Veterinarian (continued)

The tribe looked fairly large. Standing at the door, Jian Mo could see more than thirty stone houses at a glance.

Most of the stone houses had only one story, though. Wu Jiong's was the only two-story house, and it was especially spacious and attractive-perhaps because he was the tribal chief.

As Jian Mo looked outside, a group of young and middle-aged men walked out carrying baskets on their backs. Some had beast ears or tails, while others looked like ordinary humans.

The ordinary-looking ones probably hadn't released their beast features.

Besides the adults, there were quite a few fluffy little animals playing around the tribe.

Jian Mo knew they weren't ordinary animals, but beastmen or sub-beastmen who hadn't shed their beast forms-in other words, the tribe's cubs.

He didn't dare look at the cubs too much, and looked away after a single glance.

No matter where you were, cubs were given special protection. He still had to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

When Jian Mo transmigrated, perhaps his entire body had traveled through time and space and intercepted some memory factors or something, so he had brought some memories with him.

Whenever he saw certain things, he would remember something.

That made it fairly easy for him to adapt to this world.

After standing at the door for a while and seeing that no one had come over to reprimand him, Jian Mo slowly walked outside.

After walking a little farther, he reached an open area.

Nearby in the river valley were grass and shrubs. Farther away was a broad, shallow river, and beyond that was a forest. Above the treetops, snow-capped mountains glittered in the sunlight.

The scenery before him had nothing in common with the small city where he had lived.

Jian Mo gave a bitter smile. He really had transmigrated.

He wondered what would happen to his veterinary clinic.

Fortunately, there weren't any small animals being treated at the clinic at the moment. Otherwise, his disappearance would have caused trouble.

The tribe was quite large. Jian Mo had only just recovered from an illness and had no strength in his body. After making it more than halfway around, he couldn't walk any farther and slowly headed back.

As he wandered around, some people watched him, but they all kept their distance. No one came up to speak to him.

Apparently, this world wasn't entirely peaceful either. People tended to be reserved and wary toward strangers.

He could actually see that from Wu Jiong, too. If Wu Jiong hadn't been very wary of him, he wouldn't have brought him home and kept him under his watchful eye.

Jian Mo stopped and started on his way back to Wu Jiong's house. After he had rested there for a while, the sun began to sink in the west.

The length of daylight here probably wasn't much different from Earth's, just a little longer at most.

Jian Mo got a bowl and drank a bowlful of water, then examined the ingredients in Wu Jiong's house.

Although he wasn't from this world, he had gained a lot of strange knowledge, and he recognized some of the ingredients.

Perhaps his whole body hadn't crossed over when he transmigrated, but had been reconstructed or something.

Perhaps his soul factors or something like that had been affected by the local soul factors, giving him some vague memories?

Jian Mo couldn't make sense of it either, so he could only set it aside for now.

The most important thing now was to do whatever work he could manage.

He had no ties to Wu Jiong, and if he was lazy on top of that, he would probably wear out his welcome soon. If Wu Jiong threw him out into the wilderness, he really wouldn't survive, let alone find a way back to Earth.

Wu Jiong had quite a lot of ingredients at home. Besides the meat hanging under the eaves, there were all kinds of tubers.

Jian Mo took down a piece of meat and divided it in half. He planned to roast the leaner half the way Wu Jiong did.

For the half with fat on it, he first cut off the fat, then diced the fat and lean meat separately. He rendered some of the fat for oil, then mixed the rest with the diced lean meat and tubers, added salt, and shaped the mixture into patties.

Besides that, he also took some bones and tubers. After blanching the bones, he put them over the hearth to simmer slowly.

While cooking, Jian Mo became sure once again that Wu Jiong was probably fairly well-off. The rack beside the hearth held a fairly complete set of tools.

With the tools to help him, preparing the meal went quite smoothly.

By the time the food was ready, Wu Jiong still hadn't returned.

Jian Mo put the fried steaks and meat patties in bowls and covered them with clean bowls turned upside down. Then he found a broom and slowly swept the room.

His mind was on other things, and he was slow to react. He didn't even notice someone coming in.

"Smells so good!" someone said in the beastman language.

Jian Mo looked up in surprise and saw Wu Jiong coming in with several tall young men.

The young men's eyes lit up. "What kind of meat is that?"

Jian Mo straightened up and greeted him. "Wu Jiong."

Wu Jiong surveyed the room, his gaze finally settling on the upside-down bowls.

Holding the broom, Jian Mo explained, "I'm almost completely better, so I tried making a meal. I don't know if it'll suit your tastes. If it doesn't, I'll change it tomorrow."

The young men laughed and exchanged knowing looks.

One of them said to Wu Jiong, "Chief, you should have found a partner long ago. Look how nice it is to have someone at home cooking for you."

Wu Jiong nodded to Jian Mo. "Thank you."

Then Wu Jiong said to the others, "Let's divide the meat first."

Jian Mo didn't quite understand what Wu Jiong meant and instinctively followed him.

Wu Jiong took two large, long shell knives from beside the hearth and led the young men back into the courtyard.

Only then did Jian Mo notice that the courtyard was piled high with beasts of all sizes. Apparently, they were what the men had hunted today.

Dividing the meat seemed to be a regular part of life in the tribe. Jian Mo stood to one side and watched as more and more people arrived.

They laid the beasts on fresh leaves spread out on the ground, then skinned them, drained their blood, and divided the meat with remarkable speed.

At first, Jian Mo went over to lend a hand, but as more people arrived, he found himself getting in the way, so he went back inside and continued sweeping.

Dividing the meat took at least an hour.

Jian Mo noticed that they kept every usable part, collecting everything from the beasts' blood to their internal organs.

Resources here apparently weren't especially abundant either. Otherwise, they wouldn't have kept even the parts that tasted bad and were difficult to prepare.