Page 9

I'm done for.

He didn't seem to know how.

Qing Kuo crouched in the tree, gripping the trunk with his claws. He frowned slightly. "What is it?"

Jian Mo started and hurriedly put down his basket. "Nothing. I'll give it a try."

When sub-beastmen went out, they could partially transform parts of their bodies: sprouting beast ears with pointed fur and inner and outer ears, for example, or pupils that could expand and contract, or claws like curved blades.

These transformed parts were also called beast marks, and they helped sub-beastmen adapt better to their surroundings.

He wanted to copy Qing Kuo, but unfortunately, he didn't know how. He could only climb the tree the entirely human way, wrapping his arms and legs around it.

But the trunk was thick and slippery, with no footholds at all. He had just recovered from an illness and wasn't in the best shape. For every thirty centimeters he climbed, he slid back twenty-five. After struggling for quite a while, he had made little progress.

Qing Kuo watched Jian Mo struggle to climb, still only half a person's height off the ground. His cheeks were faintly flushed from the effort, and his lips were surprisingly red.

He had clearly tried hard.

It just hadn't done much good.

Qing Kuo found it a little hard to believe. Even the tribe's cubs who had just turned a month old could climb trees.

Qing Kuo could tell Jian Mo wasn't slacking off. He really couldn't do it, so Qing Kuo said, "Stop climbing. Take a rest."

Jian Mo's face grew redder. Panting, he said, "Let me try again."

Qing Kuo said bluntly, "I doubt it'll help no matter how much you try. Just pick them up off the ground. I'll shake some fruit down for you."

Jian Mo's arms were already aching. He struggled upward a few more times, but when he realized he really couldn't climb any higher, he had no choice but to say, "Thank you."

Qing Kuo said, "Get down first and stand farther away."

Jian Mo slid down the tree and moved out from under its canopy.

Once Qing Kuo saw that he was far enough away, he stood on a branch, wrapped his arms around the trunk, and shook it hard.

The tree rustled, and fruit fell from it like rain, rolling all over the ground.

These fruits, called "neng fruits," were about the size of Jian Mo's fist. Their skins were green, and they looked bitter and astringent.

Jian Mo searched his memory but found nothing about neng fruit. He didn't know which part was edible, though it was probably good food.

He could tell how much Qing Kuo and the others valued neng fruit from how clearly they knew where every tree grew.

Once Qing Kuo had finished shaking down the neng fruits, Jian Mo went over to pick them up.

Some ripe neng fruits had already fallen to the ground, and as Jian Mo gathered them, he spotted some that animals had gnawed on.

The fruits were covered in a hard, thick rind. Beneath it was a mass of soft, snow-white flesh containing black seeds the size of rice grains. It had the sweet fragrance of fruit.

It probably tastes good.

After Jian Mo had picked fruit for a while, the juice from the rinds oxidized and quickly stained his hands black. The skin on his hands began to turn red and itch.

An allergic reaction.

Jian Mo rubbed some dirt over his hands and kept picking.

Qing Kuo soon finished picking most of the fruit from the tree, filling more than half his basket.

Jian Mo had also finished gathering the fruit on the ground. His basket was less than half full, but it was so large that it still felt heavy on his back, probably weighing forty or fifty jin.

Fortunately, the basket's straps were wide enough that they didn't dig too badly into his shoulders. Jian Mo felt he could carry it back to Wu Jiong's house without much trouble.

After they finished picking the fruit, Qing Kuo led Jian Mo to meet up with the others.

Everyone else had nearly finished picking too, but their baskets weren't full, so they still had to find other things.

Jian Mo followed behind.

Forty or fifty jin wasn't much for a grown man, but carrying it around continuously was rather uncomfortable.

Walking ahead, Qing Kuo glanced back at Jian Mo. Perhaps he noticed that Jian Mo was struggling, because he didn't deliberately leave food for him during the rest of the gathering.

Jian Mo followed the main group, gathering some wild vegetables and fruit along the way.

There were plenty of edible things in the woods, but not all of them tasted good.

The sub-beastmen weren't very picky and tried to take back everything edible.

They didn't head back until late afternoon, when the sun was nearly setting.

Nearly everyone's baskets were packed full. Only Jian Mo's was a little over half full.

It was his first time out gathering, and that was already a decent haul. He was quite satisfied with it.

They walked around the other side of the mountain, taking a different route back from the one they had come by. They could still find some food on the way.

Jian Mo was walking in the middle of the group when he saw pods hanging from a sourfruit tree. He reached up and casually snapped off more than ten.

The sub-beastman behind him saw him picking the pods and stopped to wait. "What are you picking those for? They don't taste good. They make your stomach feel sour and uncomfortable."

Jian Mo remembered this kind of fruit tree. Sour-Sour Fruit was too plain and too sour, and it stripped away a great deal of oil. Eating too much made acid rise in one's stomach and weakened the body.

But after eating meat in the tribe for so long, Jian Mo had developed some mouth ulcers. He might be short on vitamins, so he needed to supplement them and eat a greater variety of food.

Jian Mo put away the Sour-Sour Fruit and smiled at the sub-beastman. "I'll take it back and see if I can make some other dishes with it, for a change of flavor."

The sub-beastman glanced silently at the Sour-Sour Fruit and shook his head slightly.

Jian Mo didn't explain further. He quickly finished picking the Sour-Sour Fruit and continued on his way.

Back at the tribe, the sub-beastmen first went to the open space and left half of what they had gathered there.

Whether they hunted or gathered, the tribe's adults had to leave half the food they brought back for the tribe to redistribute.

Jian Mo followed everyone else's example and left half his food there, then returned to Wu Jiong's house.

Wu Jiong wasn't back yet.

Jian Mo put down his basket, took out a wooden basin, and tipped a small portion of the wild vegetables into it to wash.

Once they were clean, he mixed them with a little salt and took them outside to dry.

The sunset was so brilliant that it probably wouldn't rain that night. He could leave the wild vegetables to air-dry first, then dry them in the sun tomorrow. There were no wild animals in the tribe, so it was fine to leave them outside.