Xiao Yiran followed his mother out of the dense shack area and came to a small square only 50 meters square. It is a flat ground that has been tamped out of the land. In the center of the square, there is a stone platform four or five meters high, and a thick white snake is coiled on the stone platform. Xiao Yiran, who has been afraid of snakes since he was a child, suddenly saw the snake-headed skeleton raised high on the stone platform, and was so frightened that he took two steps back.

Xiao Yiran's actions immediately attracted the attention of his mother, and he hurriedly stretched out his hand to pull Xiao Yiran in front of him, looking at him with surprised eyes, as if he didn't know him. Obviously, his actions just now were very different from the daughter in his mother's heart in the past, and Xiao Yiran had to pretend to be a little dazed and scared to cover it up.

"Isn't Ran'er very reverent of great gods? Why did you suddenly get scared? ”

Xiao Yiran didn't know how to answer, so he had to lower his head.

"Ran'er, the great gods are here to bless us, don't be afraid, bow down to the great gods with your mother."

Xiao Yiran stood behind his mother, followed his mother's example, and bowed to the ground. After the simple ceremony, his mother took Xiao Yiran's hand and instructed:

"Ran'er remembers that you have to come and bow once a day in order to be forgiven by the great gods."

Obviously, Xiao Yiran's retreat out of fear just now made this pious mother think that she had blasphemed the great god.

Xiao Yiran nodded slightly, and followed his mother back to his residence. I didn't dare to look up at the giant snake on the stone platform anymore, I don't know how long it had been dead. Xiao Yiran was a little puzzled, he didn't know what was filled in the snake skin of the giant snake, it was lifelike, without the slightest bump.

After sunset, Xiao Yiran ushered in his first meal after being reborn. It must have been all the people of the tribe who had arrived, and sat in the open space in the little huts, and an old woman with a tall figure and a very sturdy appearance, with some gray hair, distributed food to the tribesmen. Xiao Yiran quietly counted, large and small, there were fifty-six women. Everyone's food was the same, a piece of black, dried meat, and a wooden bowl of sticky millet rice.

During the entire distribution of food, there was not the slightest sound. Xiao Yiran looked at the black dried meat in his hand, and smelled a smoky smell, because he didn't know what kind of animal meat it was, Xiao Yiran didn't eat it for a while. Secretly glanced at her eyes, and the woman who was her mother from then on happened to see the gaze handed over by her mother.

"Eat it, this is the venison sent by Grandpa the day before you got sick."

"Who is Grandpa?"

This is the question in Xiao Yiran's heart, so he naturally doesn't dare to ask. Following his mother's example, Xiao Yiran gently took a bite of the dried meat in his hand, chewed it carefully, and felt that the taste was not bad, salty, with a hint of fishy, a bit like the bacon in the south that he had once eaten.

After dinner, it was already dark, and her mother sent Xiao Yiran to the small shack that belonged to the host girl, and saw her mother hanging a piece of bark at the door of the shack, Xiao Yiran didn't know what it meant. After his mother went out, Xiao Yiran secretly came to the door of the shack, poked his head out, looked around, and saw that there was a piece of bark at the door of each shack, but the size was different and the color was different. The one at the door of his own door, which was only the size of two palms, was fresh bark, and the white side was facing outward. There are also some of the same as themselves, and there are two kinds, one is more than three or four times larger than their own, and it is the largest one, but the bark is placed backwards, and the rough side is facing outward. It is the kind in front of the mother's shack, and it is also smooth outward, and it is two to three times the size of herself.

Xiao Yiran lay down on the grass bunk, thinking about the role of the bark. Soon, Xiao Yiran heard a slight sound of footsteps outside, and they came one after another. After that, he seemed to hear the sound of a man and a woman making peace in a nearby shack. Xiao Yiran suddenly understood the role of the bark.

Today only women and children are seen in the tribe, and no adult men are seen. Presumably, in a matriarchal society, men and women live separately, and men only come to women's places of residence at night, and the bark in front of the shack indicates whether the woman in the shack is an adult, an old woman, or an underage woman. That is to say, the fifty-six women I saw at dinner were all descendants of one mother. This is supposed to be the home of a family.

"It's just, how did those men who came at night prevent the **** from happening?"

Xiao Yiran thought about this question, and unconsciously, he fell asleep in a daze.

However, Xiao Yiran did not sleep until dawn. The roar of a beast woke up Xiao Yiran, who was asleep. During the day, Xiao Yiran had already discovered that the location of this group was a wide river to the south and a dense jungle to the north. Listen to the cry of the beast, it is from the jungle to the north. Carefully distinguishing, he could hear the howling of a tiger, the howling of a wolf, and the howling of other animals, but Xiao Yiran couldn't hear it.

Xiao Yiran, who was trembling, did not hear the sound of someone getting up in the shack outside, as if he was accustomed to the roar of the beast. Xiao Yiran listened to the roar of the beast like this, and spent most of the night. and until the cries of the beasts faded away until they were gone, and the sky was light. Hearing the footsteps outside, Xiao Yiran quickly got up. Now it's easier, you don't have to dress up, but you always have to wash your face, right? During the day, Xiao Yiran didn't see any containers for water in the shack, so naturally there would be no washbasins or anything like that.

When he came to the outside of the shack, he saw that his mother had also gotten up, Xiao Yiran deliberately walked over and glanced at his mother's shack out of the corner of his eye, because he didn't hear the man leave last night.

"Ran'er, go with your mother to the river and wash up."

Xiao Yiran finally understood why there were no toiletries in the shack. When he came to the river, Xiao Yiran saw his mother bend down and pick up a few fist-sized stones, and blindly threw them into the river, and then said to Xiao Yiran behind him:

"Then wash it, there are no crocodiles."

After Xiao Yiran heard this, he felt a thrill in his heart, there are tigers and wolves in the jungle, there must be other fierce beasts, such as leopards, etc., and there are crocodiles in the river.

Xiao Yiran washed his face in such a panic for the first time in his life, it was not washing his face at all, it was just a splash from the river and wetting his face. But the mother squatted by the river and washed it carefully.

Xiao Yiran used to like to watch the animal world the most, although every time he saw crocodiles raiding those migrating wildebeests, bison, etc., he would quickly avoid his eyes, but there would always be some bloody scenes, which Xiao Yiran inadvertently looked into his eyes. Now, at the thought of the crocodile lurking in the river at his feet, the hairs on Xiao Yiran's body immediately stood up, and he couldn't help but retreat backwards.