nycdaug Chapter 141 Grinding Lenses... Failure
Chapter 141 Grinding Lenses... Failure
It's worth mentioning that the tribe doesn't have the concept of a New Year, or rather, it does, but it has been replaced by sacrificial rites.
In other words, any child born before the rainy season, regardless of the month of birth, will be one year older after the ritual.
For example, Mao was 14 years old before the sacrifice, and after the sacrifice, he should be considered 15 years old. Li, who is one year younger than Mao, was 13 years old before the sacrifice, and after the sacrifice, he also became 14 years old.
As for Ge, to be precise, he officially turned sixteen after this sacrificial ceremony. However, the tribe's age division is quite broad. Basically, around the time of the rainy season, the person will automatically be a year older, and they don't have to wait until after the sacrificial ceremony to be recognized as having grown a year older.
Pear used to be on Little Stone Mountain, but after he turned 14, he stopped going there often. Instead, he would go with his parents to the edge of Taz Forest for more realistic hunting training and instruction.
This is also why Jiang Luoluo felt particularly helpless on Xiaoshishan just now, with no one to help her and keep things under control.
If Pear were still on Little Rock Mountain, she would definitely come out to help maintain order. Unfortunately, after Mao left Little Rock Mountain, Pear rarely appeared there again.
This is something that is destined to happen as we grow up.
……
The final result of the melee was not unexpected: the one who almost became the Brown Fish King earlier faced off against the child from the Fish Cave, named Shen.
Perhaps because he hadn't been able to fight the children from Yuerdong before, Shen had been holding back his anger, and he fought very bravely in the melee, overpowering the other children and displaying overwhelming strength.
The children of Yuerdong did not participate in this battle competition. In fact, the children of Yuerdong usually do not participate in such things because they never have enough food to eat.
For them, it's not worthwhile to participate in something that's completely unnecessary and requires a lot of physical exertion.
Therefore, the children of Yuerdong rarely use their hands except during training.
Apart from Little Fish King Biao, who was still by Jiang Luoluo's side, probably staying behind as a bodyguard to protect her, the other children from Fish Cave had already gone back to fishing... They couldn't skip lunch.
After Shen won the final victory, he proudly made several smug expressions in the direction of Little Fish King Biao.
It was as if he was explaining that he wasn't afraid of the children from Fish Cave, but only refrained from arguing with them out of respect for the cub Luo. Now he had seen his true strength.
Little Fish King Biao glanced at him but didn't react. Shen was even more annoyed by Little Fish King Biao's indifferent response. However, because Jiang Luoluo was next to Little Fish King Biao, he didn't make any more provocative expressions. He just kept puffing out his cheeks.
Jiang Luoluo found it very interesting.
In the end, Little Fish King Biao did not react to Shen, and Shen did not come forward to cause trouble.
Although Shen seemed furious at being ignored by Little Fish King, he remained calm and stayed put, enjoying his honor as the final victor.
Until the morning training ended, all the children went home. Xing walked among the children of Xiaoshishan and left with them.
He felt as if he were training and learning on the small rocky mountain every day, and his expression was full of excitement. The smile on his face did not disappear until he returned home.
Little Fish King Biao escorted Jiang Luoluo back to the cave. Ge still hadn't returned today, and Jiang Luoluo was quite bored being alone in the cave, so she tugged at Little Fish King Biao, preventing him from leaving.
The reason, of course, couldn't just be that Little Fish King had been given lunch; it was to thank the children of Fish Cave for the transparent stones they had brought—because there were so many, some of them had to be sent back to the cave.
The children from Fish Cave brought these transparent stones, but they didn't ask Jiang Luoluo for any jam in exchange. They were too embarrassed to accept it, after all, Jiang Luoluo had already done so much for them.
Their lives are so much happier now than before, they would never want anything from Jiang Luoluo again. They only worry that they can't give Jiang Luoluo enough in return.
So Jiang Luoluo didn't take anything else, but instead took some of the Stinky Flowers that Fish Cave needed most and gave them to Little Fish King Biao. Although she used them often, she didn't need that many.
The children in Fish Cave need it more, since the tribe doesn't have many other things that can remove the fishy smell, and they also have other uses, so they can only use the big, succulent Stinky Flower as the main ingredient.
Little Fish King Biao didn't refuse and readily accepted what Jiang Luoluo gave him, which surprised Jiang Luoluo. She had originally thought it would be a lot of trouble to explain it to him before she could persuade him to lose weight.
Unexpectedly, Little Fish King Biao looked at her, then suddenly lowered his head and said very seriously, "Your voice isn't fully recovered yet, so don't talk too much. You can use gestures, I can understand them."
Jiang Luolu blinked, then suddenly realized that she was worried that if she talked too much, she would hurt her voice, so she accepted it directly?
Little Fish King Biao looked at the cub's expression and a gentle smile appeared in his eyes, but he did not say anything more, worried that the cub's voice was only part of the story.
The main reason is that Little Fish King Biao has realized that refusing help from others is not worthwhile, as it hurts others' good intentions and affects his own future development.
What he needs to do is never to reject other people's kindness, but to accept it, remember it, and repay it when he has grown strong enough.
He is confident that he can repay the favor tenfold or a hundredfold after he has grown stronger.
Therefore, he can accept the kindness of others with a little more ease.
Of course, Jiang Luoluo still managed to keep Xiaoyuwangbiao for lunch to avoid putting too much pressure on him. So Jiang Luoluo didn't make any new dishes, but just took out tender chunks of meat cooked with jam and a rich and sweet jam meat soup.
Jiang Luoluo wasn't sure if Xiaoyuwangbiao had eaten enough, but since she had cooked a little less than usual and there was nothing left, he should have been full.
Xing would also come over to keep Jiang Luoluo company in the afternoon, so Xiaoyu Wangbiao stayed with Jiang Luoluo for a while longer, which was also a way to pass the time with her.
Jiang Luoluo first sorted and put all the stones into categories.
First, put the colored transparent stones together. We won't need these for now. Unless there is a need later, we will definitely use colorless transparent stones to grind the lenses first.
Next is transparency. High transparency will be left until the technology is refined, and then we can work on those.
They are semi-transparent and further differentiated according to the texture of the stone, with the one that feels closest to highly transparent stone placed in the middle as a transition.
The remaining translucent stones, which don't have a very good texture, are just cannon fodder for practice.
Jiang Luoluo wiped the sweat from her forehead. Although this kind of work wasn't tiring, she inexplicably sweated a lot, as if she had done a lot of hard work.
Actually, it requires more mental effort.
Little Fish King Biao watched the cubs do their work from the sidelines. It wasn't that he didn't want to help, but that he really couldn't get involved.
The cub seemed to have a very clear and specific plan for everything, a plan that was completely incomprehensible to someone who didn't know him.
So instead of interfering and making things worse, it's better to just watch the cubs do it themselves, at least you're not holding them back.
Looking at the young fish, Little Fish King Biao found it very interesting. It was as if seeing the satisfied expression on the young fish's face made a part of his heart feel satisfied as well.
Jiang Luoluo quickly resumed grinding the stone. Little Fish King Biao watched with some curiosity. Although he knew the cub wanted a transparent stone, he didn't know what the cub wanted it for.
Seeing what the cub was doing, they naturally became curious and wondered if they could help the cub with something or do something to assist it.
Jiang Luoluo noticed Xiaoyuwangbiao's interest and assumed he was interested in grinding stones. She figured it didn't matter whether she did it or someone else did it, and there were so many stones to spare.
With a wave of his hand, he gestured and explained as he placed a transparent stone into the hand of Little Fish King Biao.
When Xing was escorted over by her younger brother Ping, who had been secretly hiding her, in the afternoon, what she saw were two little fish kings, Biao, with tense faces and no words, and a cub with a thoughtful expression, and several transparent stones broken into pieces in front of them.
Seeing Xing come over, Little Fish King Biao got up without saying a word. He had already apologized to his cub many times when he broke the first transparent stone.
The way to comfort the cub was simple: she showed him the transparent stone she had also broken and told Little Fish King Biao that the reason she collected so many transparent stones was because she had no way to grind them without breaking them.
So breaking it is a normal thing and there's absolutely no need to worry about it.
Little Fish King Biao seemed unperturbed, as his expression grew increasingly cold and serious.
When Xing finally arrived, Little Fish King Biao immediately stood up and said goodbye, his intention to leave couldn't be clearer. Jiang Luoluo was too embarrassed to ask him to stay any longer.
Just as they reached the cave entrance, Little Fish King Biao stopped, turned around to look at Jiang Luoluo, and said, "Luo, there are many of these transparent stones by the river. If you need them, I can take you to collect them. You won't need to trade with others anymore."
Jiang Luoluo looked at Xiao Wangbiao, paused for a moment, and then nodded, "Oh, okay."
After Little Fish King Biao walked out, Jiang Luoluo realized that Little Fish King Biao probably thought that these stones might not be enough for her to practice with.
Looking at the transparent stone fragments in front of her... Jiang Luoluo pondered, seemingly unable to refute them.
Although it might be true, it was still a little hurtful. Jiang Luoluo clutched her chest, trying to salvage her crumbling confidence.
"Luo, shall I help you?" Xing asked.
Jiang Luoluo waved her hands repeatedly. She had asked Xing to do it for her before, but Xing's performance was not particularly good, so there was no need to force Xing to help again.
Doing it once is fine, but if Xing keeps doing it for you, it will only waste each other's time.
Because Xing still has orders for hair ties to make for her tribe every day, and as the designs of the hair ties she makes become more and more complex and beautiful, the production time also becomes longer and longer.
For the water chestnut, this was an important task in obtaining food.
Jiang Luoluo didn't want her own affairs to affect Xing's income.
"Hmm... alright then." Xing nodded hesitantly, looking somewhat distrustful of the cub.
Xing felt that the cub really needed some help... but she wasn't the one who could help the cub.
While keeping an eye on the cubs, Xing skillfully started making her own hair ties next to them.
All I could hear were the crisp snapping sounds that occasionally rang out from the cub's hands.
The cub finally couldn't contain its rage and jumped up, leaving a large pile of broken, transparent stones in front of it.
Xing couldn't help but recall the words Little Fish King had left behind when he left.
Judging by this consumption rate... simply exchanging jam for transparent stones isn't enough...
Jiang Luoluo stormed to the cave entrance, glanced at the cave walls and wooden door, and finally chose to smash the wooden door twice.
Hmm... it hurts my hand a bit when I smash the stone wall.
After smashing small dents into the wooden door, Jiang Luoluo withdrew her hand somewhat guiltily... This wooden door was still going to be used for a while, and she couldn't really break it.
But is she really that strong? She didn't seem to have this much strength before. Is it because she's grown again? Jiang Luoluo's consciousness was distracted for a moment, and her previous irritability dissipated.
Jiang Luoluo calmly walked back to the stone bed and stared blankly at the pile of transparent pebbles on it.
Xing originally wanted to comfort the cub, but seeing that the cub's expression didn't seem sad or upset, but rather thoughtful, as if it was pondering something, she decided not to disturb it further.
Sure enough, not long after, Jiang Luoluo suddenly jumped up, went to the pile of firewood for burning, found a flat piece of wood, and then processed it herself to make a wooden board of medium size.
Jiang Luoluo returned to the side of the wooden bed, picked up the transparent stone fragments from the stone bed, and pressed them onto the wooden board.
Some of the transparent pebbles were quite sharp and could be pressed in directly, so Jiang Luoluo pressed them in directly. Other transparent pebbles had edges that weren't sharp enough and couldn't be pressed in.
Jiang Luoluo took out the Earth Star Stone from her previous whetstone and used it as a hammer to smash it in one by one.
They painstakingly nailed together transparent stone fragments of different sizes and shapes onto the wooden board.
Xing looked on in bewilderment, but she rarely understood what the cub was doing, so she remained silent, waiting for the cub to finish and share with her.
Jiang Luoluo did not disappoint Xing's wait, and soon unfolded what she had just finished in front of Xing.