Face-Slapping the genius from another world (5.1)
Editor: chestnutwhale
Zhou Xu felt that he couldn’t communicate with Yan He, so he was too lazy to continue talking with him. Besides, he was very busy at the moment. The matter of constructing houses was not something that could be solved in a day or two.
His brain was full of matters concerning houses, so Zhou Xu didn’t intend on going to Yan He’s house on that day. Also, Yan He’s sleeping habit was really too dishonest. If he became hard again, he felt like he would go mad. He did not like using his own hands to deal with his physiological needs.
With this in mind, Zhou Xu walked towards his own house. However, midway, he was caught by Yan He.
Zhou Xu looked at Yan He with a frown. Because his strength was too big, Zhou Xu’s wrist hurt a little.
Only to hear Yan He say, ” Why aren’t you going to my house?”
Pulling his hand away, Zhou Xu said, “Like you’ve said, it’s your house. My house is the other way.”
“Are you angry because I made you suffer yesterday?” Yan He said expressionlessly.
Zhou Xu had originally wanted to say that nothing happened the day before, and that it was just him teasing Yan He. However, looking at his serious face, Zhou Xu changed his mind at the last moment once again. He answered with a nod, “Yes, it hurts a lot. That’s why I’m very angry. I’m going back, bye.”
After talking, Zhou Xu really turned to leave, leaving Yan He’s icy expression. To be honest, inside, he was also at a loss for what to do.
In the evening, Zhou Xu continued to busy himself, thinking about the matter of constructing houses. At the same time, he remembered that last time he’d seen a stalk wild wheat amidst the grass. This kind of wheat probably could be processed, and that would not only improve its harvest, but also its taste.
The key problem was, Zhou Xu had only seen it at a glance, and hadn’t paid attention to it at the time. He wasn’t sure if he could find the wheat again.
In addition, Zhou Xu also needed to find some herbs, including several medicinal herbs. He still wasn’t sure if they existed in this world.
There were too many matters at hand, however he wouldn’t stress over them, because Zhou Xu was very good at coping with pressure. Moreover, he only needed to do these things in a down-to-earth manner, and didn’t need to worry about the results. Because even if he were to fail, he was still the lucky god of the tribe and would not be unable to make a living.
After a busy day, Zhou Xu continued to busy himself after returning home. It was only after working well into the night that he decided to sleep, but when he turned his head, he discovered that unexpectedly, Yan He was also there.
“When did you arrive?”
“Quite some time ago. I knocked on the door but you didn’t hear me, and after I came in, I noticed that you were busy so I kept silent.” Though Yan He’s expression appeared the same as it usually, Zhou Xu could see that his answer was very careful, almost as if Yan He were afraid that he would be chased away.
“Oh, then why did you come?” As he spoke, Zhou Xu tidied his bed.
Yan He took out the object in his hand and put it on the table, before saying, “I asked Zhou Yang for some medicine. After putting it on, your bottom won’t hurt as much.”
Zhou Xu sighed deeply and said, “Okay, put it there, I will use it.”
Yan He nodded, but he did not leave.
Zhou Xu looked at him, and Yan He also looked at Zhou Xu. In the end, it was Zhou Xu who gave up first, and he asked, “Do you have anything else to say?”
“None, I only want to ask you, does it really hurt a lot? Does it mean we can’t do it anymore in the future?”
Zhou Xu answered seriously, “That’s right.”
After Yan He left, Zhou Xu really had no more energy nor words to say, so he went to bed and fell into a deep slumber.
The next day, when Zhou Xu woke up, he went to the clinic to examine Han Xun. He discovered that Han Xun was already a lot better and that Zhou Yang also seemed to be more energetic. After telling them what to watch out for Zhou Xu began to teach Zhou Yang some modern medical knowledge.
The morning passed quickly. In the afternoon, Zhou Xu went to work on the matter of house construction again. On the way, he saw Ruan Shijin was still harvesting beans.
Because of Ruan Shijin’s relationship, Zhou Xu also paid attention to it.
It turned out what Ruan Shijin was collecting were soybeans. Although it was a little different from the one from the modern world, it should still be beneficial for this world’s development if it could be grown.
In reality, there were a lot of crops in this world. Almost all the crops of the modern world were present. Zhou Xu recognized most of them, but Ruan Shijin didn’t recognize many.
In his actual world, Ruan Shijin hadn’t originally liked animals and plants. The balcony of his home was always empty. When he was given a cactus, the type that wouldn’t die despite being watered once a month, he could still make it die. Because after he received the cactus, after watering it once, he left it on the balcony and forgot about it. The drought-resistant cactus was thus killed by drought.
That was also why, after Ruan Shijin arrived, he didn’t involve himself with any crops, instead teaching people to dry things with salt, which could already be considered pretty good.
Because after retrieving salt, he also taught the clansmen how to marinate meat. That way, they wouldn’t have to worry too much in winter.
Fortunately there wasn’t a need to recognize soybeans, one look at it and one would know, otherwise Ruan Shijin still would not know what it was.
There was no female lead in this world, and it was basically about Ruan Shijin leading the clansmen towards success one step at a time. This also saved Zhou Xu a lot of energy, because most of the time, when women became ruthless, they wouldn’t be any worse than the male protagonist.
Zhou Xu did not pay attention to Ruan Shijin. Instead, he suddenly decided to look for another elder of the clan.
This clan elder was called Wei Xin, and he was the one responsible for construction within the clan. Everyday he was as busy as a bee. One moment, this family’s house collapsed, and another, the roof of the other family’s house broke. That was why he was practically the busiest elder in the clan.
When he found him, Wei Xin was guiding two of his apprentices in repairing someone’s roof.
Wei Xin looked at the work at hand. In the end, he still decided to go down.
“Speak quickly. I’m busy, very very busy.” Even when he spoke, Wen Xin was very fast. One look and you could tell that he was an impatient person.
“Elder Wei, you should sit. I have a plan I’d like to share with you.”
“Plan? What plan? If you have one, then speak quickly. I still need to repair three roofs today. Don’t waste my time, speak quickly, quickly.”
Zhou Xu then quickly told his plan for building houses. There were obviously still many things that needed to be solved in the middle, but Zhou Xu felt that he couldn’t work on his own. So he’d suddenly decided to look for Elder Wei.
At first, Zhou Xu’s plan was to solve all the problems and then go back to Elder Wei’s construction team, but Zhou Xu had too much to do, and if he really had to do everything himself, then he might be working himself to death.
After Elder Wei heard what Zhou Xu had to say, he thought for half a day. He turned his head to look at the huts he built. In the end, he clapped once and said, “Alright, think hard. When you figure out how to make it, come and tell me.”
Zhou Xu was at a loss for words.
The reason he told Wei Xin was because he had wanted for him to solve the problem of rocks and slurry and such. But in the end, he still ended up being the one having to go home and think about it.
Looking at his head full of white hair, Zhou Xu waved his hand to call down Wei Xin’s two apprentices. After telling them the plan, Zhou Xu directly gave them orders, “In the next two days, you guys should try and figure how to make slurry. You’ll also need to think about how to make the grass added in the slurry remain strong and not rot. Think about it carefully, and the day after tomorrow, I’ll come over to inspect it. If I don’t see any results, I’ll tell the clan leader to withhold a winter’s worth of meat from you two.”
As soon as they heard the last sentence, the two disciples became obedient in an instant. “Yes, Elder Zhou, we will definitely think about it carefully.”
Zhou Xu nodded and left.
In reality, this kind of hut wasn’t hard to build. What made it difficult was the issue of slurry. This slurry had the same role as cement does in modern buildings. The key point was that there was no cement here. Therefore, they could only try their best to make the mud waterproof after drying and give it the ability to fix stones in place.
Zhou Xu already gave them a direction, which was to add that hay to the mud. What they would have to do is to actually experiment to see if the slurry he’d thought of was solid or not in the end, and if it could be used.
At last, Zhou Xu had set this matter aside, or at least, for now. The day was still early, so Zhou Xu decided to visit the vicinity, looking for wild wheat. If he could find it, and if it was planted now, perhaps it could be harvested once before winter.
In reality, there was another reason why Zhou Xu was so concerned about this matter. Most of the clansmen ate meat. This kind of food, cereal and vegetables, were rarely eaten. In the long run, their physiques would change, and they would be more likely to get sick.
It was just like how sailors on a long trip would experience changes in their body if their vitamin intake wasn’t enough, getting sick and dying.
So what Zhou Xu wanted was not just to solve the problem of the clan’s sustenance, but also the issue regarding the clan’s diet.
Not long after he left, Zhou Xu found several vegetables, even garlic.
Although these vegetables grew very short due to the surrounding grass, the outcome wouldn’t be bad if an area was allocated to cultivate them.
In addition, at that small patch where the garlic grew, the garlic had already matured. One could directly harvest some, while leaving some behind. The harvested ones could be used when cooking meat, and remove its metallic taste.
Continuing forward, Zhou Xu stood in front of a plant and looked at it as if he’d discovered a treasure. He crouched down and looked at the tiny white flowers, then decided to mark the spot, because if the flowers were still there, it meant the potatoes underneath hadn’t matured yet.
Yes, the short and small plant was a potato.
Once again continuing forward, Zhou Xu was still looking for the wild wheat, which was his ultimate goal.
But no matter how he looked for it, he couldn’t find it. There was no road at all in the forest, and no matter how good Zhou Xu’s memory was, he couldn’t remember the specific area where the wheat was.
His vision also started to blur, and the sky darkened.
It was only then Zhou Xu was shocked to realize that he had entered the depths of the forest. The forest at night was too dangerous. All kinds of fierce beasts roamed. Even if it was a random wild boar that came out, it could still probably kill someone.
His whole body started to tremble. Zhou Xu’s perception of danger was extremely sharp, but in the crisis-ridden night forest, this sharpness would instead be detrimental to him. All kinds of dangers were intertwined, causing Zhou Xu’s perception to have problems.
Zhou Xu quickly headed home as he shouldn’t stay there too long.
Trying to control his perception, Zhou Xu strode in the direction he came from.
As time went by, Zhou Xu trotted for an hour. And an hour later, Zhou Xu discovered that he still did not walk out of the forest, and it was all dark around him.
T/N : I’m late again…. >.< FF14’s fault! MMORPGs are so time-consuming T^T Anyway, here’s chapter 79.1.
Because of school and a growing disinterest for novels, flōzen has decided to stop translating. I’m translating alone once again. I’ll probably look for a co-tl again in the following weeks. (Arc 10 is culvation world T________________T)
