Chapter 38

Titus lay contentedly on the new bed.

Just lying down wasn't enough for him; he propped up his head and looked at Cloudy, who was panting at the door, "My pillow, where is it?"

What's going on? He's been away for several days, and now he's acting like a lord as soon as he's back. Cloudy wiped the sweat off her forehead. After Titus's wails, she urgently started making a new big bed. First, she moved all the extra things in the wooden house outside and rearranged them. Then, she went out with Titus to gather materials.

However, due to limited time approaching sunset, Titus's bed was half as short as hers. The amount of straw and leaves inside was greatly reduced. They had to make do with it for today, and they would continue to fill it tomorrow.

"You're too dirty now," Cloudy tried to pull Titus up from the bed, but he was too heavy. "You'll make it dirty! Go wash up."

Titus wrinkled his nose and sniffed hard, "It stinks." But even after sniffing, he didn't get up; he just lay on the bed motionless.

"Cloudy, I'm so tired. I've been outside all the time, running around. Finally, I can lie on a comfortable bed and rest."

"...Is he complaining or venting, or is he using his previous fatigue as an excuse not to bathe? Titus is not that simple, so it's definitely the latter." After pondering for a few seconds, Cloudy grabbed Titus's ear and lifted it up. "Get up and go wash."

"Ah—! But my bed has just been made, I want to rest!" Even though his ear was being pulled, Titus still lay on the bed like a dead dog, not moving at all. After so many days of traveling and hunting, he really needed to lie down. "I'm not dirty."

Very dirty, there was a layer of mud on his ears. Cloudy let go of his hand, looked at the mud rubbed off her fingers in silence, stood up, and walked outside.

"...? Cloudy?" Titus propped up his head, looking around. "Why did she go out? Is she angry?"

"No!"

Not long after, Titus saw Cloudy coming in with a jar, the sound of water splashing inside the jar.

She had to sacrifice her shorts, she placed the jar next to Titus's bed, then took off her shorts, dipped them in the water and wrung them dry. "Turn around, wash your back first."

Titus guessed what Cloudy was going to do and happily lay face down on the bed.

"...What about the medicine on the wounds? Should I wipe it off?" Starting from his neck, she carefully wiped away the medicine, leaving the wounds for later.

"Go ahead and wipe it off; it's been there for many days."

Cleaning off the medicinal mud was a bit troublesome. Cloudy first cleaned Titus's neck and back shoulder, then went outside to get a leaf and used her hands to gently rub off the old, smelly medicinal mud onto the leaf.
The wound on the neck has been cleaned, and the scabs inside have all fallen off. After wiping it clean, there is a slightly lighter-colored new flesh.

"It feels so comfortable..." Titus sighed as he lay down, his voice becoming a bit muffled. "In the settlement, only children are taken care of by their mothers."

Isn't that obvious! Cloudy threw the shorts, whose original color was no longer visible, back into the clay pot, kneaded them a few times, then took them out to wipe behind Titus's ears. His hair was also quite smelly... but it was difficult to clean while lying in bed. Today, she could only let him sleep on a fur pillow to avoid making his precious down jacket smelly too.

Cleaning the upper body and two arms used up three jars of water, leaving Cloudy exhausted. The medicinal mud on the leaves kept piling up higher: "Titus, have you never cleaned your external wounds... even once?"

"Mumble mumble..." he muttered something indistinctly, but Cloudy couldn't make it out. Eventually, as she wiped his front, Titus fell asleep with a gentle snore. Cloudy didn't wake him up, she continued to change the water and wash the cloth, helping him clean his entire body.

After finishing, she went outside to gather some fragrant dry grass, placed them on a grooved stone in front of the workbench, ground them into a coarse powder with another stone, and poured it into a jar of water, shaking it a few times. The water, mixed evenly with the dry grass powder, emitted a plant-specific fragrance, with a slightly bitter medicinal scent.

Previously, Cloudy had strange red spots on her body, and after taking a bath, she would use this water to apply on them. When it dried, her body would always have a plant scent. Of course, this could only provide a psychological therapeutic effect at most. Smelling the scent would make one feel clean and slightly comfortable...

She carried the water jar inside, and after applying it all over Titus's body, she used leaves to fan him slowly by the side. Although Titus was asleep, he was still murmuring something, probably talking in his sleep.

Cloudy couldn't imagine how Titus had spent the past few days. She had never seen Titus looking so exhausted; according to him, he could go for several days without sleep. To tire him out like this, the recent external hunting must have been very tough.

...

When he opened his eyes again, it still looked dark outside the wooden hut, not yet morning, with no sunlight seeping through the cracks in the walls.

How long had he been asleep? Titus slowly sat up, stretching lazily and letting out a huge yawn. "Cloudy—I'm awake!"

As he spoke, he heard the sound of footsteps outside. Cloudy, holding a bunch of unprocessed plants, looked at him in surprise. "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" He rubbed his eyes, trying to get out of bed.

"Because you've been asleep for two days."

"Huh?"

"You've been asleep for two days!"

"What?!" Titus's eyes widened in shock.
Titus was quite surprised by Cloudy's intense reaction, exclaiming, "I fell asleep, two sunsets?!" Cloudy hadn't anticipated this either, but she wasn't particularly worried as Titus' breathing remained steady while he slept. Periodically, she would moisten his lips with a bit of water, asking, "Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something?"

Titus was still a bit dazed as he shook his head and followed Cloudy out of the wooden hut. Upon stepping outside, he noticed that the weather seemed a bit off. Squinting his eyes, he looked up at the sky outside the courtyard. The sky was overcast, devoid of any hint of sunlight, and the plant leaves blocking the courtyard entrance were not as lush green as usual.

Realizing he had been too lax because of seeing Cloudy again, Titus couldn't help but relax completely... which shortened the preparation time before the rainy season by two sunsets. This left the now awake Titus feeling uneasy, as he felt very sorry for Cloudy.

However, his thoughts were soon interrupted by a tantalizing aroma that made his stomach growl instantly. Titus stopped pondering and stared at the source of the fragrance.

There was no need to search for the source of the aroma; it was definitely coming from the container on the fire. The reason the area near the wooden hut had good visibility was because Cloudy had lit a bonfire. She was currently stewing fish and jerky, with the creamy white broth bubbling with thick foam on top. Unaware that Titus would wake up, this was a single serving of stewed meat.

"What's this?" Titus squatted by the bonfire, peering into the pot. He felt like there were too many things he wanted to ask "what" about since returning to Cloudy's place.

"It's meat and fish, with added fat, some fruits, and plants. Try it," Cloudy said as she scooped a spoonful from the large pot, blew on it to cool it down, and offered it to Titus, saying, "Try it! It's delicious."

After taking a bite, Titus's ears began to twitch slightly. This was a flavor he had never experienced before: "This... this taste, I... I don't recognize it! My tongue, it has a taste!"

It was a mix of sourness and spiciness, all from the plants Cloudy had tirelessly searched for. The sourness came from the leaves of a plant, while the spiciness was from the seeds of a fruit. When ground, the seeds released a greenish liquid with a mild spiciness. Strictly speaking, these flavors were quite different from modern "spicy and sour," but they were more than enough for now.

Cloudy scooped another spoonful, this time including a large piece of fish for Titus. The fish had been marinated by her, giving it a fragrant taste of the plants: "Is it delicious?"

"Delicious!" Titus exclaimed, not realizing there could be such food. In their settlement, the most delicious food for everyone was the fire-cooked meat. "How... how is it made?"

After Titus finished the pot, Cloudy added more firewood and began to demonstrate the cooking process to him. First, she added fat, heated it until the oil started to sizzle, filling the pot with a toasty aroma.

"Some animals turn very smelly when their fat is cooked over fire. We don't use that kind," C.
Cloudy played with the clay pot with a stick, stirring the fat that hadn't been roasted yet, explaining, "This is the fat of a small, grey animal with a long tail and a sharp mouth. It doesn't smell."

Once the fat had completely melted and the oil residue turned golden brown, Cloudy threw in a handful of shredded fresh leaves that emit a slight sour smell when heated, adding water after the sourness had been released. While simmering, Cloudy started cutting meat and showed Titus the fish she had marinated earlier that morning.

She removed the fresh fish meat, placed it in a bowl with some plants, covered it with leaves for marination, saying, "This way, the fish will have flavor."

"Cloudy, you're amazing..." Titus didn't quite understand why she was doing this, but he knew he was about to eat delicious food again, so he was very excited. "Can I have more meat? I'm so hungry."

"Of course!" Even if Titus ate all the meat she had saved today, Cloudy fetched a thick stack of jerky from the food basket, picked three pieces, roasted them by the fire, and handed them to Titus to nibble on.

"Together." As Cloudy was preparing the soup ingredients, it was inconvenient for her to eat, so Titus broke the roasted jerky into small pieces for Cloudy to eat easily.

After finishing the three pieces of jerky, the ingredients for the stew were ready. Cloudy first put the chopped meat in to simmer over high heat, then started adding fruits and spicy seeds. When the broth began to thicken, she slowly added the large pieces of fish.

"Wow..." Titus watched the fish slide into the pot and exclaimed excitedly, "You're so amazing! You used to not eat anything, now you can make such delicious food!"

"Yeah." After receiving compliments, Cloudy's spirits soared. She had figured out how to make this somewhat tasty stew before, but her feelings at that time couldn't compare to now. She looked at Titus staring intently at the pot and felt very reassured.

With that in mind, Cloudy added a lot more meat into the pot, so much that the broth was about to overflow. "Eat as much meat as you want!"

"Great!"