Ch7 – Earthworm
Xiong Ye returned to his cave with the Scelidosaurus meat. Looking at the cave that he had carefully kept clean and tidy, he suddenly didn’t have the courage to go in.
Last year, there had been many things in his cave.
It had held the hides he had saved up, the beautiful stones he had picked up, and the bones of some of the dinosaurs he had hunted.
However, before the previous winter, after he had confessed to Shi Li and been accepted, he had taken all those things out. He gave the hides to Grandpa Hou and asked him to help him make some clothes and cushions.
He had given the beautiful stones to Grandpa Priest and entrusted Grandpa Priest with creating the perfect wedding for him.
As for the dinosaur bones… Shi Li hadn’t liked those things, so he’d thrown them away.
Back then, he had even given Shi Li half of the food he had stocked up for himself in preparation for winter.
Shi Li hadn’t joined the tribe for long, and because he was taking care of his mother and younger brother, he didn’t have any food saved up, so he… as someone who had awakened as a brown bear, he could reduce his food consumption during winter by hibernating.
But now, Shi Li actually went back on his promise.
Xiong Ye was a little angry, but he also couldn’t help but find excuses for Shi Li. For example, any strong male would naturally want to have more offspring. It wasn’t surprising that Shi Li would feel that way too.
But if Shi Li had been unwilling, he could’ve rejected him right at the start and Xiong Ye wouldn’t have had his feelings entangled for so long. Why did he only speak up about it now?
Shi Li had always been very good to him before. Now that he had suddenly changed, could it be that he didn’t actually mean it? Was it possible that Yang Ying or Yang Su had said something?
Xiong Ye thought about many things. He looked at his clean cave, then glanced down at his blood covered body and went out again, taking the Scelidosaurus meat with him.
If he stayed with the tribe, there would definitely be a lot of people coming over to ask him about Shi Li. It would be better if he left first.
With that in mind, Xiong Ye ran even faster.
There was a stream near the tribe. The people from the tribe had planted some seeds of edible plants near the edge of the stream, and they would also go there to fetch water or wash things.
A trampled path had already been created by many footsteps that lead to this place.
Xiong Ye planned to go there, but when he considered the fact that the place was a popular location that definitely would have lots of people, he headed downstream and plunged into the water there instead.
He soaked in the water, washing both himself and the Scelidosaurus meat, then placed the meat on the shore and began to turn over the rocks by the stream.
When he was hungry as a child, he had often come to the stream and flipped over the rocks nearby in order to look for crabs or other things. Sometimes, he would even be able to catch a snake…
Xiong Ye slowly turned over the rocks, but probably because of the cold weather, he wasn’t able to find anything underneath. However, because it was a rainy day, many earthworms had come out and exposed themselves to the air.
Xiong Ye remained in his animal form. He climbed out of the water and sat his butt down by the side of the stream, using his long claws to dig out earthworms.
His claws were very long, and one swipe from them could turn over a large tract of soil. After that, he carefully plucked out the wriggling earthworms that were thinner than his claws from the soil one by one…
Xiong Ye concentrated very seriously on this task. Once he started digging, he continued on for a good several hours, placing the earthworms that he had harvested on a series of broad leaves and making a big pile of them.
Without him realizing it, the rain had stopped.
Xiong Ye scented the air and suddenly looked towards a specific place. “Zhou Ji?”
Xiong Ye called Zhou Ji, but Zhou Ji didn’t reply. Xiong Ye was taken aback, then soon understood the reason.
His sense of smell was very good, and he could smell things from over a kilometer away. Zhou Ji was probably still very far away.
After digging for earthworms for a long time, Xiong Ye had grown much calmer. Noticing that his body was covered in mud, he returned to the stream and washed himself again.
When he was done, Xiong Ye discovered that it was getting dark. Not only that, he was really, really hungry.
He had eaten a lot last night, so he hadn’t eaten anything when he went out in the morning–being full wasn’t conducive to action and moderate hunger would sharpen his senses.
But the hunt had taken a lot of energy, and he had also fought with Shi Li, then dug for earthworms for a few hours… After such a full day, he was starving.
Xiong Ye took on his human form, then wrapped the hide that had been washed clean around himself. There was no room left for sadness; he just wanted to stuff himself and eat a full meal.
At this time, Zhou Ji appeared in front of him.
Zhou was thin and tall, and his hides tightly covered his body. He had some grass in his hand and no expression on his face. He appeared a little dazed.
“Why did you run outside again? Aren’t you afraid of danger?” Xiong Ye said.
“Not really.” Zhou Ji said.
Xiong Ye looked at the grass that Zhou Ji was holding in his hand, then strode towards the earthworms that he had dug up. He bundled up the broad leaves that held the earthworms, then handed Zhou Ji two parcels of earthworms. “Here you go. Eat something better!”
He had dug up earthworms just to make himself feel a little better. Earthworms didn’t taste good, and he had stopped eating them a long time ago.
Zhou Ji looked at the ice lettuce that he had worked so hard to find that was both tasty and could be eaten raw, then looked at the two bundles of earthworms that Xiong Ye had given him, “…”
“Take it.” Xiong Ye stuffed the earthworms into Zhou Ji’s arms, then picked up the Scelidosaurus meat. He said, “Let’s go back!”
Zhou Ji did not object and followed behind Xiong Ye to return.
It had already been a month and a half since he transmigrated into this world.
To him, this world was both wonderful and strange.
It was wonderful because the environment here was so good. He had struggled to survive after the apocalypse for decades as a dual-powered plant and psychic ability user, and by the time he died, it had already been several years since he had eaten any greens.
The ecology of this place was magnificent; he naturally found it very delightful.
As for the strangeness… The humans in this place could transform into all kinds of mammals, and it turned out that they preyed on dinosaurs… How could that not be weird?
For decades, Zhou Ji had worked so hard that he hadn’t really wanted to move after arriving here. Even so, he still went out and took a look around the tribe in order to develop a general understanding of this world’s situation.
In this world, humans could become mammals. And in the natural world, there were dinosaurs, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, and all kinds of insects, but there were no mammals.
That was to say, in the entire world, the only mammals that existed were humans.
As for the developmental situation of the humans… The tribe that he was in was not very civilized, and he didn’t know what it was like elsewhere.
He wasn’t curious about the outside world though, and he was too lazy to go out and explore.
After decades of hard work, all he wanted to do now was to have enough to eat, drink, and sleep. With his plant powers on hand, he didn’t have to worry about not being able to eat his fill.
As for eating meat… After the apocalypse, the environment deteriorated, and plants became extinct. He had no way to make use of his plant powers, and for many years, the only things he could use to fill his belly were limited to the meat from mutant animals and a variety of canned food. He was sick of eating meat and didn’t want to swallow another bite of it.
Fresh fruits and vegetables were so delicious!
How many years had it been since he’d tasted the sweetness of fresh fruit?
Zhou Ji was very satisfied with his current life and had voluntarily given up his portion of the meat allocated to him from the tribe.
Dinosaur meat… Didn’t actually taste good.
However, Xiong Ye was someone who had helped him when he had first transmigrated over, and he always wanted him to eat more. Not only had he given him some meat yesterday, today, he was giving him earthworms…
Zhou Ji dawdled as he followed behind Xiong Ye, using his powers to move some of the plants that blocked Xiong Ye’s way. Whenever he sensed an edible plant, he used his powers to help it grow a little bigger.
By the time the two of them returned to the tribe, the sky had already turned completely dark.
Xiong Ye climbed up the mountain face and soon disappeared. Zhou Ji thought for a bit, then went to the place where the children of the tribe often went digging for earthworms and set his two bundles of earthworms free.
The heart-broken brown bear who had run off to dig for earthworms was very cute, but he really didn’t eat earthworms…
Juurensha: Awww poor XY digging for earthworms.
xiin: XY is so fricken cute in this chapter, a big brown bear plopping his butt down by the river and sadly digging through the dirt…