CH 60

Foolish Dad Black forgot about the matter of getting his cub to hunt a horned sheep everyday after this.

But Meng Jiuzhao didn’t forget, and he started reflecting on his behaviour.

He was fortunate to become the cub of the apex predator in this world. (There was even a feeling of him being a second generation nouveau riche!?) He had never gotten into danger since he was born due to his fathers’ extremely tight protection. He even forgot that he was currently in a world of either being the hunter, or the hunted…

This was extremely dangerous.

His fathers and brother were Kantases and were born naturally strong, so lacking common sense will not cause their lives. But he himself was a human through and through, and without the protection of his fathers, something miserable would likely befall him.

He had to reflect!

Just do it! Meng Jiuzhao decided that he would start being a good student from tomorrow onwards.

Usually, he didn’t play much with the other cubs. One reason was because Black didn’t want his cubs to be too far from him, and the other reason being his unwillingness to play with a bunch of brats. But now it seemed like he had been missing out a lot.

It was said that in nature, the cubs of lions and wolves would chase each other, gnawing and biting. Polar bear cubs would also play with stones after meals…

It was said that the animals that liked to play around were usually on top of their food chains, and they maintained their strength through the games they played. During the games, everyone would take turns to be predators and prey, so the game wasn’t only for fun, but to also let them understand their innate abilities for them to be used regularly in the future. Games like these were like the children’s lessons, so it was definitely bad behaviour for him to skip out on these classes!

Thus, early next morning, when Black wanted to carry him out to look for food as usual, Meng Jiuzhao refused righteously.

“I am going to school! Skipping lessons is bad!” Meng Jiuzhao’s attitude was serious. Thinking back, he wasn’t even this serious studying in his past life.

The most that could happen from not studying hard in his past life was failing exams, but if he didn’t study hard here, he would fail to live!

“School? Skipping?” Black was confused by these new terms.

“I think Baby means that he wants to go play with the other cubs.” White whispered in his partner’s ear.

Meng Jiuzhao solemnly nodded his head.

Then, Black was sad.

Yesterday, he was worried that his cub would become too weak when under his protection, but today he was saddened when his cub’s wings had hardened and wanted to leave the nest. ←Every dad’s heart is made of glass.

“Baby, look at how fierce those girls are, what if they bite you? Why not go out with Dad to play instead?” Black tried convincing his cub, “Dad will transform and you can ride on my neck, okay?”

Normally, the cubs’ favourite activity would be to ride on Daddy’s neck while he flew. Daddy’s neck was very sturdy, his scales were lustrous, and his tail was slippery, allowing them to slide down it like a slide.

But because they frequently went around with others, Black didn’t transform back very frequently.

“I don’t want to! I want to go to school! I want to learn how to hunt!” Meng Jiuzhao considered for 2 seconds between his dad’s neck and his little life. In the end, clenching his teeth, he resolutely persisted in his decision. Gripping his hands into fists, he loudly declared, “Dad, you guys wait! I will definitely catch a horned sheep for you to eat every day!”

“… Actually, Dad doesn’t really like eating horned sheep that much, I just want our bald cub to sit on my neck!” Seeing his weak cub leaving the nest without turning his head back, Black was stunned.

“Let him go, if he’s bullied by those girls until he cries, he won’t be so insistent on playing with them anymore.” White comforted his partner. But was it really okay for him as a dad to say this about his child?

Anywho, Meng Jiuzhao sat down safely in the children’s play area. His serious expression seemed to have influenced Louis, causing him to sit properly next to his brother. 

Because Meng Jiuzhao came today with the intention of turning over a new leaf and becoming a good student, he came extra early. 

The other cubs were still lazing in their beds. Only when their parents started going out to hunt did they arrive one by one.

Did you know that you girls are already an entire hour late? Meng Jiuzhao silently accused the other 5 cubs with his eyes.

His gaze was naturally ignored.

Just like how children at school usually had a group of friends they regularly played with, these cubs also had fixed play partners. Very quickly, the 5 female cubs split into groups of 3 and 2 and started playing.

Their first game was tying braids.

Meng Jiuzhao: …

Alright, braiding couldn’t be underestimated. Tying them required dextrous use of all 10 fingers, and to successfully braid it beautifully, one needed to make use of the “hook”, “clamp” and “stuff” actions as well as many others. The hands were the external brain of the body, to cubs, this was the best way to exercise their brains.

So he called Louis over to practise his braiding skills. Within 3 minutes, a beautiful braid appeared on Louis’ head.

Playing with Louis’ fluffy hair which had been made into a braid, Meng Jiuzhao expressed: Something like braiding is really too easy! Hmph–

The Kantas brothers were very harmonious, while the opposite went for those little strong women. 

It had to be said the girls completely inherited their mothers’ sense of beauty, which was a terrible mess. Their hands were also too strong, and with them pulling here and there, the person whose hair was being braided couldn’t stand it anymore and waged war.

Meng Jiuzhao stared at the girls rolling at his feet, stupefied.

He stroked his chin: This… Could the second period have started without him knowing? This was probably a fighting game, right? It was said that the animals’ fighting games were very good at training their cooperative abilities. The fighting games were like an intimate tussle, looking fierce on the outside, but still within boundary. The cubs would have a certain degree of cooperation and never cause any damage. Chasing, hiding, fighting… These were all part of their fighting game, and part of the lives they would lead in the future.

Meng Jiuzhao was eager to give it a go. When he was hesitating about when to join it, he heard an angry roar. Sita appeared from above like a huge black tower, ruthlessly putting a stop to the girls’ game.

“How many times have I said, no fighting! No fighting! No fighting!” Sita pulled the cubs away from the pile, layer by layer. 

Seeing Paula being dragged into the air yet still unwilling to stop biting the clothes of the person below her, black lines appeared on Sita’s face as she gave Paula a smack on her bum.

“You messed up your braids, you naughty little devils!” After smacking all of their butts, Sita sat down and started retying their hair.

Uh… So, what happened just now wasn’t the so-called “fighting game”, but a pure… squabble?

Meng Jiuzhao silently retracted his eager claws, sitting back down.

He felt like a fool for watching the cubs’ behaviour so seriously and even trying to learn some hunting skills from them.

“Oh? Aren’t you Baby and Louis? It’s rare to see you two here.” After taking care of the ladies, Sita took notice of the two boys.

“Chirp~” Louis politely chirped in greeting.

“Hello Sita.” Meng Jiuzhao also greeted her. He thought for a bit, before deciding to cut to the chase.

“Sita, we are no longer brats, and we should start thinking of doing something for the tribe. We came here today to ask you about things related to hunting.”

Sita blushed with shame.

Looking at the little boy who wasn’t even up to her thighs, she thought back to when she was his age. She had yet to wean off milk, and were like this group of girls, fighting everyday. That’s why she got into such a difficult position when she left her species–

“Chirp chirp?” Louis added 2 sentences to Meng Jiuzhao’s speech.

Sita looked at Meng Jiuzhao for an interpretation.

“Louis is asking, where can we catch horned sheep?” Meng Jiuzhao dutifully translated.

Sita coughed twice.

“You two asked a good question, it’s indeed time for us to teach you the common sense of hunting.”

Meng Jiuzhao sat upright hurriedly, not forgetting to make Louis do the same. Probably because the brothers were being too serious, the little girls who always didn’t sit properly looked at each other and also decided to cross their legs and sit down.

Stared at by 7 pairs of flickering eyes, Sita suddenly felt like a greater responsibility weighed on her.

Pondering for a while, Teacher Sita started her lesson.

“Today is our first lesson, so let’s start by talking about the land we live on–”

Although this was her first time giving such a serious lecture, she was very clear on the place they lived in. From her words, Meng Jiuzhao managed to get a general understanding of this place for the first time.

Sita said that the frozen river in the west would start melting when spring came. After the last snow, there would be a type of white fish passing by the narrowest part of the river. As long as they stopped the flow of the river at that area, they would be able to catch large amounts of those fishes;

Sita also said that horned sheep lived on the back of the hills in the east. In summer, the sheep would go there to graze, so the best place to catch them in summer would be the north.

She also said that during autumn, they had to go north. There were vast bushes there, and every autumn, it would bear a great number of red fruits. The white snowy ground would be dotted with red, a beautiful sight to behold. Of course, the fruits were delicious as well.

Then she said, winter was the worst. Fruits and plants would become hard to find, and carnivorous animals would become extra fierce. Their meat also becomes unpalatable. When they absolutely couldn’t find food, they had to pay attention to the snow on the ground. They had to watch out for any ventilation holes, as there would be prey hibernating below, so they had to catch them without sparing any effort.

The cubs were fascinated by Sita’s teachings.

While Meng Jiuzhao listened, he took notes on the stone slate.

“Sita, tell us more! Tell us more!” In this era where bedtime stories did not exist, Sita’s lessons on hunting drew everyone in, causing them to keep begging Sita for more.

She accidentally discovered that these lessons could make those usually mischievous children so obedient, but it would be a sin if all they thought of hunting was going out to casually grab something to eat whenever they were hungry, so Sita swallowed her saliva and continued speaking.

“However, hunting is not as simple as it seems–”

“To hunt any prey, you have to search, chase, kill, bring it back, and consume it. So when deciding on a day’s menu, you have to consider the energy you need to hunt these animals and the energy you can obtain from eating them. For example, Paula, you like to eat mice the most.” Sita raised an example, “How much meat do you have to eat for a meal?”

This was Paula’s first time being asked a question, so she froze for a bit, before replying after taking some time calculating, “I can eat three times the amount of Grandpa Rabbit’s meat!

“Uh–” Although using Eim’s dad as a reference was pretty brutal, it was easy to understand, so Sita continued speaking, “And how long do you take to catch a mouse?”

She counted with her fingers, “The time for one breakfast.”

“Alright, to catch a mouse, you need a breakfast’s time, and a mouse weighs one-tenth of a Grandpa Rabbit, which means you need to spend thirty breakfast’s time to eat a full meal.”

Paula was stunned.

“This means that you made a failed hunt, because the prey you chose was unsuitable.” Sita concluded.

I’m using this example to tell you all that before you hunt something, you must first consider if it is worth it. Only the most powerful can take into consideration their own likes or dislikes.”

“A person’s strength is limited. Paula, you can only catch a mouse on your own, but if you work together with Baby, Louis, and the other cubs  you might be able to catch a Grandpa rabbit in the same amount of time. Although you have to split what you get with everyone now, you will still be left with strength to continue with the next hunt.”

“This is why we decided to live as a tribe.”

Between Sita’s lessons, she squeezed in many stories that were either interesting or thrilling, grabbing the interest of the cubs. 

When their parents returned, the little guys who would usually immediately return to their parents’ side were unwilling to leave, until they were dragged back by their parents.

“Baby, don’t you miss daddy?” ←Silly Dad Black who lost his soul for an entire day was even sadder now. Ever since he returned, Baby had been hugging those big stone slabs without letting go, not even having his Dad in his eyes!

“Dad, I’m studying how to catch horned sheep!” Excitedly raising his head, Meng Jiuzhao showed his Dads what he learnt today.

The dads with glass hearts were more or less comforted by their cub’s willingness to share what happened today. Black and White gathered around to look at Meng Jiuzhao’s stone slate.

“Uh– What is this?” They saw many lines, and could only express that they couldn’t understand them at all.

“These are my notes about what Sita taught us today. I wrote them all down!”

Black and White couldn’t help looking closer again:

Dx/Dt=f(x)-g(x,y)

Dy/De=u(g(x,y),y)-v(y)

f=bx-dx

G=axh

U=……

This, what the heck was this?! [1]

Black and White were completely stumped by the integral formulae. They only saw half of it because they started seeing stars. These strange symbols, undecipherable content…

“This was the method of hunting horned sheep that Sita taught?”

“No! This is the formula to describe the relationship between us and our prey, as long as we master this, we can easily catch any prey we want!” Meng Jiuzhao raised his small head, his body seemingly shining.

“… Was this what Sita taught you?”

“Mmhm~” Meng Jiuzhao bopped his little head, carefully putting away his stone notebook.

“When I have studied it thoroughly, we will be able to eat horned sheep everyday!”

“… Alright. However, before you catch any horned sheep, be careful of hitting your head with your stones. Come here, dad will brush your hairs for you, your hairs are so messy…” Those ghost-like scribbles didn’t matter, what mattered more was his cubs’ happiness.

It didn’t matter if Baby didn’t manage to catch any horned sheep. After all, wasn’t Louis still there?”

Just like Black and White, Baby and Louis were always together. Even in the future, they would always be together. A person’s strength may be limited if they were alone, but if the two of them were together, they would be able to accomplish anything.

After thinking this, Black and White started concentrating on licking their cubs’ hair.

After eating his fill, the comfort from being licked caused Meng Jiuzhao to soon fall asleep.

In his dreams, he caught many horned sheep,

Former Science student Meng Jiuzhao smiled proudly in his dreams.

Author has something to say:

Sita: I didn’t teach any of that weird stuff! I didn’t!

A little theatre from A’XiuXiu’s brain pit:

Meng Jiuzhao: Louis, I choose you!

Little chicken Louis successfully suppressed 5 strong women!

Meng Jiuzhao: Louis, I choose you!

Little chicken Louis successfully suppressed a Mammoth!

Meng Jiuzhao: Louis, I choose you! 

Little chicken Louis successfully suppressed an Utah Raptor!

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Meng Jiuzhao: With Louis, no one can defeat me!

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