Chapter 75: Ruan Zeqiu: Three Months Of Storage Span? My sister is a goddess
Ruan Chanchan, however, didn’t have the time or evidence to worry about such things at the moment. Even if she was suspicious, there was no proof. What was she supposed to say? Months ago, she ran out with the holy flame for a reason, or did someone ask her to? Even if Ruan Zeqiu believed her, others would not.
They would even ask her who it was and how that person looked. Ruan Chanchan had no recollection of this person. So what was the point of raising trouble when she herself was not clear about the situation? She might as well stay quiet and see through things. If someone tried to scheme against the original owner, then they might make a move once again.
She just needed to wait and see it happen!
Ruan Zeqiu was unaware of the thoughts that were going on in Ruan Chanchan’s head. All his attention was on the meat that was smoking on top of the stone slab. It looked crispy and quite delicious, but seeing that it was something that he had never seen before, Ruan Zeqiu didn’t dare to touch it willy-nilly.
A good thing too, or else he would have burnt his hands.
"Sister, what is this? What are you doing by putting the meat on the stone slab?" Ruan Zeqiu asked while looking at the smoking meat on the stone slab.
Ruan Chanchan turned her head and glanced at the mer who was salivating hard and picked up a piece of meat. She fed Ruan Zeqiu a piece of meat and then removed the omelettes that were thoroughly cooked.
Ruan Zeqiu’s eyes turned bright as soon as he took a bite of the meat. He liked eating meat, but more than just eating it for flavour, he ate it because he needed the strength to deal with the beasts and the scum who troubled his sister. As a mer, his strength was limited, and he couldn’t fight beasts and beast women all day long unless he ate his fill.
However, now that he had eaten something good, he suddenly felt as if he had wasted all the meat by eating it raw. This meat tasted so, so, so good!
"Sister, I have never tasted anything better than this before!" Ruan Zeqiu exclaimed, his eyes shining with glee as he looked at the meat that was still smoking on the stone slab. Because the slab was thick, even when Ruan Chanchan didn’t turn the meat around for a long time, it didn’t get burnt at all. In fact, the meat slowly started to release fat and started cooking on its own.
"Is it?" Ruan Chanchan mused, and when her brother nodded. She picked up a piece of meat and took a bite of it. Of course, she didn’t like the gamy taste of the meat and simply allowed Ruan Zeqiu to finish the rest of the cured meat that she had prepared.
Ruan Zeqiu liked the meat too much and didn’t refuse. He finished eating the cured meat in a matter of a few seconds and licked his lips to relish the taste of the fat that was sticking on his lips. Only then did he turn and look at Ruan Chanchan before saying to her, "Sister, what are you trying to do?"
"Aren’t I trying to cure the meat?" Ruan Chanchan glanced at the mer and remarked. She had been thinking about how to help Ruan Zeqiu. The poor mer was still young, and because there was no way to preserve the meat, he went hunting every day. At least with this method of curing meat, he would be able to take a few days off.
Working hard was important, but so was taking a break. If this little mer continued to work hard without taking the required amount of breaks, who knows how his body might react? Just today, he ended up getting a fever. It must be because Ruan Zeqiu pushed his body too much.
"We can cure meat like this?" Ruan Zeqiu’s eyes widened. He looked down at the meat that was still on the stone slab. "But what about the salt—"
"You can also cure meat with salt, but cooking it over fire like this adds more to its shelf life. After being cured like this, this meat can last for at least three months," explained Ruan Chanchan with a smile.
"THREE MONTHS!" Ruan Zeqiu was shocked. He looked at the cured meat and then at his sister. He said in awe, "Sister, you are amazing. If we can have cured meat that can last so long, I am sure that the hunting team wouldn’t have to go out every second or third week."
Ruan Chanchan nodded. This was also one of her reasons why she did it. If she taught this method of curing to the tribe, Ruan Chanchan was certain that she would be able to earn a lot of goodwill.
When she thought of the amount of gratitude points that she had in her hands, Ruan Chanchan felt her heart ache. She really needed to get a move on.
This method was bound to earn some goodwill points. At least that was what Ruan Chanchan hoped for.
"... I think I will discuss this method with Tribe Leader," Ruan Chanchan heard Ruan Zeqiu speaking beside her. "The other tribe members don’t like us, and neither of them is fond of our family ever since our mother died saving our father, and our father vanished without a trace."
He frowned. "Of course, I do understand their anger. Our mother was the best warrior of the tribe, but still—targeting us again and again, they really need to let it go now."
"Our best bet is to let Chief Xie have a taste of this cured meat; only then will we be able to make the tribe follow us."
Ruan Chanchan didn’t say anything. She did know a little about the father of this body, but she didn’t have much information about him. Ruan Chanchan only knew that the mer left the tribe once after the passing of his wife and never returned. Everyone took him for dead because, like the original host, the mer also didn’t have a beast form.
Without a beast form, how could he even survive?