Orc Girl's Tribal Daily Life

Chapter 148 Keen-eyed Qing

148

Qing was slightly surprised by the cub's sudden action of rubbing her wrist. After a moment of surprise, she did not refuse the cub's care, but just smiled and said, "It's nothing. I'm just getting old and don't have the strength I used to have. I feel tired even after doing a little work."

Jiang Luoluo just kneaded the glass carefully, not daring to speak. After all, from what she had just watched, the speed at which Qing was grinding the glass was comparable to that of an electric machine.

If this can be considered old and unable to move, then many young people from her previous life's era would probably be considered old and need to be buried.

To be honest, Jiang Luoluo was somewhat surprised by Qing's reaction. She thought that Qing would be stubborn and say something like that she wasn't old or tired and could still do the work, showing her unwillingness to admit defeat.

But Qing readily and frankly admitted that she was getting old.

Jiang Luoluo's impression was that Qing seemed to have a very open-minded view of everything, and it was also evident from his demands on strength that he was not a stubborn or obsessive person.

On the contrary, Qinghuo is very open-minded and insightful.

But the matter between Qing and Zao... Jiang Luoluo found it hard to imagine. She couldn't understand why Qing, with such a clear-headed personality, would react so strongly to anything related to Zao.

At the same time, I also began to feel curious about Qing and Zao's past when they were young.

After Qing felt her wrist was better, she pressed down on the cub's hand, preventing it from rubbing any further. At the same time, she gently patted the cub Luo's head with a touch of emotion.

They turned to look at the cave entrance. Logically speaking, the cub Luo should be the one who couldn't resist the new toy, while the older ones should be more perceptive about what was happening to him.

But the result was that several older people were holding binoculars and childishly comparing them, none of them willing to give in. On the contrary, the youngest one, Luo, who should have been playing the most, thoughtfully and carefully noticed his discomfort and took the initiative to relieve the fatigue in his wrist.

"Luo, you're a good kid. No wonder Li wants to be your friend so much. I even want to be your friend now," Qing said with a smile.

Jiang Luoluo lowered her head somewhat embarrassed. Rather than saying she was gentle by nature, it would be more accurate to say that it was a habit she had developed in a society where interpersonal relationships mattered.

To live more comfortably in the workplace, one must pay attention to many things and maintain various interpersonal relationships, which eventually becomes a habit.

However, given the comfortable relationships within the tribe, Jiang Luoluo's behavior was entirely genuine and without any complicated motives.

Suddenly, Qing thought of something and looked at Jiang Luoluo, saying, "By the way, is the magnification ability of these transparent lenses related to the thickness in the middle of the lens? Is that why they are made to be thicker in the middle and thinner at both ends?"

Jiang Luoluo was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, and was a little slow to react. "Huh?"

Qing pointed to her eyes, "I just saw that different thicknesses of lenses magnify things differently. I think that's how it is."

Jiang Luoluo realized what was happening and quickly nodded, "Yes..."

I was so excited that I bit my tongue and my speech was slurred.

However, since Jiang Luoluo hadn't even managed to make a single successful transparent lens at the beginning, she didn't bring up the issue of different thicknesses for transparent lenses.

Many things must be made first before they can be improved and refined, and further progress can be made.

If you can't even make it, then making any more demands is a waste of time.

Unexpectedly, Qing herself noticed this.

As expected of Qing! Jiang Luoluo looked at Qing with shock and admiration.

He became increasingly convinced that he was just an ordinary person with more knowledge and experience.

Compared to a true genius like Qing, I actually have nothing to boast about.

“So…” Qing began to think.

"We need to make transparent lenses of the same size but different thicknesses, and transparent lenses of the same thickness but different sizes."

"These different transparent lenses need to be matched one by one and tested at different distances..."

Qing's voice wasn't loud, but it made Jiang Luolu feel dizzy.

Qing shook her head. "It really does require a lot of clear lenses."

Qing seemed to have come to terms with something, saying, "No wonder Zao asked you to find Heng; she's the only one who can do this kind of physical work."

Jiang Luoluo didn't dare to reply, afraid that she might say something wrong and upset Qing again.

Fortunately, Qing didn't continue the topic. After saying that one sentence, she turned to look at the three people at the door who had determined the final outcome.

"Alright, you've all finished watching, right? Now go do what you need to do, and stop crowding around me, making a racket and causing a ruckus."

Qing looked down at Jiang Luoluo and said, "Aren't you going to look for other people? Go ahead. Don't waste your time here."

Qing seemed to be implying something as she repeated, "Although you are still young and have plenty of time, you shouldn't waste your time on an old man like me."

The group of people who had been told to leave exchanged glances, somewhat confused.

"Am I leaving too?"

Qing glanced at Li, "Aren't we still going to get our hair shaved there?"

Li scratched his head and chuckled awkwardly, not daring to speak again.

"Well, we'll be going now..." As the ultimate winner of the eyesight competition, Ge said somewhat shyly.

After all, he was only 16 years old. Although he tried to be mature, he couldn't suppress his instinctive boyish nature and was unwilling to admit defeat in some things.

Especially since Cong deliberately teased him, Ge unconsciously got a little carried away. When he realized what was happening, he felt a little shy.

Qing nodded, and seeing the group turn to leave, she said to Cong, "Wait a moment."

Cong looked around and realized that Qing was indeed speaking to him, and he immediately felt a little flustered.

"Huh? Me? Me?"

Qing nodded. "Yes, it's you. Wait a bit before you leave."

Cong nervously glanced to the side for help, wondering why she had been left behind. "What... what happened to me?"

Qing pointed to one of the telescope tubes in her hand and said, "These two tubes are well made. Make more of them later; they'll be useful."

A bad feeling immediately arose in Cong's heart, and her voice trembled slightly, "Make more... how much?"

Qing waved her hand casually, "Of course, I'll do as much as I can."

Cong, who had only come to watch the show and join in the fun, suddenly looked like the sky had fallen, but he couldn't bring himself to refuse, so he could only nod bitterly, "I understand."

He knew that the joke about the cub Luo wasn't so funny!

So the group, some laughing and some crying, left Qing's cave.

Li followed Jiang Luoluo, and Ge looked at Li, feeling a little strange.

Jiang Luoluo quickly explained that after she learned what Li had done, she and Li had discussed visiting Ti together later to apologize and explain the situation.

That's why Qing spoke to Li so kindly just now.

Ge nodded to indicate that he understood, and took Li home with him, mainly to prepare a new gift for their first meeting.

You can't just go to someone's house, bring a bunch of things, and then leave them with only a portion of what you brought.

The place where they shaved their heads is in the area for the elderly in the tribe. It can be said that most of the elderly people in the tribe actually live here.

It refers to the kind of normal "retirement" where the person still possesses certain abilities, such as the ability to learn or have other skills.

Elderly people who are sick, injured, unable to work, or need care live in another area.

Elderly people rarely participate in various activities in the tribe, even sacrificial rites.

Because the elderly members of the tribe are not in good health, they have difficulty traveling. Another reason is that they believe their blood is not clean enough and contains toxins from various injuries and illnesses. Therefore, they generally do not appear at sacrificial ceremonies unless absolutely necessary.

This location was actually the same place Jiang Luoluo and Mao visited when they went to Wen to register the land title last time. However, Wen's location was quite far from Ti, though they were in the same area.

After all, Silver Peak Mountain is actually a very large area. It is said that at the peak of the tribe, tens of thousands of tribesmen once lived on Silver Peak Mountain.

Currently, the entire tribe has only a few thousand people. No wonder Jiang Luoluo always felt that Silver Peak Mountain was too vast and empty whenever she walked on it.

I can't imagine how lively the tribe would be if it had tens of thousands of people.

At the same time, Jiang Luoluo also had some things she found hard to understand, namely why the tribe, which once had tens of thousands of people, had become only two thousand people now.

However, the answer is not difficult to guess. After all, for the tribe, the most important thing that can affect all the tribe members is only one thing: food.

Food that can feed tens of thousands of people cannot be easily obtained, especially by tribesmen with such large appetites.

To feed tens of thousands of people, the tribe must have to venture deep into the Taz Forest, where they could only find enough food.

In the Taz Forest, the deeper you go, the greater the danger and the higher the casualty rate.

Therefore, it is quite possible that during one particular hunt, an accident occurred that resulted in the deaths of a large number of orc warriors in the hunting party, which led to the decline of the tribe.

After all, powerful orc warriors are crucial to the survival of the tribe, and the tribe's strength will decrease as a large number of orc warriors die.

The first problem is the inability to hunt enough food. Without enough food, the tribe members cannot eat their fill, and without enough food, they have no strength to do anything. If this vicious cycle continues for a period of time, the decline of the tribe is inevitable.

Unless the tribe can find a way to alleviate food pressure at this time, or until the tribe’s population is reduced to a point where food no longer poses a pressure.

Therefore, the healthiest and safest situation is to maintain a fixed number of people in the tribe and ensure that the tribe hunts within a safe area in the Taz Forest, which will guarantee the food supply.

However, this is not entirely safe, since while tribes can control the number of their people, they cannot control real natural disasters.

It's just that the rainy season is a little longer, the snowy season is a little longer, and the season for large and small animals is a little shorter, and the tribe will fall into trouble again.

This is something that is completely unavoidable; it is the most fundamental predicament rooted deep within the tribe.

Unless the tribe can find another way, besides hunting, to provide enough food for its people to survive.

Growing food—but that's just too difficult. Jiang Luoluo believes that she's not the only one; many others have thought of this method, but all of them eventually gave up.

Otherwise, Jiang Luoluo didn't believe that a tribe that could grow a field of herbs on the mountaintop would be unaware of the importance of growing food.

But upon closer examination, it becomes clear just how unreliable planting is for the tribe's current conditions, and why planting has failed.

First, there's the choice of where to plant things. The tribe has three options: Taz Forest, Silver Peak Mountain, and Gray Dead Plain.

Let's talk about the Taz Forest first. There are two problems with the Taz Forest. First, the plants there fight fiercely. Plants are constantly changing, and you might plant food seeds today, only to have them stolen by other plants and killed the next day.

Even after investing considerable manpower and resources to finally watch these grain seeds grow healthily, the tribe still faces a second problem: the wild beasts in the Taz Forest.

The tribe established Silver Peak outside the Taz Forest, but they still frequently encounter attacks from wild beasts. If they were to carve out a piece of land in the Taz Forest to farm, it's unimaginable how many orc warriors would be able to defend it from the beast attacks.

Then, let's talk about Yinfeng Mountain. Not to mention that the land on Yinfeng Mountain was compacted little by little by the tribal people, apart from those plants with strong survival capabilities that can crack gold and shatter rocks and grow by breaking through the ground, let's wonder if fragile food crops could grow.

Let's just talk about the most important thing: is the area big enough? You have to understand that the tribes have big appetites, so there must be enough land to grow enough food to replace hunting.

So the question is, after removing the necessary living space for the tribespeople, is the area on Silver Peak Mountain enough for farming? Obviously not.

Finally, let's talk about the Gray Dead Soil Plain... This is exactly what Jiang Luoluo wanted to understand by using a telescope.

So far, Jiang Luoluo only knows that bricks made with gray dead soil become exceptionally loose and fragile when fired, but she doesn't know the principle behind it, the other properties of gray dead soil, or why things cannot be grown in gray dead soil.

Everyone says that Gray Dead Soil is dead land, but Jiang Luoluo can't understand what "death" means in Gray Dead Soil, from what perspective it means, or why it "dies".