Ancient Eden

When Mu Qing went out, she was surprised to find out that the large open space in the middle of the settlement was now full with a large number of men and women who had gathered here at some point, and it looked like there were still many people coming, joining in one after the other. That chief was standing tall on a large tree stump in the middle of the open space.

Mu Qing stiffened for a moment.

She saw that her telescope was now hanging around the chief’s neck.

She was pulled by Youyou and when she got closer to the crowd, it was then that she saw the two men standing on the left and right side of the chief. One was Li Mang, the other was also a rather sturdy-looking man and was very young.

Chapter 25

(8.3)

Li Mang’s face was mostly covered by his beard, Mu Qing could only tell from his figure and tight skin that he was probably not very old. But this other man was different, almost no beard could be seen on his face, making it so that people could guess at one look his age as well as the vigor and the great ambition on his face.

So far, Mu Qing had seen that the most advanced tools they had were made of stone or bones. She took a guess, could it be that he was using a stone knife to shave off the beard on his face ?

Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but look at Li Mang on the other side.

If he wanted to reveal his face (underneath the beard) one day, she might remind him to use the scissors on the Swiss knife that he kept for himself, instead of a stone knife.

Her eyes met Li Mang’s in the crowd.

Mu Qing indifferently removed her eyes away from him and looked at the crowd around him.

It pretty much looked like everyone was here already. Mu Qing estimated that there was a total of less than two hundred people, there were slightly more men than women, and she didn’t see many people who were the same age as the chief.

The chief, standing tall on a wooden stump, wielded his hand toward the crowd and the large space immediately fell silent, all eyes were looking in his direction. He began to speak, and when he was done with his speech, the crowd let out loud and resonating cheers. Then, Mu Qing saw several  people carrying preys in the middle of the open space. Some fresh preys were still dripping with blood while other preys only had the peeled off skin left. Each individual stacked the preys around Li Mang and the young man, forming very quickly two piles.

Mu Qing looked at the pile around Li Mang, most of the preys were those he had carried back with her in the boat a few days ago, including the giant monster bird head and the snake head. She guessed that the body of that bird and those of the other preys whom only the skin was left, had most likely been cut down and were now drying as strips of meat.

Beside her, Youyou had been constantly acting as a commentator, Mu Qing hummed a few times, but she did not understand what she was seeing. Until she saw the crowd slowly moving, each taking a small stone in their hands, and then putting the stone in front of Li Mang or that young man’s feet, in turn.

Very quickly, there was a small mountain of stones stacked up in front of the two people, and it looked like Li Mang’s pile was higher.

No anger or joy could be seen on Li Mang’s face, but the look on the face of that young man beside him gradually changed.

When the last woman, the woman who gave Mu Qing food today, Youyou’s mother, put the stone in her hand in front of Li Mang, Youyou, who was next to Mu Qing, suddenly busted in giggles.  Everyone turned their heads to look in her direction almost simultaneously.

Mu Qing only looked at the chief, with some anxiousness in her heart.

But very quickly, she thought, it seemed that she had really escaped that ordeal. The chief only took one look at her and then withdrew his gaze, not looking very interested. She thought, Li Mang had probably used her telescope to convince the chief to take her, this prey, back into his possession.

It was something that originally belonged to her, but now it was being used to exchange her from one man’s hands to another.

She suddenly felt it was ridiculous.

The crowd very quickly stopped looking at her. Everyone’s attention was drawn to the two piles of stones in the middle.

Someone came forward and divided the two piles of stones into smaller piles of ten stones. After that, there was two more piles of ten, and four single stones, in front of Li Mang than in front of the young man.

No matter the reason why they were choosing between the two men, it was obvious that Li Mang had won.

Finally, Mu Qing understood what they were doing.

The chief had Li Mang also stand on the big wooden stump. He plucked a pheasant feather from the crown on his head, stuck out his tongue and licked it, before sticking it on his forehead.

Then there was a wave of cheers from the crowd below, it was as fervent as if they were welcoming back a triumphant warrior.