Dare to kill my Rourou? (Spring Festival burst update 5/5)

Chapter 49: You Dare Kill My Rou Rou? (Spring Festival Update 5/5)

Winter is a season for shedding weight. Animals fatten themselves up in the autumn, and when the snow falls, they retreat into their dens and sleep soundly through the winter, calling it "hibernation."

There's another type of animal that can't eat enough to become fat in one season, so they have to store more food to eat slowly through the winter. They don't hibernate but instead move around within a small range near their dens, like little squirrels, or like the Han Tribe.

However, not all tribes can store enough food to survive the winter like the Han Tribe, such as the Black Rat Tribe to the east of the Han Tribe.

The Black Rat Tribe is a medium-sized tribe with a population of over 150, slightly fewer than the current number of the Han Tribe. One major difference between their tribe and the Han Tribe is their beliefs.

The Black Rat Tribe has its own god and a Shaman specifically responsible for communicating with the god. They don't have the position of Elder in their tribe, so the Shaman also handles the task of passing down knowledge.

Countless generations ago, when the Black Rat Tribe had fewer than 50 people, their lives were as difficult as the Han Tribe's once were. Then, during one long winter, they faced a food shortage crisis, and the tribe's Hunting Team had to go out in the bitter cold to find food.

But they were also lucky. Just as they were about to give up, the then Black Rat Elder accidentally discovered a large rat with black fur. The Elder followed it all the way and finally found the Black Rat's den.

The hungry and cold Elder wasn't strong enough to catch the Black Rat and could only dig open its den. The Black Rat had already escaped, but it left behind a den full of stored food. It was a type of nut with a very thin shell, very tasty, and the Black Rat Tribe escaped disaster because of it.

The Black Rat Elder believed that the Black Rat was a god, that it knew about the tribe's crisis and specifically came to guide the Elder to save them. From then on, the Black Rat Tribe, which worshipped the Black Rat, came into existence, and their Elder became a Shaman because he received the guidance of the god.

This belief system is very similar to Shamanism. They eat whatever they find and believe in whatever they eat. However, it's slightly different from Shamanism. According to the standards of Shamanism, they should be worshipping nuts.

This winter, the nth generation Black Rat Shaman claimed to have received guidance from the god, saying that this winter would be longer than previous years. He was worried that the stored food wouldn't last until spring, so he asked the Chieftain to lead the Hunting Team out to find food.

So, the Black Rat Tribe's Chieftain, 'Big Mouse,' took 19 of his subordinates out hunting. The group of 20 people initially only hunted near the Black Rat Tribe, but they didn't catch much. They still preferred to dig for stored food in rat holes, which they were quite good at.

But they quickly noticed a strange phenomenon. At the edge of the forest to the west of their tribe, thick black smoke often rose, lasting for a whole day. And it was very regular, rising for a day every three days. This strange phenomenon quickly attracted their attention.

You have to understand, it was the middle of winter. If a fire had started during the dry summer, that would be understandable, but now there was snow everywhere. Moreover, the burning was so regular, it must have been deliberately set by humans.

But when did people appear in the west?

A long time ago, they had reached the edge of the western forest, but there was a river eight or nine meters wide, and they didn't have the ability to cross it, so they hadn't gone that far since. Looking at the location of the smoke now, it was clearly near the river.

Big Mouse immediately reported this situation to the Black Rat Shaman. The Shaman wasn't that surprised. If there were people, then there were people. Their tribe wasn't small, so they didn't need to be afraid of others. The Shaman didn't pay any attention to this point. Instead, he was very interested in these people burning fires.

In the Shaman's understanding, fire is used to cook food. If they were constantly burning fires, did that mean they had a lot of food? Otherwise, why would they burn fires? If it was for warmth, why wouldn't they keep burning it?

The Shaman was very confused, so he asked Big Mouse to take people to see who the other party was and what they were doing. Were they cooking food? If possible, they could try to make contact with them and see if they could learn something.

Big Mouse thought about it and agreed. Since they were neighbors, they should get to know them. So, he led the team out to carry out this diplomatic mission.

Meanwhile, back at the Han Tribe, Luo Chong was holding a language and math test in the cave. In front of him were two jars of freshly roasted sugar-coated chestnuts, and next to them was a large bowl containing about twenty or so chestnuts. A candidate with a mournful face stood in front of him, watching as Luo Chong took another one from the bowl.

The test content was the more than 500 commonly used characters written on the rock wall, all of which were accessible to everyone at this stage. In fact, there are only just over 3,000 commonly used characters in Chinese, and the remaining tens of thousands are obscure characters, some of which you might never see in your lifetime.

Candidates brought their own Pottery Bowl to Luo Chong. Luo Chong would first fill a bowl with sugar-coated chestnuts for them, about 80 chestnuts per bowl. Then he would randomly point to 80 characters on the wall and have the candidate read them out. For each character read incorrectly, one chestnut would be deducted. If there were any left at the end, the candidate would be asked to count the number of remaining chestnuts in the bowl. If they counted incorrectly, all the chestnuts would be confiscated, and their dinner would be halved.

The students were terrified of this 'test.' It was too difficult. The Chieftain was simply finding ways to save food.

Luo Chong didn't think so. They had been studying for almost two months. It was only 500 characters, and he wasn't asking them to write them, just recognize them.

Also, was it that hard to count from 1 to 80? He hadn't even asked them to do addition or subtraction, just count. If they couldn't even count, what kind of meal were they eating?

Everyone in the tribe had a mournful face, incredibly envious of Six-Finger and Mutong, who were outside burning the brick kiln. These two were exceptions. Six-Finger was the type that Luo Chong had given up on, due to the congenital intellectual disability caused by inbreeding. You couldn't blame him for that.

And Mutong was too smart. Although he hadn't recognized all the characters yet, he could already count up to several hundred. Luo Chong had only taught them to count up to 100, but this guy could extrapolate and figure out two hundred, three hundred, and so on. Therefore, this guy was also an exception.

Now, Mutong and Six-Finger were leisurely eating sugar-coated chestnuts, checking the fire in the kiln from time to time and occasionally throwing in a handful of firewood.

This job wasn't tiring, just a bit monotonous, and it wasn't cold either. Although it was winter, they were guarding the kiln entrance and were sweating from the heat. Luo Chong considered their situation and also gave them some pine nuts and chestnuts as snacks, which was their work benefit.

They had been burning the kiln from last night until this afternoon. By now, the temperature in the kiln was very high. Looking through the observation hole, the brick blanks had been burned to a dazzling red. It was time to pour water and seal the kiln. Mutong patted Six-Finger and told him to go back to the cave to call people to work, while he stayed here watching.

Six-Finger nodded, climbed up the slope to the ground above, and went to the cave without looking back, leaving Mutong by himself at the underground fire pit.

"Ooh-oh!"

Just as Mutong was left alone, Rou Rou's loud roar suddenly came from beside the kiln roof, followed by the sound of Rou Rou running, and then human shouts. Mutong was confused and climbed up from the underground fire pit to the ground.

As soon as he poked his head out, he saw a dozen Long Spears flying towards Rou Rou with a whooshing sound, scaring Rou Rou into a frantic run, charging towards the cave while shouting 'oh oh.'

Luo Chong also received Six-Finger's report and was about to lead people to pour water into the brick kiln. As soon as he came out of the cave, he saw this scene of Rou Rou being chased.

"Holy crap, who the hell dares to kill my Rou Rou? Grab your weapons!"

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The 12,000-character explosive update is complete. I hope everyone enjoyed reading it. Thank you for your support. To readers who think it's good, please leave your recommendation votes for the second day of the Lunar New Year to me. Thank you.