Orc Girl's Tribal Daily Life

Chapter 104 Visiting the Mao Family

"Luo, would you like to come to Mao's house together?" Ge asked.

The fruit stored in the cave has been mostly cooked over the past few days, and the remaining little bit should be completely consumed by tonight.

Unfortunately... their own fruit was almost cooked, but Mao's family still had a lot stored up, so their days of making jam were not over yet.

Ge had originally planned to take some time this afternoon to visit Mao's house and check on things, but seeing how bored the cub was, Ge felt that taking the cub along wouldn't be a bad idea.

Sure enough, the cub's eyes lit up immediately when it heard that it could go outside, and it seemed very interested.

However, the cub soon showed a hint of disappointment as she looked outside the cave. Although Mao's house was only about 200 meters away, with the heavy rain outside, she felt that she couldn't even walk 20 meters.

The straw raincoat I made before was completely ineffective against this heavy rain.

Moreover, rather than seeking shelter from the rain, Jiang Luoluo felt that she needed a suit of armor to defend against damage; the rain could be considered a form of attack.

Of course, most importantly, Jiang Luoluo knew that Ge wouldn't let herself get hurt, so it was very likely that Ge used some means to harm himself to protect her from going out.

If that were the case, Jiang Luoluo felt she might as well not go out at all.

Ge pursed his lips. The cubs were always so clever, thinking too much, unlike other children who were so innocent and played as they pleased, rarely considering the impact of their actions on others.

It's not that those children are bad, but Ge is heartbroken that the little ones are so caring towards others at such a young age. People who think too much are always more likely to suffer more losses.

However, since Ge had already made such a request, he was naturally prepared. Ge pointed to the two empty wooden planks at the door and explained to the cub with a smile, "Luo, don't worry, we can carry it out later and it won't get wet in the rain."

The wooden doors are made from felled trees with a diameter of more than half a meter. They are usually divided into three equal parts, with a thickness of about 20 centimeters and a length of two to three meters. The height of the cave entrance is lower than the height of the cave interior.

If you lift up such a thick wooden board, it becomes a natural rain shelter that is more than half a meter wide and more than two meters long.

This would put a lot of strain on Ge's arms, as he would not only have to lift such a heavy plank, but also withstand the immense pressure from the waterfall outside.

But what Go has in abundance is strength; in fact, none of the tribe members are lacking in strength.

Jiang Luoluo tried to follow Ge for a while, and when she looked back and saw that Ge's arm was indeed steady and did not sway at all, she felt relieved and continued to walk forward.

The two of them were not moving fast; Ge was mostly yielding to the cub's speed.

Jiang Luoluo inexplicably felt as if she were walking through a water cage.

After all, apart from the square area above our heads, which was untouched by rain, the rainwater flowed more densely from all four sides, like walls of rain.

Jiang Luoluo walked to Mao's house.

Mao's house was similar to Jiang Luoluo's house; the entrance to the cave was mostly made of wooden planks, with only one or two pieces left in the middle to prevent the cave from feeling stuffy and suffocating.

Just then, Fang Ge and Jiang Luoluo walked in carrying the wooden planks.

Ge also casually wedged his own wooden door directly into the entrance of Mao's cave. Although the sizes were not quite the same, he managed to place it there by tilting it slightly.

Mao and his father Ke, who were inside the cave, looked up after hearing the sound and met the eyes of the two who had just entered. They were both a little surprised.

Mao and his father Ke had anticipated that Ge would come, but they did not expect that Jiang Luoluo would also come in the rain, as the weather outside was not suitable for the cubs to go out.

Jiang Luoluo and Ge were surprised by the appearance of the father and son – Mao was carrying a heavy load on his shoulders, doing physical training, while his father Ke was sitting next to a stone pot, stirring it constantly.

The stone pot also emitted a familiar sweet aroma.

Jam? Jiang Luolu blinked, not expecting that not only she, but Mao was also making jam at home.

For a moment, I felt a strange sense of balance, as if I knew I wasn't the only one suffering, and I felt much better.

Jiang Luoluo didn't think that just because she made the jam, others couldn't make jam. On the contrary, she hoped that others could make jam so that she could be freed from this kind of work.

Now, most of the tribe relies on Jiang Luoluo as their jam supplier, making Jiang Luoluo feel embarrassed if she doesn't make jam.

If other people could also make jam, Jiang Luoluo wouldn't have to do all this troublesome stuff and would have more time to research other new recipes.

Although the fruits in Mao's house should nominally belong to Jiang Luoluo, many of them were picked by Mao and Chi, making them Mao's private property. It's unreasonable for Jiang Luoluo to take them.

Previously, Jiang Luoluo always gave Mao the cooked jam as payment for his help picking fruit, determined not to let Mao work for free.

If Mao decides to cook for himself now, Jiang Luoluo will actually have an easier time.

Mao noticed the cub's gaze was fixed on the stone pot, and then, as if struck by a sudden thought, his face flushed crimson. He quickly tried to explain, "No, Luo... it's not like that."

Jiang Luoluo looked up in confusion. "Huh? What don't you mean?"

"The fruit was about to spoil... My father and I were afraid of wasting it, so we thought we'd make it into jam first," Mao explained, feeling very embarrassed.

He had been making jam with Jiang Luoluo for a long time, and he was very precise in controlling the heat and proportions. In the past few days, he had made quite a lot of jam, and there were basically no mistakes.

That is, there is only one stone pot in the family, unlike Jiang Luoluo's family which has four stone pots together, so the number does not seem to be as many.

The reason we didn't send the fruit to Jiang Luoluo was because we were worried that there wouldn't be enough space at her house. After all, we chose to put it at Mao's house because Jiang Luoluo's house didn't have enough space.

Mao even thought that if Jiang Luoluo's family ran out of fruit, she would come and get it herself, so he kept waiting, and in fact, that was the case; he was right.

"Luo, here's some jam for you." Mao said somewhat anxiously, pulling Jiang Luoluo to the cooked jam.

Jiang Luoluo was so frightened that she immediately backed away. No! She didn't want that! She already had enough at home!

Fortunately, Ge didn't mess up at this point and understood what the cub meant.

Ge sincerely thanked the father and son, explained his family situation, and after repeatedly declining, finally left the jam that the father and son had cooked for him.

Not only that, although Jiang Luoluo and Ge came to take the fruit, they left some fruit for the father and son to continue making jam... cough, every little bit helps in reducing their workload.

Mao and his father Ke helped with the delivery, leaving Jiang Luoluo alone in the cave, waiting to pick her up after the fruit was delivered.

Jiang Luoluo could only look around Mao's house. She had been here a few times before, and the cave was quite spacious then, unlike now, where 60% of the cave was filled with fruit.

Now that most of it has been cleared out, it doesn't feel much more spacious. After all, there are no more fruits, but there are rows of jam jars, and the firewood and food are all placed haphazardly.

Since she had nothing better to do, Jiang Luoluo helped tidy up.

Jiang Luoluo has been tidying up the house frequently lately, and she's become even more skilled at it. She can tell at a glance where things are placed for easy access and where they save space.

Don't be fooled, once you've done one thing a lot, doing anything else feels almost like relaxing.

When Mao and Ke returned after carrying the fruit, they were speechless when they saw the newly renovated cave.

It's easy to see from Mao's personality that his father, Ke, was not a smooth or worldly person either.

Seeing the identical expressions of emotion on the faces of the father and son, Jiang Luoluo almost fled in panic.

She really didn't do anything.

But sometimes, it is precisely this kind of unconscious kindness that is more touching.

……

"Was Luo scared?" Ge asked with a smile.

Perhaps because an observer's perspective is clearer, Ge understood that it wasn't the cub that did something irreplaceable that moved the father and son so much.

Moreover, the cub acts as a "medium," providing an excuse for the estranged father and son to interact and communicate with each other.

In a relationship, the worst thing is to have nothing to say and to want to say something but not know how to express it, which ultimately leaves only silence.

Jiang Luoluo shook her head; she was just a little surprised... well, a little.

……

In the afternoon, Ge went out again to Cong's place to get some containers, but this time he didn't bring Jiang Luoluo with him.

After all, the road to Cong's house is quite long. Normally, even without rain, it takes more than ten minutes to walk there, unlike going to Mao's house, which is much more convenient.

Jiang Luoluo was making jam at home by herself. Because the herbs had been updated, Jiang Luoluo no longer had to worry about poisoning, and it was fine for her to stay in the cave by herself.

When Jiang Luoluo heard the sound coming from the door, she thought it was Ge returning. But when she looked up, she saw Mao running over in the rain, looking flustered.

Jiang Luoluo was quite surprised, wondering what had happened to make Mao so panicked. She quickly got up to greet him and prepare to comfort him.

Then Mao spoke, sounding flustered as if he was about to cry, "Oh no, Luo... you forgot to take back the hook vines you left here."

Huh? Jiang Luoluo reacted for a moment, then reacted again.

Is there anything to panic about?

Mao looked very guilty. "I'm sorry, Luo, I forgot..."

Jiang Luolu recalled that when He was clearing the mountain wall at Xiaoshishan, he helped ask the tribesmen in charge of the clearing for the fruit. He asked for two large bundles in total because her family's cave was occupied by the fruit and there was no room to put it, so it was sent to Mao's house.

Then the weather cleared up. Because the hook vines had been left outside and gotten wet from the rain, Jiang Luoluo was worried they would rot, so she took the two clumps of hook vines out to dry in the sun...

Then there is no more then.

I put it in the sun for a bit and then forgot about it.

Goodness, these two clumps of hooked vines have been getting rained on outside for four or five days now.

Jiang Luoluo felt a little guilty. She hadn't even thought of it at all, even though she had been thinking about whether it could be used as a fishing line.

However, Mao was clearly more concerned about this matter than she was, so Jiang Luoluo could only comfort Mao, telling him it was nothing.

Mao lowered his gaze. He had come in the rain, and his clothes were soaked. Water droplets gathered on his long eyelashes and fell down. If you looked down at him, it would look like he was crying.

Jiang Luoluo is short and always looks up, so there's no misunderstanding.

Jiang Luoluo took out a linen towel and wiped the water off Mao's cheeks. She then asked what had happened and why he had suddenly remembered the two clumps of hooked vines.

Mao pursed his lips shyly. Before the rainy season started, he followed Chi out to pick fruit every day. He was so tired when he got home that he would fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He had no energy to think about anything else.

After the rainy season began, his house was piled high with fruit, and all he thought about every day was checking on the fruit and worrying that it would rot.

If Ge hadn't taken away most of the fruit, and if Jiang Luoluo hadn't tidied up the cave, Mao wouldn't have remembered the forgotten hook vines, especially since the cave now looked much more spacious.

The moment Mao remembered the hooked vines outside getting soaked in the rain, he felt like his world had collapsed.

He couldn't even do such a simple thing that the cubs had given him.

"It's alright, it's alright," Jiang Luoluo reassured Mao by touching his arm.

At worst, she can ask Brown for some more after the rainy season ends. Anyway, the rainy season is long, and even if she comes up with something, she won't be able to put it into practice immediately.

"By the way, how are those two clumps of hooked vines?" Jiang Luoluo asked, gesturing towards the question.

Whether it's good or bad, she already has a general idea in her mind.

Mao is indeed Mao. He pointed to the cave entrance and said that when he came to find the cubs, he had already brought two clumps of hooked vines with him.

Seeing the cub's signal, it quickly got up and went out, dragging in a clump of hooked vines.

Jiang Luoluo looked at the clump of hooked vines, and only one thought came to her mind—it looked like soaked vermicelli.

The original, normal hook vines are of varying thickness, between the size of a finger and an arm, with some parts being thicker and others thinner.

After enduring being soaked by rain, exposed to the sun, and then soaked by rain again, they have now swelled up to be as thick as an adult's arm.

It also has a soft, "transparent watery" feel, looking like it's about to expand and burst open at any moment.

However, when Jiang Luoluo touched it, she realized that it was just an illusion. The clump of hooked vines was still very sturdy. She pulled hard, but it didn't seem to break. It didn't budge. Only a little water seeped out.

Perhaps it can still be used after being aired out? Jiang Luolu couldn't help but think.

Even without the sun, drying it with fire is just as effective; the worst outcome is that it becomes unusable, so there's not much difference.

Jiang Luoluo originally thought she could handle the task herself, but seeing Mao's guilty and uneasy expression, she decided to hand over one of the vines to Mao to deal with, so that he would feel that he had at least made some amends.