Chapter 22: Chapter 22: A Busy Day

Hehe (#^.^#).

Shen Rong and Changxia exchanged a smile.

To meet such tribe members in this life—they were truly lucky.

“I’ll try to make even tastier roast meat for everyone.”

“Then I’ll work hard to make more delicious food.”

“Great! We’re looking forward to your fruit porridge.”

With that, everyone looked at the white nuts drying on the ground and burst out laughing.

After the meal, everyone worked together to clean up the tables, chairs, bowls, and chopsticks. The sun was blazing, so Changxia and the others sat in the shade, chatting while processing the salt crystals they’d brought back—grinding them into fine salt and storing them in clay jars.

“Changxia, you brought back so much salt—it’ll last for years!” Nuan Chun said.

Changxia replied, “I just didn’t want to keep going back and forth for salt, so I stocked up all at once. We need salt for pickling vegetables and meat, and if anyone in the tribe runs out and doesn’t want to go to the salt lake, they can come trade with me.”

"You!"Nan Feng poked at Chang Xia from a distance, not daring to actually touch her.

After all, Mu Qin was sitting right next to them, eyeing her like a hawk. If she really did poke Chang Xia, she might get scolded.

Soon, hundreds of pounds of salt crystals were all ground into fine salt.

Chang Xia found suitable clay jars, filled them with the fine salt, and then sealed them with wooden lids wrapped in soft animal hides. She stacked the jars in the farthest corner of the beast den.

"One den is just too small,"Mu Qin sighed.

No matter how neatly Chang Xia organized it, the beast den—just a few dozen square meters—still felt cramped. It made sense that Chang Xia wanted to build a kiln. Not just her—even Mu Qin and Nuan Chun immediately felt that the den was getting too crowded.

Nuan Chun nodded in agreement. "There's nowhere to put furniture, and once you have a few more clay jars, you can’t even stack the baskets."As females, it was usually their job to tidy up the beast den.

Although the beast tribe didn’t have a habit of stockpiling food, daily necessities still added up. Once you gathered everything you needed, it was enough to fill a whole den.

When the weather was clear, they could move the stove outside.

But as soon as the rainy season came, the stove had to be kept inside the den.

That made the space feel even more cramped—and that’s not even counting the space needed for furniture.

Just thinking about it made them all start longing for Chang Xia’s cave dwelling.

"During the cold rainy season, the den gets unbelievably cold. Unless you transform and use your beast form to keep warm, it’s freezing even with a bonfire,"Nan Feng sighed.

At times like that, she always wished she had a mate to help keep warm.

"Don’t worry, you can build a kang in a cave dwelling. With a kang, you won’t have to worry about freezing, no matter how cold and damp the rainy season gets,"Chang Xia said calmly. She knew exactly what Nan Feng meant—during those times, even with three or four layers of animal hides and two bonfires burning in the den, Chang Xia still didn’t dare stick her hands out from under the covers.

Every rainy or cold season, Mu Qin would have Nan Feng or some other young female from the tribe come stay with Chang Xia to get through it together.

The chinchilla tribe’s beast forms were small and delicate.

Of course, “small” was relative to the leopard tribe of the Heluo tribe.

Even if Chang Xia transformed, she still couldn’t keep herself warm alone.

There was no choice but to huddle together for warmth to avoid catching cold and getting sick.

"A kang? What’s that?"Immediately, everyone’s attention turned to Chang Xia.

"A kang is a bed made of bricks or adobe, covered with reed mats and animal hides. Underneath, there’s a flue connected to a chimney and stove, so you can light a fire and keep warm. Sleeping on a kang is much more comfortable than sleeping directly on the ground. The ground is damp, and if you sleep on it too long, you’ll get sick,"Chang Xia explained. She glanced at Gen and said, "Chief, the elders really shouldn’t sleep on the ground. The kang beds aren’t urgent, but we can start by making a few wooden beds."As she spoke, she picked up a branch and started sketching on the ground.

With the tables and chairs as a reference, Gen and the others quickly understood the structure of the wooden beds.

"Alright, leave this to me,"Gen said seriously.

The tribe’s elders had all once been powerful beast warriors. Even though they were old now, no one in the tribe would ever look down on them. Even though the tribe practiced private ownership, the elders’ share of food was always provided by the tribe.

After all, the tribe had hunting parties, and a portion of the game was always set aside for the elders and the young ones, in addition to what the hunters divided among themselves. Chang Xia herself used to be among the young ones.

"I feel like the den is getting smaller and smaller!"Off to the side, Nan Feng muttered under her breath.

Beds, tables, chairs, plus all the other odds and ends piling up in the den—just thinking about it made Nan Feng’s scalp tingle. And that’s assuming Chang Xia didn’t come up with even more stuff.

Maybe the males didn’t care much about these things.

But for the females, the appeal was huge.

Just looking at Mu Qin and Nuan Chun’s excited faces, it was obvious how they felt about furniture. Anyone who liked things neat and tidy would find it impossible to resist the allure of big pieces of furniture.

That afternoon,

Gen and Mu Qin left to return to the tribe.

Nan Feng and the other three stayed behind. Chang Xia originally wanted Nuan Chun to go back and rest.

But Nuan Chun refused—she said she wanted to stay and watch Chang Xia build the kiln.

It looked like Nuan Chun wanted to compete with Nan Feng to be the second in the tribe to build a kiln. Her beast cub would be born during the rainy season, and given how harsh the weather could be, it was easy to understand why Nuan Chun wanted a kiln so badly.

Maybe, as long as the cave dwelling was even a tenth as good as Chang Xia described,

Nuan Chun would have Shan Kun start building one right away.

Beast cubs born in the rainy season had a higher survival rate than those born in the cold season, but it was still risky.

Nuan Chun didn’t say her worries out loud, but Chang Xia could sense them. She quietly patted Nuan Chun’s arm, not offering any extra words of comfort.

After all, nothing was more convincing than experiencing it for yourself.

With Nan Feng and the others helping, Chang Xia felt the cave dwelling could be built in no time.

The western hillside had already been prepared. That afternoon, Chang Xia directed Chen Rong and the others to start laying the foundation and digging trenches. She had sketched everything out with charcoal at noon, and for the tricky spots, she marked them with branches. Chen Rong and the others just had to follow her markings.

Once they transformed, the tough, compacted loess was quickly dug up.

The excavated earth was piled up on the spot Chang Xia had designated for the vegetable garden. She wanted to build a courtyard wall there, with half the garden inside the wall and half outside. The outer garden would connect to White Lake, and they’d build a neat path as well.

Foundation, drainage trenches.

The rough shape was already dug out; next, they just needed to smooth the surface.

Chang Xia didn’t care about fancy patterns—a clean, tidy cliff face was beautiful enough on its own.

Once the cliff face was finished, they could start digging out the cave dwelling.

To do that, they had to hollow out the shape of the cave and remove the earth. It wasn’t something that could be rushed. They’d just gotten through the cold season, and the snow had only just melted. The loess was still full of moisture, and digging too fast or too hard could cause a collapse.

Chang Xia stood in front of the neatly marked-out cave, gazing at the sunset.

"Nan Feng, let’s call it a day,"Chang Xia said.

Digging out the cave was meticulous work. Even though the beast people were strong and energetic, Chang Xia didn’t want them to overexert themselves. After working most of the day, even Chang Xia, who hadn’t done much of the heavy lifting, was starting to feel tired.

Nan Feng looked up at the sky and nodded, “Mm, it’s getting dark.”

“Building a kiln is so much more complicated than building a beast den!” Ya Dong sighed.

To build a den, you just dig a pit, smooth it out with wood and stone, then cover the top. If you want to be fancy, you can lay down a layer of wooden planks inside.

Sure, preparing for a den takes a few years, but once you actually start, you can finish one in three to five days. But building a kiln? Three to five days isn’t nearly enough.

That’s just for a male building a den on his own.

But for this kiln, Chang Xia has help from Nan Feng and several others.

Nuan Chun wiped the sweat off Shan Kun and chimed in, “A kiln cave is much more spacious than a beast den.” She looked at the cliff face, her heart stirring. She secretly decided that as soon as Chang Xia’s kiln cave was finished, she’d build one for herself too.

Once everything was tidied up, Nan Feng and the others headed straight back to the tribe.

Ya Dong happily carried some fried meat and fish balls, chasing after Shan Kun and Nuan Chun, bantering with Nan Feng along the way.

Chang Xia and Shen Rong stood in front of their own beast den, watching them leave.