Worried that the film of white yeast on the grapes would be washed away, he simply rinsed them with water, put them in a bamboo sieve made of bamboo strips, and put them aside to dry in the shade.

This kind of bamboo prop was made after Chen Qi drew some rough renderings for the old females in the tribe. Although it was very refined, it had its basic form. Now, most of the bamboo in the small bamboo forest had been cut down by them. In order to prevent the bamboo from being completely depleted, Azhang occasionally took people to the forest to cut some bamboo instead.

Not only bamboo products, pottery products, paper making, weaving, garment making and so on, were now managed by specialized people. Even without needing to go hunting, everyone’s workload was full. After meeting the needs of the tribe, they prepared to make items to exchange with other tribes in the future.

Chen Qi took out two clean pottery jars. The jars were round in the middle with narrow ends. They were much better looking than the previous pottery pieces, which were a straight, up to down, figure. Since he did not have any alcohol for sterilization, Chen Qi only used boiling hot water to rinse the jars twice, then let them dry for later use.

After the grapes and jars had dried completely, Chen Qi put on his cloth gloves and crushed the grapes, one by one, into the jars. Each jar was only filled about halfway, then he covered the jar mouth with cloth, not tightly sealed, but leaving a small opening for ventilation. He then moved the two jars of processed grapes into the storage room, planning to let them ferment naturally overnight and he’d add sugar to them in the morning.

During this period, he’d made a lot of sugar again. Unfortunately, the laiche fruits were not yet fully ripe, and the sweetness of the sugar produced was not as good as before. Nevertheless, it should not be a problem to use it to make wine.

Aze and the others returned before noon. Before even entering the door, Ajing started calling out Chen Qi’s name. He held something carefully in his arms, and as soon as he saw Chen Qi, Ajing hurriedly held it out towards him. “Chen Qi, quickly come look. Is this the rice you mentioned?”

Chen Qi was taken aback. He had been deliberately looking for rice since he arrived here, but he had never even seen any decent-looking wild rice. The staple food he ate nowadays was made from rice berries baked into rice flour and then made into various types of noodles for consumption. Suddenly hearing Ajing say that he had found rice, he was still dazed and did not react at all, “Rice? What kind of rice?”

Ajing handed him the cloth bag in his hand, and Chen Qi took it. This kind of cloth bag was something Chen Qi made for him to carry small objects, and he could even tie it around his waist. It was a bit like the money pouches used in ancient times, but unfortunately, there was no concept of money here.

He reached into the bag and took out its contents. There was only one stalk, which looked very similar to the rice Chen Qi had seen before, except that it had a slightly greenish color, probably because it was not yet ripe. The grains were larger than any rice he had ever seen, resembling corn kernels instead, and there were only seven or eight grains on the stalk. Pleasantly surprised, Chen Qi examined it from all angles, then carefully picked one up, brought it to his mouth and bit it. Slightly sweet, had the fragrance of rice, and was tough. It was very similar to rice.

“Where did you find it?”

“By the Chishui River, where we usually catch fish.” Aze replied, “There are only a few of these plants. We didn’t know if they were what you needed, so we only picked a few back to show you.”

“Take me over there to see them.” Chen Qi couldn’t wait any longer. As long as there was rice, he wouldn’t have to worry about starving to death even in a barren winter. This was too important for the tribe, especially after the winter full of uncertainties. No one knew what would happen next winter, so storing more food was the most important task this summer.

Aze took off his backpack and put it aside, before lifting Chen Qi onto his back to go see the rice by the Chishui River. Ajing did not follow them and instead, went to the storage room with Little Wolf to store the items they’d brought back. Then, he obediently took out his homework and started doing it while he waited for the two to come back.

The little wolf cub laid by his feet and half-closed its eyes to take a nap. For a cub of its age, sleeping was the fastest way to grow. When it grew up to be as big as the adult giant wolf-god, it will not be afraid of anyone. The little wolf cub’s ears twitched and it sank into a deep sleep in its familiar surroundings.

The rice grew in a patch of tall grass, and Aze wouldn’t have found it if there hadn’t been a milk fruit tree nearby. The soil here was not moist. Although it was rice*, it seemed that it could be planted on dry land.

*水稻 shuǐdào – rice – one of the characters used is ‘water’