Chapter 79: Chapter 79: Chen Rong Returns Home

“That fast?” Su Ye exclaimed in surprise.

Muqin smiled, her face full of pride. “The whole tribe pitched in. Redleaf Ridge is big, but not endless. Building the caves is tough work, but after that, things like hollowing out the caves, scraping the cliff faces, and plastering the walls are just minor details.”

The beastfolk are strong and sturdy.

This kind of manual labor is easy for them—at least compared to going out hunting.

Collecting red maple sap and building caves is a breeze.

With hundreds of caves to dig, and as everyone’s experience grows, a team of three to five people can finish a three-chamber cave in just an hour or two. With a few hundred people working together, two or three days is plenty to get all the cave dwellings built.

Once the caves are done, furnishing them isn’t urgent. The new caves are pretty simple, but they’re much bigger than the old beast dens. During the rainy season, everyone will have plenty of time to fix up their own caves. Not only is there space for a set of tables and chairs, but even three or five sets would fit.

“For the hotpot feast, there’ll be over a thousand people. Amu, are you sure Changxia can prepare that much food?” Nan Feng stopped teasing Shan Kun and, after checking on the babies, left the cave.

Muqin shot Nan Feng a look and scolded lightly, “Who said Changxia has to do it all by herself? The whole tribe will help with the hotpot feast tomorrow night. Baihu is busy with infrastructure, the roads are still rough, and there’s no space at Changxia’s house for such a big event. We’ll hold it in the tribe’s plaza, and everyone will bring their own tables, chairs, bowls, and chopsticks.”

With the maple syrup and sugar ready and the caves built, so many good things happening at once make this hotpot feast even more worth celebrating than the annual harvest festival.

The roads in Baihu haven’t been finished yet, and there’s no venue big enough for a thousand people.

But this year, with Changxia’s guidance, the tribe has plenty of food. Not only can they hold one hotpot feast, but even seven or eight wouldn’t be a problem.

“That’s more like it,” Nan Feng nodded, satisfied.

Back when Changxia first suggested holding a hotpot feast for the entire tribe, Nan Feng and Nuan Chun had been worried for her. The tribe has plenty of big eaters, and with Changxia just recovering and Chen Rong’s poison still not cured, how could the two of them possibly prepare food for over a thousand people?

“Nan Feng, you’re overthinking it,” Su Ye said. “The tribe has white nuts, there are fish in the White River, and chickens, ducks, and geese in the reeds. Even if the tribe didn’t help, Changxia could still feed everyone.”

The hard part is just the process of preparing food for so many people.

In the past, all they had was roasted meat and fruit porridge, and a single harvest festival could eat up a month’s worth of supplies. Now, with a variety of foods to go with the meat, the consumption of meat has dropped dramatically—a huge benefit for the tribe.

“Oh, that’s right!” Nan Feng thought it over and quickly understood Su Ye’s point.

She knew that all the white nuts near the tribe had been gathered, and every household had several thousand pounds of them. That’s enough to last the tribe through the rainy season, and by then, they could harvest a second batch.

Doing the math, Nan Feng suddenly understood why the shaman and the tribe valued Changxia so highly.

Changxia alone was worth as much as an entire beastfolk tribe.

That’s no small thing.

While the others discussed the hotpot feast, Changxia hurried back to the beast den with Bai Qing.

The beast den was close to the caves. Other than moving her pots and pans to the new cave, Changxia still kept most of her things in the den for now.

“Chen Rong—!”

From a distance, Changxia called out to Chen Rong.

“I’m taking a bath in the grass hut,” Chen Rong replied.

“What do you want to eat? I’ll make it for you. Oh, and by the way, Nuan Chun gave birth to two male cubs at noon. I didn’t dare go into the cave to see them, so I’ll wait until they’re a bit older,” Changxia said as she skillfully added firewood to the stove and lifted the lid.

There was still half a pot of bone broth simmering in the stone pot.

Thinking about how much Nuan Chun liked soup noodles, Changxia didn’t wait for Chen Rong’s answer and decided to make him some, preparing lunch for both of them at the same time.

“Anything you make is fine with me,” Chen Rong replied, finishing his bath and coming out from behind the grass hut. When he saw Bai Qing, he realized the shaman had visited today.

“I’ll make you soup noodles. We’ll have that for lunch,” Changxia said.

As Chen Rong dried his hair, he asked, “Nuan Chun gave birth? That was quick. I thought she’d wait until the rainy season.”

Hearing that Nuan Chun had given birth to two healthy male cubs, Chen Rong was delighted.

For any race, the birth of a child is a blessing and a symbol of hope—the continuation of the tribe’s bloodline.

“It really was quick,” Changxia said. “Granny Su Ye and Bai Qing came over this morning. After breakfast, I went to help the tribe make maple syrup and sugar, while Granny Su Ye went to Nuan Chun’s cave. Not long after, Elder Dalai called me back to the tribe…”

“And by noon, Nuan Chun had given birth to two healthy boys.”

“Granny Su Ye and Elder Yami both said it went very smoothly.”

Chen Rong listened with a smile, sitting by the stove with Bai Qing, tending the fire as Changxia talked and prepared the noodles.

When Changxia finished recounting the day’s events, Chen Rong started answering her earlier question.

“Redleaf Ridge is progressing quickly. By this afternoon, we’ll only need twenty or thirty people there,” Chen Rong said.

At first, when they started collecting red maple sap, the sap flowed quickly—filling a bucket in no time. But gradually, the flow slowed down. Chen Rong guessed that by tomorrow, there wouldn’t be much sap left to collect.

“What a pity,” Chang Xia sighed.

As the weather warmed, the sap in the red maple trees began to settle.

If you wanted to harvest red maple sap, you’d have to wait until next year.

Still, this year, thanks to Elder Pukang’s discovery, Chang Xia had paid special attention. The more than ten thousand jin of maple syrup they’d collected was an unexpected windfall.

Thinking about this, Chang Xia’s sigh turned to joy.

One must learn to be content. The harvest from Red Leaf Ridge this time was already bountiful; to wish for more would be greedy.

Before Chen Rong could offer any words of comfort, he saw Chang Xia break into a smile and say, “Over ten thousand jin of maple syrup is enough for our tribe to make a splash at next year’s Normandy Grand Market. We shouldn’t be too greedy. Besides, when the market comes around next year, we can go back to Red Leaf Ridge to collect more red maple sap and make more syrup and sugar.”

“Chang Xia, are there any other trees whose sap can be made into sugar?” Bai Qing asked curiously.

Chang Xia shot Bai Qing a look and said, “Don’t call me Chang Xia, you should call me ‘sister.’ Did you hear me?”

“Birch and maple trees—their sap can also be made into sugar,” Chang Xia replied.

Chen Rong shook his head slightly and said, “The Twilight Forest is vast, and even finding red maple trees was a stroke of luck. Maybe we can have the shaman ask the other beast tribes—”

At least, there were no similar trees in the Heluo tribe’s territory.

When Chang Xia confirmed that red maple sap could be used to make sugar, Gen and the other elders had gone to Elder Pukang to double-check. They even asked the tribe members if there were any trees similar to the red maple.

The answer was always no.

Chen Rong thought that rather than pin their hopes on finding birch or maple trees, it might be better to look for sugarcane, or the beets and grass roots Chang Xia had mentioned.

All three are plants, and the Twilight Forest is full of flora and fauna. There ought to be sugarcane and beets growing somewhere.

As for grass roots, those could be found everywhere. The only trouble was that digging them up was a hassle, and making sugar from them was even more labor-intensive.

The tribe didn’t know about the grass roots.

Chang Xia had mentioned it to Chen Rong before—maybe when they had some free time, they could try it out. If they could boil sugar from it, the tribe would have another new food to enjoy.