Chapter 20   Niu Er

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

In his previous life, Shi Li and Xiong Ye had gone through decades of ups and downs together.

He knew that Xiong Ye liked him, liked him so much. However, after becoming Beast Kings and living more and more comfortably, he inevitably began to think differently. His eyes started to wander, and he became interested in other people, but Xiong Ye never did.

Xiong Ye’s gaze had always been pinned on him.

Shi Li didn’t intend to tie himself to Xiong Ye for a lifetime after his rebirth, but he couldn’t deny that Xiong Ye still held a special place in his heart. However, now, Xiong Ye was acting so intimately with someone else.

Shi Li found it a little unacceptable and wanted to go over and stop it, but there were quite a lot of people around Xiong Ye. They surrounded Xiong Ye and the injured man, making it so that he couldn’t get close.

Shi Li was rather angry, but at this time, the priest began to drive everyone around him back, “You guys should stay away from Niu Er!”

“Grandpa Priest, will Niu Er be able to get better now that he’s woken up?” Xiong Ye asked again.

“I don’t know.” The priest said, “Take him back to your cave and take good care of him.”

Niu Er was twenty six years old and wasn’t that young anymore, but he was a little reticent and his looks were average. Although his animal form was big, his fighting ability wasn’t very strong, and he hadn’t really caught the interest of any of the women in the tribe. He lived alone since he didn’t have a partner.

They couldn’t let him live on his own now that he was injured.

“Alright.” Xiong Ye nodded. He hoisted Niu Er onto his back and prepared to leave.

“Xiong Ye!” Shi Li frowned at Xiong Ye, “Are you going to bring him back? Aren’t you worried that he’ll...” Shi Li had already been very dissatisfied with Xiong Ye bringing Zhou Ji home, but Zhou Ji had his Beast King father as a backer, so he couldn’t offend Zhou Ji. He also knew that Xiong Ye had dug out two caves, so he had held back.

However, Niu Er...

Unless something unexpected happened, Niu Er wouldn’t make it. He didn’t want anyone to die in Xiong Ye’s cave.

Shi Li didn’t say it clearly, but his meaning was obvious. Xiong Ye’s expression turned ugly at once, but he didn’t have time to quarrel with Shi Li at the moment. After giving Shi Li a cold glance, he carried Niu Er into his cave, put him down, then came out again to get medicine from the priest.

When he returned with the medicine, Zhou Ji had already returned to the cave.

Zhou Ji didn’t like Niu Er. More precisely, he didn’t like how Niu Er smelled.

The rotten wound made him smell like a zombie. Although he had gotten used to it in his last life, he still really hated it.

His lack of interest in stale meat was also related to this.

However, he didn’t have any objections to Xiong Ye bringing Niu Er back even if he didn’t like Niu Er’s scent.

This man had been about to die. It was normal for Xiong Ye to want to save him.

“Should I move out?” Zhou Ji asked. Xiong Ye had taken him in because he had pitied him, but it seemed that the person lying there now was even more pitiful.

“No need. Niu Er will just be recovering from his injuries in my cave for a few days.” Xiong Ye replied. His voice sounded a little different when he spoke due to the stuffiness of his nose.

“Oh.” Zhou Ji nodded. He didn’t like Niu Er’s scent, but if he was going to be particular about it, this smell could be found in other places, too. This kind of rotten meat smell was even stronger in the collective cave that people of the tribe lived in–these people were really no good at preserving their food!

Xiong Ye didn’t have time to concern himself with Zhou Ji right now. He placed Niu Er in the brightest place in the cave and planned to administer medicine to him again.

Zhou Ji spoke up, “His wound has started festering. Should we clean it up and remove the rotten parts?” He felt that it was necessary to improve his living environment however he could.

“That’s right.” Xiong Ye said, “Grandpa Priest said before that rotting flesh should be cut off.”

“Then why wasn’t it cut out before?” Zhou Ji asked. Earlier, the priest hadn’t had any intention of doing so.

“Grandpa Priest taught me these things before, so I know how to do it.” Xiong Ye replied. He picked up a stone knife and prepared to cut.

Zhou Ji interjected, “... That knife is dirty. Shouldn’t you wash it in hot water first? His body also needs to be washed.”

In fact, Xiong Ye was a little frantic right now.

Although Niu Er had woken up for a while, he had soon closed his eyes again. He still had a fever, and he was so thin...

He knew that Niu Er was going to die.

Because of this, he was left not knowing what to do... Zhou Ji told him to cut out the rotting flesh, and he had agreed. Now that Zhou Ji said to wash Niu Er first... then he would wash Niu Er clean first.

Xiong Ye followed Zhou Ji’s instructions and put a pot of water over the fire to boil, tossing the knife into the water to boil it, then cleaned Niu Er’s body with hot water.

Dinosaur leather could barely be used as clothing and couldn’t be used as a towel. Xiong Ye used a dried giant luffa gourd with its seeds already removed to clean Niu Er; it looked a bit like a scouring ball, and Zhou Ji felt that wiping this thing against skin must be very painful.

Xiong Ye spoke while wiping, “He’s actually my elder brother. We have the same father.”

“Before, in the winter, it was too cold, and I was too hungry to hibernate, so he turned into his animal form and let me sleep next to his stomach.”

“After he reached adulthood and joined the hunting team, he would give me good food to eat”

......

After Niu Er died, he would return to the Beast God’s embrace, and few people would remember him. Xiong Ye felt very miserable just thinking about it.

“Oh.” Zhou Ji had been listening very seriously and would occasionally reply with a few words, asking about the situation in the tribe as he paid attention to Niu Er’s present situation.

Niu Er seemed able to withstand all the tossing and turning; the crystal core in his body showed no signs of continued collapse.

After Xiong Ye finished cleaning Niu Er and scraped off the rotting flesh from his body with the stone knife, Zhou Ji told Xiong Ye to go and wash the pot, then took out his own knife to chop up a bit of elephant bird meat. He put the meat and some vegetables into the pot and cooked a pot of soup, then had Xiong Ye feed it to Niu Er.

“Can he eat right now?” Xiong Ye was a little dazed–Niu Er hadn’t woken up.

“Yes. Open his mouth and pour it in.” Zhou Ji said. This ox probably hadn’t eaten anything in two days, and he wouldn’t be able to get better if he didn’t eat. “Prop him up before you feed him.” So that the food wouldn’t end up in his trachea.

Xiong Ye listened to his instructions and clumsily began to feed Niu Er.

“How much do you want to eat tonight?” Zhou Ji was preparing to roast some meat for Xiong Ye.

“About this much.” Xiong Ye drew out a shape that looked to be about five kilos large, then frowned. “Did you eat during the day today?”

“I ate.” Zhou Ji replied as he cut off five kilos of meat, then began roasting it.

Although Zhou Ji said that, Xiong Ye looked at the meat that was still exactly the same size as in the morning and felt a little bad.

When Xiong Ye finished feeding Niu Er, Zhou Ji had already finished roasting the meat. Xiong Ye immediately tore it in two and gave half of it to Zhou Ji, “You should eat some too. Otherwise, you won’t have any energy.”

“I don’t like to eat stale food.” Zhou Ji said.

Xiong Ye: “......” How could Zhou Ji still be alive if he was so picky about food?

Zhou Ji must be using this as an excuse to refuse him so that he could leave the meat for him to eat! However, wouldn’t Zhou Ji feel humiliated if he exposed his lies?

Xiong Ye was a little worried, but he suddenly recalled that amongst the prey the hunting team had caught today, there had been a snake.

Zhou Ji had said before that he didn’t like to eat dinosaur meat, but he was willing to eat snakes.

Today, Xiong He hadn’t even shouted for everyone when the tribe was distributing the meat.

Everyone went to fetch their meat and ate in silence, and nobody said anything even though there was very little meat today.

Over two dozen people from the tribe had died at the same time. Everyone felt bad, but they still had to live on...

Xiong Ye obtained the snake from Xiong He and brought it back to the cave, handing it to Zhou Ji as he said, “This is fresh prey that was caught today.”

“Thank you.” Zhou Ji said. He cooked snake soup and ate half of it, leaving the rest for Xiong Ye to feed to Niu Er.

Niu Er needed to eat more. As for him, he had really eaten a lot during the day, and he had specifically eaten plants that were abundant in energy.

After eating, Zhou Ji went back to his ‘room’.

Xiong Ye wouldn’t come to disturb him, so he snacked a bit on plants while he used his spiritual powers to keep an eye on Niu Er.

Beastmen had very strong vitality. The state of Niu Er’s body had been getting steadily improving ever since his crystal core had stabilized.

He was now very curious about the beastmen’s crystal cores. Humans took zombies’ crystal cores as spoils of war and used them after they killed the zombies, but beastmen’s crystal cores were different and would shatter when they died...

The beastmen in this place probably didn’t even know that they had crystal cores inside their bodies.

Zhou Ji had used up all of his spiritual power on Niu Er, but when he woke up the next day, he was once again suffused with energy.

Energy was really too plentiful in this place!

That morning, Zhou Ji was the first to wake up, but he didn’t go out. Niu Er, who Xiong Ye had been placed near the fire at the entrance of the cave, soon followed suit and woke up, making some noise as he did so.

Zhou Ji didn’t move–Xiong Ye should wake up soon.

Sure enough, Xiong Ye quickly woke up and came out, “Niu Er, you’re awake?”

Niu Er looked at Xiong Ye. His voice was hoarse, “Xiong Ye......”

“How do you feel? I’ll bring you to go see the priest!” Xiong Ye immediately said.

Niu Er: “I want to use the toilet...”

Only after Xiong Ye had carried Niu Er away did Zhou Ji emerge from his room. He roasted meat while boiling soup, and even before he’d finished, Xiong Ye had returned with Niu Er on his back, “Zhou Ji! Niu Er is alright! He’ll be fine with a few days of rest!”

“Congratulations.” Zhou Ji said.

“The priest asked me to stay and take care of Niu Er, so I won’t participate in the hunt today. I’ll go down to the riverside later to take a look and catch you some fish.” Xiong Ye continued. Since Zhou Ji was still unwilling to eat meat, he would take some time and catch some fish. To him, catching fish wasn’t anything difficult.

“It’s good for injured people to have fish soup.” Zhou Ji was very much in agreement as he handed the roasted meat in his hand to Xiong Ye.

Xiong Ye shot Zhou Ji a grateful look.

Before, when Shi Li had suddenly changed his mind, and his heart had been in turmoil, Zhou Ji had kept him company.

Yesterday, when Niu Er had almost died, and his heart had once again been in turmoil, Zhou Ji had still kept him company again.

Although Zhou Ji didn’t like to talk and was very weak, he was really very good! And he wasn’t as stupid as he’d first thought!

xiin: learned something today... luffa sponges are VEGETABLES

Juurensha: Luffa sponges are delicious vegetables! Cook them with egg and some dried shrimp!