CH 20.2

Going along the riverbank, Bai Xia Xia walked to go under the biggest and tallest pine tree, then discovered that it was a bit boisterous over there, as if there was a stranger client that had come earlier.

It was an adult black bear, its physique was robust, and it had grown up to be fat and chubby.

Just looking at it was enough to know that its meals were very good and that it was a master of eating a lot but not moving. However, bears were mostly like that, they all liked to bathe under the sun like a grandpa.

Mother Monkey was currently valiantly and gallantly leading two old monkeys to surround the Black Bear[1], her mouth moving without stop.

Mother Monkey talked very eloquently without taking a break to breathe, and all her sentences seemed to be reasonable. Black Bear’s back was leaning on the trunk of the tree, it sat with its legs apart, in a salted fish posture, its face was very black, and the cries it made were very weak, sounding sad: “…no-not right. What I ordered was… the full set, I ga-gave you, ho-ney!”

Monkey Mother scratched her nose with her finger, then she revealed the shameless face of a classic unscrupulous and black-hearted businessman: “We agreed on the price first in the beginning, three day’s worth to exchange for the full set! What you gave, how could it be enough to eat three days?! It’s not even enough to eat for one day, who’re you trying to fool? I’m a monkey that has studied math, trying to fool me, you’ve miscalculated!”

“Luckily, I opened it to take a look, otherwise, we would’ve been deceived by you, losing out for real.”

“N-no…” Black Bear seemed to finally become anxious, it wanted to refute, This monkey in front is being unfair, it wants to extort Bear’s honey!

Unfortunately, its glib talking skill did not hit home, and the unlucky honest bear could only accept being bullied. He could only stumble and stammer out a sentence, before being retorted with ten sentences by Monkey Mother.

The dark bear face was covered with fur, from far away, Xia Xia could feel Black Bear’s depression, irritability, its feeling of being wronged, and its loss from having words to say but no means to speak and from having the reason but no place to complain to: “It’s not like that, the honey I gave was a lot…”

“Very difficult…”

“What very difficult?” Monkey Mother’s nose pointed to the sky, she scoundrelly and barbarously attacked Black Bear: “Don’t play tricks[2] on us, letting you benefit once was already good enough. We, monkeys, exchange things plain and to the point, if you want to continue, bring honey!”

“And to think that I was kind enough to help you pull things out, and now you’re clinging to me and blaming me! You bear, are too heartless.” Mother Monkey cried, performed the four basic skills of opera performance[3], and acted the whole role.

Her acting was natural, much better than some little fresh meat[4].

Bai Xia Xia and Da Hua: (⊙o⊙)

“Aiyo, if you don’t have the things, then don’t keep clinging to my house! If it’s seen by other people, they’ll even think that I’m bullying you, just look at your big build, a slap is enough to kill me.”

The two old monkeys stood by the left and right of Monkey Mother cowering like quails. The white fur old monkey opened his mouth wanting to talk, Monkey Mother unconcernedly brushed her gaze over, and the white fur old monkey kept quiet out of fear, scared into lowering his head to count ants.

“Y-you…” This bear rarely got in contact with other animals, black bears liked living alone, and it could more so not move in its humble abode for more than half a year, there were few times when it talked to other bears too.

But no beasts dare to bully Bear!

Right now, the stuttering bear that had social anxiety and was introverted was bullied by a monkey.

It was angered to the extreme, I’m a carnivore animal that stands at the top of the food chain!

Even though I don’t like to fight and eat meat and prefer to eat honey and fruits, you can’t ignore my essence!

I, bear, carnivore animal, extremely fierce!

The extremely fierce bear wanted to express that it was not someone to be trifled with, Monkey Mother’s move was faster, it fluidly laid down on the ground.

When it bumped the porcelain[5], it did not forget to put a big hat[6] on the pitiful bear with social anxiety: “I’m injured, I can’t give massages anymore…”

Bear: !!!

In one moment, it was full of anger wanting to fight, in another moment, it was full of frustration feeling that it was annoying, so it was conflicted for a while: No can do, I can’t let my honey be wasted for nothing!

It suddenly stood up, around one meter and seventy centimetres, its muscular and majestic body was full of menace.

The bear’s paw peng, peng, peng hit down so much so that the pine tree wobbled continuously: “You, guys! Lying to, Bear, and bu, llying Bear too!”

“Bear, won’t let you bully!”

“Return, Bear’s, honey!” Bear took out its most loved honey out, to think that I’ve been deceived! The bear was very hurt, the violent roar emitted from irritation was very stimulating on the eardrums.

Monkeys were very intelligent.

Despite so, when primates faced the ferocity of predators, they were the definite vulnerable party.

No matter how wise, even humans would feel their legs go soft, let alone a monkey?

That type of fear and dread was engraved in the genes and blood; it was the fear of natural enemies that was deep down in the bones.

The two old monkeys were so scared that their fur exploded, stimulated into running up the tree at once, they tremblingly hid themselves in their most familiar place.

Watching from Bai Xia Xia’s angle, Monkey Mother’s back figure with a bent back and half-bent legs had written on it fear and dread, it was especially so for the tail that was curled up into a mosquito coil. 

Mosquito coil

Bai Xia Xia thought that Monkey Mother would have to take her family and run after trying to gain advantage only to end up worse off[7]. Animals were different from humans, if you provoked a bear into anger, it would hit you to death and eat you for lunch!

And from what she could see that black bear had a strong sense of oppression, a salted fish would not notice it[8]. Once it stood up, its might immediately grew.

It was then, the Persian cat witnessed what was called ‘wanting the money and not wanting life, riches and honor are to be found in danger’ from Cuilian Mountain’s number one dishonest trader!

Monkey Mother was clearly almost kneeling from fear and trepidation, but it was still provoking while quivering: “You can eat me.”

Translator’s comments:

Animal interactions are much funnier. Monkey Mother is so shameless.

[Doubt: Do ants talk too in this novel?]

[Theory: Insect animals don’t talk.]

Translator’s notes:

[1] The name for the black bear will be Black Bear for now. The author seems to be using those two words to call the bear.

[2] What the author wrote here ‘别赖咱们家’ wasn’t exactly ‘don’t play tricks on us’. It’s something along the lines of ‘do not hang on to us and do something that is disapproved of by others’.

[3] Instead of ‘four basic skills of opera performance’, the author wrote ‘singing, reciting, and fighting’ in what could be considered a single noun and did not separate them with comas. Because of that, it was exchanged with what was written in the translation, otherwise, there would’ve been too many elements separated with comas, plus the author also meant to imply the four basic skills of opera performance when she wrote that.

[4] Little fresh meat is commonly used in China to describe young, cute, and handsome male celebrities.

[5] This was explained in a previous chapter. It’s a type of scam where people set up an accident that makes it appear as if someone was injured, when in fact its an act.

[6] Putting a big hat on someone means to place a negative label on someone before people can begin to analyze the situation so that others will have a preconceived negative image of that person. It can be used in different ways, but it was so in this case.  

[7] Idiomatic expression ‘偷鸡不成蚀把米 (tōu jī bù chéng shí bǎ mǐ)’: lit. translation: ‘trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to lure it’. It means ‘to try to get an advantage but ending worse’.

[8] This was sarcasm. In China, salted fish refers to people who have no intention of doing anything.