Ancient Eden

Chapter 42

(14.2)

In just a few days, the millet seeds in the crop field looked much fuller and were attracting more birds than she had ever seen before. Mu Qing had a few boys break some branches and vines and, with her own hands, created the figure of a man with two vertical arms. In order to increase the threatening effect, she tore apart the banana leaves and other bigger leaves to make them appear like palm leaves, which she then wrapped around the left and right arms of the mannequin. When the wind was blowing, the leaves were shaking.

The children at first were just watching her get busy, while handing her branches and wood, and when they saw that the strange-looking human-like thing that she inserted in the ground, was really making the flock of birds around no longer dare to approach, they were immediately happy, and one by one they all copied the look of the mannequin to create their own. Many mannequins very quickly were being inserted in the ground, one by one, from east to west, it looked very entertaining.

Maybe because the birds had never seen such mannequins, the intimidation effect was good, so the work of driving birds away was less energy-consuming today than the previous days. In a few days, when the birds no longer find these things to be an actual threat to them, Mu Qing estimated that it would be almost time to harvest the crops.

The children were in good spirits because they had found something that seemed new to them. Maybe because they had been taught a lesson by their parents, today they didn’t slip away midway like they usually did.

Mu Qing sat for a moment, before getting up and going towards the south.

She had always stubbornly thought that she was now probably in the hinterland of that primitive forest she was in when her accident happened, and that as long as she went south, she would be able find her way back.

During the first few days, before she got sick, no one had been specifically guarding her, and Li Mang also seemed to think that she would not escape on her own, so in addition to going out with Naduo to work or drive away the birds, she also walked towards the south to explore the forest twice, hoping to find some traces left by outsiders.

But she had always been disappointed. Except for the dense forest in front of her, she could not see the tiniest sign of modern civilization.

Mu Qing sometimes had a thought, that she would never be able to leave this forest and return to the world she was familiar with. 𝚋ｅｄｎ𝚘𝚟ｅｌ.ｃｏ𝚖

In the past, because of her profession, at the very least she was a bit knowledgeable on the matter and knew that even the most primitive and isolated indigenous tribes on the surface of earth had long since all been discovered and disturbed by the outside world. In the dense forest here, how could such a large group of people who lived like this long term not have had any communication with the outside world so far, that they would still be using the backward tools that could only be found during the Stone Age?

Moreover, she found that some women had the habit of painting their faces with indigenous paints, while others did not, which probably indicated that they were not from the same ethnic group. It was really strange that a primitive tribe of several hundred people, as well as the other tribes that were here, that such a large group of people had never been discovered by the outside world.

She also thought of the monster bird she had encountered when she first arrived, which looked like an enlarged Archaeopteryx, the monster bird that could only be seen in textbooks, she thought of the horns on the head of the elks that were ridiculously large, and the tall fern-like vegetation that was growing wildly everywhere… , and then thinking of the strange setting she had found herself into after being struck by lightning that day, she had a ridiculous feeling.

It seemed as if she had traveled through time and space with that stroke of thunder and had reached the prehistoric era.

Such a thought made her very dismayed and frightened, and forlorn. So, after that thought popped into her head once, she forced herself to not think about it again.

The only thing she could do was to tell herself over and over again that this was just her imagination, that this was still her original world, and that she was on a parallel place that existed on Earth at some intersection between longitude and latitude, and that she could definitely go back.

Translator : Laura