The Bonfire Dance

To celebrate Lin Ye officially becoming a member of the Miao Tribe, the beastmen specially held a welcoming ceremony for her.

A large bonfire was lit in the spacious clearing. The tribe had not been this lively in a long time. The beastmen surrounded Lin Ye, dancing and cheering continuously. Although their dance consisted of only simple spins without any structure, everyone was extremely happy.

Lin Ye's mood was also infected by this joyful atmosphere, and she unconsciously joined in the dance with them.

They danced together.

At this time, many young beastmen had approached those they admired to invite them to dance. In the clearing, pairs of beastmen could be seen dancing together from time to time.

As time passed, the joyful cheers of the beastmen filled Lin Ye's ears, but at this moment, she suddenly felt that the liveliness seemed very far away from her, and her heart felt incredibly quiet.

Standing in the center of the bustle, she felt utterly lost.

Suddenly, a familiar scent enveloped her.

Yang stood before her, unconsciously running a hand through his hair, his eyes a bit flustered. "Could you... dance with me?"

The other male beastmen had all found the females they liked to invite them to dance. He... he also wanted to dance with her.

After waiting for a long time without hearing her answer, Yang lowered his head in disappointment. She didn't want to dance with him.

Just as Yang was about to leave to find a corner to comfort his wounded heart alone, his hand suddenly touched something warm.

Lin Ye pulled his hand and said with a smile, "Alright, let's dance together."

Yang was stunned by the sudden joy, his mind unable to think of anything, only stupidly letting Lin Ye pull him into a spin.

After finishing a round of dancing, Lin Ye felt her mood improve significantly.

She smiled and said to Yang, "I'll head back to the cave first. You keep enjoying yourself."

Yang watched Lin Ye's retreating back, clenching his hands. It seemed that the soft, delicate sensation of her touch still lingered on them!

...

The next day, the female beastmen all came to Yang's cave to learn from Lin Ye how to build thatched cottages.

The clan chief had made arrangements the previous night: the male beastmen would continue to go out hunting, while the female beastmen would learn how to build houses.

In the beastman world, although the strength of females was not equal to that of males, it was not much less than that of adult men on Earth. They were entirely capable of building these thatched cottages.

Lin Ye wanted to build a few rooms in front of Yang's cave, which was perfect for teaching them while building.

She had thought it through; she wanted to build a three-room house, with one room for sleeping, one for a living room, and one for storing miscellaneous items.

A living room was different from a kitchen or a woodshed. In addition to being built sturdily, its windproofing capabilities also needed to be enhanced. Using bamboo to make the walls would still leave gaps. To block the winter wind and snow, these gaps had to be sealed.

Therefore, she decided to plaster the walls with mud after the thatched cottage was built. In this way, it could barely be considered a "rammed-earth house."

There was no other choice; with current conditions and manpower limited, she could only do so much. Once conditions improved in the future, she would continue to make proper rammed-earth houses, and perhaps even cement houses.

To withstand the winter wind and snow, she also built a fireplace and warm underfloor heating.

Before building the house, she dug a system of fire trenches in the ground, lined them with a layer of stone slabs, and topped them with a layer of mud to level the surface. When constructing the house, two stove openings had to be arranged at the front and back—one for adding firewood, and the other for ventilation and smoke exhaust. When winter arrived, this would ensure the room remained warm.

The fireplace also served to heat the room, and could additionally be used for lighting and cooking.