As she was about to discard the toxic fruits in her hands, the elderly primitive man, whose mouth still felt numb, stopped her actions.
Seeing the person holding the fruits looking extremely fearful, the elderly primitive man reached out and took the potentially poisonous fruits from her hands, holding them himself.
With age and experience, whether consciously or unconsciously, people gradually gain some wisdom from life.
“Old but clever,” and “cunning and crafty,” though these terms may not sound particularly pleasant, they sum up the situation perfectly.
In a later era, where knowledge is easily accessible and information bombards people from all sides, this advantage might be somewhat diminished. However, in this era of oral transmission, older individuals typically have an advantage regarding wisdom and life experience.
For example, when the younger female primitives were so frightened they wanted to discard these newly discovered fruits, associating them with death, the older primitive woman stepped forward.
She felt that although these fruits were poisonous, they wouldn’t necessarily kill someone.
Moreover, aside from the discomfort she felt when she touched the fruits, she didn’t feel any other discomfort.
In the past, when she had been poisoned by something she ate, it had caused not only stomach pain but also extreme weakness in her body.
But now, the sensation was completely different.
Thus, she concluded that these unfamiliar, poisonous fruits weren’t potent enough to cause fatal harm.
This was the advantage of age and experience.
Because of everything she had lived through, she could make more informed decisions when faced with similar situations.
Moreover, these fruits could be exchanged for delicious salt and precious pottery from that mysterious and wealthy tribe—how could they be discarded so easily?
After years of trading, almost all of the seeds in their tribe had already been exchanged.
After walking for a while, they reached a small creek where a few birds drinking water only flew off as they approached.
The woman carefully placed the fruits by the creek and signaled the other women in the tribe to wash their hands with the creek water. After washing, she crouched by the water’s edge and began drinking like a wild animal.
The water she drank didn’t go down; she gargled it, then spit it out.
She had learned this technique from an older primitive man.
She hadn’t paid much attention to it in the past, but after she and the older man had eaten some deadly plants together, she remembered it. On that occasion, while she gargled after eating the plant, the other person didn’t, and she was the one who survived. The other person’s unburned skull now lay at the edge of the tribe’s cave, staring emptily at them as they ate, slept, and hummed primitive tunes…
After washing their hands, the women continued toward the tribe. As they neared the cave, the woman who had once wanted to discard the seeds shouted excitedly.
She shouted while pointing toward the tribe’s cave. The older primitive man, still holding the fruits, immediately looked in that direction.
Ahead of them, some deer were grazing. Some were leisurely eating grass, while others lay on the ground, turning their heads to lick their fur with rough tongues.
Beside the deer were wolves, intimidating and fierce.
Near the wolves were some finely woven baskets made of branches, or beautiful animal-skin bags that they couldn’t even dream of making.
Inside the baskets were precious pottery, some of which contained rare salt.
The tribe that hadn’t come to theirs for a long time had finally arrived today!
Seeing this, the older primitive man couldn’t help but feel excited.
The arrival of this tribe meant that her tribe could finally have delicious salt again.
She looked at the fruits in her hands and felt even more pleased, glad she hadn’t let anyone throw them away!
Inside the cave, the tribe leader looked at the items in front of him with a troubled expression.
This year, his tribe hadn’t been fortunate. There hadn’t been many successful hunts, and most of the time, they had relied on the women to gather wild vegetables, pick wild fruits, and catch some fish for sustenance.
With fewer wild beasts, there was less fur to trade and less salt to exchange.
This wasn’t good news for him, as he had deeply felt the discomfort of lacking salt these past few days.
The tribe’s leader spoke, pointing to a frail-looking child with a large belly, then gestured toward the large jar of salt in the basket.
The meaning was clear: he wanted to exchange the sickly child for the salt.
Neither Shang nor Mao had ever encountered this kind of deal before—how could they exchange a person for salt?
Without hesitation, Shang shook his head in refusal.
His reason was simple: when the divine child had spoken of things to trade, they had never mentioned trading people.
Having spent a long time in the Green Sparrow tribe, where there were wise gods, shamanic figures, and a capable leader, Shang had become used to following the divine child’s instructions. As a result, he rarely had to think for himself.
Not long after Shang refused, Mao followed suit, shaking his head. His refusal was because the child was far too small—he was not even as robust as the children in their tribe, let alone children from other tribes.
Such a child might not even survive the journey back.
Even if they did manage to raise him, it would require too much food before he could work, making it an unprofitable trade.
Mao, in contrast to Shang, was more skilled in negotiating deals.