Beauty and the Beasts

In less than an hour, Curtis came back, bringing back two big buckets of tree resin with him. The wild snakes were sent out as well. In order not to be noticed by the scorpion tribe, he only let the wild snakes search for the number of scorpion caves on the surface and not probe too deeply.

“You’re really fast.” Bai Qingqing poked the vicious tree resin with her finger. That golden glow was like honey, emitting a light plant fragrance. It was really enticing to eat.

Bai Qingqing couldn’t help but lick it. She instantly bared her teeth and stuck out her tongue. “It tastes so strange.”

Curtis smiled, and his gaze landed on her relatively flat tummy, saying, “There’s a tree resin that many animals love to eat. I’ll bring you a barrel next time.”

Bai Qingqing’s eyes lit up. “Alright!”

Parker also came over, took a whiff, then asked, “How are you going to make a cylinder out of this sticky thing?”

“Uhhh…” Bai Qingqing stirred her finger in the tree resin for a while, feeling that it wouldn’t dry up any time soon, then said, “Go start a fire. We’ll boil the tree resin first.”

Bai Qingqing raised his head and looked toward Curtis, then said, “Go and look for a block of wood. Help me carve a mold.”

The two males immediately did as they were told. The tree resin was poured into the pot and heated up. It then turned a yellowish-brown color when cooked.

At this moment, Curtis was done with the mold that Bai Qingqing wanted. It looked funny, but Bai Qingqing had modified it from the design of a syringe.

There was a hollow wood on the outside and a cylindrical core in the middle. The core was secured in the middle of the hollow cylinder, with the periphery of one end in the shape of two concentric circles, while the other side was casually made into a funnel-shape for the ease of pouring in resin.

The tree resin flowed into the passageway, then flowed out from the other end, forming a pipe-shape.

Parker looked at this strangely-shaped wood, held onto it, and looked for quite a while, but couldn’t understand it. He scratched his messy golden hair of varying length (Bai Qingqing forbade him from shaving his head anymore.).

“What is this?” Parker asked while looking at the cylinder. Curtis was also baffled.

Bai Qingqing watched as the tree resin in the pot was cooked to a brown color and said, “The tree resin should be done. Let’s give it a try.”

“En!” Cat-type animals had a strong sense of curiosity. Parker didn’t care if it’d succeed. He wanted to try it out first.

Bai Qingqing took the mold from him and said, “Bring the pot over to the river. We have to soak it in the water.”

The quality of the seething tree resin might turn bad if it came into contact with water, but the hot resin wouldn’t take its shape when it was squeezed out. She could only give it a try. Bai Qingqing poured a scoop of the cooked tree resin into the water, and it instantly solidified.

They moved the things to the riverside. Parker held onto the mold, with the hoop-shaped side soaked in water. Bai Qingqing used a bowl and poured the tree resin in.

The funnel was filled with tree resin, and it sank slowly. Every time it slowly sank, the end soaked in water would have a yellowish-brown cylinder coming out of it.

Bai Qingqing immediately broke into a joyful expression and cried out loudly, “Success!”

Parker looked at the pipe that flowed out and was struck with understanding, his face filled with surprise.

Curtis’s brows were also raised, his eyes filled with interest. There would always be surprises when he was with Snow.

It was too slow to let the cooked resin flow out naturally. There wouldn’t be much of it done even if they took the entire day. Bai Qingqing took the wok spatula and kept on pressing onto the cooked resin in the funnel, increasing the speed of the pipes forming.

Not long later, the hardened water pipe reached the bottom of the river. Only then did Bai Qingqing realize the issue with the elasticity. She had Curtis make another mold.