Lu Xuan recently felt that everyone had become a bit strange. They were deliberately careful around him, and even the three cubs no longer pestered him like before.
This was awkward. He really wasn’t made of fragile glass.
That evening, on the split-level platform, he sat on the lazy animal hide lounger against the wall, gazing at the beautiful starry sky outside the window.
After organizing his words in his mind, he said to Xiong Yue beside him, “Tomorrow, let’s go foraging to the north.”
With the wooden house as the center, there were four directions: east, west, south, and north. Currently, they were familiar only with the east (the foot of the mountain) and the south (where they had been a few times).
If all went as expected, they would live here for the rest of their lives. So even if they couldn’t know the surrounding environment tenfold, they should at least master eighty percent.
Lu Xuan felt a bit embarrassed because he had caused another delay of several days.
Xiong Yue was twisting threads by the fire basin, a pit chiseled out of stone, burning dry branches inside.
He had recently collected a lot of fur and was trying to make threads as fine as hair strands, as Lu Xuan had described.
Hearing this, he looked up: “Are you feeling better?”
Lu Xuan straightened up and said earnestly, “I’ve been fine for a while now.”
Xiong Yue thought for a moment and said, “Then I’ll ask Tian Xuan tomorrow. If he agrees, we’ll go.”
Lu Xuan wanted to say, “Why do we need Tian Xuan’s permission?” But then he remembered, Tian Xuan was now the chief. Even if it was just a tribe of ten people, he was still the leader. It was probably good to ask.
“Stop twisting. The light is too dim, it’s bad for your eyes.”
Xiong Yue didn’t stop: “Then what should I do if I don’t twist? I can’t sleep now, and the cubs are asleep so they can’t play with me.”
There were no entertainment activities. Lu Xuan leaned on the windowsill looking at the stars, then turned back to look at Xiong Yue’s face, serious in the firelight as he twisted threads.
Suddenly, an idea struck him. His eyes lit up: “Xiong Yue, let me teach you how to knit yarn.”
Xiong Yue was indeed intrigued. He asked curiously, “What is knitting yarn?”
Lu Xuan sat on the lounger cushion and scooted over to Xiong Yue, wiggling his bottom. He said, “Bring the threads you’ve twisted, they need to be the same thickness.”
Xiong Yue pulled a thicker fire stick from the fire basin, then jumped down four or five steps directly into his room.
Lu Xuan didn’t dare to jump. In the dim light, he was afraid of missing a step. Instead, he climbed down from the platform via the long bench sofa to the pile of firewood by the fireplace, found two clean thin branches, and used them as knitting needles.
He returned from the bench to the fire basin on the platform and used a bone knife to smooth the branches. Just then, Xiong Yue arrived with his collection.
“There are several different thicknesses. See which ones are suitable.”
Lu Xuan looked at the large pile of yarns of varying thicknesses and was shocked: “So much?”
It had to be seven or eight jin.
He set aside the thickest yarns, leaving about five or six jin of yarn in mixed colors, gray, black, and yellow. He said, “I don’t know many complicated stitches. I’ll teach you the most basic ones. Let’s start by knitting a blanket.”
“I’ve whittled these small sticks to use as knitting needles. First, take a piece of yarn, make a slip knot, and put it on one needle. Then take the other needle, insert it, wrap the yarn around, knit a stitch, and then slip it back onto the first needle. That’s the second stitch…”
Lu Xuan demonstrated as he spoke. “Always insert the needle into the gap between the two loops.”
Half an hour later, Xiong Yue couldn’t resist trying it himself. He truly had a talent for handiwork, his technique with the needles already looked more skilled than Lu Xuan’s.
Lu Xuan silently stepped aside. He took the pile of yarn and began winding it into balls. Xiong Yue had already sorted the yarn well, but Lu Xuan’s childhood instinct for winding yarn was still there, his hands moved faster than his brain.
After winding them into balls, Xiong Yue found them even more convenient to use. Amid his busy knitting, he praised Lu Xuan: “Lu Xuan, you’re amazing. You know everything. Winding them into rounds really works well, they’re easier to store too.”
Lu Xuan responded with a polite, tight-lipped smile. For a while, the only sound in the air was Xiong Yue’s knitting needles. The fire in the basin grew dimmer. Lu Xuan yawned and urged, “Xiong Yue, time to sleep. It’s too dark, it’s bad for your eyes. Keep knitting tomorrow morning.”
Xiong Yue knew the importance of good eyesight and reluctantly went back to his room to sleep.
Early the next morning, Lu Xuan went to find Tian Xuan.
Tian Xuan, Xiong Yan, Xiong Qi, and the two foxes lived together. The four beastmen each had their own room, but Hu Er wasn’t used to sleeping alone and often shared a room with Hu Yi.
Hu Yi was roasting meat outside. The weather was good, and the beastmen weren’t fussy, they simply set up a rack outside and ate while cooking.
When they saw Lu Xuan approaching, they all looked a bit surprised.
Hu Er was very fond of Lu Xuan. He jumped up from the ground, grabbed a piece of roasted meat, and trotted over to Lu Xuan, his two eyes crinkling into slits.
“Xuanxuan, here’s some meat for you.”
“Call me Lu Xuan.”
Ever since his fever and illness, Xue Rong had been the first to call him “Xuanxuan,” followed by Xiong Yue and Xiong Yuan, and now even Hu Er had picked it up.
Lu Xuan felt that his manly spirit was being undermined, and he firmly couldn’t allow it.
“But Xiong Yue and the others all call you Xuanxuan,” Hu Er said, puzzled and a little hurt.
“Don’t you like me calling you Xuanxuan?”
Looking at Hu Er’s aggrieved face, Lu Xuan softened and said, “They’re sub-beastmen. You’re a beastman. We’re different.”
Sigh, he’d have to use this excuse for now.
Hu Er thought about it, that was true. He was a beastman.
His smile returned to his face, and he said, “Did you come looking for me?”
Uh… if he said no, would Hu Er be upset again? Lu Xuan scratched his head.
Hu Yi called out from by the fire, “Hu Er, your potato is burning.”
Hearing this, Hu Er immediately ran back, completely forgetting why Lu Xuan had come.
Lu Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. Hu Er had the temperament of a child, Lu Xuan really couldn’t treat him as an adult beastman.
He walked over and sat down with the beastmen. “I want to go foraging in the north. Is that okay?”
Tian Xuan frowned slightly and said, “The vegetables, potatoes, and taros planted in the ground are all growing well. The beastmen go hunting every day. We have enough of everything right now. You don’t need to rush out.”
Xiong Yan and Xiong Qi also disapproved of Lu Xuan going out. His fever had really frightened them. Lu Xuan was very important to them.
Not just because he knew how to treat illnesses and injuries and understood many things, but because along the way, they had supported each other and had long since become family, important friends.
Lu Xuan said, “I’ve been well for a while now. You don’t need to worry at all. Things might seem sufficient now, but everyone has only heard about the cold period in the wasteland, no one has experienced it. What if it lasts too long and we don’t have enough stored up?”
“Even if we have enough to eat, we don’t know the north or the west. What if there are large beastmen that come out to forage when it gets cold? We can scout ahead now, prevent problems before they arise.”
Tian Xuan pressed his lips together. “We’ve been hunting in the west for the past few days and haven’t encountered any unbeatable dangers yet. Today’s plan is to go north. Foraging isn’t part of the plan yet, and it’s not entirely because of your health.”
Lu Xuan said, a little sheepishly, “Oh, alright.”
Tian Xuan handed Lu Xuan a skewer of roasted meat. “It’s done. Eat.”
Lu Xuan took it. Eating roasted meat first thing in the morning, he was gradually getting used to it. At worst, he’d balance it with some wild fruit later.
Since they weren’t going out to forage, Lu Xuan began tending to the small plot of land around his house. First, he cleared the weeds, then he compacted the ground to make it flat.
For flattening the ground, Lu Xuan enlisted Hu Er’s help. Hu Er wasn’t going hunting today. Xing Chi also wasn’t going, but he was so attached to his mate Xue Rong that Lu Xuan didn’t want to disturb the couple.
After all, the little rabbit’s desire to have cubs was well known to everyone. Ever since he learned that Lu Xuan had diagnosed Xiong Yuan’s twin bear cubs through pulse-taking, he had been asking Lu Xuan to check his pulse every day.
Hu Er dragged a large stone to flatten the ground. Xiong Yue was inside the house, absorbed in knitting a blanket. The three cubs had gone to Xiong Yuan’s house to play with his bear cubs.
Now that the bear cubs could run and jump, they were much more fun, and the three cubs would play with them all day long.
Lu Xuan started cooking. With Hu Er around, everything had to be made in larger portions. For lunch, he made grilled fish, roasted meat, steamed taro, and a wild vegetable and egg soup.
With time to spare, Lu Xuan also made fruit paste. The wild fruit was somewhat like wild grapes, and the paste turned out a bit sour. Hu Er didn’t like it much and stopped eating after two bites.
Xiong Yue, however, loved it. He ate it by dipping steamed taro into the paste and barely touched the meat.
Lu Xuan set aside half a bowl and said, “I’m full. You two keep eating. I’ll take some to Xiong Yuan’s place, the cubs will probably like it.”
When he arrived at Xiong Yuan’s house, Xiong Yuan was still roasting meat. The five cubs were tumbling around together, playing.
Xiong Yuan tasted the fruit paste and said, “It’s a bit sour. Fortunately, I have some honey here. Adding a bit should make it sweeter.”
Lu Xuan’s eyes lit up: “I was just worrying about not having any sugar when I made it.”
He hadn’t found any sweet wild vegetables or plants in all this time, it was really strange.
“We’ll have to check the north and west. Maybe we’ll find some sweet plants there.”
Xiong Yuan smiled and said, “When Tian Xuan comes back, you can mention it to him again.”
Lu Xuan helped him roast the meat and replied, “I already asked him this morning. He said there’s no foraging plan yet.”
Xiong Yuan said meaningfully, “He’s worried about your health. He was very concerned during the days you were sick.”
Lu Xuan said, a bit sheepishly, “I know you were all worried about me, but I’m fine now. I’ve adjusted mentally. You don’t need to worry about me, we should still go out when we need to.”
Xiong Yuan paused for a moment, then burst into a laugh.
“The beastmen go out hunting every day. While they hunt, they’re also scouting the surrounding environment. To hunt safely, they need to understand the safety of the neighboring areas and any special features of the terrain.”
“Our area is very small and quite hidden. For Tian Xuan and the others, it’s not difficult to understand the safety of the land around where we live.”
Lu Xuan smiled sheepishly: “I was overthinking it.”
Xiong Yuan shook his head with a smile: “You’re very smart and very capable. Without you, who knows how many of us would still be left.”
Lu Xuan said: “That’s a long story. If Tian Xuan hadn’t saved me back then, the cubs and I would have long been a python’s meal. There wouldn’t have been any of this, meeting you all later.”
Xiong Yuan said: “So this is what you call, fate.”
Lu Xuan’s eyes curved into crescents: “Yes, exactly, fate.”
The cubs loved the honeyed fruit paste, especially the two little bear cubs, who ate with their heads down and didn’t look up, they liked it even more than roasted meat.
Lu Xuan’s eyes turned into little hearts. Cubs eating seriously were just so adorable.
“So tasty, I’ll make more, lots more.”
In the late afternoon, when the sun was about to set, the hunting beastmen returned with their prey. Not only that, they also brought back a very large eagle.
Lu Xuan was puzzled. That was an eagle, right?
One wing was folded normally, while the other hung down to the ground, clearly injured.
He looked at Tian Xuan with admiration. Even an eagle, amazing.
Tian Xuan didn’t understand. Why was the sub-beastman looking at him so strangely?