Favorite of the Beast-world: I Got Rich Through Farming-Chapter 95 - 92: Water-Boiled Fish
"You’re not really going to sleep through all this, are you?"
An Jin glanced at the endless world of ice and snow outside the window, then patted the heavy snake head resting on her lap.
"HISS~ If you were to go into heat, I might get a little more excited."
"My body would warm up, and I wouldn’t want to hibernate anymore."
The black and red python lazily opened his red-filmed eyes. He spoke in a human voice, his gaze openly roving over her body. His cool, clear voice, tinged with a hint of mischief, was full of meaning.
The corner of her mouth twitched. She patted the snake’s head again, pushing the Red Snake, who had just been about to lift his head and lick her face, back down onto her lap. "...It’s getting cold. Go to sleep."
"HISS~"
Mi Yin flicked the tip of his tail but didn’t call her out on her slight panic. He continued to lie coiled on her lap, going back to sleep.
Normally, given the cautious nature of Snake Beasts, hibernation was their most vulnerable time.
For the past twenty years, Mi Yin had always found a safe cave or burrowed a hole in the ground to hibernate alone during the Great Cold. An Jin’s arrival had changed this habit.
He didn’t want to be far from her. Even in hibernation, he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to stay by her side. Besides, sleeping next to his beloved partner gave him a profound sense of security.
When the cold season descended, all the Beastmen on the continent trembled. An Jin, like most of them, huddled at home, wrapped in thick animal hides, not daring to take a single step into the severe cold outside.
Based on past experience, every major tribe would lose at least a dozen Beastmen by the end of the three-month-long Great Cold.
Some froze to death, others starved. It was a reality that chilled not just the body, but the heart.
During the cruel, bitter cold season, she gathered the clansmen and ordered them to bring out the fire starters and fuel—like dry wood and animal dung—that they had stored in the nearby caves.
As the Beastmen watched in confusion, An Jin crouched down and lifted a circular clay brick that had been specially set into the floor of the house.
The crowd peered through the large, round hole and saw a spacious, empty cellar dug out beneath.
This was something An Jin had specifically requested when they were building the houses.
The Beastmen scratched their heads, their hearts pounding as they stared into the pitch-black cellar. "Clan Leader, won’t our houses collapse?"
"Don’t worry, they won’t. You’ve been living in them for so long; have any of them collapsed?"
An Jin smiled, knowing they were skeptical about this novelty. She patiently explained, "It’s been reinforced with clay. Once the clay dries, the cellar becomes very sturdy. You can all throw useless combustibles from your homes—mixed with dry wood, hay, or animal dung—inside and burn them. It will release a lot of heat."
The Beastmen were both shocked and overjoyed. After hearing her explanation, they didn’t waste a second, rushing home to toss firewood and fire starters into their own cellars.
It worked! The moment the flames ignited, it took only a short while for even the stone floors to become warm to the touch.
Stepping on it, they found it was actually a bit hot!
The once-frigid indoor air instantly became warm and dry. Many of the Beastmen had thrown in a lot of fuel, and before long, they were breaking out in a delightful sweat!
Sweating in the middle of the brutally cold season?!
This... this was... this was simply unbelievable!
This cold season, the Beastmen experienced a happiness they had never known before. Aside from the rotating Hunting Teams, most of them didn’t need to go out to hunt. They lay in their warm houses fanning themselves, eating the stored meat, wild vegetables, wild fruits, and flour products. The hides they lay on were specially treated thick bearskins...
Warmth and the smoke of cooking fires drifted across the land.
[Public Sentiment +5. Current: 50]
[Personal Prestige +4. Current: 98]
[DING—Congratulations on completing the main quest. Tribal construction objective achieved. Tribe upgraded (Medium-sized Tribe)!]
[DING—Assigning next main quest.]
[Please upgrade the tribe to Large-sized (Difficulty: Hard).
Time Limit: 3 years
Reward: Unknown]
[Construction Objectives—
① Population ≥ 500 (Current: 135)
② Number of Buildings ≥ 100 (Current: 21)
③ Combat Power and Influence, raise to C-rank
④ Public Sentiment ≥ 60]
Perhaps due to her poor constitution, An Jin was particularly afraid of the cold and had thrown a lot of fuel into the fire pit under her house.
Stepping on the floor, she felt a scorching heat.
Xi was napping in the large water barrel in his room. As the temperature from the fire pit slowly rose, steam began to rise from the barrel. Xi’s fair, delicate little face gradually turned red and hot...
Ling Hong had just returned from a hunt. The moment he opened the door, his nose twitched sharply.
’Strange, why do I smell fragrant fish soup?’
The Wolf Clan’s sense of smell had always been sharper than that of ordinary people.
Ling Hong unloaded his haul and called out to her room, "Are you making fish soup?"
An Jin was nestled in her furs weaving a bamboo tray. Hearing him, she replied that she wasn’t and continued weaving. As she worked, a sudden thought made her stop.
She hurried to the next room.
She pushed the door open and looked inside.
The Little Merfolk was soaking in the wooden barrel, already boiled completely red. Steam was rising from his body, and he was scalding to the touch.
An Jin held her breath and gently patted the Little Merfolk’s face. ’Oh no, he’s not moving!’
She quickly called Ling Hong over. Together, they lifted the boiled fish... ahem, the poor Little Merfolk out of the wooden barrel and placed him in another large barrel filled with cold water.
Xi slowly sank into the water, only half of his small face remaining above the surface, blowing bubbles that went GLUG, GLUG.
After about a quarter of an hour, the scalding red on his exposed skin finally began to fade. He woke up in a daze and asked a couple of questions. After confirming the fish hadn’t been boiled stupid, An Jin’s anxious heart finally settled.
’It was all my fault,’ she thought. ’When I was stoking the fire, I forgot we had a heat-intolerant deep-sea fish at home.’
After this scare, An Jin controlled the amount of fuel in the fire pit, making sure the temperature in Xi’s water barrel stayed below 5 degrees Celsius.
Now that it was the cold season, Mi Yin was hibernating and Xi was blowing bubbles in his barrel. The only one left in the house who could go out to hunt was Ling Hong.
Perhaps due to years of habit, Ling Hong had an unusual amount of energy. Even in the cold season, he led the Hunting Team out from dawn till dusk.
He wasn’t afraid of the cold at all. As soon as winter arrived, his wolf form would grow a thick, heavy coat of snow-white fur, allowing him to blend in perfectly with the deep snow. In fact, the number of his successful hunts skyrocketed!
An Jin finally realized he probably wasn’t just a Silver Wolf, but an Arctic Snow Wolf.
As soon as he returned from a hunt, Ling Hong would head straight for the kitchen to whip up a meal. Every time, it was the hearty fish and meat dishes she loved.
"Ling Hong, you don’t have to work so hard. The tribe has enough supplies right now; there’s no need to exhaust yourself," An Jin said, huddled under her blanket, her breath forming a white puff in the air.
Touched by her concern, Ling Hong’s heart stirred. His snow-white wolf ears drooped, folding down against his hair. "I’m used to it. I’ve always been this way, and I can’t change it now. Besides, there are some rare resources available during the cold season that I can go gather."
An Jin poked half of her body out from under the blanket and beckoned to him. "Come here for a second."
