Chapter 77.1
Chapter 77.1
Face-Slapping the genius from another world (3.1)
Editor: Chestnutwhale
The man who had just told Zhou Xu to scram then attentively went to find a bit of food for Zhou Xu. After finding it, he wondered why he was being so obedient. But looking at Zhou Xu’s content appearance, his recent confusion dissipated into thin air.
Zhou Xu knew that in this world, food was distributed evenly, so if they had extra, that had meant their clan was prosperous.
After eating, Zhou Xu continued to sit on Yan He’s bed. He felt no desire to compete with Ruan Shijin. Of the many worlds he’s been to, in his eyes, all of the protagonists were but scum. As long as the protagonist doesn’t antagonise him, then he doesn’t want to fight the protagonist either.
Now, more than ever, Zhou Xu wanted to recover his memories. What he wanted even more, was to live a safe and quiet life with his lover.
But in reality, even if Zhou Xu refuses to acknowledge the protagonists, the protagonists would still want to find a way to make his life difficult. Just now, Zhou Xu had wanted to stay with Yan He and just look at him. But even if there’s nothing to discuss, the protagonist will still come to destroy the tranquillity.
“Yan He, the clan leader had me come to ask you about how to deal with those captives.”
Yan He looked at Ruan Shijin who had just entered the room; his eyes were narrowed, his gaze unkind, his tone cold. It was as if he were looking at prey, and the murderous intent within him was about to turn into a substance. He said, “Before you come in, knock on the door!”
Ruan Shijin’s heart dropped for a moment. It was like he had fallen straight from the sky, unable to touch the firm ground because he had discovered that his life seemed as though it was hanging in Yan He’s hands.
“Sorry.”
Standing up, Yan He’s gaze wasn’t as scolding as just now. “I’ll come with you to find the clan leader.”
“Thank you.”
Before leaving, Yan He turned to glance at Zhou Xu who was sitting on his bed, his tone was still as indifferent as before and he said, “Rest well.”
But Zhou Xu could hear the concern within his voice, thus he slightly smiled, waving his hand at Yan He, Zhou Xu teased him, “Leave earlier so that you can return earlier. I’ll wash up and wait for you.”
Yan He was stunned, and Ruan Shijin felt embarrassed. Zhou Xu continued, “Don’t pick the flowers and trample the grass outside.”
This time, Yan He felt embarrassed. He looked at Zhou Xu, his gaze slightly cold, but his slightly red ears had fallen in Zhou Xu’s sight.
Zhou Xu’s eyes curved into crescents, even showing a harmless smile.
Ruan Shijin lightly coughed, stepped back and said, “Ahem, are you two?”
Hurriedly replying before Zhou Xu could, Yan He quickly said, “There’s nothing between us, it’s not what you think.”
“Oh. Uh, that’s good. Let’s go quickly, the clan leader is still waiting for us.”
Nodding, Yan He quickly walked away. Ruan Shijin rushed to follow Yan He and Zhou Xu who continued sitting on the bed couldn’t help but want to laugh. Teasing that person with facial paralysis was indeed too amusing, it was much more fun compared to fighting the protagonist.
He was quite clear on how Ruan Shijin would treat those captives, so Zhou Xu focused on remembering his memories from the real world. But thinking of it just gave him a headache, in the end, he had no choice but to give up. But it was good that at least, the memories he had already recovered wouldn’t disappear.
Their clan had also won the battle in the original story, but it was at the price of nearly half of the warriors being slaughtered. This time things were different. Under Zhou Xu’s guidance, their casualties were next to nothing.
Ruan Shijin’s goal was to expand and strengthen their clan, so none of the captives were killed, and they had also merged with the Hexi clan.
However, because the fight had been very intense, both sides suffered heavy casualties. As a result, after the merge, their clan had been confronted with even more issues. And because they had been forced to merge clans, the Hexi clan became like insects eating into wood, corrupting the Hedong clan from inside.
But, Zhou Xu didn’t know this. Because he had betrayed the clan, he had been burned to death on the altar.Zhou Xu was very well clear about the connections between them. However, this time, Zhou Xu felt that Ruan Shijin might not be able to merge the Hexi clan.
Sure enough, the next day, Ruan Shijin’s negotiations with the Hexi clan had fallen through. Most of their warriors hadn’t died, so the Hexi clan felt like they were capable of fighting again. They wished to ransom those warriors to return regardless of how much prey they demanded.
Ruan Shijin had disagreed. Merging was fine but letting the warriors return wasn’t. Because he thought that after the warriors returned, they would definitely invade their territory again. They would be better off killing them, than returning them.
Ruan Shijin voiced his misgivings at the Hedong clan’s elder’s meeting. Some agreed and some didn’t. Naturally, Zhou Xu was also present. After they finished voicing their thoughts, there was an equal amount of people for and against it, so all of the elders looked towards Zhou Xu and Yan He, who had kept silent from the beginning.
Yan He acted as though those people’s gazes didn’t exist, continuing to act as cold as ice, and Zhou Xu said with a faint smile, “If we kill all of their warriors, even if there was only one person left from Hexi clan, they would surely oppose us to the end. It would be better to ask them for a ridiculous amount of food rather than killing them. In winter, they might come to seek shelter. When the moment comes, we won’t even have to worry.”
“No, I don’t agree.” Ruan Shijin said. “This is the equivalent of releasing a tiger into a mountain, they might come back to attack us at any time. We also can’t guarantee whether or not there’s a traitor in our clan.”
Zhou Xu said coldly, “What, last time you said I was a traitor, and it turned out that I wasn’t one. Now you think that aside from you, all of the clan’s people are traitors?”
This rhetorical question had made Ruan Shijin instantly speechless because, in his heart, he had truly believed that Zhou Xu was a traitor. Though there was no proof, his inherent impression hadn’t changed.
The rhetorical question that Zhou Xu had asked, directly attacks the target by exaggerating their actions, and it was easy to draw hate towards himself. But Zhou Xu didn’t care, because his goal was only to drag hatred towards Ruan Shijin.
“I…I didn’t mean it that way.”
The clan leader unhurriedly stepped out, asking Yan He, “What’s your opinion, say something. Don’t continue to stay silent.”
“I support Zhou Xu.”
The clan leader nodded and clapped for everyone’s attention. “Then let’s discuss how we should ask them for prey. Come, come, come, come to say something.”
“I heard that they have wild boars held captive.”
“Yes. It seems like they have forty of them in captivity, let’s ask for a good eighty of them.”
“Furthermore, we’ll have them give us some rabbits and pheasants.”
“Right, right. Pheasant meat stew is the best to eat, ask for more.”
As a result, this meeting for their elders had become a meeting of them discussing how to suck the Hexi clan clean.
The elders who usually supported Ruan Shijin couldn’t do anything about it, because when they thought about it, what Zhou Xu said was indeed true. If they indeed slaughtered all of their warriors, the Hexi clan’s people would definitely counterattack, and when that time comes, they won’t be able to defend themselves.
And in the winter, clans that were poor and feeble could rarely find food, so they would go to other clans to look for help. And they would be at ease becoming a relatively powerful clan’s member.
In fact, this method was the best. Because those poor and feeble clans would come and seek shelter later, for the most part, they could drop their guard. In this world, hunger was the one thing they feared the most.
Their clan eventually emptied out the families of the Hexi clan, and the Hexi clan still owed many things to the Hedong clan. Of course, they kept over a hundred warriors and didn’t let them out to return to guarantee the Hexi clan’s payment.
The Hexi clan had completely lost this battle, and Zhou Xu’s reputation in their clan was gradually gaining momentum.
Later at the ceremonial meeting, Zhou Xu was met with the clan leader’s unbridled praise. Though their clan was quite primitive, and the sacrifice to the gods was also very primitive, this simplicity made people feel that it was even more sacred.
The Hedong clan believed that their patron saint was an eagle. The clan leader’s sceptre was in the shape of an eagle, and from a certain height, their altar also looked like an eagle.
The people stood where the eagle’s wings were spread, while the clan leader stood at the eagle’s head. The sacred fire outlined the line of the eagle, and the clan’s people had assembled together, saying their pious prayers.
He didn’t know why, but Zhou Xu felt that when they said their prayers, the entire world was peaceful. As though even the always chattering birds were silent.
As the saying goes, ‘believe and it will exist’. Zhou Xu, a man who has even experienced worlds with gods and buddhas, didn’t believe that gods and buddhas would exist in an ordinary world. Yet inside of a primitive world like this, Zhou Xu had actually begun to believe in things like totems.
Following the clan leader’s movement, Zhou Xu also lowered his head, raised both of his hands, and slowly overlapped them. Then, along with the clan leader, he sincerely thanked the eagle god for bestowing upon them life and living.
As everyone prayed, Zhou Xu suddenly felt his body warm-up. Raising his head, Zhou Xu had found that his palms were actually shining. A faint, light yellow coloured radiance, warmly glowed.
“Ah!” Zhou Xu had been so surprised that all of the people who were originally praying turned to look at Zhou Xu. Then everyone was startled.
The glimmer began to gradually fade after a few seconds until it had completely disappeared.
No one knew what was happening, and Zhou Xu also didn’t know. Then amongst the confused crowd, Yan He opened his mouth and said, “Zhou Xu is our clan’s lucky god. The rays of light in his palms are surely from the eagle god delivering fortune.”
All of the clan members wore expressions of sudden realisation, with only Zhou Xu holding doubt towards Yan He’s words. His gaze clearly revealed the words, “You’re truly ridiculous.”
Yan He took a look at Zhou Xu, then turned around and paid no heed to him, continuing to act as a stoic, wooden person.
Ultimately, the entire clan’s people looked at Zhou Xu as if looking at a deity. Their gazes were filled with respect. The only person who didn’t look at Zhou Xu in this way was Ruan Shijin.
He was a modern transmigrator and truly unable to explain this phenomenon, but saying that Zhou Xu was their clan’s fortune god was simply too ridiculous.
However, he couldn’t open his mouth at a time like this. After all, this society held a strong belief in gods.
After the sacrificial ceremony, Zhou Xu began to eat and get dressed for the day. Because he was considered a god, they naturally sacrifice offerings for him as well.
When he could no longer take it, Zhou Xu went to the village hospital to find Zhou Yang.
Zhou Yang’s body seemed like it was becoming unwell. In the mornings he would often work in the hospital, then he would begin to get dizzy in the afternoon.
Firmly pulling Zhou Yang’s hand over, Zhou Xu took his pulse.
flō: As you guys know, I’m going back to school soon… but I decided to co-translate MORE novels on CG and off of CG. Guys, I promise I’m not an M. 💀 Anyways, I still ain’t ready for school. 😢
But, in all honesty, can we have a round of applause for the editors of this novel? They have to edit Slowya’s Chinglish and my kinda inaccurate translations that are like 10% inaccurate, according to Chestnut.
*Insert applause SFX.*