Chapter 192: Celebration
While they gathered, the chipmunks sorted everything out in an organized manner. They meticulously arranged them into piles.
The first pile was immediate food—items that would be used within days, including fresh vegetables, corn, beans, and pumpkins.
The second was winter storage: potatoes, sweet potatoes, grain, and the like, carefully set aside for preservation.
The third was seed stock. Sunnie helped them select the largest pumpkins, healthiest corns, best wheat, and strongest beans. These were dried and saved for next year’s harvest.
The process of harvesting didn’t take a day or two like the beast husbands had thought. It took days and stretched into weeks, given the amount of dedication Sunnie and the chipmunks put into it.
They soon moved on to processing the grain. For wheat and millet, they dried them—the bundles were spread under sunlight for days. The grains were separated from stalks. During winnowing, everyone watched Sunnie as she tossed grains into the air. Wind carried away the husks, and the clean grain fell back down. Everyone simply stared in amazement.
They knew they had to build a bigger storage space if they wanted to store more for longer periods. And so the real work began, which took a long time.
With Sunnie and the chipmunks leading the way, the beast husbands, men around, and even the women helped in developing storage spaces for the harvest.
They had the beavers help dig underground storage pits for the potatoes. They built raised granaries for wheat, millet, and corn, elevating the floor using wooden posts.
They also made some hanging storage, hanging pumpkins and squash from racks. They used large clay jars for dried beans, peanuts, and seeds.
A lot of effort was put into the harvesting and storage, and soon they had gone far into the process. They were pretty much done with the core tasks that needed to be done. And so Sunnie called for a celebration—a harvest celebration.
Sunnie and the women had prepared a lot of meals from the harvest for everyone to celebrate their fruitful efforts. She made many delicious dishes—soups, chicken meals, meats, and the like—a lot of mouthwatering food that would last them days.
That night, nobody worked. Instead, the tribe celebrated. The fire burned brightly around them as the roasted meats filled the air with sweet aromas.
At that moment, everyone was relaxed without caring about what to eat. They simply sat around the fire, enjoying the meals while also talking and laughing out loud. It was a festive atmosphere for all of them.
"Whoa, all this tastes delicious," Eris smiled as he ate from the plate of meat. "I never even knew this was possible to make... but I guess our pretty female always has some tricks up her sleeves."
Everyone laughed. "Oh, now she is the pretty female. I remember you always dragging her back then. Shameless," Little Black snapped.
"Little rabbit, if you don’t stop talking, I’ll eat you up. I eat rabbits, for your information," Eris threatened.
Little Black quickly went and hid behind Zukka, who guarded him while he stuck out his tongue at Eris. "You can’t do anything to me. And if you eat rabbits, you should also eat Sunnie. She’s also a rabbit."
Luka covered Ronan’s ears, Azure covered Maren’s ears, and Elza covered Mii’s ears as they laughed at the scene.
"No, I won’t just eat our female. I’ll eat her up enough for her to bear my cub soon." Eris winked at Sunnie. "What do you say, eh, female? Should we also try?"
Sunnie rolled her eyes as she shook her head, smiling. "Shameless indeed," she said as everyone burst out laughing at Eris.
"Don’t worry, the female is just being shy. Sooner or later, she’ll also bear my heir. It’s only a matter of time," he boasted as everyone laughed.
Sunnie smiled as her system beeped.
[Ding]
[Congratulations Host: Harvest successfully done and accomplished. Storage spaces meticulously built!]
[The tribe has witnessed immense progress.]
[Reward: + 15,000 heart coins!]
Sunnie smiled, impressed at the improvement. Now she had a lot of heart coins and enough money to survive for a long time—about 40,000 heart coins.
She was also happy knowing that she had successfully farmed and gotten enough food for everyone. Something that hadn’t seemed possible some months ago was now a complete success, and she couldn’t help but smile at the sight of it.
Everyone was smiling while enjoying the scenery. There was talk and laughter from each side; everyone had something to say while she simply smiled and enjoyed the peaceful and beautiful night scene—the celebration they all needed to reward their hard work.
She watched as the kids ran around too. Ronan ran off with Maren’s meat while Maren and Mii chased him around.
"My meat! Give me back my meat now!" Maren called out as Ronan ran faster and faster.
"No! You should share it with me! I’m your little brother!"
"But you already had yours and ate it as fast as lightning! Give me mine, you little rascal!" Maren snapped, chasing him in circles. "I don’t want to share!"
"I’m younger! Share with me!"
"I’m older than you! Respect me and hand me back my meat, you little thief!" She snapped as they kept running in circles.
Everyone burst into laughter as they stared at the scene. Sunnie guessed Maren would be giving her little brother the silent treatment for some days now.
She smiled as she stared at the system pop up before her.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations Host! Some affection percentages have improved!]
[Karl: 40%]
[Zayn: 40%]
[Eris: 70%]
Sunnie stared, impressed. She was impressed at how Karl and Zayn had seemingly improved. Now it was safe to say that they didn’t hate her at all. They were simply cool with her, even though they pretended to be all cold and nonchalant.
She smiled. But what shocked her most was Eris. His affection percentage had increased massively, and this only meant one thing: he wasn’t joking about wanting to have cubs with Sunnie.
Sunnie scoffed. She guessed it wasn’t going to be long before her system asked her to have cubs with Eris. She shook her head; she couldn’t even imagine how hot and crazy that would be. Eris, after all, was one flirtatious beastman, so he was likely going to be instantly good at it.
Sunnie couldn’t believe she was actually curious for such a time to come.