After the wedding, the Shell Tribe and the Kelp Tribe, carrying large and small packages, reluctantly left.

The joyful time had been too short. They felt as though they hadn’t stayed long at the Waterfall Tribe at all, and in the blink of an eye, it was already winter.

Sigh.

After they returned, they were determined to stock up on more goods, and once winter passed, they would strive to make a pilgrimage to the Waterfall Tribe in the spring!

The Treehouse Tribe left a bit later because Fan Zhou planned to teach them how to make sesame paste and sesame oil.

There were many wild sesame plants around the Treehouse Tribe’s area. Rather than making the long journey to bring sesame seeds to the Waterfall Tribe to trade for sesame paste and sesame oil, it would be better for them to learn how to make these delicious things themselves.

The beastmen of the Treehouse Tribe were overwhelmed with gratitude—he was actually teaching them the method for free, for free!

Sob sob sob, how could there be such a generous high priest!

The beastmen of the Giant Bear Tribe were very envious. There was no sesame near their tribe, so if they wanted to eat sesame paste and sesame oil, they had to either go to the Waterfall Tribe or to the Treehouse Tribe.

Lu Xin sought out Fan Zhou to inquire about the method for making hot pot base. There were chili peppers growing near their tribe, and if they looked carefully after returning, they would surely find more.

Because of the spicy taste, birds didn’t like to eat them.

When chili fruits fell from the branches, they would slowly dry and become dried chilies.

If they could eat steaming hot pot in winter, wouldn’t that be amazing!

Want to learn how to stir-fry hot pot base?

No problem, Fan Zhou personally taught Lu Xin the process step by step.

Of course, it was free too.

The Giant Bear Tribe also had ginger. If they could find some Sichuan peppercorns, the base they stir-fried wouldn’t taste bad at all. And if it was coated in sesame paste, that would qualify as truly delicious.

Lu Xin was very happy and repeatedly expressed his thanks.

He also felt very reluctant to leave. Now that they had learned to make hot pot base, their tribe also had to leave…

Soon, the Treehouse Tribe and the Giant Bear Tribe also left, both carrying big and small packages.

Fan Zhou gave the promised beast spirit flowers to Hou Yan and Bao Cheng.

The Treehouse Tribe didn’t have high mountains and couldn’t grow beast spirit flowers. Plus, the distance to the Waterfall Tribe was far and travel was inconvenient. Considering that they might encounter emergencies requiring beast spirit flowers, Bao Cheng decided to exchange all of his share.

Before he followed Feng Xun to the temple, he had especially instructed his clansmen to find the remaining beast spirit flower seeds once they returned to the tribe, and hand them over to Fan Zhou during the next Divine Sacrifice.

These seeds numbered more than 4,500. Fan Zhou exchanged for them at the same rate he gave Hou Yan and provided the equivalent number of beast spirit flowers.

This time, Bao Cheng took away several hundred beast spirit flowers.

Hou Yan had already promised beast spirit flowers to the beastmen of the Giant Bear Tribe, so he also made an exchange before leaving.

As a reward for the Giant Bear Tribe’s hard work building roads, Fan Zhou gave him an additional hundred.

Right now, Fan Zhou truly wasn’t lacking beast spirit flower seeds anymore.

The more than a thousand flowers he had planted earlier had already produced tens of thousands of seeds. Now that Bao Cheng’s clansmen had sent over more than four thousand, and considering that beast spirit flowers weren’t afraid of heat or cold and matured in less than three months, once this winter passed, he would truly possess an uncountable number of beast spirit flowers.

In order to truly obtain countless beast spirit flowers as soon as possible, right after the other tribes left, Fan Zhou immediately began digging caves, preparing to plant all the seeds he had on hand.

Actually, this wasn’t a great method.

Beast spirit flowers would only keep multiplying. Was he going to plant them in caves forever?

That would take digging out so many caves.

He felt sorry for Feng Xun’s paws and his own arms!

The best method now was to continue opening up wasteland and then build sheds on the barren land to block the rain.

As long as the rain could be blocked and the land watered with spiritual spring water, even if planted in the forest, they could still grow smoothly.

However, this method was merely a temporary fix, not a permanent solution. The fundamental reason beast spirit flowers went extinct was because the world’s water sources had been polluted.

But he had no way to purify this pollution. His spiritual spring water was far too limited.

Once he died of old age, then the beastman world…

What a headache.

Fan Zhou temporarily buried this problem in his heart and did not tell Feng Xun. After working hard for more than half a month, the two of them planted all the beast spirit flower seeds.

A light snow fell.

Winter had arrived.

The snow was light, and it melted as soon as the sun came out, but the temperature could no longer rise.

The beastmen didn’t have cotton, and linen clothes weren’t warm, so they all changed into beast hide garments.

Fan Zhou set up water balloon greenhouses over the chili peppers in the fields—those peppers hadn’t matured yet.

There was too much grass seeds to cover with water balloons, but those were almost ripe too, already bearing grain.

Taking advantage of the fact that prey hadn’t completely gone into hibernation yet, the beastmen of Waterfall Tribe and Axe Tribe wanted to stockpile as much meat as possible before the heavy snow came.

Fan Zhou canceled the hunting ban on the Axe Tribe. The hunting team of the Axe Tribe could now hunt freely.

The foraging team could also gather food freely. Fan Zhou currently had no farming tasks for them to do.

The Axe Tribe returned to their former state—the hunting team hunted, the foraging team gathered, and in the evenings, Xing Wei and Hu Sheng distributed the food.

Yang Da was still living in a small shed beside the Axe Tribe. Fan Zhou didn’t drive him away, and he didn’t bother the beastmen of the Axe Tribe, living self-sufficiently.

He had a lame leg and was elderly. The only things he could find were wild vegetables. Occasionally, he could hit a bird with the slingshot Hu Sheng had given him, or catch some fish.

In short, he lived a hard life too.

Fan Zhou didn’t know what his purpose was, but since he didn’t cause trouble, Fan Zhou let him stay.

There were far fewer animals near the Waterfall Tribe now. The four tribes had stayed here too long—not only prey but also many edible plants had been depleted.

The Waterfall Tribe was still okay. Every beastman had been given a lot of grass seeds, so even with less food, they didn’t panic.

But the beastmen of the Axe Tribe were very anxious.

They hadn’t planted grass seeds, and during the golden period to stockpile food before the heavy snow, they couldn’t find much food at all.

Too terrifying!

Actually, Fan Zhou was a bit anxious too, because he remembered what Que Yu had said. According to Que Yu, not only would more and more beastmen develop strange illnesses in the future, but food would also become scarcer.

Strange illnesses could be cured with beast spirit flowers, but food—he really couldn’t conjure out of thin air.

His ability was water-type, not plant-type. He couldn’t stimulate plants to grow.

He wanted to summon Que Yu to ask where exactly the Sacred Mountain was, but considering it was already winter and they couldn’t travel far, he pushed that thought aside again.

Forget it. Let’s get through this winter first.

Hmm… he and Feng Xun should also go hunting. Once the heavy snow came, the world would become a natural refrigerator, and even large quantities of meat could be stored.

Xiong Ye, Lu Duan, Yang He, and several others had moved into the tribe. They had dug their own caves and needed to stock up on food for the winter. The few of them were busier than the beastmen of the Axe Tribe.

They had come to the Waterfall Tribe empty-handed—aside from a pair of hands, they had nothing.

Fan Zhou had Feng Xun call them to hunt together. With Feng Xun around, hunting was an easy thing.

It was just that prey really had become scarcer. Even at Feng Xun’s speed, he had to run very far to find any game.

Half a month later, the weather got colder and colder. Since the stalks of grass seeds, soybeans, and sesame had already withered, Fan Zhou hired the beastmen to help him harvest the crops.

This time, he not only provided food but also paid wages—two jin of grain and one jin of meat per person per day.

This wage wasn’t exactly generous, but since he also provided food, quite a few beastmen came.

With many hands, work went fast. In less than ten days, hundreds of mu of crops were harvested, and just after all the grain had been stored in the warehouse, a heavy snow fell.

The snow started falling at noon. The snowflakes weren’t large, but they came down fast, swept by howling winds that scattered them everywhere. When they hit the face, it hurt quite a bit.

The weather was heavily overcast. Even though it was noon, they already needed to light oil lamps inside the cave for illumination.

There were more and more things inside the cave now. After multiple rounds of digging by Fan Zhou and Feng Xun, the interior area had already exceeded a hundred square meters.

But they had only dug deeper inside, without widening the cave entrance, so the interior of the cave was quite dim.

Using a fire pit for lighting wasn’t practical—it produced too much smoke and ash and stung the eyes.

So Fan Zhou made oil lamps.

He poured oil rendered from mud-beast meat into a ceramic jar, then twisted a cotton wick and placed it inside. Just like that, the first oil lamp in the primitive world was made.

After the first oil lamp was successfully made, Fan Zhou made several more, casting a warm yellow light throughout the cave.

Anyway, he had stored quite a bit of mud-beast oil, so he wasn’t worried about wasting it.

At this moment, hearing the wind outside, Fan Zhou thickened the water door again.

But in truth, he was doing something futile.

To prevent suffocation, there were gaps left in the water door.

So no matter how thick he made the water door, the cold air could still seep in.

Having just finished lunch, in this freezing weather neither he nor Feng Xun felt sleepy. Feng Xun sat on the bed, leaning against the rock wall, reading a piece of bark paper on his lap. Winter had no farming tasks—it was the perfect season for reading and studying.

Fan Zhou stood at the cave entrance for a while. Seeing the snow getting heavier, he went back inside, ready to find something to do.

Hmm… better continue making cotton-padded jackets. The cotton Xiong Wu had brought wasn’t used up yet, and he and Feng Xun only had one set each. If they got dirty, they’d have to wear beast hide again.

Just as he took out the cotton, Feng Xun called to him: “Tu Zhou, come look. How do you read this word?”

He put the cotton back onto the wooden rack and walked over to the bed in a few steps.

Bending down to look at the character Feng Xun was pointing at, he read out, “Suo, shuttle, a tool used in weaving cloth.”

“Shuttle?” Feng Xun tilted his head, confused. “What does it look like?”

“Pointed at both ends…” Fan Zhou picked up a charcoal stick and drew a shuttle, explaining its use as he did.

Feng Xun listened very intently. After hearing it, he couldn’t help but ask, “Can you make one?”

Using this to weave would be way faster than by hand.

What a great tool!

“Nope.” Fan Zhou shook his head and righteously said, “I’ve never seen one before. This was something the Beast God told me.”

“That’s such a pity.” Feng Xun looked disappointed.

“Alright, stop reading. The lighting’s bad. Don’t ruin your eyesight and become nearsighted.” Fan Zhou reached to take the bark paper from his hands.

“I haven’t finished reading yet.” Feng Xun gripped the bark paper, unwilling to let go.

“Read it tomorrow. What if you really go nearsighted?” Fan Zhou gave a light tug and pulled the bark paper from his hand, then placed it onto the bookshelf at the foot of the bed.

This was the history of human development he had compiled for Feng Xun.

Once Feng Xun fully understood this stretch of history, Fan Zhou would logically follow up by telling him all about his past life.

Of course, this development history had to be tied to the banner of the Beast God. He claimed it was the Beast God’s deduction of the future of the Beastman Continent.

That way, if he couldn’t answer something later, he could just push the blame onto the Beast God.

He was a liberal arts student—how could he possibly know so much? He did this so that he could have normal conversations with Feng Xun in the future.

Feng Xun looked at Fan Zhou’s back and didn’t press further. He understood what nearsightedness meant. As a hunter, if he couldn’t see clearly, he’d be finished.

But just now it seemed the bunny was going to make clothes?

In this dim lighting, it was really taxing on the eyes. He got up, walked to the foot of the bed, and hugged Fan Zhou from behind: “Don’t make clothes anymore. The light’s too dim. Lie down with me for a bit.”

Fan Zhou thought for a moment and nodded. Anyway, there was no rush.

The two of them lay down in the soft, fluffy bedding. Feng Xun lay on his side and pulled Fan Zhou into his arms. He kissed him first and then said, “Tell me about what happened after the shuttle appeared.”

He really wanted to know.

As someone who had woven countless pieces of hemp cloth, he wanted so badly to use this kind of tool.

His boyfriend was so eager to learn, so Fan Zhou naturally wanted to satisfy him. However, he hadn’t majored in history—what knowledge he had came from high school, and he couldn’t go into too much detail, only give a rough overview.

When he talked about the flying shuttle appearing during the First Industrial Revolution and steam locomotives, Feng Xun listened with rapt attention. There were actually such magical things?

Comparable to the miracle of the sweet water.

Time quietly slipped away as Fan Zhou explained. His mouth went dry and his tongue parched, so he drank a bit of spiritual spring water, then sprawled out on the bed in the shape of a big “大”, totally done: “No more talking. If I keep going, I’ll lose my voice.”

“Alright, no more.” Feng Xun stroked his cheek, leaned in to kiss him, then asked, “Do you want to take a nap?”

“No nap. It’s already mid-afternoon. If I nap now, I won’t be able to sleep at night.” Fan Zhou said as he turned over and looked at the heavy snow outside.

Their bed was placed right next to the cave entrance, and now, through the water gate, he could clearly see the snowflakes spinning and dancing.

He became a little absentminded. He was lying warmly in the bedding, but he didn’t know how the other beastmen were doing…

Feng Xun also turned over, imitating him as he looked out at the snow. After a while, he reached out and pulled him into his arms.

“So good,” Feng Xun sighed.

“What’s so good?” Fan Zhou turned his head to look at him.

“It’s snowing and windy outside, but inside the cave it’s warm, and you’re in my arms—this is really good.”

Feng Xun wore a soft smile on his face.

In his memory, winter was gray and dark.

The weather was always gloomy, and he had lived in cold stone houses with no oil lamps, only fire pits. But the fire pits weren’t lit often, because the smoke was too heavy.

But today’s winter was warm yellow.

Understanding what Feng Xun meant, Fan Zhou couldn’t help but smile too: “It really is good.”

If he hadn’t met Feng Xun, if Feng Xun hadn’t liked him, then he wouldn’t have bothered to decorate the cave or try every way possible to improve their quality of life.

Imagining what the cave looked like before—on a day like this, sitting alone in it—it was hard not to fall into depression…

“So what should we eat tonight? It’s cold, let’s cook dinner early and go to bed early too,” he asked with a smile.

“Mm… since it’s cold, let’s drink some soy milk, and make stewed pork with soybeans,” Feng Xun said, then added, “Make a bit more, I’ll bring some to Xiong Ye.”

Xiong Ye’s claws hadn’t grown back yet. When they went hunting recently, his haul wasn’t as good as Lu Duan and Yang He’s.

“Alright,” Fan Zhou had no objections.

So the two of them lazed in bed a little longer, chatting casually while holding each other—who argued with who, who had an eye on who, what plans there were for next year, and so on.

When they got thirsty from talking, they finally left the warm cave and went down to the kitchen at the foot of the mountain.

Since cooking outside in winter was very cold, the two of them had specially dug a small cave to use as a kitchen, and had crammed all kinds of bowls and utensils inside, freeing up quite a bit of space in the upper cave.

The stream outside hadn’t frozen yet, but it was definitely ice-cold. Fan Zhou was quite glad he had a special ability—it made cooking much more convenient.

He lit all three stoves—one to boil soybeans for soy milk, one to make stewed pork with soybeans, and one to steam grass seeds rice. The ceramic pots heated up quickly, but the sky darkened even faster. By the time the two of them finished cooking, it was already completely dark outside.

Fan Zhou prepared two clean ceramic jars—one for the soy milk, one for the meat and grass seeds rice. Both had just come off the stove, piping hot, but Feng Xun wore a thick cotton coat, so he wasn’t afraid of the heat.

At this point, the snow on the ground had already reached their ankles, but it didn’t hinder Feng Xun. Carrying one jar in each hand, he quickly made his way to Xiong Ye’s cave.

Xiong Ye’s cave was about the same size as the others’. Inside was a bed and a wooden rack. The bed was covered with thick dry grass, and the rack held roasted dried meat and some dried wild vegetables.

Beside the wooden rack, quite a few more wild vegetables were piled up.

He and Lu Duan had arrived too late and hadn’t gotten any of the grass seeds distributed in the tribe.

Back when Fan Zhou hired people to harvest grass seeds, Xiong Ye thought two jin of grass seeds per day wasn’t worth it and had gone looking for wild vegetables instead.

As a result, he had no grass seeds at all.

When Feng Xun arrived, he was fast asleep on the bed. Feng Xun had to call several times before he finally woke up.

The wooden door had a few air leaks, but he was in beast form and wasn’t afraid of the cold wind.

“Why are you sleeping so early?” Feng Xun entered the cave, put down the ceramic jars, and asked in some confusion.

“Snowy days are good for sleeping.” Xiong Ye had already smelled the aroma of food from the ceramic jars. He swallowed his saliva—so fragrant.

“But it only just started snowing.”

Feng Xun knew Xiong Ye’s habits very well. Xiong Ye didn’t like sleeping at all. In winter, when it often snowed heavily and it was hard to move around outdoors, other beastmen would choose to stay inside their caves.

But Xiong Ye was always full of energy. Every time it snowed, he would be outside playing.

Today was the first heavy snow. In the past, Xiong Ye would never bother with sleeping—he would definitely be rolling around and playing in the snow.

“Uh…” Xiong Ye raised his paw and scratched his ear, thinking of how to explain.

“You’re not doing this just to save food, are you?” Feng Xun immediately asked when he thought of the possibility.

When beastmen didn’t have enough food in winter, they would choose to sleep.

Once asleep, they wouldn’t feel hungry, and they could save quite a bit of food.

“No.” Xiong Ye immediately shook his head.

“It must be.” Feng Xun frowned, using the faint snowy light from outside to examine the state of the cave.

With one glance, Feng Xun already had an idea. He only knew that Xiong Ye’s hunting was less than the others, but he was always busy during the day. It had been a while since he’d come to Xiong Ye’s cave.

“You eat first, I’ll go back and get you some grass seeds.” As he spoke, he was about to leave.

“Wait!” Xiong Ye quickly called out to stop him. “I haven’t finished my food yet. Let’s talk about it after I’m done.”

He already knew Tu Zhou especially liked giant pandas, and Tu Zhou was especially generous. If he asked, Tu Zhou would definitely give him food.

But how could he bring himself to ask?

He wasn’t truly starving right now.

Even if he were starving, he didn’t want to eat for free.

He was just unlucky this year. Once his claws healed next year, he would definitely prepare lots of food for the winter, just like before.

He very seriously thanked Feng Xun, but said the grass seeds weren’t needed. They’d talk again if he truly ran out of food.

Feng Xun knew he was too embarrassed, so he didn’t push. He simply reminded him to eat the meat and drink the soy milk while they were hot, then left the cave.

Feng Xun took a walk around the Waterfall Tribe.

Then he also walked around the Axe Tribe.

By the time he returned to the small kitchen, Fan Zhou was a little puzzled: “Why are you back so late?”

“I went to take a look around both tribes.” Feng Xun accepted the bowl and chopsticks Fan Zhou handed him and sat down by the stove.

“What did you see?” Fan Zhou held his bowl of soy milk and looked concerned when he heard that. How were the other beastmen doing?

“In the Waterfall Tribe, everyone was cooking dinner in their own caves.”

In this kind of weather, no one wanted to cook outside in the wind and snow.

Anyway, everyone had quite a few ceramic vessels now, so why bother with communal meals?

He had just made a round—nearly all the beastmen were cooking in their caves, boiling soup in ceramic jars and roasting meat at the same time. They were eating very well.

“In the Axe Tribe, not many beastmen were eating dinner. Their sheds and houses were pitch-dark, with no signs of fire—probably sleeping.”

If it was mealtime but no one was eating, there was only one reason: there was not enough food, so they were saving it.

“I see…” Fan Zhou frowned.

“Xiong Ye also didn’t have enough food. He was sleeping too. I wanted to give him some grass seeds, but he refused, said he still had food.” Feng Xun added.

“…What a prideful little bear.”

Fan Zhou felt helpless.

Feng Xun couldn’t help but chuckle when he heard that—the tone completely treated Xiong Ye like a little cub.

“Then how do we help him?”

“Let me think.” Feng Xun cradled the soy milk, sipping it in small mouthfuls.

The third batch of grass seeds covered several hundred mu. Although it had been hit by the cold, his spiritual spring water hadn’t been poured in vain.

With this much grain, relying just on him and Feng Xun—they definitely couldn’t finish it all.

Since they couldn’t finish all the food, then he might as well use it to hire people to help with work. This way, beastmen like Xiong Ye who didn’t have enough food could get some, and he could also…

Do what?

Continue weaving hemp cloth?

That was Song Li’s job.

He didn’t plan to make the hemp cloth method public for now.

As for the prey and birds he raised, those were managed by Niu Shu, and didn’t require help from other beastmen.

After searching through his mind for a while, he opened his mouth and said, “Let’s see how heavy this snow gets. If it lasts long, we’ll make sleds and go out to transport those hard nut trees back.”

“Okay.” Feng Xun immediately nodded. He swallowed the meat in his mouth, picked up the soybean milk on the table, and drank a few sips.

Soybean milk with hard nuts not only had a rich taste, but was also sweet.

Hard nuts were such good stuff, they had to plant more. The biggest thing this winter was to bring back that batch of hard nut trees!

Of course, also the ones from the Axe Tribe.

This snowfall came and went, falling on and off for three days, but in the end the accumulated snow only reached Fan Zhou’s upper thighs. And on the fourth day, the sun immediately came out. Fan Zhou wasn’t in a hurry—anyway, the sled hadn’t been made yet.

He was making sleds mainly to transport the hard nut trees, so the sleds needed to be large. The forest was right beside the cave, so there was no shortage of wood. The two of them worked slowly, experimenting as they went.

After nearly half a month of tinkering, by the time the third snowfall came, their large sled was finally completed.

In the morning, when distributing sweet water, he told everyone about transporting the hard nut trees. Volunteers could sign up, the slots were limited, and those who wanted to go had to confirm with him today.

There would be no wages—he would only provide meals.