Chapter 84: Trading Meat Jerky for Hide

Since it was proven that growing vegetables in the greenhouse was useful here, Lin Manzhi began wanting to stockpile more exotic beast hides.

Leaving aside these days, the lack of rugs at home is like missing the living room furniture, the kitchen dining table, making eating and daily rest somewhat inconvenient.

It's the small exotic beast hides in the tribe that are the key to building the vegetable greenhouse.

She feared buying large quantities of exotic beast hides in Kuangsha City would draw attention; now the tribe has such a good opportunity, she wishes the tribe's beastmen would bring exotic beast hides to her.

Being able to trade the small exotic beast meat jerky she had saved in the tribe for exotic beast hides was great for Lin Manzhi.

Because the family has been eating cooing bird meat lately, which tastes like cooked cured meat but lacks the cured aroma, she also no longer wants to gnaw on the hard, chewy small exotic beast meat jerky.

For Mo Lie, the small exotic beast meat provides far less energy than cooing bird meat.

Last time they went to Kuangsha City and bought over a thousand cooing bird meats, they were hardly short of food; for Lin Manzhi, the small exotic beast meat jerky at home would just sit unused if not for lack of food.

It would be better to exchange it for useful small exotic beast hides.

Lin Manzhi thought that in the future she could sell lettuce, then she would only buy better meat, fresh meat, and would never lack food.

She and Mo Lie discussed exchanging all the small exotic beast meat at home.

Not keeping Lin Manzhi waiting long, and perhaps fearing Mo Lie might change his mind, a few days later Shan Yan's hand had improved a bit, and he came carrying the family's exotic beast hides with one hand to find them.

Shan Yan's hand was wrapped with a thin wooden stick into a bundle; aside from his pale complexion, he looked normal.

He set down a large bundle of light reddish-brown exotic beast hides he had brought under the eaves by the door, looking at Mo Lie: 'These are all the exotic beast hides I hunted and tanned, accumulated since last year's dry season, totaling 189 small exotic beast hides and 6 medium exotic beast hides.'

Mo Lie glanced down, checking that the hides Shan Yan brought were all trimmed of head and tail, keeping only the middle, and they were well processed and preserved.

As he said yesterday, he produced the corresponding amount of small exotic beast meat jerky for Shan Yan; medium exotic beast hides are five times the size of small ones, so Mo Lie gave five times the amount of jerky per small hide.

Shan Yan hugged a large sack of jerky, originally thinking Mo Lie would not accept all those small exotic beast hides, but to his surprise they were all exchanged!

These exotic beast hides can be hunted in the desert themselves... I don't know why Mo Lie is helping him, but once they're in his hands, Shan Yan won't regret it.

He took his rain‑proof exotic beast hide, covered the jerky he received with it, and ran off quickly in the rain.

Following Shan Yan's successful trade for jerky with Mo Lie, the other three beastmen in the tribe excluded by Luo Ji also brought their own items to exchange.

After Mo Lie verified the exotic beast hides were intact, he exchanged the jerky for them.

The three beastmen who received the jerky, in disbelief and joy, tightly clutched the hundreds of pounds of jerky, their first reaction being to hurry home with all that food.

Mo Lie coldly called out to them: 'Wait.'

The three felt their hearts tighten; with hands guarding the food, they placed the large sack of jerky behind them, and one beastman stammered: 'How, how…? Is this the jerky you promised us? Shan Yan brought the food home safely…'

The other two likewise looked at Mo Lie in panic.

Mo Lie gave them a light glance.

'Rest assured, I won't take the jerky back.' His tone was cold, his blue eyes devoid of any warmth, carrying the chill of his beast form:

'You can go back and tell others that here I accept exotic beast hides in exchange for jerky.'

After hearing that, the three's hearts, which had just risen, settled back into their stomachs; they didn't understand why this powerful beastman wanted so many useless small exotic beast hides that couldn't be eaten.

Several people nodded frantically, memorizing it; this time they lifted the sack of jerky and hurriedly jogged away from the courtyard that made one's legs tremble.

Waiting for Mo Lie to carry three large bundles of exotic beast hides, each as tall as a person, into the house, Lin Manzhi happily came out of the bedroom, picked up a roll of small exotic beast hide on top, and felt its smooth, slightly cool surface.

She looked up at Mo Lie and said, 'Let's make two rugs first.'

Mo Lie: 'Hmm.'

Lin Manzhi glanced at the floor; previously the home's rug was a small strip, only able to cover a tiny center of the spacious room.

Now the house has so much smooth hide; thinking of the lettuce business, she figured it would start right under her nose, the vegetable greenhouse would only need the size of the repaired backyard, and building a vegetable planting base in Kuangsha City would be far in the future.

It would be better to first improve her own life.

She raised her head again toward Mo Lie, lifted her hand from the hide, spread both hands toward him in a gesture indicating great size, and said: 'Could we lay hide rugs throughout the whole house? Taking off shoes when entering and stepping on the cool surface would be very comfortable.'

Mo Lie lowered his gaze, looking at her dark, clear eyes; the coldness on his face eased a little, and he lightly nodded: 'Okay, we can make them into softer two‑layer hide rugs, I'll sew the hide rugs.'

The small exotic beast hide is thick, sewn with sinews pulled into fine threads; Lin Manzhi couldn't possibly help with the sewing.

Lin Manzhi reached out and patted the hide inside the house, her voice rising: 'Mm‑hm, I'll hand you things from the side.'

Mo Lie reached out, took a piece from the stacked hides, turned to measure the house's size, and estimated how many exotic beast hides would be needed.

Such a large room certainly couldn't be covered by just one rug; it could be divided into several rugs pieced together, which also makes washing easier.

Lin Manzhi stood aside, gazing at Mo Lie with eyes full of trust and admiration; he truly could do anything—hunting, cooking, making furniture—and on top of that he was so handsome.

Lin Manzhi looked at him from a distance, an unconscious smile on her face.

The small exotic beast is about the size of a lamb, not very thick, but since the family is willing to use the hide, the new rug at home is much more comfortable than the previous one.

Stepping on it feels a bit like stepping on the rubber flooring of a modern stadium, and it lacks the irritating rubber smell.

Lin Manzhi sat cross‑legged on the rug, content, placed the mat against the wall corner; the whole living room looked spacious yet clean and tidy.

Thinking of making double‑layer hide rugs to cover every room in the house is out of the question; with the nearly seven hundred hides we have now, laying them in the bedroom and living room plus one for the kitchen would just about use them up.

Fortunately, tribe members subsequently brought a dozen or so of their own hides to trade for jerky, and Lin Manzhi gradually accumulated two hundred exotic beast hides at home, intending to keep them for building a vegetable greenhouse in the backyard.

The small exotic beast meat the family had saved was also used up; others didn't want to trade for the tasty but pricey cooing bird meat, so Lin Manzhi temporarily halted collecting exotic beast hides.