Set Out for the Jungle (Please Recommend and Favorite)

As the woman wept with tears streaming down her face, Luo Chong used a bone shard to scrape streaks of red marks across the child's body. Even in his stupor, the child frowned in pain, his little mouth constantly letting out cries.

The child's mother was held back by two women. She desperately wanted to snatch her child back. She had no idea what this chieftain was doing; she only knew that her child was being scraped until it hurt, and he had been crying the whole time. She seriously suspected this was some bizarre cooking method. After all, this chieftain knew all sorts of inexplicable ways to eat things, such as boiling meat in water.

But the chieftain was not as cruel as she imagined. After scraping red marks all over both sides of the little boy's body, he returned the child to her.

Luo Chong wrapped them both up in animal hides, then ladled out a bowl of Fish Soup from the Stone Basin that had been used to boil meat. Spoonful by spoonful, he fed it to the child, blowing on every spoonful first. He also mashed up the fish meat before feeding it to the child together with the soup.

Who knew how many days this child had gone hungry? Bite after bite, he did not even chew, simply swallowing it down.

Not bad. He could eat, so there was still hope. Good thing he had bought this mother and son today. If he had waited another day, the child probably could have been thrown away outright. Once he drank half a bowl of soup, as long as he could sweat himself through in a while, this little life would be saved.

The woman finally put her heart at ease. Though she did not know what the chieftain had been doing just now, he had personally fed the child. He could not possibly be trying to harm him.

Once she relaxed, she realized she was hungry too. Her stomach, empty for two days, rumbled like a drum. She stared at the Fish Soup in front of her and swallowed mouthful after mouthful of saliva.

Luo Chong ladled out another large bowl of Fish Soup for her, with a huge piece of fish in it, then gave her two slender wooden sticks.

"Here. Eat. From now on, we are all members of the same tribe."

As Luo Chong reassured her, he demonstrated how to use Chopsticks. Whether she understood or not did not matter. When winter came and there was nothing to do, he could teach them how to speak.

Luo Chong took the child from her arms and held him close, wrapping him tightly in animal hide. Watching his tribesmen awkwardly eat with Chopsticks, he was worried sick.

Even a tiny fever could kill someone. The food problem had been temporarily solved, but what about clothing? There were already too few animal hides, not even enough for his own tribe, and now nine naked people had arrived. Several pregnant women were only a month or two away from giving birth. What would happen to the newborns then? How many of them could survive?

By rights, this tribe had settled here for so many years that they should have stored up plenty of animal hides. But they did not know how to tan them. After being used for a year or two, they all rotted away, leaving no stock at all.

Luo Chong had been here for several days, yet he had never gone out himself. The largest prey the Hunting Team brought back each day was a Lynx, a mountain cat, and even that depended on luck. Otherwise, they brought back either gray-furred rabbits or Groundhogs no bigger than rabbits. He had yet to see the large animals he wanted.

Of course, the Hunting Team had neither the ability nor the equipment for that. Trying to club a large animal to death with wooden sticks? They would first have to catch up to it. Without suitable weapons, hunting large animals was nothing more than a daydream.

He had originally wanted to make a few long spears, but among the sticks they had brought back today, hardly any were straight. The two that could barely be used were thick and rough enough to rub a layer of calluses off his hands. How the hell was he supposed to use those?

He had to go out. This time, he would personally find materials and make weapons. At worst, he needed to set up a few traps or something. Before winter came, everyone had to have at least one piece of clothing.

After everyone had finished eating, the little boy began to sweat. Luo Chong fed him some warm salt water to replenish his fluids. After a good night's sleep, he would be a fine child again tomorrow.

Just as Luo Chong was giving him water, the little boy woke up and began struggling inside the animal hide, probably because he felt hot. Luo Chong held him tightly. If he caught a chill again now, there would truly be no saving him.

The salt water tasted awful. The child shut his mouth, furrowed his tiny brows, and glared at Luo Chong with round black eyes. Luo Chong stared right back until the child was nearly in tears, then he began calling for his mother.

Luo Chong handed him to the woman and told her to wrap him up properly. He told her that if she dared unwrap the animal hide, the child would die. The woman understood that. Unwrapping the hide meant death—a simple enough meaning—so she held the child tightly.

The child squirmed and twisted in his mother's arms, never stopping his glare at Luo Chong. Luo Chong just kept smiling at him until the child was so angry he had no idea what to do. If he had known how to curse, he probably would have cursed long ago.

Luo Chong got a Snake Skin Rope from someone else and, despite the little boy's constant struggles, tied up his hair. He even gave him a name: Qu Bing. This truly counted as a real name. After all, everyone else in Luo Chong's mind had only a nickname.

The woman was overjoyed. The new tribe's chieftain treated them well and had even saved her child. The child who had been half-dead before could now make a fuss again. The chieftain had even tied his hair in the same style as everyone else's. That meant he had accepted them. She was truly content.

That day, the newcomers also finished tying up their hair with the help of the "old-timers." The men wore Hair Buns on top of their heads, while the women all wore ponytails. It made them easy to distinguish; at a glance, they looked different from other tribes, and much more spirited too.

Once that was done, Luo Chong began making equipment for himself. Out of more than a dozen sticks, he picked one that was fairly good. He inserted a spearhead ground from a Terror Bird's leg bone into one end, tied it firmly with Snake Skin Rope, then sealed the joint with Fish Maw Glue. A primitive Bone Spear took shape.

There was quite a lot of fish maw. This stuff was actually the fish bladder inside a fish's belly. They killed so many fish every day that they could not possibly use it all.

Along with that, he had a short knife ground from a Terror Bird's beak. The beak was sturdy too. Big Mouth's half-meter-long beak still had plenty left over after making one dagger. Lame took the rest away, and while making pottery that afternoon, he had been continuously grinding his own short knife.

Those were his only two pieces of equipment. He had started with no dog and no gear; he had to make every damned thing himself. Luo Chong felt that he might be the poorest transmigrator in history—and he had transmigrated into an age so poor it could make one piss blood.

Early the next morning, Luo Chong habitually practiced a set of Military Boxing. Once the tribesmen were all up, he assigned new tasks.

Lame would continue making pottery. That work had to continue; first, they had to make sure everyone had a bowl.

The adult women were split into two groups. One group would gather wild fruit, while the other would catch fish. The remaining children would stay behind to help.

Luo Chong would personally lead the hunting party, and there would be many of them. The entire Hunting Team would go. This time, Elder would not be coming; at his age, he should stay behind to guard the home.

One-Ear, Beast Tooth, Big Strength, Feather, Stone, Six-Finger, and Luo Chong, along with Luo Chong's two usual little companions, Big Mouth and Monkey, plus the two brothers Big Fur and Second Fur whom they had bought yesterday.

Eleven people in all marched toward the jungle beneath the rising sun.

As usual, please vote. If you have not cast today's votes yet, hurry up. If you have already voted today, then please save tomorrow's votes for Qing Shu in a few minutes. Thank you!