Arrangement For A New Day

There was no incident overnight. Perhaps it was because he was truly exhausted, but Zhou Xu slept like a log.

Until the noise from outside the tent woke him up.

Before he even opened his eyes, his rumbling stomach began to wail, quickly bringing Zhou Xu to his senses.

Then, as if remembering what had happened, he suddenly sat bolt upright, nearly hitting his head on the tent ceiling.

Damn it, I completely passed out?!

Although these tribe members outside respected him as their chief and seemed to obey his every word, he couldn't forget that he had only known them for less than a day.

The potential risks that could arise while he was asleep were enough to make him break out in a cold sweat.

But Zhou Xu had to admit that he was indeed too tired yesterday. In fact, his head was still groggy, and it was unrealistic to expect him to remain vigilant all night.

He stepped out of the tent, and a woman was waiting beside it. As soon as she saw him emerge, she quickly knelt down.

Zhou Xu had intended to help her up and tell her not to kneel, but he was so hungry and tired that his reaction was a beat too slow, and he failed to help her in time.

"Alright, get up. Why are you waiting here?"

"We didn't dare to disturb the chief's rest, so we waited here for the chief to wake up and give instructions."

He wondered if some of his actions yesterday had made these tribe members hesitant to act without his orders now.

He glanced up at the sky. It wasn't fully light yet, so he guessed it was around five or six in the morning.

However, since they had gone to sleep immediately after Ye Yi yesterday, they should have slept for about nine to ten hours.

Standing outside the tent and taking a breath of the cool morning air, Zhou Xu immediately felt more alert.

"What's your name?"

"My name is Butterfly."

Zhou Xu nodded. He had some impression of this woman named Butterfly.

"You were at the Altar then, weren't you?"

If he remembered correctly, it was Butterfly who had handed him the beast hide.

Butterfly nodded obediently in confirmation, a hint of nervousness on her face.

Zhou Xu asked casually and then walked towards the still-burning Fire Pit.

"Alright, everyone, stop kneeling."

Seeing the tribe members along the way about to kneel again, Zhou Xu felt a headache coming on and stopped them in time.

"From now on, when you see me, just do this, then lower your head. That will be considered a greeting."

As he spoke, Zhou Xu placed his left hand behind his back and clenched his right fist against his chest, then leaned forward slightly, demonstrating a bowing motion.

He wasn't going to stop the tribe members from showing their submission; after all, consolidating his rule was important to him.

But having to kneel every time they saw him was too much trouble and very inefficient.

Seeing this, the tribe members all followed suit.

It felt a bit awkward at first, but the action itself wasn't difficult. After a few tries, they got the hang of it and found that this method was indeed much more convenient.

"What? Have you all woken up without even having a drink of water?"

Looking at the several shell bowls filled to the brim by the Fire Pit, Zhou Xu looked up at the surrounding tribe members.

He also noticed that the tribe members around him were all looking at him expectantly.

He quickly realized that in a tribe like this, resources were scarce, so even water had to wait for him, the chief, to distribute it.

Without further ado, Zhou Xu picked up a bowl of water and took a sip, moistening his throat.

"Fei Que, starting today, you will be responsible for distributing water to everyone every morning. After you finish, the water needs to be kept boiling..."

While all the tribe members were gathered to drink water, he began assigning tasks to the thirty-one people under his command.

"Butterfly, you five will continue to be responsible for weaving baskets and bark ropes in the tribe today."

Considering their tribe's population, eight baskets wouldn't be enough. To obtain enough food, they needed to cast a wide net.

For this, they naturally needed more basket traps.

And the five people, including Butterfly, were undoubtedly the ones whose handicraft skills he had recognized yesterday.

"You two will be responsible for tearing bark and keeping the fire going to boil water."

Within the tribe, Zhou Xu was counting heads and assigning tasks.

"Dashan, your ten people's main task later will be to collect branches, stones, and catch insects. I'll tell you the specifics later."

Collecting branches, stones, and catching insects might not sound like much, but the workload was actually considerable.

Especially collecting branches.

At this stage, considering the issue of drinking water, branches, as the primary fuel, were undoubtedly their tribe's biggest consumable.

Under these circumstances, relying solely on human labor to collect branches was not very efficient.

This meant they needed to dedicate more manpower to this task to ensure their tribe's Fire Pit could burn continuously and provide them with a steady supply of freshwater.

"Next, Fei Que, all eight of you, take one basket each. You'll divide up the insect heads and entrails you collected yesterday."

After speaking, he glanced at the tribe members who seemed eager to try, and quickly reminded them.

"I'm not telling you to eat them. These are not for consumption."

Knowing he was talking about them, the tribe members couldn't help but tense up. At the same time, the urge to stuff the items into their mouths instantly subsided.

Compared to before, their impulse for food wouldn't have been so weak. But after eating the delicious roasted insects yesterday, and then looking at these insect heads and entrails...

With the comparison, their appetite wasn't as strong anymore.

"We'll talk about how to use them when we get there."

Speaking of which, Zhou Xu paused. He thought about what else needed to be arranged.

In reality, there were many things to arrange, but most of them required his direct supervision. The tribe members likely wouldn't be able to do them well on their own.

And he was only one person.

Therefore, within the limited time, he could only ensure a few necessary tasks were done first.

Anyway, those tasks weren't inherently difficult. As long as he spent some time teaching them, he could then move on to other things.

"The six of you, form teams of three and patrol around the tribe to ensure its safety. If anything happens, quickly run to the Black Forest over there to notify us. Alright, the rest of you, follow me."

As he spoke, Zhou Xu led the way towards the Black Forest not far away.

During this short walk, Zhou Xu didn't stop organizing his thoughts.

Although he had sorted out the grand plan before going to sleep yesterday, he was too tired at the time, and his mind was groggy. So, the specific arrangements for today weren't very clear.

From the perspective of time required, he should have set up traps first, as hunting prey takes time.

But for the same reason, he needed to demonstrate the process of catching prey with traps once, so that the tribe members would clearly know what to do before he could leave to do other things.

With that as a prerequisite, what if the prey didn't show up for a long time? Wouldn't his plan be stuck?

Thinking of this, out of caution, Zhou Xu changed his plan. He decided to lead the main group to sweep the outer areas of the Black Forest first, while also collecting supplies.

Update delivered. The computer had some issues, and after fiddling with it for a while, the update was delayed. Thanks to book friends 'Lazy Heart', 'Worldly Idler', and 'Weird Names' for their rewards!