I've been transported to the orc continent.

Chapter 175 Bow and Arrow

As evening fell, Chen returned from his patrol. His eyes lit up when he saw Bai Ling return, and he immediately tried to pull Bai Ling to pick some sweet grass to eat.

A few days ago, Bai Ling went to Yuanhu Tribe. Before leaving, she promised Chen that she would pick sweet grass for him to eat when she returned. However, when they came back, Chen had gone on patrol and was not at home at all.

After Chen returned, Bai Ling and Yue went to Yuanhu Tribe again, and the two brothers missed each other once more.

Now that Bai Ling is home and Chen has returned, he pulled his older brother to go pick sweet grass.

Bai Ling called out to Yue again. When Yue heard that they were going to pick sweet grass together, a smile appeared on his lips, and he gave Bai Ling half a basket of beans.

"I picked these in the field this afternoon, and I can cook them tomorrow."

The tribe grows a lot of soybeans. Ever since Bai Ling taught the tribespeople how to make salted edamame, the tribespeople in charge of cooking have to pick some beans every day to cook and eat.

Yue spent the whole day working in his field. He picked the ripe mung beans and even picked some to cook and eat.

Bai Ling didn't stand on ceremony with Yue. He accepted the beans and said, "Tomorrow I'll make you stir-fried edamame with shredded pork. This dish should go well with cassava pancakes."

*

Bai Ling planted the sweet grass in two completely different places, one was a flat field, and the other was a sunny hillside. Chen led Bai Ling and Yue to the sweet grass in the flat field.

"Brother, the sweet grass grown in this plot tastes better," Chen said.

He had eaten sweet grass several times already. The sweet grass grown on the ground was a little bigger and tasted a little better than the sweet grass grown on the hillside.

Bai Ling glanced at her younger brother: "You seem to know very well."

Chen chuckled but didn't say anything.

Instead of immediately pulling up the sweet grass, the three of them first took a walk around the field.

The edible part of the sweet grass is its root. The upper part looks similar to an orchid, with slender leaves arranged in concentric circles.

The land planted with sweet grass had been carefully tended; there were very few weeds, and the ground had been turned over. Bai Ling looked at her younger brother: "Chen, did you pull all the grass in this field? Did you turn the ground over too?"

Bai Ling didn't have time to take care of the fields. Her father had many things to do and couldn't manage so many fields. Her father also had to go out hunting and didn't have much time to take care of the fields. Only Chen had time to take care of this sweet grass.

Chen nodded: "Yes, I did it. Brother, didn't you say that we should pull weeds often and turn the soil after it rains so that the crops will grow better? I take care of the sweet grass when I have free time, so that the sweet grass will grow sweeter in the fall."

Bai Ling didn't say anything. He bent down and pulled up two sweet grass plants. Chen and Yue also pulled up two. They put the sweet grass plants in their baskets and then picked some celery and leafy greens.

*

The sweet grass wasn't fully mature yet, less than the thickness of Bai Ling's little finger, but it already had a sweet taste. However, the taste was faint, and you could only taste a little bit of sweetness. In addition to the sweetness, there was also a very faint astringent taste.

Bai Ling thought the taste was just so-so, but her father, Yue, and Chen all looked like they were enjoying it.

It seems that orcs really love sweets.

Bai Ling began to plan in his mind what kind of sweets he would make once the wheat was harvested, he had enough flour, and he had also made sugar from sweet grass.

*

Bai Ling led the orcs to build the kang (heated brick bed) for three days before handing the task over to the other orcs.

The orcs who built the kang (heated brick bed) last year are now the main force in building houses in the village. Even if one or two of them are spared to teach orcs from other tribes how to build the kang, it won't hinder the progress of house construction.

Bai Ling is going to start making bows and arrows. In addition to bows and arrows, he also plans to make tables and chairs.

Other furniture can wait, but tables and chairs cannot. When the beastmen eat, they either sit on stones or squat on the ground, holding a bowl in one hand and food in the other. Right now, the food is meat soup and cassava cakes, so this way of eating is fine. But when the variety of food becomes richer, this way of eating will no longer be acceptable.

Besides tables and chairs, Bai Ling also planned to make a stone roller and a flail, which are essential tools for harvesting crops. He also planned to make a millstone and several stone mills.

These things have to be done one by one, slowly. Bai Ling started by making bows and arrows.

The dead black wood had little moisture left, and after drying for several days, it had become quite dry. Bai Ling first sawed the black wood into strips of suitable size, and then used a charcoal pencil to draw on paper.

With paper and pen, Bai Ling has been able to save a lot of trouble, no matter what tools she uses.

Because he can first draw all the parts on paper with a ruler and mark the exact dimensions on them, which makes both making the parts and assembling them much easier.

Bai Ling plans to make the simplest bow and arrow first.

To make a bow, you need wood, glue, animal sinew, animal hide, and animal horn. To make arrows, you need wood, feathers, and glue. All of these must be prepared.

Bai Ling had wood, animal sinews, animal hides, and feathers all at her disposal, and the adhesive was not complicated to make.

Bai Ling went to the woods to collect some tree sap, and together with the fish bladders she had collected over the past few days, she mixed them in different proportions, put them into several earthenware bowls, and began to boil the adhesive.

This wasn't difficult, but Bai Ling had never done these things before and didn't know how to make the most suitable adhesive. However, he had plenty of time and could experiment slowly.

When Bai Ling felt that the adhesive was almost ready, she took the ceramic bowl off the table and set it aside to cool.

Bai Ling checked the adhesive's adhesion one by one according to his records. He used a small brush made of animal hair to apply the adhesive to the black wood piece, then pressed another wood piece on top. After the two wood pieces were glued together, he set them aside and checked how well they were glued on later.

Bai Ling wasn't idle either; he started whittling wooden sticks.

For this purpose, Bai Ling specially made a small plane, just to whittle the wooden sticks used to make arrows.

He has already made a model of the arrow and handed it over to the ironworks; the tribesmen will help him make the arrow.

After polishing a decent wooden stick, Bai Ling got up to check the adhesion of the wood pieces.

To his surprise, all the wood pieces stuck together. However, the bad news was that the adhesion of these wood pieces was not very good; the adhesive was not strong enough. It was fine for gluing ordinary wood pieces, but it was not good enough for making a bow.

Bai Ling wasn't disappointed; it was his first time doing it, so failure was normal.

Bai Ling adjusted the ratio of resin and fish maw and started boiling the adhesive again.

On the second and third days, Bai Ling still couldn't make a suitable adhesive, which made him a little discouraged. It would be one thing if he failed many times in important matters, but he failed so many times for such a small adhesive, which made him feel really bad.