Chapter 55

Wu Mu fished out a rotten wooden raft from the sea. The raft looked a bit rough, but it was large and sturdy, tied together with vines in circles. Even after being submerged in the ocean for so long, it hadn’t completely rotted. It was lying on the seabed some distance from the shore, and Wu Mu accidentally dragged it up with a trawl net during a seabed fishing activity.

Song Xu loved rummaging through the net bag when Wu Mu pulled the trawl net ashore. She had an unparalleled interest in this treasure-hunting activity, as evidenced by her constant efforts to weave larger fishing nets to upgrade Wu Mu’s equipment.

Regarding today’s strange find, Song Xu poked at the rotten wood, suspecting that someone might have made the raft to cross the sea. She looked at the big tiger dozing in the sun on the reef as the likely suspect.
Hei Sen must have made it; no other beastman was here except her.

“Judging by where this raft sank, it might have sunk by a thousand meters before it even left the sea surface. Was the wood too heavy or the big tiger too heavy? And judging by the size of the raft, the big tiger wasn’t as large as she is now.”

Song Xu had already confirmed with Wu Mu that Hei Sen didn’t have such an exaggerated figure before; her current size was purely due to eating hormones (primitive beasts). Besides this raft, Wu Mu also found other traces of the giant tiger’s attempts to go to sea.

He went to the deep water area far from the coast to catch more fish to feed the tiger. Wu Mu didn’t mention it, but Song Xu hadn’t noticed. In the deeper area, Wu Mu fished up a skeleton ship stuck in the mud.

Even with Wu Mu’s incredible strength, it took him a long time to drag it out of the mud and bring it to the shore. The curved skeletons were firmly tied together, forming the shape of a ship, with the bones arranged on both sides like the ribs of the ship.

Song Xu picked up a bone on the shore and exclaimed, “This bone is so light!”

It was nearly two meters long, as wide as her palm, yet she could lift it with one hand. The weight was incredibly light. The entire irregularly shaped ship was made of such bones.

“This was probably made by Hei Sen, too. It seems she really tried hard to go to sea… Where was she trying to go?” Song Xu asked aloud, already having a guess in her mind.

Hei Sen came here to find something that could transform a half-beastman into a complete beastman. She probably wanted to go to sea for the same reason, but it seemed she failed in this sea, even getting herself involved and becoming what she is now.

The giant tiger came over and saw them fiddling with the bones. Song Xu ceremoniously stuck the scattered bones into the sand as if it were some kind of art installation.

At noon, the giant tiger returned with a primitive beast carcass in its mouth. She hadn’t brought back a primitive beast carcass for a while. Thanks to the efforts of Wu Mu and Song Xu, she had been eating primitive beasts less frequently. Song Xu hadn’t seen her actively eat a primitive beast recently, so why was she starting again now?

Song Xu was grilling fish by the fire, pondering how to make an automatic fish grill. Seeing the primitive beast carcass in front of her, she reacted and firmly shook her head, “No way, my goodness, even if the primitive beast is cooked, it can’t be eaten. And we don’t accept customers bringing their own ingredients!”

The giant tiger growled, viciously tearing open the primitive beast, stepping on its belly, ripping out a curved bone from its chest, and throwing it in front of Song Xu.

Song Xu looked at the bloody bone on the ground and said seriously, “No bone soup either!”

The giant tiger was silent, then turned and walked away, tail swaying.

Song Xu felt that her mom’s look before leaving was like looking at a foolish child, such a human-like expression. The bone soup thing was, of course, a joke. Habitually playful, Song Xu picked up the big bone, finding its shape familiar. Lifting it up, she immediately understood why. It was the same as the assembled bone ship Wu Mu had fished up, even lighter than the bones in the sea.

Did Tiger Mom see her playing with those bones and find her some new toys?

Looking closely at the primitive beast that contributed the bone, it had long legs and a long neck, resembling an ostrich but much larger, with a long flat beak filled with saw-like sharp teeth. Song Xu often saw these dinosaurs running in the forest. They were large but ran lightly, probably because their bones were light. Because their bodies were covered with feathers, Song Xu once suspected they weren’t primitive beasts. Later, she discovered that many types of primitive beasts here had feathers. This also solved some of her doubts. When she and Wu Mu encountered these primitive beasts outside, they were very fierce, but when they went out with Tiger Mom, these primitive beasts often fled at the sight of her.

This might be related to many of their companions being caught by Tiger Mom to make boats in the past. Tiger Mom would be a murderous demon in their network language if they communicated with each other. So fierce! Should she also try to make a boat?

Before finding the shipwreck, Song Xu had already been discussing with Wu Mu whether to leave.

“I don’t know if my mom wants to go back and see, but with her current unrecognizable state, she might be driven away even if she goes back. It’s really troubling,” Song Xu said.

In this two-person meeting, Wu Mu only kept his eyes open, watched her, waited for her to ask and answer herself, and then made a decision.

Wu Mu did not react to her natural use of the words “my mom” after all, the giant tiger seemed to accept it too.

“Recently, my mom’s condition has stabilized a lot. We can’t stay here eating fish all the time. We need to leave and go somewhere else. As long as we leave here, we can eat meat. Otherwise, the three of us can continue traveling!”

After Song Xu happily announced this decision, she and Wu Mu tried to take the giant tiger away but failed. Despite their various attempts, the giant tiger remained unusually firm this time. Whether Song Xu packed everything and pretended to run away from home or Wu Mu tried to forcefully take her away, she was unmoved, as if she was rooted by the sea, insisting on not leaving.

Of course, she didn’t leave or let the two cubs leave. The squirrel and the snake, who pretended to pack their bags and run away from home, were bitten by the giant tiger and brought back before they reached the forest’s edge. At this point, the situation could only be deadlocked. Then Wu Mu picked up the boats that Hei Sen had made before, not just one or two; she had tried to make at least four.

Song Xu occasionally played in the shallow water, stepping on the sand in the clear, glass-like sea water; she could find some bones tied with vines and half-rotted round logs; now they knew these were parts of Hei Sen’s boat.

“Since my mom wants to go to the sea by boat, let’s make a boat and go together!” Song Xu announced her latest decision.

The three participants unanimously approved this hasty and bold decision, with only the squirrel being clear-headed and articulate.

Song Xu was very particular about making the boat, unlike the giant tiger, who was simple and rough. The inexperienced squirrel had a forward-looking vision. She had Wu Mu cut down trees from the forest, drag them to the seaside, and then process them. She specially cut different trees into sections, threw them into the sea to test their buoyancy and water absorption, and finally selected the most suitable wood. Each piece of wood was hollowed out, fitted with wooden blocks for an initial connection, and then regularly wrapped together with peeled vines. The bottom was supported by a frame of very light primitive animal bones, further fixed under the raft.

Considering the size of the giant tiger and Wu Mu, this “boat” had to be very large. This huge project exhausted the little squirrel every day. She lay on the snake with vacant eyes and said, “How about leaving Hei Sen on the shore? It’s too dangerous to take her to sea.”

Wu Mu looked up at her without saying a word. When she first said this, Wu Mu thought she was serious. He pondered it overnight and felt the squirrel made sense, but the next day, she acted as if she had never said such a thing. Still considering how to make the boat big enough to fit the giant tiger, she even came up with a way to let Wu Mu coil around the mast to make room for the tiger. Suddenly, when she found no foothold on the boat, Wu Mu thought that the squirrel must be like him, sometimes forgetting what she had said or done.

Song Xu collected many fruit shells to ensure the boat’s load capacity. Round, like coconut fruits, these fruits would be pierced at the top by a primitive animal with a needle-like mouth to suck out the pulp.

Song Xu picked up these empty shells, didn’t even need to make holes herself, strung them together, and tied them around the boat to increase buoyancy. If the boat capsized at sea, they could serve as life buoys.

This place had no seasonal changes. Since Song Xu and Wu Mu came here, several months had passed, the temperature remained in a suitable range, and the fruits in the forest matured one after another. Sometimes, fruits were still on the branches, while flowers bloomed on another branch.

If it weren’t for Wu Mu and Hei Sen having no other food besides fish here, Song Xu would have loved to live on this vacation-like beach longer.

After a long time, the Squirrel Ship was finally completed.

Lying on the big boat she made, Song Xu screamed with her face in her hands, “I really am a genius!”

“Let’s go, let’s try it in the water!” Song Xu pushed the big boat towards the sea, pushing hard… the big boat didn’t move an inch.

“Wu Mu!” she shouted.

With the snake’s tail push, the boat gradually entered the water smoothly without any sign of sinking.

During the making process, Song Xu had already tested the boat in the water several times, fixing any problems in time so the boat couldn’t suddenly sink after completion.

Song Xu was proud and eager to set off immediately. With a new toy, you have to play with it right away to get the most joy!

The giant tiger walked to the seaside, leaped lightly to a distance just enough to wet her paws, and jumped onto the big boat, filling a groove Song Xu had prepared for her. She retracted her paws and looked at the sea as if waiting to set off. Seeing the two not moving, she roared with a hint of urging.

Covered in wood chips, Song Xu said, “Mom, come down first. We’re not ready yet.”