Follow Me and Learn

The arrival of Butterfly and the others made the original members of Black Moon Camp living here somewhat nervous.

Still, this sort of thing could only be resolved by letting them slowly get to know one another.

After making some simple arrangements for the manpower, Zhou Xu beckoned to Butterfly.

"Mengdie, come here."

Zhuang Mengdie, Butterfly's new name, was taken from the meaning of Zhuangzi dreaming he was a butterfly. The reason he had given her this new name was quite simple.

For one thing, as a four-star core member under his command, she needed a more decent name.

For another, there had been another person with the same name.

Among the women of Black Moon Tribe, there was not only one named Butterfly, but even another named Little Butterfly...

All he could say was that the names primitive people could come up with in this era were truly very limited.

Thus, after they came here, Zhou Xu found an opportunity to directly give her a more presentable new name.

Zhuang Mengdie was overjoyed to receive her new name, as if even the fatigue from the journey had been swept away.

Now that she heard Zhou Xu calling her, she immediately ran over.

"Is something the matter, Chief?"

Without wasting words, Zhou Xu pointed directly at the three people in front of him.

"These three are responsible for the handicrafts here at Black Moon Camp. Starting today, they'll all be placed under your command. You'll be responsible for teaching them, little by little, how to make whatever needs to be made."

"Then, Chief, what do we need to make first?"

Zhou Xu did not think much about this question. Instead, he gestured directly...

"Basket-cover traps. Make the basket-cover traps first, but make them a little larger than the previous one."

This time, Zhou Xu had undoubtedly prepared the basket-cover traps for those wild rabbits.

In fact, he had also been studying snare traps recently. Although he had never made one before, when you put it plainly, wasn't this thing just tying a knot?

After the prey crawled inside, pulling would make the knot of the snare tighten rapidly, thereby trapping the prey.

When it came to knots, Zhou Xu's foundation was, after all, right there. And the snare trap itself was not complicated. When he had some energy to spare, he took some time to study it, and recently, he had managed to figure out a few things.

During this period, facing Zhuang Mengdie, this female leader who had been parachuted in from nowhere, the three people from Black Moon Camp behaved fairly honestly. But no one knew what they were really thinking.

Zhuang Mengdie was too lazy to care what they thought. She had already been a minor leader in charge of a group of people at Salt Lake Camp, so having three more people under her command now was no pressure at all.

"Everyone, look over here. Pay attention and follow my example."

Without any unnecessary words, she directly followed their chief's instructions and began weaving a larger basket-cover trap.

Although their chief had never taught them, Zhuang Mengdie's intelligence ceiling was ultimately four stars. Even though she had only two stars at present, she had already begun to reveal a cleverness beyond that of ordinary people.

Simply adjusting the size appropriately while weaving the basket was the sort of ability to draw inferences from one example that Zhuang Mengdie found effortless.

Weaving a large basket that could easily cover an entire wild rabbit naturally required more time and effort.

Apart from that, however, weaving baskets itself was highly repetitive labor. Basically, once they had learned the basic weaving technique, they could start working themselves; they did not need to wait until she had completely finished one before beginning.

But after they officially got started, they realized that this seemingly simple task was not as easy as it looked.

They looked at their own clumsy fingers, which seemed almost ready to tie themselves into knots on the spot, then at those of their new leader. Her fingers were simply unbelievably nimble!

This made them clearly realize that their leader who had been parachuted in was indeed no ordinary person. At the same time, they hurriedly lowered their heads and seriously got to work.

This was not particularly difficult work. After crossing the initial hurdle of getting started, the three of them soon found themselves getting into the rhythm of it. Even their fingers were no longer as disobedient as they had been at the beginning.

This gave them a little more confidence. They subconsciously raised their heads, wanting to check their new leader's progress.

They then saw Zhuang Mengdie calmly set aside a basket she had just finished weaving, pick up two fresh strips of bark rope, and begin making the next one.

As if sensing the gazes falling on her, Zhuang Mengdie kept her hands moving while raising her head somewhat strangely to look at the three of them.

Immediately, three utterly dumbfounded faces entered her view.

For a moment, Zhuang Mengdie had no idea what was going on. She glanced at the baskets in the three people's hands, which were only about one-quarter finished, then asked strangely...

"What's wrong? Is there something you don't know how to do?"

Faced with her question, the three of them shook their heads in unison like rattles, making Zhuang Mengdie even more puzzled.

"If there's nothing wrong, hurry up and work. Don't stop moving your hands."

After this back-and-forth, the three people had already become thoroughly convinced by the new leader their chief had suddenly appointed and parachuted in.

Meanwhile, Zhou Xu was busy building a furnace inside Black Moon Camp with two other people.

This furnace was, of course, not for boiling water or cooking. It was for firing pottery.

First, though, it had to be said that Black Moon Camp already had pottery.

Their former chief, however, had handled it terribly, because he did not even have a proper furnace for firing pottery.

In Zhou Xu's view, they were probably truly at the level of primitive people who had just managed to fiddle around and produce pottery.

But on closer thought, it was not surprising. After all, not everyone was like him, someone who enjoyed buying a few teacups, even studying things like wood firing and electric firing, only to fall into that pit and become a great fool who had spent a considerable amount of money...

But now it seemed that having a few more hobbies in daily life and enjoying tinkering with things was not a bad idea.

After all, what if you crossed into another world one day?

Wouldn't it be better to prepare in advance?

Unlike when he had built a small furnace at Salt Lake Camp before, this time he had some experience under his belt, so he planned to make a larger furnace in one go.

That way, they could fire more pottery in each batch, which would also improve efficiency.

In any case, the whole process consisted of Zhou Xu planning the furnace's blueprint and layout while the two people beside him handled the grunt work and other laborious tasks.

They moved quickly. Before night fell, the furnace had already been stacked into shape.

However, plastering mud inside and out would clearly have to wait until tomorrow.

"All right, that's enough for today. Start the fire and cook!"

The update is here. Thanks to the reader "Shuying-er" for the tip!