Chapter 34: The Bonfire Feast

Baifeng brought Xiaoniu to the side of his house, found fodder for it, fed it water mixed with salt, and also fed it a handful of grass seeds. Xiaoniu ate the fodder in large mouthfuls, only then settling down to lie quietly and slowly ruminate.

The tribespeople did not understand why the Tribal Chief did not intend to kill that calf, but it did not matter; there was so much meat now that they did not know how long it would take to finish eating it.

When Baifeng returned after settling Xiaoniu, the meat had all been moved together under the direction of the Bear and the Shaman, and then, like an assembly line, it was cut into small pieces and covered with thick salt to cure.

With more people, the work went quickly; everyone just repeated the task at hand, and the next task was taken over by other tribespeople. Very soon, the blood-red beef turned into piles of white, salted beef.

There were many newly built empty houses in the tribe. Choosing one to serve as a warehouse for the meat, they laid bamboo on the ground to insulate against moisture, then spread a layer of salt on the bottom and placed the meat on top. Baifeng did not know how long this would actually keep, but this was for surviving the Winter, so the salt was used without restraint; the salt lake was right nearby, so there was no fear of running out.

By the time everything was tidied up, the sun was about to set. Baifeng looked at the jubilant tribespeople and shouted loudly: "Family, tonight there is no limit on meat. Eat as much as you can. Let's have a tribe-wide feast to reward everyone and thank you all for your hard work during this time!"

The tribespeople could not understand some of the words, but they all understood that there was no limit on meat tonight, so they cheered together.

Everyone lit bonfires. The beef was either boiled or roasted; you could eat it however you liked. In any case, the house containing the meat was right there; if you wanted to eat, you could go get it yourself, and no one would stop you.

The tribespeople were very happy, but Baifeng always felt that a bonfire feast without music and dance was incomplete. He found a thick pottery jar, covered it with an untreated cowhide, and after tying it tight, made a simple drum.

The sound was dull and not very pleasant, but it could barely count as a musical instrument. Baifeng held the drum between his legs and tapped out a rhythm with both hands. The tribespeople all looked at Baifeng, attracted by his cheerful drumming.

The drumming became more and more cheerful. A tribesperson by the bonfire started calling out "Oh-oh," and the others also began to call out happily, following Baifeng's drumbeats as they became increasingly rhythmic.

The Shaman began to dance a strange dance as if possessed, kicking up dust all over the ground.

Baifeng handed the drum to the Shaman, who was tired from dancing; he already knew how to tap the kind of rhythm Baifeng played. Baifeng stepped down and walked to a bonfire, took the hands of the tribespeople on both sides, and had everyone hold hands to form a circle, and then Baifeng taught everyone the Guozhuang Dance step by step.

By the end, everyone knew how to dance. They all let go and danced around the bonfire tirelessly.

It was not until the second half of the night, when the children were so sleepy they just fell asleep on the ground and the adults' energy was nearly exhausted, that they went back to sleep one by one.

Although Baifeng's body was exhausted, his emotions were still very agitated. At least now he felt a sense of belonging to this world and this tribe, and he was not so lonely anymore.

Closing the door of the meat warehouse with effort, he checked all the warehouses, then went to the walls of each house to check if the signs were there and if everyone was accounted for. After confirming everything was correct, Baifeng, the Tribal Chief, finished his work and crawled into his own small house to sleep.

Just as he lay down, the door was pushed with a bang-bang sound. Baifeng thought he had just checked around and nothing was nearby, so he picked up his Knife and looked through the crack in the door. It was the calf; Baifeng had seen it lying outside earlier and had forgotten all about it.

Opening the door, the calf walked in very naturally and lay down on the not-so-large bed Baifeng had padded with Grass and animal skins. Baifeng was speechless, pushed it a little further out, and then they slept together.

This calf kept ruminating, chewing and chewing, which made Baifeng a bit annoyed. Just as he finally fell asleep, the calf started snoring. A cow, why are you snoring!

He gave it a push, it shook its head and continued sleeping. Baifeng was tired and sleepy, but finally, he could not hold out and fell asleep amidst the calf's snoring.

He did not know how long he had slept when Baifeng vaguely heard a woman crying and a group of people shouting, like a horror movie; it was terrifying.

Baifeng only thought it was a nightmare and thought about how to break the dream, but the noise got closer and closer, and then his door was smashed open with a bang-bang.

Baifeng and the calf stood up at the same time. He saw a tribesperson speaking incoherently, pointing outside. Baifeng did not understand what he was saying and only thought some wild beast had come.

So he hurriedly picked up his Knife and was about to rush out. The tribesperson saw this and hurriedly stopped him, snatched Baifeng's Knife and put it back, instead giving Baifeng a thick piece of bamboo and pulling Baifeng to rush outside.

The woman's voice came from Geng San Hao's house. Baifeng did not dare to delay at all and ran over quickly. The tribespeople of Geng San Hao were all outside the house, arguing anxiously.

Seeing Baifeng arrive, several women hurriedly pulled Baifeng into the house. Only then did Baifeng know why the woman was screaming, because her child was about to be born, but it had not been born yet.

Those women pointed at the bamboo staff in Baifeng's hand, wanting Baifeng to roll it over the pregnant woman's belly, as if rolling dough, to roll the child out. Baifeng was extremely shocked to hear this and asked why they had to do this. Those women said it had to be rolled on the woman's belly so the child could come out quickly, otherwise it would suffocate in the belly.

Baifeng naturally could not listen to this nonsense and threw away the bamboo staff in his hand, saying: "How can you roll when giving birth? If I see you rolling on a pregnant woman's belly again in the future, I will roll you from head to toe."

Baifeng was a doctor in his past life, so he would not avoid the differences between men and women at such a time. Besides, in this era, no one cared about such things.

Baifeng walked up to the pregnant woman and looked by the firelight. The amniotic fluid had already broken, but the cervix had not fully dilated. The pregnant woman was screaming very loudly, as if enduring unbearable pain.

Baifeng did not dare to be careless. If there was a difficult birth, in this situation, Baifeng would have no way to save her. The extreme operation would be to abandon the mother and perform a cesarean section to save the child, and it might not even succeed.

He touched her gently to examine her; the fetal movement was very violent. What made Baifeng feel fortunate was that the fetal position was correct. At most, it would be difficult when giving birth, but there would be no difficult labor. As for why she was screaming so miserably, it was just because she was carrying a big belly and had been eating and eating at the feast just now, not knowing how much meat she had eaten, which was now pressing on her belly, making her very uncomfortable.

This house was dirty and messy. For the safety of the child and the mother, Baifeng wanted to temporarily requisition a small house. That house was made by a potter, bit by bit, doing it all himself; it had just been roofed and cleaned, and he hadn't even moved in yet.

Hearing Baifeng say he wanted to requisition his house, the expression on his face was extremely painful, feeling that the house he had worked so hard to build was going to be snatched away.

Baifeng said he would wait until tomorrow, and he would call the whole tribe to build him a bigger and more beautiful house, would that work? The potter had tears in his eyes and said nothing, but it was obvious that he did not want to give up the house he had built with every Brick and Tile; it was all his hard work.

Baifeng was helpless, but he could not force him directly, yet the mother was getting closer and closer to giving birth, making Baifeng scratch his head in anxiety.

He had an idea. Baifeng pulled the potter over, let him look at the mother, and asked him if he had slept with this mother. The potter recalled it and nodded.

Baifeng chuckled; this was easy to handle.

"Do you think she is pretty?"

The potter nodded blankly again.

"Then she will be your wife in the future, and you are her husband. Now your wife is about to give birth to a child for you, are you still going to block her and not let her into your house?"