Chapter 49: Beast God’s Envoy, Little Hedgehog

Jiujiu was sure his father wouldn’t be angry with him, so he answered without hesitation, nuzzling up to his father ingratiatingly, then offering his paw.

“Father, where are the fruits?”

“Want a beating first?”

The more Jing looked, the more his head ached. He felt as if he had become the kind of father he used to dislike the most.

Spoiling his child excessively, he even found himself making excuses for Jiujiu.

It was just a Little Hedgehog, and it was perfectly normal for him to be hungry and want to eat when he wasn’t around. If he were to scold him for that, it would seem like he was demanding too much of him.

After his father said that, Jiujiu quickly curled himself into a hedgehog ball.

“Father, can you beat me like this?”

Jing glanced at the Little Hedgehog, who had already curled into a ball, and rolled his eyes helplessly. If he actually tried to hit him in that state, he would be the one getting hurt.

“Go get the fruits yourself.”

“Yay!”

Jing hadn’t told Jiujiu where he had put the fruits he found, but he didn’t need to say anything. Jiujiu had already very consciously run over to get them.

As Jiujiu began to gnaw on the fruit, Jing walked over and sat beside him, asking:

“You don’t store any food. What will you do in winter?”

“I’ll eat whatever Father eats.”

Jiujiu wasn’t worried at all. After all, he wasn’t a proper Little Hedgehog.

Star Lord was even more concerned than Jiujiu himself about how well he was doing in this world. Knowing that food was scarce here, he was afraid he would starve to death.

Even the bloody meat they had eaten before, Jiujiu could eat it if he really had to, but he wasn’t psychologically very accepting of it.

“Can I eat it?”

“Yes!”

Other hedgehogs couldn’t, but he definitely could.

Jing felt relieved upon hearing this and no longer stopped him from eating the fruits. Occasionally, when he encountered some novel fruits, he would bring them back for Jiujiu to see if they were edible.

The beastmen in the tribe were different from previous years. In previous years, before the weather turned cold and winter arrived, they would eat frantically, but this year they were intentionally controlling their food intake.

They stored most of the food according to the method the Beast God’s Emissary had taught them.

After being made into cured meat, it could be stored for a long time in a dry and ventilated place.

Jiujiu loved going with his father every day to check on the piled-up meat, and as he watched it grow, his heart felt more and more at ease.

“This winter, we will definitely make it through successfully.”

“Father, we can warm ourselves by the fire, and next year, we can plant some food. That’s even better for storage.”

Jing now habitually carried a deerskin pouch on his clothes, with Jiujiu inside.

Although it didn’t look very good, at least it was better than a prickly hedgehog directly on him.

“Can you recognize them?”

“Is Father doubting Jiujiu?”

The Little Hedgehog sitting there suddenly stood up. Jing realized he had said the wrong thing and quickly corrected himself:

“What I mean is, won’t it be very hard to recognize so many plants?”

Jing could now master the language to communicate with the beastmen by the sea, all thanks to Jiujiu teaching him every day. He wasn’t worried about other things; life in the tribe was improving step by step at a visible rate.

It was hard to imagine that not long ago, their only wish was to survive the winter.

Winter soon arrived, and as snowflakes fell, these beastmen were not as desperate as in previous years.

They had stored enough food to help them get through this winter.

They hadn’t considered dry firewood before, and when they realized it wasn’t enough, Xiu took a team of young beastmen out to find some.

Thunder was rare in winter, and they needed to protect the fire.

They had rarely had fire before, so it was the first time they discovered that besides cooking food, it also had such a good warming effect.

Most of the beastmen gathered in a large cave to warm themselves by the fire. Jiujiu disliked their loud snoring and asked his father to build a small, separate fire for him in the cave.

For this, Jing had to specially find dry firewood every day. Seeing the Little Hedgehog carrying a few fruits and leaning by the fire, warming his small paws, a smile appeared in his eyes.

“Father, go find a few smart beastmen to come over.”

A well-rested Jiujiu suddenly realized he had forgotten another very important thing.

Before he came, Star Lord had told him that the Beast God had once said they would be taught writing in winter.

Although Jiujiu felt that the Beast God’s creative ability wasn’t very good, and the writing looked as complicated as drawing, he still remembered it firmly.

This might be like some worlds he had experienced before, where it was part of history, and writing would slowly evolve into its simplest form.

“Okay.”

Jiujiu held a stick with his small paw and drew a character on the ground, deciding to teach them this one first today.

First, they would learn how to count, and then slowly be taught how to use writing to record things.

There wasn’t much serious to do in winter anyway. Upon hearing that the Beast God’s Emissary was willing to impart new skills to them, not only the chosen beastmen but also many others eagerly came to join in the fun.

They crowded at the cave entrance, and even though it was very cold outside, their hearts were burning with enthusiasm.

Their faith in the Beast God was very devout, as if they could connect with the world where the Beast God resided through the miraculous drawings made by the Beast God’s Emissary.

Jiujiu, tired and thirsty after a day of hard work, lay there, waiting for his father to feed him water. He then rolled over and mumbled:

“Father, this is so tiring.”

“Then do you want to rest tomorrow?”

Jing saw his little one lying there exhausted. It was certainly not true that he didn’t feel distressed. Perhaps out of a father’s instinctive protection for his child, he also began to dislike the large number of beastmen coming.

“Tomorrow I’ll draw a picture. When winter passes, Father will lead people to find those things.”

The next day, Jiujiu really didn’t want to see those beastmen. He asked his father to get him a piece of animal skin, dipped his paw in some pigment, and drew rice and wheat from this world on it.

Jing saw that Jiujiu didn’t want to move anymore, so he had the most talented beastman in the tribe draw a few more pictures based on this, and distributed them to the surrounding tribes.

They were all children of the Beast God, and they should help each other.

When people from those tribes received them, they sent some gifts as thanks. Hearing that the Beast God’s Emissary was a small hedgehog, they even specially sent a plant they had dug out of the snow.

It was a small deerskin bag, not too much, but the fruit tasted quite sweet.

Jiujiu, who had been lying there refusing to turn over no matter what, instantly revived upon seeing the delicious fruit.

Jiujiu didn’t know what it was, but it tasted very much like a fruit radish, crunchy and sweet, quite delicious.

It just didn’t look very good, as rough as himself, making Jiujiu want to smooth it out every time before eating it.

Every day, besides teaching the beastmen the importance of writing, he also taught them how to calculate time.

When Jiujiu started teaching them this, Jing specifically took out some of the food they had stored in the cave and had the beastmen practice counting with it.

Later, when the fruits were gone, Jiujiu started eating meat with his father again.

Jing noticed that he wasn’t particularly fond of it, and he also self-taught himself that a stone pot could cook meat.

Roasted cured meat always took Jiujiu a long time to eat, but the texture was much better after being boiled in water.

It was also very fragrant to gnaw on, the only headache was that he only liked lean meat and disliked fatty meat for being too greasy.

During the long winter, the beastmen no longer had to worry about food, and their daily lives were also very fulfilling.

The Beast God’s Emissary taught them many things, and if they didn’t work hard, they wouldn’t remember them the next day.

That Little Hedgehog, the Beast God’s Emissary, wasn’t fierce. Even if they didn’t remember, he would patiently explain it again. But their chief was different.

Once, Xiu, due to oversleeping in winter, wanted to be lazy. A day later, he had forgotten everything the Beast God’s Emissary had taught him. The chief directly made him sleep outside the cave for a night.

Xiu wasn’t very scared, but he felt a bit embarrassed. From then on, he diligently studied every time, fearing being punished by the chief again.

The weather gradually warmed, and the ice and snow began to melt. Jiujiu often heard the sound of melting snow dripping, just like rain.

He saw a tree branch sprout green buds and began to wonder if the little butterfly he used to play with would still come around.

When prey became easier to catch outside, the beastmen had more important things to do and no longer had the mind to listen to Jiujiu’s lessons.

While they breathed a sigh of relief, Jiujiu also felt much more relaxed. Every time his throat was almost hoarse, these beastmen still couldn’t understand what he was trying to express.

Most of the time, they left the lessons with happy faces, while Jiujiu stayed there, fuming into a hedgehog ball.

Some beastmen found the plants that had been drawn earlier on their way back from hunting. They brought the seedlings back, intending to let Jiujiu see if they were the right ones.

Jiujiu took them, carefully identified them, and then tasted a bit. It was roughly that flavor.

He wasn’t very sure from the appearance, but he had taken a bite when Star Lord wasn’t paying attention, and it was that kind of unappetizing texture.

Jiujiu didn’t need to worry about these things. Jing felt that as a father, he definitely had to help his child with these matters.

He arranged for some beastmen who couldn’t go hunting to start planting this kind of thing in the tribe.

He was very much looking forward to seeing what kind of food, which Jiujiu said was very easy to preserve, would look like.

They had seen this kind of grass in the forest before, but they had never seen it mature.

After Jiujiu planted it, every day when his father went hunting, he would go over to look at it.

The beastmen regarded this as hope, while Jiujiu was more curious about how fast it could grow. At first, it wasn’t even as tall as a Little Hedgehog, then it slowly became as tall as himself.

Later, Jiujiu had to look up to see its full form. From then on, Jiujiu didn’t like going anymore.

Hmph, even a tiny rice plant grew taller than him!