Orc Girl's Tribal Daily Life

Chapter 268 Angela

Because she wasn't sure what the unknown egg would taste like, Jiang Luoluo didn't use the ready-made broth to cook it. Instead, she made a separate pot of hot water to give it special consideration.

When the water boiled, Ge put the egg into the pot—some of the water that had been boiled earlier was used to make "tea" for Jiang Luoluo.

Jiang Luoluo likes to make tea by steeping certain flowers and leaves in water. Half of the flowers and leaves come from Wuli and the other half from Xili.

The flowers and leaves given by the witch mostly have certain medicinal properties and are good for Jiang Luoluo's throat.

As for the flowers and leaves that happy gave, they were purely for aesthetic purposes when steeped.

However, since it wasn't poisonous, Wu and Ge let Jiang Luoluo soak and drink it all day long.

Seriously, every time I open my water glass and see the lifelike flowers swirling inside, it even increases my desire to drink water.

Jiang Luoluo relies on this to ensure she drinks enough water every day.

Jiang Luoluo held her small water cup, blowing on it to warm it, while watching Ge put the egg into the water.

The eggs were quite heavy, and they sank immediately after being put into the pot.

"Ge, how long does it take to boil this egg?" Jiang Luoluo turned to look at Ge and asked curiously.

Normally, it takes almost ten minutes to boil an egg after the water boils to ensure it is fully cooked. This egg is so big and heavy, will it take even longer?

Ge had never boiled eggs like this before. He scratched his head and said, "I don't know. Let's boil them a little longer. They'll get cooked eventually."

“Oh, right.” Jiang Luoluo nodded and turned back to look at the egg.

His gaze suddenly became somewhat surprised and uncertain—the egg, which had sunk to the bottom immediately after entering the stone pot, suddenly floated to the surface.

Jiang Luoluo knew the weight of the egg; she was very honest. If the eggshell hadn't shown that it wasn't a stone, she probably would have thought it was as heavy as a stone.

Even if it's due to density, it shouldn't sink to the bottom in hot water first and then float up; that didn't even last a minute.

"Ge..." Jiang Luoluo was about to call Ge when she noticed that the egg was slowly sinking to the bottom again.

It seems to be just because of the boiling water in the stone pot, causing it to rise and fall.

But boiling water... can it lift an egg as heavy as a stone?

"What's wrong, Luo?" Ge, whose ears were still sharp, heard Jiang Luoluo's voice and looked up as he was preparing dinner in another stone pot.

"This egg just floated to the surface!" Even though the egg had already fallen back down, Jiang Luoluo still recounted what had happened.

She hates it when characters in TV dramas clearly realize they've been exposed to something, but when their companions ask, they just say things like, "It must be my imagination," or "I think I'm hallucinating."

Even if it really is a hallucination, you should at least describe what the hallucination is like!

Therefore, Jiang Luoluo learned from this experience and carefully told Ge about her discovery, even when there was nothing wrong.

Ge also came over to check carefully, just in time to see the egg float up from the bottom again, and then slowly sink back down.

However, after looking at it for a long time, I didn't find any problems.

Even when I got close enough to touch the egg, there was still no reaction inside the shell.

Ge turned to look at Jiang Luoluo, "Then Luoluo, don't eat it yet. Let me taste it first to see if it's poisonous."

Jiang Luoluo nodded obediently. Actually, even without this incident, normally Ge would have to take a couple of bites first to test for poison. Jiang Luoluo wouldn't put anything directly into her mouth.

"Let's cook it a little longer," Jiang Luoluo added, just to be on the safe side.

Ge had no objection.

So Jiang Luoluo moved her small stool further away, just in case.

Even after Ge had finished preparing dinner, the egg didn't show any special behavior; it just floated steadily up and down.

It looks like the pattern of boiling this egg.

"dong dong dong"

Jiang Luoluo picked up the wooden bowl, holding a pair of chopsticks in her hand. She had asked the carpenter Cong to make them separately, as she always used a spoon.

With chopsticks, eating a meal becomes a real experience.

Hearing the dull sound of eggshells hitting the bottom of the stone pot, Jiang Luoluo scratched her head.

Does that sound mean it's already cooked?

I glanced down at my bowl again and thought, "Never mind, whether it's cooked or not, I'll wait until it finishes its meal. There's no harm in cooking it a little longer."

"bang bang bang"

Jiang Luoluo buried herself in her food, noticing that the sounds the egg was making were getting stranger and stranger.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ge suddenly stand up.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Luoluo looked up blankly.

As Ge stood up and looked over, Jiang Luoluo saw that the eggshells of the eggs in the pot were cracked with countless tiny fissures.

"Did it crack from being boiled?" Jiang Luoluo asked, puzzled.

Ge frowned, not answering first, but walking towards the stone pot—because of Jiang Luoluo's habit, their family now sets up a wooden table next to the fire when they eat.

The wooden table was two steps away from the fire, and if Ge wanted to get closer to the stone pot where the eggs were boiling, he would naturally have to take a few steps.

"Crack!" The eggshell suddenly shattered in two, and a completely black object burst out from the middle.

Its posture was extremely fierce, with the momentum to soar into the sky.

Before Jiang Luoluo could even be shocked, she saw the black, unidentified thing trip over the eggshell with one foot and fall headlong towards the edge of the stone pot.

"Gah!" With a cry, it spread its two wet, fleshy wings, preventing the black object from bumping into the edge of the stone pot, and stood proudly on the edge of the stone pot.

Jiang Luoluo could see clearly that it was a newly hatched black chick.

Before Jiang Luoluo could take a closer look at the black fledgling, she heard another sharp cry.

"crunch!!!"

Even those who don't understand bird language can hear the pain in it.

The black fledgling, which had just perched on the edge of the pot, chirped once and was immediately scalded by the hot stone pot, jumping up and falling face down.

It instinctively flapped its wings, trying to fly, but having just hatched from its egg, its feathers were still wet and not dry, so how could it possibly fly?

Unfortunately, the fire was right under the stone pot, and it practically poured itself into the fire.

"Eh..." Jiang Luoluo exclaimed subconsciously.

When Ge heard Jiang Luoluo's voice, he thought that Jiang Luoluo was soft-hearted and couldn't bear to see the black fledgling being burned to death, so he reached out and scooped it up.

The action is fast.

However, the attack came too late, and the black fledgling's rear end was still flicked by the fire from the fire seed.

Normally, this level of fire wouldn't ignite anything, but the fire from this kind of tinder is different from ordinary flames; it has a targeted effect on wild animals, and it started burning as soon as it touched the feathers on the black fledgling's rump.

Seeing this, Ge casually plucked a handful of flames and extinguished them in his palm, preventing the black fledgling from being burned.

The black fledgling's cries stopped abruptly.

Ge also grabbed the black fledgling and handed it to Jiang Luoluo, saying, "Here you go, Luoluo."

Jiang Luoluo exchanged a glance with the newly opened black fledgling, then looked up at Ge.

"Give it to me?" Why would you give it to me?

Ge Cai realized he might have misunderstood something, and scratched his head with his free hand. "I thought Luo wanted to save it."

No, I just subconsciously couldn't bear to see animals die in front of me.

Jiang Luoluo blinked, because in her world, animals, especially birds, were at least under second-class protection.

Ge didn't care about any of that. Since Jiang Luoluo didn't want to save him, he would just eat him.

"It should be that their species' ability is to completely stagnate in environments unsuitable for incubation, until the external environment meets their incubation conditions, at which point they slowly revive."

Ge explained that he knew Jiang Luoluo was most curious about this kind of thing, and if he didn't say anything now, Jiang Luoluo would ask about it herself later.

When Mao brought the egg out of the Taz Forest, it was already in the middle to late stages of the Great Beast Season. Once it hatched, it wouldn't even have time to grow up before the cold and food-scarce snow season began.

It's common for animals to stop incubating and shut themselves off when the time isn't right; many animals have this ability.

That's why, despite several attempts to sense the egg, Ge failed to detect any activity inside or discover that it had already hatched, as it was indeed in a state of "apparent death."

"Meets the conditions for hatching?" Jiang Luoluo's gaze shifted to the stone pot that was still boiling water.

Is a water temperature of over 100 degrees Celsius the incubation condition for these birds? Are there places with such high temperatures in the wild? Perhaps they would have to be near lava.

Moreover, the bird screamed in pain after landing on the edge of the stone pot, so it doesn't seem to be heat-resistant.

Following Jiang Luoluo's gaze, Ge turned his head, paused for a moment, and said something honest, "This... is probably something it had no choice but to hatch."

After all, if they don't hatch soon, they'll be cooked.

“Ah, that’s true.” Jiang Luoluo nodded in agreement.

"If Luo doesn't want it, then I'll bake it for him." Ge withdrew his outstretched hand, his tone somewhat regretful.

"It's just that we didn't get to eat boiled eggs this time, but it's okay, Luo. We'll go hunting again after the snow season, and I'll bring back a lot of eggs for you. You'll definitely be able to eat them."

Luo was so looking forward to eating the egg, but it turned out to be already hatched. Ge began to recall some of the bird habitats he had seen when he went hunting before.

The black fledgling in her hand probably sensed its impending death. After a brief moment of quiet, it began to chirp sharply again, stretching its head toward Jiang Luoluo as it chirped.

There was nothing it could do; Ge was holding on too tightly. As a newly hatched chick, it had no strength to break free from Ge's control.

Jiang Luoluo and the black fledgling looked into each other's eyes, and she vaguely remembered that birds seem to have a chick complex—that is, after they open their eyes after being born, they will regard the first person they see as their mother.

So, I was the first person this black fledgling saw? It mistook me for its mother and was calling for help?

Some things are better left unthought of.

For example, when Jiang Luoluo imagined herself in a scenario where "a biological son is being cooked in front of his mother, and the mother not only doesn't save him but also enjoys the meal," she couldn't sit still.

"Um... Ge, how about we just not eat it..."

Jiang Luoluo guiltily looked away from the black fledgling.

She ultimately couldn't play the role of a mother who could truly appreciate her son's talents.

"Okay, then I won't eat it." Ge was always easy to talk to, and this little thing was no problem at all.

So Ge handed the black fledgling to Jiang Luoluo again, and this time Jiang Luoluo reached out and took it.

Ge wasn't worried about Jiang Luoluo's safety... If such a small bird could threaten Jiang Luoluo, then Jiang Luoluo should just be reincarnated; the tribe wasn't suitable for her to live in.

As soon as the black fledgling landed in Jiang Luoluo's hands, it immediately stopped screaming and obediently curled up in Jiang Luoluo's arms, carefully burying its head and leaving only a small gap to observe the outside world.

Jiang Luoluo touched it and only felt a wetness on her hand. She didn't know if it was egg liquid from the eggshell or hot water from the pot.

After thinking about it, since I didn't intend to eat it, I decided to keep it as a pet for the time being.

So I took a dry burlap cloth from the side and helped wipe the moisture off the black fledgling.

Sure enough, after cleaning most of its feathers, the black fledgling immediately became fluffy, and compared to its previous bald and wet appearance, it actually looked quite cute.

I guess all cubs, regardless of their race, look cute.

Except for flies.

Jiang Luoluo carefully observed the black fledgling and discovered that it was completely black from head to toe.

Needless to say, its feathers are black, its eyes are black, its beak is black, and its claws are black.

The shades of black vary slightly in different places, yet they are all perfectly harmonious and unified.

After drying itself off, the black fledgling stood up on its own and perched on Jiang Luoluo's knees as she sat on the small stool, no longer curled up in a ball.

Jiang Luoluo still had some food left to eat, so she picked up her chopsticks again and started eating.

"Chirp? Chirp chirp!" The black fledgling chirped anxiously as it watched Jiang Luoluo put the food into its mouth.

Jiang Luoluo paused, realizing that she seemed to understand what the black fledgling meant.

Mommy! Feed me!

Jiang Luoluo hesitated for a moment, then took a new pair of chopsticks, picked up a few strips of meat, and handed them to the black fledgling.

Then I saw the black fledgling happily snatch it and start eating it.

Jiang Luoluo fell silent for a moment... because she suddenly realized that the meat strips she was feeding her were bird meat that the guard had brought over.

The black fledglings seemed to enjoy the meat very much, and appeared to like its taste.

However, Jiang Luoluo also knew that this was not a problem. In nature, the strong prey on the weak, and big birds eat little birds. It's all part of the food chain. It's just that from a human perspective, she couldn't help but have some unnecessary thoughts.

Apart from humans, no animal would care about these things.

"Is Luo planning to keep it? Do you want to name it?" Ge asked casually. After all, the snow season is coming soon, and having a little gadget to keep Jiang Luoluo company will prevent her from getting too bored.

As Jiang Luoluo fed the black fledgling meat, she thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said, "Let's call it Angela."

Ge looked at Jiang Luoluo with a puzzled expression, not understanding why she had such a long name.

"Angela? Why?"

“Because…” Jiang Luoluo recalled the image of the black fledgling falling from the edge of the pot onto the fire, its tail feathers ignited.

"My butt's on fire!"