Chapter 17 : Fish culture

When Rongrong woke up, she was back inside the cave.

It was already morning. She got up to stretch her body, eating as she looked around, searching for her little fish.

After a few pieces of meat, the cubs were fully awake. Da Mao had a piece of meat in his mouth and said, “Mother, mother, I want to eat more meat.”

Er Mao slowly munched on his meat and said, “Mother, I’ll eat slowly, I’ll put some aside first.”

Rongrong tried to climb out of the bird’s nest and asked, “Mother, mother~ I want to see my little fish.”

As soon as Rongrong mentioned the little fish, Da Mao and Er Mao remembered the fish they had brought back before sleeping and mumbled indistinctly about it.

A Yue sighed helplessly. “You guys eat your fill first. Later, I’ll take you to see the little fish, okay?”

The cubs stopped in their tracks, nodded in agreement, and quickened their eating pace. Even Er Mao managed to fill his stomach before Rongrong finished eating.

A Yue carefully picked up the cubs and placed them beside the big sea bowl.

Rongrong looked at the large sea bowl surrounded by a circle of fence. The fence had wide enough gaps for their heads to reach in and look at the little fish but prevented their bodies from falling inside.

Around the sea bowl were many stones they could climb to get a better view from above.

The sea bowl was very shallow for two adults and posed no danger, but it was risky for the cubs, so the small fence was set up to protect them.

Rongrong stuck her head inside and immediately spotted her little fish with its bulging belly, swimming freely and adorably in the water.

A Shi and Er Mao imitated Rongrong’s actions and ran over to check on their chosen little fish. A Yue tore a bit of leaf and placed it nearby. “You can try feeding the little fish yourselves.”

A Yue and A Shi picked some leaves first and tried feeding the little fish to confirm they would eat these leaves before leaving most of the leaves for the cubs to feed them.

“Okay, thank you, Father and Mother~”

Rongrong thanked them and then picked up a small piece of leaf, tossing it into the big sea bowl. The little fish immediately swam over and began nibbling on the scattered leaf fragments.

Da Mao exclaimed, “Wow, my fish is eating leaves!”

Er Mao looked at the fish’s beautiful colors and also praised, “My little fish is eating leaves too! It’s so pretty!”

The cubs squatted in place, curiously watching the little fish finish eating the leaf fragments. Once they were gone, the cubs tossed in a new piece. With the fish swimming back and forth, they were completely absorbed.

A Yue and A Shi stayed nearby, working, but noticing the cubs had quieted down, they exchanged glances. If the cubs enjoyed watching the little fish and didn’t cause trouble, that was fine.

Rongrong finished feeding all the leaf fragments. The little fish left two small leaf pieces floating on the water’s surface. She retracted her head, satisfied, and noticed a wooden bucket in the house.

The bucket was too tall for her to reach the water inside, so she secretly thought she might as well bring the whole bucket into the space and replace the spring water inside.

On top of the wooden bucket was a rectangular fence covering it to prevent the cubs from messing around and accidentally falling into the water-filled bucket.

Rongrong grew tired from playing and yawned, then returned to sleep with Da Mao and Er Mao.

They had been awake for a while. When the time came, they naturally felt sleepy and needed to go back to rest properly.

A Yue came over to cover the cubs with fur skins and then returned to A Shi’s side to discuss some matters while working.

“I’m planning to plant some medicinal herbs around the cave,” A Shi said softly. The area around their cave was large and belonged to them.

Beastmen’s caves were usually spacious, hollowed out in many spots, so each cave was quite far from one another. The land around his cave was theirs.

Medicinal herbs were hard to cultivate, but A Shi wanted to try. A Yue encouraged him, “You can start by planting some simple herbs you know and then expand the scale.”

“Okay.” A Shi nodded gently.

He patiently waited for night to fall. When the sky darkened and the temperature dropped, it was the perfect time to plant herbs.

He took the cubs outside to play on the grass while he pulled weeds from a patch of earth, watered it, loosened the soil, then planted the young medicinal herb seedlings he had dug up.

Worried they might be scorched by the sun the next day, A Shi cut down many tree branches and leaves to cover the seedlings, then placed some old fur skins from the house on top for shade.

Rongrong walked around here a few times with Da Mao and Er Mao. She occasionally poked her head inside to check on the herbs and helped water them with some spiritual spring water, hoping the herbs would all survive.

This was A Shi’s first time manually planting medicinal herbs; he had just planted ten seedlings.

Da He passed by and observed their actions for a while. Looking at A Shi, he said, “The reason medicinal herbs are so expensive is that they basically can’t be mass-cultivated. If they were that easy to grow, the prices would have already dropped. You’re wasting your effort and a few seedlings.”

A Shi nonchalantly finished shading the last seedling. “It’s fine. I’m just trying.”

Seeing A Shi’s stubbornness, Da He snorted coldly and complained, “You’re a grown man who can’t support your family, always staying home to take care of cubs. You can’t even handle such a small task. How do you still have the face to stay by A Yue’s side?!”

A Shi smiled cheerfully, “A Yue only likes me.”

Da He was struck dumb, standing frozen in place.

A Shi happily carried the cubs home without paying any attention to Da He standing nearby.

When A Shi returned, Rongrong looked up and down at Da He and let out a childish “Hmph.”

“Hmph!”

“Hmph!”

Da Mao and Er Mao didn’t understand but followed suit.

Da He: “…”

A Shi chuckled softly and gently stroked the cubs’ soft fur. “I’ll go back and give you some delicious food.”

A reward for the cubs.

Once inside the cave, A Shi couldn’t help but laugh silently. He leaned over and kissed the cubs, feeling especially happy.

Just who does he think he is, talking nonsense about their family?!

Da He wasn’t even worth his time; he had long counted A Shi as dead and thus didn’t pay him any mind.

A Shi thought to himself that he would disappoint them. He had survived the past and would continue living well into the future!

Rongrong silently jotted down the second beastman’s name in her grudge notebook, planning to slap him hard in the face once Father successfully grew the medicinal herbs.

The two kinds of seeds she planted inside the space had sprouted a bit. It seemed their growth rate inside the space was unchanged.

At first, she checked daily but saw they were growing slowly and wasn’t sure if they’d really sprouted. She gave up somewhat disappointed and reduced her visits to every few days, watering them less often.

Yesterday, when she went to water them, the ground had formed a small mound, revealing a faint patch of green—they had finally sprouted.

“Father, how much can one medicinal herb be sold for?” Rongrong asked quietly.

“1 Bei to 10 Bei.” Upon hearing this, A Shi pulled the fur skin off the cubs and thought to himself that he had chosen to plant hemostatic grass mainly because its natural habitat was similar to the environment around their cave.

Transplanting the seedlings into a similar environment would improve their chances of survival.

Rongrong nodded in satisfaction, looking like a little adult. “That’s not bad. They’ll definitely grow successfully.”

After all, these were just ordinary medicinal herbs, and with her watering them with spiritual spring water, there was no way they wouldn’t survive.

A Shi fetched some meat and fed the cubs little by little. When they were almost full, he took a fruit, split it in half, and gave one half to the cubs to peck at the flesh while he ate the other half.

The sweet and fragrant fruit spread flavor in his mouth, and his mood gradually improved.

··

Under A Shi’s careful care, the medicinal herb seedlings grew well. Their leaves had wilted for two days but recovered by the third day. A Shi took the cubs to water them morning and evening.

Rongrong rarely came down to play. She ran around with Da Mao and Er Mao, chasing and playing, sneaking in to water the herbs with spiritual spring water.

Occasionally, familiar beastmen passing by saw A Shi fetching water and warned him, “A Shi, medicinal herbs are hard to cultivate. If you want to make money from this, it won’t be easy. You’d better not waste time and effort.”

A Shi smiled and nodded, explaining, “I’m only planting a few, just trying.”

The others shook their heads helplessly and left.

They thought to themselves that ignoring elder advice would only lead to immediate losses. A Shi would have to hit the wall hard before he realized it.

A flash of anger crossed A Shi’s eyes. He hadn’t told anyone about planting medicinal herbs except Da He, who apparently wanted to ‘coincidentally’ meet A Yue near their home.

Now, the news had spread throughout the entire tribe. He didn’t even need to investigate to know Da He was the one gossiping.

Such a big mouth.

A Shi returned home in low spirits, forcing a smile. When A Yue looked at him, she immediately sensed something was wrong.

She hurried over, took the water-filled wooden bucket from him, and asked with concern, “A Shi, what’s wrong? Has someone been bullying you outside?”

A Yue anxiously paced around him, ready to rush out and fight, gently coaxing him until she finally learned what had happened.

“Such a fine male beastman with such a loose tongue—it’s really disgusting,” A Yue angrily scolded Da He, growing even more displeased with him.

A Shi’s lips curved slightly but soon returned to calm. He tried to soothe (and perhaps fan the flames) by saying, “Maybe Da He just told others this by accident, not on purpose.”

“Accidental or not, it’s even more disgusting,” A Yue said unhappily. “Taking our family’s business and spreading it everywhere—he’s really despicable!”

A Yue’s disgust deepened, but A Shi concealed the smile in his eyes. He held A Yue’s hand and said with a smile, “With your comfort, I feel much better.”

A Yue said naturally, “We’re family. I will always stand by your side.”

Three small heads peeked out from the bird’s nest, quietly watching them. As the two spoke, pink bubbles appeared around them.