Life is — you never know when it might drop a little surprise on you.
Of course, shocks come along too.
But that’s just how life is: calm on the surface, with little waves underneath.
Since the day that big and small pandas came back, they’ve shown no signs of leaving again.
Perhaps they realized that going back home meant going very, very hungry.
The bamboo forest, near the Green Sparrow Tribe, has now become their new home.
Feeding these two — one big, one small — pandas, Han Cheng figured, was something he could handle.
Pandas may eat bamboo, but they also like fruit and even some meat now and then.
With two acres of bamboo and Han Cheng tossing them fruit and treats when he had time, these two fluffballs had no problem living comfortably.
After feeding them for several days straight, the big panda no longer glared at Han Cheng and Bai Xue like before.
Even when Han Cheng or Bai Xue scooped up the baby panda, Tuantuan, and gave it a big ol’ cuddle right in front of her, the mother panda just lazily glanced over — sometimes even turned her head and started chasing butterflies instead.
Time passed. Realizing it now had no worries about food or safety — and was even being waited on occasionally — the once-skinny panda quickly puffed back into a round ball.
And it got lazier, too. Its favorite activities were sitting there munching bamboo, taking a nap, and occasionally messing with her kid.
Couldn’t be more comfortable if it tried — all traces of wildness were gone.
It turns out that all it takes to tame this creature is free food and lodging. It doesn’t ask for much.
Pandas are notoriously bad at reproducing. Otherwise, with their strength and status as a “national treasure,” they would’ve never become a rare animal.
But their low fertility rate suits the Green Sparrow Tribe quite well.
If pandas reproduced like rabbits, Han Cheng would’ve been packing them up with dry rations and sending them straight back to the bamboo forest before long.
As for the use of raising pandas? Honestly, just watching them be cute was enough eye candy.
He hadn’t thought of any other use yet — but one thing was sure: no riding them.
Who in their right mind would use a creature that loves cuddles and being spoiled as a mount?
Maybe back in the day, that badass god Chi You got beaten up by the flame and yellow emperors because he dared to ride one of these ridiculous mounts…
The arrival of the panda mom and cub had added color to the tribe’s daily life, but it didn’t mean the work could stop.
Hoeing fields and building walls were still in full swing.
Thanks to everyone working full throttle, the Western Wall — the first under construction — was already halfway done.
But finishing the entire wall this year seemed like a stretch at this pace.
After staring at the wall for a while and checking out the quarry furnace and the dwindling copper ore supplies, Han Cheng fell silent.
Eventually, he summoned Shaman, Eldest the Senior Brother, the Second Senior Brother, and other tribal leaders to the brick-and-tile meeting room to discuss business.
Well, it was more Han Cheng announcing his decision while the others mostly listened. Occasionally, someone would chime in with a comment.
What Han Cheng wanted to discuss was the long-delayed Copper Hill Residential Zone.
Because of all the ongoing work, the project had been postponed repeatedly.
But after evaluating the construction speed of the tribe, and realizing that entirely building the new settlement would take two more years, Han Cheng suddenly came to a realization:
If the new tribal base couldn’t be completed anytime soon, why continue putting all manpower into this one effort?
Why not divert some people to start developing the Copper Hill zone now?
After all, making that area livable, mining copper and bronze, farming, and feeding its people would take around two years.
So it was a task that needed to start early.
Han Cheng was admittedly a bit late to this insight, but better late than never. A timely change can still save the day.
Besides, before time-traveling, he wasn’t some grand strategist — just an ordinary person struggling to survive. It wasn’t realistic to expect him to foresee everything or never make a mistake.
Fortunately, he hadn’t made any significant errors regarding the tribe’s survival — only smaller, less critical ones.
The slight delay in the Copper Hill development wasn’t ideal, but also not catastrophic.
Han Cheng had mentioned the Copper Hill Residential Zone before — most people in the Green Sparrow Tribe had heard about it.
But no one expected that, just as everyone was going all out to build the new settlement, the Divine Child would suddenly bring it back up again.
After Han Cheng’s subtle promotion of the idea over time, the necessity of building Copper Hill was widely accepted, especially by the tribal leadership.
But when Han Cheng stated clearly that people would begin relocating to the Copper Hill zone in a few days, everyone fell silent.
Once the Copper Hill Residential Zone was built, people would have to live there for a long time.
This was fundamentally different from going on a short trip to mine copper or doing business like Shang and Mao.
Going to Copper Hill meant a long separation from the increasingly thriving prominent tribe.
It meant not seeing the Divine Child or Shaman every day.
It meant a long-term parting from friends and loved ones.
So silence fell when Han Cheng laid out the plan and its timeline.
Birds long for the old forest; fish miss their home stream. That the Green Sparrow people felt reluctant was completely understandable.
But that’s how life is — it doesn’t always follow your script. There’s no such thing as perfect.
To gain something, you often have to give something up.
Just like now, the Green Sparrow Tribe wanted to send people to form a satellite tribe, to grow and expand, and that came with the pain of separation.
“Divine Child… I’ll go,” someone finally said.