The Infrastructure’s Guide Chapter 8

"Yes, go back and rest." Meng Sheng handed the meat to the quiet sub-female beside him. He stopped in front of the cave, not daring to go in.

Qiu Juan was a little lethargic at the moment. He only picked up the meat when he heard his voice. Meng Sheng caught a glimpse of his bloody right hand. The blood had already thickened.

He raised his brows and inquired. "Your hand. What happened?"

Qiu Juan only now realized and glanced at his hand. "It's fine." He quickly took the meat and put his hand out of sight.

Always the same. He's always fine, no matter what anyone asks. He rejects all kindness and concern. Does Meng Sheng seem like a bad person to him?

"Do you think I'm particularly nosy?"

As if awoken by these words, Qiu Juan opened his amber eyes wider and glanced at Meng Sheng, who was staring at him condescendingly. He was taken aback. He seldom looked into a male's eyes like this, and Meng Sheng's face gave him a strange feeling. It was a different kind of handsome face from Kong Jia's. He wasn't sure whether his expression was sullen or cold. They didn't interact much and were still strangers . This was the first time he seen Meng Sheng in this state.

Meng Sheng was taken aback when he saw the fear in the eyes of the sub-female. He immediately regretted what he had just asked.

He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but he observed that Qiu Juan was not only haggard, but also much thinner. The first time he saw him, the vigorous sub-female marched through the jungle with a stone-polished weapon on his back. He radiated self-confidence and beauty.

However, the relationship had broken him and made him lose his passion.

Although he had no direct contact with Kong Jia and had heard that everyone's evaluation of him was pretty decent, but from his personal point of view, this Kong Jia wasn't as good as everyone said. Would anyone that nice not care if their partner got hurt? Would they ignore them or even argue with them?

He always felt that Kong Jia had done something serious, otherwise Qiu Juan wouldn't have been like this, and in the end, he also requested the chief to separate from his partner.

Qiu Juan was persistent in suppressing his sour feelings in his heart. Lately, he was inexplicably irritable, so he was unwilling to talk to others after he was injured. Qiu Juan politely asked to be left alone. He had no reason to trust Meng Sheng while he was so vulnerable.

In reality, if someone doesn't trust you, you can't force them. Meng Sheng doesn't know much about the mother and son in the cave, except that they were having a difficult time right now. He, as a male, didn't have to be wary of two sub-females as he approached while they naturally kept their distance.

Meng Sheng couldn't help but feel wrong.

After a pause, he had a terrible idea that left his scalp go numb. Seconds later, he persuaded himself of different reasons. As he searched within himself, he came to the conclusion that it was most likely because the young sub-female was too pitiful to be emotionally tormented and he was simply bored.

Qiu Juan was young and inexperienced. When he became injured and weak, he was forced to end his relationship with his partner. Now, he had to support his weak mother alone. In such a scenario, Meng Sheng would have sympathy no matter how tough he was!

Furthermore, the sub-female was the type he preferred, and people would normally be kind to people or things that match their own aesthetics. As a result, when you do your best but do not get the expected response, you cannot help but feel wronged. [TN: the moment MC realized he almost became the trope “Nice guy” XD]

But he was an adult man who was better than his younger self. What kind of response did he want? His parents cared for his rebellious adolescent self without expecting anything in return.

He was enlightened in an instant.

You shouldn’t get angry at children, but rather care about them. Tomorrow, he’ll deliver the stone pot he wanted!

After thoroughly thinking it over, he headed back to his cave with lighter steps.

When hunting wild beasts today, the machete was covered in blood, masking the metal blade and luckily, everyone's attention was drawn to the beasts. Otherwise, it would been difficult to explain from where the weapon came. After he cleaned his weapon, he stayed in the cave.

He went out to toss for a day and didn't get anything he intended to pick, but he didn't labor in vain because he got salt again.

Zhong Yang was very generous and gave him a large bag. He unwrapped the big salt lumps that had been covered in the leaves. The salt was enough for him to eat for a while. He grinded the salt into fine particles on the stone, smeared the unsalted meat, and neatly packed the remainder for storage.

It was already dark after he finished. He roasted a piece of meat. This meat was same one he distributed today. Zhong Yang told him it tasted good and encouraged him to try it for himself. He didn't object since he had worked for this meat.

He made it medium rare and it tasted good. After eating, he felt exhausted, even more so than the day he made the stone pot, therefore he took an early rest. He had a good night’s sleep.

The next morning, at dawn, he awakened from the inside heat in his body, which was unlike when sitting by the fire or in the sun. He removed his woolen blanket and crawled out of his stone bed for the first time.

He was still uncomfortable in his body, but it didn't seem to be a physical problem, so he ran out of the cave and did a round. The temperature outside the cave was not particularly warm in the early morning. It could be said that it was freezing, but he didn't feel cold until he returned.

“Damn this heat!”

Meng Sheng drank a mouthful of cool water, calmed his mind, sat down in the cave, and turned over the “The Infrastructure’s Guide”.

He didn't find anything about physiology after browsing for a while, but he did discover a search bar in the guide's corner. He rubbed his brow and wrote quickly: the male body is feverish.…

The guide shot out the related content.

After a male successfully kills and consumes prey, the stronger the prey, the stronger the male's breath will become. The body’s heat was the criterion for measuring effectiveness.

After reading it several times, Meng Sheng understood this was a good thing. He checked the solution next. There were two options: unleash your breath and adapt gradually, or ‘overdo it’ with your partner and, at the same time, improving your partner's strength.

He felt the second solution was wonderful and could also benefit his partner as well, but… he had no partner.

Meng Sheng released his breath in the cave and discovered that it was indeed stronger than ever. He lit the fire, put some water to boil, and then went outside the cave to find a stone to chisel into a pot, in the spirit of not wasting effort.

As soon as he found a stone, a shout rang behind him.

"What are you doing, Meng Sheng?"

When he turned around, he saw Zhong Yang holding a pheasant in one hand and a bunch of berries in the other.

"You went out hunting so early?"

Zhong Yang made his way through the weeds to him: "I didn't go on a hunt. Yesterday, I was kicked by that wild beast. I'm still in pain. My father requested that I relax for a few days. I went out for a walk when I felt better and didn’t shake. Look, I picked some berries and caught a pheasant.”

Zhong Yang bound the pheasant's feet with weeds as it was still alive.

Meng Sheng examined the pheasant. It was a female with fluffy feathers and strong body. He went to Zhong Yang and took a berry from him. The red berry was the kind he had picked before.

"Eh, there are wild eggs?" Meng Sheng asked in surprise while gnawing on the berries. Zhong Yang had bundled the berries in large leaves. There were five eggs with them. They were only the size of free-range chickens, not domesticated modern chicken eggs.

Zhong Yang cocked his brow: "Yes, this pheasant was in the process of brooding. If you want, I can give them to you.”

All the meat in the tribe came from hunting. If they started to domesticated animals, they would no longer have to risk their life every day to hunt. It just so happens that a hen with eggs came to his doorstep. When the time comes, little chicks will hatch and growing up in captivity, they won’t fly away.

Zhong Yang noticed he hadn't spoken in a long time and assumed he didn't want them, but then he heard: "Yes!"

"Really?" Zhong Yang chuckled and handed him the pheasant, saying, "Do you want the berries too?”

“Yes, due yesterdays occurrence, I didn't find any, and the meat was too monotonous for me.” He wasn't at all polite in accepting.

"Then I will help you take it to the cave."

"Let's go," Meng Sheng said as he lifted the pheasant. The two of them headed to the cave together.

Zhong Yang asked. "There are a lot of these berries just outside the forest, haven’t you picked them there?”

"I've never been there before."

"I’ll take you there later," Zhong Yang said as he slapped his chest.

"I’ll be chiseling a stone pot later."

The two spoke as they went in the cave.

This was Zhong Yang's first visit to Meng Sheng cave. When he walked in, he was taken aback. What he saw was more meat hanging on the cave wall than in their cave. A large stone pot was currently burning in the cave.

"Meng Sheng, I can't believe you are so rich!" exclaimed Zhong Yang.

Meng Sheng put things down, unconcerned: "Is this rich?

How poor were the conditions in other caves?

“With this amount food and cauldron, you certainly are the richest cavemen of our tribe!”

Zhong Yang had been to several caves, and single male caves like Meng Sheng, who had stored so much food where none. It's no surprise that yesterday he wasn’t enthusiastic about bringing the beast back and declined the offer to eat the beast's heart.

Meng Sheng had only seen a few caves. Apart from his own, there were only two other caves: Zhong Yang's cave and Qiu Juan's cave.

Zhong Yang was the chief's son, but he'd grown up and had his own cave next to the chief's. He went in yesterday to look at it. His cave didn't have any fruit or pots, but the chief's cave did. The family ate together. Zhong Yang's cave had several unusual items despite the lack of food and a pots.

As a brave male of the tribe, he had countless animal skins in his cave. There were various weapons made of stone. Although blunt, there were varies kinds. In addition, there were shells and jewelry made of animal teeth. The cave was not as large as his, but there were a lot of things.

In contrast to his cave, it was bare except for food, so he didn't realize how wealthy he was. As for Qiu Juan's cave, the conditions were indeed very poor, but they were weak, which was normal.

"I saw your cave yesterday. It is much better than mine. Don't brag about me.”

Zhong Yang put one hand on Meng Sheng shoulder. "The many odd things you saw yesterday, aren’t found in our tribe. They were traded back from the market. In general, a market fair will be held in two months. At that time, you only need to capture more prey. Not only can you exchange it with salt, but also for whatever catches your eye.”

Meng Sheng had heard Zhong Yang mention it the day before. This market piqued his curiosity. After making a stone pot for Qiu Juan, he planned to smoke some bacon. The meat would be something fresh, unusual, and delicious. He'll almost certainly be able to trade it for more salt.

The two talked for a bit before Meng Sheng remembered. "By the way, have you eaten breakfast?"

"I ate a long time ago and I only came out after eating.”

"I haven't eaten yet; do you have anything else planned for later?" I'll show you how to loop the chicken coops, and then you can raise pheasants if you catch them." Meng Sheng didn't want to eat meat for breakfast, so he nibbled on berries.

Zhong Yang was perplexed by what he meant: "That's all right, but what does this pheasant do for the trouble?

Meng Sheng didn't explain anything and exited the cave, saying, "Come on, you'll see then."

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[TN: I think Qiu Juan distrust in Meng Sheng is refreshing. Far too often stories depict Seme showing little kindness and uke will trust them immediately and are willing go into a situation that if they would been with a bad person, they would be in serious danger. This always makes me feel these uke are a bit soft in the head. Although, since ukes in novels often are depicted as cute pets that eat and blush and do nothing else, it isn’t that surprising. While I like cute fluff, I like reading more about two adults having equal relationship, not one adult and one suspiciously mentally challenged person that is treated as a pet you can f*ck. :P :P :P

It is reasonable that Qiu Juan (living in society without police) distrusts a random male that showed up when he got hurt and no longer had a protection from a partner]