Chapter 136: The Sky Will Clear

The fire crackled; if not for Xiaolang pressing down on his legs until they were numb and tingling, Baifeng would have fallen asleep long ago, as it is difficult to sit through a night without any form of entertainment.

Every good while, Baifeng had to get up to take a look; after doing this too many times, Xiaolang was no longer willing to let Baifeng fuss, and whenever Baifeng tried to pick him up, he would flick his tail like a divine dragon to break free, then run off to sleep in a dim, unseen corner.

Every time he went out, the snow was getting lighter, and Baifeng's anxious heart finally settled; now, as long as it didn't suddenly clear up but stayed overcast for two days, this cold disaster could be considered weathered.

The cloud layer had likely thinned, as it was brighter in the morning; at least some light could filter through, making it feel less oppressive.

Baifeng could not wait any longer; regardless of Sui still sleeping, he put on his clothes, took his shovel, and went out. Now he could walk without shoveling snow, though it was very inconvenient to sink into it, and even with the high tops of his Boots, some snow inevitably got inside.

This time, Baifeng did not call anyone else; he just went to check on the herd of cattle first. The cattle were in much better condition than yesterday, and their spirits were good. Seeing Baifeng arrive, Xiaoniu, who was still in the center, even raised its head and let out a call as a greeting.

The cattle were all lying down chewing their cud; aside from the fodder being full of cow dung, there was nothing wrong. The two temporary stoves had no open flames left, but there were still some embers in the ashes below. Seeing there was still plenty of coal nearby, Baifeng grabbed a handful of grass that wasn't covered in dung, placed it on the embers, and blew on it; it smoked for a good while before catching fire.

Afterward, he put the coal inside and burned some more grass to get the coal burning thoroughly. Baifeng did not stay to watch, nor was there any need to; once the coal was burning brightly, he threw a large pile of coal inside and left.

It had been bright for a long time, but the clansmen still upheld the rule of not having to work when it snowed or rained, so they hadn't come out yet. However, to ensure everyone was fine, the quickest and most proper method was to call everyone out for roll call.

A few wake-up whistles sounded; Baifeng trusted that everyone had heard them, but helplessly, the square was piled high with snow and they had nowhere to stand, so he could only wait for people to follow the sound to find him.

Upon seeing them, Baifeng just told them to go to their respective team leaders to report and take roll call, then have the leaders report to him; this way, they wouldn't have to keep crowding together and could suffer less from the cold.

The final result was that everyone was safe and sound, nothing had gone wrong, and they were all very obedient, not cutting corners at night by burning coal instead of firewood.

Thus, he told everyone to go back and continue resting, to catch up on sleep if they needed to. He had already checked on the cattle herd, and Baifeng returned to his own room as well.

The chickens had completely recovered after a night in the room and were now chirping and clamoring for food. Sui had been woken up by the chickens, and when Baifeng returned, Sui was busy looking for shriveled grain for them with a head of messy hair.

However, the chickens were truly too restless and there were many baskets; with over twenty chickens, and they weren't small chicks anymore, there was nowhere to step on the floor, so Baifeng didn't want to keep them in the room anymore.

The shed prepared for Xiaoniu next to their room was still empty; ever since Xiaoniu brought back the herd, it hadn't been inside, but Baifeng and the others hadn't dismantled it either. After all, it was a pretty good shed, and Baifeng was still thinking of converting it into a sunshade or a reception room in the summer.

But for now, let's just move this flock of chickens in there to live; it was too noisy. After being fed some shriveled grain, they became restless, and even though it was very cold outside the baskets, they still wanted to jump out and inspect the place.

Baifeng was sleepy again; he felt his sleep schedule had been flipped, and it would be a bit troublesome to get it back on track now, so he could only sleep for the morning.

However, Baifeng's nose was running uncontrollably now; he knew this was a Wind-Cold cold, so he wrote a prescription on a bamboo slip with a charcoal pencil for Sui to take to the healer, while also asking the healer to decoct more, as the clansmen might all need it—after all, even someone as strong as him had fallen victim to it.

The healer had followed Baifeng for such a long time, and was young and eager to learn, so they could already recognize many characters; at least they knew the names of common medicines and could write them, knowing far more characters than that unenterprising "old man" the Shaman.

Of course, to ensure no mistakes were made when grabbing medicine, Baifeng used his own experience to make 5, 10, and 15-gram Iron weights. They couldn't be the same as the grams of later generations, but this was just to provide a range for the healer to measure the medicine. Putting them on a Balance Scale was fine; although it was very slow, Baifeng didn't want to waste his time on grabbing medicine.

Before Sui returned with the medicine, Baifeng was already lying down, fast asleep; the main thing was that his body really felt too miserable and couldn't hold up.

The healer used up all the medicine needed for the Ephedra Decoction, but it wasn't enough for all the sick people in the tribe to drink, so they had to give a bowl to the clansmen who were more serious, and there was no substitute for this prescription; many of the medicines could not be found here.

Baifeng had also adjusted his sleep schedule. The snow had stopped falling, though the wind still blew in gusts occasionally. The weather didn't suddenly clear up, but it remained overcast for two days, and the temperature gradually rose a little.

Even though the snow was very thick, what needed to be dealt with still had to be dealt with. Now that the weather wasn't as cold, Baifeng led people to shovel the snow into piles and pack it down, and also hauled a portion to the vegetable garden and outside the city to dump it, which finally gave the tribe some space to move around.

Another day passed, and the weather cleared up, but even with the sun shining directly down, the sunlight felt cold. The air outside felt like a chill drilling straight into the body; for the sake of health, it was better to keep hiding in the room.

After being exposed to the sun for several days, the snow in the areas they had cleared finally melted away. The snow in the areas that hadn't been cleaned had almost no change, except for a layer of transparent snow crust, and the entire tribe was full of water, which froze into ice morning and night. The icicles hanging from the eaves were over a meter long, and the longest one connected from the not-so-high roof all the way to the ground.

Now the temperature had stabilized, and they had completely entered Winter; there was no way to go out wearing just a little bit anymore. As for the snow, if it wanted to melt completely, it would likely have to wait until spring.

Even the wild animals out there were suffering now; such thick snow gave them no chance at all to forage for food, or rather, they hadn't survived at all when it was snowing.

Perhaps the clever ones had already run quite far away; like birds, they could fly to places where the snow was light, such as behind that mountain range in the clouds in the distance.