I am a Primitive Man

The joy brought by the tribe's arrival with pottery and salt gradually faded, replaced by a sense of worry.

Their worry stemmed from the few pelts inside the cave.

Huang Guo looked at the pelts and felt a deep sense of discomfort; these pelts couldn't be exchanged for much delicious salt.

Even if the chief returned, they would still be at a loss.

It was truly distressing to know full well that the other tribe had a lot of salt while their own tribe had no way of obtaining it.

Outside, the people from that tribe were talking, and Huang Guo stepped out of the cave. She was surprised to find them opening several animal hide bags and taking out their contents individually.

What puzzled her was that the tribe members were pulling out a considerable number of very ordinary stones, not precious pottery or salt!

Huang Guo leaned in for a closer look and confirmed that these stones were common, which confused her even more.

What on earth were these tribe members doing carrying these stones with them? And treating them with such care?

As Huang Guo pondered this, she suddenly felt she had uncovered the truth.

But after watching the dark-skinned leader make a series of animated gestures and chatter, she widened her eyes and shook her head vigorously.

She believed she must have misunderstood the leader's intentions.

Are these ubiquitous stones used to exchange for valuable pottery and salt?

How could that be possible?

Huang Guo decided to leave. She thought it would be better to wait for the chief to return and let him negotiate with the leader.

After all, the chief was knowledgeable and could better understand the leader's intentions.

After searching for wild vegetables for a while, Huang Guo noticed a stone by her feet that wasn't very large. After hesitating, she finally picked it up and walked to the resting group.

Even though she knew she was probably misreading the situation, she still wanted to try it, especially since her tribe had very few pelts left.

She wanted to try, so she approached the leader, Mao, hesitantly offering the stone in her hand.

She had prepared herself to be rejected, but to her surprise, he took it, comparing it carefully with the other stones nearby.

As Huang Guo anxiously waited, Mao compared the stone for a while, confirmed it had not been collected before, and placed it in the pile of stones.

Then, smiling, he scooped a whole spoonful of salt from a jar and indicated that this stone could be exchanged for that spoonful of salt.

In a daze, Huang Guo came out of the cave holding an already empty salt jar.

Without hesitation, Mao slowly poured a spoonful of salt into her jar.

Dazed, Huang Guo returned to the cave with the salt jar.

Several women left in the tribe surrounded the jar on the ground, crouching and peeking in, their heads stretched forward with curiosity and disbelief.

After a while, Huang Guo reached into the salt jar and pinched a little salt to taste.

The familiar flavor hit her, making her eyes widen in surprise.

Is this salt?

The stone could be exchanged for salt!

After the confusion and amazement, Huang Guo and the other adults rushed out like the wind to search for stones.

No matter why the tribe suddenly wanted to exchange stones for salt, it was excellent news for their tribe.

Huang Guo, who was somewhat frail, suddenly became very strong. She looked down at small stones and found one larger than her bottom. She quickly hugged it and rushed toward Ma and the others.

If a small stone could be exchanged for a spoonful of salt, then this big one could surely be worth several spoonfuls!

The more she thought about it, the more energetic she became. Despite the considerable distance, she didn’t pause and brought the stone right in front of Mao before taking a moment to tend to the pelts that had fallen off her body.

Mao’s gaze lingered on Huang Guo before shifting to the stone.

Then he shook his head.

Of course, it wasn’t because he thought Huang Guo had organized the pelts too quickly but because they already had this type of stone.

He found a fist-sized stone from the pile and placed it on the large stone that Huang Guo had brought, indicating that they already had this one and couldn’t be exchanged.

Huang Guo was puzzled; she didn’t understand why she could exchange a small stone for a spoonful of salt before, but now that she had brought a large one, it couldn’t be exchanged.

She pointed at the small stone and then at the large stone she had brought, mumbling to indicate that the one she found was much better than the small one.

Such situations were common for Shang and Mao; almost every time they visited a tribe, they encountered similar misunderstandings.

After much talking and effort, Ma finally made Huang Guo understand that only stones that weren’t already in their possession could be exchanged for salt.

Moreover, the same type of stone could only be exchanged once, regardless of size.

Once Huang Guo and the others excitedly brought stones and understood this, they looked disappointed, as if they had seen the delicious salt they craved drifting away.

However, this disappointment didn’t last long before they returned to searching for stones.

After all, using stones to exchange for salt was still excellent news for them.

By the time the sun tilted to the west, a pile of stones of varying sizes had appeared in front of Shang and Ma, all found by Huang Guo and the others.

Shang and Ma sifted through the pile and found three types of stones they didn’t have.

Moreover, the salt jar in Huang Guo's tribe also gained three more spoonfuls of salt.

This was an entirely unexpected gain, bringing them great joy.

As the sun set lower, the chief of Huang Guo’s tribe returned with the hunters.

Huang Guo and the others who stayed behind welcomed him joyfully...

However, Huang Guo was beaten, along with a few others who had remained behind.

The one who struck was the chief of the tribe.

Of course, the beating was not because a group of mostly men was at the tribe's cave.

Instead, it was because Huang Guo and the others had lied.

The chief had dealt with that dark-skinned tribe before. The people from that tribe usually had smiling faces, but they were particularly shrewd when it came to exchanging goods.

These few people who stayed behind claimed they had exchanged quite a bit of salt from that tribe using stones.

How could this possibly happen?

Thus, the chief, who had a nasty temper regarding lies, didn’t say much before he began to strike them.

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