Chronicles of Primitive Civilization’s Growth

Chapter 6: Blending into the Primitive

Understanding the importance of fish, they glanced again at the countless fish in the river vying for bait. The two children might not yet comprehend what this meant, but the woman’s eyes lit up instantly. This was a new source of food, abundant and less dangerous than hunting in the jungle; perhaps it would become the tribe’s main food source in the future.

The woman began making sounds and gesturing, asking Luo Chong to teach her how to catch fish. However, Luo Chong didn’t let her do that. Instead, he reassigned tasks among the three: one child was responsible for smashing the fish guts, the woman for cleaning the fish, while the other child collected branches from the small trees by the riverbank. They then used grass to thread through the gills of the fish to hang them.

With clear division of labor, Luo Chong continued catching fish. This time, he truly scooped them out. After throwing a handful of bait, the fish gathered together, so many that the basket couldn’t even be placed in the water. Luo Chong simply squatted on the bank and used the basket like a scoop, always catching fish with each try, never less than two.

The four spent the entire afternoon doing this. When the fish seemed fewer, they changed locations. In the end, they caught so many fish that Luo Chong decided to stop. He and the child who smashed the bait helped the woman clean the fish. They counted their haul, which amounted to over two hundred fish. The largest was estimated to weigh about ten pounds, while the smallest were palm-sized. There were too many for the three of them to carry back.

Luo Chong sent one child to call the older children for help. The woman carried a water basin, the two children carried a wooden stick strung with fish, and Luo Chong himself carried two baskets full of fish on a shoulder pole. The group returned to the cave as the sun set, marching grandly towards the mountain cave.

The teams that had gone out to gather fruits and hunt had already returned. It was dangerous to stay in the jungle at night, so they had to return to the cave before sunset. Now, they were gathered around the skeleton of the terror bird and the chief’s body, listening to the women recount the events of the day.

At this moment, the children arrived carrying the fish, shouting loudly to boast to the adults about their plentiful catch, no less than what the adults had managed. Due to the lack of tools, the adults mostly hunted small animals like rabbits, groundhogs, snakes, bird eggs, and wild chickens, and there weren’t many of those either.

Initially, the adults felt sorrowful due to the death of the chief, not because they loved him, but because the tribe had lost another adult capable of hunting. However, upon seeing Luo Chong’s haul, they immediately cheered up, quickly forgetting the tragic incident involving the chief.

After clearing today’s harvest, all the clan members gathered outside the cave. A large pile of firewood was stacked in the open space before the cave entrance. The chief’s body was placed atop it, and an old man with two ram horns on his head ignited the pile. The roaring flames quickly consumed the chief’s body.

The firelight illuminated every face. The children, smelling the aroma of roasted meat, swallowed their saliva, showing no signs of sadness. The adults, comforted by the prospect of a new food source, remained calm.

Taking this opportunity, Luo Chong carefully observed the tribe.

This tribe currently consisted of 52 people, excluding the chief lying on the pyre. There were eight adult men, fifteen adult women, fourteen children aged six and above—six boys and eight girls—and fifteen children under six years old.

The number of adult men was pitifully low, and in Luo Chong’s view, they were all misshapen melons and twisted dates. Among them, the elder who just lit the fire was the tribe’s elder. His position was due to his age and being acknowledged as the wisest in the tribe, though now he might be second only to Luo Chong, whose status was rising in everyone’s hearts.

The elder, adorned with ram horns on his head and a goatee, held a position almost equal to the chief.

Next to him stood a man with six fingers on one hand, who favored using a wooden club. He appeared somewhat dim-witted, evident from his vacant gaze, likely a product of inbreeding.

Beside the six-fingered man was someone wearing a feather necklace, whom Luo Chong named “Feather.” Feather was smart and, like the six-fingered man, preferred using a wooden club.

Behind Feather was Stone, wearing a bone necklace and wielding no weapon since he mainly used stones, hence his name.

A bit further away stood a fifteen-year-old boy, already considered an adult in this tribe. This individual left the deepest impression on Luo Chong because he had only one ear—his right one. Four scars marked his left cheek, said to have been inflicted during a solo hunt for a mountain cat. The cat had torn off his left ear and scratched his face, but he managed to kill the cat. One-Ear wielded a pronged spear made from a straight thigh bone, hollow in the middle with sharp edges at the front.

Next to One-Ear was Shouya, seventeen years old, wearing a necklace of animal teeth inherited from his father, who was the chief two generations ago. Shouya’s weapon consisted of two saber-tooth tiger fangs, each over a foot long.

There was also Dali, the tallest person in the tribe, standing nearly six feet three inches, quite extraordinary for primitive people. Strong and robust, his weapon was simple and brutal—a single thigh bone, possibly from some unknown animal, but certainly long.

Finally, there was Lame Man, a middle-aged man leaning on a wooden cane. His right leg was disabled from an injury sustained during a youthful hunting accident. Though he could walk fine, he couldn’t run. Now, he accompanied the foraging team daily to find fruit, clearing paths and keeping watch. He enjoyed crafting stone tools, and despite his disability, his will was strong. His greatest ambition was to grind out a stone basin within his lifetime.

One-Ear, Shouya, and Dali should be considered the top warriors of the tribe, of course, excluding Luo Chong.

The chief’s body turned to ashes in the fierce flames. These remains would be dealt with tomorrow. The fire at the cave entrance would also prevent wild beasts from approaching.

After burning the chief, the sky grew completely dark, and so did Luo Chong’s face—not for any other reason but because he saw two moons in the sky, one large and one small, the larger moving westward from the east and the smaller southward from the north.

Damn, traveling through time was one thing, but it wasn’t Earth! He wondered if the knowledge he had learned before would still apply here.

Everyone returned to the cave to prepare dinner. The cave entrance had been blocked with massive stones. Today’s main meal was fruit and fish. Since fruit doesn’t store well, it was eaten first, leaving behind only nuts. Luo Chong noticed chestnuts among the foragers’ collection, which were easy to identify.

Previously, it was the chief who distributed food, but today Luo Chong was given the task, mainly because no one knew how to eat fish.

Luo Chong skewered fish with a wooden stick and handed one to each adult to roast themselves. He repeatedly warned them about the fish bones and demonstrated how to eat the fish and pick out the bones using a pre-roasted fish. Everyone followed suit attentively, savoring the meal.

Children shared one large fish among a group of ten or more. Larger fish had bigger bones, easier to remove and less likely to cause choking. For 29 children, roasting two large fish weighing over ten pounds each sufficed, complemented by a piece of fruit each, making for a happy meal.

Luo Chong carefully removed the bones from roasted fish and divided them into small pieces for the three- and four-year-olds. The children ate quietly, holding fruits in their hands, licking their lips, and watching eagerly as Luo Chong portioned out the meat.

Deep inside the cave, there was a natural upward crack allowing ventilation where smoke escaped.

It must be admitted that this place was well-chosen—hidden, safe, and ventilated, a rare haven in this era of rampant wild beasts and lurking dangers.

The central firelight cast numerous shadows on the rock walls, where simple murals told the stories of the tribe’s rise and fall. The elder with ram horns took a burnt carbon stick and drew a mural of Luo Chong fishing by the river. The children, having finished eating the fish, licked their little hands contentedly, still craving more.

Outside the cave, the autumn wind mingled with faint growls of distant beasts, drifting everywhere. Inside the warm cave, women hummed softly to lull their children to sleep. The lame man worked hard on his stone basin, while several young girls picked through fish bones, unsure how to turn them into jewelry for adornment. One-Ear sharpened his pronged spear, and Luo Chong continued weaving his baskets.

The heartwarming scene gave Luo Chong a sudden sense of home. His strong adaptability had unconsciously allowed him to blend into this group.

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