Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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7480 must admit that Zhuang Li was an extremely capable person. However, after transmigrating to this slightly supernatural little world and reading the script of the main god, it never imagined that its host might have a chance of winning this time.
Without the supernatural cheat ability, the host would find it difficult to deal with the chosen one.
“Master, why did you say Zhuang Tian’er would be unlucky? What are you going to do to her? You don’t mean to kill her, do you?” 7480 said in a panic, “Master, please don’t do anything so foolish! Zhuang Tian’er’s luck is truly extraordinary. Don’t test the law! Did you see the woman who was bitten on the butt by the dog just now?”
7480 flipped through the script with a rustling sound, its speech quickening as it spoke: “Let me tell you, there are at least ninety or a hundred unlucky people like her! Everyone who tries to hurt Zhuang Tian’er will later encounter all sorts of misfortunes. Being bitten by a dog is the least of it; some people fall into wells and drown, fall off cliffs and die, choke to death while eating, or choke to death while drinking water.”
7480 turned to the final page and whispered, “You and Zhuang Jiuge suffered the worst; you were executed by slow slicing! So you absolutely mustn’t do anything rash!”
Zhuang Li raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised by the original owner’s tragic end, but he didn’t ask a single question. The moment he arrived in this world, everything had already changed; the script written by the Supreme God was of no use whatsoever.
After waiting for ages without receiving any inquiries from the host, 7480 could only drag the thick script into a corner and hug its lonely self.
“Where is the god of this world?” It shook its head and sighed, even missing the other a little.
“I will find him.” Zhuang Li looked at the distant mountains covered in the red glow of the sunset, his gaze becoming extremely profound.
“How are you going to find him?” 7480 said worriedly. “This is not a modern society. There are no communication channels, and there is no transportation between villages. Finding someone is harder than finding a needle in a haystack.”
“Then let him come find me.” Zhuang Li smiled casually, a slight smirk playing on his lips. He wasn’t in a hurry at all, because he had already anticipated this situation.
“How will you get him to come to you?” 7480 became more and more confused.
“It’s very simple: become a well-known figure in the shortest amount of time.”
7480: “…Master, if I didn’t know you so well, I would definitely think you were bragging! How will you become a famous scholar? Will you take the imperial examination to become an official?”
“I can’t compose poems, let alone write policy essays. The path of the imperial examination is not suitable for me,” Zhuang Li shook his head in denial.
7480 was hearing for the first time that the host also had things he wasn’t good at and couldn’t help but find it very novel.
It chuckled secretly for a long time before pointing out another cruel fact: “Master, you can’t take the imperial examination even if you want to. Have you forgotten? You get a headache as soon as you look at a book.”
“I get a headache as soon as I start reading.” Zhuang Li pondered this sentence carefully, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes.
He only revealed this subtle expression when he discovered something extremely interesting, like a child invited to a game, full of enthusiasm and eager to try.
7480 was eager to know what he had discovered but kept it to itself and didn’t dare to ask. After spending a long time together, it had gained some understanding of its host. This guy was a troublemaker; the more curious you were, the more he would entice you. In short, it was best not to mess with him.
While the two leaders were exchanging thoughts, Zhuang Jiuge was craning his neck to look into the Zhuang family’s courtyard. He breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t see his grandmother’s big yellow dog and waved and called out, “Brother, come in quickly, Lu Dan has gone out to play!”
Lu Dan? Zhuang Li raised an eyebrow, still unable to match this comical name with the person in question.
However, he soon found out who Lu Dan was.
Just then, the big yellow dog that had been beaten to the ground by Old Mrs. Zhuang with a broom came out from behind the house, baring its sharp teeth and roaring at Zhuang Jiuge. Its cloudy eyes flashed with a crazed light, as if it hated this person to the extreme.
Zhuang Jiuge spread his arms to protect his brother, then took out a scallion pancake from his bosom, tore it into pieces, and threw it at the big yellow dog.
Usually the first reaction of an untrained dog to smell the aroma of food was to rush forward and snatch it. But Lu Dan’s reaction was strange. Saliva was clearly dripping from its mouth, yet it seemed afraid and avoided the scallion pancake, then let out a terrified whimper.
Seeing this, Zhuang Li raised his eyebrows, finding it quite amusing.
Zhuang Jiuge, however, seemed to be used to it. He quickly tore the remaining scallion pancakes into pieces and threw them at the big yellow dog, urging anxiously, “Brother, come inside quickly! This beast is going to go crazy again!”
After Zhuang Li stepped into the room, Zhuang Jiuge also rushed in quickly and slammed the door shut.
The two brothers peered out through the crack in the door.
Lu Dan stood amidst a pile of scallion pancake crumbs, a thick drool dripping from the corner of its mouth, its eyes filled with suppressed terror. It tried to scrape the crumbs with its four paws, but when it got close enough, it let out a low howl, as if someone had hit its head hard with a stick.
Zhuang Li’s slender eyebrows arched higher and higher, and the corners of his crimson lips curved into a very interesting arc.
Zhuang Jiuge said indignantly, “That beast is really ungrateful! Every time I feed it, it thinks I’m poisoning it! Ugh! I’m more worried about my scallion pancakes!”
As they were talking, Old Mrs. Zhuang heard the commotion and came out. Seeing the pancakes scattered all over the floor, she immediately pointed at the east wing and angrily cursed, “You damned spendthrift! You tore the pancakes to pieces and threw them on the ground again!”
“Do you think the landlord’s money grows on trees? You’re useless in your studies and good for nothing at work, all you do is waste things! Get out here and lick the cakes off the ground!”
Zhuang Jiuge couldn’t hold back any longer and retorted at the top of his lungs, “It was Lu Dan that tried to bite us, so we tore the cakes up to hit it!”
“Lu Dan doesn’t bite anyone, so why is it biting you? Did you mistreat it? Why don’t you use stones to hit it? Throwing cakes is useless!”
Grandma Zhuang, carrying a broom, went up to the door and knocked: “Come out here and clean up these pancakes. This is your dinner tonight. If you don’t eat, you’ll starve to death!”
Zhuang Jiuge was both angry and aggrieved, and choked up as he said, “Grandma, how many times have I told you, Lu Dan isn’t afraid of stones, it’s only afraid of flatbread! If you hit it with a stone, it will bite even more fiercely; if you hit it with flatbread, it will be afraid. My older brother and I study in the house every day and have never provoked it. Heaven knows why it only bites us!”
Suppressing his grievances, Zhuang Jiuge continued, “It was Zhuang Tian’er! The Lu Dan biting me and my older brother must have been at Zhuang Tian’er’s behest!”
Grandma Zhuang pounded on the door with the broom handle, roaring angrily, “Why do you always have to drag Tian’er into this? Haven’t you bullied her enough? No wonder Lu Dan bit you, you’re getting your comeuppance!”
“You good-for-nothings! All you do is spend money all day and do no work! If it weren’t for you two good-for-nothings dragging us down, our old Zhuang family would have built a three-courtyard mansion by now!”
“Over a hundred taels of silver have been wasted in six years! Who would believe that? Oh my heart! We, the Zhuang family, have committed a terrible sin! Why did we have to raise two good-for-nothings! You still want to keep taking the exams? You’ll take them for twenty or thirty years and still not pass. How much silver will that waste! We can’t live like this anymore!”
Grandma Zhuang clutched her chest and slumped down outside the door, as if she had suffered a great injustice.
Zhuang Jiuge turned his back to the door and leaned against it, tears streaming down his face.
He and his elder brother were indeed very talented when they first started studying. They passed the imperial examinations and became scholars, and it wouldn’t be difficult for them to pass the higher-level examinations after a few more years of study. Back then, their grandparents treated them very well, giving them whatever they wanted without ever asking a question, while the eldest son’s family had to take a backseat.
Unexpectedly, things changed so quickly. The two brothers both contracted a strange illness. One suffered from headaches when reading, and the other from hand pain when writing, thus ending their path to the imperial examinations.
Zhuang Tian’er, however, somehow gained the reputation of being a lucky star, and everything went smoothly for her. She even won over their grandparents.
The second branch’s life was getting harder every day, and she was on the verge of falling out with the first wife and her grandparents.
He knew nothing but studying. What else could he do if he didn’t continue taking the imperial examinations? Was he supposed to go to the city and work as an accountant for someone else? The more Zhuang Jiuge thought about it, the more hopeless his future seemed, and his tears fell even harder.
Zhuang Li sat lazily by the window, one hand supporting his chin, the other tapping the table, watching everything with a smile.
A soft voice came from outside the door: “Grandma, don’t cry. The neighbors are all hiding outside, laughing at our family.”
“If we’re going to watch anything, it’ll be to laugh at these two good-for-nothings!” Old Mrs. Zhuang stood up, leaning on her broom, her face devoid of tears, only dry wailing.
“Grandma, I’m going to bring water to Mom and Dad, and I’ll also go to the mountains to dig up some wild vegetables. Would you like to come with me?” Zhuang Tian’er’s cheerful voice peeked through the crack in the door.
“Okay, Grandma will go get a basket. We’ll pick up a rabbit on the way back.” Grandma Zhuang started walking, her face, which had been gloomy just moments before, was now beaming with joy.
The area outside the gate quickly became quiet. After a while, a creaking sound came from not far away. Zhuang Tian’er and Grandma Zhuang opened the gate and went out.
Inside the room, Zhuang Jiuge sobbed, his shoulders hunched, growing increasingly heartbroken. His eyes were red and swollen from rubbing, making him look like a rabbit. He was only fourteen years old, still young, and this was the only way he could vent his frustrations.
Zhuang Li rested his chin on his hand and smiled at him, offering no words of comfort. Only after he had finished crying did he casually say, “Let’s go, brother will help you treat your Lu Dan.”
“How do we treat it? Beat it up?” Zhuang Jiuge raised his face, which was covered in snot and tears.
Zhuang Li smiled without saying a word, then opened the door and went out.
Thinking that the crazy Lu Dan was still in the yard, Zhuang Jiuge hurriedly chased after him, fearing that his brother would be harmed.
However, after turning the corner, his anxious expression turned to surprise. He saw his elder brother squatting on the ground, staring at Lu Dan, which was baring its sharp teeth.
Lu Dan’s barking gradually calmed down from its frenzied state and then became completely silent, all in just a few moments. After ceasing its barking, it slowly squatted down, looked at its brother, and after a while, seeing that its brother still did not move, it lay down.
Zhuang Jiuge tiptoed to her brother’s side and silently mouthed, “Brother, how did you do that?”
He had never seen such an obedient Lu Dan.
Only then did Zhuang Li reach out, grasp the donkey’s front paw, and flip it over completely, belly up, paws in the air, continuing to stare into its eyes.
Lu Dan struggled for only a moment before being drawn to those deep, dark eyes, falling into a daze, then closing its eyelids and slowly falling asleep.
Zhuang Li released his grip, and Lu Dan continued to sleep on its back.
Zhuang Li counted to twenty in his mind and then snapped his fingers.
Lu Dan suddenly woke up, kicking its four paws haphazardly for a while before finally turning over and looking at the two humans squatting in front of it.
Zhuang Jiuge gasped in fright and immediately raised his hands to protect his head and face, fearing he would be bitten.
But something strange happened. Lu Dan looked at the two of them with clear eyes, twitched its nose and let out a soft, coquettish whimper. Then it scrambled up and circled around them, occasionally rubbing its belly against their legs. As it rubbed against them, it was captivated by a delicious aroma and ran happily to the crumbs in the yard, licking them clean.
Zhuang Jiuge stared in disbelief, muttering, “How did Lu Dan change? No, it didn’t change. It was like this when it first came to our house. It’s normal now. Brother, what did you do to it?”
He quickly turned to look at his older brother, his eyes filled with urgent question marks.
7480: “…Master, do you know magic?”
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