Chapter 23: 23

The last time Mu Qing ate was the day before at noon on the canoe with Li Mang. By now, her stomach was unbearably empty. She looked through the hut, but there was nothing she could eat, and now she even started to miss that piece of venison.

 

Mu Qing sat back for a while. She was hungry to the point where her heart was beating frantically and her breath was short. In the end, she decided to quietly go outside and look, to see if there was anything to fill her stomach with.

 

Chapter 23

(8.1)

 

 

Mu Qing lifted the curtain and went out. She looked around standing in place. She saw that the hut she had just came out of was in the periphery of the settlement, it was a little far from the chief’s house she had stayed in the day before. Maybe they were letting the young and the strong people live in the periphery, and the chief as well as the older and weaker live on the middle, so that if there was an enemy or a beast attack during the night, it would serve as a kind of protection for the people living in the middle.

 

 

Mu Qing saw a woman in front of a fire, with her waist bent, cooking something.  There was a white smoke coming out of a clay pot, while several small children were running beside. Just as she was hesitating whether or not to thicken her skin and go over to ask for food, the woman looked up and saw her. The woman waved at her.

 

Mu Qing hurriedly walked over. That woman handed her a bowl of what looked like a porridge made with wild vegetabled of some sort. Mu Qing waited for it to cool a little before taking a sip. It was the same as the roasted meat she had a few days ago, the taste was bland, it wasn’t salted. But she was already satisfied with that, after eating wild fruits and coarse meat for several days, this bowl of vegetable porridge could already be said to be quite delicious for her taste buds. She  greedily drank up the entire bowl of soup and licked the bottom of the rough pottery bowl, it looked yellow like some corn or something similar.

 

 

She was still very hungry, but was also too embarrassed to express it. She smiled at the woman and nodded. Just when she was about to put down the bowl, the woman started laughing. She took the bowl from her hand and, with a little yellowed bamboo tube, filled up the bowl from the pottery jar and handed the bowl back to her. She then pointed to the black pieces of stuff on the large leaf on the ground.

 

Mu Qing took it and noticed that there were no chopstick or something similar; there were only a few branches of varying thickness. So she took one and poked a piece with it, it pierced a hole into the surface of the roasted black skin, and she was surprised to find out that it looked like a potato or a sweet potato. But when she peeled the skin, put it in her mouth and took a bite, she dismissed the thoughts she had just now. That stuff was probably similar to potato roots, but it was much rougher to the taste, it was full of filaments, and there was a slight bitter taste.

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Mu Qing ate two pieces of those potato roots, and also swallowed the filaments. She then drank up the bowl of vegetable porridge and only then she felt a little full. Her stomach was warm and it felt very comfortable. Although the woman could not understand her words, she thanked her repeatedly.

 

 

The woman laughed again and pointed her finger at the hut she had came out of, she said a series of words. Mu Qing turned her head back to look, but nothing was amiss, when she turned her back again, she then somewhat understood, could it be that Li Mang, before leaving, had given instructions to that woman, which was the reason why she was able to fill her stomach at this time?  Or maybe, if she thought about it in a less nice manner, he might have also instructed the woman to keep watch on her.

 

She nodded her head towards that friendly woman, indicating that she understood.

 

 

Although Li Mang had brought her back openly this morning, Mu Qing was still a little worried that she would come across the chief. He was the one person she didn’t want to see now. Just now, she had come out because she was hungry, and now that she had solved her physiological needs, she did not want to stroll around in that place where it was unclear whether people were harboring good or hostile intentions towards her.

 

 

She touched the little girl’s face who was squatting in front of her, looking at her with some curiosity. Mu Qing smiled faintly at her, and then went back to that hut.

 

 

The little girl was very thin, her entire body was naked, but she had a pair of clear black eyes, the same clear and pure eyes as children in the world outside of here.

 

 

Mu Qing stayed in the hut, until the sun outside started inclining to the west.

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