The Infrastructure’s Guide [基建指南] by 岛里天下 Chapter 4

At the time, Qiu Juan's mother was preparing breakfast at the cave's entrance. There was up until now some surplus meat in the cave, which had previously been hunted by Qiu Juan and Kong Jia.

Meng Sheng from a distance observed the sub-female who got up early and worked. He and Luo merely met yesterday. He walked over, assuming the sub-female still recognized him.

Luo Cai was aware of him. When he saw the male who had unexpectedly come to visit, he felt very odd.

As he was about to inquire who it was, Qiu Juan, who had just awoken, came out of the cave drowsily. "Meng Sheng, why are you here?"

"Meng Sheng?" Luo stared at his son, flabbergasted. "He is Meng Sheng?"

Even when Luo seldom left his cave in his old age, he had seen Meng Sheng. The male was always hunched and walked with the gait of an old man. It was now impossible to recognize his shadow from the male who marched with his head held high. It's no surprise Luo didn't recognize him yesterday, particularly when he wondered when there was such a young and attractive male in the tribe.

However, after receiving an affirmative response from his son and learning that he was Meng Sheng, Luo Cai got a clarification for his previous questions. He was still perplexed as to why he couldn't smell the male breath yesterday. Meng Sheng was a frail young male with weak breath.

Meng Sheng approached and noticed Qiu Juan’s bad complexion, so he expressed his concern. “Are you alright? Your face is pale.”

Qiu Juan shook his head.

There was a slight distance between the two. Meng Sheng didn't convey any ambiguous actions, acting reasonably normally. Luo Cai breathed a sigh of relief. Even if Li'l Tiger and Kong Jia couldn't be lovers, they were both free now. He won’t allow other males to conveniently exploit this gap, hurting his Qiu Juan again.

He sent his son to rest in the cave, leaving Meng Sheng to speak alone with him.

"I heard Li'l Tiger say his foot was injured and that you helped get him home. It rained so heavily and thundered yesterday, thank you."

"You're just too polite. This was just what I should do. I simply request you speak to Qiu Juan's partner and encourage him to watch over his sub-female. Yesterday's situation was too dangerous."

Luo's expression shifted, he opened and closed his mouth, acknowledged a perfunctory sentence, and staggered to the next subject: "By the way, what's the matter with you coming here?"

"Is there salt in your cave?" Meng Sheng asked, embarrassed by his purpose.

"Salt? Do you mean salt stone?"

Meng Sheng's face lit up when he realized there was salt, regardless of what kind of salt it was, and he nodded rapidly.

Luo entered the cave and, after a while, brought out a stone with a sheet of white powder settling on it. Meng Sheng had never seen a stone like this before.

“This was brought back from the outside by Li’l Tiger. If you want it, take it. It won't be of much use to us."

Meng Sheng was shocked when he said that salt was useless to them. But then he saw Qiu Juan eating breakfast. He was neatly chewing raw meat with blood on his lips. The scene would have been gruesome if the star of the scene hadn't been gorgeous, and therefore the scene had a macabre beauty.

"Wait a minute, there was another thing in the cave." Qiu Juan brought a handful of crystal-like salt the size of a little finger and gave it to Meng Sheng. "This was taken from the chief and thrown into the water. It was easier to drink than salt stone, because there was no sand, but neither my mother nor I liked the taste much. You are welcome to it."

Meng Sheng examined the salt in his hand, shocked that they used it by putting it in water and drinking. These indigenous peoples were not yet aware of salt's ability to preserve meat and other uses.

“Thank you. Does Chief has a lot of salt?”

"Not much. The Chief was the one who traded it in the market. He distributed this with the provisions to the weaker caves.” Qiu Juan, on the other hand, traded it on his own. He was with Kong Jia at the time and wasn’t considered weak. Of course, he won't say anything about it. In reality, he should have gone and picked it up even when he was with Kong Jia. After all, they didn't dwell in the same cave and weren't yet lifelong partners. And yet, he didn’t go due to his self-esteem.

"Glad to hear this, but I wouldn't take your things for nothing. I'll trade you wild boar legs." Meng Sheng handed Qiu Jiang the two blackened pig legs: "I use smoke to preserve the meat. Don't worry, the blackened parts aren’t bad."\

Qiu Juan glanced at the pork leg and refused. He didn't hate the pig leg because it was black, but the pig leg was good meat, and the two legs appear to be quite big. He's afraid that one summed up to ten kilograms of meat, meaning, they're not just from a little weak wild boar. Adult wild boars were very powerful and cunning. Even Kong Jia can't chase strong wild boars once in a while. How could he use a little salt to trade other people's pig legs, even though the present circumstances in their cave were more difficult? He cannot and will not take advantage of others in vain.

“You can use it. There is no need to trade; just think of it as a thank you for yesterday.”

Meng Sheng's demeanor was stubborn. “If I don’t trade, How can’t I be unashamed to take sub-female things? Besides, you already used the hare as a thank you for yesterday.”

Qiu Juan remained silent.

As the two reached a stalemate, Luo, who was standing on the side, said, "Okay, Li’l Tiger, just accept it!"

"Mum!"

Meng Sheng saw this and immediately handed Luo the pork leg. “Thank you, Aunt Luo for salt. I’ll go back first.”

Luo softly grinned at his son after the person had left, saying, "Li'l tiger, your temper was too rough, you're just a sub-female."

"Mum, I just don't want to take advantage of anyone."

"Females and sub-females are inherently weaker in front of males. Males should take care of the weak in the tribe. Why should you be so stubborn?" Luo was also helpless.

Qiu Juan previously was with Kong Jia. The two were already considered partners, therefore, he never asked for anything from others. Today, the male was just exchanging things. And yet, Qiu Juan believed that they were not equal just like before, and refused to accept. His kid was both too good-hearted and too dumb.

On the one hand, he was pleased that the child had positive characteristics, but on the other, he was concerned. Since Li'l Tiger's foot was injured, he couldn't go hunting for a while. The present situation in the cave was unoptimistictic. Qiu Juan will suffer as a result of his temperament.

Qiu Juan sighed, "Okay, I see. You should eat something soon."

Meng Sheng emerged from the cave and immediately bumped into a familiar figure. The hurried male had a bad expression. When they met head-on, he recognized the male as Qiu's partner.

The male gazed at him suspiciously, wanting to observe him face to face, but he didn't seem to recognize him, so the two passed by.

Mother and son were having breakfast when they heard footsteps approaching.

Luo said without looking up. “You have another visitor.”

Kong Jia marched in with furrowed eyebrows. He was unpleased to see an unknown male exiting this cave.

"Aunt Luo, it's me, Kong Jia."

Luo Cai and Qiu Juan both looked up at the same time.

Kong Jia swept a glance around the cave. Luo hadn't had time to clean up the two wild boar legs.

Kong Jia asked in a weird tone. "Was someone here just now?

Luo replied back straightforwardly. "Why do you need to be concerned if someone comes?"

Luo was always patient and kind to him. With his current demeanor, it appears that he is already aware of the contradiction between him and Qiu Juan.

He responded in a good manner.

"I didn't mean it that way, but I just saw a young male."

"Whoever that was had nothing to do with you. You better leave as soon as possible.”

Qiu Juan was even ruder than Luo Cai. He didn't want to hear another word from the person in front of him, so he went right to the eviction order.

"Don't get angry first, Qiu Juan; I want to talk to you."

"What more is there to say? I don't want to speak to you too much, but if you come, we can simply go to the chief and notify him that we have ended our relationship so he can announce it to the tribe."

Kong Jia was already dissatisfied with Qiu Juan's impolite tone, but he understood he was in the wrong, therefore he was patient, but when he heard Qiu Juan was going to the chief to end the relationship, he suddenly changed his previous friendly tone into hideous.

"I won't end your relationship with me!”

If the agreement was dissolved, the tribe's members would be aware he had cheated, and he would certainly have harmed his reputation at that point. If Qiu Juan says anything about them, he would lose the tribe's trust, and the gain wasn’t worth the loss.

Luo reprimanded loudly: "Kong Jia, you were the first to be unfaithful. You've already harmed Li'l Tiger. You still want to pester?"

"Auntie Luo, I'm worried about Qiu. He's got my breath all over him. If he's not with me, who would want him?" He blurted out angrily, only then realizing he had accidentally trampled on Qiu Juan's self-esteem. And yet, he didn't fix it; instead, he maintained a cool demeanor.

"Jia of Xia! How could I have missed the fact that you were such a person? If you thought Li'l Tiger wasn't good enough for you and you decided to find a female, why didn't you say so instead of clinging to Li'l Tiger and refusing to let go? Your actions are heinous!

Regardless of how enraged the mother and son were, Kong Jia's expression remained unchanged.

"How can a strong male only have one sub-female? Qiu Juan, you must consider me; my father and mother have constantly put pressure on me. I took it all on myself when we were together without telling you. Now I'm with Tang Tong solely to please my father and mother. Don't worry, I'll be the same as before if we form a lifelong partnership. Qiu Juan, your status in my eyes will never be lower than Tang Tong's."

Qiu Juan tried to suppress his anger and speak as calmly as possible.

"Why start if your parents don't want us being together? Lie, tell me your parents adore me and want me to be with you!"

"That's because I adore you!"

Those words made Qiu Juan feel sick inside and he screamed. "Enough! You Get Out! I Never want to see You again!"

For the first time, Kong Jia was screamed at by the sub-female who had always respected him, and a fire broke out in his heart. “Alright, I’ll go! I'll give you enough time to think about it. In the meantime, I hope you pay attention to shame and stay away from other males. Don't take some other male things indiscriminately!"

His dignity was a little frustrated, particularly when he saw the appearance of males who had trespassed on his territory.

Qiu Juan heard what he meant and couldn't control himself. It wasn't enough for him to be unfaithful without repentance; he even insulted him in return. No matter how cool temperament he was, he couldn't stop himself from yelling.

"Get out!"

"Unreasonable." Kong Jia left with a cold snort.

He didn't want for it to turn out this way. He tried to talk well, but Qiu Juan not only didn't understand Kong Jia problems, but he also had a nasty attitude toward him!

He had a fleeting impression that this had nothing to do with the male he met before.

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