Su Bai moved his arms and walked towards the Main Teepee, wanting to rest well after walking in the mountains for more than two hours. He was also very hungry. He had just lifted the door flap of the Teepee, looking at the completely renewed interior, with items neatly arranged.
"Is this my Teepee?" Su Bai hesitated.
"Shaman, y-you’re back." Yu Ying’s soft voice sounded from behind him.
Su Bai put down the door flap and turned to look, seeing the fox eared girl holding a pile of hay. Her cheeks were dirtier than when he saw her in the morning.
*Gurgle…* Just as he was about to greet her, his stomach growled again.
"Eh?" Yu Ying blinked her pink eyes, looking at Su Bai’s stomach in surprise. She reacted and said anxiously, "I’ll go get some dried meat."
"No need, Ah’Hua will bring dried meat over later." Su Bai quickly called out to stop the fox eared girl, who was about to turn and run, to save her from a wasted trip.
"Then, I’ll start the fire first." Yu Ying said, holding the hay.
She took a step forward, but immediately pulled back. Her pink eyes timidly looked at Su Bai, not daring to enter the Teepee before the Shaman.
"Yes," Yu Ying promptly replied.
After entering the Teepee, Su Bai’s first thought was how clean it was. He found that the ground had been covered with new animal hides, and the fire pit in the middle of the Teepee had been enlarged by a circle.
He curiously asked, "Did you do up the animal hides and fire pit?"
"The new animal hides were sent by Uncle Mai Mang," Yu Ying replied obediently, holding the hay and standing to the side. "The fire pit was enlarged by Mai Mao, Uncle Mai Mang’s Son."
"Oh." Su Bai understood. Mai Mang sending these over was certainly because he had saved him earlier in the morning.
There was not much in the Teepee, the main items were stored in several boxes. There was a wooden barrel for water; and a millstone-sized rock, also covered with new animal hide, serving as a table.
Apart from these, there were two piles of hay, one large and one small, which were the beds for sleeping.
"Huh? Why is there an extra pile of hay?" Su Bai asked in surprise.
"Is it not allowed? I’ll move it out right away," Yu Ying heard this and hurriedly tried to carry the hay out, thinking the Shaman disliked the extra pile of hay in the Teepee.
"Wait, first tell me, why is there an extra pile of hay?" Su Bai asked gently.
"That, that’s where I sleep," Yu Ying lowered her head timidly.
"You mean, you’re going to live with me?" Su Bai asked, his black eyes wide in shock.
"Uncle Mai Mang said the Shaman Priestess needs to be ready to serve the Shaman at all times," Yu Ying’s voice was soft and tender.
"Mai Mang really is… really good at arranging things…" Su Bai rolled his eyes. The bed had already been prepared, and it would not be nice to drive the fox eared girl out. If word got out, Yu Ying would certainly be ostracised and blamed by the Tribe.
He let out a light sigh and gently asked, "What about you? Do you want to live here?"
"I…" Yu Ying raised her head, her pink eyes glanced at Su Bai’s face, then quickly lowered again.
After a while, she said softly with a red face, "I-I want to stay."
"Alright then, you can stay," Su Bai shrugged and said.
"I will try my best to be a good Shaman Priestess," Yu Ying promised, wagging her fox tail.
"I look forward to it," Su Bai said with a smile. He stepped in to sit on the animal hide spread beside the stone table.
Seeing this, Yu Ying quickly put the hay on her own hay bed. She ran to the wooden barrel, took a wooden cup and filled it with water, carefully placing it in front of Su Bai.
"Shaman, drink some water."
"…" Su Bai looked at the water in the cup, his mind flashing to the scene of Stone Armoured Crocodiles rolling in the small lake in the forest. He was strangely thinking of what this water had gone through, [crocodile’s bath water…]
Yu Ying blinked her pink eyes, looking at the Shaman who was staring blankly at the wooden cup, thinking she had done something wrong. She nervously asked, "Shaman, is there something wrong with this water?"
"Boil the water…" Su Bai sighed and said.
He thought of the parasites he had seen in those videos when he was on Earth. Although he was very thirsty, he could not bring himself to drink this cup of water. The simplest way to kill parasites was to boil the water. Heating it to above 100 degrees Celsius would kill most harmful parasites.
"Oh? I’ll boil it right away." Yu Ying quickly took away the cup. She laboriously moved the stone pot to the fire pit, and squatted down to start the fire.
"Looks like I need to make a filter," Su Bai muttered to himself, thinking about the harsh environment of primitive society. He felt as though he needed to improve survival measures to avoid falling victim to inadvertent poisoning from food and water.
When he was on Earth, he had written a novel about wilderness survival and had researched some outdoor survival guides. It included simple methods to make outdoor filters.
"Shaman, may I come in?" Yan Hua called from outside the Teepee.
"Come in." Su Bai responded without raising his head.
After Yan Hua entered, she saw the fox eared girl squatting by the fire pit, her pink eyes looking at her expectantly, like an abandoned kitten.
Yan Hua handed over the dried meat and asked in a lowered voice, "Xiao Yu, what’s wrong?"
"I, I think I made a mistake," Yu Ying took the dried meat, sneaking a glance at Su Bai who was lowering his head, and said in a very small voice, "Did I do something wrong? Just now when I brought water for the Shaman to drink, the Shaman told me to boil it."
It was her first time being a Shaman Priestess, so she was afraid of doing something wrong. Any slight abnormality from the Shaman made her feel like she might have done something wrong.
"Boil the water?" Yan Hua tilted her head in confusion. [Doesn’t everyone just drink water straight from the container? Why does he need it to be boiled?]
She frowned and thought for a while, but could not think of anything inappropriate.
"Don’t worry, I’ll ask the Shaman for you," Yan Hua reassured her.
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