Chapter 168: Chapter 168: Special Treatment

"Changxia, you two chat—"said Nanfeng.

She quickly got up and hurried back to the tribe. From what Muqin said, tonight the tribe would be hosting the chiefs from the riverside and Xifeng tribes, and the main dish would probably be anaconda meat.

Maple Leaf thought for a moment, then followed after her.

Nuanchun, holding her twin cubs, didn’t go along. She still had to take care of them, and the tribe wasn’t short on people to help out.

Milu and Jie exchanged glances, hesitating. "Should we go too?"If you want to watch the sugar-making at the tribe square, you can head over now. I’ll go a bit later, so I’m not going for now,"Changxia explained, pointing at the chili peppers drying in the vine sieve, and the chopped chili in the wooden basin. Soon, all of this would need to be brought into the cave dwelling.

With the rainy season, you couldn’t just leave the chilies out in the cave courtyard.

Milu and Jie looked at each other—sugar-making sounded tempting.

"Changxia, I’ll go ahead—"As soon as she finished, Milu and Jie quickly chased after Nanfeng and Maple Leaf.

Suye watched the scene with a smile.

The fact that the various beast tribes could get along peacefully was something truly wonderful to Suye as the tribe’s shaman.

"Granny Suye, aren’t you curious?"Changxia asked with a smile.

Suye shook her head, closed the white-leaf book in front of her, and said with a gentle laugh, "I’ve already seen maple sugar and thatch root sugar before. I doubt seaweed sugar is much different."I like thatch root sugar best,"Baiqing said.

Comparing the different kinds of sugar, Baiqing found that thatch root sugar tasted the best.

That fresh fragrance was something maple sugar and seaweed sugar just didn’t have.

"I actually like seaweed sugar more—it’s so sweet and fragrant,"Nuanchun said.

Changxia always said the cubs shouldn’t eat too much sugar.

They were too young, and sugar wasn’t good for their health.

Suye agreed with Changxia. Just now, Nuanchun had dipped her chopsticks into the seaweed syrup and let the twins have a tiny taste, but didn’t let them eat more.

"I like the caramel flavor of maple sugar,"Suye said.

Clearly, everyone had their own preferences.

People’s tastes in sugar were different.

In the past, there was no choice, but now that the tribe was prosperous, it was only natural for people to have their own likes and dislikes.

Changxia listened with a grin, absentmindedly stroking the twin cubs.

"The sunset is so vivid today. Tomorrow should be a nice day,"Changxia said happily.

During the rainy season, every sunny day was precious.

"Perfect—you can get in some more training at the tribe,"Nuanchun teased.

At the mention of training, Changxia immediately wilted.

"Changxia, you’ve missed too much. You need to catch up on the basics. It could save your life in the forest one day,"Suye said seriously.

She understood Changxia’s thoughts—the Heluo tribe couldn’t keep her forever.

Since that was the case, she shouldn’t slack off on her training.

Better to be prepared than to get hurt out there.

"I know,"Changxia nodded.

As the sunset lit up the sky, Chenrong and his group returned from digging thatch roots in the wild south of White Lake. Entering the cave courtyard, Chenrong glanced at Changxia and the others chatting in the corridor.

He took the vine baskets to the woodshed. Since they’d gone out late in the afternoon, they’d only managed to dig up two baskets of thatch roots. The roots had already been washed clean at White Lake. Besides digging, Chenrong had also walked along the small river, remembering Changxia’s idea of bringing running water into the cave dwellings.

With the lay of the land by the river, it wouldn’t be hard to divert water here.

The only tricky part was how to dig the channel, and what method to use.

By "channel,"he meant a watercourse to bring in the water.

Since the water would be for drinking, it couldn’t be easily polluted. The channel would need to be covered to prevent contamination.

"Milu and Jie went to the tribe square too?"Chenrong squatted by the water jar to wash his hands. Smelling the lingering sweetness in the air, he figured the seaweed sugar must have turned out well.

"Yeah, they just left,"Changxia said. "Come try the seaweed syrup—I saved half a bowl just for you."Once Chenrong had washed his hands, Changxia waved him over.

She brought out the half bowl of seaweed syrup she’d hidden nearby and handed it to him.

"Changxia, so that’s why you drank so fast—you were saving it for Chenrong and didn’t have any yourself!"Nuanchun teased, her eyes full of laughter.

Suye, of course, had noticed Changxia’s little gesture.

But she didn’t stop her.

Changxia was an adult now, with her own ideas. Even though Suye worried she might get hurt, if she never let go, the cub would never grow up.

Other than adding coptis to the herbal soup, Suye had no other objections to Chenrong.

No matter what happened in the future, she would always stand behind Changxia as her support.

"Tch!"Baiqing rolled his eyes and shot a glare at Chenrong.

What did this male do to deserve such treatment?

He couldn’t help it—the more he thought about it, the more annoyed he got. Even though he and Chenrong shared the same blood, Baiqing still felt a little resentful.

After all, he used to get this kind of special treatment himself.

Now that Chenrong was getting it, Baiqing couldn’t help feeling a bit sour.

Changxia turned, reached out, and gave Baiqing’s head a good rub, smiling, "You little brat, what are you grumbling about? Just now, Granny Suye poured you more than half a bowl, and none of us said a word."With that, Baiqing’s face turned bright red.

So everyone had noticed the shaman giving him special treatment earlier.

Ugh—

How embarrassing!

Nuanchun covered her mouth and laughed, "It’s fine, Baiqing. You’re the youngest here. It’s not favoritism from the shaman!"Upon hearing this, Bai Qing only felt even more embarrassed.

“Do you want more?” Chen Rong immediately followed up, handing the bowl to Bai Qing with a big grin on his face. He was clearly teasing Bai Qing—and showing off at the same time.

“You—go away.” Bai Qing glared at Chen Rong and slapped his hand away.

This petty, scheming male—if he really wanted to give him the seaweed syrup, couldn’t he have moved a little closer? Passing it from so far away, there wasn’t a shred of sincerity.

“Chang Xia, it’s getting dark. Gather up the chili peppers—we should head over to Gen’s place in the tribe. You can help out in the kitchen too.” Su Ye spoke up, stopping Chang Xia and the others from teasing Bai Qing any further. If they really made Bai Qing angry, he’d be hard to coax.

Hearing this, Chang Xia and the others just smiled and didn’t tease Bai Qing anymore.

“Chang Xia, when will the chili sauce be ready to eat?” Nuan Chun asked.

Chang Xia had added some ginger and garlic to the chili sauce, making it smell absolutely delicious.

If Chang Xia hadn’t said she wanted to test the flavor of the chili sauce first, Nuan Chun and Feng Ye would have already traded some chili peppers with her to take back to their own cave dwellings and make their own chopped chili.

This time, the chili peppers and seaweed brought by the Lion and Bear tribes were all for Chang Xia.

Everyone in the tribe understood this without needing any explanation.

So, some tribe members went to the riverbank to talk with Xi Feng and the others, hoping to discuss possible trades. However, the two tribes had already promised to give the Heluo tribe a batch of chili peppers and seaweed syrup.

The trade would probably be postponed—after all, tens of thousands of pounds of chili peppers and thousands of pounds of seaweed syrup were no small amount. It would be enough for the tribe to eat for over half a year, maybe even longer.