Face-Slapping the genius from another world (6.1)
Editors: chestnutwhale
Zhou Xu and Yan He followed Ruan Shijin to look for the leader. However, they only saw a cold corpse.
Looking at the clan leader’s face, Zhou Xu felt that it was a bit unusual. When an average person dies, their face wouldn’t be this color.
Thus, in front of the puzzled eyes of the crowd, Zhou Xu opened the clan leader’s mouth. He then found an anomaly. There was residue left from poison in the clan leader’s mouth.
The liquid was purple, and it should have been a poison that could directly enter one’s bloodstream.
The others at the scene did not understand, but one other person did. It was Zhou Yan’s teacher.
The two looked at each other, but did not speak. However, there was another person present who was alarmed, and it was precisely Ruan Shijin.
That’s right, the clan leader’s death was caused by Ruan Shijing.
Actually, at the time, Ruan Shijin had been studying beans, or rather more importantly, he was searching for other species of beans. This was because he figured that if there were soybeans, there must also be adzuki beans, mung beans, and many others. And so he began to look for as many beans as he could find.
He cooked each color of beans separately, and when they were cooked he tested them to see if they were poisonous.
Ruan Shinjin gave the yellow beans to the wild boar raised by the clan and did not discover any problem. Then he fed the green beans to the two birds that came looking for food, and there was no accident either.
After that, only the red beans were left. Looking at the beans in the bowl, Ruan Shijin thought they were the same as modern adzuki beans. In addition, the yellow and green beans did not have any problem, so the red beans also shouldn’t have any. And it so happened that the clan leader came looking for him to ask him about when to start preparing marinated meats, so Ruan Shijin gave some red beans to the clan leader to eat.
At the time, there had been no problem. Thus, Ruan Shijing had felt reassured and continued to discuss the matter of marinated meat with the clan leader.
About two hours after that, the clan leader was still fine, but on the way back, the clan leader started to say he had an upset stomach, and Ruan Shijin followed the clan leader to his house because he was a little worried.
Afterwards, the clan leader’s stomach started to hurt more and more. Only then did Ruan Shijin begin to feel scared. He wanted to give the clan leader some water, but at that point, the leader couldn’t drink anything anymore, in fact, he couldn’t even open his mouth.
Ruan Shijin panicked, because in the next few minutes, the clan leader became completely immobile.
The panicked Ruan Shijin rushed to the clinic, but despite all his effort, it was already too late.
By the time the doctor arrived, the clan leader was already dead.
The doctor asked Ruan Shijing what happened, but he could only stammer, “The leader suddenly had a stomach ache and then that was it.”
“Really?”
Ruan Shijin took a step back because of his guilty conscience and looked out the window at the rainstorm saying, “I’ll go look for Yan He, the clan leader is dead, someone has to preside over the affairs of the clan.”
After speaking, Ruan Shijin ran away. This was because the doctor seemed to be able to see through people at a glance, and his gaze was difficult for Ruan Shijin to bear.
At this point, Zhou Xu and the doctor looked at each other, they’d gotten the gist of it. However, before anything could be said, they needed to find evidence. Otherwise, if they casually insulted the tribal elders, they would get their tongue removed.
Soon after, all of the clan elders came. They also did not dare to believe, how could the clan leader, who had been in good spirits during the day, be dead at night?
Furthermore, the clan leader hadn’t mentioned who the next leader would be, so they too began to worry.
As they fretted and furrowed their eyebrows, Zhou Xu quietly said something, Yan He nodded and turned to walk away.
But the clan had to have someone to lead it, so the next day they spontaneously organized a council of elders, at which they decided to appoint someone as the leader.
Most of those old men didn’t want to work, and as for the younger ones, Han Xun was injured, and Yan He couldn’t be the leader, so that left only Zhou Xu and Ruan Shijin.
The number of their supporters was actually pretty similar, but Zhou Xu was the tribe’s lucky god, and as a result the other members of the tribe still supported Zhou Xu more.
The elders also didn’t know who to choose, so they asked Zhou Xu and Ruan Shijin, “What do you want to do if you become the clan leader?”
Ruan Shijin stood up, already having forgotten about the matter of him causing the clan leader’s death. He was currently full of fighting spirit. Now that he had come to a different world, he would lead the clan to glory and success.
“Hello elders, if I become the clan leader, I will make sure that our clan will be strengthened, and we will become the strongest race and clan on this continent. We will have endless meat to eat and won’t feel the cold, I will work hard for this goal.”
The elders were very satisfied with Ruan Shijin’s answer, after which they looked at Zhou Xu, who also stood up. Though he had no intention of becoming clan leader, when competing with Ruan Shijin, he had to win.
“I won’t talk about what I intend to do if I were to become clan leader, because I would do it even if I wasn’t the leader. First off, I don’t intend to settle for not letting our clan go hungry, but instead I want to let them eat well before even feeling hungry. Secondly, I am not going to make sure no one is cold, and will instead dress them well and comfortably on top of not being cold. And lastly, I will teach Zhou Yang the art of medicine, and I will let our clan live well and have a good house on top of eating well and wearing well. All of the things that I’ve just mentioned, I’m already working on them now. Even if someone else becomes the clan leader, I will continue to cooperate. I’m not just talking about it, but actually doing it.”
After Zhou Xu finished speaking, Elder Wei suddenly stood up and said, “I support Zhou Xu, he’s already helping us remodel our house, I believe in his abilities.”
After Elder Wei finished speaking, Zhou Yang’s teacher, who was also the doctor from before, stood up and said, “Yes, Zhou Xu’s medical skills are very good, I also support him.”
After these two elders finished speaking, almost all the elders began to support Zhou Xu.
Eventually, Zhou Xu became the new clan leader. He could see Ruan Shijin’s humiliated expression. If he had done a good job and didn’t give bad ideas, then Zhou Xu wouldn’t really care about him. After all, he also wanted to lead the clan to improve. However, he had harmed others and didn’t dare to admit it, so Zhou Xu would have to strategize.
That night, the tribe held a grand ceremony to inaugurate the new leader. Zhou Xu held his scepter high and shouted their clan’s slogan in front of all the kneeling tribesmen.
This was followed by the sacrifice to the ancestors, which Zhou Xu also completed properly as taught by the elders.
With the ritual completed, Zhou Xu really did become the head of their clan, and the first thing he had to do after becoming the clan leader was to uncover the murderer who had killed the previous leader.
Nobody expected Zhou Xu to hold a meeting of elders as soon as he finished the ritual, but looking at Zhou Xu’s appearance, it shouldn’t be a joke, so the elders followed him to the site of the meeting.
Ruan Shijin also felt a little guilty because he discovered this morning that the three bowls of beans he cooked yesterday were all gone!
At the meeting, Zhou Xu did not waste time, directly calling for Zhou Yang’s master.
“Elder Hu, tell me what caused the clan leader’s death?”
Zhou Xu’s tone was very calm, so calm that it creeped people out, it especially felt so for Ruan Shijin.
Perhaps it was fear, but Zhou Xu felt the wind blowing over was cold.
Elder Hu stood up, “The previous clan leader was poisoned.”
After that sentence, the whole place was quiet again, with an occasional breeze blowing through, which made people feel eerie.
Elder Hu continued, “The poison that killed the clan leader is called the Nine Quarters Grass, as the name implies, after the poisoning, there is no problem for nine quarters, after nine quarters, the abdominal pain begins, and the poison will quickly circulate in the bloodstream, after which the person will quickly die.”
No one had ever heard of the Nine Quarters Grass. In reality, the name was actually given by Zhou Xu.
He asked Yan He to secretly search Ruan Shijin’s house, and after finding several kinds of beans, he asked Elder Hu to do experiments. The results of these experiments soon came out, the old clan leader was poisoned by that red bean.
Once Zhou Xu knew what the bean was for, he then named it the Nine Quarters Grass. Yan He had found this bean, and they discovered that the bean’s stem and leaves were also poisonous, more toxic than its fruit, which was this red bean.
Ruan Shijin began to retreat after hearing Elder Hu’s words. He also knew he had been exposed.
Zhou Xu signaled Elder Hu, who nodded, and the old clan leader’s body was carried over.
Once again, the elders did not dare to speak as the clan leader’s face and body had turned completely purple, looking extremely terrifying.
“This is what happens after eating the Nine Quarters Grass, the whole body will decay at an accelerated rate while turning purple. The question now is, who actually gave the clan leader the Nine Quarters Grass?”
One of the elders thought about it and said, “The clan leader discussed the matter of marinated meat with us that day, but we only talked about it for an hour or so, so he should have eaten the Nine Quarters Grass before he arrived.”
Another elder agreed and said, “The elder was fine when he came, but when he left, he rubbed his stomach, and he didn’t say anything. But when he rubbed his stomach, it happened to bump into my head, which was why I noticed it.”
“He was with Shijin when he came and they left together. Shijin, do you know anything about it?”
Ruan Shijin had now retreated to the edge of the assembly, he shook his head and said, “I don’t know anything. After we went back, the clan leader started to say that his stomach hurt. I then went to fetch a doctor, but the clan leader passed away.”
Ruan Shijin spoke in a very urgent manner, giving people the impression that there was a pack of wolves chasing behind him.
Zhou Xu coldly looked at Ruan Shijin’s reaction and said, “Yan He, that night, I asked you to search Ruan Shijin’s house, what did you find?”
Yan He stepped forward, still holding three small cloth bags in his hands. He opened them, revealing three piles of beans inside.
“This is what I have found in Ruan Shijin’s house.”
