Of course, the person who was in charge of teaching was not an idiot who could only count from one to ten at his age. Moreover, he was an old hunter. Even if he did not know much about other things, he was definitely good at counting. It was a necessary knowledge to go out hunting, and the competition between hunting teams also required numbers.
Knowing that the kids in the cave could almost count from one to thirty, the old hunter was surprised, but also happy and gratified. He loved teaching, but it was a pity that the kids in the mountain did not need his guidance at all.
It was rare for him to be in the mood, so he taught with all his heart today.
Now that they could learn more numbers, the noisy cave quieted down. They no longer clamored for a replacement, and the little cubs all pricked up their ears to listen. Shao Xuan mainly read the language of the tribe, while the kids learned more numbers. The most boring one in the cave was probably Caesar, who was sleeping on the straw mattress.
When the old hunter left, he was not satisfied yet, and he was reluctant to leave. In the past, he would only come here two or three times in a winter, but now he had a great time teaching. Even if he wanted to come a few more times, he could not go down the mountain every day. After some consideration, the old hunter kept the animal skin in his hand. It was not the one he took out at the beginning, but a bigger one with more numbers and words. He asked Shao Xuan to keep it, and anyone who wanted to see it could go to Shao Xuan.
The vents in the cave had been blocked with straw, so no light could come in. Since winter came, the cave had no difference between day and night, so it was impossible to have a fire burning all day long. There were some firewood in the cave. Two days ago, some warriors brought it here, but it was not enough to burn all day long.
Shao Xuan looked at the fire, and thought that if the cave could be brighter, it would be more convenient for him to do anything.
Caesar was lying next to Shao Xuan, eating raw fish. He did not like cooked food.
The fine fish teeth left behind after eating the fish were not suitable to be made into other tools. They were too small, and they could not go out hunting, so they could not use hunting tools. Shao Xuan made some brushes for Caesar, and combed his own hair.
There were combs in the tribe, but the kids in the orphan cave were not interested in combing their hair. Their image was not as important as food. Both men and women in the tribe had long hair and short hair. Those who didn't like long hair cut their hair short with a knife. However, no one in the cave cut the hair of the children, so all of them had messy hair.
The slightly bigger fish teeth were fought over by the children in the cave to make necklaces.
It was a way for people in the tribe to show off their hunting abilities by using the horns or teeth of the prey as decorations. Some warriors would give these ornaments to their beloved girls to please them. Women would also compete with each other to see whose necklace was of higher quality and whose feathers were more ferocious. The more powerful the prey was, the more envied by the tribesmen.
Naturally, children would compete with each other. Most of the necklaces worn by the kids in the mountain foot district were made from the horns, teeth, or some part of the bones of the hunted animals. Many kids in the orphan cave had lost their parents long ago, so no one gave them such ornaments. Every time they went to the tribe, they would envy the other kids who wore such ornaments. This was one of the reasons why they often fought with other kids in the tribe.
But now, they could make necklaces with the teeth of the prey they caught. How could they not be happy? Now, they also had necklaces, which were not worse than the ones worn by the other children! The reason why these children liked fish so much was also related to the fish tooth necklaces.
Shao Xuan did not compete with them for the fish teeth. He gave the bigger ones to the other children. Stutterer brought a fish tooth with him when he visited his sister. It was even bigger than the ones he had.
It was not easy.
While Shao Xuan was thinking about how to improve the situation in the orphan cave, the children in the orphan cave were not so worried. Every day, other than sleeping, they would sit by the fire and talk about the experience of counting when they ate. Mo-Er also practiced his knife skills every day. He had already mastered counting, so he knew more words than the other children in the orphan cave. Every day when the fire was lit, he would practice his knife skills in a corner. He would throw a stone into the air and then swing his knife. After all, there was no Night Swallow for him to practice.
After eating, the children in the orphan cave fell asleep one by one. The wood in the fire was almost burnt out. Shao Xuan added another piece of wood to the fire. When the other end of the wood was burning, he took the burning wood and walked deep into the cave.
That day when he checked the cave, he found a stone room piled with miscellaneous things. The room was very messy. The stone pot used by the children in the orphan cave was also found by Shao Xuan from there. Except for the stone pot, Shao Xuan did not pay much attention to anything else. Since he had nothing to do today, he took the torch and went there to see if he could find something useful.
Although the ventilation of the sleeping place was blocked, there were still some small cracks and openings in the cave that connected to the outside. As he walked deeper into the cave, he could feel the cold wind blowing.
Fortunately, the wind was not strong, so the flame only jumped a few times and would not be blown out.
Shao Xuan wrapped himself in the animal skin coat and continued to walk in according to his memory. Caesar followed closely beside him.
There were many stone rooms deep in the cave, which were distributed in the shape of branches. The stone room piled with miscellaneous things was the second to last one on the right. It was quite big.
The ventilation of the stone room was blocked. Shao Xuan took the torch and looked through the miscellaneous things here. Some of the items had been used before, but later the children in the orphan cave were too lazy to use them. They just waited for the tribe to distribute the food, so these tools and miscellaneous things were all piled up here and covered with dust.
In addition to a few stone stools, there were also things to set up a stone pot, but Shao Xuan was not interested in them.
After looking for a while, Shao Xuan's eyes fell on a round stone plate. The stone plate had a flat bottom, and the edge was one finger high.
Was it for food? Why would he use it when he already had a stone pot?
Putting the stone plate aside, he continued to look through other things. While looking through, Shao Xuan paused and looked back at the stone plate that was thrown aside. He roughly measured it with his hand, and then raised the torch to look at the blocked ventilation.
Many of the ventilation openings in the cave were opened wide, which not only allowed ventilation, but also allowed light to pass through.
Shao Xuan looked back and forth between the blocked ventilation openings and the stone plate. Then he picked up the stone plate and went back along the path.
After adding some firewood to make the fire bigger, Shao Xuan took some snow from the thick layer of snow at the entrance of the cave and put it into the stone pot. He put the stone plate outside the straw curtain at the entrance of the cave, and poured the melted snow into it. After a while, Shao Xuan looked again and found that the water had frozen.
He dragged the stone plate into the cave, burned the edge of the stone plate with the fire, and then turned the stone plate upside down. The round ice cubes inside were poured out.
Some of the children who had not slept looked at Shao Xuan in confusion. They were very curious. Wrapped in blankets, they were too lazy to stand up because of the cold, so they stretched their necks to look at Shao Xuan. The fire was not bright, so they could not see what Shao Xuan was doing.
It was too cold to use his hands directly, so Shao Xuan wrapped the ice in animal skin. Holding the ice, he stepped on a stone and let Stutterer pull out all the straw blocking the ventilation openings.
Without anything blocking the ventilation openings, the cold wind from outside poured in. It was so cold that the children in the cave shivered. Shao Xuan, who was standing at the ventilation openings, felt it even more strongly. He felt that his face was numb. He quickly worked with Stutterer to push the ice cubes into the ventilation openings.
As Shao Xuan expected, the ice cubes were about the same size as the ventilation openings, just a little bit smaller. This little bit was just enough for him to push the ice cubes into the ventilation openings.
In the past, Shao Xuan did not understand why there was a depression in the ventilation openings, but now he knew that it was used to block the ice. There was still a small gap, so he just used the straw to block it.
After the ice cubes were filled, the cold wind outside did not blow in anymore, but light shone into the cave through the ice cubes. In the winter here, there was no blazing Yang Guang, but there was still light outside during the day.
In Shao Xuan's opinion, this kind of transparency was not very satisfactory. There were also many flaws in the design, but for these children, it was already very satisfying.
One by one, they stared at the bright ventilation openings with their mouths wide open. They were dumbfounded.
It turned out that the ventilation openings could be very bright in the winter.
Shao Xuan only installed one and let the others do the rest. This time, there were many people who volunteered. Those who were too lazy to get up just now came over with blankets around them.
Shao Xuan guided them to make another ice cube and install it in the ventilation openings. Then, he let them continue on their own. Every child wanted to try it out themselves. Shao Xuan decided to install one ice cube in groups of five. If it was too high, they would use the method of a human pyramid to solve it.
Shao Xuan told them to be careful not to break it when they used it. He did not know how long these stone plates had been stored here. At least, they had not been used in recent years.
Seeing that there were no problems, Shao Xuan took the torch back to the stone room where the junk was stored. He rummaged through it and found four more plates. Only one of them could be used. The other three were all broken.
He took out the second plate, made an ice cube, and installed it in the ventilation openings of the stone room where the junk was stored. This time, Shao Xuan could see the situation inside the stone room clearly without using the torch.
The children were busy making ice cubes, while Shao Xuan continued to rummage through the room to see if there was anything else that could be used.
While rummaging, Shao Xuan's arm brushed against the stone wall and found that the stone wall was covered in powder.
Shao Xuan was puzzled. The stone walls in other parts of the cave were not like this. He bent down to take a closer look and found that the stone wall in this room was covered with a layer of something. It seemed to have been brushed with stone powder.
He had seen people in the tribe use a similar method to brush wood against insects and corrosion. However, this was just a cave. Why would they use such a method to brush the stone wall? Moreover, looking at the situation, it had been here for a long time.
When it was first brushed, it must have been covered tightly. However, it had been a long time since the tribe lived in this cave. The layer of powder that covered the stone wall had already loosened. Some places had begun to fall off. With a swipe of his hand, he could erase a lot of it.
He took out a stone knife and scraped to remove the stone powder on the wall. With the help of the light coming in, Shao Xuan saw that there were some patterns engraved on the clean stone wall.
A woman was holding a jar. The jar had a wide diameter, but the bottom was sharp and conical. There were also patterns on the jar. Shao Xuan had never seen anyone in the tribe use a stone jar like this. People in the tribe had always paid attention to practicality, not beauty.
Perhaps the people living in the mountains had something like this. Shao Xuan thought.
Shao Xuan scratched another area. On the stone wall, there were engravings of more than ten warriors holding bows and arrows, chasing after prey.
Shao Xuan remembered that Lang Ga had told him that very few people in the tribe used bows, because there were no good materials to make bows that could withstand the strength of the totemic warriors' arms. The bows that were made now were only used to set traps, drive away prey, and assist in hunting. They were not used by the totemic warriors. However, in these engravings on the stone wall, every warrior held a big bow!
Shao Xuan took the knife and planned to scrape off more stone powder. He looked at the other engravings on the stone wall. After thinking for a while, he put down the knife. Shao Xuan fetched some water and carefully wiped the stone wall with a piece of animal skin. He felt that the engravings on the stone wall might tell him a lot of interesting things.
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