Chapter 10

"Still haven’t gone to thank Uncle Ganzi? In the future, if you become the leader, you must remember the good things Uncle Ganzi has done for you…."

Ganzi’s cheeks crinkled into a smile, almost blooming with laughter. Facing the robust mother of Dazhao, he flattered her incessantly. The woman, with a stern and unsmiling face, was the highest-ranking woman in the Heizhao tribe. Ganzi wasn’t afraid of her, but he wouldn’t dare to offend her either. Besides, today he had only done a small favor, and receiving Dazhao’s gratitude was a pleasant surprise.

Dazhao, unlike his arrogant and wild demeanor from yesterday, had a wooden and dull expression. He took a step forward, extended his right hand, and stuffed something into Ganzi’s hand. Ganzi felt the shape and hardness, and the corners of his eyes crinkled with even more joy. A single mongjiao (a type of horn) was already a generous reward. He added, somewhat redundantly, "Sanzhao will be grateful for the roasted meat you gave him. In the future, I’ll find an opportunity to tell him that it was you who gave him the roasted meat, to make the relationship between Dazhao and Sanzhao closer…."

"Hehe…." Dazhao’s mother let out a dry, forced laugh. Her voice was like that of a dehydrated old tree bark, more grating than the caw of an old crow, making Ganzi shudder involuntarily.

"No need. I’ll tell him myself. No matter what, he still has to call me Aunt. I’ve wronged him in the past, and I must make it up to him in the future…." The last few words were gritted out, filled with indescribable hatred. Ganzi shrank his head, secretly wary. This woman was as petty as ever. Thinking of the unsuspecting Gaofeng, he felt a crocodile’s tears in his heart, secretly lamenting, but his hand clutched the mongjiao tightly. Some things were beyond his control.

"Why did you send roasted meat to that bastard…." After Ganzi left, Dazhao couldn’t help but fly into a rage, sweeping all the fruits and pastries on the table to the ground. As he raged, the slave girls and bonded slaves standing around him drooled at the sight of the food scattered at Dazhao’s feet, all of which were rare delicacies.

"What? Not happy?" Dazhao’s mother, with her delicate fingers, wiped the nonexistent sweat from her face with a dull blue handkerchief. Her bulky figure made her look like a gorilla doing embroidery, but she considered herself elegant, making Dazhao want to roll his eyes.

"He killed Kuai Tu, so we are now enemies. Do you think my roasted meat is so easily eaten? No matter how much he eats, he’ll have to pay tenfold, a hundredfold…." The woman’s venomous hiss was chilling, but Dazhao was unwilling.

"Then it would be better to just kill him. The Great Elder has two personal slave warriors. Let them…."

"Shut up…." The woman’s sharp rebuke made Dazhao’s face change. It was the first time he had seen his mother in such a state. As he was confused, a cold wind swept around them. In the next moment, the necks of the four slave girls and four bonded slaves standing around them simultaneously spurted blood. Two tall, black figures with long limbs stood among the corpses, coldly watching. Dazhao’s throat went dry, and his legs began to tremble.

"The child doesn’t know better. I apologize. I will send a pair of pure infants for you to enjoy. Please don’t mind…." Dazhao’s mother stood up and bowed to the two black figures. Dazhao’s mind was in chaos. After the black figures disappeared, his cheek, already bruised by Heizhao, was slapped again by his mother, making him scream in pain.

"Do not mention them to outsiders. Your father has always been suspicious. I don’t want him to know…."

"So it’s poisoning? Interesting. The people here aren’t simple either!" The roasted meat, which had been dripping with oil earlier, was now dry and cracked like dried feces. A layer of black, greasy oil floated on Gaofeng’s fingertips, emitting an almond-like smell. The little bonded slave looked at the roasted meat with regret; to her, it was like a treasure. Seeing the treasure destroyed by Gaofeng, she couldn’t help but feel heartbroken.

The little bonded slave’s eyes were only on the roasted meat, ignoring Gaofeng’s strange ability. Gaofeng was satisfied with her performance. This little girl, with red spots covering her face, making her appearance unclear, was becoming more to his liking. At least, he had a obedient and capable nanny.

"Hongsha, go get me a basin of water." Gaofeng manipulated the oil in the air, forming various twisted shapes, and casually instructed. The little bonded slave, named Hongsha, turned and left, returning in less than a minute with a basin of water. Gaofeng dissolved the oil in the water, and the entire basin turned a dark black color, filling the room with a foul smell.

"Damn…." Gaofeng cursed, his eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes filled with rage. If he didn’t have this ability, he would have been poisoned. What grudge did Ganzi have against him to harm him like this?

"What’s wrong? What’s wrong? Is the little bonded slave being disobedient? Use the whip…." Huo Ya, with a bruised and swollen face, walked in, carrying a large knife on his shoulder like a fierce warrior.

Gaofeng glanced at Huo Ya, waved for Hongsha to take the basin of water out, and Huo Ya stared at the roasted meat, which looked like a fossil, and swallowed his saliva. "Sanzhao, you’ve struck it rich?"

"Rubbish. What’s the matter?" He cursed first, then remembered that Huo Ya knew nothing, so he suppressed his anger. Now, Huo Ya was his informant in the tribe, and he needed to keep him on his side.

"Is this rubbish roasted meat? I’ve never heard of a sand beast called rubbish." Huo Ya said absentmindedly, his eyes fixed on the roasted meat. No matter how wrong the color looked, it was still roasted meat, and since it belonged to Gaofeng, he could only drool.

"Go ahead and eat it if you’re not afraid of being poisoned. It’s just annoying to look at…." Seeing Huo Ya’s state, and remembering how he himself had drooled over the roasted meat earlier, Gaofeng felt even more repulsed.

"That’s what you said…." Huo Ya, though not yet an adult, didn’t care and grabbed a piece of roasted meat, stuffing it into his mouth. Gaofeng watched in shock as Huo Ya, who seemed to have been reborn as a hungry ghost, suddenly shouted, "It…, it…, it’s poisonous."

"……" Hearing it was poisonous, Huo Ya didn’t chew, but swallowed the dry meat whole, then grabbed two more pieces and ran away, shouting, "I’ll die outside…."

"It’s really poisonous…." Gaofeng suddenly realized and quickly chased after Huo Ya, shouting loudly.

Hongsha struggled to pour the black, poisonous water into a sand pit and used sand to scrub the pottery basin. She occasionally touched her full little belly, her pure eyes shining with happiness. For little Hongsha, the greatest wish in life was to eat sand jujube cakes until she was full, and it seemed she had no other aspirations.

Suddenly, the image of the roasted meat flashed in her mind, and her eyes narrowed. After a while, Hongsha shook her head and focused on scrubbing the basin, not daring to think about the unattainable luxury. Halfway through, she stopped, looked around to see if anyone was paying attention, and then went to the back of the house. Using her scarred little hands, she dug into the sand. After a while, she stared at the sand jujube cake buried at the bottom of the sand.

The sand jujube cake was covered in sand, small, only the size of a fist, but in Hongsha’s eyes, it was her most precious treasure. She gazed at it lovingly, but suddenly became alert, her face turning pale. She saw Huo Ya, who had abandoned his large knife, running over with two pieces of dry, cow-dung-like meat in his hands, his mouth bulging with the meat.

A swift figure pounced on Huo Ya’s back like a tiger. Amidst Huo Ya’s muffled cries, Gaofeng sat on Huo Ya’s chest, grabbing his neck and shouting, "Spit it out…, spit it out…."

Hongsha stood stiffly, watching Gaofeng torment Huo Ya. Huo Ya, however, was like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, staring at the sky with dead fish eyes, and swallowing the meat stuck in his throat. After a while, he grinned, showing his yellow teeth, and said to Gaofeng, "It can only come out…."

"Hongsha, the sand jujube cake buried in the sand can’t be eaten anymore. If you want to eat it, take it yourself…."

Gaofeng, dejected, released Huo Ya, who was grinning in a way that deserved a beating, and turned to leave. He no longer cared about Huo Ya’s life. For someone who wouldn’t learn until they hit a wall, he was speechless.

"Look what I have?" Huo Ya showed the meat to Hongsha, who looked at him coldly without a word.

"This is meat, hehe. Sanzhao said it was poisonous, but who’s he fooling? I’ll eat it to show him…, ha, he fell for it, didn’t he?"

Huo Ya had no intention of sharing and walked away, showing off. Hongsha couldn’t help but pout, hating Huo Ya’s back. The meat was her master’s, and Huo Ya was a bad person… From then on, Huo Ya was marked as a bad person in Hongsha’s heart.