Chapter 58: Discovering Cabbage

After the meal, Ba Ke Er and Mo De began silently clearing the dishes, while Zhang Fan and Fei Er ran over to wash the gold that had been panned out and the gems they had picked up. After washing, they dried the gems with the cloths they each brought, wrapped them in clean cloth, and stored them separately.

After everything was tidied up, the sky began to darken. Ba Ke Er and Mo De directly shifted into beast form, preparing to take their respective females to find a place to spend the night. Zhang Fan and Fei Er quickly placed their luggage on their respective males' backs and secured it, then climbed onto the males' backs. Once the two were seated firmly, Ba Ke Er and Mo De began flapping their wings one after another and took off.

Not long after they took off, Ba Ke Er spotted a nearby cave. He signaled Mo De with a glance and then flew downward. Upon receiving Ba Ke Er's signal, Mo De also began to fly downward.

After Ba Ke Er and Mo De landed, Zhang Fan and Fei Er each got off the backs of their respective males. Ba Ke Er and Mo De then shifted back to human form after Zhang Fan and Fei Er dismounted. The two males, sensing that there were animals inside the cave and confirming there was no threat, left Ba Ke Er in charge of guarding the luggage and protecting the two females.

Upon entering the cave, Mo De quickly drove out the animals living there—two small snakes—before coming out to call everyone in. Zhang Fan and Fei Er, after entering the cave, began tidying it up, cleaning the areas suitable for sleeping and then laying down the clean animal hides they had brought.

After the cave was tidied, the sky had become completely dark. Ba Ke Er and Mo De simply gathered materials on site, collecting dry, flammable twigs and weeds outside the cave and lighting a fire. The two beastmen agreed that Ba Ke Er would take the first half of the night watch and Mo De the second half, while the two females did not need to keep watch.

Upon hearing the arrangement, Zhang Fan and Fei Er immediately objected, both insisting on staying up to keep watch with their respective males. The beastmen originally disagreed, but Zhang Fan and Fei Er said they could sleep during the day, so the beastmen had no choice but to reluctantly agree. However, when the watch began, Zhang Fan and Fei Er, being too tired to stay awake, fell asleep. The beastmen did not wake them; instead, they carried the two to the cleaned spot and let them continue sleeping.

And so, a night passed.

When a sliver of dawn light filtered into the cave, Zhang Fan woke up. Seeing Fei Er sleeping soundly beside him, he hated to wake her, so he tiptoed past her.

Ba Ke Er saw Zhang Fan get up, rose as well, took Zhang Fan's hand, and led him straight out of the cave. Shifting into beast form, he took Zhang Fan to the river to wash up.

On the way, he also hunted a few tender small animals for breakfast. While Zhang Fan washed up, Ba Ke Er processed the game downstream; after finishing, he bound the game with peeled clean vines. After Zhang Fan finished washing, he filled the brought clay pot with water. Seeing Zhang Fan ready, Ba Ke Er shifted into beast form, hooked the vine-bound game with his forepaws, and carried Zhang Fan back to the cave.

Back in the cave, seeing that Mo De had already woken Fei Er, and seeing Zhang Fan and Ba Ke Er return, Mo De greeted the two and then carried Fei Er to the small river to wash up.

Zhang Fan and Ba Ke Er also entered the cave, took out a clean small clay pot and a bag of rice, and began to rinse the rice with the water they had brought and cook porridge. Ba Ke Er was not idle; he went outside the cave, retrieved some fire-resistant wet branches, peeled them, and used them to set up a grill. He then skewered the retrieved game one by one on branches, lit the remaining firewood from last night, and started roasting the meat.

When the porridge was almost done, Zhang Fan saw that Ba Ke Er still had plenty of meat and asked him to slice off some lean meat. Zhang Fan took the meat Ba Ke Er cut, gave it a second treatment—slicing the chunks into strips, then mixed some sweet potato flour with water, coated the strips in a thin batter, and tossed them into the pot to cook.

When the lean meat porridge finished cooking, Fei Er and Mo De finally returned. As expected, they brought back processed game as well. Moreover, Fei Er also brought back several heads of big cabbage. To Zhang Fan, this was nothing short of a pleasant surprise!

"Fei Er! Where did you get the cabbage in your hands?" Zhang Fan exclaimed, looking at Fei Er holding the cabbage.

"Fan Fan, it turns out this is called cabbage! I saw it by the small river. When I had just finished washing up and was about to head back, I saw a few small rabbits nibbling on it. I guessed it might be edible, so I brought back a few heads, intending to show you!" Fei Er replied.

"Are there still cabbages by the small river?"

"Yes! There's a large patch of them!"

"That's great! After we finish breakfast, let's go pick cabbage!"

"Good! Good!"

Since the males who dote on their wives naturally obey whatever the females say, under the indulgence of the two male beastmen, the morning's schedule was happily decided by Zhang Fan and Fei Er.

Just then, the lean meat porridge and roasted meat were done, and the four sat down together to eat breakfast. Meanwhile, the game Mo De had brought back was pickled and reserved as rations for lunch.

After breakfast, Mo De and Ba Ke Er left the scent and marks of a fierce beast near the cave, then shifted into beast form, carrying Fei Er and Zhang Fan toward the small river.

Zhang Fan saw that the large patch of cabbage was much bigger than the few heads Fei Er had brought back, and he was overjoyed. After landing, he directly grabbed the now-human Ba Ke Er and rushed to the vegetable field to start picking cabbage. Seeing Zhang Fan so delighted by the cabbage, Fei Er knew it must be something good and quickly pulled Mo De to the field to pick cabbage as well.

Although the cabbage patch looked large, with the male beastmen and the two females, whose ferocity in the face of edible plants was no less than that of the beastmen, giving their all, the cabbage in the field was soon completely stripped bare, like a locust swarm passing through, leaving not a leaf behind.

After all the cabbage had been picked, the four stopped, packing the harvested cabbage into cloth and animal-hide bags. They then returned to the river to wash their hands and faces. After Zhang Fan and Fei Er rested a while, Ba Ke Er and Mo De shifted into beast form. Zhang Fan and Fei Er then tied the bags full of cabbage securely onto the backs of their respective beasts and climbed aboard.

Ba Ke Er and Mo De saw that the females were seated securely, then each spread their wings and flew back toward the cave where they had spent the night.