CHAPTER 32: CHAPTER 32, REPLENISHING THE BODY OF THE FAT CUB_1

When she returned home, Ji Nuan first went to check on the little lion cub. Seeing that he was sweetly dozing off, sprawled into a small, fleshy pancake, his tiny body rising and falling gently with his breath, and quietly snoring, her heart filled with warmth - she had someone to call family now.

She lowered the beast skin curtain gently and tiptoed towards the Food Storage Cave.

After igniting the small stove, she filled the stone pot with water, took a few Giggle Beast eggs from a nearby basket and cracked them into a stone bowl. She then arranged a few well-cleaned tree branches of suitable thickness in the pot to act as a colander, before carefully placing the bowl filled with egg liquid on the makeshift colander.

The cub had been injured and needed to be fed some steamed egg custard.

Picking up the basket in her hands, she took out several Giggle Beasts and cleaned them by the river. After that, Ji Nuan went to the Clan Leader’s house.

"Are Clan Leader Uncle and Aunt Naima home?"

Over their dinner inside the cave, the Clan Leader and his mate exchanged a glance, simultaneously placed down their food.

"Is that Shan Zaizai’s voice? Perhaps she is regretting adopting that little lion cub." Naima said to the Clan Leader in a low voice.

Even though Ge Xing furrowed his brows, he didn’t respond to Naima’s words. He simply patted her on the shoulder, encouraging her to continue eating, before getting up to go outside.

Seeing the Clan Leader emerge from the cave, Ji Nuan who was outside holding three Giggle Beasts, approached him. Holding up the processed Giggle Beasts she said: "Uncle Clan Leader, these are the Giggle Beasts that I caught today. I’d like to exchange them for some Green Bull Beast meat with large bones, to nourish the little cub’s body."

Upon hearing that Ji Nuan wasn’t planning to return the cub, the Clan Leader breathed a sigh of relief and laughed heartily. He responded, "I’ve been craving your cooked Giggle Beasts for a long time. Just today, we managed to hunt a Green Bull Beast. If you cook these three Giggle Beasts for me, I can exchange even more Green Bull Beast meat with you."

Ji Nuan didn’t refuse. She had brought the cleaned Giggle Beasts with the intention of cooking them for the Clan Leader.

Last time she had shown Aunt Rou how to prepare Giggle Beasts, but they either turned out too tough or undercooked. When they were cooked just right, they still had a strange aftertaste. Also the Giggle Beasts were too small and had very little meat after being cleaned, hence not many in the tribe ate them apart from the females who occasionally needed a snack.

To the Orcs, instead of spending time hunting Giggle Beasts which had little meat and no useful skins, it was more worthwhile to hunt large wild animals in the forest, which not only provided meat but also fur for warmth.

Ji Nuan returned home to fetch a few types of fruits and large leaves. The Clan Leader had already happily prepared some mud.

She crushed spicy and sour fruits in a stone bowl into a paste and smeared the Giggle Beasts thoroughly with the fruit paste, massaging it for flavor. She stuffed the Giggle Beasts’ stomachs with crushed regular fruits, wrapped them with large leaves, and applied a suitable layer of mud on the outside. She then placed them in the fire started by Ama, who cared for the Fire Seed.

Naima and Ge Xing stared at the mud-covered Giggle Beasts in the fire, swallowing hard.

Managing to tear his gaze away from the fire, Ge Xing led Ji Nuan to his own Food Storage Cave.

He fetched a half-eaten Green Bull Beast from a corner, ripped off the remaining hind leg and handed it to Ji Nuan, "Here, you can take this bull leg."

The [Orc] Clan Leader couldn’t adopt the disabled cub, so he wished to help Ji Nuan with food instead.

Ji Nuan hurriedly declined, insisting that the three Giggle Beasts she had brought were not nearly enough to trade for this much Green Bull Beast meat.