Chapter 20: The Easily Angered Beastman
Under Su Ran’s constant comfort and demonstration, Xiao Ju finally slowly approached the campfire. By the time the two of them worked together to lift the third animal, this little orange cat finally let go of her fear of fire.
Although still a bit nervous, she finally dared to approach the fire source.
Just as they were about to choose the fourth prey, the white fox female that Su Ran had seen before suddenly jumped in front of her and Xiao Ju.
The little female tilted her head and mewled “ying ying” at Su Ran, then raised her hand, her sharp nails slightly curled at the tips, pointing at the prey on one side:
“Ying ying…”
Before Su Ran could speak, Xiao Ju happily walked up to the white fox female, let out a light and cheerful “miao~”, then turned around with quick steps, her tail erect high behind her, ran to the side of the prey, reached out and lifted a wooden stick from one of the prey.
The white fox female had been observing Su Ran and Xiao Ju’s actions just now, and she knew what Xiao Ju’s action meant. She looked at Su Ran and softly called “ying~”, then walked over to work with Xiao Ju to lift that prey.
Su Ran felt that cooperating with the white fox female’s action, the meaning her call just represented should be similar to: “I’ll go help~”.
After Xiao Ju and the white fox female’s demonstration, the other beastmen finally began to try approaching the campfire more and more.
Su Ran took the opportunity to hand over the task of smearing Sweet Leaf Vein Tree leaf juice on the roast meat to them.
And these beastmen’s reactions once again made Su Ran marvel at how, despite the language barrier, they could quickly understand her meaning and master the process from making fire to processing ingredients.
The intelligence of these beastmen and their current primitive fire-making environment were so mismatched.
The three large campfires had a total of twelve large prey roasting on them, and below the prey skewered on branches, a circle of slightly smaller animals was also impaled with branches around each campfire.
Su Ran even crushed the remaining kelp, then wrapped the internal organs cleaned from these prey and the kelp pieces together with Sweet Leaf Vein Tree leaves, coated the outside with a layer of mud, and threw them into the campfire.
As time passed, the sky gradually darkened, and the aroma of roast meat became increasingly rich, wafting over the entire river beach.
At this time, almost all the beastmen living in this settlement had come to this river beach.
Su Ran counted heads and checked, finding about fifty or sixty adult beastmen here, and more than a dozen little beastmen.
The orange-red flames burned enthusiastically in the night curtain, illuminating the nearby open space exceptionally brightly.
By now, this bright open space seemed to have become a playground for the little beastmen.
Compared to the adult beastmen who had been timid around the campfire before, this group of little ones accepted fire much more quickly.
They darted between the several campfires, their crisp playful voices making the cold night exceptionally lively.
Instead, Su Ran watched nervously from the side, afraid that they might accidentally set their own tails or wings behind them on fire!
“Ao wu~”
Su Ran was dazed watching the lively scene in front of her when the werewolf, who had been enthusiastically (showily) teaching other beastmen roasting techniques, had somehow run back to her side.
Its eyes sparkled under the firelight, flames dancing in its black pupils. In an instant, Su Ran seemed to see some restless emotions in them.
She shivered all over and quickly shifted her gaze, no longer meeting its eyes.
But she didn’t see that after she shifted her gaze, the werewolf’s previously restless big tail slowly stopped its happy wag.
The roast meat was almost done. Su Ran took out the tactical knife, walked to an animal that was roasted golden brown, cut off a piece of meat, blew on it, and tasted it.
The charred aroma mixed with sweetness filled her mouth. The outermost layer of meat was slightly crispy. Compared to the tender meat quality of the white-headed sheep, this animal’s meat quality was clearly firmer and had a richer flavor when eaten.
She nodded in satisfaction, but as she turned her head, she met the gaze of Xiao Ju, who had somehow stood beside her, staring unblinkingly at her mouth and rapidly swallowing saliva.
“Miwu~”
Seeing Su Ran turn her head, Xiao Ju quickly called out.
Just like a kitty at home reminding its owner of its presence.
Su Ran’s heart softened at Xiao Ju’s big golden eyes, so she cut another piece of meat, blew on it, and handed it to the little cutie.
The little orange cat looked at the roast meat right by her mouth and bit into it without any hesitation. Her round cheeks bulged with the meat piece, and her tail behind her stood higher and higher as she chewed longer. Su Ran couldn’t help wanting to reach out and pet it.
And as soon as this thought emerged, she heard a sudden “wu wu wu” aggrieved low call from behind.
Then a thick arm suddenly scooped her up by the waist, and in the blink of an eye, she was moved to beside a piece of deadwood.
The werewolf in front of her lowered its head to look at her, its green eyes glowing faintly in the hazy night.
It called out to her discontentedly twice, then pressed her shoulders to sit her on the withered tree, turned and walked toward the beastmen who were eyeing the roast meat restlessly.
The werewolf went over to help distribute the roast meat to everyone.
Su Ran had been worried before about how to distribute the roast meat to the beastmen once it was done, afraid that if there wasn’t enough food, the beastmen would fight.
Because there were too many beastmen, she couldn’t and didn’t have the strength to roast all the animals the beastmen had hunted at once; there weren’t enough campfire spots either, so she only roasted a dozen animals, including a few small animals.
But now she found that the beastmen were very casual about it.
These beastmen didn’t seem to have much concept of fairness. Su Ran watched from afar as each beastman held roast meat of varying sizes, yet all looked happy.
As she breathed a sigh of relief, she suddenly felt a sense of peace in her heart.
If the environment for getting along in future life was this peaceful and pure, then she could look forward to future life.
Over there, the work of dividing the roast meat soon ended under the beastmen’s self-allocation.
When the werewolf returned, it held a whole roasted leg meat from some unknown animal in its hand. It pushed the roasted leg meat toward Su Ran. Su Ran cut off a small piece with the knife, then shook her head refusing more.
The werewolf looked at the small piece of roast meat skewered on her knife tip, frowned, but said nothing, silently sat beside her and buried its head in gnawing the leg meat in its hand.
Su Ran keenly noticed the werewolf’s low mood but couldn’t figure out the reason for a moment.
Clearly, this guy had looked very happy when dividing the roast meat with the other beastmen just now!
She turned her head to look at the werewolf. Although it was eating happily now, it was obviously in a bad mood.
Could it be because it felt it got too little roast meat?
Su Ran was puzzled. After thinking, she suddenly remembered the “beggar’s internal organs” wrapped in mud in the campfire.
She glanced at the werewolf beside her, pursed her lips, suddenly stood up and ran toward the campfire with the roasted internal organs.
But she didn’t see that the werewolf beside her, who had been burying its head eating meat, “whoosh!” lifted its head the moment she stood up and ran away.
Those eyes watched her receding back, its black pupils rapidly dilating to fill the entire eye sockets, flashing a moment of panic.
At this time, most of the other beastmen had already taken their roasted roast meat and walked back to the woods where they lived one after another. Only a very few male beastmen stayed here to eat directly.
Seeing Su Ran’s actions now, although curious, they only watched from the spot.
Su Ran felt it was because the werewolf wasn’t by her side that these male beastmen didn’t dare approach.
She found a slightly thicker wooden stick, reached into the campfire, and pulled out those several mud lumps that had been burned black.
The mud lumps had been burned to some hardness, making a crisp “da da” sound when knocked. Just pulled out from the campfire, each was still emitting green smoke.
After all the mud lumps were pulled out, Su Ran found a slender stone on the river beach, aimed at the top of one mud lump, and knocked down hard.
The already burned-dry mud block quickly cracked under the force, the mud fell off, and a rich sweet smell mixed with the unique salty aroma of kelp rushed into her nose.
Smelling this aroma, Su Ran suddenly felt her belly, which hadn’t been hungry at all before, start gurgling again.
And just as she was about to crack the second mud lump, the werewolf suddenly appeared behind her, its expression a bit awkward and shy.
But after smelling the aroma from the roasted internal organs, this awkwardness was immediately thrown to the back of its mind.
It took a big step to Su Ran’s side, squatted down, pointed at the one in front with the mud knocked off, revealing the dried yellow Sweet Leaf Vein Tree leaves, and called “ao wu ao wu”, its eyes full of curiosity about this thing.
Su Ran smiled, reached out and touched the soft ears on top of the werewolf’s head: “Wait a moment.”
“Wu?”
The werewolf shook its ears, seeming in a better mood.
It watched Su Ran continue knocking the mud lumps, slowly leaning its body closer to Su Ran’s. By the time Su Ran came back to her senses, the werewolf had already rested its entire head on her shoulder.
In an instant, Su Ran felt like there was a fluffy large dog lying on her shoulder!
At this time, the second mud lump in front of her had also had all the mud scraps removed. Su Ran broke off a branch, sharpened one end with the knife, then used the tactical knife to cut the yellowed Sweet Leaf Vein Tree leaves.
In an instant, a richer roasted aroma than the previous roast meat wafted in front of her.
Smelling this smell, the werewolf leaning on her “whoosh” sat up straight, eyes staring at the exposed dark red roasted internal organs, and swallowed saliva.
Then it turned its head to Su Ran with eyes full of expectation…
Su Ran smiled at it with pursed lips, skewered a liver from some unknown animal with the sharpened branch, cut a few slits on it with the knife to cool it quickly, and blew on it a few times…
At this moment, Su Ran suddenly seemed to understand what the werewolf was unhappy about.
When she gave Xiao Ju roast meat to taste earlier, the werewolf seemed unhappy, and before that, when she deliberately avoided the werewolf’s gaze.
Perhaps the werewolf got unhappy because of her unresponsive attitude at that time?
She looked at the werewolf who happily took the roasted liver she handed over and bit into a big mouthful. It would get jealous and angry, yet was so easy to coax. She suddenly didn’t know whether to say this beastman was innocent or too scheming.
The taste of the roasted internal organs matched its rich aroma, having even more flavor compared to roast meat.
Especially after mixing in crushed kelp, the kelp’s salty freshness had penetrated largely into the internal organs, so even the werewolf who previously didn’t like kelp-wrapped meat couldn’t refuse.
So the two, who had already eaten quite a bit, shared and ate an entire “beggar’s internal organs” before huddling together, rubbing their now bulging bellies, and starting to feel sleepy.
As for the remaining dozen or so mud lumps, they were naturally distributed to the other beastmen still by the river beach.
However, Su Ran still kept two for herself and the werewolf, planning to eat them tomorrow morning.
The three campfires from roasting meat were almost burned out. Su Ran looked around; the remaining beastmen had also started walking back.
So she got up, walked to the campfire side, first used a wooden stick to stir and scatter the firewood on the campfire, then scattered the three handfuls of soil she had prepared earlier during roasting onto the campfire.
The campfire was a bit large; she worked at it for a long time and only extinguished the embers of one campfire. But fortunately, the werewolf, who had finished observing nearby, came over to help, letting her breathe a sigh of relief.
After all three campfires were completely extinguished, Su Ran still wasn’t fully reassured. She used the stainless steel mug to repeatedly scoop water from the river for a long time and pour it on the soil-covered campfire sites before finally satisfiedly hanging the mug on herself, then picking up two mud-wrapped roasted internal organs, calling the werewolf to head back toward the bird’s nest…
