Chapter 102: Chapter 102: Crispy Crackling Bites

“Changxia, is this a hodgepodge stew?” Suye asked hesitantly.

She saw Changxia instructing Gen to chop the pig’s head, and preparing pork belly, intestines, wild greens, and so on.

Recalling the tribe’s usual hodgepodge stews, Suye felt uneasy. She couldn’t help but ask Changxia—if it was just going to be a hodgepodge, she’d rather have pan-fried meat or fruit flour cakes.

Having gotten used to Changxia’s cooking, Suye couldn’t imagine going back to their old way of eating.

Changxia noticed the lingering fear on Suye’s face and was momentarily stunned.

“Granny Suye, I’m making a pig slaughter feast. In a way, it is a kind of hodgepodge stew, but it’s different from the tribe’s usual version,” Changxia explained.

After she finished, Suye and Gen, who had been eavesdropping, both let out a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness Changxia had clarified.

“A pig slaughter feast is all about freshness. The pork from a freshly slaughtered pig is tender and slightly sweet. Stewed together in one pot, it becomes soft, sweet, and flavorful. If you have pig’s blood, you can make blood sausage and stew it together—the tender blood makes it so delicious you’ll want to swallow your tongue. Of course, if we don’t have blood, we can add some wild greens instead.”

The wild boars in the Twilight Forest didn’t have a gamey smell.

Instead, their meat had a hint of pine fragrance.

Changxia guessed that the wild boars the tribe hunted must have lived in pine forests, eating pine nuts and rubbing against pine trees for years, so their meat naturally absorbed the pine scent.

Thinking of this, Changxia asked, “Chief, where did you hunt this wild boar?”

“Qingshan,” Gen replied.

Qingshan was a forest a hundred li downstream from the Bai River. The soil there was bluish-black, which is why the Heluo Tribe called it Qingshan. It wasn’t the same as Qingshan Rock, which was at the border between the Heluo and Tianshi tribes. Qingshan was only about a hundred li from the Heluo Tribe.

From the perspective of the beast tribe, a hundred li was practically just outside their front door.

“Qingshan? That’s really close,” Chang Xia murmured.

Beside her, Nan Feng, who knew Chang Xia well, immediately sensed something was up.

“Chang Xia, what about Qingshan?”

Chang Xia glanced at Nan Feng and said, “I noticed that the pork this time tastes especially delicious. I think the wild boars near Qingshan probably live in pine forests. They eat pine nuts all year round and rub against the pine trees, so their bodies are infused with a faint pine fragrance. That’s why the meat tastes so good.”

“The soil around Qingshan is fertile, and wild vegetables grow abundantly. Are the pine trees you’re talking about especially green?” Mu Qin suddenly asked.

“Pine trees are lush and green all year round, which is why they’re called evergreens,” Chang Xia nodded, agreeing with Mu Qin’s description.

Gen said, “Qing trees.”

The trees growing on Qingshan are called qing trees.

That actually made a lot of sense.

“Do qing trees have a special fragrance?” Chang Xia asked.

This time, she didn’t insist on calling them pine trees. Instead, she simply asked if qing trees had a scent.

“Qing trees do have a fragrance. When the tribe makes torches, we add qing oil,” Gen said, glancing at Chang Xia. The matter of qing oil was a secret of the Heluo tribe. They didn’t know how to harvest it, only how to collect the naturally fallen qing oil from Qingshan.

As a result, the tribe’s stores of qing oil were very limited.

This time, when Chang Xia led the tribe to collect red maple sap, it inspired Gen and the elders. They were planning to try collecting qing oil from Qingshan when the season came.

Who would have thought that Chang Xia would suddenly bring up Qingshan while preparing the pork dish? It really caught Gen off guard.

“Pine oil really does help things burn—oh, I mean qing oil. Besides being a fuel, qing oil can also be used for making wax,” Chang Xia said offhandedly after thinking for a moment. She didn’t know many other uses for qing oil, since she hadn’t had much contact with pine oil in her previous life.

“Chang Xia, do you know how to collect qing oil?” Gen asked, looking at her eagerly, almost unable to contain his excitement.

If Mu Qin hadn’t stopped him in time, he might have rushed at Chang Xia with a knife in his hand.

At this moment—

Su Ye sat calmly, her expression serene.

Qing oil was a secret of the Heluo tribe, and as the tribe’s shaman, Su Ye knew how to balance the interests of the various beast tribes in the Twilight Forest. Naturally, she wouldn’t get involved in the matter of qing oil. Even if she heard something, she would pretend not to have heard.

“I think… it should be similar to collecting red maple sap. But I’m not sure about the timing for harvesting qing oil,” Chang Xia said hesitantly.

Gen was very satisfied with this answer. He became even more determined to send people to Qingshan to try collecting qing oil when the time was right.

“I think you have to cut the bark and make a groove to collect qing oil, not drill holes like with red maple,” Chang Xia added after thinking for a moment.

Hearing this, Gen couldn’t help but frown deeply.

He exchanged a glance with Mu Qin. The tribe usually went to Qingshan to collect qing oil in the latter half of the rainy season. If, as Chang Xia said, you needed to cut the bark and make grooves, didn’t that mean they could almost set out now to start collecting?

Wait—

Better finish the pork dish first.

He’d talk it over with the elders back at the tribe before making a decision.

“Chief, besides collecting qing oil, the qing nuts are edible too,” Chang Xia said.

Who could resist the fragrant, tasty pine nuts? She’d said all that just to bring up the pine nuts—no, the qing nuts. Since pine trees were now called qing trees, it made sense for pine nuts to be called qing nuts too.

“Alright,” Gen nodded, making a mental note.

Nan Feng licked her lips, swallowing hard as she tried to remember when the qing nuts would be ripe.

Meanwhile, Mu Qin scooped out the crispy pork cracklings and poured the rendered lard into a clay jar.

Chang Xia didn’t say anything more.

She started frying the cracklings and pork.

Sizzle—

She used wooden chopsticks to put the pieces, coated in fruit flour and egg, into the stone pot.

As soon as the hot lard touched the cracklings, a loud sizzling sound filled the air.

Very quickly, a mouthwatering aroma, no less tempting than the scent of the rendered lard, spread through the room.

“This smells even better than when you were rendering the fat!” Su Ye couldn’t help but exclaim.

Everyone craned their necks, crowding around Chang Xia and the stone pot.

“Don’t rush, it’s not done yet,” Chang Xia said, exasperated, as she looked at the eager crowd. Even Su Ye couldn’t resist, so she figured the people in the cellar would be coming up soon.

Sure enough.

Just as she thought that, Kong Shan arrived.

Chang Xia looked at him with a face full of disdain.

Such poor self-control.

Even Bai Qing, who was younger than them, could hold back, but these two grown males, Ya Dong and Kong Shan, just couldn’t.

“Don’t look at me like that. They pushed me to come up here,” Kong Shan said, raising his hands in surrender.

The cellar was below the cave dwelling, and the aroma drifted both up and down. They’d been smelling it from below, getting hungrier and hungrier, until finally they couldn’t stand it and sent Kong Shan up to see what was going on in the kitchen.

“What are you all doing in the cellar?” Gen asked curiously. He knew Ya Dong and Kong Shan had come over in the morning and hadn’t left since.

“Chang Xia drew up plans for the cellar, and we’re working with Chen Rong to organize it,” Kong Shan replied.

Gen nodded in satisfaction.

Chang Xia and Chen Rong were both very capable. Since they couldn’t go out during the rainy season, it was a good time to tidy up the cave dwelling. As he thought about it, Gen decided that after he finished chopping the pig’s head, he’d go take a look at the cellar too.