Chapter 22

Originally, Granny Feng also had a prescription for treating sprains and injuries. However, after Granny Feng listened to the prescription given by the "Messenger of Nuwa True God," she made and tested it, finding that it was much more effective than the formula she previously knew.

The daily tasks given by the system usually involve gathering materials or cultivating barren land for seeds. The quantity and variety of seeds are not many, shifting between soybeans and corn, which led Emily to believe at one point that the system only had these two types of seeds.

It wasn't until the day she was released from house arrest that things changed.

The thousand soybeans planted that day had already sprouted and grown more than an inch above the soil. Almost every day, the people of the Nuwa tribe would go to that road to check on them and pull out any newly sprouted weeds.

Although these seedlings still looked tender, they represented hope for the Nuwa tribe to have enough food during the cold season!

Moreover, every day after they completed the tasks as required by the "Messenger of Nuwa True God," they would receive some seeds, which prompted them to gather outside Male's house every morning, waiting for Male to receive instructions from his wife and pass them on.

On this day, Emily's house arrest was finally lifted, and as soon as she stepped out of the bamboo gate, she saw a crowd of people packed outside.

Due to falling asleep before the task refresh last night, Emily quickly read the task.

"Daily task, task content: Build a bamboo house according to the blueprint and steps. Successful construction may reward a pair of breeding rabbits. Please complete as soon as possible!"

Emily was dumbfounded. Build a bamboo house, such a huge project in one day? Oh no, they now had two days.

But what about the bamboo? Wasn't all that bamboo taken away by the system just a few days ago?

Emily clicked on the blueprint, which detailed how to build the bamboo house. In the upper left corner were small characters that read: Purchase Nan bamboo?

Emily clicked on it, seeing the price of twenty copper coins per piece. With all her copper coins combined, she could only buy five hundred bamboo pieces.

Damn! Five hundred bamboo pieces, each about twenty meters long. Would this be enough to build a bamboo house as depicted in the system's drawing, with only one room upstairs and one downstairs?

And building a house was a pretty big project, with the only reward being a pair of breeding rabbits upon successful completion!

Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to have Male capture wild rabbits on the mountain and tame them?

But she had already canceled a daily task once. If there are many seemingly unprofitable tasks in the future and she keeps canceling them, will the system crash?

Or will it give more of these seemingly unprofitable tasks?

Emily didn't buy the Nan bamboo. While she could tolerate the soybean seeds, making many people busy building a bamboo house just for a pair of rabbits seemed like a waste of resources.

But the tasks for today couldn't be changed. What should she do?

Emily looked conflicted as she pondered, while the people of the Nuwa tribe stretched their necks, looking at her expectantly.

Impatient, Moon directly asked, "Sister-in-law? What are we supposed to do now?"

After a brief thought, Emily didn't conceal anything. "It requires us to build a bamboo house, and the reward is a pair of breeding rabbits."

"A bamboo house? A pair of breeding rabbits?" Moon and the others were just as puzzled, having never heard of such tasks before.

"A bamboo house is a type of building favored by residents in hot and humid areas. It can resist moisture and snakes, among other things. The ground floor is used to raise poultry and livestock, while the upper floor can accommodate people," Emily explained, seeing that the others still looked confused, which gave her a headache.

When explaining something new to people who have never encountered it before, is there anything more intuitive than a model? Just like selling pre-built houses in the 21st century, the sales department relies entirely on floor plans and overall renderings to explain to customers, right?

Oh, right! A model! Emily had a sudden inspiration. The system only specified building the bamboo house according to the blueprint but didn't require it to be a certain size! So, building a mini version should still complete the task and earn her that pair of rabbits, right?

Emily looked at the many women present with a smile, "Is there anyone here who is crafty and enjoys handcrafts willing to help me complete this task? We shouldn't need too many people, three or four should be enough."

"Three or four?" Another puzzled look, but the lady smiled so beautifully! I wish I could look as good as her!

But would it be embarrassing if they wanted to go and were rejected?

Moon didn't have so many concerns. She immediately raised her paw, "Me me me!"

Ignoring the crafty part, she liked handcrafts, so she counted herself in!

Banana quickly followed suit, shyly raising her hand like Moon, "Count me in too!"

A twelve or thirteen-year-old girl was pushed forward, with a little head behind her. It was Qi who pushed her sister, Qingye, forward, "Madam, can we go?"

The six or seven-year-old boy with dark, shiny eyes looked entirely different from the lifeless look he had the other day, and also from the shy demeanor when he wouldn't speak to her.

Seeing Qingye, the girl chosen by Granny Feng, Emily finally understood that the little one behind her was Qi. That was why Qi looked a bit familiar that day.

Weaving required almost no physical strength and even children could do it. Seeing the clever look on the children she had saved, Emily felt extremely pleased and nodded with a smile, "Alright. Just us few will do this task. The rest of you can continue with what you were supposed to do today."

The women of the Nuwa tribe, who had hesitated out of fear of rejection, regretted deeply. They hadn't expected the Madam to be so accommodating, even allowing Qi to go.

Emily successfully recruited her helpers for the day and felt quite happy but didn't notice that Male's expression had darkened.

"Emily," Male's expression was grim, "I'll help you too."

Emily glanced at him, feeling a bit speechless. Why was he looking so unhappy? Emily had a good idea, wasn't it because of Qi?

She had scolded Male behind closed doors before, but in front of the Nuwa tribe members, she had to save face for Male.

She smiled sweetly and respectfully, "That won't do, it's too wasteful! Anyone can build this bamboo house, but it can't be you! With your awakened bloodline and the 'artifact' bestowed upon you by the Nuwa True God, you'll be much more effective in hunting! Besides, with you around, hunting will be safer for the tribe members. You're irreplaceable!"

Male's face visibly improved. This man really fell for this act! Stroke his ego a bit...

The next moment, Emily was dumbfounded.

Because Male pointed at Qi confidently, "Qi, it's time you learned to hunt. I'll teach you."

Qi's big black-and-white eyes widened in surprise, "Male, I'm only seven winters old!"

Male looked down as if he were a king overlooking his subject, "So what? I and the great mountains started learning to hunt when we were just seven winters old! How can the men of our Nuwa tribe hide indoors and weave instead of hunting? Everyone agrees, right?"

To Emily's surprise, the tribe members all agreed in unison, "Yes!"

Emily rolled her eyes at Male, thinking how childish and ridiculous he was! She had clearly explained before that she was saving Qi, not kissing him, yet Male still had such strong guard against Qi, a little boy!

What did he think of her... uh... promiscuous?

It was infuriating!

Qi looked pitifully at Emily, having heard that she kissed him, thinking that when he grew up, he would become her companion like Male! She looked so beautiful, and he really wanted to complete tasks with her!

He had been shy and ran away that day. Would that leave a bad impression on her? Would she stop liking him? He hadn't seen her in these few days, as Male wouldn't allow him to see her.

Seeing Qi's sad and anxious eyes, Emily's dissatisfaction with Male grew stronger. But this was his territory, and she was his companion. She had to save face for him in front of his tribe!

She had to endure! Endure! Endure!

Emily put on what she thought was a natural smile, "Male, there's no rush for Qi to learn hunting in just one or two days. Let him help me today and tomorrow. Once we finish the task, I'll return him to you. Then, you can teach him hunting whenever you want!"

Male was caught off guard by Emily's words, his brow furrowing as he looked at Emily. Emily felt a chill down her spine from Male's gaze, feeling as if she were being accused of being unfaithful again.

Damn, with Male being such a tall and strong man, why did his gaze make him seem like a pitiful abandoned little thing? It felt so out of place!

Just as Emily was about to give in to that gaze, Granny Feng smiled and stepped forward, "Qi is a clever child, everyone likes him. Male wants to train him early, and Madam also wants him to help with tasks. But this old woman still has a task that only Qi can help with. Qi will stay with me today!"

Instantly, the sky cleared for Male, and the pressure around Emily returned to normal. Qi looked excitedly at Granny Feng, "Something only I can do? Granny Feng, what is it?"

Emily wiped imaginary sweat from her forehead, unable to help glaring fiercely at Male. Moon, seeing Emily's distress, came up and grabbed Emily, asking in a voice only they could hear, "Sister-in-law, you don't actually want Qi as your companion, do you?"

"Nonsense, what are you talking about? Qi is still a child!" Emily was somewhat helpless.

"A child grows up quickly." Moon got serious, "Although he's clever, my brother was much smarter at his age. Sister-in-law, my brother has been single for so many years and has only had eyes for you. Don't be so quick to eat your cake and look at the pot!"

"That's absurd, stop overthinking." Seeing Moon also having such misconceptions, Emily felt like there were three big letters spelling "unfaithful" on her forehead. She glanced at Male, but inadvertently saw the shining eyes of Anhe and Huangye not far away.

Clearly, they also thought she had inappropriate feelings for Qi!

Sigh, backgrounds really do matter. In modern times, who would think a woman in her twenties would be interested in a six or seven-year-old as a partner?

But in this Nuwa tribe...

It seemed she needed to be careful, not to create rifts with Male and let her enemies rejoice.

Emily felt a bit helpless but smiled sweetly at Male, "Male, Qi is a clever and lovely child. It would be great if our child turned out as clever and cute as him!"

Male's stern face softened. So, Emily being close to Qi was about wanting to be a mother. Hmm, he must quickly control his strength and do more things to have children with Emily sooner, fulfilling her wish to become a mother! Their child would definitely be cuter than that little Qi!

At this moment, Emily was oblivious to Male's thoughts. Later on, she would realize the impact of her words today when she felt like her waist was about to break every night. Regret was inevitable, but that's a story for another time. Let's not dwell on it now.

The minor disturbance this time was resolved with just a sentence from Emily. Huangye's eyes flashed briefly, maintaining a smile on her face, while An's brows furrowed in annoyance.

This woman must be a trickster, sneaking around like a mountain spirit in the Nuwa tribe, fooling Male, fooling Granny Feng, fooling everyone in the tribe!

Last time, when she was "punished," it must have been this woman's doing!

Why did this woman suddenly appear in the Nuwa tribe? With her presence, the Nuwa tribe might face chaos sooner or later!

How could he expose this woman's true colors?

She was cunning, and An had already suffered once. Letting those ignorant tribe members witness her downfall was humiliating enough. She needed to heed Huangye's advice, not act rashly, to avoid another major setback.

Subconsciously, An looked towards Huangye. Huangye was her best friend and someone she greatly admired for her intelligence.

Originally, after the incident of trapping the woman in the forbidden area was exposed, An thought both of them would be severely punished. The best-case scenario would be for her to take all the blame and shield Huangye from any punishment.

But unexpectedly, in the end, neither An nor Huangye received any punishment! This made An admire and rely on Huangye even more.

However, at this moment, Huangye smiled faintly, revealing nothing of her thoughts. An had to temporarily put aside her questions.

Making a model of a bamboo house sounded simple enough, but it was not easy in practice. Not only did they have to cut the bamboo into short pieces and create uniform bamboo slices or tubes, but they also had to carve out wedge and mortise-and-tenon structures, especially with tools made of stone. Fortunately, Male had left Emily the "divine tool" knife.

The awkward part was that Emily wasn't very skilled in craftsmanship. She could talk the talk but not walk the walk. So, Moon eagerly took up the "divine tool" amid admiring glances from everyone except Emily, and reverently used it to carve wedge and mortise-and-tenon joints.

Although Moon's efficiency was much higher, the other tribe members were not idle either. Emily's task was the simplest—putting together a three-dimensional puzzle.

The bamboo house "components" made by Qingye, this little girl, were especially precise, with a very low rejection rate. After spending a whole morning, the group finally assembled the miniature bamboo house.

It was about sixty centimeters long, forty centimeters wide, with two floors totaling about forty centimeters in height, all made of bamboo and topped with thatched grass. The participating Nuwa tribe members were pleasantly surprised, especially Qingye, who couldn't get enough of the miniature bamboo house.

For a completely handcrafted puzzle model, it looked quite exquisite, and Emily was quite satisfied.

"According to the instructions from the Nuwa Divine Messenger, if we build a larger bamboo house, the lower floor can be used to raise livestock, and the upper floor can accommodate people," Emily said with a slight smile, closing the task.

The system seemed to stall for a while. Just when Emily thought that her shortcut of making a small bamboo house wouldn't be recognized by the system and the task wouldn't be completed, the mechanical voice of the system rang out, "Task completed, reward: a pair of breeding rabbits. Please feed them promptly to avoid death."

Emily didn't hesitate for a moment and immediately took out the breeding rabbits.

Two completely white little rabbits, not even the size of her palm. Emily twitched her mouth.

Wasn't it supposed to be breeding rabbits? She thought she would receive fully grown rabbits, but she ended up with two cute little newborn bunnies.

Uh... Could it be because she submitted a miniature version of the bamboo house, so the system rewarded her with a "miniature" prize too?