Volume 8: The Sword Points to the Far East Chapter 244: Fire Department Spirit
Primo plays the role of a profiteer, but he is not a real profiteer after all. The old man just thinks it’s fun to make a little money... and naturally he won’t instruct Yang Mao to ask for a huge amount from the lion (that’s right).
Well, the most important reason is that the Lion Clan can tolerate being taken advantage of a little, but if they are really treated like pigs, their mouths will open even wider~!
"It's not a request, but I hope the Snow Wolf Clan can gain the friendship of the Lion Clan." Primo smiled humbly and flatteringly, "Although I am a human, I have heard that the Snow Wolf Clan was exiled by the empire. It would be best if my little friend doesn't have to worry about exposing his identity and being driven out when he is in the Golden Plains."
"Ha!" Xiu laughed casually, even with some disdain, but did not promise anything on the spot. Instead, he said to Yangmao, "Only our Lion Clan has the final say over our territory. If the Snow Wolf Clan wants to be our guest, feel free to come."
"Oh, okay." Yangmao didn't quite understand what this meant, and nodded with a pure face.
Primo narrowed his eyes and smiled happily...
Although the lions are indifferent, they have a strong sense of territory - if you want to come to the Golden Plains as a "guest", the lions will not welcome you warmly, but they will not deliberately drive you away; but if you want to give orders to the Golden Plains, the male lions sleeping lazily on the ground and the lionesses who are in charge of the house are not the kind of people who act cute.
The lion tribe is not as strong as the tiger tribe, but like the tiger tribe, these big cats also have the qualities of a whole tribe of soldiers~!
And he's quite face-saving... ahem.
The mistress of the house, Xiu, is a very decisive person, or rather, almost all the lionesses in the lion tribe are people of action - otherwise, if they were as lazy as the male lions, the entire tribe would be finished.
After instructing the male lion to take good care of the two cubs, the three female lions immediately went out to discuss the matter with the elders in the city.
Hmm...still have absolutely no sense of hospitality...
Rosemary looked at the lion lying motionless in the yard, letting his two cubs grab hold of his mane and climb up and down. She remembered that she had had no water to drink or food to eat since she entered the house, and her expression became indescribable.
Primo…had already taken out his sleeping bag and spread it out in a corner of the living room. He greeted his two followers in a very adaptable manner: “They won’t prepare a guest room for us. Let’s occupy the living room first, in case they come back and ask us to sleep in the yard. You two don’t mind, but my body can’t stand it.”
"..." Rosemary couldn't help it, "I don't think they hate you and Wool, why are they so cold?"
"You are also a cat, why are you asking me?" Primo was even more surprised than him. "Isn't that what you cats do? You don't welcome guests, nor do you drive them away. Come if you want, leave if you don't want. Xiu at least saw that Wool was a cub and gave him some fruit."
rosemary:"……"
Oh my god, after living in the Fire Tribe for so long, I have forgotten what my family used to be like - which cat tribe on the grassland can be so hospitable?
When the Huoyan tribe migrated to the southwest of the grassland and passed through the Xia tribe, Qingyan sent fruits and wool and other young animals...
When guests come to the door, they are not only treated to delicious food and drinks, but also allowed to take food and take things with them. That is the Tauren. The Snow Wolf tribe is also willing to arrange food and accommodation for the guests, but the Snow Wolf tribe will require the guests to repay with labor...
Rosemary stopped complaining and crawled into her sleeping bag in dejection.
The three wives of the household did not return until late at night. Seeing the guests staying overnight in the living room, they did not drive them away and allowed them to sleep.
At daybreak, when the host and old man Primo were still fast asleep, Wool got up as usual, took out his washing tools and went to the yard to fetch water for washing.
"You also picked rosemary?" After brushing his teeth and washing his face, Yang Mao saw his snow leopard companion coming out of the house yawning.
"I always feel like if I don't get up I'll be woken up by the gong, and there's no way I can continue sleeping." Rosemary said with a pained look on her face, "I'm starving, Wool, get me something to eat before the owner gets up."
"Just do more in the morning. Come and help wash the vegetables." Yangmao hung the towel on the wooden rack in the yard and walked to the kitchen as if he knew the way.
In the past, if he wanted to have breakfast, he had to work, and Rosemary would never do it; but this time, he was not picky or complaining at all, and followed in obediently...
The Fire Tribe's breakfast was not about being light. After all, they had to do hard work every morning, and if they didn't eat well and with plenty of oil, they wouldn't be able to make it to noon.
Wool went into the storage cellar and chopped out a leg of lamb - the Lion Tribe also had semi-captive livestock farming, but it was not as large and formal as the Fire Tribe.
Slice the meat from the lamb leg, cut the thick and evenly fat parts into slices, dice the fattier parts, squeeze out some fat for stir-frying, and chop the parts with more tendons into minced meat.
Put the removed lamb leg bones into a pot to make soup, carefully skim off the foam, and when the aroma comes out, add the washed vegetables all at once; after the vegetables are cooked, take them out and put them aside, and continue to cook the noodles with the lamb bone soup to maximize the utilization value of the soup.
The mutton slices are stir-fried into two large plates using the method of twice-cooked pork. The minced meat and the fat residue that has been squeezed out of the oil are fried into臊子 with the provided bean paste. The dough that has been kneaded vigorously while the soup is cooking and left to rest for half an hour is pulled into ramen. A breakfast that is absolutely large, filling, nutritionally balanced, rich and delicious is ready!
When the wool was stir-fried with mutton slices and twice-cooked pork, the wafting aroma attracted the three wives from their beds; when the spicy bean paste was used to stir-fry the sauce, the lion and its two cubs also came crawling over...
Having learned from the lesson of having nothing to eat the night before, Yang Mao made two large tables this time, and moved the heavy solid wood table in the living room to the yard and combined it with the stone table to make room for everything: two large pots of vegetables, two large basins of noodles cooked in mutton bone soup, two large plates of twice-cooked pork slices, and all-you-can-eat sauerkraut noodles!
I don't believe you can still have it all to yourself!
"Eat, it's better to work after you are full!" Yangmao said confidently... and said the famous lines of the chefs in the Fire Department cafeteria.
Last night’s dumpling banquet was ready to eat, but for today’s meal, six lions of all sizes were circling the table, not knowing where to start.
"How do you eat this?" asked the arrogant lion with long golden hair, pointing at the fried臊子 with fermented black bean paste that was particularly stimulating to the sense of smell.
Yangmao brought out all the soup bowls from the host's house, first scooped half of the ramen soup and half of the vermicelli, then used the large chopsticks he brought with him to fill the bowl with vegetables, then scooped a spoonful of臊子 and some mutton soup, then put a layer of twice-cooked pork slices on the surface, inserted two forks, and handed them to the two cubs.
The two little guys immediately put their heads together and slurped the noodles crazily...
The lion, who had only known how to eat but not how to eat, took a soup bowl and followed Yang Mao's procedure...but he was not honest enough when picking up the vegetables and wanted to add more臊子.
Yang Mao slapped him without mercy: "Don't use too much臊子, it will be too salty! You need to have the same amount of vegetables as noodles!"
The lion was still not happy, and Xiu, the head of the household whose spoon of臊子 was occupied by him, immediately glared at him threateningly.
The lion had no choice but to put down the spoon...
The food was served in soup bowls, and no one could eat more than they had before finishing the meal. Wool and rosemary finally got a chance to be served on the table...
The family menu of the Lion Tribe is not much different from that of the indigenous people of other races in this world. They have fried or grilled meat slices and steaks, vegetables cooked in a large pot or eaten raw, and hard bread baked with dead dough in the cupboard. This is enough for a meal. The supplies where they live are relatively abundant, and the supply of seasonal vegetables and meat can keep up. Although the bread baked with dead dough inevitably contains wheat bran, at least they don't add sawdust to reduce the weight (the human race does this), so it just doesn't taste good, but it's not to the point of being unpalatable.
As for the distance between bad taste and good taste...there's no need to explain it.
When six lions of different sizes, a snow wolf cub and a snow leopard were each holding a huge soup bowl and slurping noodles, a row of lion heads appeared on the wall of Xiu's courtyard, clinging to the top of the wall with their claws and drooling in an orderly manner.
"Xiu, what are you eating at home?"
"Breakfast!" Xiu took time out of his busy schedule to reply, then quickly buried his head in slurping his noodles.
Neighbors: “…”
The lions' appetite was not bigger than that of the snow wolves. The breakfast meal was made according to the amount of wool for ten adult snow wolves. Even if all the members of the Xiu family exploded their little universes, they could not finish all the noodles with stewed pork with sauce. When Primo, who came out late, he also got a free meal.
"I've been here several times, but this is the first time I've had a full meal at Xiu's house." Primo said with a smile.
No one in the Xiu family paid any attention to him because they couldn't hold back their hiccups. The six lions' twelve eyes were all staring at the remaining food, and they all felt very regretful...
Yang Mao pulled down the ramen noodles that had not yet been put into the pot and said to Xiu, "If we leave the ramen noodles and the cooked vermicelli for a while longer, they will become inedible. Should we share them with our neighbors?"
Xiu touched his belly and said reluctantly: "Okay."
The neighbors who had been watching from the top of the wall for a long time couldn't wait to go through the main door, so they just jumped over the wall and came in...
The remaining portion was obviously not enough for a meal for the neighbors, whose family had more people than Xiu's - five wives, six cubs, and a lion.
But they also have their own solution. They just bring their own bread and barbecue, and cook it with vermicelli and sauce. The taste is greatly improved.
After cooking vegetables and vermicelli, the mutton bone soup, which had become lighter in taste, was drunk up cleanly, and the neighbor's family was particularly satisfied. After asking clearly that this breakfast was made of snow wolf wool, the wives of the neighbor's family immediately looked at the snow wolf cub with sharp eyes and asked: "Do the snow wolf tribe intermarry with other tribes?"
wool:"……"
Wool looked at Rosemary silently. Is this the character of you cats?
Rosemary really wanted to say that we don’t have that, but when he thought carefully about the style of his own tribe in the past… he said nothing and turned his eyes away guiltily.
Cat people who are gay and lesbian really have no moral principles in this regard.
"If the Snow Werewolves were willing to intermarry, there would be no need to wait for you to ask." Xiudao.
"That's true. Where are your guests?" The neighbor's wife nodded and looked at Yangmao with regret.
wool:"……"
She really wanted to shout like Xiao Yun when Tang Angelo "proposed" to her: I'm still a baby!
The lions from both families squatted silently on one side, and no one said a word.
"Well... now that we are full, let's get to work." Yang Mao looked at Xiu, "We are going to try making oyster sauce today, right? Then let's go early and don't waste time."
"Yes, it's time to get started." Xiu stood up and said to the neighboring family, "Do you want to arrange for someone to come with us?"
"Eh? What are you doing?"
"Didn't you find that the dishes we cooked today are especially delicious?" Xiu said proudly, "We also use sheep bones to cook the dishes, but the taste of our dishes is completely different from what you cook at home, right?"
"That's right." The five wives of the neighbors nodded in unison. The lion tribe only put salt and ginger slices in the soup, and the taste was completely different from today's meal.
"The secret lies in the seasoning recipe that the Snow Wolf Man shared with our Lion Clan." Xiu waved his hand with great enthusiasm, "We notified the Elders Council last night, and they let our family try it first. Now we will start working. If you want to come, please split into three people."
The neighbor's wife was about to raise her finger to point at her own lion, but Xiu immediately interrupted: "He can't count."
The wives of the neighbors had to discuss among themselves and choose three lionesses...
Xiu left a wife at home to look after the house, the cattle and sheep on the farm, and the two children. The two wives took the lion, the three guests, Wool, Rosemary and Primo, and carried food, iron pots and buckets and other tools to the beach.
The lion didn't want to go, so Xiu pointed at the wool and said to him, "Are you sure you don't want to follow?"
The lion from Xiu's family became obedient...even the lion from the neighbor's house brightened up his eyes, and followed over with his tail wagging.
The nearest beach to Lion City was a hundred kilometers away. Five lionesses sat on the backs of two lions. Yangmao asked Xiaxiu to confirm that was okay for him to transform and show off in the lion's territory, then he turned into a wolf and carried Rosemary and Primo on his back.
After jogging for half the morning, Yangmao arrived at the beach. Panting slightly, he slowed down, came back to put on his pants, and found that the two lions had no intention of helping him. They just wagged their tails and walked towards the woods nearby.
The lionesses were used to it, and had stripped down to their underwear (they had no breasts when they were not breastfeeding) and were thinking about how to catch oysters...
As the legitimate successor of the Fire Tribe, Yangmao was very dissatisfied with the Lion Tribe's practice of allowing some people to be lazy after watching the scene yesterday. He pointed at the two lions and roared, "According to the rules of us grassland people, those who don't work don't eat! Those who don't help with the work are not allowed to eat what I cook!"
The two lions that had already walked over and were lying under the shade of the tree looked over in astonishment.
"Don't think I'm joking. We Snow Wolves never joke about work!" The two guys' expressions completely angered Yangmao. The little girl jumped up and roared, "If you dare not participate in the collective work, go and eat grass!"
The lionesses were also stunned and stared at her blankly.
"Well...their Snow Wolf tribe does have this rule. Even the cubs have to work. A four-year-old wolf cub has to earn his own meal money." Primo tried hard to hold back his laughter and tried to smooth things over with a humbly look on his face.
"Yes, if you dare to be lazy in front of the Snow Wolf Tribe, the consequences will be very miserable." Rosemary had taken off all her clothes except for a pair of white cotton shorts. She jumped into the mud after the tide receded and scooped away the water in the puddle with a bucket.
Most of the beaches are not the ideal sandy beaches that people imagine, but rather muddy flats with potholes, rocks and silt. People go fishing, catching shrimps, crabs and oysters in these muddy flats.
Rosemary is not a hardworking person. In the Fire Department, she is one of the two most lazy people, along with Dahe.
However, being a nobody in the Fire Department is completely different from being a nobody in the Lion Tribe. No matter how unskilled Dahe was, the Welfare Department was quite prosperous. No matter how unskilled Rosemary was, she also expanded the scale of the rabbit farm from tens of thousands to millions...
To Rosemary, picking oysters on the beach is not work at all, it's just a form of entertainment~!
Rosemary was unwilling to even work for fun, so she had every reason to despise the two lions~!
The two male lions looked nervously at their own lionesses, then nervously looked at the furious Wool, and continued to nervously... lie there motionless.
Although nervous, he is still as steady as an old dog and as resolute as a salted fish and will not waver.
Yangmao snorted, ignored them and turned to help pick the oysters.
There are big, plump oysters everywhere in the muddy mud, in the cracks of rocks, and on the rocks in the dark water. I picked them up, washed off the mud on the shells, pried open the shells with my claws (Primo used a knife), took out the plump oyster meat, and threw it into the pot and boiled it vigorously with clean water. (If you want to boil them for eating, you have to put them in clean water to spit out the mud first, but it doesn't matter if you are making oyster sauce, you have to filter it anyway)
The hardworking Yang Mao picked up some mussels (nori), kelp and caught some crabs. While the lionesses were searching for firewood to make oyster sauce, Yang Mao started to cook lunch.
Primo and Rosemary were also busy. They went to the woods where the two male lions were napping and came back with some of the easiest squirrels and rabbits .
Peel the squirrel and remove the internal organs. Break the bones and chop it into minced meat with skin and bones. Add the crab meat picked out from the crabs, mix with salt, oyster sauce, and green onions, and knead it into round and chewy squirrel crab meat balls. Wool counts the heads of the people and prepares five large balls for each person except the two male lions, and three for Primo.
Mussels, kelp, and the radishes, greens, and cabbage that are brought out are cooked into vegetable soup.
The rabbit meat was chopped into fine pieces and fried into sauce. Except for the two male lions, each person was given five taels of flour, and Primo was given two taels.
As Wool skillfully prepared the ingredients on her own chopping board, the two male lions never took their eyes off her, but still refused to come out from the cool shade of the tree.
When Yangmao was cooking vermicelli with washed clams and kelp and stir-frying the sauce with bean paste, two male lions could not help it. They walked over slowly, wagging their tails, and squatted calmly not far away, looking like grandfathers waiting for dinner.
Then... Wool divided the cooked food into eight portions according to the amount of food. The six largest portions were given to herself and the five lionesses, the smaller portion was given to Rosemary, and the smallest portion was given to Primo.
There was not a single bit of excess food; even the bottom of the pot for cooking vegetable soup was spotless.
Rosemary picked up the bowl and started eating. The five lionesses had no reason to be polite. Primo's portion was the smallest to begin with. Even if he didn't eat it and gave it all to the two male lions, it would at most be enough for the two of them to fill the stomach. So they ate with peace of mind.
Wool glanced coldly at the two male lions who looked as if struck by lightning and with a look of disbelief and wonder on their faces, and ate loudly on purpose.
"Where's my share?!" The male lion of the Xiu family couldn't help but scream, "Xiu, you said that if I follow you, there will be food!"
Xiu took time out of his busy schedule to say, “Who said that? I never said that!”
The male lion of Xiu's family thought carefully about Xiu's original words, and the whole lion was stunned.
She certainly didn't say that!
The neighbor's wife thought for a moment, took out two long bread sticks from the basket she brought, and threw them to her lion: "Here, eat."
The male lion from the neighbor's house: "..."
Xiu Dao: "Oh, we forgot to bring bread, please give one to my family."
The neighbor's wife nodded and pointed to her lion: "Give one to Rex."
The male lion from the neighbor's house: "..."
Primo couldn't hold back his laughter and almost choked himself to death.
Xiu's husband, the lion Rex, aggrievedly snatched a bread stick from the neighbor's lion, chewing it while silently shedding tears...
The wool for lunch was prepared according to everyone's appetite, and the breakfast was enough for her to understand how much the lionesses could eat. After the meal, no one had even a drop of soup left at the bottom of their bowls, which made the two male lions who were expecting their wives to eat some of the leftover soup and food extremely desperate...
Throwing the licked-clean dishes to Rosemary to wash, Wool walked up to the two male lions who were doubting their lives, put his hands on his hips, looked down at them, and said without emotion: "Are you going to work or be lazy this afternoon?"
After a pause, Yang Mao continued, "According to the rules of our Snow Wolf Tribe, dinner must be sumptuous."
"I want to work!" The lion Rex cried in the wind.
The neighboring male lion also nodded vigorously.
So, the two lions, who had been beaten three or five times by their wives and women but still refused to change their ways, stood up silently, transformed into golden-haired bird-walking men, walked into the muddy mudflats with a determined look, bent down, stretched out their precious claws, and picked up the oysters on the cracks and stones...
To be fair, with their looks above the lion standard, these two male lions have the potential to be gigolos: their well-proportioned, streamlined figures can be described as "perfect bodies like marble sculptures"; with their arrogant, thick, long golden hair and handsome facial features, they would definitely be popular as gigolos... ahem.
But for the people of the Fire Department, it’s useless for those who refuse to work honestly no matter how good their looks are!
Dahe, who is handsome enough to fight against the Elf King, works diligently every day to make sweets, snacks, and spicy hot pots for everyone in the tribe!
The two male lions' bodies and faces were stained with mud and water, and they were covered in dust and sweat. Only then did Wool start to like them a lot - only people who are willing to work can be considered good-looking. Look at the way they work seriously, aren't they more handsome than when they are lazy?
The wives of the family silently watched their husbands being coerced and bribed into working, with expressions that a new world had been opened to them...
"Is it still possible to do this?" The neighbor's wife was happy but also tangled. "It's a pity that the snow wolf people don't want to intermarry with us. After the wool is gone, they will still be the same as before."
Xiu's eyes lit up and he said, "No, steaks brushed with barbecue sauce made of thirteen-spice chili powder and oyster sauce, and tasteless bread. If you work, you get meat to eat, but if you don't work, you don't get meat to eat. I want to see how long Rex can endure this."
Rex, the lion who was working hard for dinner, was shocked and looked back at his wife in disbelief.
"Thirteen-spice chili powder? What is that?" the neighbor's wife asked curiously.
Seeing the business opportunity, Primo immediately came out and tried hard to maintain his image as a profiteer: "This is a delicious seasoning specially made by the Snow Wolf Tribe that is definitely not available anywhere else. Although the price is not cheap, please believe that it is definitely worth the money--"
The neighbor's financial situation was not worse than Xiu's. They had five capable ladies. They generously ordered 20 kilograms of thirteen spices on the spot and went back to trade after making the oyster sauce.
Yang Mao was very happy that the lionesses were willing to accept the Fire Tribe's spirit of "no work, no food", and enthusiastically offered advice: "When you prepare food, remember to only prepare enough for those who work, don't make more. People who don't work don't consume much anyway, so there's no need to eat too much. Just don't starve to death."
The two male lions stared at Wool in horror and anger—Are you snow werewolves the devil? !
