Ch51 – Smoking Meat
Primitive people could be really cute at times. For example, they would say exactly what was on their mind and wouldn’t find it disgraceful or embarrassing.
After Xiong Ye said that he looked as if he was pregnant, he laughed uproariously.
Zhou Ji had the impulse to ‘deal with him on the spot’.
However, even if Xiong Ye looked very energetic right now, he was still someone who was wounded with severe injuries… Zhou Ji rubbed Xiong Ye’s head and suggested, “Let’s go to sleep?”
“Zhou Ji, you can’t rub my head in the future!” Xiong Ye frowned. Zhou Ji had done this action again and again; he didn’t even know how many times it had been now!
“Alright.” Zhou Ji agreed.
“Help me touch it.” Xiong Ye added, “I kind of want it.” Zhou Ji had been constantly rubbing his stomach earlier, and all that rubbing made him want to do something…
“Don’t even think about it.” Zhou Ji silently pushed him into a prone position on the bed––he had suffered such a heavy injury but was still thinking of such things, was he trying to cause trouble for himself?!
Xiong Ye had no choice but to lie down and go to sleep.
He wanted to do it himself, but he had wounds on his arms too.
And… He was actually in quite some pain.
Xiong Ye had said he wanted it, but he soon fell asleep after he laid down. He even slept very soundly.
Perhaps it was because he was so tired, he even started to snore despite the fact that he normally didn’t.
Zhou Ji pinched his nose, making Xiong Ye twist his head and stop snoring. Seeing that he was settled in, Zhou Ji went to examine his leg.
Zhou Ji had wanted to take a look at Xiong Ye’s injuries during the day, but yesterday’s tossing about had greatly impacted his spiritual powers. It wasn’t until now that he was able to recover slightly, enough to help him thoroughly look into Xiong Ye’s situation.
Xiong Ye had seemed to be in a pretty good state, too, so he hadn’t been in a hurry to do so.
As a result, this examination left Zhou Ji shocked.
Xiong Ye’s leg had been broken, and the bones of his leg were now crooked. Not only that, besides the scratches and wounds on the surface, his internal organs had also been injured.
Xiong Ye’s injuries were very serious. Zhou Ji had no idea how he could just come and go within the cave all day today, and even laugh and smile at him.
Zhou Ji tried to use his spiritual powers to help him straighten out his bones, and just as he finished setting them back in place, his spiritual power was completely exhausted. He could only lie down to rest without doing any more.
Fortunately, although Xiong Ye was seriously injured, it wasn’t like Niu Er’s situation from back then where even the crystal core in his body had been about to collapse…
Some people who broke their arms or legs would heal properly, but some would have their limbs heal crooked. His teacher had once told him that the people whose bones grew back crooked must have blasphemed against the Beast God. It was because they were disrespectful to the Beast God that they had been punished.
However, he and his teacher had never told this to others.
They had kept it a secret because his teacher had a lame leg himself. He had originally been the priest of a large tribe, but he had been driven away after his leg turned lame. He had wandered about until he found the Big Bear Tribe and finally became the Big Bear Tribe’s priest.
His teacher had been repenting his entire life. He believed that he must have done something wrong and incited the Beast God’s anger, resulting in his lame leg.
At the same time, his teacher hadn’t told this secret to the tribe. He had only told the current priest, and he had also never told this to the people of the tribe.
Those warriors had been injured while either protecting the tribe or hunting, which resulted in their bones growing askew. Even if they had done something wrong, they had already been punished. He didn’t feel that he should hurt them any further.
Now, it was Xiong Ye who had hurt his leg…
The priest said, “You are a good boy. The Beast God will definitely bless you!” Xiong Ye couldn’t have done anything to offend the Beast God, right?
Zhou Ji: “……” So this Beast God was also in charge of healing!
Rather than praying to the Beast God, they would be better off looking for him instead.
“Oh, right, Xiong Ye! Zhou Ji and I discovered that cooking certain grasses in water then drinking it will improve the body. Recently, I’ve felt much better after eating it… I brought some here for you. Cook it and eat it.” The priest brought out a ginseng.
This ginseng had been accidentally discovered by Zhou Ji.
He hadn’t done much research on Chinese medicine, but when he studied plants, he had developed a certain understanding and recognized some herbs that could replenish the body.
Things like ginseng were impossible for him not to know about, so he had taken it and given it to the priest. Unexpectedly, the priest was now giving it to Xiong Ye.
Xiong Ye’s current situation… Eating ginseng wouldn’t do him much good, but it also wouldn’t harm him. Zhou Ji said, “Thank you, priest.”
“No need for thanks. You should have some, too.” The priest said, “You’re too weak.”
Zhou Ji: “……”
“I’m leaving. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.” The priest continued.
“All that meat… Has the chief figured out how to preserve it?” Zhou Ji asked.
“We’re going to salt and cure what we can, and everyone will eat more.” The priest’s expression was a little anxious––they didn’t have enough salt!
“I know a method to preserve meat.” Zhou Ji said.
“What method?” The priest immediately asked, looking at Zhou Ji curiously––Although Zhou Ji’s body wasn’t very good, the Beast God had probably found him pitiful and taught him many skills, such as identifying plants and other such things.
“You can use less salt when you prepare the meat, then light a fire and use the smoke to dry it.” Zhou Ji explained. Cured meat required a lot of salt in order to preserve it properly. During ancient times in his original country, only people in coastal areas would use a lot of salt to preserve meat. In other places, they were unable to do it this way.
In other places, people would smoke their meat.
They would first marinate the meat with a little salt, then smoke it over a fire so that all the water content in the meat would dry out. Meat prepared in this way could be preserved for a long time, and it also carried a unique taste.
Of course, some people would feel that meat carrying a smoky flavor was unpalatable.
But in short, they could make do with a lot less salt if they used this method to preserve the meat instead.
Zhou Ji had only seen this kind of meat preservation method on TV shows. When it came to exactly how to do it, or how to make the meat taste good, he really had no clue.
However, the people in the Big Bear Tribe probably wouldn’t be concerned about whether or not the meat was tasty, right?
So, they just needed to use the smoke to dry out the moisture in the meat.
“Can meat really be preserved longer with this method?” The priest was curious.
“Yes.” Zhou Ji added, “It is the same principle as drying the meat out in the sun, which allows it to be kept longer. Using smoke is just faster than the sun.”
“I’ll go and try it!” The priest immediately agreed.
There was no lack of firewood in the tribe. Even if there was… There was an entire mountain full of firewood over there waiting for them to pick up!
The priest looked for some people and soon had a fire lit up in a pit. He smoked a piece of meat over the fire and made a piece of charred, blackened jerky.
This piece of meat had a smoky flavor and tasted quite bad, but it was dry and should last a little longer…
The entire tribe immediately busied themselves and began to make smoked meat.
Picking up meat, smoking meat, eating meat… The people of the Big Bear Tribe were busy for five consecutive days, and everyone grew one size bigger from all that eating.
And then, the tribe officially ran out of salt.
Zhou Ji and Xiong Ye had no salt left, either.
After the collective stores of salt in the tribe had run out, the priest had asked everyone to take out the salt they had stored for themselves. It could be considered as the tribe borrowing salt from everyone, and they had all naturally taken it out for everyone’s use.
Zhou Ji didn’t care much about this. Xiong Ye was injured and couldn’t go out hunting, so he went out every day to walk around and secretly ate some vegetables and fruits, bringing some of it back to the cave. Since he was too lazy to cook, he naturally didn’t need to use salt. As for Xiong Ye…
Xiong Ye completely didn’t mind eating the roasted meat sent over by the tribe every day. He now ate at least fifteen to twenty kilograms of meat daily, so his stomach was bulging almost every day. Not only had his human form gained weight, his animal form had suddenly gotten a lot bigger as well, his fur coat especially glossy.
The bodies of the beastmen were really very good, and the meat that was filled with abundant energy was quite well suited for their diet.
The only thing to be depressed about was that Xiong Ye was injured in so many places that many parts of his body were missing fur…
Xiong Ye was a little annoyed about it, but Zhou Ji found that this hairless bear was also quite good looking.
That day, all the meat in the tribe was finally cleaned up.
The valley was still filled with the smell of blood and rotting meat, but it was much better than before… Zhou Ji had made several flowerpots out of wood and planted a few pots of fragrant flowers in their cave, which made the air in their cave smell a lot fresher.
That night, the priest decided to hold a meeting in the valley.
Zhou Ji had rested for a few days and all of his injuries were already healed. Correspondingly, Xiong Ye’s injuries had also improved a lot with his help.
Only, Xiong Ye was unable to use that energy properly. It was a pity that out of all the energy he sent into Xiong Ye’s body, only about one tenth of it was utilized.
In order to avoid being discovered, he wasn’t able to heal up Xiong Ye’s wounds any faster.
The ground in the valley had been soaked in blood these past few days. It was sticky when trod on, but not muddy––the earth here had been trod on so much that it was very compact!
“Zhou Ji! Xiong Ye!” The people of the tribe smiled as they greeted Zhou Ji and Xiong Ye. They had a very good attitude towards Zhou Ji.
Although Zhou Ji was very weak, the priest had said that the method they had used this time to smoke the meat was something he had come up with!
The people in the tribe were very grateful to Zhou Ji at the moment. Even those who had other opinions about Zhou Ji didn’t give him any bad looks––Zhou Ji had helped them save so much meat!
They really hadn’t expected that Zhou Ji, who had originally been so foolish and weak, would actually become smarter.
The people in the tribe all felt very thankful to Zhou Ji, and the priest even gave Zhou Ji a tribute––an extremely big, vibrantly red flower wreath.
Zhou Ji really didn’t want it.
However, Xiong Ye quite liked it and happily hung it around his own neck.
The little bear who had a flower wreath around his neck was very cute… Zhou Ji’s gaze fell on Xiong Ye, but Xiong He had solemnly begun to speak about proper things––the tribe was going to go out to trade for salt again!