Chapter 175: Bow And Arrow
The weather was getting colder every day. The terraces on the next mountain were gradually taking shape.
Shuang Yun found a stream with a lot of water on the mountain. He and Shuang Yun worked together to dig a ca.n.a.l and guide the water into the terraced fields to irrigate the vegetable fields.
In order to avoid being buried by the snow during winter, the beasts in the temporary residence moved their residence up to a small hill beside the rock mountain.
The winter bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest were ripe. Bai Di dug them all out and brought them home.
As soon as Ni Ya saw the fresh winter bamboo shoots, his mouth watered.
!!
Huanhuan’s family was rich in food and did not lack bamboo shoots, so Huanhuan generously gave many of them to Ni Ya to eat.
Ni Ya hugged the winter bamboo shoots and ate them extremely happily.
His sister was right. It was a blessing to be able to come to the rock mountain!
Huanhuan planned to make some pickled bamboo shoots to try.
She picked up some bamboo shoots, cut them into long strips, and put them in clay pots. She then put in some sour wild hawthorns, sealed the pots, and put them in the cellar.
Huanhuan also asked Bai Di to cut some bamboo.
Ni Ya was interested in the bamboo too. He leaned over and sniffed them, his eyes shining.
The wolf cubs followed his example and sniffed the bamboo, but no matter how they smelled, they didn’t find them pleasant.
In contrast, they preferred the smell of roasted meat.
Huanhuan distributed some bamboo to Ni Ya.
Ni Ya was so happy that he rolled into the pile of bamboo on the spot and ate them. He found them especially sweetly.
Huanhuan wanted to cut the bamboo into thin pieces, but she was too weak. Coupled with her unfamiliar skills, the results were very unsatisfactory. She almost cut her finger.
In the end, Bai Di helped her solve the problem.
With a gentle swipe of his claws, the bamboo was cut into thin pieces.
In order to prevent the little female from cutting her fingers, Bai Di specially polished the surface of the bamboo, leaving no thorns.
Huanhuan picked up a piece of bamboo and looked at it. She nodded and said, “Not bad!”
She wove the bamboo into a small bamboo basket.
These baskets were very convenient to store fruits and vegetables in. If one kept them well, they could be used for a long time. They were much lighter than hide bags and wooden buckets.
Bai Di cut all the bamboo into thin slices, then copied Huanhuan’s movements and began to weave the baskets.
He was strong and learned quickly. He could make a beautiful bamboo basket in no time.
He made more than a dozen bamboo baskets of different sizes in one go.
Under Huanhuan’s guidance, Bai Di even made up a set of bamboo steamers.
On a whim, Huanhuan casually made a small ball with bamboo pieces.
She threw the bamboo ball to the wolf cubs to kick around.
It was the first time the wolf cubs had seen this novel toy. They played around the bamboo ball for the entire afternoon until Bai Di finished weaving bamboo baskets and called them to dinner. The little ones stopped reluctantly.
As the oldest sister, Big Goody was in charge of protecting the bamboo ball. Her brothers all followed behind her.
Dinner was bone soup with bamboo shoots and chicken wrapped around bamboo leaves.
The rich bone broth fused into the bamboo shoots. While the bamboo shoots were crisp and refreshing, there was also a strong fragrance of meat.
The chicken was wrapped around bamboo leaves and placed in a steamer to be steamed. The fragrance of the bamboo leaves fused with the chicken. It tasted extremely good!
The family ate especially well.
After the terraces were dug, Shuang Yun and Bai Di stayed at home. Bai Di put the bamboo baskets in his shop. When he sold fruits and vegetables, he also sold a few bamboo baskets.
In the shop next door, Mayne quickly noticed the bamboo baskets. He went to the door and smiled ingratiatingly.
“Mister, your bamboo baskets look quite interesting. Can you sell me two?”
Bai Di handed him two bamboo baskets. “These are the last two. You can have them.”
Mayne immediately accepted the bamboo baskets. At the same time, he took out a pair of small puppets and offered them with both hands. “These are a bunch of trinkets I collected from the beast city. They’re not worth much. You can bring them to the children, Master.”
These were the puppets of two little tigers. They were finely carved and looked charming.
Bai Di accepted the puppets.
When he got home, Bai Di found Huanhuan working on a stick of bamboo. Ni Ya and the wolf cubs were nowhere to be seen.
He asked, “Where are the children?”
Huanhuan said without looking up, “They went out to play soccer.”
Ever since the wolf cubs got the bamboo ball, they played with it every day. There were a few times when they even broke things at home.
Hence, Huanhuan asked them to go out and find an empty and flat area of land to play soccer.
Big Goody brought her little brothers to the learning area on the 11th floor. There was an especially large piece of flat ground there. It turned out that Huanhuan had left it there to be used as a playground. However, these wolf cubs did not need to do morning exercises, so that place had always been idle. It was just right for the area nearby to be used for soccer.
The wolf cubs played soccer there and attracted many cubs in the tribe. Hence, the soccer team grew bigger.
And because Big Goody was in charge of keeping the bamboo ball, the cubs followed her lead.
This girl was already starting to take on the role of a big sister.
Huanhuan did not know that her daughter was running further and further down the path of a tomboy. She was busy polishing the bamboo in her hand.
Bai Di asked, “What are you doing?”
“I want to make a bow.”
“Bow?”
Huanhuan explained as she gestured with her hands, “Bows are this big. They can be used with arrows to kill enemies. They’re good for self-defense at critical moments.”
A beast’s greatest weapon was themselves. They could tear their prey apart with their sharp claws and rarely used auxiliary tools like weapons.
Without claws, Huanhuan could only use her human intelligence to make weapons to defend herself.
She already had a bone knife on her. With a bow, she would have everything she needed.
Bai Di helped her polish the bamboo. After bending it, he tied both ends with a dried piece of animal tendon.
A simple little bow was made.
It was very light and suitable for Huanhuan, who was very weak.
She tried to pull the string and found that the bamboo was a little slippery. She got thin twine and wrapped it around the bamboo seven or eight times. When she tried again, the bow stopped slipping.
She picked up a sharpened piece of bamboo, placed it on the bowstring, and casually shot an arrow at the wall.
The bamboo arrow flew out, hit the wall, and fell to the ground.
Bai Di picked up the bamboo skewer and studied it for a moment. “You have to sharpen the front of the arrow and add something at the end. Otherwise, it’ll be difficult to control the direction when you draw the bow.”
Huanhuan recalled the bows and arrows she had seen in her previous life and tried to ask, “Why don’t we add some feathers?”
Bai Di thought about it. “Sure.”
They went to the yard and caught a chicken. They plucked dozens of feathers, cut off the excess, and tied them to the end of the shaft. Then, they fixed a fish bone, which had been polished into a triangular shape, at the front of the shaft.
This fish bone had its own barbs. If one was shot by it and wanted to pull it out, one would end up pulling out a large chunk of flesh.
Even if they couldn’t kill enemies like this, they could hurt them.
It was more suitable for shooting enemies than shooting prey.
Bai Di made 12 arrows and handed them to Huanhuan for self-defense.