CH 9

Chapter 9: I don’t know what eating till you are full is

In the evening.

Mu Liang and Mino returned to the wooden shelter in the camp.

“Today’s harvest is really great.” Mino squatted by the fire pit and happily fiddled with the small lizards.

They had captured a total of forty-five small lizards today.

Twenty-three small lizards were caught by tricolored lizards, and the rest were caught by the two of them.

In addition to the small lizards, they had also caught three palm-sized rats.

Mu Liang polished his military knife and asked, “Have you always eaten small lizards?”

“Yeah. Occasionally, if I’m lucky, I can eat a little bit of hare meat.” Mino replied without raising her head.

Their harvest today was great. Usually, she could only catch two or three lizards.

“Have you eaten till you are full?” Mu Liang’s knife polishing hand paused.

“Full?”

Mino tilted her head in thought and said bitterly, “I don’t know what eating till you are full is.”

How could she know what it’s like to be full when she has never had enough to eat?

“……” Mu Liang listened to the girl’s heart-wrenching words and then looked into the girl’s confused eyes.

Suddenly, he was in an inexplicably irritated mood and threw the stone that was being used to polish the military knife

“What’s the matter?” Mino blankly blinked her blue eyes.

“It’s okay. I’m going to take a stroll around the camp.” Mu Liang inserted his knife back into the sheath around his waist.

He wanted to inquire about the situation in the camp before spreading the news of the thieve’s attack.

“Be careful.” Mino reminded him.

She had to stay behind to deal with the small lizards. She had to turn them into dried meat to store them for a long time.

“Okay.” Mu Liang took his backpack and hid in the shadows of the surrounding wooden shelters.

It was evening, but it was already dark as no moonlight was shining down from the sky.

Such a dark environment was just right for Mu Liang to act.

The air was filled with the smell of barbecued meat. There were cracks in the wooden sheds, and a bit of fire light was coming out of them.

The surroundings were quieter and the sound of sleeping could be heard from some wooden houses.

After all, they could only do less activity and sleep more if they couldn’t eat enough.

Mu Liang had learned from Mino that there was a hunting team in the camp, which was responsible for hunting some wild animals far from the camp.

For example, rabbits, tortoises, dogs, and so on.

The food from the hunt was distributed to the people who helped the chief of the camp. As for the other people, the chief would not care.

Living in the camp required paying taxes. This was everyone’s deal with the chief and the hunting team for their protection.

Living alone in the wild was extremely dangerous. They could be attacked by wolves or they might even encounter vicious beasts.

From Mu Liang’s point of view, the most important reason why people in the camp were willing to pay taxes was because the water source was controlled by the chief.

Only those who paid taxes could go and receive a share of water, a share that kept people from dying of thirst.

One of the main reasons why Mu Liang came out at night was to prepare more water for the day after tomorrow.

The camp was not big, but it was divided into the inner and outer layers.

The inner layer had a fence made of wood and stone. This was the place where the chief and the hunting party lived.

The outer layer was for people like Mino, who paid taxes.

Mu Liang easily flipped over the two-meter-tall fence and avoided the guards.

The fragrance of the roasted meat wafting in the air inside the inner layer was very strong, and the firewood was also burning well.

Mu Liang occasionally heard some sounds as he passed by some wooden houses.

“There is no fear of getting sick in such an environment.”

Mu Liang cursed in his heart as he put down the stone he had pulled out.

The chief’s house was in the very middle of the camp.

When Mu Liang walked around the house, he was surprised to find that the house was more than 400 square meters in size.

It was equivalent to the size of a basketball field.

“How luxurious.” Mu Liang sighed.

He understood that the people in the camp were working for the chief.

Mu Liang picked an isolated corner and easily climbed into the chief’s house.

He landed silently. A fire was burning in the room, and the light was not very dark.

“This should be a side room.” Mu Liang muttered.

He listened to the discussions coming from the depths of the house and determined where he was.

After observing for a while, Mu Liang found that there were seven or eight maids in the house.

He followed one of the maids, who was holding a clay pot, to a room with a guard at the entrance.

Mu Liang quietly stood in the shadows of the wall. Coupled with his ability ‘mimetic color change’, he was not afraid of being discovered from just a few meters away.

While observing, he found that this room did not even have a single window. The only way to enter the room was through that door.

It wasn’t long before the maid came out with a pot filled with water. She dodged the guard’s strange hand and left in anger.

Mu Liang remembered that room and once again followed that maid and came to a bright hall.

Four people in the hall were having dinner.

The maid placed the clay pot on the table. Instead of immediately serving water to those around her, she caught a hare, cut its throat with a dinner knife, and dripped blood into the pot.

Mu Liang immediately lost interest in that pot of water and he was ready to leave to explore other rooms.

However, the conversation of the four men caught his attention.

“Go down.”

The middle-aged man sitting at the main seat waved his hand at the maid.

He used a bowl to take out the bloody water from the pot and poured it into his mouth.

The maid bowed and stepped out of the hall.

“Chief, do we really have to leave this place?”

“As long as we don’t water those vegetables, we can still last for several months.”

“Watering those vegetables is a waste.”

After the maid left, the other three people spoke one after another.

All those vegetables were only enjoyed by the chief, and only a few vegetables were given to them occasionally. Of course, the three of them were dissatisfied.

“Bang!”

The chief slammed the tabletop and said in a cold voice, “Should we stay here and wait for death instead of leaving?”

He poured a bowl of bloody water into his mouth once again, and said in a low voice, “The water in that underground well will only last for another ten days at most.”

“Everyone will die of thirst if we don’t leave by then.”

“However, finding a new water source is simply too difficult.” One of them grumbled softly.

“We can move to the Moon Lake tribe. They should be able to take us in.” Another person said.

The last person also agreed. “I’m in favor of going to the Moon Lake tribe. We can join their hunting team.”

The chief’s face became cold, and he refused: “Impossible, I will not agree to go to the Moon Lake Tribe.”

If a camp chief went to another tribe, he probably wouldn’t even be a small chief.

He was used to being a master, and that was why he was absolutely reluctant to become a servant.

“Then where should we go?”

“I don’t want to die of thirst.”

“If we can’t find a water source, I’ll take my family to the Moon Lake tribe.”

The three of them expressed their dissatisfaction.

“I’ve already sent someone to find the water source. If there are no results in five days, we’ll go to the Moon Lake tribe.” The chief looked at the three people in front of him and killing intent flashed in his eyes.

“Okay, then we will wait for five more days.”

The three of them ate the barbecue, drank a few bowls of bloody water, got up, and left.

“……” Mu Liang quietly stayed in the corner and watched the whole process with cold eyes.

He didn’t expect that the camp was running out of water.

Moreover, they were growing vegetables, which surprised him.