Orc Girl's Tribal Daily Life

Chapter 288

284

"Cough cough..." Jiang Luoluo coughed lightly, attracting the attention of the children outside.

"The shaman said he'd make a den for these two wild beast cubs outside. Does anyone know how to do that?"

The group of children exchanged glances, somewhat confused about Jiang Luoluo's meaning.

They naturally heard what the shaman said, but the shaman always wished to send them aside to play and never asked them to do anything.

The witch knew very well which children would obediently do chores and help, and which children would only cause trouble and make things worse.

But Jiang Luoluo is not a witch. Although she can help the witch with her work, it's not as easy as delegating the work herself.

So he feigned surprise and exclaimed, "Oh dear, these two cubs look so cold, they're going to freeze to death! Could someone please bring some linen and animal hides to warm them up?"

Upon hearing that the two cubs were going to freeze to death, the children outside immediately became anxious. They hadn't even seen what the cubs looked like yet, and they couldn't let them freeze to death.

"Me, me, I'll go, my home is nearby." A little boy of only six or seven years old immediately raised his hand and then ran away.

“I have one at home too, I’ll go get one too.” The other two children quickly followed.

The remaining children looked up at Jiang Luoluo and, through the window and door, started asking her all sorts of questions.

"And what about us? What can we do?"

"Do you have any planks? We can build them a nest or something. Just put a few pieces of wood together and add some weeds for warmth," Jiang Luoluo suggested.

"Let me do it, I have some extra wood at home," the older child said, pulling a few other children along with him.

"You guys come with me to move it."

"Let's go cut the grass." The child next to him immediately volunteered, grabbed his little stone knife, and left.

Nan and a few children remained. Nan looked at Jiang Luoluo expectantly, hoping that she could do something.

Jiang Luoluo didn't let Nan off the hook either, blinking her eyes, "I think these cubs are very dirty, they might need to be washed with hot water."

Nan immediately jumped up, "Oh, oh, oh, I'll go boil some water!"

Wu turned to look at Jiang Luoluo, who had assigned the work in just a few words and was squatting there comfortably without saying a word.

This isn't an important task. After some time, the adult member of the tribe who just left will return with the tiger bear mother's hide, and he can do it.

It's fine to let these children do it like we are now.

It will also make them less troublesome.

Jiang Luoluo assigned all the work to others, and she didn't stay idle herself. Before the other children returned, she planned to move the two tiger bear cubs to the fire to warm them up and raise their body temperature.

As soon as she started using it, Jiang Luoluo realized something was wrong.

It's heavy, so heavy.

These two tiger bear cubs appear to weigh four or five times more than their actual size, and most importantly, they are clinging to each other so tightly that they cannot be separated.

Jiang Luoluo almost couldn't pick him up.

The children who went back to get the linen returned the fastest, one of them even carrying several pieces of animal hide.

Jiang Luoluo fell silent for a moment, thinking about this spendthrift child.

In the end, he was allowed to take the animal hide back.

The child was still a little confused. "Luo, animal hides are much better than linen. Linen isn't warm enough."

Jiang Luoluo forced a smile and explained, "They're newborns and are very sensitive to smells. Your animal skin has an unfamiliar scent, which might scare them."

In my mind, I was actually thinking, "This is to save you from a double whammy when you get home!"

Then came the older children who had gone home to fetch wood. Without Jiang Luoluo's direction, they found a spot next to the witch's wooden house and began to figure out how to build a nest for the two cubs using wood.

The group of people each had their own ideas, and no one could convince anyone else, so they almost came to blows.

The witch had been working with the window open, but they made so much noise that she closed it, wanting to avoid seeing or hearing it.

Jiang Luoluo was directing a few younger children to piece together the scraps of burlap they had brought into a whole piece.

He was quickly called out by the older kids to act as a referee and judge the matter.

Jiang Luoluo blinked and tossed the problem to the tribesmen who had just returned from retrieving the tiger bear mother's hide from the icehouse in the back mountain.

In fact, after these children started arguing, they no longer cared who was right or wrong. They were all waiting for a suitable opportunity to fight openly and honestly—after all, it was in front of the witch, and it wouldn't be right to fight without a suitable reason.

So Jiang Luoluo had no intention of getting involved at all, since no one would listen to her anyway.

Regardless of the preparations being made for the cubs outside, Jiang Luoluo saw Nan and his few subordinates carrying several large wooden tubs filled with hot water over.

This amount of hot water is enough to bathe the two bear cubs several times.

Seeing that there was enough hot water, Jiang Luoluo also washed the tiger bear mother's skin, which she had just peeled off, mainly to clean off the bloodstains.

However, they didn't clean it too thoroughly, afraid of washing away the mother tiger bear's scent and not being able to soothe the two tiger bear cubs.

Then we found two children who seemed more meticulous and careful to help wipe all the fur off the tiger bear cubs with warm water.

Another reason why the two cubs might feel uneasy is probably because they are uncomfortable.

After animal cubs are born, their mothers usually help them lick off the amniotic fluid. However, this tiger bear mother was attacked by a hunting party during the birthing process and had no time to take care of her cubs.

The members of the hunting team were not careful enough to notice this small matter; at most, they would casually wipe it dry with a blade of grass.

The two tiger bear cubs, covered in sticky amniotic fluid and in a hypothermic environment, had lost their mother's scent; it would be a miracle if they could eat anything.

If they hadn't been forced to eat a little food, which allowed them to survive until now, they probably would have died on the way.

As expected, when Jiang Luoluo placed the cleaned tiger bear mother's pelt next to the two tiger bear cubs, the two cubs, whose eyes were not yet open, showed obvious signs of relaxation.

In addition, the children patiently and meticulously wiped away any discomfort on my body, making me feel dry and more relaxed.

When food was brought over again, the two tiger bear cubs no longer resisted and obediently began to eat.

The children who had been busy all day cheered with suppressed joy upon seeing this scene.

Meanwhile, the cubs' nest outside had already been prepared.

It's shaped like a triangle, made of a bunch of wooden planks tied together at one end and left open at the other, looking a bit like a tent.

There was no foundation or any fixing.

After all, tiger bear cubs grow quite quickly, and they probably won't be able to stay in such a den for very long before they grow too big to live there.

Moreover, once they grow a little bigger and their fur becomes thicker, they won't need such a nest anymore.

This shelter is more like a temporary dwelling, serving a similar function to a tent.

Considering the cold weather, the quilt was placed near the fire, in a position where it could receive warmth from the fire.

But they weren't placed too close, mainly because they were worried that if any of the sparks became even slightly more active and discovered that there were two wild beasts nearby, they might suddenly erupt and burn them to death...

Both are very possible.

After settling the two tiger bear cubs, all that's left is to feed them regularly.

There were other people to handle this kind of thing, so Jiang Luoluo didn't need to worry. She clapped her hands, told Wu, and took Angela home.

Angela only suddenly looked relieved after she had been far from the mountaintop.

Although the shaman appeared to have no fighting ability and was very thin, the pressure he exerted on Angela was even greater than that of the leader, and as Angela grew older, that pressure became increasingly apparent.

So when Angela met the leaders Jing and Wu, she was incredibly obedient and docile; it wouldn't be so easy to command anyone else.

At least one piece of meat is needed to get Angela to help with her tasks.

On her way back, Jiang Luoluo passed by Xing's cave again, and was somewhat unsure whether Yan had left.

So she hesitated for a moment and didn't go to disturb Xing now. Instead, she waited until after dinner and before going to bed before going to find Xing.

In any case, Yan shouldn't be staying overnight at Xing's house.

After they arrived, before Jiang Luoluo could even ask about Yan and Xing's situation, she had already gone over.

Xing then delivered a devastating blow to Jiang Luoluo.

"I'm getting married, Luo." Xing's face was beaming with a happy, rosy smile.

Jiang Luoluo was stunned. "Huh? Married? So soon?"

She only just found out about Xing and Yan's relationship. How could they be getting married already?

“Not now.” Xing smiled. “We plan to get married before the rainy season.”

Jiang Luoluo calculated the time; there were only about two months left until the rainy season, which was still going by quickly!

However, Jiang Luoluo also knew that this time was normal in the tribe.

After all, there aren't that many complicated emotional entanglements in the tribe. As long as two people are attracted to each other, no one will say anything if they get married the day after they meet.

Without having to consider their parents' opinions or care about whether their family backgrounds are compatible, this kind of speed of getting married seems quite normal.

Jiang Luoluo couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

I've been neighbors with Xing for several years. If Xing gets married, she'll definitely move away. This cave is just too small; it can't accommodate two people living together.

And they will have children later, requiring even more space.

But thinking about it carefully, this also proves that Xing is living a better life, and Jiang Luoluo should be happy for her.

Jiang Luoluo quickly suppressed her complicated emotions and began to discuss with Xing their future marriage plans.

Yan also lives in a cave, which is a bit far from here, but not far, otherwise Ge wouldn't have asked Yan for help.

To start a family, they first need to choose a new place to live, and then make the new place suitable for living—it takes half a month just to rebuild the heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove).

In addition, some miscellaneous daily necessities need to be replaced with new ones, from single-person use to use by two people or the whole family.

Thinking about it that way, two months isn't exactly a flexible timeframe.

Regarding whether to continue living in the cave or build a wooden house—Yan is a fairly strong orc warrior who can afford the construction and subsequent maintenance of the wooden house.

After discussing it, Xing and Yan decided to continue living in the cave.

"Why?" Jiang Luoluo asked curiously. The wooden house should be more spacious and comfortable to live in.

If building a log cabin takes longer, they can postpone their marriage until after the rainy season; it won't make much of a difference in time.

Xing smiled and said, "Luo, you said before that wooden houses are not as sturdy as houses built with firebricks. You said that houses built with firebricks would be more sturdy and durable. I've been thinking about it, and we're moving into wooden houses now, but we might have to rebuild them with firebricks later."

"It would be better to stay in the cave for a while and then switch to the brick house once it's built."

Moving is always a hassle, so instead of going through the hassle twice, it's better to wait and do it all at once later.

The tribe now has enough firebricks to build brick houses for some of its members. However, brick houses and wooden houses are built differently, and the tribe needs to study this further to determine how to build brick houses that are more sturdy.

Currently, there are several experimental brick houses in the tribe. These are experimental houses built based on the ideas of different tribesmen. The plan is to let people try living in them for a period of time to make sure there are no problems or to solve all the problems before arranging for everyone to move into brick houses.

Jiang Luoluo could offer some advice on the heated kang bed, since she had seen it with her own eyes and found that its structure was simple, consisting of only a few flues.

Building a house is difficult; the foundation, load-bearing capacity, waterproofing, fireproofing... each of these aspects requires a long period of testing. The only thing Jiang Luoluo could do was draw the outline of the brick house from her memory, providing some reference for the tribe members responsible for building the brick houses.

The process was not smooth. Jiang Luoluo heard that of the five brick houses that were initially built, two collapsed in the first month, and the remaining three could only last for a maximum of six months.

This batch of brick houses is now being built for the third time. All the lessons learned from the previous failures have been incorporated. If no other problems arise next year, these brick houses should be able to be initially promoted in the tribe.

Besides the structural issues, Jiang Luoluo felt that the materials were also a problem. If a sturdy material like cement could be developed, it would definitely be easier to build.

Jiang Luoluo couldn't figure out how to make lime, but she could use seashells to make it. However, the problem was that she didn't have any seashells to use.

And to build a house, how many seashells would be enough?

We can only focus our attention on the Taz Forest and try to find a natural limestone mining area.

However, the formation of natural limestone seems to be inseparable from the ocean and seawater. Is there a sea in the Taz Forest?

The Taz Forest is so large, we should be able to find it, right?