Chapter 15: Yu’s True Face

February 16, 2022 by danmeiheaven

Thinking that there may be fish to eat in the future and a stable source of meat, Zhuang Yu was very excited.

There’s no way. His current food sources are unstable. For example, the bamboo shoots on the mountain, once he had dug them all up, he didn’t know where to find food next.

The fish is different. That river should be a river of life. The Golden Centipede Tribe is a tribe living by the river of life. It’s very large and long, and there are many fishes in it. As long as it’s not exhausted, it’s reasonable to get a steady stream of fish from it.

The problem now is how to avoid those ferocious beasts in the water and fish from the river.

He can think of fish because the only edible animals he has seen are these. He hasn’t been out of the Golden Centipede Tribe yet, so he still doesn’t know anything about the outside world.

Zhuang Yu’s method is to tie the arrows with spider silk, shoot the fish with the crossbow, and then pull the fish back through the silk.

The spider silk he tried to weave was very sturdy and soft. It could even be said to be a bit bizarrely tough. There must be no problem to bear the weight of a fish.

Of course, after hitting the fish, there will be a bloody smell, which will attract the beasts to compete for the injured fish. He’s not sure whether the spider silk can withstand the beast’s pulling, so he must pull the arrow back before the beast grabs the bloodied fish.

As for the crossbow. As an archeologist, Zhuang Yu once heard some people explain its production method left over from ancient times. It’s an antique and simple craft, but it’s one of the most lethal weapons of the ancients.

Because he had only heard of the production process but hadn’t really done it, he had to experiment by himself.

So he started chopping wood under the big pear tree.

A group of small radish heads had already jumped into the water, and then curious little heads popped out of the water surface. “What is Brother Yu doing?”

“Making a wooden shelf? The wooden rack made by Brother Yu is really useful. The bowls are all placed on top, neat and tidy. Now our collective cave is not cluttered at all.”

Zhuang Yu not only cleaved wood but also burned a pot of water to boil the dinosaur’s tendon to make it more flexible. It’ll then be used to make the string of the giant crossbow.

Perhaps it’s the first time to make a crossbow, so it took Zhuang Yu some time. However, the finished product was not a crossbow, but a ballista.

In order to provide the strength that can penetrate the scales of the fish, the crossbow was made a little bigger. But that made it not easy to move, and the upper chord takes some effort to wind up, so he simply made it into a wheeled crossbow.

The little radishes looked at the ballista they had never seen before and were very curious, “What is this? I’ve never seen it before.”

Zhuang Yu smiled and waved his hand, “Go, let’s go hunting.” 

The children are confused. Hunting? Isn’t such a bloody and dangerous thing only people from the hunting team can do? Only giant beast warriors can hunt. That’s their glory and pride.

But Brother Yu just said, let them go hunting together? So a group of little radishes was completely stunned. This was something they longed for but couldn’t believe.

In the tribe, the reason why the giant beast warriors are respected and admired by others is that they can hunt for the tribe.

The children were only speechless for a moment, before they scrambled out of the pool, “Ahh! Brother Yu, are we really going hunting?”

Their tiny faces were flushed red from excitement.

If they could, they wouldn’t be forced by others to death.

“Follow me and you’ll know.”

Zhuang Yu said and then pushed the ballista towards the river.

Ballistas are laborious to transport so a group of children is also screaming to help push it. Just this momentum is already quite spectacular.

They garnered a lot of attention along the way. “What is Yu of the Water Lake Tribe doing?”

“He used to stick around the young patriarch every day, but now he doesn’t go to the young patriarch anymore, just idling around with the children.”

Before Zhuang Yu could even reply, the children already retorted, “Have you eaten home-cooked food? Have you had soup?”

Their milky voices are fierce, one by one, like poked hedgehogs.

Zhuang Yu not only gave them food but also helped them make the collective cave clean and beautiful. In their hearts, no one can slander Zhuang Yu.

Although these children are small, they make it up with numbers. With just their chattering, they really can’t lose a fight.

“Hmph, you adults have been using our water recently, yet you still have the nerve to say that Brother Yu is lazy? You won’t have water to drink without Brother Yu’s automatic water pipe.”

“I heard that you’ve learned from Brother Yu’s method to divert water by yourself. Unfortunately, the water is smelly.”

In the past few days, the people from the Golden Centipede Tribe did learn Zhuang Yu’s method of diverting water by themselves, but… They didn’t know how to use the sections of bamboo tubes to turn them into bendable water pipes. Instead, they used a whole piece of bamboo to pierce the bamboo joints as water pipes. In this way, they couldn’t bend it. They also didn’t know the principle of atmospheric pressure. As a result, only three or four of the ten bamboos they buried could get the water flow out.

Even so, they were very happy, but they weren’t happy for too long. The water from the pipe changed its taste.

Actually, it’s very simple. Their water pipes are beginning to rot. Untreated bamboo will definitely become moldy and smelly when buried in the ground.

So, now they’re still very curious. Why did the water they draw from the pipes from the same river have an odor? While Zhuang Yu’s water pipe has been used for the longest time, there’s no peculiar smell at all.

Zhuang Yu was shocked when he heard this. Honestly, if the tribespeople just directly asked him how to divert water, he wouldn’t hide it. It’s just a trivial matter.

But since they want to do it themselves, let them do it by themselves.

The adults were dumbfounded by the children. Because they did go to Zhuang Yu’s water pipe to collect water, but he was indeed idle. Zhuang Yu just stayed in his cave all day, not coming out, and just doing nothing. Everyone in the tribe is saying that after he eats up all the meat the young patriarch gave him, just see what he will do.

However, some people looked at Zhuang Yu differently than before. They heard that he actually distributed the meat given to him by the young patriarch to the children in the collective cave.

Except for the people in the hunting team who have some extra, the others can’t eat enough. How can they share their meat with others?

It’s no wonder that these children are now so supportive of Yu from the Water Lake Tribe.

Now the tribesmen have two contrasting attitudes towards Zhuang Yu. One of which is disdain no matter how they look at him.

This is easy to understand. Humans are such strange animals. After having a first impression, no matter what others do, it seems that they cannot change this impression.

The second kind is the wait-and-see attitude. After Zhuang Yu took the initiative to distance himself from their young patriarch, he created a water pipe that automatically produced water, then he’s giving food to the children in the collective cave. They are still waiting and seeing what kind of person he really is. This is the attitude of the rest of the Golden Centipede Tribe.

Zhuang Yu lightly chuckled. He’s lazy? He is just following his own steps and improving his life bit by bit. If they see that the “useless” people in their mouths are living better day by day, how would they feel?     

The corners of his mouth rose. It’s more important to catch the fish than talk nonsense with them. It’s estimated that their attitude wouldn’t change much, so just let them see what they believe. Fortunately, these people were the only ones left who were angry with him. It used to be the entire tribe…     

However, the little radishes were still very unconvinced and silently kept this matter in their hearts. They had to let everyone know how good Brother Yu was.     

Zhuang Yu and a group of little radishes pushed the wheeled-ballista and walked towards the river under the strange eyes of these people.     

The closer to the river, the fewer people there are. It’s because they’re conditioned to stay away from this dangerous place.     

Even the small radishes became nervous, “Brother Yu, if we get closer, the water monsters in the river will jump up and bite us.”     

In fact, they’re still a distance away.

Zhuang Yu said that he’ll take them out for hunting. Although these little radishes were excited, they actually thought he was just taking them out to play. A group of them, such as Feng Wen’s queen bee, Zhi’s red spider, and Zhuang Yu’s mushroom, doesn’t look like they could catch prey.

Zhuang Yu pushed the ballista to a place with a very good view. He could clearly see the situation in the river and was within range.

Then the bunch of little radishes saw that Zhuang Yu got busy. He adjusted the angle of view of the ballista and tied one end of the spider silk to the big tree next to him. In this way, even if he mistakenly shot the water monster or the arrow was bitten by the fierce beast, it wouldn’t drag them into the river through the spider silk.

The small carrot heads felt bizarre, “Brother Yu, what are you doing?”

Zhuang Yu put his finger in front of his lips and shushed them.

For some reason, they became nervous and then looked at Zhuang Yu in confusion.

He adjusted the ballista. The ballista was set with the simplest three-point and one-line alignment. The arrow was cut from the strongest two-finger-thick tree trunk. The tip of the arrow was very sharp, and a barb was cut at the top. As long as the fish was shot, the barb could prevent the fish from sliding off.

The river is very clear, without any sewage pollution. Most of the fish are six or seven kilograms in size. Of course, there are many bigger ones.

The little turnips saw that Zhuang Yu had stopped moving, and was aiming at something with one eye closed. They’re about to speak when suddenly there was a “whoosh” sound beside them. Something burst out of the air extremely fast and with great strength. A buzzing sound sounded in the air.

They were stunned for a moment, and then the river suddenly became turbid. A bunch of large things was struggling in the river. They can vaguely see several water monsters fiercely fighting for something.

The radishes gulped. Why did the water monsters suddenly go crazy? Fortunately, they’re still some distance from the river, otherwise, they will be scared to death.

However, Zhuang Yu was overjoyed. He had good eyesight and vaguely saw that the arrow just now directly penetrated a big fish. He quickly said, “Hurry up.”

Then he caught the spider silk and began to pull it up. He didn’t dare to use too much force for fear that the spider silk would cut his hand.

The tiny radishes reacted. They hugged Zhuang Yu and started moving backward, although they didn’t know what they were hauling.

Zhuang Yu felt a heavy feeling coming from his hand and frowned. He didn’t hit a water beast, right?

“Heave-ho! Heave-ho!” The baby radishes shouted slogans and began to exert force.

“Splash.”

Then he was stunned because a big fish was pulled ashore and was struggling desperately with all its might.

When the fish left the water, its pulling force wasn’t as strong as before.

Zhuang Yu also breathed a sigh of relief. He shot a fish, but he couldn’t relax yet, because several huge water beasts had rushed up.

The bunch of radishes had their mouths open and had forgotten to drag the fish. Fortunately, Zhuang Yu saw that the fish was hit and wasn’t afraid of the spider silk cutting his hands. He exerted all his efforts to haul the fish to the side. 

The water monsters in the river rushed to the shore but quickly retreated. As he expected, they were afraid of the deterrence of the ancestral beast and didn’t dare to catch up for too long.

The fish was pulled beside the ballista by the barbed arrow. The children still couldn’t believe it. It took them a while before they screamed, “This is fish! What a big fish!”

“Aahh!! Brother Yu just caught a fish in the river.”

“Aahh!” 

They all screamed with excitement, their faces flushed with joy.

What Brother Yu said about taking them out to hunt is really true.

How perilous this big river is, they all know very well. Even the giant beasts of the clansmen dare not approach here because they’ll be dragged down by the water monsters in the river.

But just now, they hunted a fish in such a dangerous river.

“Aahh! We actually caught the prey like the giant beast warriors!”

Although there’s a big gap between the fish and the prey hunted by the giant beast warriors, they still hunted it in this deadly river. It doesn’t affect their excitement at all.

For these children who have deep-rooted ideas, hunting has a very different meaning. It’s glory and blood. It’s something that everyone yearns for and is looking forward to.

Zhuang Yu is also ecstatic because now it has been proved that fishing from this big river is indeed feasible. Albeit the method is a little more troublesome.

The river is so big that they can’t see the source. Even if they catch fewer fish nearby, they can go to a slightly farther place.

They have a way to get meat.

“Aahh!” The baby radishes screamed and jumped on the struggling fish on the ground, crushing it to death, “Don’t even try to escape, you are our prey.”

The fish’s vitality is really tenacious. The arrow penetrated through and was hooked by the barb, yet it’s still able to struggle so much.

However, when a group of overly excited children is pressing on its body, it’s difficult to break free.

Little Mushroom also took his small wooden stick and knocked the fish’s head hard. Let you run, let you run. When you get to this mushroom boy’s hand, don’t even think of slipping away. 

The little mushroom had eaten the fish that Zhuang Yu cooked last time, so he wouldn’t let it go.

The corners of Zhuang Yu’s mouth were twitching. This fish was miserable enough. He’s worried that it would be crushed by these spirited children.

After a long while, “It doesn’t seem moving. It should’ve been crushed to death by us.”

Little Mushroom’s head quivered. Obviously, it was knocked to death by this mushroom kid.

The mini radishes climbed up, leaving the weak fish on the ground.

The corner of Zhuang Yu’s mouth twitched again. This fish must weigh about ten catties. No wonder when it was struggling in the water just now, he felt it’s very strong, and thought he had caught a water monster.

He began to fetch the fish, took down the arrow, and said to a group of radish heads, “Quickly string it with vines. This is the first prey we hunted.” 

The group of carrot heads flushed with excitement, nodded vigorously, found the strongest rattan, and put it through the fish.

Then they looked at the ballista next to Zhuang Yu. It was this thing. Just now, a harpoon made of tree trunk shot out and killed the fish and they dragged it back from the mouth of the water monsters.

Zhuang Yu smiled. Knowing what these children were going to ask, he said, “Who said that we can’t hunt without giant beasts? With it, we can hunt like giant beast warriors every day.” 

‘Hunt like giant beast warriors every day?’

“Aahh!”

The little radishes crazily screamed at the sky again. They, the children in the collective cave without giant beasts, could actually hunt like giant beast warriors!

I’m afraid even Zhuang Yu can’t understand their excitement.

He said again, “As long as this river exists, and as long as we’re diligent enough, we’ll be able to eat meat every day in the future.”

The children looked at the river and the hanging fish. They used to fear coming near the river. Even if they knew that there were many fish in it, they never thought of grabbing fish from the water monsters living below the surface.

Not to mention them, even the giant beast warriors in the tribe have never thought about catching fish on a large scale. The river is the territory of these fierce monsters, and the giant beasts will be greatly weakened in the water.

The little radishes blinked their big, bewildered eyes. They couldn’t even eat berries before, but since they followed Yu, they couldn’t support their stomachs all day, and the cave they lived in has become better than ever before. Now they can actually come to the river to hunt and eat meat every day. 

Zhuang Yu smiled and said, “What are you doing? There’s not enough fish for us to eat. Let’s continue fishing.”     

It’s not an easy task to put the arrows on the ballista again. All the children had to work together to pull the string apart.    

The river in front of them has become very muddy because of the chaos just now. It’s strange that the frightened fish in the river have the courage to come back.

Zhuang Yu thought that perhaps these fish had no natural enemies from the shore before, so there was no sense of avoidance in their nerves and genetics.

However, it’s estimated that if they catch a few more times, no matter how stupid the fish are, they will escape. But it wouldn’t matter. They can just change their positions when the time comes.

Now, they continue to fish.

The most thrilled are the little radish heads. After Zhuang Yu taught them how to aim, they argued with each other, “I think we should move a little to the left.”

“Obviously, now is the best position.”

Next to Zhuang Yu, the turnip head Zhi was still at a loss. Is his spider silk really so useful?

He rubbed his head, “Even non-combat giant beasts have their own unique uses, but many people may not know how to use them. Your giant beast is amazing.”

Zhi clenched his small fist and nodded vigorously with tears in his eyes. He remembered that in the past, everyone thought his red spider was useless. Even if he has a giant beast, he’s still not allowed to live on the back of the ancestral beast, because they all said that his giant beast couldn’t fight at all. It’s just a waste, and it wouldn’t make much of a difference if he doesn’t have it. He can never forget how those people commented on him. He will never forget the feeling of being hit on the head by a stick when he was the happiest and most elated to get a giant beast.

Now, Brother Yu said that his giant beast is very amazing and very useful.

Beside him, Feng Wen with his head down also squeezed his hands tightly. My brother said that all giant beasts are useful even if they can’t fight. Then my queen bee…

Zhuang Yu started hitting fish with the ballista again.

Every time the arrow is released and makes a “whoosh” sound, a bunch of children scream excitedly, and then they start to pull the caught fish up together.

One after another.

The riverside has become a tumultuous paradise. Even if the fish was shot, again and again, the children couldn’t resist roaring when the fish was dragged ashore.

It was a very pleasant hunt.

Of course, an accident still happened. The arrow misfired and hit the water monster instead.

Watching the water beast pulling the spider silk and uprooting the huge tied tree, let alone a pack of radish heads, even Zhuang Yu’s face turned pale. The danger in this river was obvious, which also explained why the tribe didn’t hunt in the river. These water beasts are too ferocious.

In the end, the spider silk couldn’t bear the tugging and broke into two.

The expressions of the baby radishes are not good. Their hunting tools have been damaged. What will they do in the future?

Zhi raised his head, “I have collected a lot of spider silk before. If it’s still not enough, I can make my red spider spin silk all the time.”

Zhuang Yu rubbed the red-faced and proud Zhi’s head.

However, they couldn’t continue today. Zhuang Yu looked at the fish that were strung together. It was definitely enough for them to eat for a day until they were all full.

He decided to return with the team. He originally wanted to carry the fish back as is, but the little radishes shook their heads. They all held a fish in their arms, showing that they wanted to carry them back like this.

He looked at them carrying large fish one by one. They were very happy. Well, as long as they could hold them back, just let them be.

A group of children, each holding a fish bigger than their body, caused a stir as soon as they entered the tribe’s land.

“This is fish? How is this possible? How did they catch them?”

Everyone knows how dangerous the river is, so how could a group of children in a collective cave capture the fish?

The tribespeople lined up to watch.

The little radish heads turned their nostrils into the sky, “This is the prey that Brother Yu took us to hunt. Look, it’s so big.”

Hmph, who said Brother Yu was idle? If you have the ability to hunt then show us.

Everyone looked at each other in disbelief. Was this hunted by Yu of the Water Lake Tribe with these children?

How is this possible? Yu has no giant beast. He’s not even a giant beast warrior. How could he dare approach the river? By the way, someone said recently that Yu had a fist-sized, mushroom-like strange creature beside him, but even so, it’s just a waste beast that couldn’t fight.

No one knows how many people showed surprised expressions. This Yu was completely different from the one they knew before.

And it wasn’t just these people who showed shocked looks. On the head of the golden centipede, the witch of the tribe was also inexplicably shocked, because the team in charge of the exchange of the Golden Centipede Tribe came back, and brought back strange news about Zhuang Yu.

The witch said to Shang Lian, the leader of the exchange team, “You said that you got some news about Yu when you passed by the Water Lake Tribe. Yu’s reputation is far-reaching and he’s a promising young man?”

Shang Lian nodded, “Not only the Water Lake Tribe but also the tribes near it have heard of Yu’s name. It can be said that his reputation has spread throughout the surrounding tribes.” 

The witch frowned even more, “But when Yu came to our tribe, he acted like a little rascal. Why did he hide his original character and enter our tribe like a different person? I used to think that he knew Shaohao’s identity so he used all his means to shamelessly join us. But if it’s really for Shaohao’s sake, he shouldn’t behave so unbearably, but be more perfect. And if it’s not for him, why would he come to my Golden Centipede Tribe?”

Shang Lian nodded, “This is also something I can’t figure out. After I learned this information, I kept it in my heart, and as soon as I came back, I came to tell you. For what purpose he must have come to our tribe, he’s not what he appeared to be, and it’s for Shaohao.”

Beside him, Shaohao’s expression is very strange. So Yu’s wretched appearance before was pretending. And when he approached him and said he liked him, he’s also acting?

The group was confused. How could things be so complicated? Originally, they thought it was just a young man’s impulse. Now it seems that it’s not at all, but premeditated.

At this time, some clansmen hurried over, “Witch, something serious has happened. Yu actually took the children from the collective cave to hunt in the river, and they caught a lot of fish.”

Witch: “…”

Shaohao: “…” 

Their heads became even dizzier. Which one is the real Yu??

It stands to reason that Yu has been hiding for so long, not hesitating to masquerade as a little scumbag and ruin his reputation. He must have some ulterior purpose to come to the Golden Centipede Tribe on the pretext of being close to Shaohao.

But he had been pretending for so long, why did he suddenly stop?

Taking the children of the collective cave to hunt in the river and reaping a lot of harvests. With this fame spreading, it’s completely different from his previous ruffian image.

The witch only felt that the gold stars above his head were going straight up and were completely surrounding him. The one thing that he could be sure of was that Yu came to their Golden Centipede Tribe is not because of Shaohao, but for another purpose.

Shaohao’s face is expressionless now, with his brows furrowed. So the guy who held his thigh crying and yelling that he wanted to be with him was completely pretending, just to cover up his ulterior purpose?

How complicated is Yu, and why does he suddenly change his image now?

What they don’t know is that if they go to question Zhuang Yu now, Zhuang Yu will be more confused than them. How could he know why the former owner of this body came to the Golden Centipede Tribe? When he’s a promising young man, he had to pretend to be a fool and a little poppy, just to let him clean up this inexplicable mess.

Translator’s Note:

Okay, just some news about the update schedule of this story. Because of my schoolwork, hectic working schedule (I’m doing part-time aside while studying ;)), and basically RL things, I’ve decided to update every 2 weeks. I found that it’s a better alternative than dropping this project altogether ‘cuz come on, this is a gem and you know it  Another factor I considered was the length of every chapter and my dislike of dividing a chapter in two if it’s really long. It’s just inconvenient you know? XD