Chapter 25

When A-Yin brought back the chicken, it was already dead.

Zhuo Yan boiled a large pot of water, stuffed the chicken in, and began plucking its feathers and removing its innards. He placed the heart, liver, and intestines in a big wooden basin to wash by the river later. Every time he cleaned these, Zhuo Yan would think of the aromatic spices from the modern world—how fragrant they were.

Without spices, chili powder, salt, and cumin would do.

He had to remove the fishy smell.

It was such a waste to throw this away now, but when it came to eating, the taste was quite strong.

A-Yin watched his brother clean and helped out by bringing spoons and putting them back. By the time Zhuo Yan had plucked most of the feathers, he roasted the chicken a bit over the fire and scraped it clean with a stone knife. Now it was time to head to the river.

Without him having to call, A-Yin was already running ahead.

When they reached the river, Zhuo Yan tossed the feathers and some unusable scraps aside. He was feeling a bit clever, thinking of using old tricks to set a trap—although last winter, the trap hadn’t caught anything, there was still a chance.

What if some silly chickens or rabbits came by again?

Zhuo Yan went to set up the trap while A-Yin ran around nearby. At first, Zhuo Yan thought A-Yin was just playing, but later he felt that it didn’t seem like that. When he realized, it suddenly dawned on him.

“A-Yin, are you keeping watch for your brother?”

A-Yin ran over, nodding his head. Zhuo Yan got up, first patting A-Yin and praising him, “Very good! You’ve learned something at school. Let’s go to the river and clean the chicken.”

Good luck is hard to stop, right? While Zhuo Yan was washing the chicken and its innards, a fish came by. Earlier in the day, he had released a fat fish, and Aman had said he was in heat. Now, Zhuo Yan, startled, acted quickly and decisively, but he missed the fish. Almost at the same moment, A-Yin jumped into the river, claws outstretched, and caught the fish.

“Wow! Awesome!” Zhuo Yan blurted out in surprise.

His A-Yin had a quicker reaction time than he did.

At the riverbank, they killed the fish, scaled it, and gutted it. Before they knew it, night had fallen. A-Yin kept a watchful eye on his brother’s back while he worked, patrolling nearby until Zhuo Yan stood up and said he was done. A-Yin’s gaze remained fixed on the distance, and then he followed closely behind his brother.

Time to go home.

The cave was lit by flames, and a stone pot was simmering with wild vegetables and fish. Zhuo Yan pierced the entire chicken with a sharpened stick, then rolled it over the flames to roast it. Whenever he got tired, he would rest it on the stone pot for a moment.

A-Yin looked at his claws, anxious to help his brother.

“No need, I’ll check the salt.” Zhuo Yan went to look at the salt bag, and sure enough, it was empty, with only a little bit of black stuff that he couldn’t tell was dust or salt—oh well, he decided to sprinkle it on, just in case it was salt.

“Our salt is gone. A-Yin, if you catch prey in the future, suck some blood; it would be even better if you could bring back something alive.”

“There’s salt in the blood, so you can replenish your salt that way.”

As for him, Zhuo Yan thought, “I’ll ask Sister Qiao tomorrow when the feathered people’s market usually opens. If we’re going to the market, we need to prepare the items for trade ahead of time.”

The only valuable item he had was that half bear skin, but Zhuo Yan selfishly didn’t want to sell it. Last winter, he had relied on A-Yin for warmth, and A-Yin had nothing to cover him.

What else could he prepare?

Or rather, what could he make that would be worth taking? A wooden barrel? A wooden door? Probably wouldn’t work; he heard the journey was quite far, so it would be best to have something simple and lightweight.

A-Yin listened seriously to his brother’s words about needing live chickens and rabbits and their blood; he understood that his brother wanted him to drink the blood as well.

The aroma gradually filled the air as the fish simmered, producing a light white broth. Because wild vegetables were added, the color was a mix of white and green. Zhuo Yan squeezed in four Dudu fruits, cooking with a heavy hand this time—

Winter was over, so he didn’t have to ration food like before.

A-Yin was growing, and so was he. With more food, they could eat well today, allowing A-Yin to have the energy to hunt and catch more chickens and rabbits. Zhuo Yan’s mindset shifted quickly, learning from the tribe.

“Dig in.” Zhuo Yan put most of the chicken into A-Yin’s bowl, letting the soup cool first. He was afraid A-Yin wouldn’t eat; sure enough, A-Yin looked at the large piece of chicken in his bowl and howled, signaling that his brother’s portion was small while his was too much.

Zhuo Yan rubbed A-Yin’s ears. “I’m not in beast form; eating too much will make me uncomfortable, really.” He wasn’t being harsh on himself, unlike the saying, “If mom isn’t hungry, you eat.” He split the whole chicken into a four-to-six ratio, with him getting four parts and A-Yin six.

If it were a three-to-seven split, A-Yin definitely wouldn’t eat.

“You need to eat enough so you can patrol well tomorrow; running so much every day must be tiring.”

“Good boy, listen.”

A-Yin nudged his brother’s hand with his head; as long as his brother said to listen, he would obey.

During the chicken-eating process, Zhuo Yan also set up a stone slab to roast the chicken gizzards, intestines, and liver. While tearing at the chicken, he would pull off some pieces for A-Yin, saying, “This part is a bit fatty; I don’t like eating it.”

A-Yin tilted his head, looking at his brother with his blue eyes, seemingly trying to determine whether his brother was telling the truth—this little rascal amused Zhuo Yan, who was a small blogger with hundreds of thousands of fans! He had a bit of acting skill, too.

Zhuo Yan furrowed his brows, pretending to be disgusted. “Really, this piece is very fatty; you should eat it.”

“Awooo, awooo~”

One could only say that A-Yin was quite innocent, easily coaxed by Zhuo Yan’s poor acting. In the end, A-Yin managed to eat seventy percent of the chicken, while Zhuo Yan took thirty percent. The remaining chicken offal got a bit charred, making it tough to chew, almost like jerky, but the fishy taste wasn’t strong anymore.

With a pot of fish soup, Zhuo Yan picked the fish meat for A-Yin, and he ended up drinking two bowls of soup. Once they were both full, Zhuo Yan felt his belly round and was sitting lazily on a small stool, unwilling to get up and clean up.

“I can’t take it anymore; I really overate.” This time Zhuo Yan was being honest. Although the chicken wasn’t much, they had plenty of food, especially the soup.

This time, he was genuinely full.

A-Yin looked at his brother, then at his brother’s belly. He tilted his head and grabbed the woven mat his brother had made, placing it aside, then lazily lay down next to his brother.

His brother liked him clean.

Zhuo Yan felt uncomfortable sitting on the small stool, especially in his stomach. Seeing A-Yin enjoying himself so much was like having the bones pulled out, and he felt a rush of satisfaction. A-Yin, being quite intuitive, shifted slightly to the side so Zhuo Yan could lean against him.

“A-Yin, is it heavy?”

“Awooo~” Not heavy at all; brother is so light.

Zhuo Yan was too lazy to move, resting his head on A-Yin, his body stretching out. After eating and drinking enough, the fire in the cave was dim, and it was warm. Before long, Zhuo Yan fell asleep, while A-Yin happily lay there, listening to his brother’s breathing.

Zhuo Yan slept very soundly. When he woke up, he didn’t know what time it was; anyway, it was dark outside during mealtime. He stretched and reached out to rub A-Yin, careful not to compress him too much. A-Yin thought his brother was playing, rolling over and exposing his belly, wanting Zhuo Yan to pet him because it was so soft there.

“Alright, alright, brush your teeth and wash your face, then go to sleep.”

Zhuo Yan took great care of his teeth; there were no dentists in this world, and he didn’t want his future children to grow up with plenty of meat but have bad teeth that couldn’t enjoy it—starting to plan ahead.

With one person and one leopard, they left the cave. Zhuo Yan carried a water cup in each hand, one large and one small. He rinsed his mouth first and then fed some to A-Yin, who mimicked his brother by holding the water in his mouth and then spitting it out.

After that, Zhuo Yan used a twig to clean their teeth and rinsed again. He looked up at the sky; there were so many stars, and the moon was shining brightly, looking beautiful.

“Let’s go back to sleep.”

After a full meal and good rest, the next day they felt energetic. Zhuo Yan carried the stone pot and had a backpack, while A-Yin held an empty wooden bucket as they headed to the river.

“Alright, you go with the patrol team now; see you in the afternoon, A-Yin.”

“Awooo, awooo~” A-Yin wagged his tail at his brother and ran off to join the patrol team when he saw Zhuo Yan’s companions arrive.

At the river, Zhuo Yan began washing the stone pot used last night, and he would fill the wooden bucket with water, not in a hurry.

“Good morning, Zhuo Yan!”

“Good morning.”

Everyone was busy cleaning their things. Zhuo Yan casually asked about the market, and Qiao replied, “The Feathered People’s market? It takes more than half a month to get there.”

“Really?! That long?!” Zhuo Yan’s eyes widened.

“Once, my father and the team set out in the summer when it wasn’t too hot, and by the time they returned, it had already cooled down a bit,” Aman explained. “During that trip, I heard my father say they encountered several dangers on the way back—mammoths and rhinoceros fighting, and even lions.”

It seemed that the Feathered People’s market was held around mid-year, probably early summer. More than half a month was just one way, so going and coming back would take over a month.

As a few people discussed, they mentioned that if the group was made up entirely of beastmen, they would travel faster; if there were sub-beastmen, it would be slower—though sub-beastmen could ride on the backs of beastmen while they carried them along.

“…Zhuo Yan, even though you have A-Yin, he’s still small; can he carry you?” Aman expressed some concern. “It’s a long journey, and beastmen who have bonded with a partner usually won’t carry other sub-beastmen.”

Xiao Xian nodded vigorously, “Exactly! I had to beg my big brother for a long time before he would carry me. My second brother hasn’t carried me since his first heat.”

“Then it seems we won’t be able to go to the market this year,” Zhuo Yan said with a hint of worry. “We’re out of salt at home.”

“That’s going to be a problem,” Shitou said.

Qiao added, “Ada and I will be going. Zhuo Yan, if you have anything to trade, I can help you take it along.”

Among the five of them, only Qiao had Ada, while the others were single and could not go to the market. Zhuo Yan understood Qiao’s intentions—helping him bring things back was still a long journey, and Qiao would definitely need to bring salt and other items for himself.

This added weight to Ada.

Thus, Zhuo Yan didn’t agree and instead said, “I haven’t decided what to trade yet, so forget it. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll wait until next year to go.”

Salt, oh salt! A-Yin could drink the blood of animals to replenish his salt intake. If that doesn’t work, then he—Zhuo Yan thought about drinking blood, and initially couldn’t accept the idea. He couldn’t help but wonder about making blood tofu?

Does this continent only have salt by the seaside?

Zhuo Yan racked his brain to gather bits of knowledge. For salt, aside from evaporating seawater, there were salt mines. He seemed to remember that herbivorous animals had higher blood salt content, especially elephants…

While Zhuo Yan was deep in thought about finding salt, Qiao shared some good news—she asked everyone to help her make a door, and she and Ada had agreed that once the door was made, they would become partners.

“That’s great!” Zhuo Yan came back to his senses and started clapping!

Meanwhile, Xiao Xian was drooling. Zhuo Yan: ??? Xiao Xian, what are you doing?!

“Ada is so amazing; he’ll definitely catch a big prey. That way, we can have roasted meat!” Xiao Xian’s tone was cheerful.

Zhuo Yan finally understood; this was the feast for becoming partners?

Wow!!!

As Zhuo Yan congratulated them again, he was even happier, his voice louder and more sincere, clapping like a seal, “Awesome! Let’s make the door today!”

Qiao smiled brightly.