ON MAR 24, 2023 BY DIVINELYMEIN BL

Ruma helplessly watched the guy playing in the water with a group of children in the river. Although this guy was revered as a deity by everyone, it was hard for him to feel awe towards him. He watched as the young man half-submerged in the water vigorously splashed the nearby children with water, and then slyly dove into the grass by the water’s edge to tickle an unsuspecting child on the ground. 

The old man couldn’t help but twitch at the corner of his mouth. No one would have thought that the revered deity of the tribe would be like this. Oh, forgive him, for using the word ‘guy’ to describe this godlike male.

Qin Fei was splashing around in the water with a few children, teaching them how to swim. At first, the children were very serious about learning, but gradually, after learning some tricks, they became more mischievous. Some mischievous child splashed water at someone’s face, while another mischievous child held his breath and tried to grab someone’s foot, causing a commotion.

Watching the children happily playing, Qin Fei took the opportunity to teach them some simple tactical skills. He divided the children into three groups, and each group had to hide a partner within a certain range by the river. The opposing group had to find the hidden person and protect their hidden partner.

This was a team collaboration game, and although the children did not understand the big principles, they learned a lot through their cooperation with each other. Under Qin Fei’s leadership, they had a lot of fun playing the game. Ruma watched from afar as Qin Fei slowly instilled these things into the children through the game, nodding his head in approval.

As the children were playing happily, suddenly one of them pointed to the distance and cried out, “Uh-oh, the water ukakaka is coming!”

Qin Fei was startled, thinking that the children had spotted some underwater monster, as ‘water ukaka’ didn’t sound like anything good. Although the water in this area was very clear and safe, in this dangerous and primitive age, who knew what kind of monsters might suddenly appear? Qin Fei jumped into the water and hurriedly pushed the children still in the water towards the shore. But the little ones didn’t cooperate with Qin Fei’s actions when they heard the shouting, and they all tried to swim towards that direction.

Qin Fei was shocked, angry and anxious, but he heard Ruma shouting from the shore, “Don’t worry, that’s not a dangerous thing.”

Qin Fei’s tense heart was suddenly relieved, and he gave a slap on the bare buttocks of the little boy who had just shouted. Although he didn’t hit hard, it made the little guy pout. Just now, Qin Fei praised him for being smart, but why did he suddenly hit him on the butt? The child was puzzled by the sudden punishment.

Qin Fei then tapped the pouting mouth of the little guy and laughed, “You almost scared the pants off of me, and I thought there was some dangerous monster in the water!”

The little guy’s pouting mouth went back to normal. It turned out that Qin Fei mistook ‘water ukaka’ for a monster. The child explained it with a smile.

Upon hearing the explanation, Qin Fei realized that ‘water ukaka’ referred to a type of floating debris in the water. During the summer, many bodies of water would have this kind of thing. They varied in size and thickness, but they all shared one common trait: an extremely foul odour. When found, they had to be promptly removed and buried; if left in the water, they would gradually begin to emit a stench, rendering the water undrinkable. So the people in the tribe called it ‘water ukaka’ which means ‘water monster skin’ in Chinese.

Qin Fei was curious about things he had never seen before and followed several males to retrieve the ‘water ukaka’ floating in the water. As the child had said, it was indeed extremely foul and covered in some kind of slime. Qin Fei held his nose and pinched the large mass of ‘water ukaka’ feeling like it was the skin shed by some aquatic creature. But if there were such large amounts of skin shedding, then those creatures must have been quite big, and since there were large quantities of ‘water ukaka’ appearing every year, it stood to reason that there must be a significant number of those creatures.

Upon hearing the plan of the male members to bury the ‘water ukaka’ on the spot, Qin Fei intervened and directed them to unfold the mass. The object was milky-white and slightly transparent, thin as a piece of cloth, with some elasticity and a very soft texture. Before Qin Fei could finish examining the ‘water ukaka’ in his hand, several more large masses of floating objects drifted over with the water flow.

The male members quickly pulled them up and placed them in front of Qin Fei instead of burying them. These larger masses of floating objects were slightly different. Two of them were very similar to the first one that was pulled up, and the other one was highly transparent, resembling a thicker plastic film. There was also a type that was about five to six inches thick, with transparency similar to that of pure water when frozen but was hard like thick plastic and had a gelatinous texture.

Ignoring the foul smell, Qin Fei worked together with several male members to drag the pile of things back to the camp.

Ruma was a little surprised by Qin Fei’s actions, but given that he always made unexpected discoveries, he didn’t say anything and observed along with the other members.

Qin Fei brought a large pot and a huge gourd bowl. He filled the pot with water, added many herbs that could remove the foul smell, and then boiled the water to let the medicinal properties of the herbs spread in the water as much as possible. Then he used a knife to cut a part of each of the three different ‘water ukaka’ and put them in the gourd bowl, and finally poured in the boiled herbal water to soak them.

The effect of the medicinal water in removing the odour was very obvious. Qin Fei picked out those ‘water ukaka’ that had been soaked in the medicinal water for some time with the scabbard of the knife, and smelled them with his nose. Sure enough, the fishy smell was gone, replaced by a fresh scent of herbs.

Next, he dried the three types of deodorized ‘water ukaka’ by the fire. The milky white and slightly transparent kind, which was as thin as a piece of cloth, felt smooth and soft like silk, and even after drying, it had no feeling of stiffness. Qin Fei also tested the breathability of this ‘water ukaka’ and was surprised to find that it was similar to silk. This made Qin Fei very curious, but he couldn’t help but be overjoyed. 

It should be noted that summers here were very hot, and even the thinnest animal skin, even without hair, was still very stuffy. Qin Fei had heard from Ruma that most of the males in the tribe were naked during the hot summer months, and even if they were not naked, they would only cover key areas with leaves. Most females also covered key areas with leaves, but the more daring ones would bare their upper bodies, while the boldest ones were like the males, completely naked.

At that time, Qin Fei almost dropped his jaw in shock. He was a civilized person who valued privacy and did not want to return to the ‘naked age’ where he would be seen through by others. He agonized over this for a while but had no choice. Now that he had suddenly obtained this ‘water ukaka’ he was just trying it out, but he did not expect to get a treasure that was comparable to silk. How could he not be overjoyed?