I've been transported to the orc continent.

Bai Ling was summoned by the clan leader.

Zhan had a very comfortable winter. His people were able to eat their fill and live in warm caves. Apart from the occasional annoyance from the young orcs, Zhan had no anger or worries this winter.

In the past, beastmen would lose weight in winter, but Zhan not only didn't lose weight this winter, he actually gained more weight than he did in autumn.

Zhan sat on the kang (a heated brick bed), surrounded by several elderly beastmen. Their eyes lit up when they saw Bai Ling arrive.

"Ling, you're here. Please sit down."

"Ling, is it cold outside? Why don't you warm up on the kang first?"

Bai Ling sat down on the kang (a heated brick bed) and shook her head, saying, "I'm not cold."

The clan chief's face was already quite serious, but his gaze towards Bai Ling was gentle: "Ling, I called you over because I have something I want to discuss with you."

Bai Ling: "Clan leader, please feel free to tell me what's on your mind."

"Here's the thing, the New Year is just around the corner. According to tradition, our clan celebrates on New Year's Day. Ling, I'd like you to arrange the food for the New Year."

An elderly orc next to him nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, Ling, you cook the best food in the whole tribe. We hope you will cook on New Year's Day."

"New Year's is the most important day in the tribe. On that day, we will eat the most delicious food. Ling, what do you think we should eat?"

"Ling, I heard you made a kind of candy that's really, really sweet. Can we eat it on New Year's Day?"

…………

One question after another came from the elderly orcs, and Bai Ling didn't know how to answer. The clan chief Zhan sat on the kang (a heated brick bed), raised his hand, and the clansmen stopped talking and asked no more questions.

"Ling, I hope that on New Year's Day, the tribespeople can have some candy," Chief Zhan said sincerely. "The tribespeople love sweet things. In the past, the only sweet foods available were sweet grass and honey from sweetworms. Even if the tribespeople wanted to eat them, they couldn't. Now that you've made some delicious sweet candy, can the tribespeople all have a taste?"

"If there isn't enough sugar, just make some for the children, the young, and the elderly to have a taste."

An elderly orc said, "Chief, let's not eat it. Let's save it for the children and cubs."

The other elderly orcs nodded in agreement, indicating that they didn't need to eat it; the sugar was too precious and they should save it for the children and cubs.

Bai Ling thought for a moment and said, "Chieftain, to make candy that everyone in the tribe can eat, we need a lot of wheat. Chieftain, how about this: use maltose and soybean flour to make some bean brittle candy? That will also have a sweet taste."

The clan chief immediately said, "Alright, then let's make some bean curd brittle. Ling, the task of preparing the New Year's food is up to you. You decide how much meat and vegetables to prepare."

"The tribe can't just take your malt sugar for free; they'll trade you animal meat for it."

"Ling, this time you need to prepare food for at least 350 orcs. The New Year is the most important day of the year. All orcs in the tribe will be invited, and orcs from other tribes will also come to eat together."

Bai Ling agreed and then asked, "Clan leader, I'll start preparing today. It will take several days just for the wheat to sprout, and we also need to prepare cassava flour, soybean flour, fish balls, meat balls, and so on."

Zhan smiled and said, "Yes, you can arrange all of this. I'll announce the news in a little while. The people will definitely be very happy to know that you will be preparing the New Year's food."

*

Zhan was right. When the tribespeople learned that Bai Ling was leading the preparation of the New Year's food, many of them cheered.

Even those tribespeople who weren't cheering stared at Bai Ling with shining eyes, as if Bai Ling were some delicious food.

After Zhan said a few words, Bai Ling stepped forward: "There's not much time left until the New Year, so we need to start preparing now. I'll divide the group into several teams, and each team will work together. I promise everyone will be able to eat delicious food during the New Year."

Bai Ling divided the tribespeople into three groups: one group was responsible for fishing, one group was responsible for hunting, and the remaining group was responsible for cooking.

After being divided into groups, the tribesmen who went out fishing and hunting packed up and set off. Most of them looked excited, and some of the young orcs even jumped up. When they landed, they slapped their companions' shoulders hard with both hands, which made their companions complain. The orcs who jumped up were not annoyed, but instead laughed.

Bai Ling is a good cook, but he has never cooked with so many people before. Bai Ling divided the beastmen in charge of cooking into several groups: the young and strong were responsible for pushing the stone mill, the older ones sat and peeled cassava, and the middle-aged ones fried soybeans.

Bai Ling first returned to his cave. He filled a small basket with wheat, washed it twice, soaked it in water, and placed it on the kang (a heated brick bed). In order to make the wheat sprout faster, Bai Ling decided to soak the wheat for an extra day.

With more people, the work was done very quickly. The ground cassava flour was filled into basin after basin, and the fried soybean flour was put into several earthenware pots. The fish balls were also made quickly. The finished fish balls were directly thrown into the earthenware pots and placed outside. A clean stone slab was placed on top of the earthenware pots so that they could be easily preserved until the New Year.

The hunters returned, having captured two horned beasts. One was already dead, but the other was still alive. This was Bai Ling's special instruction: capture wild animals alive whenever possible, and the live animals could be slaughtered the day before the Lunar New Year, as they would taste better that way.

The living horned beasts were placed together with Bai Ling's sheep beasts, while the dead horned beasts were cleaned up. The bones and ribs were kept, the internal organs were placed separately in a ceramic basin, and all the beast meat was chopped up and made into meatballs.

After the meatballs were made, they were all frozen outside so they could be eaten during the Chinese New Year.

*

The New Year falls on the third day after spring arrives, but as for when spring will actually arrive, that depends entirely on the beastmen's perception.

In Bai Ling's memory, the beastmen could clearly feel the arrival of spring.

It was an indescribable feeling. The moment Bai Ling got dressed and lifted the animal skin curtain of the cave, he felt that spring had arrived.

The cold wind was still howling, the snow on the ground was still thick, and the sky was hazy so that the sun could not be seen, but in the air, it seemed that something was coming back to life.

The air was still biting, and every breath brought a chill from the mouth to the lungs, but this chill was different from before, and Bai Ling couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

Bai Ling stood at the entrance of the cave and looked up at the sky. He saw a hazy gray expanse. He looked into the distance, and it was still a vast expanse of white, with a hint of spring in the air. But Bai Ling knew that spring had already arrived.

The third day after spring arrives is the New Year.