After dinner, Achu left with Lu Se. After helping to pack up his things, Achu said to several people, "Take a rest today and tomorrow morning I will take you to the salt mountain to collect salt stones."
Chen Qi nodded. They originally intended to exchange enough salt stones for the whole Qi Ze City until next summer. However, there are many impurities in the salt stones. Chen Qi would like to bring back the refined salt, which can not only save the trouble of handling it again after returning, but also bring more.
"Axu, can you ask the Beastmen of your tribe to help refine the salt stone tomorrow?" Chen Qi checked his recent artwork while others were busy, and by the way, he briefly recorded the hunting scenes of Achu and others in the evening.
"Yes, you don't have to carry back the impurities after refining here." Since eating the salt without bitter taste in Qi Ze City, Axu's two brothers have not generally rejected the unrefined salt stone, but the salt stone in Qi Ze City was already disposed of when they went. Even if others explained to them how to deal with it, Axu could not understand the steps of refining the salt stone well without seeing the actual operation with his own eyes.
"I just don't know much about the steps of refining salt stone. I'll trouble you to demonstrate it again tomorrow." Axu said apologetically.
Chen Qi smiled, "This is natural."
"I'll teach you tomorrow. refining salt stone is very simple. I've learned it for a long time."Ale knew that Chen Qi was busy drawing materials for his map. Anyway, he had nothing special to do here, so he took the initiative to take things to himself, which also allowed Chen Qi more time to do his own thing.
Seeing that Ale is so active, Chen Qi does not want to rob him. He plans to take a walk around tomorrow. Such rock mountains are rare on the Dora Plain.
Ashu has been used to sleeping with them for a long time, and does not intend to go to his father's cave at night. He found some skins and spread them to the fire. He made do with Ale and went to sleep. Ashu did not stay here and left for more than two months. His experiences along the way can't wait to tell his father and father in detail, especially the skills he learned from Qi Ze City. He also wants to teach his tribe as soon as possible.
After tidying up the artwork, Aze has already spread animal skins under the flagstone bed near the corner. The two flagstone beds in the cave are not large enough for an adult man to lie down on his back. If he moves a little more, he will even fall to the bed.
Can't sleep on the slate bed with Chen Qi, Aze laid a hide under the bed to make do with it, while the other slate bed was given to Asu.
"Aze, go to bed tonight." This period of time Aze has to carry heavy luggage and travel on his own. He also has to take turns to keep vigil at night. Chen Qi feels distressed. Now that he has arrived in Luoshui Tribe, he naturally hopes the other party can have a good rest.
Aze shook his head. "I just want to sleep on the floor. Chen Qi, sleep on the bed."
Chen Qi walked over and dragged Aze to the bed without saying anything, while he dug out a piece of hide in his backpack and rolled it into a ball for pillow.
"Chen Qi, what are you doing?" Aze stood at the edge of the bed looking at Chen Qi, who had already laid himself down.
Hearing Aze's question, Chen Qi spread out his arms and pointed to the position beside him with a smile, "Do you want to sleep with me?"
Aze naturally knew Chen Qi's meaning, but the other party felt heartache for himself, so did he not feel heartache for the other party? Chen Qi yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Aze, you are also very tired today. Go to bed quickly." After that, he didn't care about Aze, who was still tangled on one side. He closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.
Aze sighed helplessly and took a piece of thin cloth as a quilt to cover each other. Even in summer, the ground was still cold because it was close to Luoshui Lake.
After helping Chen Qi cover the quilt, he looked up and found two pairs of curious eyes looking at this side. when he saw that he had been found, Ali and Shu hurriedly turned over and pretended to sleep.
Axu came at dawn the next day. Apart from Asu, who was making breakfast, there were two people on the other side of the fire who had fallen asleep. Chen Qi and Axu were not in the cave.
"Where have Chen Qi and Aze gone?" Axu asked curiously.
Asu pointed to the top of the cave. "Chen Qi said he was going to see the sunrise. He let Aze carry him to the top of the mountain early in the morning. He should still be there at the moment."
Axu nodded, rolled up his sleeves and walked beside Asu. "Let me help you cook."
Ashu's rocky mountain top was covered with jagged rubble, and only a huge sandstone could barely accommodate two adults sitting on it.
It was very quiet around. Chen Qi was surrounded by several open bamboo tubes. In front of him was a piece of paper that had already been painted. Aze stood quietly behind him, watching the breeze blow up the other's hair.
When Axu climbed up and shouted for the two to eat, Chen Qi drew a panorama of the Yanshan Group in addition to the sunrise picture. Axu was envious of it, but he was also embarrassed to ask Chen Qi for help. He decided to go to the outside to find some dyed fruits after picking the salt stones and come back. While Chen Qi was still here to learn how to draw with each other, he might be able to draw the panorama of the tribe himself sometime.
After a simple breakfast, several people cleared out some empty skins and backpacks and set off for Yanshan.
Yanshan is far away from the tribe in the outermost part near the Luoshui Lake. It will take about half an hour to walk along the Luoshui Lake.
A distance away from the beach is a piece of rocky beach. The finely crushed stones are wet with water, covered with moss and clusters of dark brown things. Chen Qi looks familiar. He goes closer and looks at it. He bends down to break off one and looks up and down for a few minutes. Finally, he is sure that this piece of rocky beach stretching hundreds of meters is full of mussels.
When Chen Qi was walking towards the edge of the rocky beach, several people stopped and looked at Chen Qi holding a dark brown object and studied it for a while, then waved excitedly to them and motioned for them to pass by. Several people looked at each other and walked over doubtfully.
Chen Qi handed the mussel in his hand to Axu. "What do you call this stuff?"
Axu looked at it and shook his head. "This kind of thing has no name." Although the names of many animals and plants here are the same as those in Chen Qi's cognition, the animals and plants who are useless are seldom specially remembered with a name.
"Don't you all eat mussels?" Chen Qi wondered, no wonder the mussels in this area grow so densely.
There is still a long way to go from Yanshan, and it will be in the afternoon when the salt stone is collected. Chen Qi thought for a moment and looked at the crowd expectantly. "Do you want to eat a new kind of food?"
Ashu pointed to Chen Qi's dark brown mussel, "do you want to eat this stuff? This kind of thing is very hard."
Chen Qi gave him a look, "Who let you eat with the shells?"
"I'd like to try it." Seeing that Chen Qi was obviously attracted by these so-called mussels, Asu turned to ask Axu, "Can we go to collect salt stones in the afternoon?"
Axu TanTan hand, "Of course, you can go anytime." Then he looked at Chen Qi and said, "Do you want to pick these mussels now?"
Chen Qi nodded repeatedly and saw that several people had no opinion. With a wave of his hand, he took the lead in bending down and began to pick the largest mussels.
After picking less than half of the bags, Chen Qi went back with several people. He also did not know whether the animals could eat mussels. If they picked too many and did not eat them, it would be wasted.
When he returned to the beach, Chen Qi washed the mussel directly with the water of Luoshui Lake. When he returned to the cave, he took out the pottery that cooked the food, put the sliced ginger and wild onions on it, then put the mussel into a pottery dish, fill it with water and cover it with a wooden lid. After the mussel was cooked, it was served.
Because the mussel itself is salty, Chen Qi didn't add any more salt. After the mussel was served, Chen Qi could not wait to pick up one. He directly took the shell in his hand and used chopsticks to pick up the meat inside. The taste was delicious. For Chen Qi, who had not eaten seafood for more than a year, even boiling it in clear water was much more delicious than the usual roast meat.
After eating one by himself, Chen Qi picked up the other and squeezed the meat out to Aze's lips. After seeing Aze chew it for a few times, he was a little uneasy and asked, "Is it good?" People like Aze who have lived near Chishui River for a long time should seldom eat fresh seafood. Chen Qi worries that the other party will not be used to it.
Aze nodded, "delicious."
Chen Qi breathed a sigh of relief, this just called others to eat together.
Ashu picked up one. when it grew on the lake, it was obviously a hard one. now it was boiled in water and opened its shell. he could see the yellow-brown meat inside. he twisted the meat out with his fingers, put it into the import, chewed it for a few times, then slurred his speech and said, "I thought these were stones, but I didn't think I could eat them."
The taste of mussel is different from that of meat. Several Beastmen are not used to this kind of taste at first, so they will carefully taste each one before swallowing it. After eating a few, they feel that the taste is good, and then they let go of it. Because it wasn't long after breakfast, half a bag of hide and a bag of mussel were a bit too many for several people. Finally, Axu took those who could not finish eating to other caves and distributed them to the Beastmen in the tribe.
Soon afterwards, the people of the Luoshui tribe all knew that the piles of black and brown things growing on the rocky beach, which were as hard as stones, were edible.
After tasting the delicious mussel, Chen Qi started his plan to bring it back to Qi Ze City. He took several people to Shitan again and came back after picking two big bags.
After cooking the mussel, remove the shell, then spread a layer of cattail leaf on the open space outside the cave, spread the mussel meat piece by piece on the cattail leaf for drying. I intend to make the mussel into dried mussel and take it away before going back. Raw mussel cannot be preserved for long, but dried mussel will not be a problem until winter, provided it is properly preserved.
Dancai can't be exposed to the sun all the time. Ali and Ashu stayed to help look after it. Ashu's family still has many unrefined original salt stones. Ale plans to take advantage of this time to teach Ashu the method of refining salt stones and let Ashu teach others in the tribe.
Chen Qi and several other people went to Yanshan to pick salt stones under the leadership of Axu.
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