Chapter 84: Chapter 84: Night at the Square

Dusk. The hour when day meets night.

Chang Xia brought the freshly cooked spicy chicken to the table.

Next to it was Shen Rong’s roast meat, along with fruit pancakes and cold noodle salad.

The moment the spicy chicken hit the table, Su Ye and Bai Qing both started sneezing and coughing. Shen Rong, on the other hand, was perfectly calm, staring at the spicy chicken with eager anticipation.

“So spicy!” Su Ye exclaimed.

Bai Qing covered his mouth and nose, staring at the bowl of spicy chicken in alarm.

Chang Xia looked a little embarrassed. “I cooked it a bit too dry, so it’s extra spicy.”

She’d been craving chili so much that she’d accidentally added too much while cooking. On top of that, she’d stir-fried it on high heat, making the aroma even more pungent.

Unable to resist the spicy smell, Chang Xia quickly sat down, grabbed a bowl of cold noodle salad, and called Su Ye and Shen Rong to eat. She picked up her wooden chopsticks and dug into the chilies.

Her mouth trembled from the heat, but she couldn’t stop eating.

“Spicy! So spicy!”

“But delicious! Food is always better with chili.”

Chang Xia kept eating, her mouth swelling from the heat. Her eyes turned red and filled with tears, making the others at the table exchange glances—was it really that good, or just too spicy to handle?

“Chang Xia—” Bai Qing hesitated, holding his chopsticks but not daring to try.

Su Ye burst out laughing. “If you want to try, go ahead! If it’s too spicy, just drink some water.”

With that, Su Ye bravely reached for the spicy chicken. The aroma was fragrant, spicy, and tingled the nose. But the taste in her mouth was completely different.

It was so spicy she shivered, but she just couldn’t stop eating.

So, the three of them followed Chang Xia’s lead—eating, wincing, and gulping down water.

By the end of the meal, the four of them looked like they’d just fought a battle.

“That was amazing! I haven’t eaten like this in ages,” Chang Xia said, still trembling. “Next time, let’s have spicy fish.”

“The flavor is even stronger than the spices from the Western Lands!” Shen Rong added.

All four had swollen lips. They set down their bowls and chopsticks, and in front of each was half a bowl of maple syrup—brought back by Chang Xia from the tribe for Su Ye and Bai Qing.

Right now, it was the best thing to soothe the heat.

“Chilies can ward off the cold. Once we trade for more from the Tian Shi tribe, I’ll have our tribe help plant them,” Chang Xia said happily.

Chilies weren’t drought- or flood-resistant, but they weren’t picky about where they grew.

They could be planted almost anywhere, with only minor differences due to climate.

“Yes! We should definitely plant chilies,” Su Ye agreed immediately when she heard that chilies could ward off the cold. Not only should the Heluo tribe plant them, but all the beast tribes in the Twilight Forest should as well.

After ginger, scallions, garlic, and yams, chilies had become another essential crop for the Heluo tribe.

Chang Xia smiled, feeling that the tribe was one step closer to entering the agricultural age.

“Chang Xia—”

From afar, the evening breeze carried Nan Feng’s voice.

Clearly, Nan Feng had already eaten at Nuan Chun’s house and was calling Chang Xia to the tribal square to prepare the dough for fermentation.

“Let’s go! We’ll go together.”

Su Ye stood up, ready to head to the square with Chang Xia and Shen Rong.

She also planned to talk to Gen and Yami about the chilies—and, of course, discuss the promotion of ginkgo nuts in more detail.

“Wu, are you and Bai Qing coming too?”

“I need to talk to Gen about something.”

Chatting as they walked, the group made their way toward the tribe.

Though it was almost dusk and the birds were returning to their nests, the Heluo tribe was especially lively and bustling today.

The large stone pot in the center of the square and the roaring bonfire in the stove lit up the sky with a red glow.

Tribe members gathered all around the square.

The sweet, caramelized scent of maple syrup and maple sugar filled the air, making everyone’s faces light up with joy.

Elder Yami had the tribe make molds, and the cooked maple syrup was poured in to set. Once cooled and unmolded, it became maple sugar, stored in the tribe’s supply cave.

The maple syrup boiled down to make maple sugar is more intense than the syrup eaten directly.

Following Changxia’s suggestion, Elder Yami turned two-thirds of the more than ten thousand jin of maple sap into maple sugar, and boiled the remaining third into maple syrup. The maple sugar was stored by the tribe, while the maple syrup was distributed to the clanspeople for consumption.

When Changxia and the others arrived, the stone pots were simmering the last batch of maple syrup.

After this, the tribe would no longer boil the sap from the red maple trees into sugar, but instead distribute it directly for everyone to drink.

After all, the sap of the red maple is delicious even when drunk fresh.

For the Heluo tribe, which is starved for beverages, the sweet and refreshing red maple sap is nothing short of nectar.

“So fast!” Changxia exclaimed in amazement.

Elder Yami smiled, “It’s not bad.”

Though she said “not bad,” Elder Yami’s face was full of pride.

She hadn’t expected they could process so much red maple sap into syrup and sugar so quickly. According to their original plan, it should have taken until noon the next day to finish.

Both she and Changxia had underestimated the perseverance of the clanspeople.

With more than a dozen stone pots working non-stop, they managed to cut the time in half. Of course, this was also thanks to everyone’s growing skill and experience.

“Chief, how’s the progress on the cave dwellings?” Changxia asked.

“All the cave dwellings at White Lake have been dug out. We just need to finish the mud walls and install the doors and windows. That can be done by tomorrow morning. After that, we’ll just have the expansion work here at the main settlement,” Gen replied, his face full of smiles and confidence.

The mud walls need to dry completely before the next step.

Otherwise, the work could have been finished today.

But he knew that mud walls require careful attention and can’t be rushed.

These past few days, everyone in the tribe has been working tirelessly, and the results are impressive. Their efforts have truly paid off.

“That’s awesome!” Changxia gave Gen a thumbs-up.

“It’s all thanks to your selfless help. This rainy season, we won’t have to worry about leaky animal dens or dampness making them unlivable,” Gen said with emotion.

Before the rainy season, the tribe would always repair the animal dens.

But no matter how much they fixed them, leaks were inevitable.

Not to mention, in the cold season, the dens sometimes collapsed and caused all sorts of problems.

The cave dwellings built by Changxia have finally put an end to the tribe’s years of hardship.

While they were chatting, Muqin and Heyun organized the clanspeople to carry buckets of fruit flour from the cave.

Then they mixed the flour into a paste and kneaded it into dough balls.

Unfortunately, the bags for the fruit flour had to be made from green cloth.

Apart from the ones Changxia brought, the tribe only managed to sew five more, making a total of six bags.

This slowed down the filtering process a bit.

Night fell.

The clanspeople chatted about the menu Changxia was preparing for the hotpot feast, discussing what ingredients to get ready for the next day. While learning how to knead dough balls from Changxia, laughter and cheerful voices drifted throughout the Heluo tribe.

Many hands make light work.

With everyone working together, they finished kneading thousands of jin of dough.

Then they placed the dough balls on rattan sieves, covered them with animal hides, and moved them into the cave to ferment.

While the women made dough balls, Gen led the men to build a press modeled after the one at Changxia’s house. They made quite a few, saying that every household should have one so they could easily make fresh rice noodles in the future.