activa-t Chapter 14 discusses how orcs eat.
Chapter 14 discusses how orcs eat.
Night said, "It's some white sand. I was afraid you wouldn't be able to chew it, so I squeezed it out and threw it away first."
"White sand?" Linni asked as Ye opened another seashell. "Do you have this one? Let me see?"
Night pressed down on it, pulled out five white pearls, and held them out to Lin Ni. Some were the size of a thumb, and some were the size of a peanut: "These are the ones."
Linni looked at the beautiful, round, and lustrous pearl and snatched it away. Thinking about all the seashells she'd eaten lately, and how many pearls he must have thrown away! Her heart ached! She couldn't help but say to Ye, "Why did you throw away such a beautiful pearl?"
Night: "Is it pretty? I usually eat it directly with the shellfish meat, it's tasteless and hard, and you can't eat it anyway."
Linni looked at Ye's fair and smooth face: Could it be from eating pearls? She washed the five pearls clean and admired them closely in her hands—they were so beautiful! She considered asking Ye to retrieve the pearls he had thrown away before. However, looking at the pool of water, which was larger than a football field, calling it finding a needle in a haystack was an exaggeration, but finding pearls in a large lake was no easy task either, so she decided against it. She couldn't help but look up and ask, "Ye, do all seashells have such beautiful pearls?"
As Ye processed the food in her hands, she said, "Most of the large shells have this, but the small ones don't. Some of the shells' sand—that's the pearl—is yellow."
My heart aches even more. What should I do? Lin Ni clutched her chest and said, "Don't throw away any of these pretty things in the future. Give them all to me. I like them."
Ye looked at her holding those few grains of "sand" in her hand like treasures, and although he didn't understand, he nodded: "Okay. If you like, I'll go into the water and find you some more seashells?"
Linni has a hobby of collecting beautiful things, but she doesn't want to hoard all the good things, so she said, "No need, just give me these pearls every time you catch seashells. Next time find some bigger ones, then there should be more pearls."
She didn't plan to eat the pearls (mainly because she couldn't stomach them). She could save them to make necklaces, bracelets, and earrings later—but not earrings, since she didn't have pierced ears, though they could be used as buttons and decorations on clothes. Later, if there were any pearls of lower quality, she could have Ye grind them into powder to eat or make face masks.
Night nodded and said, "Okay."
As for the issue of defecation, when she lived with Bai Shu and Bai Ji, she would find a secluded spot in the wild to relieve herself, and then cover it with soil afterward. But in Ye's cave, because she couldn't go out whenever she wanted, she was initially embarrassed to ask him to carry her out when she needed to relieve herself. Later, Ye prepared a litter box made of stone for her in the cave (for relieving herself, please refer to pet litter boxes), and he cleaned it for her every day. This really made Lin Ni feel embarrassed, but also very heartwarming.
A few days later, Linni learned that Ye, like the two white tigers, only ate one meal a day. Usually, the prey they caught was given to Linni to eat. Of course, if she couldn't finish it, they would eat the rest of the prey, but that was never enough to satisfy him.
She used to eat mostly with Atractylodes macrocephala and Bletilla striata. Watching tigers eat was a bit bloody, but that's how wild animals are. However, eating with Ye was something she couldn't stand; he ate his prey whole, feathers and bones—it was disgusting. After seeing Ye swallow a pheasant whole, she couldn't help but say, "Ye, you can't eat the feathers of this prey, they're too dirty. You should remove the fur first!"
Ye recalled the complex expression of disgust and fear on Linni's face just now, and silently put down the goat she was about to put in her mouth. These were originally meant for Linni, but after eating a rabbit leg, Linni said she didn't want any more, so Ye, not wanting to waste anything, ate them herself. Anyway, there was plenty of prey now, and Linni ate very little; anything she caught would be enough for her. If it was large prey or prey with good fur, they would skin it for their mates, but pheasant feathers were unusable. And this lamb's fur wasn't good either. Nevertheless, Ye looked at the goat in her hand and tentatively asked, "Skin it before you eat it?"
Linni nodded affirmatively.
Right in front of Lin Ni, Ye directly cut open the goat's belly with his hands and began skinning it. The scene was so gruesome that it was unbearable to watch. Ye quickly peeled off the goat's skin, broke off the two small horns on the goat's head, and threw them away. Then he looked up and asked, "Is that enough?"
Seeing how obedient he was, Linni couldn't help but ask, "This goat is so big, are you going to swallow it whole?"
Ye looked at it and realized it really was a lamb. Because Linni found the meat of large animals too tough, he and the two white tigers always chose to catch small, tender prey. Ye simply said, "How about we save it for you to eat tonight?"
Linni shook her head: "If you want to eat it, then eat it! You can cut it into pieces and eat it, then swallow it whole..." She couldn't finish her sentence; she just felt a little disgusted. This goat was so big, even though it was called a lamb, it was still three times the size of his head! The way he was eating it was really terrifying!
Night tore the goat to pieces with his bare hands, and then the area in front of him was covered in blood, making him look even more horrific.
Lin Ni covered her mouth and turned her face away, afraid that if she looked any longer she would throw up her lunch. She took a couple of sips of water, looked into the distance, waved her hand and said, "Never mind, eat whatever you like, I'm going to play for a while."
She couldn't bear to watch; it was too gory. She stopped giving unsolicited advice on how orcs ate.
After that, Ye and the two white tigers basically stopped eating in front of her, afraid that she would find it disgusting. In this respect, Bai Shu and Bai Ji were really smart.
As the weather grew hotter, around noon, Linni would return to her cave for a nap. She had always had this habit, a practice she maintained while spending time with Bai Zhu and Bai Ji, and she had no intention of changing it. At this time, Ye would go out to forage for food, returning in the afternoon to keep her company. The two white tigers would leave the cave when they were preparing to sleep at night, their whereabouts unknown, but they would wait for them by the lake the next morning before they went out together. Could this be a result of their negotiation to allow Linni some alone time? Linni wondered privately, but it was just a thought. Given Ye's previous domineering nature, he probably wouldn't have consulted with the two white tigers. It was more likely that the white tigers were trying to ingratiate themselves by allowing her some alone time in the afternoon.