Chapter 30 – Ke’s Gift
Translated by Sunyancai
Early the next morning, Lang Ga and the others came to the orphan cave for Shao Xuan.
The timber was already prepared, and all Shao Xuan needed to do was to name the place that he had in mind. Once the place was chosen, they would begin the building.
Shao Xuan was familiar with the mountain foot area, and based on his current condition, it would not be possible for him to build a house at mountain hill district. He would only bring trouble for himself.
As for the place to build the house, Shao Xuan had some place chosen in his mind long before he was awakened. Although the place was a little remote, it had a perfect view. One could see the situation up in the mountain as well as a view of mountain foot district. You could even see the orphan cave from there.
Lang Ga and his friends were quite familiar with building wooden cabins, so only after half a day, the cabin was built. After finishing some details, one could live in it directly.
Since it was Shao Xuan’s first cabin of his own, it was just a small one which took up about forty square meters. It looked just fine, and Shao Xuan could totally do the expanding later by himself. But for now, at least he had his own place. In general, Shao Xuan was pretty satisfied with the cabin.
Lang Ga originally planned to chop up the leftover timber into firewood, but he was stopped by Shao Xuan. Instead, Shao Xuan asked him to help build a simple wooden bed. Some people in the tribe preferred sleeping on stone beds, and some liked sleeping on haystacks. There were also some people that chose to build a bed with wood, and Shao Xuan certainly was one of them.
After covering it with clean and dry animal furs, it looked much more comfortable than Shao Xuan’s former haystack back in the cave.
“Ah-Xuan!”
Shao Xuan looked up at that voice and he saw the middle-aged woman called Yi. Yi had not awakened her totemic powers, so she lived in the mountain foot district. Normally she would do some sewing for people to earn a living. She was kind so Shao Xuan often approached her to make animal skin bags. Yesterday Shao Xuan had asked Yi to sew an animal skin bag at the cost of one fish. He explained the style of the animal skin bag in detail, and supposed that it could take more than one day to finish the sewing. However, unexpectedly, Yi had come so soon.
“Aunt Ah-Yi, is the work done?” Shao Xuan asked with a smile.
“Yes. It was not that hard.”
Yi passed him the bag. She did not stay, for she had other work to do.
“Why do you need this animal skin bag?” Lang Ga asked as he kept chopping the wood.
“For training, of course.” Shao Xuan did not explain much, but he took the animal skin bag and placed it inside the room. He had not tried it yet, so he did not know if it could be of use or not.
Lang Ga and his friends had not that much of curiosity, and they continued to do the final decoration of the cabin.
When it was almost done, Shao Xuan asked Lang Ga and the others to stay for lunch.
Aside from fish, there were some tubers and fruits, and some plants provided by Lang Ga and the others.
The two young warriors living in the mountain side district were pretty interested in the fish. However, they did not have much time for fishing, since they needed to prepare the stoneware, do the training, and get things ready for the next hunting missions. Also they were in no lack of food, so neither of them had gone fishing.
“You should each take a fish with you when you leave. I have plenty of them anyway.” Shao Xuan was not bragging, for yesterday afternoon he returned to the cave and went out with the other kids to fish by the riverside. Usually, as long as he had the time and there were no abnormal signs by the river, he would go fishing. Capturing fish was quite simple, since all the piranhas were so stupid and simple-minded. What’s more, to hunt, Shao Xuan would need his teammates’ help after he joined the hunting team. Compared to the future help, a few fish were absolutely no big deal.
The young warriors were a little embarrassed, but seeing that Shao Xuan really didn’t care, they accepted his offer, and thought about chopping down more timber to reinforce Shao Xuan’s cabin later.
As they were eating, Ge came with a big stone crock on his shoulder.
“Old Ke asked me to deliver this to you as a gift, in celebration of having your own place. You can store food or water inside.” Ge put down the stone crock and looked around the nearly-completed cabin, “Not bad! I planned to help here, but it seems that I can save the strength now.”
Shao Xuan curled his lips at his words. ‘Why would you come at this late hour if you really planned to help?’
Lang Ga and the others also figured that Ge was just saying things, but out of the respect for the old warrior, none of them had said a word about it.
“Hey, is this stone crock for Ah-Xuan?” Lang Ga asked something obviously apparent, just to change a subject.
“Yes. Old Ke made it for Ah-Xuan especially.” As Ge explained, he emphasized “Old Ke” and “especially” while looking at Shao Xuan constantly.
From Ge’s understanding of Old Ke, the old fellow must have been very satisfied with Shao Xuan. In the past, Old Ke had also planned to take in some apprentices and teach them seriously, however, it was such a shame that none of the kids were good enough. They were either too impatient, or too indecisive. Some did not even dare to swing the hammer once they were dealing with some fine stone cores. Old Ke directly drove them away and he never spoke to them again. Many would say that Old Ke was too harsh on the others, however, the fact was, he was merely too disappointed.
Yet, after such a long time, Ke had finally found a satisfying apprentice. But he kept his poker face up all day long. If he drove Shao Xuan away this time, how could he find a better person to inherit his skills? Even Ge felt anxious about the situation for him.
In fact, the very night that Shao Xuan had awakened, Ke asked Ge to find a proper big stone after the ritual ceremony was over. He worked for two nights and made this stone crock.
This crock was almost the same size as the one that Ge used to deliver food to the orphan cave every day. However, this one was a much better workmanship. The edge of the stone crock was nearly the same thickness, and the inner side of the crock was polished very smoothly. While on the outside, not only was it polished properly, it was vividly carved with some pictures and patterns as well, including natural scenery, birds, and animals. There were some animals that Shao Xuan had not seen before, Ke had probably seen them when he went out for hunting in the past.
Normally, Ke focused more on a stoneware’s practical use, and seldom decorated it with art. Now, seeing the stone crock he made for Shao Xuan, one could understand how much he valued him.
“This is such a nice stone crock!” Lang Ga and the others said with admiration as they surrounded the stone crock.
Even though all of them valued the practical use more, and a stone crock was no big deal, who wouldn’t like better looking stoneware?
Not only was the stone crock large in size, with patterns carved on it, but it also had a matching stone cover. Usually, many families would cover their stone crock with animal skins, straw mats, or with a piece of stone plate. Rarely did they have a cover that especially matched the crock. Even the two young warriors that lived in the mountainside district had no such cover back in their homes.
“Indeed! What a nice crock! I have lived for all these years, yet the stone crock in my house is not as good as this one.” Ge added.
“This Ke you’re talking about… Is he the one who used to be famous for setting traps?” Ang asked, he had come to Shao Xuan’s place with Lang Ga.
“Yes, that’s the one.” Lang Ga nodded.
“I heard that many people used to learn the crafting skills from Ke, but later on…” Ang did not finish his story.
“Later on what?”
“Later on, all apprentices that followed Ke for his skills, were either pushed away by his bad temper, or were driven away by force from him. Gradually, no one approached him to learn anymore, and Ke moved down to the mountain foot district, where he now lives.”
Ke was indeed very famous in the tribe, but now he was rarely spoken of by others.
“Old Ke is very skillful. He is harsh, but you can learn useful stuff from him.” Ge told Shao Xuan seriously, which was quite rare.
“Oh, are you learning from Ke now, Ah-Xuan? Hang in there! Ke really was awesome back in his day!”
Lang Ga, in order to encourage Shao Xuan, shared his own story of when he was learning to set ground bows from his grandfather. Back then, his grandfather rained down curses on his head like hell. Not only was he being yelled at, but he also got beaten up sometimes. Lang Ga’s grandfather was an excellent warrior, and Lang Ga could never escape from his grandfather’s hands.
Other kids would mock him every time they saw him get beat up. At that time Lang Ga felt very ashamed of himself, and secretly blamed his grandfather for everything. However, as time went by, and Lang Ga became a real warrior, he finally realized his grandfather’s care and thought.
When they were hunting in the forest, ground bows were not considered as direct-killing weapons, however, they were critical to the mission as well. Just because of the fact that Lang Ga was quite skillful in setting ground traps, he was quickly accepted by the hunting team. And every time when food was distributed, Lang Ga would get quite a big part of it. At least he was getting more food than the others with a similar level.
“Mastering more skills means that you will have a smoother road than the others. It’s not only about your position within a hunting team. If I may say some unlucky words, once you get wounded and lose an arm or a leg, like old Ke and me, you will no longer be able to join any hunting missions in the future. With more skills, you can live an easier life in the tribe and keep yourself away from starvation.” Said Ge.
So, Lang Ga and Ge both agreed on the theory that you should keep it going even when being yelled at like hell. You should grasp the opportunity and try to learn as much as possible. It’s best to absorb all your master’s skills! Not to mention that Ke had a lot of good stuff to teach. There was so much to learn!
At their words, Shao Xuan nodded solemnly, “I know what you are talking about. When you want to learn things from someone, you must acquire many qualities, and having no sense of shame must be the most important quality of yours.”
Lang Ga and Ge both couldn’t agree more, “Exactly!”