Ch. 8 How to Fall in Love with the Villain (HLV)
Tiger Tribe VIII
"I believe you," Qi coldly said after a long while.
To Ya Qi, hearing this sentence was already an unexpected surprise, so he did not notice Qi’s slightly red ears.
"Qi! How can you say that!" Ya An, who had been crying off to the side, stopped abruptly, his face unbelieving.
Qi didn’t even glance at him.
He held the thing in his hand in front of Ya Qi. "This is in return for the medicine."
Qi took out a basket of emerald-green fruits, otherwise known as caryopsis*, an extremely sweet and mouth watering fruit that is the favorite of all chimeras and shapes.h.i.+fters.
(*defined as a dry one-seeded fruit in which the ovary wall is united with the seed coat, typical of gra.s.ses and cereals. In this case, however, I believe they"re referring to a fictional fruit)
"You don’t need to give me anything!" Ya Qi blushed and shook his head.
But Qi furrowed his brows and simply took the herbs from Ya Qi and stuffed the fruits in Ya Qi’s hands.
Ya Qi wanted to refuse again, but once he met Qi"s eyes, he swallowed his words.
"Thank you!" Ya Qi smiled joyfully.
Qi paused. "I"ll send you back."
Ya Qi was once again pleasantly surprised. He nodded again and again.
Near them, Ya An"s face was extremely distorted. His gaze toward the two was venomous and shocking to see.
The tears had long disappeared, and Ya An, who had looked pitiful and helpless just a moment before now seemed to like a demon that had just climbed out of h.e.l.l.
“Great, just great!” Ya An squeezed out through gritted teeth as he watched the two people walk further and further away.
He had never been humiliated like this before because he was beautiful and did well in learning medicine. Because of this, he was liked by most of the small shapes.h.i.+fters in the tribe. His status even surpa.s.sed some of the arrogant females.
Moreover, because Ya Suo, a chimera, had married the tribe leader, many people in the tribe half-jokingly told Ya An to work hard. Who knows? He might be the next tribe leader’s partner.
Although Ya An is only a chimera, he is very proud. People like Ya Qi are beneath his notice. They really are useless, they don"t even dare to talk back.
He felt he was just as good as any female.
Every day, many small shapes.h.i.+fters escort him, which does make him more than a little full of himself. But isn’t it true that all the powerful shapes.h.i.+fters are tripping over their own feet to shamelessly pursue me?
Qi"s indifferent att.i.tude stirred up Ya An’s ambition. All the other shapes.h.i.+fters always treated him well. In the tribe, only Qi ignored him like this.
Of course, when Ya An thought about this, he never considered Mu one of the shapes.h.i.+fters.
Determined, Ya An began to pay attention to Qi every once in a while. With the occasional joke of the tribe, Ya An had already determined in his heart that he would be the next tribe leader, Qi"s, partner.
However, these two people who deserve to be trampled by wild animals actually dare insult him!
A young shapes.h.i.+fter, who he had treated as his future companion for as long as he could remember, and a good-for-nothing chimera whom he had never considered his equal and who had even slapped himself here!
Not only had Ya Qi, who had never resisted him before, dared to push him, but the Qi who never even spoke to him before had ignored his pitiful crying to comfort that good-for-nothing Ya Qi, and even escorted him back to Ya Qi’s house!
Ya An felt endlessly embarra.s.sed.
“I will make sure you regret what you did!” His gaze drilled into their backs with unmatchable menace.
Today is the best day of Ya Qi’s life. Qi even offered to accompany him back home!
Ya Qi smiled stupidly. No matter how much he tried, he could not stop smiling.
Ya Qi’s father looked at his child"s stupidly happy face and rolled his eyes, resigned. He plucked away the firewood that Ya Qi was just about to throw into the pot and put it under the pot.
Ya Qi had been repeating this movement more than ten times. When Ya Qi’s father first discovered that he had thrown the burning wood into the pot, he hurriedly rushed over and fished the wood out.
"Just what do you think you’re doing?" His father felt extremely sorry for his half-done soup.
The only response he got was Ya Qi’s giggling face.
He didn’t know whether to smile or not. When he found out that whatever he said, Ya Qi wouldn’t respond to him, he suddenly felt a headache coming on.
Never mind, he’s my own child. If he lacks common sense, well, there’s nothing I can do about it. Fortunately, most of the time he’s quite normal.
He looked at Ya Qi"s stupid smile. What else could have caused this other than that Qi boy? His silly little Ya Qi was really obsessed with this boy. Even when Ya Qi’s father was chasing after his own man, he wasn’t as obsessed as this. The most he did was follow him around all day and send him meat and soup.
However, he also had his own clever means of doing things, or else his man never would have realized just what a catch he was.
His father laughed loudly. He suddenly smelled a strange smell.
"My heavens! My soup! You, get out of the room this instant!" The roar shook the straw roof.
"Uncle, is Ya Qi here?"
“Yes, that little troublemaker is right inside. Uncle’s meat soup is just about ready as well, so why don’t you stay tonight for dinner?” Ya Qi’s father said enthusiastically.
“Sure, Uncle, I’ve wanted to try your soup for forever.” Jiang Yu blinked expectant eyes and swallowed his saliva. His resemblance to a hungry animal was spot on. Looking at him, the uncle couldn’t help but laugh.
"Alright, Uncle knows that you like soup. Now go find that troublemaking Ya Qi!"
"Then don’t forget to save some soup for me!" Jiang Yu grinned and then went inside to find Ya Qi.
"Why do you have such a silly expression on?" Jiang Yu raised his eyebrows, puzzled. Usually, Ya Qi would have already come out of his room. But not only had he not come out, he did not even seem to realize that Jiang Yu was there. His was dazedly sitting on his bed, still smiling stupidly.
Ya Qi did not respond.
Jiang Yu’s mouth twitched. He patted Ya Qi’s shoulder. "Hey! Earth to Ya Qi! Look, there’s Qi!"
When he heard Qi’s name, Ya Qi immediately looked at Jiang Yu very nervously. He hurriedly looked around, but only discovered Jiang Yu, who was a laughing mess. Ya Qi"s face went red.
"You finally noticed me." Jiang Yu smirked and scooted closer to Ya Qi, fixing his gaze on his crimson face. "You’re acting weird today, so is there something good that happened that you haven’t told me yet?"
Ya Qi face had almost burst into flames from his words. He felt as if steam was coming off his face. At last, he could no longer evade the question, so he blushed and stutteringly told Jiang Yu what happened.
As soon Ya Qi finished speaking, Jiang Yu’s apprehensiveness disappeared. He was genuinely happy for his occasionally dense friend. Although the little shapes.h.i.+fter seemed very cool and aloft, he was obviously very competent and responsible. The only thing that was a little troubling was that these two really were very young: one was fourteen, the other only seven. Jiang Yu felt a vague and strange sadness as if he was giving away a daughter in marriage.
"That’s beautiful! What happened today must mean that Qi likes you a lot! You must keep on doing what you’re doing. Don"t let anyone else steal Qi away!” Jiang Yu felt an itch in his teeth. "Especially not to that Ya An, you can tell at first glance that he’s just trouble. He’s just a kid and he’s already starting to steal things and pretend he’s pitiful!"
Ya Qi really has a good heart, it’s just that he lacks a little common sense. Although Jiang Yu likes to tease Ya Qi, he absolutely cannot tolerate others bullying him! Ya An, I’ll get back at you for this someday!
"Listen, Ya Qi, if Ya An bullies you again, you must resist him. Even if you can"t punch him back, you can"t let him walk over you like a doormat. If you don"t, then we won’t be friends anymore!" Jiang Yu, thinking of Ya Qi"s past behavior in front of Ya An, felt resentful toward Ya Qi for still not being more confident in himself*.
(*the Chinese idiom is 恨铁不成钢 (Hèn tiě bùchéng gāng), which translates literally into: to hate iron for not becoming steel. The translation as an idiom is: to feel resentful towards somebody for failing to meet expectations and impatient to see improvement.)
When Ya Qi heard Jiang Yu’s threat, he immediately paled and nodded hard. His voice trembled. “Yes! I won’t do that anymore, but please don’t ignore me!”
When Jiang Yu saw Ya Qi"s pitiful appearance, he immediately relented. "Okay, okay. If you promise that you won’t be bullied by others and that you won’t make me lose face, I will never stop being friends with you."
"Oh yeah, you’ve been learning medicine for a long time with Uncle Ya Suo, right? Do you know what herbs can make a person stronger?"
"A stronger body?" Ya Qi was a bit concerned. "Ah Yu, did something happen to you?!"
"It"s not for me, it"s for that little shapes.h.i.+fter Mu. I think his body is kind of weak, so I want to see if there’s a cure for it."
Ya Qi did not question why Jiang Yu wanted to help Mu but was only very happy that he could be of use to Ah Yu. “Sure! I know a lot of herbs that are good for the body, but as for herbs especially for Mu’s physical condition, I am not very sure. But I can ask Uncle Ya Suo, he’ll definitely know!”
Jiang Yu felt himself relax. A cure existed. As long as Mu"s was strong, he wouldn’t be treated badly by the tribe.
The next day:
"Ah Yu! I asked Uncle Ya Suo!", Ya Qi happily ran over to Jiang Yu, his forehead covered with sweat, excitement on his face. “He said that there’s a way to treat Mu"s body!"
Jiang Yu"s eyes brightened.
"Uncle said a total of thirteen different herbs are needed. Twelve of them are common, and Uncle already has them." Ya Qi lowered his voice, and said a little sadly, "but the last kind of herb, the golden thorn gra.s.s, is really hard to find, and Uncle doesn’t have any of it at all. Moreover, Uncle Ya Suo said that if you want Mu"s body to be better, you have to make him take the medicine every three days for two or three years. Otherwise, it has no effect at all."
Jiang Yu was aghast.