Chapter 59

 

“But…” Lu Yu raised his lips slightly and said casually, “Judging by your appearance, you must come from a wealthy tribe. You wouldn’t bully our small tribe and eat for free, right?”

Hearing the words “eat for free,” Zhou Lang’s brow twitched. He was the son of the Chief of the Dao Ma Tribe, the future Chief. How could he eat for free?!

“I just said I would give you fur earlier!” Zhou Lang retorted angrily.

Lu Yu lifted his gaze, “How much?”

Zhou Lang hesitated for a moment, the anger provoked by the mention of eating for free subsiding. This person was obviously trying to provoke him on purpose, to make him the scapegoat. But if he gave too little, it seemed like losing face…

Yin He heard Lu Yu agree to cook and couldn’t help but feel happy, feeling like he owed Lu Yu a favor and should help him get more out of it.

Yin He chuckled, “I gave them three large furs earlier! Zhou Lang, you’re from the Dao Ma Tribe, bringing so many people, shouldn’t you give six?”

Zhou Lang’s heart jumped, coldly sneering, “Six? Do you think I’m stupid? And you said you gave five large furs. Do you expect me to believe any random number you throw out?”

Yin He shrugged indifferently, “You can send someone to ask Bei Shen. When I gave them the furs before, they all saw it. If I were lying here, wouldn’t it be easy to expose?”

He had indeed given three large furs, but in addition to eating Lu Yu’s meat, it also included the large blue rhino that Lu Yu helped him clean up.

Yin He cared about eating and loved to eat, so as long as it was worth it, he was willing to spend. Zhou Lang was different. Zhou Lang didn’t care that much about eating.

After all, he believed he had eaten everything delicious, although it was delicious, it didn’t make him crave more. The main reason he was competing with Yin He this time was that Yin He’s words were too exaggerated, which aroused his dissatisfaction.

How could someone from a small tribe like Yin He possibly eat something better than him?

But now, for Zhou Lang to spend six large furs just for a meal, he hesitated. No matter how wealthy he was, it wasn’t such a lavish spending. Moreover, his father had been hoarding supplies recently for ‘certain matters’, and he wasn’t that affluent either…

Seeing his expression, Yin He had some speculation in his heart and grinned, “What’s wrong, does Young Chief Zhou Lang not have so many furs? Do you want me to lend you some? Just so happens my father’s advance team has arrived and brought a lot of things.”

Hearing him say this, Zhou Lang’s concerns disappeared, and he couldn’t help but laugh heartily, “Of course, I have plenty of fur. I, Zhou Lang, haven’t fallen so low as to borrow six large furs from others.”

“Ji Liu!”

Zhou Lang beckoned to someone behind him, and a person walked up.

“You go to my hut and get the fur!”

“Okay!” The person obediently responded.

Zhou Lang looked at Lu Yu, smiling somewhat coldly, “There’s plenty of fur, but if your food is bad and not worth these furs, don’t blame me for being impolite.”

Lu Yu was about to burst into laughter at him.

It’s you who insisted on eating, it’s you who agreed to give fur, and even the quantity of fur was decided by you, yet you’re saying this.

Isn’t this blatant extortion?

Lu Yu said, “Since you want to eat my food, you should at least give your name.”

Zhou Lang eagerly wanted him to ask about his identity, “I am Zhou Lang from the Dao Ma Tribe!”

Lu Yu nodded and turned to prepare the bonfire or something.

This person actually doesn’t know who he is?!

“Wait!” Zhou Lang shouted.

Lu Yu was a little impatient, “What else?”

Zhou Lang sneered, “I want to see you roast the meat! Otherwise, how do I know you won’t pass off someone else’s cooking as your own?” And he also wanted to keep an eye on this person to prevent him from putting anything weird in the food.

Lu Yu said, “… Fine, you can watch.”

—

Lu Yu and the others set up the bonfire.

Zhou Lang looked at the bonfire and sneered.

Although he hadn’t roasted meat himself, he had seen a lot. Those deliciously roasted meats were meticulously arranged on the bonfire, displaying skill and helping the meat cook evenly. This person’s bonfire was simply surrounded by stones, and he casually threw some dry branches inside without any order.

Zhou Lang became even more convinced that Lu Yu was a fraud, or at least average at roasting meat, and Yin He was just ignorant.

Lu Yu also knew that the arrangement of firewood would affect the quality of the roast, but he wasn’t planning to roast meat today, so he didn’t pay much attention.

Lu Yu took out his stone pot from the hut. This stone pot was also made for him by the Valley people, using a type of stone called quartz diorite, also known as steatite. This stone, when used for cooking, ensured that food didn’t stick and heat was evenly distributed, allowing better control of cooking temperature.

Originally, this stone was just found by the Valley people as ordinary stone and exchanged for meat by Lu Yu. As a result, Lu Yu was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was steatite. He immediately asked the Valley people to make him a set of kitchen utensils. These days, he had been seasoning the pot with oil, and now it was just right to use.

Lu Yu placed the pot on the bonfire.

Steatite is also called soapstone because this black-colored stone has white speckles resembling soap residue, making it not very pleasing to the eye.

Zhou Lang sneered, “You don’t even have a decent stone tool? Where did you pick up this piece of garbage?”

He boasted, “The stone our tribe uses for cooking is a whole piece of bluish-green stone!”

Lu Yu paused with the wooden shovel in his hand, “Bluish-green?”

Zhou Lang hugged his arms, “Translucent, a whole piece, feels especially cool in summer.” This kind of stone is rare.

Lu Yu didn’t know what to say.

This person wouldn’t have used… a piece of… jade to make a pot, would they? As long as their happy.

“But…” Zhou Lang frowned, “I want to eat roasted meat, what are you using this stone tool for?” He had eaten meat cooked by his tribesmen using this stone tool, and it was much worse than roasted meat.

“Just wait.” Lu Yu turned back, waiting for the pot to heat up before pouring in the cold oil.

The oil was wild boar oil he had rendered himself, very fragrant.

This pot of food was mainly for these few people, and Lu Yu wasn’t planning to use any fancy ingredients or make any complicated dishes. Although he had found plenty of wild herbs, there were still two important ones he hadn’t obtained yet: cooking wine and soy sauce. However, he was figuring out a way to get them.

Lu Yu took out a bunch of wild greens from the nearby basket and started cooking…

Before Zhou Lang could come to his senses, four big bowls of dishes were already cooked and placed in front of him.

Lu Yu wiped his hands with soft leaves and said, “Stir-fried wild greens, braised pork, wild mushroom soup.”

“Eat up.”

Zhou Lang and the others: ???

Although what Lu Yu said was a bit “primitive,” he actually made stir-fried wild greens, braised pork, and wild mushroom soup. With two vegetable dishes and a soup, it was a balanced meal, and Lu Yu wasn’t just being perfunctory.

But in the eyes of Zhou Lang and the others, whether it was what he said or what he did, it was just blatant messing around!

Zhou Lang burst into laughter, “Do you call this food?”

It smelled very fragrant, but… there’s no but! How could food prepared like this possibly taste as good as juicy roasted meat?

Yin He also became anxious and ran to Lu Yu’s side, whispering anxiously, “Why did you make this kind of thing! Can’t you just roast some meat properly? Or do you not have enough meat? If you don’t, tell me!”

Zhou Lang pointed at the stone bowl, “Sure enough, it’s from a small tribe, never eaten anything good.”

He raised his chin, “Alright, give me back the fur I gave you earlier.”

Shan Pu and the others were so angry they wanted to rush forward, but Lu Yu held them back and lifted his eyelids to look at Zhou Lang, “Why?”

Zhou Lang said, “You still dare to ask why? I don’t even want to put the food you made in my mouth. Obviously, what you made is just a pile of garbage!”

At this moment, the commotion on their side attracted many onlookers. After all, there were a lot of people around now, and in a short while, Lu Yu and the others were surrounded by people around the wooden shed.

Lu Yu casually scanned around, cleared his throat, and loudly said, “This Zhou Lang from the Dao Ma Tribe, do you want to make a scene in public?”

The people around were not clear about what was happening. Shan Pu received the signal from his own witch and loudly recounted what had just happened.

The people around looked at Zhou Lang and whispered to each other.

Zhou Lang’s face darkened, and he squeezed out a few words from his throat, “Fine, I’ll take a bite, so what?”

He casually picked up a green vegetable from the stone bowl and put it into his mouth. “The food you made is…”

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly stopped abruptly.

He had eaten this kind of wild vegetable before. It wasn’t necessarily bad when eaten raw, crunchy but tasteless. However, after being cooked, it became soft and mushy, like a lump of mud in the mouth, even worse than when eaten raw.

He thought the food made by this person would be the same, but…

Zhou Lang couldn’t help but chew on the green vegetable in his mouth.

Crisp, refreshing, with a hint of saltiness and a slight sweetness, like a stream of sweet spring water moisturizing his originally somewhat dry mouth…

The people following behind Zhou Lang saw that he wasn’t speaking and approached him cautiously, asking, “Zhou Lang, what’s wrong?”

Zhou Lang pushed him away and grabbed another stone bowl, scooping up the meat inside and putting it into his mouth.

Unlike the vegetables, the braised pork was still very hot when served, but Zhou Lang didn’t care. He rolled the meat around his tongue, and before he even chewed, the salty and rich aroma of the meat filled his entire mouth.

With a gentle bite, the bursting flavor of the hot and juicy meat erupted, enveloping his tongue, which had never experienced such a taste before. Before Zhou Lang could take another bite, his throat moved, and the meat was already swallowed.

It was too delicious.

Zhou Lang couldn’t help but reach out his hand again…

Lu Yu’s voice came in just right, “Young Chieftain Zhou Lang, would you like to try the soup? It’s delicious too.”

Zhou Lang subconsciously said, “Okay…”

After speaking, he realized what he said and quickly withdrew his hand.

The food made by this person turned out to be really delicious. He had never eaten something so delicious and unique before. How could this be possible…?

Zhou Lang lowered his head, his expression was eerie and mysterious, and his fists clenched tightly.

Lu Yu didn’t say anything more. His performance just now had already explained everything.

The surrounding area erupted in a commotion.

“Is that really Zhou Lang from the Dao Ma Tribe?”

“It’s him, it’s him, I know him!”

“I heard that the Dao Ma Tribe is a big tribe. Zhou Lang hasn’t eaten anything good before. It seems that the food made by this person is really delicious!”

“Yeah, yeah, you see, Zhou Lang wanted to eat more just now! At first, he didn’t even want to touch it!”

“Ah, I really want to taste those few dishes. They smell so good.”

Lu Yu took the opportunity to advertise himself, “Tomorrow, we will process the meat for everyone. Bringing it back and roasting it will be delicious. If you think it’s okay, everyone should bring back a live prey they have…”

Zhou Lang, who was being ignored by others, still kept his head down.

The person beside him said uneasily, “Zhou Lang…”

Zhou Lang slowly raised his head, his face so gloomy it seemed like it could drip water. “Bring those few bowls of food with us, let’s go.”

Nighttime.

Finally, everything was settled, and the Matai tribe had finished dinner, washed up, and was ready to sleep.

A few people were sent to stand guard, and the rest entered dreamland.

Lu Yu also went to sleep because he had to open the training ground for everyone. Training in the training ground wouldn’t affect everyone’s sleep. On the contrary, sleeping after training would greatly improve the quality of sleep. Moreover, if there was any danger outside, as long as someone shouted a name, those who were asleep would hear it.

Lu Yu entered the control room, opened the gaming panel, and arranged training for everyone. While considering whether he should do tailoring or physical training tonight, his peripheral vision caught sight of the upgrade progress bar.

Lu Yu frowned.

After he and Tai Lie kissed for the first time, he found that the progress bar had increased a lot. But later, even though it also increased after kissing Tai Lie, the magnitude was greatly reduced.

He thought it would fill up quickly, but until now, it hadn’t. Although he had been busy lately and hadn’t been intimate with Tai Lie much, now there were people around him all the time, making it even less likely to find an opportunity to make contact…

Thinking of this, a light bulb suddenly lit up in Lu Yu’s head!

He couldn’t be alone in reality, but he could in the dream training ground!

Although he didn’t know if it would work, it was worth a try.

Also, they could kiss a little longer, kiss more seriously, maybe it could increase a lot!

Excited, Lu Yu chose Tai Lie’s avatar, opened the door eagerly, and ran out quickly…