Chronicles of Primitive Civilization’s Growth

Chapter 28: Into the Swamp (Middle)

The Tree Tribe set off hastily to the east, without even a firebrand. A single torch in the Black Forest would undoubtedly reveal their position to the enemy.

Da Shu felt somewhat uneasy. Luo Chong had been gone for several days now. Where was he? Was he still alive?

Da Shu didn’t know any of these things, but staying put meant certain death. He had no choice left.

The enemies had already found their tribe. The treehouse that had sustained them for generations was now engulfed in flames. It was Tree Elder who lit the fire; this was all he could do now. He didn’t know if it would kill some of the intruders who invaded their tribe.

The Tree Tribe originally consisted of only 32 people. After the incident, only 30 remained, and more than half were minors.

The adults carried Wooden Bucket and rabbits. The smaller children were held by the older ones. When they were hungry, they nibbled on dried meat. When thirsty, they drank the strange salty tree sap. When tired, they rested by climbing onto the tree canopy. With heads hung low and without stopping, the group hurried towards the eastern side of the Black Forest.

Da Shu initially had little hope of finding Luo Chong, but unexpectedly, they saw many branches slanted into the ground along the way, pointing eastward. Moreover, these branches were freshly cut. This gave Da Shu great confidence. He believed these were signs left by Luo Chong.

Indeed, these marks were left by Luo Chong. However, when he made them, it was because he feared losing his way back and prepared them for his return journey. Unexpectedly, they became guiding markers for Da Shu to find him.

It took Luo Chong two days to traverse this path before, as he had to constantly correct his direction and continuously cut branches to leave markers.

However, Da Shu and his group were different. They followed the markers directly, and under the pressure of not knowing when the pursuers might catch up with them, they reached the outskirts of the Black Forest in just one and a half days.

When they emerged, it was already evening. The sky, illuminated by the setting sun, turned crimson. The children of the Tree Tribe were seeing the outside world for the first time, full of curiosity and questions. Not just them, even the adults had never traveled so far.

Da Shu also had doubts. He wondered where Luo Chong had gone, as the markers Luo Chong left ended here. Where should he look next?

But after walking a bit further, Da Shu noticed new signs. There were many freshly cut branches and felled small trees on the ground. These were all remnants from when Luo Chong was making horse gear and stripping bark to twist into ropes.

Moreover, at the stream below the slope, Da Shu found traces of a fire – a pile of black charcoal extinguished by water. There were also numerous animal footprints on the soft mud near the stream, among which were Luo Chong’s, easily identifiable since very few people wore such peculiar boots.

But where did Luo Chong go next? Da Shu couldn’t find out. He decided to spend the night here with his clan members. He thought that if Luo Chong returned, he would definitely pass through here again.

Speaking of both sides, while Da Shu led his clan eastward, evading pursuit and searching for Luo Chong, Luo Chong himself was advancing deeper into the swamp.

In the vast expanse of marshland, Luo Chong, paddling a makeshift kayak, wasn’t breaking waves but rather pushing aside floating aquatic grasses.

This was actually the real danger of swamps, as you never knew whether what lay beneath the watergrass was water or mud.

While paddling, Luo Chong moved slowly forward, carefully examining the plants around him, scrutinizing them as though trying to find a grain of sand in a dense field of millet.

Perhaps someone might say, isn’t it just rice? Who hasn’t seen it, especially those who have lived in the countryside? Even city dwellers occasionally see pictures of beautiful rice paddies online, especially those terraced ones with distinct layers, breathtakingly beautiful. BUT, those are rice paddies planted with countless identical plants.

What Luo Chong was searching for, however, was wild rice hidden among billions of reeds.

One might say this task is simple, yet it is indeed arduous work. Wild rice isn’t rare; its probability of appearing is quite high.

The success of modern high-yield rice can be attributed to serendipity. Yuan, the father of China’s hybrid rice, was the lucky one.

Hybrid rice, by definition, involves crossing rice with something else. In this case, Yuan, with his keen eye, accidentally discovered a peculiar-looking, extraordinarily vigorous wild rice plant. After crossbreeding it with domesticated rice, high-yield rice varieties beloved by food enthusiasts were born.

Moreover, this isn’t an isolated example. In the mid-1980s, an elderly farmer named Chen in southern China discovered a miraculous wild rice plant in the coastal saline-alkali wetlands of Guangdong.

Chen, who had grown rice for half his life, immediately recognized the importance of this robust plant thriving by the sea and being highly salt-tolerant. So, he eagerly harvested its mere 522 grains.

After repeated planting and experimentation, those hundreds of grains eventually developed into vast rice fields, turning billions of acres of barren saline-alkali land along China’s coast and inland into productive areas, directly solving the food problems for hundreds of millions of people. The “Sea Rice 86” variety also gained international fame, becoming a sought-after commodity worldwide.

What Luo Chong was doing now could rewrite — no, create — history for this world, marking a transformative leap from the hunting age to the agricultural age for humanity.

Thus, the likelihood of encountering such rice in this primitive swamp should be quite high, especially since it’s a favorite food of water birds. Indeed, fortune favors the diligent.

As Luo Chong used his spear to prod the reeds beside him like combing hair, meticulously conducting a carpet search, he found nothing.

However, this behavior of stirring up the grass startled some creatures, fulfilling the poetic line: “Rowing, rowing, startling a flock of egrets.”

Luo Chong swept his paddle through the reeds. Suddenly, a flock of water birds flew up from the nearby reeds, startling him. He quickly turned to look.

Not far away, in a shallow marsh filled with reeds, there stood a small patch of reeds with panicles, standing out prominently among their peers. Luo Chong’s eyes gleamed with excitement. It was it! Our good friend, wild rice!

Upon spotting the target, Luo Chong couldn’t help but smile and began paddling hard toward the shallow marsh.

Stroke after stroke, just as Luo Chong’s boat was about to reach the destination, a sudden shout of human voices came from behind.

“Hey, #￥%……&*…%￥#￥@#@”

“@##…&()&…%￥”

What? Who the hell is shouting?

Following the sound, Luo Chong looked back and saw a few naked Ancient People clinging to logs floating in the water behind him. They were waving at him and shouting incessantly, looking quite anxious.