Ake could only do so. Since Xiong Da himself admitted it was a misunderstanding, then Xiong Niu and the others were in the wrong. He couldn't show favoritism too obviously at this point.
He said, "Xiong Niu and the others were in the wrong. I'll have them apologize to you, and have their males bring you prey as compensation."
Uda heard this and thought, "This is more like it," considering it an acceptable solution from Ake.
However, the Xiong females were uncooperative. They were all females, so why should they apologize after being beaten?
Ake, listening to the incessant chatter of his tribeswomen, roared in frustration, "Anyone with objections, have your males come find me. All of you, apologize now!"
As the king of beasts, the tiger's pressure bore down on the Xiong females. Even though they were unhappy, they dared not say more and reluctantly apologized to the Uda females.
The farce finally concluded.
When the hunters returned in the evening, there was another commotion, almost triggering a large-scale fight between the males. It was only under the suppression of the two tribal chiefs that the conflict was quelled.
But everyone knew that once the seeds were sown, anything could happen in the future!
Yin Xiao and Da Sen were heartbroken. Da Sen rolled a cooked large egg back and forth on Miao Xiao Cui's face. The egg was bigger than her face, and it wouldn't roll properly.
Miao Xiao Cui sobbed, "Yin Xiao Ge, Da Sen Ge, please don't go out tomorrow. I'm afraid they'll bully me again."
Yin Xiao said distressedly, "I'm sorry, Cui. We'll stay home with you tomorrow and won't let anyone bully you again!"
"Xiong Da!" Da Sen gritted his teeth and shouted the name. In his opinion, it must have been Xiong Da's coveting of Cui's beauty that caused his female to misunderstand!
Regardless of what others thought, they would beat him up when they met him alone; they wouldn't be able to let go of their anger otherwise!
Miao Xiao Cui felt something was wrong and explained, "Da Sen Ge, this was all Xiong Niu's misunderstanding. We were several meters apart at the time, with no interaction, but she misunderstood that I was seducing her. It's all Xiong Niu's fault!"
Yin Xiao said gravely, "Even if it's Xiong Niu's fault, we can't hit females. We can only blame Xiong Da for being unlucky, since Xiong Niu is his mate."
Hearing this, Miao Xiao Cui fell silent, only feeling wronged for Xiong Da in her heart.
"Yin Xiao Ge, is it going to rain tomorrow?"
Yin Xiao nodded, "Yes, the rainy season is here."
"By the way, Cui, in a couple of days you'll have to teach everyone to count. No one will dare bully you then."
Miao Xiao Cui softly hummed. Before moving to the Tie Da tribe, the chief had instructed her to teach what she knew to both tribes.
It was also because of this that she and Yin Xiao and Da Sen were assigned a cave; otherwise, they would have had to live in animal skin tents like the other tribesmen.
The Tie Da tribe had allocated them six caves in total: one for the chief, one for the shaman, one for them, and the remaining three were for unmarried females and cubs.
Some caves were naturally formed, while others were dug by the beastmen themselves on the mountain. The Tie Da tribe occupied two small hills, a considerable area, but the number of beastmen was even greater.
It was basically similar to the Brave Tribe; only a small portion of strong beastmen could live in caves, while most lived in animal skin tents.
Miao Xiao Cui had been in a bad mood recently. Since moving to the Tie Da tribe, she felt stifled every day. She ate communal meals, and if she wanted to eat delicious wild fruits, she had to hide in the cave. Even hiding in the cave wasn't peaceful; the cubs would sneak in to see her.
She was extremely annoyed, but the space was limited. She had mentioned it to Yin Xiao and the others a few times, but it hadn't had any effect!
Yin Xiao and Da Sen liked children. They didn't mind the cubs coming over to play and even shared their fruits with them.
Miao Xiao Cui, considering the dignity of her tribesmen, couldn't say much and could only suppress her feelings.
"Cui, it's time for us to sleep. Your face will be fine tomorrow." Yin Xiao was exhausted from hunting all day and wanted to rest early tonight.
"Okay." None of the three had the mood for anything else, and they all went to sleep early.
However, Miao Xiao Cui couldn't sleep. She stared at the cave ceiling, lost in thought.
---
The rainy season had arrived.
At dawn, the torrential rain came as scheduled.
The beastmen came out to watch the rain, and Wen Te and Shu Yue were no exception.
Corn chicken soup was simmering in the kitchen. Shu Yue sat at the cave entrance, watching the rain and listening to the sound of the downpour, which calmed her heart.
This was the first rain since she had arrived on the beastman continent.
Wen Te was busy in the kitchen. Life was so much better when he didn't have to cook in the rain!
"Wen Te, what do you think about Jiao Jiao?"
Wen Te: "..."
"Yue Yue, you don't need to worry about her. I won't take her, no matter what. If she comes to you again to talk about this, just drive her away!"
Shu Yue eyed him, "Aren't you afraid that by doing this, you'll offend Jiao Jiao's family and they'll have opinions about you?"
Wen Te shook his head and said firmly, "I'm not afraid of offending them. If I don't want her, can they force her on me? I, Wen Te, don't want just any female!"
Shu Yue was overjoyed by his words, feeling even more that her judgment was good. See, the man she fancied was this amazing!
The rain was heavy. Under the hastily erected grass shed from last night were several large pheasants with broken legs. Wen Te had caught them alive but couldn't bring them back. Fortunately, Shu Xin accompanied him and suggested breaking one leg of each pheasant and tying the intact leg of all the pheasants together with a rope, making them easier to carry.
They weren't expecting these pheasants to lay eggs; they just wanted to eat fresh meat during the rainy season.
When breakfast was ready, Lei Te and Shu Xin arrived on time and had breakfast together.
All the tribesmen were idle today. Food was sufficient for now. Although the weather was still hot, it was much cooler than before, at least they didn't need to fan themselves.
When Lei Te went to collect the meat allocated to the tribe, Shu Xin specifically instructed him to get all the fatty meat, which others didn't want. Lei Te brought back quite a bit.
Since they were idle, they might as well render oil. They picked a lot of wild vegetables. With oil, they could stir-fry dishes.
The four of them lit four fires and rendered oil all day until they used up all the fatty meat, producing a full wooden barrel of oil.
At this point, having pottery would be much more convenient. The sisters thought of this at the same time. Shu Xin said, "After the rainy season, we can try to fire pottery."
"Yes, it would be convenient to store oil in a pottery jar."
Lei Te asked curiously, "What is a pottery jar?"
Shu Xin found it difficult to explain, so she asked him to go back and get his tablet. The four of them gathered in the cave, looking at the ceramic pictures on the tablet.
This was Wen Te's second time seeing this board, and he was amazed at how magical this thing was!
The two beastmen were engrossed in looking at various pictures. Wen Te asked, "What are these dense lines?"
Shu Yue replied, "They are words."
"Wen Te, do you want to learn to read? I can teach you."
"What are words?" He didn't even know what words were.