Chapter 150

Chapter 150

Winter nights fell early, and the room had already darkened.

Qi Bai placed the wine jar on the kang cabinet and returned to the kitchen to light a small wooden twig, bringing it into the inner room.

On the kang cabinet were several small pottery bowls placed on pottery dishes. The bowls were filled with milky-white animal fat, but unlike ordinary oil bowls, a small section of cotton wick about the length of a finger joint protruded from the center of each pottery bowl.

Qi Bai used the flame from the small wooden twig to light the cotton wick in the pottery bowl. The flame danced in the air a few times before emitting a warm yellow glow.

With this light source, the room finally brightened up.

This was Qi Bai's homemade oil lamp.

The oil lamp was very easy to make. The pottery bowls contained lard that Qi Bai usually rendered for cooking, and the wicks were made from wood shavings twisted into string.

Before the lard solidified, the wood shaving strings were completely soaked in the fat, then coiled into the small pottery bowls before the lard was poured in.

Once the lard solidified into white固体, a small section of the wood shaving string remained exposed, making the pottery bowl look like a simple candle.

However, the oil lamp's flame wasn't as bright as a candle's, and it occasionally produced some black smoke. But compared to its lighting function, these were minor issues.

After extinguishing the wooden twig in his hand, Qi Bai moved the slightly larger kang table from against the wall onto the heated bed. Just then, Lang Ze happened to bring in the roasted meat on a large tray.

Crispy and fragrant lamb skewers, tender and smooth sheep kidneys, two plates of roasted flatbreads, a large bowl of stir-fried sheep blood, plus two cups of berry wine—the small kang table was instantly filled to capacity.

Qi Bai held a small pottery cup with both hands and took a small sip of berry wine. The cool liquid flowed down his throat into his stomach, making him shiver involuntarily.

The alcohol content of the fruit wine wasn't high, but perhaps because beastmen had never been exposed to alcohol before, both Qi Bai and Lang Ze had low alcohol tolerance. So today, Qi Bai only poured one cup for each of them.

Alcohol tolerance could be built up with practice, but more importantly, the berry wine tasted refreshingly sweet and paired perfectly with roasted meat.

Qi Bai said contentedly, "No one can refuse drinking cool wine on a warm kang."

It was like eating ice cream while the air conditioner was on in winter—you knew it was somewhat inappropriate, but you just couldn't control yourself.

Qi Bai put down his wine cup, peeled a small garlic clove, and alternated between eating garlic and lamb skewers, soon eating until his mouth was shiny with grease.

As for maintaining image in front of his partner, that didn't matter anymore. After all, his partner was completely conquered by his cooking skills and currently had no eyes for him personally.

Lang Ze shoveled about half a bowl of sheep blood into his mouth and indeed, without looking up, said: "Mmm, delicious."

Outside, heavy snow fell. A few snowflakes found their way into the room through gaps in the hide window, turning into small water droplets before they even hit the ground.

The candlelight flickered across Qi Bai's profile, casting a warm, ambiguous glow.

Qi Bai touched his slightly warm cheeks and pulled the collar of his hide clothing downward, feeling like this warmth was somewhat不对劲 and seemed to have a tendency to wander elsewhere.

A shadow fell before him as Lang Ze's alcohol-scented breath came close.

......

In the swaying candlelight, the white-haired youth leaned against the heated wall. His slender arms wrapped around the broad back of the man before him, while his other hand tangled in the short black hair.

His figure was blocked, only the crimson corners of his eyes visible, along with sounds that seemed somewhere between sobs and pleasure: "Lang Ze, turn off the light..."

The room instantly plunged into darkness, only the sound of their somewhat heavy breathing audible.

......

Niu Xi looked at Qi Bai's somewhat swollen eyes and asked, "Leopard Bai, what happened to your eyes?"

Qi Bai, who had only managed to fall asleep from exhaustion when dawn was approaching, said through gritted teeth: "From eating sheep kidneys."

Niu Xi's eyes widened: "Are sheep kidneys that terrifying?"

Qi Bai said defiantly: "Very terrifying. You can't eat too many."

Niu Xi patted her chest fearfully because she noticed that not only were Qi Bai's eyes swollen, but his voice also seemed somewhat hoarse. It seemed you really couldn't eat too many!

Of course, the other party who had also eaten sheep kidneys might not agree with Qi Bai's assessment. After all, today Lang Ze felt full of energy, and even the hunting team was particularly motivated today.

Hu Huo crouched down to examine the footprints on the ground and said excitedly: "It's right nearby."

Lang Ze nodded: "Everyone approach slowly."

The hunting team had been searching in the heavy snow for most of the day before finally finding traces of prey.

However, not everyone was as blindly excited as Hu Huo. Hou Yan sighed: "Prey is even harder to find this year than last."

Last year's continuous heavy rain, although it drove prey away from their territories, the great flood ultimately didn't reach Black Mountain. After the rain stopped, prey returned to the mountains.

But this year was different. After the major earthquake, the prey available to the hunting team significantly decreased. Even though winter prey was inherently harder to track than at other times, it had never been this difficult before.

Before Lang Ze returned to the tribe, the hunting team often went three or four days finding only one prey.

The only thing Hou Yan was grateful for now was that before winter arrived, the tribe had stockpiled much wild cattle meat. Otherwise, relying solely on their hunting, it would have been truly difficult to survive the entire winter.

"I've never seen a winter like this," Ma Song said with a frown. "I've asked the elders in the tribe, and none of them have experienced such cold days either."

Niu Shuo worried: "Many tribes probably won't make it to next spring."

Speaking of this, Ma Song still felt some lingering fear. If he hadn't brought the remaining members of the Shui Xi Tribe to join the Black Mountain Tribe, without the fire walls and heated beds built by Black Mountain Tribe, relying only on the tents they built, tribespeople would likely have starved or frozen to death. They wouldn't have the life they have now.

Lang Ze's eyes darkened: "The cold isn't scary. What's scary are the fangs that come after the wind and snow."

Niu Shuo understood: "You mean the Northern Wastelands?"

Since the Sanghuo Tribe in the Northern Wastelands could eliminate other tribes during migration, how could they possibly do nothing during such a cold, long winter?

Hou Yan's heart sank too as he looked at the sky pressed down by thick clouds, hoping disaster wouldn't befall the Black Mountain Tribe.

As they were talking, Hu Qiao, Niu Xin, and several others returned happily dragging a prey.

Seeing that the prey they had chased for so long was actually a lone wild boar, Lang Ze couldn't help but feel disappointed. He still preferred hunting sheep now.

Qi Bai swept the iron blocks from the bottom of the furnace and threw them all into a vine basket专门 used for storing iron blocks.

In just three days, they had collected quite a few iron blocks. Qi Bai patted the dust off his clothes and closed the furnace room door.

Aside from the first night when Xi Zhou and others stayed up all night, these past two days the furnace room had been lit from early morning until evening when work ended.

Smelting iron was long-term work, and Qi Bai didn't want tribespeople spending day and night in the furnace room.

Returning to the tribe along the path, Qi Bai looked at the outermost room that hardly ever opened and suddenly realized he hadn't seen Hou Su and Ci Yi, the master and apprentice pair, for a long time. He wondered how their crossbow research was progressing.

Qi Bai knocked on Hou Su's door, but no one answered.

Qi Bai blinked. Was Hou Su not home?

Thinking this, he knocked twice more. If they weren't home, he'd come back tomorrow to check.

But this time, as soon as the knocking stopped, Qi Bai heard suddenly raised voices inside and the sound of hurried footsteps.

As the door opened, Qi Bai also heard Hou Su's grumbling.

Ci Yi opened the door, saw it was Qi Bai, glanced inside, and said quietly: "Teacher isn't in a good mood right now."

Qi Bai smiled at Ci Yi and stepped into the room.

Hou Su's home had the same layout as Qi Bai's—the kitchen was right inside the door.

But what surprised Qi Bai was that Hou Su's kitchen was very tidy. A pottery pot heated water on the stove, and there wasn't a speck of straw under the cooking platform.

There weren't many things in the kitchen—pots, bowls, and utensils were neatly arranged on wooden cabinets. Against one wall was a three-layer bamboo shelf drying some animal tendons.

This was quite different from the image Qi Bai had seen at the trade day of a research fanatic who just swept everything into hide bags that could be carried on his back to wander the world.

However, when Qi Bai pushed open the door to the inner room, that good impression instantly vanished.

In the middle of the room stood a large wooden frame that already basically had the雏形 of a crossbow.

Around it, three or four worktables made from tree stumps were scattered about, with various tools piled on them. The ground was covered with wood shavings that hadn't been cleaned up yet.

And it wasn't just the ground—only half of the heated bed had a hide blanket that seemed to be for sleeping. The other half of the bed was covered with wooden parts. Clearly, Hou Su slept with these treasures.

This stark contrast made it obvious who had tidied the outside area.

Hou Su had his back to them, grumbling angrily: "Who dares knock on my door! Drive them all away!"

Qi Bai explained with amusement: "Not knocking on your door, just knocking."

Hou Su was about to get angry that Ci Yi had brought someone inside, but when he turned and saw it was Qi Bai, he swallowed what he was going to say, his expression quite complex.

Qi Bai smiled: "After not seeing you for so many days, you haven't forgotten who I am, have you?"

Hou Su snorted and said grumpily: "I remember you."

Qi Bai pointed behind him: "Can I take a look?"

Hou Su instinctively moved sideways, blocking the view of the half-finished product.

Qi Bai thought Hou Su was quite protective, knowing not to let others easily see his work成果.

Actually, Qi Bai misunderstood Hou Su.

Hou Su wanted to block the crossbow behind him purely because he felt somewhat embarrassed.

What he originally thought would be easy to complete—he had been tinkering for dozens of days without results. Instead, as the weapon's size increased, he encountered more problems.

Although for Hou Su, these problems often excited him so much he couldn't sleep all night because he could already imagine how powerful this weapon would be once completed, before finding solutions, he was still very irritable.

Looking at Qi Bai's calm smile, Hou Su forcefully clapped the two wooden blocks in his hands together, suddenly pointing at Qi Bai and saying: "Right! You said you'd help me make weapons."

Hou Su, who was used to researching alone, had almost forgotten his purpose for coming to Black Mountain Tribe. The person before him was someone who could easily solve bowstring problems.

The problems he faced now—Qi Bai could definitely solve them too.