Chapter 27: Autumn Harvest

The chestnuts finally ripened and fell to the ground, but their long, prickly outer shells discouraged most animals; only small creatures like squirrels and chipmunks were unafraid, beginning to scramble for the harvest and carry it off to their nests.

It was also time for the people of the Baifeng Tribe to set out, equipped with large Baskets and long bamboo tongs, which allowed them to pick up chestnuts without bending over and without fear of their hands being pricked by the thorns.

They had no shoes to wear, and although their soles had developed thick layers of calluses, they still could not block out the fine, prickly hairs.

To help them better serve the tribe, Baifeng "designed" shoes for them. With wooden soles and animal hide tied to their feet, they were, in fact, the most rudimentary clogs.

Once the tribespeople put them on, their movement was completely restricted, and no one wanted to wear them, so Baifeng only made them wear them while picking chestnuts; after being pricked a few times, they knew the benefits of these things.

The Gujiao that Baifeng had been thinking about day and night also ripened; currently, other food crops—that is, the traditional five grains—were still in their primitive state without selection or breeding, resulting in low yields, poor taste, and scattered distribution that made them difficult to harvest.

Gujiao was different; it had remained the same for thousands of years, and no one had specifically cultivated it to make it a staple food, instead focusing on its roots and turning them into a vegetable.

The number of Bamboo Rafts had grown from the one Baifeng made to over a dozen, and judging by the tribespeople's attitude, there was a rhythm where they wouldn't be satisfied until everyone had their own, and each newly built one was larger than the last.

They would spread animal hides over the Bamboo Rafts to cover the gaps, paddle the Bamboo Rafts alongside the Gujiao, pull the heads of the Gujiao down, and gently strike them with a stick so the ripe Gujiao would fall onto the hides.

The lake was large enough, and the Gujiao it produced was plentiful enough; every morning, Baifeng would wave goodbye to the tribespeople going to harvest Gujiao and chestnuts, and then greet the tribespeople returning fully loaded at noon and dusk with a beaming smile, just like a woman left behind at home.

Of course, Baifeng was not idle either; the task of forging Weapons was basically all pressed onto him, and every day he had to forge iron until he couldn't lift his arms, to the point where he felt his Qilin Arm had reached perfection.

The things he forged became increasingly sturdy, and their shapes slowly began to look decent. Once the most urgently needed Weapons in the tribe were mostly finished, he began to forge Small Knives, distributing them to a portion of the tribespeople who had made greater contributions.

Doing this was, firstly, to have them serve as role models; if they liked the Small Knives, then they should work hard and show results. Furthermore, the Small Knives were indeed very convenient, whether for working or for cutting meat while eating, they could be taken out and used at any time.

Lu, who was once Baifeng's lucky star, had refused when Baifeng hoped he would pass on his deer-hunting techniques to everyone; although Baifeng did not deliberately make things difficult for him afterward, he did not give him any special treatment either—someone who had the ability but did not use it was no different from an ordinary person.

Coupled with the fact that he was very average in other aspects and had no notable achievements to show for himself, he could no longer sit still as the hunters in his own group received Small Knives one by one or were promised them by Baifeng for various reasons.

He found Baifeng and said he wanted to trade his deer-hunting method for a Small Knife; by this time, Baifeng's carefully crafted Recurve Bow was more than half finished, and once completed, the tribe's hunting success rate would surely increase several-fold.

Therefore, Baifeng was no longer very interested in his deer-hunting method—how good of a method could a primitive person come up with? —but he still promised him that as long as his method was indeed useful, then what harm was there in giving him a Small Knife.

Upon hearing this, Lu's eyes lit up, and he immediately wanted to drag Baifeng to watch him hunt deer, but Baifeng had no interest in that, as he still owed a whole pile of Small Knives that hadn't been forged yet.

However, Baifeng could not just give him a Knife based on his words alone, so he had the hunters from Lu's group supervise him; as long as Lu could use his method to catch a deer within three days, he would be given a Small Knife, and if the method proved to have universal utility, he would be given a Dajian.

"What's a Dajian?"

"It's a Knife this long, longer and thicker." Baifeng gestured to Lu with his hands.

Seeing the length Baifeng gestured, Lu didn't say another word and immediately dragged the hunters from his group to go hunting, wanting to prove to Baifeng that he could catch a deer.

"You only need to throw a deer in front of me at this time three days from now, and you will be able to obtain a Small Knife." Baifeng waved his hand, telling Lu to go do his business and not affect his own work; in any case, once a promise was made, he would not go back on his word.

Baifeng still had to continue repeating this monotonous process of iron forging; he still owed the tribespeople over a dozen Small Knives, and although the tribespeople could not receive their rewards immediately, the further along he went, the better the quality of the things Baifeng made.

Baifeng even wanted to try making a Damascus Knife using Stacked Forged Steel, but unfortunately, he overestimated his own strength; the iron blanks could not be fused at all, and he didn't know what material to use as flux.

The confidence he had built up after forging iron for a while, feeling that he would surely reach the finals of the Broken Blade Competition, was shattered by the scrap iron blanks in his hands, which made Baifeng face reality.

Every day, in addition to making Small Knives, axes, and such, he also found time to make Arrow heads, and Baifeng's high-tension Recurve Bow was almost finished.

The one he made with bamboo last time had no power, so Baifeng switched to using mulberry wood, though shaping it was troublesome and required using rope to bind it and slowly change its form.

As for the adhesive for the grip, because the tribe caught a large number of fish every day, they saved the fish bladders specifically for Baifeng when cleaning the entrails, and Baifeng then slowly boiled them into glue.

Baifeng's bow was made in secret; otherwise, although the tribespeople wouldn't have the guts to object, they would certainly look at him with strange eyes, and the prestige he had painstakingly built up using Iron could not be eroded away bit by bit.

In the living area Baifeng had initially planned, the houses were basically all built; hundreds of people were constantly building houses every day, and they were doing it faster now that they were skilled.

The houses Baifeng built earliest were merely for shelter from the wind and rain, and looking at them now, there were too many mistakes and deficiencies; they only had a Phylum and no windows, but that was a minor matter—they didn't care about that bit of sunlight anyway, and heat retention was the most important thing for them.

No one knew how to make a Phylum, and Baifeng only understood a little; it required making a door frame and threshold before a Phylum could be installed, but their tribal craftsmanship was too poor, and the doors they made were just large, solid pieces of wood tied together with vines, and there wasn't enough Iron to waste on making iron nails for these things yet.

Not knowing how to install a Phylum, they just built it directly onto the opening, and then tore it down when they got up in the morning; Baifeng found the rare craftsman in the tribe, described to him what a door frame roughly looked like and its specific operating principle, and then walked away.

That craftsman, whom Baifeng called a Carpenter, stood dazed in the wind, only wanting to say: "Huh??? Are you kidding me?"

However, Baifeng still followed his impression of woodworking tools and sent him a Chisel, an axe, and a crude saw.

Especially in the absence of an Ink Marker, he explained the use of the Ink Line to him, enabling him to saw straight wooden boards. After this set of combined efforts, he had already forgotten the unreasonable request Baifeng had made of him.