Volume 7: Doing Business with the World Chapter 229 The Law of Death
On the east side of the square, facing the door of the mobile home, there were six or seven bonfires burning.
Some of the campfires were surrounded by a large group of “old people”, they were clan leaders and elders who were reminiscing about their youth, telling stories and gossiping.
Some fires were full of children of various tribes. These little brats were too energetic and the adults didn't like to hang out with them, so they entertained themselves by throwing newly harvested potatoes, sweet potatoes, radishes, and even green and astringent unripe wild fruits into the fire...
The part where Niu Jiao and other canteen chefs were chatting and joking was much more professional. While gossiping, they patiently sliced up the prey that the soldiers had hunted on their way back from training and strung them on wires. Jars of rich sauces were lined up in a small row.
The bonfire a little further away was quite eye-catching. A group of cats and werewolf warriors gathered together, roasting lizards, scorpions, snakes, crabs, shrimps, worms and other things they caught, and even used the chefs' sauces...
Aldoni and Adrian's disciples were originally sitting near them. When they saw someone taking a scorpion as thick as an arm out of a straw cage and roasting it over the fire, they were so scared that they immediately got up and moved to another place.
In comparison, the things roasted by the goblins and gray dwarves nearby were much more pleasing to the eye. The white ants and bee larvae in the iron boxes were at least out of sight and out of mind.
In the evening, those who have no classes, no homework, and do not have to work night shifts will come to the square to play before going to bed - the grassland version of nightlife, although without the bright lights and wine, has its own style.
This is a habit that has only been formed in the past two years... In the past few years, the tribe never had a spare moment all year round. Especially during the autumn harvest, the entire tribe was in chaos as if it were a war, with corpses strewn all over the fields and no grass growing. The scene was so tragic that even the most carefree Snow Wolf tribe would get goose bumps when they recalled it...
It was not until the steel production in the new hilly area increased and agricultural machinery could be used freely that everyone was finally freed from the busy farming hell - even if there was no tractor head and it had to be pulled by manpower, the emergence of special harvesters for alfalfa, rice, wheat, potatoes and sweet potatoes could increase the efficiency of autumn harvest by dozens of times. (The result of agriculture transfusing blood to industry and industry feeding back to agriculture)
Hmm... If "J" and his gang had come to the Fire Department two years ago, their lives would definitely not be as easy as they are now...
At that time, Xiao Yun's eyes would turn red whenever the busy farming season came. He would borrow anyone's claws to use, even the female workers in the woolen mill had to help thresh and dry the grain, but there was no such thing as a spellcaster being given preferential treatment.
So, these spellcasters have no idea what a terrible thing they were lucky enough to escape~!
When the disciples who were holding a symposium near the goblins were chatting happily, the eldest disciple suddenly felt something was wrong. It was too quiet than usual. He looked up and counted his own people... Then the sweat on the forehead of this eldest brother began to fall: "Where is Aisha? When did Aisha disappear?"
Others: “???”
“Help! Aaaaahh ...
This tragic scream startled all four of Aldoni's disciples and made them jump... It was because the voice was too familiar... So familiar that it made their balls hurt.
Other people in the square were also alarmed, and the Snow Wolf warriors who were roasting scorpions stood up suddenly.
Then... hundreds of pairs of eyes simultaneously saw a disheveled young human being running wildly from the darkness, followed by at least a dozen wolf cubs the size of ordinary adult wolves.
The Snow Wolf warriors looked at Isa strangely as he rushed past them. They did not rush forward to help, but turned to look behind the pack of wolf cubs that were howling past.
Ayi, who was missing an arm, trotted behind them and met the soldiers' gazes. He said casually, "That human male has gone to the female workers' living area again."
"Oh~" The soldiers sat back and continued to roast scorpions in full swing.
Disciples: "..."
Aisha, who had not been rescued, burst into tears and walked around the square screaming...
“This, this has happened several times!” The eldest disciple was so angry that his mouth was crooked and his eyes were squinting. He roared in a low voice, “Why does this brat always refuse to listen?! What does the beauty of those female workers have to do with him?!”
Since there were many more human men in the tribe, Xiao Yun assigned the outer security task of the female workers' living area to the freeloaders. These wolf cubs were very conscientious and managed to catch Aisha, who had tried to "smuggle" three times, within just one week.
Two female disciples and one male disciple had already sat back silently, with their heads lowered. Although the orcs did not despise them because of Aisha, everyone knew the feeling of humiliation.
Aisha didn't covet those female workers. He just couldn't help but try to commit suicide when doing things that he was not allowed to do. He didn't care about those female workers at all in the first three days, but after hearing that the Fire Department forbade male humans to approach the female workers' living area, he couldn't control his desire to commit suicide...
Adrian's disciples tried their best to hold back their laughter and politely changed the subject to help ease the awkwardness: "Teacher and the others have been in that room with Sage Ayun for half an hour. Jin, aren't you curious about what Sage Ayun will talk about with our teacher?"
Aldoni's eldest disciple Jin sat down with a bad look on his face and said casually, "Of course I'm curious. Mr. Alman seems to have known the solution to the problem that your teacher Mr. Adrian is worried about. But since the sage Ayun thinks it's not time for us to know, we don't need to be too curious. When it's necessary for us to know, he will tell us naturally."
Adrien's disciple nodded in agreement, but couldn't help but glance in the direction of the mobile home with regret.
He actually wanted to eavesdrop, but since he couldn't find an accomplice, he had no choice but to give up...
Xiao Yun invited Aldoni and Adrian into the mobile home for discussion, but did not bring their disciples with him, so they were left in the square to keep company with these orcs... This also gave Aisha the third opportunity to run out and cause trouble.
Not far away, where the cubs were sitting.
No one knew which unlucky person had thrown a pine branch into the bonfire, causing the half-man-high pile of firewood to crackle with sparks; Ruhua took advantage of the children's inattention and sneaked up to the bonfire to steal the unroasted sweet potatoes, but the sparks jumped onto her body and she screamed in pain, causing the others to laugh.
Yang Mao was both angry and amused: "Stupid Ruhua, what are you stealing when the food isn't even cooked yet?"
Ruhua said aggrievedly: "It was Moss who told me to steal it, boohoo—"
When the wool, who was sitting by the campfire and pulling the roasted potatoes with a fiber iron, heard this, he immediately stood up and pounced on the moss who was about to sneak away.
"I told you, little bastard, not to teach others bad things!! "
"Ahhh, I was just saying it casually~ Ruhua, you have to take it seriously~!"
Yangmao would not let Moss go, so he picked him up and walked to the edge of the square. When Aisha led the wolf cubs to run over, he threw Moss over fiercely: "Moss is coming to play with you guys!!"
Half of the wolf cubs that were playing with Aisha immediately jumped onto the moss...
The younger the beastmen are, the more they are influenced by the animal instinct in their blood. The younger they are, the more naughty they are. Moss, who is a little sensible and knows what is right and what is wrong, is immediately overwhelmed by the real naughty children who are less than one year old...
Moss was first hit, then trampled, and then had his arm bitten and dragged. He became angry, stood up angrily, took off his shorts, and turned into a half-grown white wolf of nearly three meters in height, fighting his way out of the pile of wolf cubs.
The other half that was still chasing Aisha stopped chasing after him, braked suddenly, turned around, and rushed towards the moss...
“Ouch!!”
“Ahhh!!”
“Ouch——!!”
More than a dozen wolf cubs surrounded Moss, biting her tail, ramming her belly, and some even biting her long fur and refusing to let go... But Moss didn't dare to really bite or ram her, and was soon knocked to the ground.
"Ahhh, I don't dare anymore. Yangmao, help me! Yi, help me!"
Ayi stood by with a calm face and refused to step forward to help.
"You deserve it, I told you not to tease Ruhua for no reason!" Yangmao shouted.
"That's right, that's right!" Ruhua shouted.
Yangmao turned around and glared at him: "You stole it when someone asked you to. If it happens again, you will do it too!"
“Oh…”
"Where did you learn to cry like that? It's so ugly!"
Although Jin looked disgusted, he still brought back Aisha who had escaped. Seeing this, he pressed Aisha's head and turned around: "See, if you make us embarrassed together with you again, next time I will help you and send you to the wolf's mouth, so that you don't have to run for a long time."
Aisha rolled his eyes and fell to the ground.
Xiao Yun and the three spellcasters walked out of the mobile home and saw a dozen little wolves besieging a half-grown wolf cub, biting it so hard that its fur flew everywhere. They laughed and said, "These little guys are so naughty that we can't control them."
The three spellcasters who were shocked by the spectacular biting scene said: "..."
Just... to you, this is just the level of a naughty child, right...
"The meat that Niu Jiao and the others are grilling should be ready soon, let's go over there too - eh? What happened to Aisha?"
The disciples were very embarrassed, so embarrassed that they couldn't explain it...
Looking at the bite marks and saliva stains on Aisha's clothes and pants, Xiao Yun smiled knowingly: "Did Aisha go to the female workers' living area again... to play with our little cub?"
"..." Jin and others almost had their waists broken by Xiao Yun's sudden turn.
Aldoni instantly understood what this stupid disciple had done, and his face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
Xiao Yun seemed to have no idea that there was anything wrong with his words. He looked at Aldoni frankly and honestly, with a sincere and bright smile: "Mr. Aldoni, since Aisha likes our cubs so much, why not let Aisha spend more time with them. We are busy with the autumn harvest now, and many places in the tribe have to be used to dry grain during the day. The cubs have nowhere to play, and they are all very listless... What do you think?"
A group of human spellcasters: "..."
There are so many complaints that I don’t know where to start…
A drop of sweat slid down Aldoni's temple, his lips moved, and he decided... to sell his disciples: "That's good, Aisha has always been energetic, just right for playing with the cubs."
Disciples like Jin looked at their teacher with admiration. The teacher's bullshitting skills had never disappointed them. Even if the opponent was the sage Ayun, the teacher would not lose!
Aldoni: I am doing this for you! What if Ayun includes you guys in this?
Aisha fell asleep due to exhaustion and shock. I don’t know if it was because the caster’s keen perception had sensed the crisis, but he had nightmares all night...
The next morning, when he got up, washed and was about to follow his teacher to report to the flour mill, Aldoni, who could not bear to disappoint his disciple, did not tell him the truth, but found an excuse to ask him to wait for someone in the square in front of the mobile home.
Aisha went over without any doubt, and after standing there for about ten minutes, he saw someone... a disabled snow werewolf who was limping over.
The moment she saw the disabled orc, Aisha instinctively felt that something was wrong.
There are a group of disabled orcs in the Fire Tribe, some work in woolen mills, some in greenhouses, and some - taking care of children! !
To the orcs, humans all look the same, and to humans, the orcs look the same. Isa stared at the lame snow werewolf for a long time, but couldn't remember which side this guy was on.
After the lame snow werewolf approached, Aisha announced that she had missed her last chance to escape... ahem.
"Are you the human who came to help? Your name is Aisha?" said the lame snow werewolf.
"Yes, I'm Aisha. Wait, what can I help you with?" Aisha asked vigilantly.
"Boil the milk." said the lame snow werewolf.
"Oh, okay." Aisha immediately dropped his guard.
"Come this way." The lame old man waved his hand casually and limped ahead to lead the way.
The old man said he wanted me to help boil milk, and he really did help boil milk.
But before boiling the milk, you still need to milk it yourself.
In the cowshed where the lactating cows live, which is managed by A Yue's younger brother, A Shui, Ai Sha holds a milk bucket in each hand and stares blankly...at the rows of cows chewing grass slowly in front of him.
"Put the bucket down and squat on the side of the cow to milk. Don't get close to the cow's butt, otherwise the cow's tail will hit you."
"Be careful when squeezing. If you squeeze too hard, the cow will feel pain and it will affect milk production. Move your hands like this, applying force from top to bottom..."
The lame old man demonstrated to Aisha how to milk. When Aisha took a step back and planned to run away, this member of Ayi's tribe who had been a warrior quickly took action, grabbed Aisha by the collar, lifted him in front of the cow's belly, patted his shoulder, and forced him to squat on the ground.
"Let's start. You fill two buckets and I fill two buckets. Then four buckets will be enough." The former soldier, the lame old man, said emotionlessly.
Aisha: “…”
If it weren't for the fact that the Snow Wolf Tribe didn't eat magic, he would have really put up a violent fight...
She gritted her teeth and started milking. The strange touch gave Aisha goose bumps all over her body. Wasn't it agreed that spellcasters like them would be assigned jobs with "matching skills"? How can magic be used to milk cows? Tell me!
After stumbling over and over again to squeeze out two buckets of milk, Aisha felt like he was only half a step away from ascending to heaven...
"Go boil the milk now." The lame old man picked up the milk expressionlessly, looking at Aisha silently with sharp eyes.
Aisha nodded easily this time. Boiling milk shouldn't be that difficult!
Xiao Yun had never worked in the dairy industry, but when the Sanlu incident was exposed, considering his future children, Xiao Yun learned a little about the common sense of milk sterilization: fresh milk is said to contain a lot of bacteria, and to sterilize it, it needs to be boiled at a temperature of about 60 degrees for ten minutes, which can kill bacteria better while maintaining a certain flavor.
Well, Xiao Yun is too lazy to care about the adult members of the tribe. These guys have all eaten rotten and spoiled food before, and yet they are still alive and kicking.
So, the only ones in the tribe who can enjoy the treatment of “low-temperature sterilized” milk are the wolf cubs less than one year old.
The place where milk is boiled is also within the cowshed.
After pouring the milk into the pot with the thermometer and bringing it to the stove, the lame brother pointed at the thermometer and said to Aisha: "The temperature of the boiled milk cannot exceed this. If it exceeds this temperature, the milk will not be fragrant."
After a pause, the old man lowered his chin slightly, his eyes were cold and emotionless, and he said, "We Snow Werewolves hate anything that makes food taste bad, so you must pay attention to the temperature... Spellcasters are good at this, right?"
Aisha nodded repeatedly with a pale face.
His spellcaster sense told him that if he dared to shake his head, this guy, who was completely different from other werewolves, might smash his head...
Controlling the temperature is really nothing for a spellcaster. Isa directly used fire elemental magic to control the heat and successfully boiled milk at the standard temperature while retaining its taste...
The lame brother scooped a little with a spoon to taste it and nodded with satisfaction: "Not bad."
Aisha: "Uh..." She wanted to ask him if she could leave, but she didn't dare...
"Let's go and feed the baby." The lame old man lifted the milk pot weighing dozens of kilograms with one hand, grabbed Aisha by the back of the collar with the other hand, and dragged her away forcefully without even considering letting her go.
When Aisha saw the little wolf cubs sleeping on the kang, he was about to collapse.
Teacher, you, you...
"Share the bowls, one full bowl for each."
"Wake me up."
"Pat the baby's back after feeding, and only put him back to sleep after he burps."
The lame old man didn't talk much, but he never tolerated any objection to his words. He used the invisible aura he developed as a warrior and in just half a morning he had tamed Isa and made him lose his temper.
Fortunately, these little wolf cubs played wildly at night and in the afternoon, and slept soundly in the morning, otherwise, Aisha’s psychological trauma would definitely be beyond the endurance of his small body.
After waking up more than seventy wolf cubs one by one, feeding them, and then putting them back to sleep, Aisha was exhausted and sweating.
"Let's go and make cream." The lame old man, who was ruthless and taciturn, put the milk bowl into the bucket and waved his hand.
Aisha followed with difficulty...
The milk used to make cream is "finished milk", which is the milk that was squeezed out the day before and put into a bucket and left to ferment for a whole day.
In the past, if people wanted to eat cream, they had to stir it manually... Now that the industrial sector has developed it, it is not a big deal to make a batch of cream churns, which are low-tech devices.
Following the lame old man back to the cowshed, we entered not the room where milk was boiled, but another larger room.
"A Shui, have you started beating the cream?" the lame old man shouted as he entered the door.
"Not yet. I'm still checking the milk that fermented yesterday."
The person who spoke was a young man whose body shape was almost the same as that of an adult snow werewolf, but his face was more childish and his muscle mass was slightly less than that of a real adult snow werewolf.
Aisha looked him up and down, feeling somewhat puzzled... Although he had lived in the Fire Tribe for more than a week, he still couldn't quite tell the difference between the adults and the immatures of these orcs - the sage Ayun was easy to recognize, but the other older "cubs" could smash his head with one punch, and you told me they were cubs...
Ah Shui smiled at Ai Sha in a friendly manner and said to the lame brother, " The temperature was not very high yesterday. Some of the fermentation was done, but some was not."
"Let me see." The lame old man was as concise and powerful as ever, and walked forward to check the neatly arranged large wooden pokes.
When the lid was opened, Aisha, who was standing farther away, smelled a faint sour smell and frowned subconsciously.
"Some of them are indeed not fermented well. Let's take out the ones that are fermented first." After checking them, the lame brother pointed to the barrels at the innermost wall and said, "There are no barrels that are fermented well here. Let's check again in the afternoon."
"OK."
A small portion of the cream from the cowshed is provided free of charge to the wolf cubs as snacks (the Welfare Department provides cakes), and most of it is provided to the Welfare Department.
Aisha took advantage of his double salary and tried the cream cake of the Welfare Department. As a man, he didn't want to see the handsome and enviable Minister Dahe, but he had to admit that the cream of the Welfare Department was delicious.
When she heard that cream was about to be made, Aisha came forward curiously, wanting to see how this food was made.
Ah Shui pushed out a machine that was more than one person tall, thin on top, thick at the bottom, and covered with black cloth from the inner room. After peeling off the dust-proof black cloth, he revealed a thing with an incongruous large base that looked particularly like a parrot cage - a rectangular device facing downwards was hung on the top of the curved bracket, and underneath it was a strange round-bottomed straight steel pot.
Ah Shui took off the lid of the cylindrical pot, took out the stirring stick from it, and screwed the tail end of it into the rectangular device on the top.
Aisha squatted down curiously and looked up at the rectangular device that was similar to a parrot cage used for hanging. She found a threaded hole on it. The hollow lampshade-like thing that seemed to be twisted with steel wire was screwed into this threaded hole.
Ah Shui installed the stirring stick, took a step back, walked behind the particularly disproportionate base of the cream machine, and reached out to pull a strange handle that stood up.
It looked like a strange handle welded on the base, but it was actually a power supply device connected to a small steel cable. Ah Shui pulled the handle with a little force, bringing out a half-meter-long small steel cable; the power provided by the pulling force was transmitted to the stirring rod through the internal device of the base, and the hollow lampshade-like stirring rod immediately spun wildly...
"No problem, we can start now." A Shui said to the lame old man.
The lame old man nodded, brought over a large wooden barrel weighing at least 100 pounds, and used a ladle to scoop the fermented milk into a round-bottomed straight steel pot.
After half the pot was filled, Ah Shui yelled "Hey!" and frantically pulled the cable handle that looked like a telescopic puller used in fitness, and the stirring rod also started to spin frantically...
The pulled out steel cable retracted and was pulled out, then retracted and was pulled out again.
Aisha looked at A Shui, who was powered by human power, with a confused look on his face, and then looked at this strange machine with a bewildered look on his face.
Swallowing his saliva, Aisha moved a little closer to the round-bottomed cylindrical pot that was being stirred frantically, and saw that the milk inside, which seemed to be spoiled, was being stirred up and down.
"…So, that kind of cream is made from spoiled milk?"
"Fermentation means letting the milk spoil on purpose?!"
Aisha was completely stunned, completely unable to come back to his senses... No, spoiled milk should taste sour, so why did it taste sweet when he ate it? !
Aisha's doubts did not last long. After beating the fermented milk in the cylindrical pot until the water and oil were separated, the lame brother asked him to skim off the oil floating on the surface and put it into a clean container.
After beating several pots of milk and accumulating a certain amount of cream, the lame brother asked Aisha to pour the beaten fat back into the straight cylindrical pot to continue beating, and... added ground sugar three times.
Aisha: “!!”
——It turns out that cream has no sweetness and the sweetness comes from sugar?!
——This pure cream is actually a liar!!
Aisha felt a faint despair. What kind of world is this? Teachers would lie to their students, and even food would lie to people...
After working as a handyman for the whole morning and helping to whip the cream, the lame brother held the cream jar in one hand and picked up Aisha, who did not resist, with the other hand: "Go to the Welfare Department to ask for cakes and prepare lunch for the kids."
Aisha's eyes went dark when he thought of the little wolf cubs who had slept so well that there was no grass left wherever they went, and his eyes went dark.
He had despaired too early.
