Ch125 – Rice and Millet
“I wonder what the tribes on the Beastman Continent are like.”
“These people look just like us.”
“They look weaker than us…”
……
People from the Big Bear Tribe whispered amongst themselves.
Zhu Zhan heard this and said, “The small tribes on the Beastman Continent are similar to those in the wild forest, but they know how to grow a variety of plants, which means they don’t have to worry about starving.”
“We also know how to grow plants,” the people of the Big Bear Tribe said.
Zhu Zhan didn’t say anything else. The Big Bear Tribe was a magical existence in the wild forest.
The people of the Grass Tribe who were walking ahead of them didn’t hear what they’d said. They brought the people of the Big Bear Tribe close to their tribe, then boasted, “Our tribe is up ahead. Many, many plants are grown in our tribe. We even grow corn.”
Xiong Ye knew that Zhou Ji liked to mess around with all kinds of plants, so he looked curiously in the direction that the other party was pointing in and saw a large farmed area filled with plants he didn’t recognize.
The fields of plants were very messy, and there were many weeds in the soil. It was just like how their tribe used to farm land a few years ago.
This kind of thing… According to Zhou Ji, the output of this method was limited.
Xiong Ye was suddenly a little disappointed.
Zhou Ji been using his spiritual powers to survey everything around them since a long time ago. At this time, he was actually very calm. He was just a little curious to know what kind of plants this Grass Tribe had planted.
He recognized quite a lot of plants, but he needed to wait until these plants matured before he could know what they were.
It was early spring, and the Grass Tribe had only just sown the seeds into the fields not long ago. The sharp buds of the growing plants were mixed in amongst the weeds, and if he didn’t produce some with his abilities, he wouldn’t be able to know what exactly they were.
And it wasn’t like he could simply start growing plants while everyone was watching, so he simply decided to wait and see.
Farming had greatly developed in the Big Bear Tribe over the previous year. Because of this, nobody felt that there was anything that special about the fields that the Grass Tribe had planted when they saw them. On the other hand, when the person from the Grass Tribe who was responsible for leading the way saw how calm they were, they determined one key point––this Big Bear Tribe was definitely a large tribe!
People who had come from small tribes in other places would be admiring the fields when they saw such a large stretch of land that was used for growing food!
They were still thinking about this when everyone had walked through a large field and arrived at some thatched huts. The people of the Grass Tribe spoke again, “This is where our tribe lives.”
Maybe only the large tribes would have something that could surprise them?
The people of the Big Bear Tribe were quite disdainful. The Grass Tribe noticed this situation and increasingly felt that these people must be extraordinary. Their houses were built very well; they were the ones who had built houses for the Giant Rhinoceros Tribe, yet these people felt no sense of wonder when they saw them…
“Hello, I’m the tribal chief of the Grass Tribe.” A thin, middle-aged man came out and smiled at Xiong Ye and the others.
“Hello, I’m the tribal chief of the Big Bear Tribe.” Xiong Ye replied.
“The Big Bear Tribe? I’ve never heard of this tribe before…”
“We live a little far away from here.” Xiong Ye explained. “We live near the coast by the sea, a long distance away.” They couldn’t say that they were from the wild forest, so they had previously discussed it amongst themselves and agreed to say that they lived by the sea.
It just so happened that they had obtained a lot of salted fish, seaweed, and other such things from the Beach Tribe and had brought all of it along, making it possible for them to disguise themselves as a tribe from the seaside.
“You guys live by the sea?” The people of the Grass Tribe were rather surprised. “Are you all out here for business? Do you have salt?”
“We do.” Xiong Ye replied.
To the Beach Tribe, drying out seawater for salt didn’t take much work, because as long as there was sun, they would be able to make salt all year around.
As for the salt that was dried out, they would be stored some distance from the sea to avoid it getting damp.
Because of this, although the waves swept up by Hai Feng and Zhou Ji’s fight had washed away the houses of the Beach Tribe, they still had quite a lot of salt left.
Xiong Ye had obtained a lot of salt from them, and while most of it had been brought back to the Big Bear Tribe, they still had a small portion of it with them.
“That’s great! Can we trade with you for salt?” The Grass Tribe tribesmen were extremely delighted. “We have delicious corn.”
Xiong Ye certainly wouldn’t object. “Yes.”
“That’s great! Guests from far away, welcome to our tribe!” The tribal chief of the Grass Tribe was overjoyed.
And when the people of the Big Bear Tribe made a stop and took out some salt, they were even more delighted, immediately bringing out a lot of corn.
Zhou Ji glanced over and discovered that the corn that they were talking about was actually millet.
It turned out that this tribe farmed millet. Zhou Ji was pleasantly surprised and expressed that if the Grass Tribe was willing to trade with millet, they would be willing to trade for as much salt as they wanted.
Congee made with millet was very delicious. Zhou Ji liked it very much, and millet could also be brought back to the Big Bear Tribe and planted for the children of the tribe to eat.
The chief of the Grass Tribe was very happy to trade for more salt and immediately asked people to bring out bag after bag of millet before going over to look at the salt that the Big Bear Tribe had brought with them. “Your salt is really good. The salt that I traded for before always had sand in it.”
As he spoke, he suddenly looked towards a pouch nearby and sniffed, “What is this?”
“This is salted fish. Are you interested?” Xiong Ye opened the bag and asked. This salted fish was also taken from the Beach Tribe, but because it was too salty, it carried a bit of a fishy taste, and they didn’t like eating it.
“Yes!” The chief of the Grass Tribe didn’t hesitate at all.
This was salted fish. Not only was it fish, it was salty!
The Grass Tribe was a small tribe, and most of the people of the tribe had rabbit, field mice, hedgehogs, and other similar kinds of animal forms with low combat power.
They were good at planting land and were very hard working, which meant that they wouldn’t starve, but it was very hard for them to have meat to eat.
They rarely ate meat, and it was the same for fish.
Of course they were willing to trade for the Big Bear Tribe’s salted fish with their millet.
Salt wasn’t cheap. The Big Bear Tribe was able to obtain a lot of millet with a single bag of salt and a bag of salted fish.
“This stuff is very tasty when cooked into congee. We can make congee to eat.” Zhou Ji said.
After hearing Zhou Ji’s words, Xiong Ye immediately asked the Grass Tribe for a place they could stay in temporarily so that they could set up camp and make food.
The tribal chief of the Grass Tribe pointed to a piece of land and then said apologetically, “We should entertain and feed you since you’ve come to our tribe, but we’ve just traded you all of our millet and don’t have any other good food to bring out…” If he had been dealing with one of the more arrogant large tribes, they would have had to bring out food to entertain them no matter what, but the people of this Big Bear Tribe seemed very friendly…
“It’s alright.” Xiong Ye said. “We brought our own food.”
While Xiong Ye spoke, the people of the Big Bear Tribe had already begun to use branches and mud to create stoves and set down pottery pots over them, preparing to cook food.
They first built a frame with branches, then covered it with a layer of mud to create a simple stove. The people of the Grass Tribe watched from the side as the Big Bear Tribe tribesmen set these things up, unable to understand what they were trying to do. This lasted until they brought out the pottery pot.
“Pottery!” The people of the Grass Tribe were shocked.
The people of the Big Bear Tribe were too rich! They actually had a pottery pot!
They had seen pottery in the Giant Rhinoceros Tribe before, but they had never used one before. They usually softened millet or rice in water before cooking it in a stone pot. Sometimes, they would simply chew it directly.
The people of the Grass Tribe were full of envy.
When they saw the people of the Big Bear Tribe take out meat and start roasting it, they grew even more envious.
These people had a lot of meat!
Although the people of the Grass Tribe were greedy for meat, they didn’t have any meat to eat and could only take out some rice that had been softened in water to eat for dinner.
Zhou Ji stilled for a moment when he saw the Grass Tribe’s food. “What’s this?”
“This is rice.” Someone from the Grass Tribe said, “This kind of thing has to be planted in water. It’s very troublesome and not very delicious… You guys haven’t seen it before, right? Very few tribes plant it.”
“I want to trade for some rice. How do you want to trade for it?” Zhou Ji asked. This was rice! Rice!
Before the apocalypse, he had most often eaten rice and was most accustomed to it. Over the past years, he had always been thinking about and craving white rice.
He hadn’t expected to actually encounter it in this tribe.
What did millet amount to when compared to rice? He wanted to eat rice right now.
The people of the Grass Tribe said, “A bag of millet is worth three bags of rice.”
He hadn’t thought that rice would be so worthless… Zhou Ji asked, “What if I trade pottery for it?” These people seemed to like the pottery he had on hand?
“A pottery pot can be used to trade for all of the rice that we have and more.” The tribal chief of the Grass Tribe said.
“I’ll trade with you.” Zhou Ji said.
The tribal chief’s expression was full of joy, but he soon refused with a bitter look on his face. “No… We’ll starve to death if we trade all our rice to you.”
The pottery pot was good, but they couldn’t go without food.
“Is that so?” Zhou Ji thought about it. “In that case, I’ll trade you meat for rice.” Wasn’t the Grass Tribe short on food? He could have Hai Feng go to the river and catch a few things.
“You want to trade meat for rice?” The people of the Grass Tribe all showed expressions of surprise––could something like that really happen in this world? There was actually someone who wanted to use meat to trade for their rice?!