I woke up to find myself transmigrated into a disabled child.

Chapter 45 New Ingredients

The next morning, Lezhi got up early and quickly got ready, waiting for Leyou to come so they could go find Lezhong and begin their temporary labor service.

He didn't sleep well last night, but after leaving Le Zhong's place, Mao Qiu quickly returned to normal, eating and sleeping without any problems. Le Zhi was incredibly envious; he couldn't be so carefree. All night, his mind was preoccupied with that subtle feeling he had earlier.

He pondered for a long time until dawn broke, and finally couldn't resist dozing off for a while, but he kept dreaming. He dreamed of the cave where he and Maoqiu had stayed for the first night, of the feeling of absorbing the energy of the shadows, and of the feeling when his talent was awakened. He was so excited that he woke up from the dream and couldn't fall back asleep.

With a heavy heart, Lezhi waited for Maoqiu to wake up, and also for Leyou to arrive late.

"Lezhi, I'm so sorry, I slept too late last night and didn't get up today. If you're ready, let's set off now. Lezhong should be awake by now."

"it is good."

With Maoqiu by her side, Lezhi followed Leyou through the tribal land. The morning sun peeked out from the branches of the vines and trees, silently illuminating the faces of the early risers. The two arrived at Lezhong's house before the sun was fully up, their feet glistening with rapidly dissipating dew.

The area here is significantly larger than their home, perhaps because a portion of it is intended to be used as a studio. The vines in Le Zhong's house have branched out in many directions, intertwining to form a very large building.

Although it was still early morning, in addition to Lezhi and Leyou who came to do labor, other clansmen also arrived one after another. They were either there to commission Lezhong to make metal and stone utensils or to pick up the goods they had ordered.

The clansmen had a very good grasp of Le Zhong's business hours. As soon as the people who came in twos and threes stood still, Le Zhong opened the door and came out. He walked to the outer side of the wooden vines and opened a large doorway that could accommodate six or seven people. Light shone in, and Le Zhi was able to see the decorations inside.

That place must have been specially set up by Le Zhong as a workshop, filled with various finished and semi-finished metal and stone artifacts. The clansmen waiting outside couldn't wait to walk to the door and start talking to Le Zhong.

"Le Zhong, I've come to pick up the longsword I ordered last time..."

"Le Zhong, I'd like to order weapons for manufacture. How long would the waiting list be?"

……

Surrounded by anxious clansmen, Le Zhong calmly raised his hand. Perhaps because of his imposing presence, the previously noisy air suddenly quieted down.

"Alright, don't rush, one at a time. Those picking up their goods, one line; those making reservations, one line. You two..."

Leyou and Lezhi, who had been huddled outside the door like quails, realized that Lezhong seemed to be calling them, so they quickly stood up straight and waited for Lezhong to speak.

"The kitchen is in the back, just go there. I've already put the ingredients out. Come find me if you have any problems." Seeing that the two little ones had reverted to their quail-like forms, Le Zhong's tone softened considerably. After giving them instructions, he left them alone.

Seeing that Le Zhong had already begun to hand over the duties to the clansmen, Le Zhi and Le You exchanged a glance and tacitly refrained from asking any questions. They obediently followed Le Zhong's instructions and went around the courtyard to the kitchen at the back.

The kitchen is fairly standard in size, just a little bigger than Leyou's. The main advantage is that it's fully equipped with all sorts of kitchen utensils. There are three standard cooking pots alone, and a whole row of knives of various sizes and shapes hangs on the wall.

Lezhi rummaged through the cupboard and found only one type of pot, tilting her head in confusion. "Hmm, these tree spirits seem to lack imagination," she thought. "Why only a saucepan? We should at least have a frying pan and a wok to meet our daily needs!"

However, after thinking about it, Lezhi could understand. Having been here for so long, he had also noticed that although the tree spirits liked to eat, they preferred foods that could be eaten directly and didn't like the trouble of cooking them.

To date, Lezhi has never seen Leyou cook a single dish. The essential oil is still animal fat rendered under Lezhi's guidance; vegetable oil has never been seen.

Perhaps they've become a bit lazy from being pampered by the abundance of berries in the forest. Lezhi can easily guess how the tribe has evolved into this state. Since they can easily fill their stomachs by simply going into the forest and picking a few berries, and the berries taste delicious, why bother trying to make things that don't taste good at first bite delicious?

Then there's insect meat; there are just so many insects here. Most of the insect meat doesn't have a strong fishy smell. After being simply salted and roasted, the smoky flavor masks the taste, making the meat quite palatable. So, people don't focus on making the meat taste better; instead, they choose to hunt insects whose meat is already of high quality, which aligns with their core values.

Well, Lezhi shook his head helplessly. Anyway, the pot could be used for stir-frying. He'd try it out when he got the stone slab this time. If it worked well, he'd try to order other kitchen utensils from Lezhong. Lezhi, who had a slight collecting obsession, clenched his fist and set himself his first goal in the clan: to collect all kinds of kitchen utensils.

"A skilled craftsman must first sharpen his tools!" Regardless of how the food tastes, preparing the tools first might inspire the tribe to dedicate themselves to developing their culinary arts!

After a blissful dream, Lezhi began to take stock of the ingredients. The ingredients here at Lezhong's place were incredibly diverse and varied. Perhaps because he was a businessman, the tribespeople often used their own harvested produce as barter.

The abundance of ingredients caught Lezhi's eye. With his talent, he wasn't afraid of eating poisonous food. So when he encountered unfamiliar plants, Lezhi fully embraced the spirit of his ancestors from his previous life who tasted hundreds of herbs, trying each one to see how it tasted.

This decision was very wise. Based on the texture and taste, Lezhi selected several ingredients that were very similar to those in his previous life. One was a sweet potato-flavored fruit, another was a yellow fruit that tasted like salted egg yolk, and there was another one that Lezhi was not sure about. Looking at the fruit with a dark purple skin, Lezhi felt that this thing looked a lot like an eggplant, but since he had never eaten a raw eggplant before, he decided to try it later.

Besides these, Lezhi also found a round fruit the size of a basketball in the corner. Leyou told him that it was called a slippery fruit. The fruit looked big, but it was actually hollow inside and filled with liquid.

"But that stuff doesn't have much flavor, and it's slippery when you drink it, so the tribesmen don't like to drink it. Judging from where this fruit is placed, someone probably brought it to make up the numbers, and Le Zhong probably doesn't like it very much either."

Raising an eyebrow, Lezhi grasped the key information: "Slippery, isn't it?"

"Hmm, I guess this liquid isn't meant to be drunk directly. Have any of the tribespeople tried heating it up?"

Stumped by Lezhi's question, Leyou looked up and thought for a moment, "I think there is, but it doesn't seem to change the taste much after heating it up..."

"It's okay, I'll try it in a bit."

No matter how much you talk about it now, nothing beats actually trying it out. After telling the fluffy ball on her head to lie still and not fall down, Lezhi picked out the ingredients needed for breakfast and began preparing her first meal after starting work.