I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 273 – Curiosity kills the cat
This time, the people of the Bone Tribe brought quite a lot of things. In addition to two empty jars prepared to hold salt and the food they wanted to eat, they also brought many hides and furs.
This indicated they were gearing up for trade.
“Darn it!”
Seeing the numerous hides carried by people, the leader of the Bone Tribe suddenly shouted angrily and kicked a woman with bruises on her body.
Upon hearing the leader’s angry words, the woman already wore a frightened expression but dared not evade. She staggered back several steps from the force of the kick but managed to stay on her feet.
The hide wrapped around her was torn entirely open during this stumble, exposing her body, which bore more scars than were previously hidden by the hides.
Despite being beaten, she didn’t dare move and instinctively shrank her body, looking at the leader of the Bone Tribe with fear, waiting for the next blow.
In these past few days, such encounters had become commonplace for her. Initially, the beatings were even more severe.
“Darn it!”
The leader of the Bone Tribe kicked her twice more until the primitive woman was knocked to the ground before finally leaving her alone and continuing to walk forward.
The others watched all this unfold, but no one intervened to stop the leader from committing violence. Some remained indifferent.
Some even landed a couple of kicks after the leader had left.
Only when no one else came to beat her did the woman finally get up from the ground, wrap the hide around herself again, pick up her weapon, and limp along at the back of the group.
Tears streamed down her face, but she dared not cry out loud because if she did, someone would come and beat her again.
Despite this, she didn’t feel her beatings were unjust.
After all, it was her fault for accidentally breaking the large pot used for cooking that they had traded for so much from the tribe. This forced the tribe to go without food when there wasn’t much to spare, carrying a large amount of hides to exchange for the pot from the other tribe.
This not only caused the tribe to lose a lot of hides but also wasted time acquiring food, making the tribe’s food situation more precarious.
This time, they brought so many people because someone in their tribe had said that sometimes deer herds appeared on the way to the other tribe.
So this time, they not only came to trade but also to try their luck.
If they could encounter that herd of deer, even catching one would provide them food for two days.
Under the sun, the people of the Bone Tribe headed toward the direction of the Green Sparrow Tribe…
Han Cheng returned to where the canoe was parked with several young hemp plants, which had not yet fully grown, along with the senior brothers.
He found a two- to three-meter-long wooden stick, tied a large piece of hide to one end, and then profoundly inserted it into the mud by the riverbank.
On the back of this piece of hide, Han Cheng drew an abstract bird with charcoal, the same green bird on their tribe’s totem pole.
Drawing the green bird on the hide was a spontaneous joke.
Placing a pole-like object here wasn’t to declare that this place now belonged to the Green Sparrow Tribe but rather to make a relatively conspicuous marker so that they wouldn’t have trouble finding it when they came to collect hemp in the future.
They untied the ropes and pulled the drifting canoe over. Everyone found the oars hidden in the grass, boarded the boat together, and left this peaceful bay.
On the makeshift map, Han Cheng drew, this place now had a name: “Hemp Bay.”
The appearance of hemp improved Han Cheng’s mood, and his nervousness about the uncertain future was greatly diluted.
Standing in the boat, he looked around, but all he saw was vast wilderness.
There was no concrete jungle in sight, only lush ancient forests.
Along the way, no tribes were found, and no signs of human habitation were seen.
Despite the swift current, they had traveled quite far in the past few days, covering almost 250 miles of waterway.
Considering the human tendency to settle near water and the fact that this river, which was nearly 200 meters wide, served as a major transportation route, some villages should have been along its banks.
With the terrifying population of future generations, such a situation shouldn’t occur, especially in habitable mid-latitude regions.
Looking at the vast wilderness, Han Cheng’s mood was complex, filled with joy and sorrow.
The Eldest Senior Brother, who had traveled and slept on the same boat as Han Cheng for many years, didn’t share this complex feeling. He rowed the boat downstream.
Large waterfowl flew near the boat, curiously observing these monkeys that could float on water. They weren’t afraid because they knew that those wingless creatures on the ground couldn’t harm them once they flew into the air.
This applied to this group of monkeys and all creatures that couldn’t fly.
With a “clang,” the bowstring sounded, and a waterfowl that wanted to get a closer look at these monkeys floating on the water moaned as it fell into the water, flapping aimlessly.
Some of the waterfowl, startled by this turn of events, flapped their wings in panic and flew away. Today’s events truly subverted the birds’ worldview.
Curiosity not only killed the cat but also the birds.
Amidst the crowd’s cheers, Third Senior Brother put down his bow and pulled a wet rope under his foot, dragging the bird that had paid the price for its curiosity back.
This damp rope, tied to the other end of an arrow, was Third Senior Brother’s innovation after experiencing the dilemma of quickly losing arrows in such wilderness.
The effect was quite good. Although it slightly affected the accuracy of shooting arrows, the hard-to-make arrows would no longer be lost.
The cabin already had quite a few bird feathers, left by the Third Senior Brother for making arrows later.
After a night of anchorage, the group again went ashore to explore. Their investigation was not limited to vegetation and trees; some rocks were even included in their survey. However, so far, they haven’t encountered any valuable minerals.
This stopping point was close to a small hill, with many rocks at the foot of the mountain, but the trees on the mountain were not particularly lush.
Han Cheng and the Eldest Senior Brother went up the mountain together but found nothing useful.
Today’s weather was fine, allowing them to see far into the distance. When Han Cheng looked eastward, he saw the same vast wilderness with no signs of human habitation.
It seemed that their place was unlikely to be a primitive human reserve. Even in tropical rainforests, they shouldn’t fail to see any modern traces after traveling a long distance along the water.
“Divine Child, let’s go back,” said the Eldest Senior Brother to Han Cheng.
After being out for so long, everyone was already missing their tribe.
This was the farthest and longest time they had been away from the tribe since birth.