Ch71 – Fried Meat
The fruit looked very cute, but Xiong Ye’s expression changed as soon as it was in his mouth, and he quickly spat it back out.
What kind of terrible taste was this?!
His mouth felt like it was on fire. It was unbearably painful, and tears suddenly streamed out of his eyes. He was so stimulated that he even turned into his animal form and ran out to the valley, wrapping himself around the big barrel of water in the middle of the tribe, dunking his head in, and drinking and spitting out mouthfuls of water.
That fruit had to be poisonous!
After eating such a toxic fruit, he needed to quickly spit it out and drink more water!
“Xiong Ye, what’s wrong with you?” Zhou Ji returned with some vegetables in hand. He immediately ran over when he saw Xiong Ye acting like this, then used his spiritual powers to inspect Xiong Ye.
Xiong Ye was fine. There wasn’t anything wrong with his body at all.
“Ouch…” Even the sound of Xiong Ye’s roar had changed. He felt that his tongue had already swelled up from the poison.
Zhou Ji could make poison. Why had he thoughtlessly gone and eaten that fruit as soon as he had seen it without asking first?
He wasn’t going to die during a hunt. Instead, he was going to be accidentally poisoned to death. How unjust!
Oh, he might not die, but he felt really terrible!
The huge brown bear had tears in his eyes as he looked at Zhou Ji. He then placed his head on Zhou Ji’s thighs and splayed out on the ground without moving, looking like he was about to expire right then and there.
The people in the tribe were all startled, “What’s wrong with Xiong Ye?”
“Is Xiong Ye alright?”
“Wasn’t Xiong Ye fine when he came back?”
……
Only the priest realized something, “Xiong Ye drank a lot of water and even spat water out… Was he poisoned?”
Zhou Ji knew that Xiong Ye hadn’t been poisoned, but on the topic of poisoning… Zhou Ji asked, “Did you eat the chili that I placed inside the cave? That little red fruit.”
The huge brown bear nodded listlessly.
Zhou Ji: “……” Although he quite enjoyed spicy food, he also couldn’t bear eating chili peppers raw, let alone Xiong Ye who had never eaten chili before in his life.
He now basically understood what had happened to Xiong Ye.
Zhou Ji said, “That fruit isn’t poisonous. It just makes people’s mouths feel uncomfortable when they eat it… You should still be full of energy.”
Xiong Ye’s mind had been full of various terrible scenarios before, and he thought that he might die. Now that Zhou Ji had said this…
He stood up and suddenly discovered that nothing was wrong with him. It was just that his mouth hurt a little.
Xiong Ye: “……”
Zhou Ji said, “Go back to the cave then.”
Xiong Ye immediately went and climbed back into the cave––how embarrassing! He was really alright, but he acted as though he was dying down in the valley!
Seeing that Xiong Ye was returning back to the cave, Zhou Ji also followed him back. He then heard Xiong Ye, who had turned back into human form, say, “Ugh… Exactly what kind of thing was that… Ouch…”
“Adding a little bit of this chili will make things like roasted meat very tasty.” Zhou Ji added.
Xiong Ye hurriedly shook his head, “That… I’ll pass.”
Zhou Ji wasn’t about to force him and immediately smiled and agreed, “Alright.”
Xiong Ye was a bit scared of it after his experience today, so it was fine for him not to have any, but he could have Xiong Ye give it a try later on.
Of course, Xiong Ye might be unaccustomed to it at the start… He could give him a bit less at first.
Zhou Ji marinated the vegetables he had brought over with some salt. He also crushed the juicy chili peppers and added some of the salt he had purified as well as a type of plant that made meat more fragrant when added to roasted meat.
Xiong Ye really liked the meat that was roasted with this kind of plant. Zhou Ji also enjoyed it. Of course, he was much pickier about meat.
Zhou Ji was just thinking about that when he noticed the huge bird in the cave.
Xiong Ye pointed to that bird and said, “Zhou Ji, this is the bird that I caught today. It’s for you!”
“Thank you.” Zhou Ji said, “Bring the dinosaur meat that you’ll be given today to the cave and eat it here. I’ll make something delicious for you to eat today.”
“Alright.” Xiong Ye agreed, then looked towards the bright red sauce that Zhou Ji had just made, “That… this…”
“Don’t worry. I won’t give you this.” Zhou Ji assured him.
Xiong Ye relaxed and then ran down to the valley to ask Xiong He for a large piece of meat.
The tribe hadn’t turned all the meat into smoked meat. They had left some fresh meat that could be eaten over the next few days. At this time, everyone was getting meat and preparing to eat.
Xiong He had allowed everyone to eat as they liked yesterday, but he had resumed distributing the meat according to the work that was done today. The hunt yesterday had been led by Xiong Ye, so his portion was quite large. Others received relatively less, particularly the people from the gathering team.
Of course, their appetites were smaller, and they couldn’t eat that much anyway.
At this time, everyone was gathered together to roast their meat. Seeing that Xiong Ye was bringing his meat back to his cave, some of them were a little envious, “I heard that Zhou Ji will make delicious food for Xiong Ye.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t know how to make delicious food.”
“Even if we knew how, we still don’t have pots and materials… Xiong Ye caught a large bird to eat today, while we only have dinosaur meat.”
……
These people sighed and began to gnaw at their roasted meat.
They should be content with what they had. Just a few days ago, they hadn’t even been able to eat roasted meat at all!
While the people in the tribe were roasting meat, Zhou Ji had placed the ‘flat pot’ that Xiong Ye had ground out for him on the fire.
This ‘flat pot’ had basically been almost finished before he had given it to Xiong Ye to polish. It had a diameter of about 60cm and was very large and quite thin.
After the pot was heated up, Zhou Ji poured in some oil and had Xiong Ye slice the meat into thin slices that he then fried.
He fried the terror bird meat on one side and used the other side for the dinosaur meat. It was divided very clearly; the dinosaur meat was kneaded with salt before being fried, while the terror bird meat… He placed it straight into the pot for frying, then used a piece of wood to dab some chili sauce onto the meat.
Xiong Ye could feel his mouth throb a little when he saw this scene.
This thing made his mouth very uncomfortable when eaten. Was Zhou Ji really going to eat it?
“Zhou Ji, this thing will make your mouth hurt after eating it. You’re better off not eating it.” Xiong Ye was worried.
“It’s fine.” Zhou Ji used chopsticks to pick up the piece of terror bird meat, eating it directly.
This body of his had never eaten spicy things before, so he had only put a very small amount of chili sauce on it. The taste was just right!
Terror bird meat wasn’t as good as elephant bird meat and had a bit of a gamey taste, but it was covered up because of the chili sauce… Zhou Ji quickly realized that he could soon eat dinosaur meat that didn’t have such a strong gamey taste in the future.
Chili sauce was such a good thing.
Xiong Ye ate the fried dinosaur meat while Zhou Ji ate his terror bird meat.
When meat was roasted in the tribe, it was always roasted directly on the fire. There were many disadvantages to roasting meat like this. For example, it was quite tasteless, and it had a wooden flavor.
But meat that had been seared with oil didn’t have these problems.
In particular, Xiong Ye liked to eat oily meat.
Fried dinosaur meat that had spices sprinkled on top was truly too delicious! The only problem was that frying it piece by piece like this was a little slow!
At the start, Xiong Ye let Zhou Ji fry meat for him to eat, but he soon learned how to do it and began to fry meat for himself.
Seeing this, Zhou Ji no longer worried about him and slowly fried his own terror bird meat.
He was actually capable of eating more than Xiong Ye if he really wanted to eat. He had a rare opportunity to eat spicy food today, so his appetite was quite expansive.
“Zhou Ji, it’s really too delicious! Can we still eat like this tomorrow?” Xiong Ye asked.
Zhou Ji replied, “Yes.”
Xiong Ye was immediately delighted. At this time, Zhou Ji asked, “Does your mouth still hurt?”
Xiong Ye had lost that kind of feeling a long time ago and instantly replied, “No.”
Hearing this, Zhou Ji used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of roasted terror bird meat and offered it to him, “Give it a try.” He had only put a tiny amount of chili on this piece of meat, and it shouldn’t make him too uncomfortable.
Xiong Ye felt a bit conflicted as he looked at that piece of terror bird meat.
The chili pepper he had eaten before had left a psychological shadow!
But Zhou Ji enjoyed it that much. It was as though… this meat was very delicious?
Also, this was something that Zhou Ji had worked hard to make and roast. He couldn’t just refuse… Xiong Ye gritted his teeth and took a bite.
His eyes lit up almost instantly after he ate this bite.
This… After reducing the amount of that chili that had made him feel so bad, it was actually extremely tasty!
“This kind of flavor is called spicy.” Zhou Ji taught him.
Xiong Ye nodded and finished the piece of spicy terror bird meat before going back to eat his own non-spicy meat.
After eating it, his mouth no longer felt spicy, but he also felt like… his dinosaur meat wasn’t that delicious anymore…
“Aren’t you flavoring your dinosaur meat with salt before frying it? You can add a little chili sauce to it when you marinate it. That way, you’ll be able to taste the flavor without it being too spicy.” Zhou Ji suggested.
Xiong Ye didn’t hesitate at all before doing what Zhou Ji had proposed.
Meanwhile, a spicy fragrance had wafted out of the cave.
Zhou Ji and Xiong Ye’s cave was quite high, and it wasn’t easy for the fragrance to spread to the valley below, but the noses of the people of the tribe were all very sensitive!
“What are Xiong Ye and Zhou Ji making? It smells great!”
“Everything Zhou Ji made when we went out to trade for salt was delicious, but it never smelled this good.”
“Will Xiong Ye let us try it tomorrow?”
……
Everyone in the valley looked longingly towards Xiong Ye’s cave.
Finally, the priest stood up, dusted off his robe, and climbed up to the entrance to Xiong Ye’s cave.
Xiong He and Xiong Qi immediately followed suit when they saw this, with Xiong Bai also tagging along. Niu Er thought about it, then brought Xiong Mao with him and also climbed up. He even said to Xiong Mao, “Hurry and change into a little panda.” Xiong Ye obviously liked Xiong Mao’s animal form. If Xiong Mao was going to go and scrounge for food, it would be more effective if he turned into his animal form.
Although Niu Er didn’t like to talk much, he was very clear-eyed about many things.
Those who had a good relationship with Xiong Ye all ran up to ask for food, but some others felt embarrassed about going.
However, even if they felt too embarrassed to go today, there would be opportunities in the future. They could try and find a way to help Xiong Ye or Zhou Ji do more things…
With this thought in mind, those people all looked towards Xiong Ye’s cave and swallowed back their saliva.
The fragrance of chili fried meat filled Xiong Ye’s cave, and the platform in front of the entrance to the cave was crowded with people.
Everyone who had come had good relations with him, and even the priest and tribal chief were there… Xiong Ye reluctantly handed a piece of meat he had already finished frying to the priest.
The priest ate it all in one bite and said excitedly, “Delicious! This thing is too delicious!”
The priest was old, and his tastes were quite heavy, so he wasn’t afraid of this spicy taste. In fact, the spiciness even served to stimulate his appetite.
After the priest had eaten, it became someone else’s turn.
“Delicious!”
“It’s so fragrant!”
“What kind of flavor is this?”
The more everyone ate, the more excited they became. Only Xiong Mao, who was still young, found it a little unbearable. After he ate the meat while in his animal form, the little black and white ball began to roll around on the floor.
Even so, he quickly got up and went back to staring fixedly at the meat Xiong Ye was cooking.
If it went on like this, Xiong Ye would have no way to keep eating… Zhou Ji took out the bowl of chili sauce he had made and handed it to the priest, “This is chili sauce. You can put a bit of it onto the meat when you roast it.”
He had a lot of chili peppers on hand and could make the chili sauce again. It was best if he sent away these people who were disturbing their cozy world of two.