Chapter 90 – Don’t move!
Translated by Sunyancai
“What are you doing now? Setting a trap?” Mai came over and asked.
“It seems you can stand on them when the water rises.” The people beside Mai laughed.
They had no idea what Shao Xuan and Lang Ga were doing, but everyone in the hunting team knew that Lang Ga was obsessed with setting traps. Normally he would make arrow traps and some similar traps, but occasionally he would try different types.
Lang Ga told everyone else about his and Shao Xuan’s idea. The other warriors were quite curious. But when it came to setting fish fences in here, it was not only not an obstacle for them, it offered them convenience, for they could jump on them when the tide rose.
“You should go home. Tonight, we’ll be doing the patrolling, and Lang Ga, you need to be here early tomorrow with the others.” Said Mai.
“Sure, we’ll go back after this is done. Earlier I paid no attention, but now with you here, I realized that I’m hungry.” Lang Ga touched his belly. He was more than satisfied, looking at his own deeds.
On the other side, Shao Xuan had finished his last fish fence. When he looked, he noticed that aside from the animal skin bags that contained the food and stoneware, people in Mai’s batch carried some nets that were made from straw ropes.
“Why are you all carrying nets, Uncle Mai?” asked Shao Xuan.
“Well, this.” Mai smiled, “It’s for food, of course.”
Seeing that Shao Xuan was still confused, Mai said, “You will know when you come by tomorrow. Oh, by the way, when you come tomorrow, bring a big net bag.”
Although he did not know what the net bag was for, Shao Xuan prepared one for himself.
On the second day, Shao Xuan dropped Caesar and Chacha at Old Ke’s place early in the morning before he went to the patrolling ground.
As Shao Xuan arrived, Lang Ga and the others in the same batch were already there. To Shao Xuan’s surprise, all the straw nets in Mai and the others’ hands had many watermelon-sized river snails inside!
Not only that, people could see that near the river bank, there were many sharp protrusions, becoming larger as time went by. They were all river snails, swimming towards the shore.
Now, the quantity of the river snails seemed not big, but if they kept coming towards shore, every warrior would be able to collect quite a lot of them after their patrolling duty. For example, Mai and the others had collected a lot.
The river snails had thick shells, so even the piranhas in the rivers had no way to eat them. However, people in the tribe knew how to use tools to pull them out from the shells.
“You see, the shells are strong and tough. But after you take them back home and boil them in the water, the shells will soon turn fragile. In the past, some people tried to make use of their shells, but to their surprise, the shells turned very fragile after some time.” Mai said to Shao Xuan.
Although the river snails didn’t contain much energy individually, given its large quantity, it could help solve the food issue for sure. No wonder that Lang Ga was not worried about food.
According to Mai’s explanation, those river snails won’t come on shore on normal days. Only after the rainy season had begun, would they swim to the river bank in batches. The good thing was that those river snails didn’t have any way to attack, which made them the perfect foodsource during the rainy seasons.
Shao Xuan did not know whether it had any parasites inside. But since people in the tribe had been dieting on them for years, it should be fine.
Since it was time for the shift change, Mai and the others did not stay long. After the whole night in the rain, all they wanted was to head back home to eat something, and go to sleep. After they were properly fed and rested, they would come here again to patrol.
“You just guard here, and whistle once you encounter anything abnormal that you can’t handle, okay?” Mai said to Lang Ga and the others.
“Got it. Just relax. It’s not like we are new at patrolling during the rainy season. I’ve filled Shao Xuan in with all the procedures. I’ll keep an eye on him. Don’t worry.” Lang Ga waved at Mai, and instantly rushed towards the bank to check on the fish fences that he set yesterday.
It kept raining all the time, and sometimes it was raining heavily, while sometimes it was not. The river had risen a lot higher than yesterday. The fish fence that was closest to the riverside was almost half sunk in the water.
If it’s like that, no fish would swim into it. It was still too early, and there was no abnormality on the surface of the river. So, Shao Xuan began to collect river snails like the others.
Shao Xuan had no idea what species those river snails belonged to, they looked different from one another. There were various circular patterns and colors. But Lang Ga said that they were all eatable. Shao Xuan did not mind that much, he would just grab them and toss them into the straw net once they swam to the bank. However, they stuck to the ground quite tightly, and when they were on some smooth stones, it would require some strength to pull them off.
They had been patrolling for almost half a day, but nothing had happened besides those river snails swimming to the shore. Nothing else was worth noticing. That day, Shao Xuan delivered many river snails to the kids in the orphan cave and Old Ke when he went back. He would not be able to eat them all anyway. Caesar was not fond of them. Chacha was quite curious, but only for a while. All he cared about was to pull its flesh out of its shell for fun.
On the third day of Shao Xuan’s patrolling, the first fish fence finally got completely submerged in the water. The first fish fence was not big, and the diameter was only about two meters. When they finished building it, both Shao Xuan and Lang Ga felt that it was a little small. But instead of rebuilding it, they let it be, and deliberately made the second fish fence much larger. Because of that, when the the first fish fence submerged completely, the second one only had part of it submerged in the water, as it was almost parallel with the first one.
“How is it?” Lang Ga tossed one river snail into his straw net, and shouted at Shao Xuan.
Shao Xuan stood next to the first fish fence, and carefully looked inside.
There was no fish….
Moreover, there was no activity to be spotted of the piranhas with giant heads and sharp teeth in the surroundings. In fact, there was no fish at all to be seen. It seemed that all the fish had vanished.
Oddly, in such a rainy season, no fish could be seen!
So, did that mean that the fish fences were made in vain?
No, they could see what the other things were in the river, besides the fish.
Just keep them. Shao Xuan looked at the fish fence beneath his feet, and decided to leave the fish fences as they were for now, and take them down when the tide ebbs. Anyway, they were no obstacles for the patrol.
“There’s nothing!” Shao Xuan answered.
As he was about to head back to the land, Shao Xuan suddenly felt a chill sweeping through his back.
There was something dangerous!
When he was about to jump away from the fish fence and head towards the bank, he heard Lang Ga’s urgent scream.
“Don’t move! No matter what! Do not move!”
Move, or don’t move? Those two options flashed in Shao Xuan’s mind quickly. In the end, he chose to do as Lang Ga commanded, which was standing there still.
Although Shao Xuan did not move, all the muscles on his body were well prepared. Once something went south, he would act on his instinct, his hand had almost reached the stone knife earlier.
Over there, Lang Ga had no mood for collecting river snails, and he was running towards Shao Xuan together with the others. While running, he tossed the river snail he was holding towards a spot about thirty meters away from where Shao Xuan was.
Shao Xuan could hear the river snail dropping into the water. But the needle-like glare was still there. Shao Xuan stood there still, remaining at where he was, rock steady.
If he looked up, he could see where the icy glare came from. But at that moment, Shao Xuan held his curiosity back, and did not look around.
Somewhere not far away from Shao Xuan, don’t know since when, a triangular head had appeared above the water silently. On the head, there were a pair of puffy, beady eyes.
At that time, a not so big sound came from the water ahead. It was not obvious in the sounds of the rain, but Shao Xuan heard it clearly.
“Ribbit!”
Shao Xuan: “……”
What the fuck!
Finally, he realized why Lang Ga asked him not to move.