Survival in Primitive Society

After the rain, the forest air has a moist and fresh smell, and when you smell it carefully, you can also smell the unique smell of the soil. Xie Wei'an followed Lilian and walked towards the surrounding area of ​​the tribe. After walking for a while, Lilian, who was not far from Xie Wei'an, cried out happily, "Look, the pepper fruit is here!"

Hearing this, Xie Wei'an quickly walked to Lilian's side, followed the direction of her fingers and looked at the clusters of red fruits that were only half the size of a small fingernail, "Is this the pepper fruit?"

Lilian smiled and nodded, "Yes, this is the pepper fruit. This small fruit grows in winter and is picked in spring. After several heavy snowfalls, these tenacious fruits will be dried and ground into powder, and the taste will be even more fragrant. .”

Xie Wei'an nodded, lowered his head curiously and smelled it, and sure enough, a pungent fragrance floated into Xie Wei'an's nose, which made Xie Wei'an involuntarily sniff, then turned his head to the side in time, and immediately slapped Big sneeze.

Xie Wei'an rubbed his still itchy nose, turned his head to look at Lilian who was already laughing happily, pointed at Jiaoguo with some embarrassment and said, "Too, too choking."

Seeing Xie Wei'an's embarrassment, Li Lian laughed so hard, "Oh, you just sneezed once last time, why are you sneezing up this time?"

Xie Wei'an's expression was very innocent, "I thought fresh ones were not so pungent."

Lilian laughed again when she heard this, and took out a large leaf that had just been picked and handed it to Xie Wei'an, "Pick it, there are pepper fruits growing here, and the berry thorns are not far away. They always grow together."

Hearing what Lilian said, Xie Wei'an nodded, and was about to pick it up, but just as he was about to touch the pepper fruit, Lilian stopped him again, "Wait a minute."

"Huh?" Xie Wei'an looked at Lilian in puzzlement.

Lilian smiled and took out a purple round fruit from a small bag made of animal skin on her waist, and when the transparent juice was squeezed out, she wiped it on Xie Wei'an's hand and explained, "You always feel like you've dried up in the sun. The fresh peppers are choking. In fact, the fresh peppers are more powerful than the dried ones. If you pick the peppers rashly like this, when the juice of the peppers touches your hands, it won’t take long for your hands to choke. It hurts like a fire, and it won’t heal for a few days, so you should apply the juice of purple chestnut first, and after you apply it, you won’t be afraid that the juice of pepper fruit will hurt your hands.”

Xie Wei'an was surprised when he heard Lilian's explanation. It turns out that there are so many tricks to picking a fruit. He honestly spread the purple chestnut juice that Lilian squeezed on his hand evenly, and asked curiously. , "Does the purple chestnut also grow with pepper fruit and berry thorns?"

Lilian looked at Xie Wei'an with a curious face, shook her head and said, "Of course not, the purple chestnut grows in the opposite place to the thorns and peppers. I'll take you to see it later. Now we are picking these peppers." Well, it just so happens that the spices in the tribe are almost used up."

Hearing what Lilian said, Xie Wei'an nodded and bent down to pick the peppers together with Lilian.Originally, Xie Wei'an thought that it would be better to break off the long clusters of pepper fruits and branches instead of picking them one by one. Anyway, the roots are still there, and they will grow again.But Xie Wei'an's suggestion was not approved by Lilian. She told Xie Wei'an, "This pepper fruit is different from other plants. It will look like it is now, and it will not grow new branches. Its fruit is also It continued to grow in the original place where it was picked off. Before we didn’t discover the effect of the purple chestnut, we picked it together with the branches in order to avoid the damage of the pepper fruit. But when we looked at it later, those who grew the pepper fruit The plants died together. It was the same after a few tries, so now even if it is troublesome to pick one by one, we will not break its branches. After all, it is very convenient to follow that method , but it’s one less pick.”

Xie Wei'an nodded again and again as Lilian listened earnestly. In fact, the ancients understood the principles of sustainable development better than modern people.

After picking three large packages of pepper fruits, Lilian called Xie Wei'an to pick berries and thorn flowers. Xie Wei'an straightened up his waist, which was a little sour from squatting for a long time, and asked after he thumped, "Just pick these are enough." Is it? There are so many tribesmen."

Lilian smiled, "There are other clansmen who went to pick peppers and fruits nearby today," she joked after speaking, "Do you think I am responsible for collecting peppers and berry thorns for the whole clan? I am not a strong person. man!"

Lilian's words made Xie Wei'an look down at the big bag of chili fruit in his hand, and then at the two bulging bags in Lilian's hand, his face flushed suddenly.

Lilian had never seen such a shy man before, and felt that Xie Wei'an was even more interesting, and after joking a few more words, she took Xie Wei'an to the place where thorn flowers might grow.

About 5 minutes away, Lilian stopped and said to Xie Wei'an, "Here we are."

"Eh?" I didn't expect it to be so fast. Xie Wei'an froze for a moment, then raised his eyes and looked forward. At that moment, Xie Wei'an was shocked by the scene in front of him. Under the ancient trees, there are clusters of light yellow flowers growing densely. The slender and long petals are clustered together to form a flower, and they are clustered together to form a branch like a hydrangea. Under the sunlight, it even cast a hazy halo, and the flowers swayed slightly with a gentle breeze, making people dazzled like a piece of delicate brocade, but even the most delicate brocade can’t match the big Nature rivals the beauties created by this most eminent artist.

"This is really... so beautiful..." After a long time, Xie Wei'an regained his voice and murmured.

Seeing Xie Wei'an's voice, Lilian nodded in agreement and said, "It's very beautiful. When I saw the thorn flower for the first time, I was also fascinated by it and stayed for a long time." After speaking, she smiled again Patted Xie Wei'an, "But no matter how beautiful it is, don't forget that we are here to pick it. Hurry up, it's no better than pepper fruit."

"En." Xie Wei'an, who still hadn't recovered from his senses, nodded in a daze, and then followed Lilian towards the sea of ​​flowers.

But in the next second, Xie Wei'an understood the meaning of Lilian's last words. He squeezed the finger that was pricked by the small thorn under the beautiful berry flower, and with a little force, a small drop of blood oozed from the fingertip. Beads come.

Seeing Xie Wei'an frowning and staring at the thorn flower, Lilian hurried over to check it out, and was relieved when she found that it was only pricked a little, "You stretched out your hand before I finished speaking, well enough?"

Xie Wei'an flicked his fingers, shook his head, "It's okay," and after finishing speaking, his eyes focused on the light-colored flower, "Is it because of the thorns that it is called a thorn flower?"

Lilian nodded, "Yes, but not only because of the thorns, but also because there are small fruits growing under the roots, so it is called berry thorn flower." Lilian picked up a branch and pushed it aside. Berry thorns together, following Lilian's movements, Xie Wei'an really saw some small, raspberry-like fruits growing under the rhizomes.

Xie Wei'an pointed to those fruits and asked, "Are those edible?"

Lilian nodded, "Of course, the taste is also very good, so we usually pick the fruit back when picking berries and thorns." Lilian didn't lose the branch in her hand, but took advantage of the situation to press down the flower Turn it over and show it to Xie Wei'an, "The thorns are all growing here!"

Xie Wei'an probed and looked, sure enough, the calyx was densely covered with sharp thorns, which made one's scalp tingle.

Seeing Xie Wei'an's gasped look, Lilian said, "So you were lucky just now, otherwise, if you got stabbed in the hand, it would be enough for you." After speaking, Lilian began to ask Xie Wei'an again. Picking the petals of berry thorns, "So we don't touch its calyx, just pinch its petals to pick it, but every flower is very close, so it is inevitable that there will be times of thorns, this Time will depend on your care and carefulness."

When Lilian said this, Xie Wei'an was also grateful for a moment, the prick just now was excruciatingly painful, if the thorns on the entire calyx were pierced into his hand, it would feel like hugging a prickly pear .

Lilian stood aside and watched Xie Wei'an pick a few berry thorns and carefully did not hurt herself, then nodded and let Xie Wei'an do it alone, she walked to the side and started to do her own work.

As Lilian said, the work of picking berries and thorns is indeed a lot of work compared to the work of picking peppers. I always have to worry about not being pricked by the thorns. Xie Wei'an was dizzy for most of the day Back pain.

Lilian, who picked a certain amount of berry thorns and finished the work, looked at Xie Wei'an's sweaty face, and secretly thought, the other party must have a high status in his tribe, even if he is not a priest, he is someone else, otherwise the physical strength It’s not so bad. In the tribe, everyone has to contribute their own strength, even the elderly and children have to do what they can, but there is one kind of people who don’t, that is the priest, because he shoulders the responsibility of serving the tribe. The important task of communication between humans and gods.Seeing that Xie Wei'an seemed to know nothing about the outside world, this made Lilian unable to stop thinking about him. Thinking about Lilian, she thought about Xie Wei'an's tribe. How powerful should such a tribe be?

Xie Wei'an stood up straight and rubbed his waist, and when he recovered, he walked up to Lilian with the thorns he had picked and asked, "Lilian, is it enough for us to pick these?"

Lilian, who came back to her senses, looked down at the large bunch of berry thorns held by leaves in Xie Wei'an's arms, and nodded, "Well, it's almost there. You can eat it alone and add those peppers, it's enough for a long time , besides, I also taught you how to recognize and pick these plants, this thing is easy to find in the forest, don’t worry if you finish eating it later, I’ll take you to pick some purple chestnuts and we’ll go back.”

"En." Xie Wei'an nodded and agreed.

Xie Wei'an had always thought that purple chestnuts grew on trees before, but when Lilian led him along, stopped at a certain place, stretched out her hand to pull out a small lavender flower, and then the round purple chestnut was pulled out. When he came out, Xie Wei'an realized that this guy was hiding underground like a ginseng.

Lilian pulled out a lot of purple chestnuts one by one, drained the mud and gave half to Xie Wei'an, and said, "This thing likes to grow in the shade. If you see a lot of green moss, there must be its shadow." , as long as you recognize the little purple flower, you must be right."

Xie Wei'an was like a good student, he listened to Lilian's words with humility and earnestness, and actively practiced it. He pulled out a few purple chestnuts by himself. Take Xie Wei'an to the tribe.

"After picking the pepper fruit and berry thorn flowers, wash them with clean water, spread them on the leaves and let the sun dry them, and then crush them and mix them together. Well, if the weather is good, let them dry in the sun. Ten days and a half months will be enough..." Lilian walked in front and told Xie Wei'an how to deal with the peppers and berry thorns. Balabala talked for a long time, but then found that Xie Wei'an did not respond, she turned her head and looked at the absent-minded Xie Wei'an was looking around, "Wei'an, did you hear what I said?"

"Eh? What?" Xie Wei'an recovered from Lilian's question, looked at Lilian blankly and asked.

Lilian walked to Xie Wei'an's side, and looked around, "What are you looking at? I didn't even listen to what I was talking to you."

"Uh, I didn't see anything, I just haven't been here before, looking around, I thought there would be thorn flowers around here." Xie Wei'an shook his head, making an excuse.

Lilian didn't have any doubts after hearing this, she just explained, "There are no thorny flowers around here, only in places facing the sun."

"Oh, so, I see." Xie Wei'an nodded, then looked around in a small area, frowning slightly.

Seeing that Xie Wei'an had nothing to do, Lilian continued to walk forward. By the way, she continued to talk to Xie Wei'an about how to grasp the time to dry the berries, thorns and peppers. Hearing two hums, Lilian became more serious after hearing this, and didn't even notice that Xie Wei'an's state at the moment was a little absent-minded again.

While Xie Wei'an took advantage of Lilian's concentrating on speaking, he looked around a few times, and a question in his heart kept expanding, why did he feel that the flashing shadow he saw just now looked so much like Barton?