It could be seen from the drifting of a leaf.
Autumn was finally here and a layer of leaves fell from the trees. However, hunting was still a must-do homework for them every single day. The weather was cold when their classes ended, giving out a sense of stronger survival.
It would be more difficult to hunt for prey after the last leaf of the trees had fallen. They had finished their stored up grains and there was nothing else here except for dried meat. They would usually cook the meat in a big pot and each of them would be distributed with one piece of meat. Also, they could only have meat for all three meals in a day.
“I want some braised pork, “Yao Xiaoyu cradled a bowl and was tired of eating the same food every day. She really did not feel like eating but then she knew she would be hungry.
“Just pretend that it is braised pork.” Zhang Peng drank a mouthful of meat broth and clicked his tongue with satisfaction, “I have not eaten any braised pork for five years while you have only been missing it for a few years, it will be better once you get used to it.”
“Do you still remember how braised pork tasted like?” Yao Xiaoyu asked Zhang Peng. For someone who did not have any other food in five years, he must have forgotten the most basic taste of food.
Zhang Peng took a bite of the meat while imagining it as braised pork since he was asked whether he remembered the taste of braised pork or other meat in general.
He shook his head, “I don’t.”
On the other side, Shi Jia gave most of the meat from her bowl to Tarzan.
Tarzan touched his bowl for a while before he finally picked up the meat and ate it. Shi Jia never ate a lot of meat, she was fine as long as her body’s physiological function was maintained at the most basic level. Therefore, she gave most of her portion to Tarzan. Besides, men should eat more because they got hungry fast and their consumption rate was also high.
“Shi Jia, you treat Tarzan quite well.”
Zhang Peng picked up the bowl again to drink his broth. “Why don’t you just settle down here? Finding a barbarian isn’t a bad idea. You can even give birth to a baby barbarian.” Yao Xiaoyu gave him a good kick before he could finish his sentence.
“What the hell are you talking about? We are the ones who are becoming barbarians. I’m going home, I still have a boyfriend.”
“Home?” Zhang Peng’s smile looked very bright but it was actually bleak, “I’ve been here for five years, I would’ve gone back long ago if I could. You should stop thinking about going back every day. In fact, it would be basically impossible.”
Yao Xiaoyu kicked Zhang Peng again, “Just because you can’t go back doesn’t mean that I can’t. My life is way better than yours.”
“Right, way better,” Zhang Peng did not want to justify anything to Yao Xiaoyu. It would be great if she could go back, but if she could not, she would end up like him. He waited for days, years, and eventually five years. He even became more like a barbarian, but he had long been at ease with his circumstances. He had accepted his fate.
Listening to their conversation, Shi Jia only focused on drinking her broth and did not once express any opinion. She was prepared to go back and prepared to stay here at the same time. Wherever she would be, the most important thing for her was to stay alive.
It was really getting colder. Their white breaths could be seen when they exhaled.
Yao Xiaoyu blew a mouthful of hot air into her palms. It’s really cold.
Shi Jia was squatting on the ground while sharpening branches with Tarzan. The branches were sharpened into a sharp tip and made into arrows with animal’s feathers. This bow and arrows were improvised by Shi Jia and they were much better than the unskilled ones brought by Zhang Peng.
Zhang Peng pressed his lips and could only shrug his shoulders. He muttered that this was really none of his faults as he was never a weapon-maker. He was just a nerd who liked gaming.
However, this was not the case with Shi Jia. She had been exposed to these things. Shi Jia might even be able to devise guns and explosives if they had gunpowder here.
The kills they brought back were getting lesser and lesser, they could be counted with single digits for almost every day. Shi Jia would be making arrows as backups when they had nothing else to do.
Until one day, the Tribe Leader brought back a large group of people. Zhang Peng translated and said that they were from a small tribe with over 30 people. They came to them to seek shelter and of course, since the people were from a tribe, they welcomed them and cooked a large pot of meat for them immediately.
As Yao Xiaoyu looked at the boiling meat in the pot, she could not help but feel a little anxious.
We have over 30 extra mouths to feed in such short notice, I don’t think that our food supplies are enough. Such a big pot of meat is cooked at once, how much food do we have stored up?
Shi Jia took some stones and started counting on the ground.
She knew how much food was available because she had her share of credit for the food here. She hunted very quickly and she was especially agile. Although initially, she could not be compared to these barbarians who could hunt by natural instinct, given a little time to adapt, she became pretty swift. Coupled with various traps, the kills she gathered could equate to the sum of kills by these barbarians sometimes.
Zhang Peng and Yao Xiaoyu were squatting in front of Shi Jia, watching her swiftly scribbling Arabic numerals on the ground and making various calculations.
Shi Jia threw away the stones from her hand and looked at them, “Our food supply can only last up to a month if they are not being frugal about it. Added with the other kills that we may be able to get, the food may last a little longer.”
“I’ll go and talk to the Tribe Leader.”
Zhang Peng stood up, having not enough food supply was a big deal.
He came back soon after but the look on his face was not very happy.
“They didn’t agree, did they?” Actually, Shi Jia had already expected this beforehand. The unenlightened barbarians could not think of so far out. Also, dozens of people who came here this time comprised of more than a dozen women. For these women’s sake, the Tribe Leader would certainly allow these people to stay.
“Zhang Peng, we may have to think about it.”
They clearly knew that many might get starved to death but they were still insisting on continuing. This would not be what Shi Jia would do. Besides, Zhang Peng said that people were starved to death in the tribe every year, so it was a very normal thing to them. Initially, Zhang Peng thought that no one would starve this year. Who would have known that so many people came all of a sudden? The people who were going to be starved to death would not be just one or two. Although lives were invaluable here and the lifespan of barbarians was short, Shi Jia and the others still wanted to live. They must stay alive no matter what.
“Let me think again,” Zhang Peng was having a headache while trying to think of an alternative. He made many attempts, but these people were already staying in the tribe and it would be impossible to drive them out. The only thing they could do now was to control the consumption of their food supply strictly from three times a day to once a day. Since the women in the tribe did not do much, they could eat less, allowing men to have more food. After all, the men had to go out for hunting. Although they would not have much prey now since it was winter, there would still be a few that escaped the net.
