CH 20

The sea of reeds appeared in front of Qin Fei’s eyes as the wind blew and the waves surged. It was so beautiful that one could not take his eyes off it. 

Sa Lei knew by the look on Qin Fei’s face that he liked it. He couldn’t help but come up to him and took the opportunity while he was in a daze to kiss him. He smiled as he said, “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Qin Fei was in a good mood and didn’t mind Sa Lei’s indecent assault, smiling and nodding, “It’s beautiful.”

Sa Lei took Qin Fei with his uninjured left hand, “If we go further in, we may encounter soft mud. You have to keep up with me! Do not wander around randomly!”

Qin Fei told Sa Lei to wait for a moment. Lowering his head, he looked around for some easily bent yet hard to break grass and vines. These vines were light in weight, but extremely pliable and strong. Sa Lei watched as Qin Fei’s fingers quickly weaved between the branches. Soon four odd things of similar size were compiled 

Qin Fei took the odd object and wore it under his feet, “This kind of thing, half round on one side and flatter on the other, will keep the possibility of us being in danger lower down a little more.”

As Qin Fei said this, he handed over the other two to Sa Lei. Sa Lei, still half-believing and half-doubting, followed his example and put the odd thing under his feet as well. Sa Lei immediately found out that his feet, which formerly had been stuck in the muddy water and grass, could actually step on the mud. 

“Qin Fei you are amazing!” Sa Lei couldn’t help but highly praise him. 

Qin Fei, however, had an excited look on his face, “Sa Lei, look! It’s a bird’s nest, and there are the eggs.”

Sa Lei’s eyes following Qin Fei’s finger, he saw that there were indeed several bird’s nests in a slightly dry grassy area five metres away. One nest already had a few young chicks and eggs while the other several nests were only eggs. Sa Lei felt that this path was relatively safe, so he pulled Qin Fei carefully over to the nests. Qin Fei quickly put the basket down and excitedly went to look at the eggs. The bird’s eggs were very large, several times larger than the normal goose eggs. The little chicks Sa Lei knew was one type of aquatic bird that grew around here. They couldn’t fly but they were good swimmers and no one could catch them as long as they were in this reed marsh. They had very few natural predators, so they were incredibly numerous. Each year, they lay eggs for an exceptionally long time and in large numbers. If it wasn’t so dangerous here, those bird eggs alone would be enough for the tribe to eat for some time.

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The two of them had been out from that reed pond for a while before Sa Lei realized, “Qin Fei, why are you catching all of these chicks? They’re almost all bones!” 

Qin Fei chuckled, “Didn’t you say that these water birds have a long egg-laying period? Wait until we raise the chicks big, we can eat the eggs regularly.”

Sa Lei was stunned, “That’s a good idea! If we raise some smaller animals, we can still kill it for meat when it grows up!”

Qin Fei patted Sa Lei, “Not bad, we have a place like that there. We call this kind of place a pasture. There are a lot of things that are raised on the ranch. Some are used for eggs, some for meat and some specifically for milk.”

Sa Lei smacked his lips and muttered ,”No wonder you don’t like it here. You have so much food in there.” 

Seeing that Sa Lei was a little depressed, Qin Fei comforted him, “In the future, there will be more food in here too.”

Sa Lei nodded, “Qin Fei, although I can’t guarantee that you can eat the best food. But I will give you the best food I can get for you. Please believe me!”

Qin Fei was a little moved as he nodded his head and remembered how Sa Lei had left food for him, starving himself, “Hn, I always believe in you!”

As they were talking, something suddenly landed not far from them and rolled to the corner of Qin Fei’s feet.  

Sa Lei frowned, “Why is the oil fruit falling again?”

Qin Fei kicked the fruit that had the same size as a rugby ball with his feet , “So this is the oil fruit! I’ve only ever seen tribesmen use a yellowish and transparent fruit oil and drip it on firewood to help it burn. I’ve heard that the oil is taken from the juice of the fruit.”

Sa Lei picked up the oil fruit from the ground, “Don’t look at the hard surface of this thing but the skin of the fruit is extremely thin. The inside is full of oil. The torches you see used in the tribe are made from the oil of the oil fruit. Although it is not poisonous and it’s not rare, it’s a pity that it can’t be eaten. If this gets cracked by the sunlight, the overflowing oil juice can also easily cause a big fire, so I have to cover it up first.” 

Qin Fei’s eyes lit up, “Now that you mention it, I remember some other uses for the oil fruit, so don’t bury this one yet.”

Sa Lei was curious, “What are you going to do with this?”

Qin Fei smiled broadly and said, “Make something delicious for you.”

Sa Lei was full of disbelief, “Qin Fei, don’t lie to me. I drank this stuff when I was a child and had diarrhea for two days. It simply can’t be eaten at all.” 

Qin Fei couldn’t help but laugh, “This kind of fruit, if you just drink it like that, how is it possible you didn’t get diarrhea? I said I would use it to make you something delicious, but I didn’t say you only eat this.” He put the oil fruit into the basket, at the same time, both of them continued to walk back.

They chatted and laughed along the way but they didn’t completely idle. Qin Fei also found wild onions. Sa Lei saw how happy he was, so he thought that he had found some important herb. He was curious, moved closer to look at it in detail and realized it was one of the seasonings he had told the tribe about last time. Sa Lei didn’t like the smell of wild onions much and wrinkled his nose as he choked by the smell of it. 

Qin Fei dug up all the wild onions he found on the ground and put it in his backpack basket.

Sa Lei rubbed his nose and couldn’t help but complain, “These onions smell so bad!” 

Qin Fei couldn’t help laughing, “Don’t look at the smell, but it can make some food taste better when you use it to mix it with food. Moreover, it’s also counted as a medicinal herb, it can benefit the digestion and absorption of nutrition, improve the eyesight and maintain the lung’s health.”

Sa Lei nodded his head obediently like a good boy, actually listened to it but did not understand. Qin Fei thought about it once again and explained the medicinal uses of the onion in other words that Sa Lei could understand. As a result, Sa Lei’s eyes lit up and he nodded repeatedly. Both of them slowly made their way down to the hill towards the tribe camp. 

Sa Lei said happily, “The boiled eggs don’t have much flavour but it’s delicious. We’ll cook the eggs later.”

Qin Fei shook his head, “We’re not going to eat the boiled eggs today, I’ll cook you two different kinds of eggs to eat!” 

Sa Lei scratched his head, “What else are the two different kinds of eggs?”

“For example, the steamed egg or scrambled eggs with green onions… Both taste much better than the ones boiled with the plain water.”

After he heard what Qin Fei said, Sa Lei had a little craving and immediately accepted the good advice, “Then we’ll have the steamed egg and the scrambled eggs with spring onions today!”

Qin Fei smiled lightly, “Fine, however I’ll make some simple food steamers first.”