, Sean felt relieved. Perhaps after more than two hundred years of struggling for survival, the Snow Wolf Tribe finally woke up and got rid of the Tiger Tribe and formed an alliance with the Cat Tribe. With the cats as their brains, it is not difficult to understand why the Snow Wolf Tribe, who regards the covenant as honor and honor as their life, would make drastic changes into two different tribes.
The perception of the caster is even better than that of the walker. The gray-robed wizard who eavesdropped on their conversation openly felt as if his worldview had been refreshed.
The Snow Wolf Clan is actually the one leading the transaction?
The cat tribe is the one that is mixed up?
The most ridiculous thing is that the Snow Wolf can actually write, can keenly capture changes in market supply and demand, know how to plan and prepare for transactions in advance, and can even make a list of supplies? !
