“Wh-why can’t the little tadpoles find their mom?” Bai Xue asked through her sobs.
Of course, because they have a heartless father, Han Cheng thought to himself but didn’t say it out loud.
“You’re still young. When you grow up a bit more, you’ll understand. The little tadpoles will find their mom…” Han Cheng gently comforted her.
“Bai… Bai Xue isn’t that young anymore…” the little child bride replied, still sniffling.
Han Cheng reached out to touch her and realized she wasn’t that small anymore; he couldn’t hold her with one hand. But the critical issue was that she was still too young.
“Xiao Mei and Xiao Li… their bellies… their bellies are already big…” Bai Xue looked at Han Cheng with a hint of resentment.
That’s not my fault! Han Cheng thought, startled, and sniffed.
Xiao Mei and Xiao Mei, a pair of sisters who had grown a bit too sturdy, had both become Cheng’s mates. Cheng’s sister, Xing, had become the mate of another young man in the tribe who had just come of age.
Even though Cheng didn’t look particularly strong, he was diligent in his “planting.” Their bellies grew not long after Xiao Mei, and Xiao Mei became his mates.
Bai Xue implied that Xiao Mei and Xiao Mei were about the same age as her, and their bellies were already growing. They would be having babies soon, while she showed no signs of anything.
Fortunately, Han Cheng knew Bai Xue well enough to avoid any misunderstandings.
The desire to become a mother is probably an instinct for all species, and Bai Xue’s reaction was completely normal.
Han Cheng held her, patiently explaining and comforting her for a long time, until the little child bride finally understood that the reason her belly wasn’t growing wasn’t her fault but was Han Cheng’s deliberate decision.
After promising they would have a child in two years, Bai Xue finally stopped crying and hugged Han Cheng’s arm tightly, smiling through her tears.
She was happy, but Han Cheng felt a bit melancholy.
Fatherhood… he wasn’t ready for that.
After spending some time feeling a mix of melancholy, nervousness, and unease, Han Cheng shook his head and decided not to dwell on it.
Let things be for now. There are still two years left—he would think about it when the time came…
After a fine drizzle like cow hair had fallen, most of the blossoms on the fruit trees planted on the eastern edge of the Green Sparrow Tribe had dropped.
The petals, wet with rain and soil, lay scattered on the ground, showing their final beauty in the morning sunlight, tinged with melancholy.
No woman named Daiyu was here, holding a flower hoe, tearfully burying them while murmuring, “Flowers fall, flowers fly all over the sky; who cares if the red fades, the fragrance dies…?”
So, their faded colors would be lost to the dust and wind after today.
The people of the Green Sparrow Tribe had no such habit of lamenting the spring or mourning the autumn. At this moment, they were joyfully leading deer, carrying hoes, seeders, and millet, heading toward the land that had already been plowed once.
This year’s spring planting was beginning today.
The timely spring rain had filled them with boundless hope, and they were genuinely happy.
People led the deer forward, the fine teeth of the hoes breaking the surface of the freshly plowed soil, which had become even looser.
As the moist soil was turned over, the air filled with the mixed scents of earth and the surrounding vegetation, invigorating everyone.
Han Cheng rolled up his pants and stepped onto the field, placing his hands on the handles of the seeder. The container was half full of millet seeds carefully selected for planting.
He called out, shaking the reins, and the deer began to move forward.
The seeder’s legs, bound with pieces of bone, slid into the soil, leaving a trail as it moved forward.
Tiny millet seeds slipped from the “storage hole,” falling into the soft bed that the Green Sparrow Tribe members had meticulously prepared for them…
Han Cheng had grown as tall as the adults in the tribe, so he was naturally able to help with the seeding this year. He did the first seeding of the spring season.
He had seen wooden three-legged seeders used to plant crops in the past, but he had never operated one himself. However, practice makes perfect. Just because he hadn’t done it before didn’t mean he couldn’t learn now.
With the start of the spring planting, much like the autumn harvest, the tribe’s manpower was focused on this task.
The ongoing pigsty construction and the stone quarrying work in the Green Sparrow Tribe had been put on hold. Everyone in the tribe was busy with the spring planting.
Of course, tasks like plowing and seeding were mainly done by the older members of the Green Sparrow Tribe. The new members from the former Green Tribe were often assigned to miscellaneous tasks, like carrying hoes or bone shovels.
Gu carried a bone shovel, digging up the unturned soil at the edge of a plot of land and breaking it apart with the shovel. Then, leaning on the shovel handle, he watched the busy field with a sense of understanding and awe.
No wonder the wild millet around his old tribe’s land had become scarcer while millet grew increasingly in places where there had been none before. It was because of this!
But even with this understanding, it didn’t change anything, as he had fully integrated into the new tribe. Everything from his old tribe was now far behind him.
In this new tribe, everything was so comfortable. Not only was there no one willing to follow him away, but even if the gods or shamans drove him out, Gu wouldn’t leave!
The busy and vibrant spring planting lasted for five or six days before coming to a temporary halt.
Out of the 800 acres of land that the Green Sparrow Tribe had prepared for planting millet, half had already been sown with seeds. Some of the seeds planted on the first day were already sprouting.
With the newly cleared land from this spring, the Green Sparrow Tribe now had over 950 acres. Of these, 100 acres were planted with rapeseed, and another 50 acres were reserved for hemp.
As for why they stopped planting halfway, it’s easy to explain. On the one hand, the soil moisture wasn’t ideal, and on the other hand, Han Cheng planned to stagger the planting of the millet in batches. This way, it wouldn’t all mature simultaneously when the millet ripened. Even though the Green Sparrow Tribe now had many more people, it would still be challenging to manage if all 700-800 acres of millet ripened simultaneously…
While the Green Sparrow Tribe was busy planting, the Fire Tribe by the river was also beginning its first planting.
Compared to the meticulous methods of the Green Sparrow Tribe, the Fire Tribe’s approach was much rougher.
They set fire to the dry grass near the river, burning it away. Then, using hoes and bone shovels they had obtained from the Green Sparrow Tribe and some bone shovels they had made themselves, they dug up the soil, leaving the ash underneath.
After some tamping, they scattered hemp seeds gathered from wild hemp in the autumn and then carelessly kicked dirt over them with their feet—job done…