Delicious Dinner

Stray beasts were not like regular tribe beastmen.

Most of them were inherently cruel, cunning, and wicked creatures that everyone sought to eliminate. Only a small portion of the stray beasts were former members of tribes who had committed heinous crimes.

The majority of stray beasts consisted of cold-blooded creatures such as snake-beasts, scorpion-beasts, venomous toad-beasts, and lizard-beasts, which were naturally brutal.

Ever since they were born, they faced the instinctual rejection of the beastman tribes and females, leading them to roam the wild.

As a result, they harbored hatred towards other beastmen and often attacked tribes to steal females and food.

If a female beastman was unfortunately caught by these ferocious stray beasts, her life would be worse than death, subjected to torture and torment.

An Yao couldn't help but shiver. She had stayed up late reading over half of the original novel, which featured a notorious snake-beast among the villains.

This snake-beast was cunning, ruthless, and incredibly powerful. He even managed to defeat several male protagonists working together.

As the day grew darker, the setting sun cast a warm glow, and the surrounding temperature dropped considerably.

An Yao rubbed her bare arms, exhaled a puff of cold air, and shook her legs to relieve the numbness.

In this world, there was a significant temperature difference between day and night. During the day, temperatures of forty degrees Celsius were common due to scorching heat, while at night, the temperature plummeted, feeling as cold as an ice cellar.

The beastmen who had been picking red berries had left one after another, leaving only a few people lingering by the river without any clear purpose.

An Yao noticed that not far away, there were slender green vines hanging from a tree, swaying gracefully in the wind.

Her eyes lit up, and she committed it to memory. She turned to Shana, who was sitting on a stone, and said excitedly, “Let's pick some of those green vines before leaving. It won't take long!”

“What do you want those vines for?”

“To weave a fish basket. This way, we won't have to come to catch fish every day. We can just come by every couple of days to collect the baskets.”

“Can these fish really be eaten?” Shana threw the remnants of the fruit core on the ground and muttered softly.

While both she and An Yao were cannon fodder female characters in the original novel, Shana remained loyal to her childhood friend, the original host.

Shana commanded her two companions to pick about twenty green vines from the tree.

“Is this enough?”

“Yes!”

The group returned to the tribe just before it became completely dark.

In the stone house, An Yao lit a fire in the stove.

After cleaning the fish and removing the guts and bones, she was left with about four or five catties of fish meat.

An Yao had more than enough to eat by herself.

Since there were no refrigerators in this world, fish couldn't be stored for long periods of time.

An Yao extended a gracious invitation to Shana and her two companions to have dinner at her house.

An Yao had carefully removed most of the fish bones, leaving just a few. She cooked a large pot of fish soup, adding some slightly sour wild vegetables and fruits to enhance the flavor.

The room was filled with the rich aroma of the white fish soup that wafted through the air.

Shana, seated nearby, was so tempted that she was practically drooling.

An Yao uncovered the broadleaf lid, added some salt to the stone pot, and stirred it with two clean wooden sticks. She then scooped a bowl of fish soup for each person.

“It's so delicious!”

Shana licked her lips, praising An Yao endlessly. The lingering aroma left her yearning for more.

She licked her bowl clean and looked surprised.

“An Yao, when did you become so skilled? Your cooking is amazing!”

“Whenever you have time, you can teach Yingxun. The food he makes is really terrible. I don't want to eat anything he cooks anymore!”

An Yao glanced at Yingxun, who was sitting at the door looking dejected, and chuckled.

“I'm often free and like to experiment. I discovered that as long as you remove the fish bones properly, they won't stick in your throat and choke you to death. If you have time, you can come find me. I'll teach you.”

After seeing off the three visitors, An Yao squatted on the ground, covered by a piece of beast skin, and continued weaving the fish basket.

In the primitive world, lamps hadn't been invented yet, and once it got dark, it was pitch-black.

She had to put aside the half-finished fish basket for now.

As night fell, the mosquitoes became active.

An Yao lit the mugwort in the stone house, the faint aroma of smoke helping her fall asleep.

When she woke up refreshed the next morning, she resumed weaving the fish basket.

She had spent much of her childhood weaving grass mats, fish baskets, and other items with her village grandmother.

Although her technique wasn't particularly refined, the items she made were sturdy and durable.

An Yao stuffed some leftover fish meat and bits of cured worm-meat slices from the previous day into the round belly of the basket as bait.

According to the tradition of her hometown, the basket had a round body and a narrow mouth, ensuring that fish, shrimp, and crabs that entered wouldn't easily escape.

Leaving the tribe and heading down the same slope as yesterday, she arrived at the river. She found a spot where the water flowed rapidly, positioned the fish basket, and then left.

The next morning, An Yao made her way to the riverbank in the pre-dawn darkness to retrieve the basket. She harvested three fish—two large ones and one small one. Although these fish weren't as large as the one from the previous day, they were still quite plump. Combined, they weighed around ten catties.

Apart from fish, the basket also held many river shrimp and crabs. An Yao had a fondness for shrimp and found them easy to prepare—steamed or boiled, they were delicious.

While the sky was still dark, she purchased a sharp kitchen knife from the system's store and found a smooth stone as a makeshift cutting board. She began to clean the fish she had caught.

Fish innards needed to be processed promptly. If left unattended, they would rot and become foul-smelling within a short period, potentially causing food poisoning.

An Yao disposed of the innards by tossing them into the river, where they would be carried away by the current.

Come nightfall, wild animals would come to feast on them.

An Yao left some fish meat in the basket as bait, and then she returned home carrying over ten catties of fresh catch. Beastmen were naturally strong, so the weight didn't bother her.

Unseen by An Yao, a black, thick snake tail swiftly passed through the water.

The black snake opened its mouth and swallowed the fish bones and entrails. Its gaze, thoughtful and unusually human-like for an ordinary wild creature, followed the direction in which An Yao had left.

Then, the snake disappeared beneath the water's surface.

The hunting team typically spent three days away on a hunt. In urgent situations, they could even be gone for five days, ten days, or half a month.

In the afternoon, An Yao returned to the stone house with her basket. The yard was empty, and she was alone. She sighed, wondering when her little wolf cubs would return.

After a day of exertion, she hadn't even had lunch yet, and her stomach was growling.

An Yao entered the house and began to cook.

The three fish she caught this time were similar to the perch she was familiar with—few bones, tender meat. They would make excellent fish balls.

Without the modern technology of a food processor, An Yao placed the cleaned fish meat in a stone bowl. She clenched her fist and forcefully pounded the fish meat into a white paste.

Then, she ground up a salt block and added it to the fish paste to eliminate the fishy odor and enhance the flavor.

There was a pile of spoiled vegetables and fruits in the corner of the room, all of which An Yao had thrown away.

She carefully selected the ones that were still edible.

An Yao found some fist-sized yellow fruits. These fruits were rich in starch content, and when steamed, they would yield a texture similar to dough.

She also discovered some vegetables and fruits with flavors reminiscent of ginger, garlic, and scallions.