Bai Sheng squatted down and touched the carcass of the mother wolf. It was indeed quite thin.
The desert had been dry for so long, vegetation had withered on a large scale, and herbivores had drastically decreased. Consequently, carnivores could not survive long.
The mother wolf probably knew she couldn't survive, so she entrusted her pups to Lu Ye.
But how could she trust Lu Ye so much? Wasn't she afraid that Lu Ye would roast and eat her cubs if he got desperate with hunger?
Bai Sheng looked up and gave Lu Ye a deep look. "Lu Ye, put the wolf into the space too. Carrying it like this is too conspicuous. Besides, the space can keep things fresh. We'll tell Xiao Hua and the others later that we've temporarily hidden the wolf."
Lu Ye thought about it and felt it was indeed better. He wasn't sure what the situation was like at Red Tree Slope. Carrying a wolf so openly would easily make him a target.
Bai Sheng reached out, grabbed the wolf, and with a thought, the wolf's carcass entered the space.
Heng Heng was about to carry the wolf cub to drink spring water when suddenly, with a "bang," a dead wolf landed beside its trotters.
"Heng Heng, this is prey caught by Lu Ye. Put it in the storage area and don't touch it without my orders!" Bai Sheng instructed Heng Heng in her mind.
Heng Heng looked at the dead wolf, its face full of fear. "Master, your second silly child wouldn't have killed the wolf cub's mother and then brought back the wolf cub to raise, would he? You're letting the wolf cub recognize a thief as its father. If it finds out the truth when it grows up, it will hate you!"
Bai Sheng was about to scold Heng Heng for its foul mouth, but then she thought that Heng Heng's worry was normal for any sentient being. So, she patiently told Heng Heng about the mother wolf entrusting her cub.
Who knew that Heng Heng, this two-meter-long, one-meter-high black pig strongman, would actually... actually start wailing like a woman! While crying, it wiped its nose and said, "Oh my heavens, it's too touching!"
Bai Sheng was so stimulated that her pores stood on end. She couldn't be bothered to deal with it anymore. She quickly withdrew her thoughts and returned to her younger siblings with Lu Ye.
"Big Brother, where's the wolf (meat)?" Lu Yu was the first to notice something was wrong, his eyes widening.
Lu Ye glanced at his younger siblings and said with a calm face, "We don't know the situation at Red Tree Slope yet. What if someone tries to snatch our prey? So, I've hidden the wolf for now. Once we've secured a living area, we'll carry it back."
"Big Brother, you must hide it well and not let the bad guys find it, otherwise (or else), we won't have any meat to eat," Lu Yu cautioned him with concern.
Lu Ye smiled, bent down, and patted Lu Yu's head. "Don't worry, Big Brother has hidden it very well. You'll have meat."
"Then I'm relieved," Lu Yu said like a little adult, patting his chest.
The sky was gradually brightening, and the moon hid in the firmament. The group continued towards Red Tree Slope.
Red Tree Slope was located north of Huangsha Village, about two to three li away. It served as a natural barrier for Huangsha Village. The long sand dike running east-west blocked the sandstorms blowing from the north.
It didn't take long for them to reach their destination.
It was then that Bai Sheng discovered that Red Tree Slope was named so because a long and wide sand dike spanned east and west. In the valley at the foot of the slope grew several sturdy red fruit trees, which from a distance looked like a patch of red clouds.
The red fruit trees were a bit far away, so Bai Sheng couldn't see clearly what kind of fruit they bore.
However, no matter what kind of fruit it was, it was definitely inedible. Otherwise, how could they still be hanging intact on the treetops? People would have gnawed them bare, bark and all.
On the south slope of the sand dike, supported by rising sandstones, more than a dozen simple thatched huts were sparsely built.
These were the scattered villagers living at Red Tree Slope.
The so-called scattered villagers were refugees without villages. Some had fled famine, and some, like Lu Ye, had been driven out by nearby villages.
When Lu Ye's family of five appeared at Red Tree Slope, the scattered villagers, who had been lying listlessly, all slowly stood up. Then, they gathered in twos and threes, staring motionlessly at Lu Ye and his family.
Bai Sheng looked up and scanned the crowd. She noticed that these scattered villagers were all in rags, skinny as sticks, with dull eyes deeply sunken, as if they had been embedded in their skulls beforehand.
At this moment, even a slight breeze seemed as though it would blow them over.
They were living people, yet they were no different from the dead, like wandering souls just released from hell.
Bai Sheng gasped, and her body trembled involuntarily.
As a modern person who could eat and drink to her heart's content, she had never seen living people so tormented by hunger and thirst. Even the poorest parts of Africa were nothing like this.
To be honest, at that moment, she felt a pang of desire and really wanted to release the water from her space and let them drink their fill.
But remembering what Lu Ye had told her, she tightened her fingers and finally held back.
Lu Ye glanced at Bai Sheng, raised his arm, and shielded her and his younger siblings behind him.
He faced the scattered villagers, stood tall, cupped his fists, and said, "Respected uncles, brothers, aunts, and sisters, I am Lu Ye, and I will be settling here with my family! If we have disturbed you in any way, Lu Ye apologizes in advance. In the future, we will be neighbors, and I hope everyone will take care of us. Lu Ye will be most grateful."
After speaking, Lu Ye bowed to their new neighbors with his entire family.
The scattered villagers continued to stare at them motionlessly, without any emotional fluctuations.
Lu Ye and his family didn't mind this. After finishing the ceremony, they got up to find a place to settle their new home.
After the Lu Ye family left, several men standing in the center exchanged glances and nodded slightly, as if exchanging some information.
Lu Ye and Bai Sheng both disliked living too close to these scattered villagers. They walked along the sand dike towards the red fruit trees for about 200 meters and stopped.
"This location is quite good. It's much closer to those red fruit trees," Bai Sheng said happily.
Hearing Bai Sheng's words, Lu Ye and Lu Hua's faces changed drastically. Lu Ye walked up to Bai Sheng and said to her with a serious expression, "Bai Sheng, those red fruits are poisonous. Do not touch them!"
As expected!
Bai Sheng nodded, "Okay, I remember! I won't go." As if!
She at least wanted to see clearly what kind of fruit it was. Even if it couldn't be eaten, it might have other uses.
Lu Ye drew a large square of about 100 square meters and then prepared to go to the large sand pit to find some stones to enclose the area.
Bai Sheng gave him a look: find stones, and when the time comes, go to the large sand pit, and the space will store as many as they want.
Lu Ye understood instantly. "Then let's find some sandstone blocks nearby to mark our home's location first."
As soon as Lu Ye finished speaking, Bai Sheng and the three little ones ran to pick up sandstone blocks.
Bai Sheng, taking advantage of their inattention, put the rock blocks into the space, and then, again taking advantage of their inattention, ran back to "home" and put the blocks down.
In a short while, a pile of rock blocks had been collected.
Lu Ye was placing the rock blocks along the square perimeter when he suddenly heard a few screams from not far away.
That was Bai Sheng's voice!