I Became The Chief Of A Primitive Village

Chapter 459, Why Do We Need to Use Leaves?

Translator: Silavin

In the early morning, Su Bai got up from bed, Checked In, and opened his Assistance Package.

This time, what came out was a large bag of glutinous rice, which surprised him.

He did not remember very clearly, but roughly recalled that today seemed to be the ‘Dragon Boat Festival’, as he had been keeping track of time since the day he transmigrated here.

[I shouldn’t be wrong about today. So, I should do something appropriate for the Dragon Boat Festival…] Su Bai thought. He still wanted to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in this Primitive Era. After all, back on Earth he had always been alone. But now it was different. Now, he was the Shaman of a Tribe, and there were also the young women around him. If he celebrated this festival, it would be very different from his time back on Earth.

*Knock knock…*

“Shaman, are you up? Breakfast is ready.” Yu Ying knocked on the door and asked.

“En, I’ll be right out,” Su Bai replied.

*Creeak!* Su Bai opened the door and had a simple breakfast with Yu Ying. Today, Yan Hua had gone to train, and Sha Lan had yet to return.

“Shaman, what is in that big bag?” Yu Ying asked while eating.

“This? It’s glutinous rice. We can use it to make Zongzi. Today happens to be the Dragon Boat Festival.” Su Bai smiled.

When he opened today Assistant Package, his first thought was to make Zongzi.

(Silavin: Zongzi is basically the Chinese version of Onigiri. Filling in the middle, with gluttonous rice outside – typically wrapped in banana leaves for fragrance.)

How could he let the Dragon Boat Festival pass without making Zongzi? With Zongzi, the Dragon Boat Festival would be complete!

The Dragon Boat Festival also needed dragon boats and such, but since they had not even built regular boats yet, dragon boats would not be in consideration for now.

Although making dragon boats was not difficult, probably only requiring a few wooden planks to piece together, there was no need for it now.

The Tribe had not fully developed into a city-like settlement, so such entertainment programs could be skipped. Eating Zongzi would be good enough.

“Shaman, what is glutinous rice? And what is Zongzi? And what is a Dragon Boat Festival?” Yu Ying was completely confused. There were so many unfamiliar terms appeared at once.

“glutinous rice is a type of food, similar to wheat. Zongzi is food made from glutinous rice, and the Dragon Boat Festival is a holiday, just like your Pink Flower Festival.” Su Bai took a sip of water and continued. “Except, the Dragon Boat Festival is a holiday to commemorate a certain person.”

Yu Ying still looked confused and asked, “Shaman, is this festival from your previous Tribe?”

Yu Ying had never heard of this festival in all her time at the Flame Dragon Tribe, so she immediately wondered if it was a festival from the Shaman’s previous Tribe.

“I suppose so. This festival is quite meaningful. Let’s make Zongzi today.” Su Bai smiled.

To be honest, he had not eaten Zongzi for a long time and today happened to be the Dragon Boat Festival.

The System had just happened to give him a bag of glutinous rice, so why not make some Zongzi? Besides, teaching the girls how to make Zongzi would be quite fun. Anyway, when the Flame Dragon Tribe eventually became a city, he planned on continuing these festivals here.

“Great! Then let’s make Zongzi! But Shaman, how do you make Zongzi?” Yu Ying asked, tilting her head.

She had become livelier since she knew it was about making food.

“We need to wash the glutinous rice first, then soak it. We can prepare other things in the meantime,” Su Bai said softly.

He wanted to make meat Zongzi, the kind where he could take one bite and the fat meat melts in his mouth. This feeling was simply someone everyone had to try once.

When the fats in the meat stuck to the glutinous rice slowly melts, and finally all the oil dripped into the glutinous rice, the taste… was simply Heavenly…

“Shaman, what do we need to prepare? I’ll go prepare it now.” Yu Ying said. She was always very enthusiastic about anything related to food, always wanting to try.

“Prepare some mushrooms, and some meat. In fact, anything you want to eat. Also prepare some small vines, but most importantly, we need to prepare some leaves.” Su Bai smiled.

There were no strict rules for making Zongzi; one could put whatever they wanted to eat inside.

Some people liked sweeter Zongzi and would even put things like honey dates inside. Everyone’s taste was different.

“Leaves? Do you need leaves to make Zongzi?” Yu Ying asked, confused.

“Of course, otherwise why would it be called ‘Wrapped Zongzi’? It’s about putting glutinous rice inside leaves.” Su Bai nodded.

“Shaman, what kind of leaves do we need? I’ll go prepare them.” Yu Ying asked.

“There’s no specific type of leaf. As long as the leaves are long and wide enough, they’ll do,” Su Bai explained.

Finding the typical leaves for Zongzi in this Primitive Era would not be easy, so substituting with any large leaves would be fine.

“Alright, I’ll go prepare now,” Yu Ying said, bouncing out of the living room.

*Step step step…* An hour later, she came in carrying a flat, wide wooden winnowing basket.

The winnowing basket held many ingredients: meat, wild chicken eggs, and some mushrooms.

“Shaman, are these enough?” Yu Ying placed everything on the table.

“That’s enough. Take out the soaked glutinous rice. It should be ready.” Su Bai instructed.

Yu Ying nodded and used a wooden bowl to scoop out all the soaked glutinous rice, then drained the remaining water.

She placed the basin of rice on the table and eagerly asked, “Shaman, what do we do next?”

She was really impatient, eager to start making Zongzi.

“Don’t rush.” Su Bai took the small vines and began to weave them together.

The most essential thing for making Zongzi was these vines; without them, it would be impossible to secure the leaves.

He wove the small vines into a bundle, then hung up this bundle, with the remaining vines to be used individually for wrapping each Zongzi, which would be very convenient.

Su Bai skilfully tied the ends of a dozen vines together, then hung them up.

“Shaman, what is this for?” Yu Ying had not understood from the beginning and kept thinking that making Zongzi must be very hard.

“This is just the initial step. Watch carefully what comes next.” Su Bai smiled.

He took two washed clean leaves and rolled them together to form a funnel shape, with the bottom sealed.