Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Ice Crystal Grass

“Chang Xia, what new ideas are you thinking of?” Muqin asked happily.

Chang Xia’s generosity with the lightstones and blue cloth touched Muqin deeply. The tribe hadn’t doted on this girl for nothing. She knew how to give back and cared for the tribe—that was enough!

Chang Xia shook her head, thinking aloud, “I want to come up with something new that the bird tribe will like, so we can trade for more lightstones and blue cloth. Besides, the bird tribe has lots of good things besides those.”

Actually, the beast tribe had good things too.

Like the Heluo tribe’s pottery, the bear tribe’s honey, the lion tribe’s green beans, and so on.

Chang Xia didn’t want to limit herself to just the bird tribe. She set her sights on all the tribes, hoping to use the specialties of other groups to support the Heluo tribe, drive its reforms, and influence the growth of all the tribes.

“Wu, what kind of fruit is this?” Nan Feng suddenly asked.

She was squatting nearby, putting away the lightstones Chang Xia had given her, and picked up an ice fruit that Su Ye had set aside. There weren’t many—about ten in total. Each one was about the size of a baby’s fist, and holding it in her palm, she could feel a bone-chilling cold. It was amazing.

Su Ye turned and replied, “Ice fruit—a special wild fruit that grows on the Qinghai Plateau. It’s the bird tribe’s favorite. The flesh is soft and sticky, and eating it during the hot rainy season helps cool you down.”

Ice fruit, lightstones, and blue cloth were all unique to the bird tribe.

Of these, ice fruit and lightstones were rarely traded with outsiders.

Chang Xia’s thoughts were interrupted, but she didn’t mind. She picked up an ice fruit and felt the coolness in her palm, exclaiming, “It’s so cold! Grandma Su Ye, do ice fruits grow on trees?”

“No, ice fruit grows on a plant called ice crystal grass. Ice crystal grass is short and grows close to the ground. Some bird tribe members even plant it in their nests to keep food cold and prevent spoilage,” Su Ye explained gently.

She had tried to trade for ice crystal grass with the bird tribe, but they refused.

According to them, ice crystal grass was rare and hard to cultivate. It was even more precious than ice fruit. Even if the bird tribe was willing to trade ice fruit and lightstones, they would never part with ice crystal grass.

“A natural refrigerator! Grandma Su Ye, does the bird tribe have a lot of ice crystal grass? Do you think they’d be willing to trade? I could offer them the cave-dwelling construction method in exchange,” Chang Xia said excitedly.

Ice crystal grass—a natural refrigerator! It sounded like something out of a magical world, totally awesome.

“Don’t even think about it,” Su Ye said, shaking her head and dashing Chang Xia’s hopes.

Everyone knew how precious ice crystal grass was, but the bird tribe was far too stingy to ever trade it away.

This time, she had healed the bird tribe’s chicks, so they were willing to part with some lightstones and ice fruit. But ice crystal grass? They didn’t even mention it.

It was obvious.

Ice Crystal Grass was extremely precious, even among the bird tribes.

Compared to the Qinghai Plateau, the Twilight Forest was rich in resources, but nothing particularly dazzling. Thinking of this, Su Ye couldn’t help but sigh.

“Changxia, don’t let your thoughts wander. Ice Crystal Grass is the lifeblood of the bird tribe—there’s no use coveting it. Go prepare some food for Wu and Baiqing. They must be starving after their journey back from the plateau,” Muqin said, patting Changxia’s shoulder twice.

By this time, Chenrong and the others were already busy.

Judging by the empty stove, they must have gone to work at the kiln without even having breakfast.

Muqin’s words snapped Changxia out of her daze.

“Oh, look at me! I got so excited seeing Granny Su Ye that I forgot all about breakfast. Muqin, you haven’t eaten yet either, have you? I’ll make some fish noodles for you to try…” Changxia said.

She remembered that Chenrong probably hadn’t eaten breakfast either.

Immediately, she asked Nan Feng to help clean the fish, while she started kneading fruit flour, planning to make fruit flour pancakes. Since making fresh rice noodles would take some time, Changxia decided to steam rice noodle sheets instead, which was much quicker.

She’d save the fresh rice noodles for lunch, so Wu could try them together with the rest of the tribe, and at the same time, she could promote the various ways to eat fruit flour.

Once the different ways to eat fruit flour spread, the tribe had almost picked all the ginkgo nuts around the settlement. Now, they were starting to harvest from the surrounding territories.

The tribe had delivered several hundred jin to Changxia’s house.

According to Nan Feng and Nuan Chun, the rest would be dried and sent over later.

Clearly, the tribe was already stockpiling food in preparation for the rainy season.

Watching Changxia skillfully stir the fruit flour into a thick batter, Su Ye sighed, “The beastfolk have been eating this mush for hundreds of years, but never thought to fry it, let alone add all these ingredients. We always said Changxia was being fanciful, but now I see we were just too stubborn!”

“Exactly!” Muqin agreed.

If they hadn’t stopped Changxia’s ‘nonsense’ before, they could have been enjoying delicious fruit flour dishes for years already.

Thinking of this, the two women couldn’t help but shake their heads.

At that moment—

Baiqing, who had been napping in the beast den, woke up.

Opening his eyes to the unfamiliar den, he listened for a moment, then recognized the familiar voices outside and remembered where he was.

He got up and walked out.

He saw Changxia frying fruit flour pancakes.

The enticing aroma wafted straight to his nose.

Rubbing his stomach, Baiqing swallowed and walked over to Su Ye.

“Baiqing, you’re up! Why not sleep a bit more? Changxia’s making fruit flour pancakes—you can eat soon. Want some roast meat first?” Muqin asked gently.

Nan Feng was cleaning fish, while Muqin helped roast the meat.

Nuan Chun hadn’t come over yet—she was probably still asleep. Later, Wu could check on her and figure out why she’d been so drowsy lately.

Muqin had just mentioned this to Su Ye.

Su Ye had planned to visit Nuan Chun, but Muqin told her she was still asleep, so they came to Changxia’s place instead.

“I’ve slept enough,” Baiqing replied.

Baiqing wasn’t yet an adult—he was quiet and steady, not much of a talker.

Changxia always teased him for acting like a little old man—so serious and reserved.

“Hungry, aren’t you?” Su Ye glanced at him. “If you are, have some roast meat first. Later, you can try the fish noodles and fruit flour pancakes your sister Changxia made.”

“Baiqing, Changxia’s stewed fish and grilled fish are amazing too—like beggar’s chicken, chicken stewed with yam, yam and fruit flour pancakes…” Nan Feng rattled off a long list of dishes, telling Baiqing that Changxia had made them all, and every one was delicious.

As they chatted, the mouthwatering aroma soon filled the air.

Not only Su Ye and Baiqing, but even Muqin and her daughter, who often ate Changxia’s cooking, couldn’t help but swallow repeatedly.

“Granny Su Ye, Baiqing, have a fruit flour pancake first—the fish noodles will take a bit longer.” Changxia cut up the freshly fried pancakes, put them in bowls, and brought them to the table for Su Ye and Baiqing. She also ladled out two bowls of bone broth from the pot on the stove.

The stone pot had been simmering bone broth all along—just a quick reheat and it was ready to drink.

That saved a lot of trouble, though it did mean more time tending the fire.