Bai Shuo had originally planned to explain himself, but after hearing Bai Xun’s whole speech, he simply gave up on the idea of talking at all.
He wanted to see just how long it would take his own father to figure it out!
As it turned out, Bai Xun not only failed to recognize him, he even went on to ask Bai Su whose chick this was, and was already about to lead Bai Su and Bai Le up the mountain to go find “their other chick,” muttering instructions as he went: “You two shouldn’t always go off playing on your own, remember to bring Shuo down with you from now on.”
Bai Shuo: “……”
In the end it was Bai Su who couldn’t take it anymore. “Papa, this is Shuo.” Bai Su had assumed that since his little brother looked so much like the rest of the family, their father, just like himself, would recognize him the moment he got a clear look at his face. Instead, their father had even entertained the possibility that their mother had secretly hatched a fourth chick, anything but the actual truth, that this was Bai Shuo.
Hearing this, Bai Xun froze on the spot.
In fact, if Bai Xun had only lingered around a bit longer, he’d have overheard plenty of people talking about his own chick’s successful shapeshift, but because he’d rushed off to bathe, he hadn’t exchanged so much as a word of small talk with anyone, so naturally no one had gotten the chance to share the good news with him, and he’d missed his shot at learning the truth entirely.
Bai Xun and Bai Yun had long since resigned themselves to raising Bai Shuo his whole life just as he was, so even seeing this new chick who looked so much like his other two children, it hadn’t occurred to Bai Xun to connect it to Bai Shuo successfully turning human, he’d simply assumed the tribe had a new arrival who happened to resemble his mate.
And so, the single most unlikely thing to happen had happened.
“Papa, I learned how to turn into human form.” Bai Shuo finally gave in, going along with what his brother had said, reaching a hand out to wave it in front of his still-frozen father. “I’m Shuo.”
Bai Xun still didn’t move.
This was the first time Bai Shuo had ever seen this kind of reaction. He turned and traded a look with his brother, what were they supposed to do now? Should they call their mother over to take a look?
Before they could go call for her, Bai Shuo noticed the scenery in front of him had suddenly changed.
Bai Shuo instantly had a bad feeling about this.
The next second, Bai Xun had hoisted him up onto his shoulder, the spot that had previously belonged to Bai Le, who’d now been relocated to the top of Bai Xun’s head.
Bai Shuo: “!!!”
This all-too-familiar sequence of events!
Watching Bai Xun’s familiar motions, Bai Shuo instantly guessed what was about to happen. When the Feather Clan felt happy, they liked to soar around in midair, flying as high as their mood dictated, and right now, Bai Xun was clearly quite excited.
Utterly unwilling to experience high-altitude flight, Bai Shuo cried out in terror, “Help!”
At this critical moment, Bai Yun, who’d just returned from trading for some Redtop fruit, came to Bai Shuo’s rescue.
“Bai Xun, what do you think you’re doing!”
Hearing his mate’s voice, Bai Xun abandoned the idea of shifting into feather form and flying high, hugged the chick tight instead, and offered a sheepish explanation. “Wasn’t doing anything, just happy, just hugging the chick.” His mate had strictly forbidden him from taking their second son off alone with their youngest to play, especially games like flying-high, and Bai Xun, the tribe’s top-tier warrior, never dared act up in front of his mate.
Bai Yun set aside the leaf-wrapped Redtop fruit and walked over to take the chick from him, kicking Bai Xun in the process while she assigned him a task: “Go wash the Redtop fruit.”
Bai Xun didn’t take the kick to heart at all, his gaze glued to the chick, reluctant to look away. “All right, all right, I’ll go in a minute.”
His own chick had finally turned human, the old man wanted to look a bit longer.
Bai Su knew his father wasn’t to be relied on, and took the initiative to carry the Redtop fruit off to the river to wash.
Snapping out of his fright, Bai Shuo saw his brother’s action and immediately grabbed hold of a wooden bowl. “Brother, wait for me, I’m coming too.”
Seeing both chicks walk off, Bai Xun scooped up the youngest one, Bai Le, setting him on top of his head, then picked up one chick with each arm: “Come on, let’s all go together.”
Bai Yun stayed behind to tend the fire, their stone pot was heavy and needed a head start heating, or their family’s pot would still be cold by the time others started eating.
The riverbank was crowded, some people were still butchering food, some were washing tools, with such a big catch today, everyone was in high spirits, and the riverside buzzed with noise.
Furthest upstream were the people drawing water, behind them, those washing food and tools, bathing happened furthest downstream, this was the tribe’s unspoken order, one that naturally fell into place whenever there were a lot of people around. Of course, if only one person was there, none of this mattered, since the water was flowing and would carry anything away regardless.
Right now only fruit and leaf-greens had been distributed, so the spot for washing food wasn’t too crowded. The two brothers, having wriggled free of their father, found an open spot and had just crouched down to get started when Bai Xun snatched away all the fruit.
Bai Xun set the youngest chick down from his head and gathered all the fruit close to himself. “I’ll wash it, you two just watch.”
Washing fruit was something the whole family had down to a science, especially their old man, Bai Xun. In fact, for fruit you could peel, most Feather Clan members wouldn’t bother going the extra mile, since they didn’t eat the skin anyway, but Bai Shuo had only ever eaten clean food since he was little, and refused anything with dirt clinging to the skin. After a few incidents, the family had learned to wash the fruit they brought back up the mountain before offering it to him.
Bai Xun grabbed a handful and set them in the water, scrubbing each one clean, within moments he’d washed seven or eight of them.
Bai Shuo quickly held out his bowl, calling it a bowl was generous, it was closer to a basin, and Bai Shuo needed both hands together just to hold it.
Worried about tiring the chick out, Bai Xun told him to set it on the ground instead.
By the time they made it back, the hunting party’s kill had already been cut into portions, to keep things fair, the meat was always distributed personally by the chieftain, Hua Yong.
Hua Yong was in his forties, an elder to Bai Xun’s generation. In terms of combat strength he only ranked in the tribe’s top ten, but his tracking ability was strong, and the hunting party he led had the highest success rate in the tribe, something especially crucial during the food-scarce rainy and snow seasons. That was why he served as chieftain, and the whole tribe accepted it without complaint, when he distributed the food, no one ever thought it unfair.
Bai Xun was the hunting-party captain, and since his group had brought in the biggest catch today, he was the first to collect food after the chieftain himself. Carrying Bai Shuo, Bai Xun pointed at the heaping piles of meat on the ground and swept his hand across them. “Son, pick whatever you like.”
This was the part many chicks loved most, choosing their favorite cut, and also the moment parents felt proudest, since letting your chick pick freely showed just how capable you were.
Before, Bai Shuo hadn’t yet turned human and hadn’t liked meat either, Bai Su wasn’t picky, and Bai Le would gnaw on rocks if you let him, leaving the old man with a heart full of enthusiasm and nowhere to pour it. Now, finally, he had his chance, the smile hadn’t left his face since they’d gotten back, and he practically glowed with satisfaction the whole time, leaving the Feather Clan members from his own hunting party half-convinced that the man who’d sliced open a moo-beast’s throat with one claw-strike today couldn’t possibly be the same person standing in front of them now.
Bai Shuo had no idea about any of this, the reason he’d asked to come along was that he wanted to personally choose tonight’s ingredients, to make preparing dinner easier.
Chunks of meat, roughly equal in size, were laid out on the ground on a bed of large leaves, each piece weighing about three jin. Baa-beast and cluck-bird meat was all lean, while the moo-beast had both fatty and lean cuts, though having just come through the snow season, the fatty portions were far outnumbered by the lean.
Hunting-party members could each claim three pieces, the captain got one extra, and since today’s party had caught the moo-beast, they got yet another extra piece on top of that, so Bai Xun could claim five pieces total. Bai Yun, as gathering-party captain, could claim three. One family member could collect for the whole household, so Bai Xun’s “pick whatever you like” had been perfectly literal. Bai Shuo thought it over for a second, then asked for three pieces of fatty moo-beast meat, two lean and one marbled piece, plus one piece each of baa-beast and cluck-bird meat.
Hua Yong handed the meat Bai Shuo had chosen to Bai Xun, along with a palm-sized piece of moo-beast liver. Organs were scarce, so the tribe’s rule was that whichever party caught the prey got its organs.
Once they got the food home, the first thing Bai Shuo did was have Bai Xun wash it again. The washing done during butchering just rinsed the dirt off the hide, the blood was left alone, since animal blood supplied the body’s necessary salt intake.
Their own family had two parents who could work, and their household had enough salt that Bai Shuo didn’t need to rely on this for his sodium, for the sake of both flavor and cleanliness, he wanted the meat properly rinsed before cutting.
Bai Shuo had asked for the fatty cuts in order to render fat. In fact, a single meal wouldn’t come close to using all of it, but a moo-beast didn’t show up every day, and many smaller prey animals had no fat at all, so he intended to prepare enough in one go to cover the next several days.
Cutting meat required real strength, which meant his parents had to do it. Once all the fatty meat had been chopped into chunks, they went straight into the stone pot to start rendering.
There wasn’t much left to do while the fat rendered, so Bai Shuo left his brother watching the fire and went to prepare the marinade ingredients.
“Papa, Mama, cut the rest into slices, about this thick.” Bai Shuo held up his fingers to show the thickness he meant. The tribe’s usual method of grilling meat was to lay a whole chunk straight over the fire, it took forever to cook through, and the outside would often char to charcoal while the very center was still raw, so many people ended up just going back to the fire again and again until the undercooked part finally cooked.
As for why no one cut the meat into smaller pieces before grilling, Bai Shuo suspected it was simply because people found it a hassle, he’d seen plenty of people stick a whole chunk of meat over the fire and walk away without a second thought. A large chunk at least kept the char to the surface, if it were cut small, there’d probably be even less left to eat by the time it was done.
In fact, apart from Bai Xun and Bai Yun, few parents indulged their chicks this much, but with Bai Xun, hearing his chick call him “Papa” had wiped every other thought from his head, whatever the chick asked, he’d do. This was the same chick who hadn’t shifted forms or spoken a word in eight whole years, and today he was this happy, never mind slicing the meat into thin cuts, Bai Xun would have minced the whole thing to a paste if asked.
Bai Yun wasn’t as simple-minded as her mate, but she knew that if her chick wanted to do things this way, there had to be a reason, so no matter how complicated it got, she helped without complaint.
Bai Shuo peeled the Redtop fruit he’d set aside, put the flesh into an empty bowl, and mashed it with a clean wooden stick, then added a pinch of ground salt. Once the fat in the stone pot began rendering out, he ladled some out, let it cool, and poured it in, stirring everything together. He pounded the sliced meat a few times, dropped it into the bowl, and drizzled the marinade he’d just mixed over the top.
There was so much meat that it ended up filling five whole large bowls, thank goodness their family owned plenty of bowls, and big ones at that, or there simply wouldn’t have been room.
The oil in the stone pot kept growing, Bai Shuo used a ladle to scoop it out little by little, until only a thin layer of oil and golden-brown cracklings remained at the bottom. The rendered oil filled two bowls in total, bowls Bai Yun had borrowed from someone else, since their own were all occupied by marinating meat.
The cracklings were fished out into a small bowl and sprinkled with a pinch of fine salt. Bai Shuo picked one up and tasted it himself first, and instantly felt so moved he nearly welled up.
Finally, finally, he’d gotten to eat something halfway decent! Bai Shuo had never imagined he’d get this excited over a piece of oil crackling.
Seeing him go quiet, Bai Su grew a little anxious. “Shuo, didn’t it turn out right?” His little brother had just entrusted the stone pot to him to watch, after all.
However mature Bai Su was for his age, he was still just an eight-year-old, he worried about failing whatever task his little brother had given him.
Bai Shuo didn’t answer, instead, he pinched off a piece and popped it straight into Bai Su’s mouth.
Fed by his little brother, Bai Su hadn’t even had time to feel pleased about it before the unmistakably unusual texture in his mouth made him chew reflexively a couple of times, and his face lit up in shock.
Fragrant, incredibly fragrant, with a crisp, crackling texture, utterly unlike anything he’d eaten before, carrying a strange, magical pull that made him want to reach for another piece.
Watching his brother freeze up, Bai Shuo fed his little brother and both parents a piece each, and got three identical looks of shock in return.
Seeing their reaction, Bai Shuo knew he’d succeeded. Ever since dreaming of his past life, he’d been racking his brain over how to improve the family’s meals, now, his dream of years past was finally coming true, and heaven only knew how happy that made him.
A glutton’s instinct kicked in fastest in Bai Le, who snapped out of it first. “Brother, I want more.”
Bai Shuo set a few pieces aside separately, then placed the bowl in the middle of the family and warned Bai Le, “Don’t eat too much, there’s still pan-fried meat coming.”
Bai Le’s eyes stayed fixed on the bowl, unblinking, with only one thought left in his head: eat.
The other three had already snapped out of their shock. Bai Su only took one small piece, Bai Xun and Bai Yun didn’t dare eat any more either.
Plenty of prey had fatty meat on it, but the tribe’s usual method was to grill it, occasionally someone who didn’t mind the extra hassle and owned a stone pot would boil it instead, but that just meant adding water and cooking it through, the meat was still the same meat, the only difference being it wouldn’t char the way grilling could, nothing else special about it. Bai Xun and Bai Yun, having lived over twenty years, were trying this way of eating meat for the very first time. It really was a shame that a few pieces of meat had come down to so little in the end, but it truly had been delicious.
This tiny bit of food wouldn’t fill any of them up even if they ate every last scrap of it, so they might as well give it to their chick.
Seeing they weren’t eating, Bai Shuo urged them on. “Papa, Mama, you should eat too, once you’re done with this, the pan-fried meat will be just about ready.” The three pieces of fatty meat weighed nearly ten jin altogether, the cracklings came to about a jin and a half, not nearly enough to fill up an adult Feather Clan member in one sitting, but plenty for the whole family to get a taste.
With that said, Bai Shuo picked up a marinated slice with two clean, thin twigs and slowly lowered it into the stone pot, where a thin layer of hot oil still remained.
“Sizzzzle—”
The slice of meat burst with an irresistible aroma the instant it hit the hot oil, spreading out through the air in every direction.
The whole family, breathing in that rich fragrance, couldn’t help swallowing.