Toward evening, the hunting and gathering parties returned and there were cheers from the tribe members. Sa Lei ran over happily to Qin Fei and directly gave him a big hug. Qin Fei awkwardly pushed Sa Lei away and asked, “Why are you so happy today?”
Sa Lei was particularly excited, pointing to some big beasts carried by the hunting team behind him, “Fei, the weapons you came up with are amazing. We’ve never hunted so much this time of year and even in autumn, when the beasts are at their peak, it’s rare to get a big brown fur beast. Moreover, only one of us was slightly wounded this time. I stopped the bleeding with the herbs you gave and with a couple of days of recuperation, the wound will heal. Besides that, Fei, the food you made was just too tasty.”
Qin Fei looked at those brown-fur beasts which resembled wild ox that had been enlarged twice and there were two large sacs dangling from the chest and belly of one brown fur beast.
As he watched, Sa Lei moved closer to Qin Fei’s ear again, “I’ve brought you a small present.”
Qin Fei was a little confused, “What present?”
Sa Lei waved his hand at the hunting party and someone brought out a small brown fur beast. The little one had only two fleshy bundles on its head. It was shivering and let out its sound as it was frightened by the group of people.
Sa Lei pointed to the little one that was still mooing and said, “The meat of this cub is tender, just kill it when you want to eat it.”
Qin Fei’s eyes lit up, wasn’t this a baby calf? Immediately he ran over to examine the little one and was delighted to find this one was a heifer.
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Qin Fei glared back ferociously at Sa Lei who was baffled by the glare. Why was he glaring at himself in a blink of an eye when he was obviously happy just a few moments ago? He scratched his head in disbelief, “What, what’s wrong?”
“I wanted to keep him, but you killed its mother. This little one isn’t weaned yet, so it will be difficult to raise him.” Qin Fei sighed.
Sa Lei suddenly thought of the ranch Qin Fei had mentioned the other day and slapped himself on the head as he was full of regret, “Oh my, how could I have forgotten it?”
Qin Fei looked at the docile and meek beast in front of him and said in a soft voice, “These things eat grass and are not too threatening to people, if we can lower their wild nature and raise them in group, we can slaughter them when food is scarce or drink the milk.”
His explanation caused another frenzy to everyone as Sa Lei couldn’t stop nodding, if Qin Fei’s solution worked, then they would have something living to eat in the winter and it would be so much better than all that salty dried meat.
“Let’s keep this one for now and kill it if it can’t survive. Tomorrow we’ll catch a few more brown fur beasts.” Sa Lei pulled Qin Fei and said it in a curry favor way.
Qin Fei shook his head, “It’s harder to catch them than to kill them where they’re more likely to get hurt, so you’ll hunt as usual tomorrow and I’ll think of a way to catch them alive. The males will be slaughtered for meat as normal and the mother’s milk will have to be carefully taken and kept, so that cub will probably be able to live for a few more days.”
When Sa Lei nodded in agreement, Qin Fei stopped talking about it. He pulled Sa Lei back to the tent, laughed as he said, “I also have a present for you.” He took out the straw sandals he had made for Sa Lei and put them into his arms.
Sa Lei looked at the straw sandals in his arms with astonishment, his fingers trembling with excitement. When he entered the tribe campsite, he saw many people wearing these on their feet. His first thought was ‘Qin Fei must be the one who has come up with that’. At that time he wanted to ask Qin Fei what was on everyone’s feet, but when he saw other males being dragged by their females to try it on, he didn’t dare to ask. He was afraid that Qin Fei wouldn’t do it for him. His heart ached slightly and turned sour at the thought of it, moreover he would be embarrassed if that happened.
To be honest, Sa Lei had never seen anything so exquisite like this before and couldn’t help but stammer and ask Qin Fei, “This, this is for me, it…”
Sa Lei was so excited that he stammered in his speech, Qin Fei understood what he wanted to ask. In a soft voice, he told him about the use of straw sandals and the types of shoes one by one. He also told Sa Lei about today when he was teaching the females how to make straw sandals and straw mats today, along with his idea of how he wanted to use the things they had made and exchanging it.
More excited than Ruma, Sa Lei came out of the tent with the sandals and shouted to everyone who was busy at this moment, “Everyone, please stop for a while! The thing I am holding is the straw sandals that Qin Fei made for me and I believe that some of the females who left behind in the tribe have also made some.”
Everyone responded happily and some of the eager and impatient males had already put the sandals on. The tribe was full of people walking around with straw sandals on their feet. Those who didn’t have any were having them sewn by their families, even though they had been promised that the day after tomorrow everyone in the tribe would have a pair of sandals on their feet. But with so many people wearing beautiful straw sandals, they couldn’t help but look at them with envy.
Sa Lei looked at the happy faces of the people and continued to say, “In the future, Qin Fei will teach us how to make sandals, leather shoes and cotton-padded shoes. We can use these things to trade with other tribes. I have decided that from tomorrow onwards, the picking team will be divided into two teams, with the personnel being adjusted on your own initiative, and one team will be sent out every day to continue picking, while the remaining team will work in the tribe to make what Qin fei has taught us.”
The people in the tribe thought this was a good idea and some suggested that Qin Fei should not be allowed to go out, so that he would have more time to research and work on those rare things.
Sa Lei shook his head and said in a loud voice, “I don’t agree Qin Fei always stays in the tribe. He knows a lot of herbs and foods that we don’t know about. If he doesn’t go out, how can he lead us to identify the useful herbs and foods? So I think that Qin Fei should go out with the picking team when he needs to and stay in the camp if he wants to, according to his personal situation.”
Qin Fei thought that Sa Lei’s arrangement was good. Ruma also smiled and nodded his head. Like this, Qin Fei would have more freedom in his schedule, he would be able to go out with the gathering team and also have time to stay and teach more people in their tribe.
After Sa Lei was done with the announcement, he was pulled back to the tent by Qin Fei. Everyone went busy doing their own business as there was happy laughter and cheerful voices from time to time in the camp site. Qin Fei held the shoes he had made for Sa Lei and asked him to put them on to see if they would fit.
Sa Lei squeezed the straw sandals and couldn’t bear to wear it, “This is the first gift you personally made for me, it’s such a pity, if it got dirty.”
Qin Fei gave him a scornful look, “Shoes are meant to be worn on the feet, so they are bound to get dirty. Don’t tell me that you want to wear them on the top of your head every day, if that’s so, then I’ve made them for nothing.”
But no matter how much Qin Fei tried to persuade him, Sa Lei refused to wear them. Qin Fei was touched by how much Sa Lei valued himself and how much he treasured the gifts he gave him. Naturally, he would not be angry with him. He just wanted to make another pair for Sa Lei when he was asleep at night.