Ch12 – Invitation
The tribe’s collective hunts took place every other day, so there was no group hunt today. As the tribal chief, Xiong He began to take this opportunity to deal with some administrative matters within the tribe.
For example, reassigning caves.
Some people had decided to live together, so the extra caves could be given to others to live in, and there were some people who had reached adulthood and needed to be assigned new caves.
Over the years, the population of the Big Bear Tribe had been growing constantly. Although they dug out new caves every year, there still wasn’t enough for them all to live in individually. Because of this, those who couldn’t participate in the hunts were never given a cave of their own.
And when they talked about those who couldn’t participate in hunts, they really meant Zhou Ji.
After Zhou’s mother died, Xiong He had never taken back the cave that had been allocated to his mother out of sympathy. However, it had already been two months.
People like Zhou Ji who couldn’t take part in the hunts should live in the collective cave.
The people of the Big Bear Tribe went to bed early and woke up early, so Xiong He came to find Zhou Ji just after daybreak to tell him about this matter.
Zhou Ji: “……” He hadn’t known that the tribe had a rule like this…
“Zhou Ji, can you understand what I’m saying?” Xiong He was a little concerned as he asked Zhou Ji this. Zhou Ji had been a fool from childhood, and he was worried that Zhou Ji hadn’t understood his words.
Zhou Ji nodded. Although he hadn’t fully learned the language of this tribe because he rarely associated with other people, he was still able to understand what Xiong He was saying.
After working so hard for so many years in a post-apocalyptic world, he hadn’t really wanted to do much after arriving in this world, so his performance had always been very passive.
As for killing dinosaurs…Dinosaurs were so cute, why did he have to kill them?! Okay, fine. Dinosaurs weren’t actually cute. He was simply sick of cutting apart zombies, and not only did he not want to take action, he was also unable to do so.
However, he hadn’t expected that he would lose his own cave because of this.
“You’ll be moving to the cave below, and someone will take care of you.” Xiong He continued. The cave where the tribe’s elderly, weak, sick, and disabled lived was just under Zhou Ji’s cave.
In his opinion, it wasn’t a bad thing for Zhou Ji to go and live there. After all, Zhou Ji looked like he needed to be taken care of.
Zhou Ji’s brow furrowed slightly. It wasn’t possible for him to live with others. During the end of the world, he had slaughtered zombies constantly, remaining alert at all times, and couldn’t sleep at all if there was anyone near him. Also… the cave where the people of the tribe lived together was too dirty.
He had been dirty for so many years after the apocalypse that he really wanted to stay clean now!
“Zhou Ji, can you move out today?” Xiong He asked again.
Zhou Ji replied, “Yes.” Although he didn’t want to live with other people, he also felt bad about staying here and occupying a cave by himself. Really, he could sleep in the place the tribe used to store firewood, or if that didn’t work, he could build himself a shed to sleep in.
Seeing that Zhou Ji had agreed, Xiong He asked the idle children around the tribe to help Zhou Ji move his things.
There were many things in Zhou Ji’s cave, and they were all things that Zhou Ji’s mother had left for him. These things were brought out from the cave one by one and placed on the floor of the valley.
“These things all belong to Zhou Ji, you guys shouldn’t mess around!” Xiong He called out to restrain one of the children who was going through Zhou Ji’s things and felt a bit worried–Zhou Ji had quite a lot of things, and he was also a little silly. Would these things get snatched away by others after he moved into the collective cave?
Although robbery was forbidden in the tribe, it was impossible that a rule would keep everyone in check.
Even as Xiong He was worrying, other people from the tribe were full of envy, “There are so many animal hides!”
“There are weapons and salt too!”
“There’s so many stone bowls!”
“Zhou Ji’s mother left behind a lot of good things for him…”
……
The ordinary people in the tribe were full of envy when they saw Zhou Ji’s belongings. Needless to say, it was the same for Yang Ying and Yang Su.
When Yang Ying came to the tribe, she didn’t have any possessions. Although she had saved up some things in recent years, there was still very little. At the very least, she only had a few animal hides that could be used–the majority of her supplies was dinosaur leather, which couldn’t be used at all.
At this moment, Yang Ying’s eyes were red with greed, and Yang Su’s expression was also very ugly.
And it was also at this time that Xiong Ye got out of bed.
Xiong Ye habitually woke up early, but he had slept in today.
The meat that Zhou Ji had given him yesterday had been extremely delicious; it was particularly fragrant and tasted a little sweet. He had never eaten something so good, so even though he had clearly already eaten ten kilograms of meat last night, he still managed to finish all of Zhou Ji’s meat.
Then, presumably because he was very full, he slept especially well and only woke up after the sky turned bright.
He came out of his cave and saw Zhou Ji standing in the middle of a pile of belongings at a glance.
The animal skins on Zhou Ji’s body were wrapped up severely as usual, his hair had been cut short, and his face and hands were particularly clean. He didn’t have any stubble on his face at all and looked very tender…
Xiong Ye hadn’t paid much attention to Zhou Ji before, but now that he was looking closely at him in the morning light, he finally discovered that Zhou Ji was very attractive, even more so than Shi Li–Shi Li wasn’t as pale as Zhou Ji!
He was also very tall and in good shape… This wasn’t surprising. Zhou Ji’s mother had been so good to him and had never let him starve, so he would naturally grow to be tall.
However, although Zhou Ji was good looking, Xiong Ye’s attention was soon drawn away from Zhou Ji’s body–He had noticed Shi Li.
Shi Li and Lang Yin were standing together, and Lang Yin’s scent was on his body.
The two of them had really spent the night together yesterday.
Before, even if Xiong Ye had seen Shi Li enter Lang Yin’s cave, he had still held onto a little hope for Shi Li inside his heart. However, now that he could smell the scents on Shi Li’s body, his heart sank all the way to his stomach.
Yet, after sinking all the way down, he also inexplicably relaxed.
Since he was standing on higher ground, Xiong Ye noticed Shi Li, but Shi Li didn’t see Xiong Ye.
He was in a bad mood at the moment because he had suddenly learned last night that Lang Yin had already been with others before.
Lang Yin didn’t feel like it was a problem at all. Men and women would both have needs after reaching adulthood; so what if she’d been with other people before?
However, Shi Li was very unhappy about it.
Lang Yin said that she liked him, but in fact, had already been with others before. What did that mean? Back then, when Xiong Ye had said that he liked him, he had loved him wholeheartedly. Even if there were many women who expressed interest in Xiong Ye, Xiong Ye hadn’t agreed to be with a single one of them.
Furthermore, being with Lang Yin hadn’t been as pleasurable as he had imagined it would be. It was totally not as exciting as it had been when he and Xiong Ye had slept together for the first time.
From Shi Li’s perspective, nothing about last night had been pleasant. As a result, he woke up early the next morning and came across the matter of Zhou Ji moving out.
Shi Li still had some impressions of the events that had taken place today in his previous life. At that time, he had also been envious of the amount of belongings Zhou Ji had and had made some comments about it in front of Xiong Ye. Xiong Ye had then replied that they would definitely also be able to have that many things in the future…
He had been jealous of Zhou Ji back then, but a mere two days later, Zhou Ji’s things had all been ‘taken away’ by other people.
After that, Zhou Ji had probably been bullied and was no longer willing to live in the collective cave. He had gone to live in the tribe’s firewood shed instead.
That shed leaked from all sides and was piled up with firewood that had just been picked up from outside the valley and hadn’t been dried, which made the shed extremely humid. Living in a place like that was uncomfortable, but Zhou Ji still moved in and stayed there for two months until his father came looking for him.
The powerful Beast King discovered that his son was living in such a rundown place and became enraged on the spot, but Zhou Ji had held him back. Then, on the second day, Zhou Ji had left with his father, and Shi Li never saw Zhou Ji again.
Zhou Ji’s father had been very strong, and his power level was about the same Shi Li’s before he passed away, but this person had died very early on – just two years after he had taken Zhou Ji away. It was precisely because of this that the original Shi Li didn’t have much respect for him.
However, after two days of careful consideration, Shi Li felt that his previous thoughts had been incorrect.
Even if Zhou Ji’s father would die in the future, he was currently still a Beast King and might be useful to him now.
Shi Li walked towards Zhou Ji and asked, “Zhou Ji, have you decided where you want to live?”
“Shi Li, what kind of question is that? Of course Zhou Ji is going to live in the collective cave.” Xiong He didn’t hesitate before speaking up.
“Zhou Ji, are you sure you want to live in the collective cave?” Shi Li asked Zhou Ji again.
“I don’t want to live in the collective cave.” Zhou Ji replied slowly.
“If you don’t want to live in the collective cave, how about I build a house for you?” Shi Li asked, “You can build a house with wood.” They had a shed in the tribe and didn’t have any houses, but other tribes did. Even though Shi Li had never built one, he had at least seen them before and felt that he could have the people of the tribe put one together for Zhou Ji.
Zhou Ji was a little doubtful when he heard Shi Li’s words.
He had lived next door to Shi Li for a month and a half. Yang Su really disliked him, and Shi Li had ignored him. How come he was being so kind now and offering to build a house for him all of a sudden?
Zhou Ji had doubts, but Xiong Ye actually found it even more suspicious.
Shi Li had never had the patience to do things. Why would he suddenly want to help someone build a house?
What on earth was he trying to do?
Xiong Ye came out of his cave, went down to the valley, and then noticed that the gaze Shi Li was using to look at Zhou Ji was a little eager.
Xiong Ye understood Shi Li very well. Seeing Shi Li’s current expression, he could tell that Shi Li was interested in Zhou Ji.
What part of Zhou Ji had caught Shi Li’s attention? Xiong Ye’s gaze also moved to Zhou Ji’s face.
Zhou Ji was really quite good looking. It was different from the rest of the people in the tribe; his skin was paler than Lang Yin’s and even more delicate.
Had Shi Li… taken a fancy to Zhou Ji?
If this event had occurred in the past, Xiong Ye would never have made this kind of guess about Shi Li no matter what, firmly believing that Shi Li wasn’t such a person. But now, Shi Li and Lang Yin’s scents had mingled together.
“You can use stones, dirt, and wood to make four walls, and then add a roof on top to make a house…” Shi Li was describing the houses he knew, and while he was still speaking, he suddenly heard Xiong Ye’s voice, “Zhou Ji, would you like to live with me?”
Xiong Ye was inviting Zhou Ji to live together with him? Shi Li immediately frowned at Xiong Ye.
Xiong He was also a little surprised and asked Xiong Ye, “Won’t it be inconvenient?” Single men in the tribe might live together because there weren’t enough caves, but it was actually very inconvenient to do so as it made it troublesome for them to find partners.
“It’s fine. My cave is very big.” Xiong Ye replied, then looked towards Zhou Ji again, “Do you want to live with me?”
Zhou Ji hadn’t expected Xiong Ye to invite him to live together and looked at Xiong Ye with some surprise. He thought about it, then nodded and agreed, “Alright.”
He felt that he knew too little about this world. It would probably be better if he interacted with others more in order to learn more about this place.
And Xiong Ye was a very suitable person to interact with–Xiong Ye understood many things, and he could come to understand this world better through Xiong Ye.
As for the fact that he wasn’t used to having someone around when he slept… He couldn’t adapt to having many people near him, but if it was only one person, he could accept it once he became familiar with them. Not to mention, he had ways to make sure Xiong Ye wouldn’t disturb him.
Of course, the main reason why he agreed was because he didn’t want his abilities to be exposed to others. He also didn’t want to interact with that lion who was clearly a little strange.
Xiong Ye was different. Even when others in the tribe didn’t go out hunting or gathering, Xiong Ye would still run around everywhere, leaving him alone in the cave and making it convenient for him to do whatever he wanted.