Chapter 112: Chapter 112: Success!

“You’re done outside?” Changxia asked in mild surprise, poking her head out to look at the corridor.

Chenrong took the ironwood knife from her and helped slice the grass roots as he replied, “Just the eaves left—the corridor is done.”

They’d laid wooden flooring made from ironwood planks in the corridor. Inside the cave dwelling, aside from the kitchen, even the storage room and cellar had ironwood flooring. Back when they lived in the beast den, they’d already put down wooden floors there.

Chenrong thought the ironwood floors made things much cleaner and tidier, so he’d put them everywhere in the cave dwelling as well.

Luckily, the tribe was generous with Changxia, always making sure she had enough wood. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been enough for all this work. Worried that the ironwood floors might get damp, Changxia had even brushed them twice with resin.

It was safe to say that Changxia’s cave dwelling was by far the cleanest and most beautiful in the entire Heluo tribe.

Now, only the courtyard remained to be fixed up. According to Changxia’s plan, she wanted to lay stone paths and build flower beds with rocks, but that would have to wait until after the rainy season. Otherwise, the paths would just turn into a muddy mess before they were even finished.

This year, the early rains lasted seven days, and the compacted courtyard was left pitted and uneven by the raindrops. That only strengthened Changxia’s resolve to pave the stone path.

“We really have to thank Yadong and Kongshan,” Changxia said with a smile.

Of course, she didn’t forget Baiqing’s help either. She made a mental note to prepare some extra, easy-to-carry food for Baiqing that evening—jerky would be a good choice, since it keeps well and tastes good.

“If you want to go out, you’ll have to wait a bit—” Chenrong said quietly.

Changxia narrowed her eyes, catching his meaning. Last time, they hadn’t helped much with the tribe’s cave construction. This time, if any tribespeople wanted to build corridors or eaves, Chenrong planned to help out.

“Thank you!” Changxia glanced at Nuanchun, then put her hand lightly around Chenrong’s waist, giving him a quick hug. Since Nuanchun was also in the kitchen, she didn’t dare be too obvious.

Unbeknownst to her, Nuanchun had seen all their little affectionate gestures. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes were full of amusement.

These two always seemed so cool and distant—who would have thought they’d be so lovey-dovey in private?!

Nuanchun knew she could never compare in that regard.

“Little Changxia, the stove is ready!” Pukang called out.

“Just a moment—” Changxia replied. “Chenrong, hurry up and finish cutting.”

She wanted to prepare two batches: half of the sliced grass roots would go straight into the stone pot to boil, while the other half would be juiced with the stone grinder before boiling to extract crystals. She wanted to see if the two methods would yield different results.

For the first batch, she planned to add maple syrup. For the second, she’d just extract the crystals directly.

Soon, Chenrong and Nuanchun finished slicing a basket of grass roots. Changxia divided them into two wooden basins: one for Nuanchun to take outside and dump into the stone pot, and the other for Chenrong to help juice.

The stone grinder was made from leftover stone after making the stone pot last time. Changxia had Chenrong make it, and they also had a stone mill at home. All these tools were kept in the wooden shed next to the kitchen.

“Changxia, what are you doing?” Gen followed curiously and asked.

Changxia explained, “I’m going to juice these grass roots with the stone grinder, then boil the juice to extract crystals—see if we can get edible grass root sugar.”

“Then what about the batch boiling in the stone pot?” Gen was confused, not understanding why Changxia was making things so complicated. Wouldn’t it be easier to just boil everything together?

“I’m worried we won’t get any syrup if we just boil it…” Changxia admitted.

Hearing that, Gen closed his mouth and stopped asking.

Tomorrow, Suye and Baiqing would be returning to Kana Sacred Mountain, so Changxia hadn’t planned to bother with the grass roots. But Elder Pukang had gotten carried away, and things had spiraled. Changxia had no choice but to step in. Still, she had to prepare things for Suye and Baiqing to take back to Kana Sacred Mountain.

So, Changxia asked Chenrong to help juice the grass roots, while she went to the fence by White Lake and brought back three chickens and three ducks. She planned to prepare these for Suye and Baiqing to take home, along with jerky and stewed meat. At least she could skip making rice noodles this time.

"沉戎 made a press for Bai Qing.

Now, if Su Ye and Bai Qing want to eat freshly pressed rice noodles, they can make them directly.

Lately, the weather’s been hot, and fresh rice noodles spoil easily if left out. Making and eating them on the spot is best.

“Xiao Changxia, are you making Beggar’s Chicken?” Pukang asked excitedly.

Changxia stiffened slightly and replied awkwardly, “Elder Pukang, Wu is returning to the Holy Mountain of Kana tomorrow. These are for Wu to take back. There’s a lot to do tonight, so let’s just have some roast meat and fruit powder pancakes. There’s also bone broth simmering on the stove.”

Revenge.

That’s right, she was getting her revenge.

It was rare for her to be able to do as she pleased for once.

Who knew things would get out of hand and become so hard to wrap up?

So this time, Changxia just wanted to be willful and eat whatever she wanted—roast meat, and that’s it.

After hearing this, everyone in the courtyard exchanged subtle glances at Changxia.

She’s upset.

Changxia really is upset.

“Hee-hee-hee—”

Pukang froze for a moment, then quickly recovered and burst out laughing.

“Roast meat, roast meat is good too.”

Anyway, he’d already decided to have dinner at Changxia’s tonight. If he went back to the tribe now, there was an eight or nine out of ten chance Yami would catch him. Yami was fine, but if he ran into Ximu, that bastard, he probably wouldn’t even get a good night’s sleep.

But if he stayed at Changxia’s…

Even if Yami and Ximu came over, they wouldn’t dare go too far in front of Changxia.

Yes, it was all part of Pukang’s calculations.

Night fell, and Changxia’s house was brightly lit.

At this time, Elder Yami arrived with Muqin, Nan Feng, and the others.

Nuan Chun took over the work in Changxia’s hands, letting her go out to the courtyard to watch over the stone pot simmering with thatch root. After all, besides her, no one else here had ever boiled thatch root before.

“Changxia, how’s it going?”

“It’s getting thick. I’ll scoop some out and taste it.”

Changxia took a wooden spoon and sampled a bit of the thatch root juice from the pot. This batch was being boiled directly, while not far away, another pot was simmering thatch root juice that Shen Rong had pressed and filtered with a stone grinder. That one was progressing a bit faster.

Changxia sipped a spoonful.

Very sweet, refreshing.

It tasted even better than red maple sap.

This time, the tribe had harvested the red maple sap a bit late, so it had a strong caramel flavor.

In contrast, the boiled thatch root juice was more crisp and sweet, almost like fruit juice.

After tasting it, Changxia was sure that thatch root could be used to make sugar.

However, the sugar from thatch root wouldn’t be as rich as maple syrup or maple sugar.

Thinking this, Changxia let out a sigh of relief.

All her hard work hadn’t gone to waste—she hadn’t messed things up.

It was all thanks to the high quality of the thatch root from the Twilight Forest. If it had been from Earth, it probably wouldn’t have worked for sugar-making—at most, you could boil it for drinking water or cook it in soup with sugarcane or something similar.

“Changxia—”

Everyone in the courtyard held their breath, watching Changxia, waiting for her verdict.

“It worked,” Changxia said. “Next, we’ll strain it with a flour sieve to remove the thatch root. I’ll try adding maple syrup to this batch and see if we get a different kind of sugar. Keep stirring the pot over there—it needs constant stirring.”

That pot had filtered thatch root juice.

All they needed was to turn up the heat and keep boiling until the juice reached the right concentration, then take it off the fire—just like when they boiled red maple sap before.