Chapter 10
Valley Picnic
After a brief exchange, Jiang Xi finally realized—they were actually helping her pick vegetables.
She hurriedly called out,
“Enough, enough! Don’t pick anymore!”
At this rate, they were going to strip the whole valley bare!
Besides…
Even if she counted the few beastmen back home, they’d never finish eating all this.
Jiang Xi stood there in a daze, her mind momentarily frozen.
And then another problem arose—
How were they going to take all this back?
Even with Lu Liufeng’s help, it wouldn’t be possible.
One after another, the young snake beastmen emerged from the forest.
Some were in their half-beast form—human upper bodies with serpentine tails—while others had fully transformed, their lower halves wrapped in animal hides. Each of their eyes gleamed as they stared at Jiang Xi.
Jiang Xi: “…”
She hadn’t felt like she’d fallen into a pit of snakes before—but now she did.
Nakan squeezed his way out from among the group.
Still sulking after being refused when he’d asked to bathe with her, his mood was a bit low.
“You—you’re done bathing?”
Jiang Xi glanced at him, then at the bright-eyed young beastmen all around.
She had no choice but to say, “Thank you… all of you…”
Before she could finish, the young beastmen waved their hands frantically, flustered by her gratitude.
“No need to thank us!”
“It’s what we should do!”
“Do you need anything else? We can help you gather it!”
“Yeah, yeah!”
“I heard you only have five beast husbands right now…”
The young ones’ ears all perked up.
Jiang Xi quickly interrupted, afraid of where the conversation might go.
“I do still need to gather a few things, but two or three people will be enough.”
Several volunteered at once.
Just as Jiang Xi was about to pick two decent-looking ones, a cold voice drifted from the forest.
“What do you want to gather?”
Jiang Xi stiffened. She wanted to say she didn’t need his help.
But when the others saw Duan Si appear, they all instinctively backed away.
After all, they weren’t her beast husbands—helping her now would be inappropriate.
Jiang Xi scanned the group and saw that everyone had already given Duan Si space.
She paused for a moment.
“Dig up some things,” she said.
Moments later—
Jiang Xi watched Duan Si dig up potatoes, feeling a bit dazed.
Of course, he wasn’t using a stick—he was using his power.
The cold, striking young man stood in the forest, a dark mist swirling in his palm. Wherever the black mist touched, the ground dissolved away.
As she watched one potato after another dissolve with the soil, Jiang Xi couldn’t take it anymore.
“Maybe I should do it myself,” she said quickly.
“At this rate, there won’t be anything left to eat.”
Duan Si frowned.
“You want to eat this?”
“Can’t your other beastmen even catch prey?”
Contempt flashed in his red eyes, and he tossed out two words—
“Wait here.”
“Hey—!” Jiang Xi called out, but Duan Si had already vanished into the woods.
She sighed and picked up a wooden stick, ready to dig by herself.
But as soon as she poked the ground, Nakan appeared again, holding a pointed stick.
“You’re digging up the things inside?” he asked.
Jiang Xi nodded.
“Yeah. These are potatoes—they taste great stewed with meat.”
Nakan had been to the great tribe in the Giant Tree Forest, so he knew the noble females there didn’t like eating meat every day—they often mixed it with edible plants.
So unlike Duan Si, he didn’t overthink it and helped her right away.
With Nakan’s help, Jiang Xi soon dug up potatoes, taro, and ginger.
Since Nakan was good at climbing trees, she also had him collect some wood ear mushrooms.
By the time they were done, it was nearly lunchtime.
On the riverbank of the warm valley, the young beastmen held up the small game they had caught—wild chickens, rabbits, bamboo rats—and eagerly invited Jiang Xi to join them for a meal.
Jiang Xi glanced at their catches, then at the pile of vegetables and seasonings, and an idea sparked in her mind.
She turned to Nakan.
“Does the Warm Valley have stone pots?”
Nakan nodded. “Do you need one? I can bring it.”
The snake tribe rarely used stone pots, but in case females came to visit or stay for a while, a few had been prepared—though they’d never actually been used.
“Bring several!” Jiang Xi added quickly.
After all, since the snake beastmen had helped her gather so much, she should treat them to a meal in return.
Even if they couldn’t take all the food home, they could at least eat well today.
Though the beastmen didn’t know what she planned, they still followed her instructions.
When Jiang Xi picked up a handful of shepherd’s purse and went to wash it, several young beastmen rushed over at once.
“Let us! How could we let a female do this kind of work?”
Before Jiang Xi could object, the greens were snatched right from her hands.
When she turned to wash purslane—snatched again.
Potatoes—gone.
Ginger—gone.
Wood ear mushrooms—gone.
In the end, Jiang Xi was flustered but hadn’t done a thing herself—everything had been taken over by the eager young beastmen.
She couldn’t help thinking, The beastmen in this world are really… hardworking.
While waiting for the stone pots, Jiang Xi made another discovery by the river.
“This is…”
Her eyes widened. “Is this garlic?”
She dug it out with a flat stone—and sure enough, it was garlic!
Oh my god!
This world had so much edible stuff—food here was anything but scarce!
Exploring nearby, she even found cinnamon trees (for bark), bay leaves, and tsaoko cardamom.
She’d wanted to go deeper to look for star anise, but Nakan returned with four big stone pots, so she had to stop searching.
Before cooking, she had the others peel cinnamon bark and pick bay leaves and tsaoko.
Nakan scratched his head, asking timidly, “Duan Si’s female—what should we do next?”
Jiang Xi told him to help start the fire and cut the meat.
Then she added, “Oh, and call me Jiang Xi. You don’t have to keep saying ‘Duan Si’s female.’”
After all, Duan Si had said once he awakened his spring instincts, he could find the Golden Soul Fruit—so in a few months, she wouldn’t be his “female” anymore anyway.
Nakan’s face flushed. “Then—then can I call you Xixi?”
Jiang Xi blinked.
He quickly added, “That’s what everyone else calls you…”
(Of course, which “everyone” he meant, only he knew.)
The other beastmen gaped—so shameless!
And this “terrifying female” from the Lion Roar Tribe? She was actually so gentle!
Though the nickname sounded a bit intimate, Jiang Xi nodded.
“All right.”
When in Rome, she thought.
The young beastmen all looked at Nakan with envy.
Before anyone else could ask to call her that too, Nakan quickly changed the subject.
“What meat should I cut? Into slices or chunks?”
Under Jiang Xi’s direction, they boiled water, blanched the purslane and wood ears, and set them aside to cool.
Since the game here was wild and clean, Jiang Xi didn’t blanch the meat.
In the first pot, she heated chicken fat, added ginger, cinnamon, bay leaves, tsaoko, garlic, chili, and Sichuan peppercorns, stir-frying until fragrant. Then she added the chicken, stir-fried, poured in water, and covered it with banana leaves to simmer.
In the second pot, she used bamboo rat fat, adding ginger, garlic, lots of chili and peppercorns, then stir-fried bamboo rat meat for a spicy dish.
The rabbits were roasted directly over the fire—the beastmen already knew how to do that, no instruction needed.
After a while, she added potatoes to the chicken pot, covered it again, and let it stew.
One beastman found a nest of bird eggs.
So, in the fourth pot, Jiang Xi rendered chicken fat, added minced garlic, chili, the eggs, and chopped shepherd’s purse, seasoned with salt—and made scrambled eggs with greens.
Under Jiang Xi’s command, the beastmen bustled about, clumsy but cheerful.
None of them had expected a pampered female to make anything edible.
But soon, as delicious aromas drifted through the valley, every beastman’s mouth began to water.
They looked from one pot to another, unable to tell where the mouthwatering smell was coming from.
“What… what is this smell? It’s amazing!”
“My mouth won’t stop watering…”
