Chapter 3: You forgot your dad
Under Wen XiaoYun's complicated look, Zhuang Zhou stubbornly displayed a "I'm very normal. If you think it's strange, then you're the abnormal one" stance and silently placed the incense into the incense burner.
The offering was complete.
Zhuang Zhou faintly felt the connection between himself and the 'beverage'.
Finally, he let out a breath of relief and gave Wen XiaoYun a smile. However, because he was a bit embarrassed, his voice was all dry: "So… you, you came over……"
Wen XiaoYun took a glance at Zhuang Zhou. Then his gaze landed on the Divine Image on the ground again.
In Wen XiaoYun's eyes, intergalactic people didn't have any faith; they only revered strength.
The strongest person was the one people idolized and worshiped the most in their hearts.
Therefore, when he saw the Divine Image, he only thought it was a statue.
In the Capital Planet, inside the biggest plaza, was a statue of his father. Everyday, there were Imperial citizens leaving flowers for the battle god, Wen Tian, as a sign of respect and remembrance.
Also, the statue that the youth had just made an offering to was carved extremely life-like and realistic, looking about 70-80% like the youth himself.
Therefore, Wen XiaoYun reached an understanding.
He asked: "This is your father?"
Zhuang Zhou was actually very nervous.
When he saw Wen XiaoYun staring at the statue without speaking, Zhuang Zhou's little heart trembled and shook.
Did he figure out that the statue is me?
Looks like he needed to give him another dream tonight and make him forget this entire thing…...
Hearing Wen XiaoYun's voice at this moment made Zhuang Zhou feel exceptionally guilty. He actually had a feeling like 'how lucky that he couldn't understand the other's old dialect.' Because of this, he didn't need to answer at all.
Not receiving an answer from Zhuang Zhou, Wen XiaoYun furrowed his brows.
The youth's lack of comprehension in the common galactic language was a huge issue.
Wen XiaoYun took out the > that he gave to the youth previously and sat down next to Zhuang Zhou. He flipped open the first page. There was an image of a family of three.
Wen XiaoYun pointed at the annotated words on the picture book and said to Zhuang Zhou: "Repeat after me."
Then, a baritone voice sounded slowly under the dim light of the candle fire: "Dad, mom, and me."
The picture book was simple and easy to understand. It started teaching from the names of family members first. Zhuang Zhou understood what it meant with one glance.
However, Zhuang Zhou started to feel somewhat inconceivable.
This didn't seem right.
Was this person not speaking the old dialect?
Did the old dialect have special instruction books too?
Under normal circumstances, only a completely structured language can be taught like this!
Zhuang Zhou vaguely had a feeling that perhaps he had arrived at the wrong place. He secretly examined Wen XiaoYun.
Black hair and black eyes. Also those facial features. It was the standard appearance of an Asian man.
Zhuang Zhou knew both Japanese and Chinese, but they weren't like this at all.
Did…… did he end up in some other nation in Asia?
Zhuang Zhou felt a bit lightheaded. At this moment, he urgently wished to know his exact location. Therefore he obediently announciated after Wen XiaoYun: "Dad, mom, and, and me?"
The youth's tone was soft and gentle. It was a voice that made people feel serene. His pronunciation was also very accurate, only carrying a hint of uncertainty, as if afraid he recited it wrong.
Wen XiaoYun praised calmly: "Pretty good."
Thinking briefly, he pointed at himself: "Me, Wen XiaoYun." Then he pointed at Zhuang Zhou: "You?"
Zhuang Zhou understood. This was asking him his name.
He hastily said: "Zhuang Zhou."
He used the Mandarin pronunciation.
Wen XiaoYun repeated: "Zhuang Zhou."
Zhuang Zhou nodded his head, eyes bright.
Wen XiaoYun looked at him for a bit and then withdrew his gaze to continue teaching.
Very quickly, Wen XiaoYun discovered that this youth was very adept in the language area. He only needed to pronounce the word once, the other would pretty much remember it. He was even starting to use some simple daily phrases.
Wen XiaoYun said: "Very impressive."
Zhuang Zhou was already able to understand this.
He was just a tiny bit proud of himself. Of course he was impressive! He was the fastest learner amongst all of the Gods of Wealth!
If you must know, out of the 360 trades of life, Gods of Wealth must learn at least 300 to be qualified!
If they learned things too slowly, how were they supposed to get a job position?!
Nowadays, it was really not easy to be gods.
Especially in the 21 century, materialism was too strong. Very few people still believed in gods.
Everyone says that being a God of Wealth was easiest because since ancient times, there were very few people who didn't like money.
Everyone wanted to be rich and beg to be rich. Weren't they just begging the God of Wealth?
That's why all of the gods say, other gods needed to rely on outperforming each other to live. Only Gods of Wealth didn't need to fight for achievements.
But did they ever think about how…… there's a lot of different types of Wealth Gods!
Not only were there scholarly gods of wealth, there were also martial gods of wealth. Counting down this line, there were different wealth gods for the five regional directions-- north, south, east, west, and center.
Zhuang Zhou himself belonged to the Eastern Region of Wealth Gods.
Every living being believed in a different kind of wealth god! After dividing all of this faith, it's not even as much as other gods!
What's scarier was that there's also PiXiu, the Lucky Cat, and other things that fought them for believers……
The number of people who believed in Kois were even more than those who believed in the Eastern Wealth Gods!
Therefore, if they didn't learn at least 300 of the 360 trades of life, how were they supposed to contend for followers with other regions?!
Thinking this, Zhuang Zhou took advantage of the fact that Wen XiaoYun couldn't understand Mandarin and started to complain bitterly: "Our High God said, once there was a super unfortunate person who sold phone microchips. About to go bankrupt, they went around begging for help from gods, hoping to receive a lucky investment. They also wanted to find someone who had the ability to improve the phone microchip to save their company…… this person was from our Eastern region……"
"However, amongst us Eastern wealth gods, no one understood this technology at all…… therefore, this person was stolen by a Southern wealth god……"
"Because in the Southern region, there was a God of Wealth who had gone to the mortal realm early on and even graduated from a very impressive college. He resolved that person's issue. That person was super devoted to him and became his follower…… a big boss like this person can produce a huge amount of faith because he provided work to a lot of people. The power of his faith was very strong……The Southern region's power immediately overtook our Eastern region."
"However, the Southern region is still not the strongest. The strongest was the Western region…… they dispatched a super good-looking God of Wealth to the human realm to participate in some talent show or whatever. He became a huge celebrity and people loved him. He became the one with the most followers amongst all of the five directional Wealth Gods."
Speaking here, Zhuang Zhou gained a heavy sense of admiration and envy in his tone.
"From then on, the High God required us to learn at least 300 out of the 360 trades of life. This way we'd be able to fulfill the wishes of people from all trades of life in the future. However, it really wasn't easy to learn all of this. After this requirement was announced, 9 of our Eastern wealth gods resigned, 2 got depression, and 1 gained a multi-personality disorder…… Ai. The pressure for us Eastern wealth gods is too much. We're really lacking in personnel also……"
"The Gods of Wishes constantly complains about us too, saying that we're stealing their followers……"
Because Zhuang Zhou was speaking Mandarin, Wen XiaoYun didn't understand what he was saying at all. He only heard the little youth prattle on and chattering away, one minute proud, one minute envious, and then in the end, starting to lament.
Just like a little kid.
Wen XiaoYun pressed down on the flick of hair sticking out foolishly on the top of Zhuang Zhou's head.
"Huh?" Zhuang Zhou covered his head and looked up at Wen XiaoYun.
Wen XiaoYun calmly retracted his hand and flipped to the next page: "Continue."
"En. En." Zhuang Zhou nodded his head, like a little chicken pecking for grains, looking extremely well-behaved.
Wen XiaoYun was just about to recite when suddenly it got dark.
The candle that Zhaung Zhou lit up just now had already burned down completely. The surrounding turned pitch-black once more.
Inside the darkness, it was impossible to continue studying. Wen XiaoYun gave the picture book to Zhuang Zhou and said: "Let's head back and rest."
"Okay." Zhuang Zhou was still a bit inexperienced in speaking 'the old dialect' and felt a bit embarrassed.
Hugging the picture book and standing up, he placed the nutritional supplement into his pocket. Then he looked at the incense burner and Divine Image on the ground and started to feel somewhat conflicted.
It was definitely impossible to put them away right now into his GanKun pouch. If Wen XiaoYun noticed, it wouldn't be easy to explain…… it's probably better to wait a bit and then return secretly to put it away.
Gaze focused, Zhuang Zhou silently followed behind Wen XiaoYun.
Wen XiaoYun had a high psychic level. The darkness didn't affect his vision at all. After walking a few steps, he discovered that the little friend didn't put away the things on the ground.
He stopped walking and turned around.
Zhuang Zhou was busy pondering with his head lowered, trying to figure out an excuse so he could come out later to recollect his Divine Image. He failed to notice that the man walking in the front had suddenly stopped.
Zhuang Zhou directly bumped head first into Wen XiaoYun's chest.
"S, sorry……"
Wen XiaoYun acknowledged with an "en": "Pay attention to the road."
Zhuang Zhou's cheeks were somewhat red: "Why, why did you stop walking?"
He was still not too accustomed to speaking the galactic language, so he stammered a bit.
Fortunately, he was able to express what he meant very clearly.
Wen Xiao reminded him nonchalantly: "You forgot your dad."
Zhuang Zhou was somewhat bewildered: "........ah? My, my dad?"
Wen XianYun extended a hand and pointed behind him.
Zhuang Zhou turned his head and looked in the direction of his finger. He immediately saw his Divine Image placed on the ground by its lonesome. The incense was almost burned to ashes as well.
Zhuang Zhou: ".......?"
It……
My dad?
Perhaps Zhuang Zhou's face expressed too much astonishment and incredulousness. Wen XiaoYun looked at his openly expressive little face that was unable to hide anything, and asked: "Not your dad?"
Was this Zhuang Zhou's brother?
Zhuang Zhou awkwardly touched his nose: "En…… you, you can just consider it as my dad……"
Wen XiaoYun: "?"
Consider it as?
Was a dad something that needed considering?
He wanted to mention his skepticism, but he suddenly remembered that the youth had just learned the galactic language. Perhaps he was expressing his words a bit unclearly. This wasn't anything strange.
Zhuang Zhou had no other choice. He can only return and silently pick up the Divine Image, one hand holding the incense burner and one hand holding the Divine Image.
What was he going to do? Did he have to hold it like this everyday now?
Seeing that Zhuang Zhou didn't put the things back into his interdimensional space, Wen XiaoYun thought this was also somewhat strange.
Perhaps he was unwilling to part with it?
Wen XiaoYun didn't ask anymore and brought Zhuang Zhou back to the tent-like escape pod.
Wen XiaoYun said: "There's still 3 bottles of nutritional supplements left. There's no other food available. We need to leave here as soon as possible. Exposed completely under the radiation of these energy sources, our……"
He wanted to say 'our body might not be able to handle it for much longer'. However, he suddenly remembered that the youth didn't have any trace of radiation on his body. His sudden appearance here was too odd. The fact that his body wasn't affected by radiation was also astonishing.
If it weren't for the fact that the youth couldn't hide his emotions, could be read clearly with one glance, and was innocent and straightforward, Wen XiaoYun would have never allowed him to stay.
On the contrary, it was his own body that has been damaged quite harshly by the radiation.
Therefore, he changed his words and said: "My body won't last much longer under the radiation of the energy sources. I need to repair the communication array right now. You can stay here and rest."
Actually, the inner cabin of his mecha can block the radiation. However, his mecha, Wo Si, was damaged heavily under the last battle with the Empress of the Alien Insects, basically splitting apart into pieces.
Wo Si was created by the most impressive Mecha creator in the Empire, Ge LuEn, Its every component made from the most valuable materials. Itt wasn't that easy to fix Wo Si.
Not to mention, the nutritional supplement inside the escape pod wasn't enough to sustain him for long.
Because of this, Wen XiaoYun had no choice but to fix the communication array first under the danger of exposure to full radiation. After the communication array can transmit signals, he can then try to fix his mecha while waiting for rescue.
Zhuang Zhou only understood vaguely from what he heard because Wen XiaoYun said many words that he hadn't learned from the instructional book yet. He only heard Wen XiaoYun say he was going to fix something and wanted him to stay and sleep.
Zhuang Zhou was somewhat hesitant: "That……"
He wanted to ask Wen XiaoYun what he was fixing. Perhaps he knew how to do it as well.
He was a God of Wealth who knew 300 trades of life after all.
Wen XiaoYun raised an eyebrow, thinking that Zhuang Zhou was afraid of being alone by himself. Sure enough, the other was really still very young.
He pointed at the Divine Image that Zhuang Zhou had placed against the wall and said in a rare, comforting tone: "Don't be afraid. Your dad is here for you."
Zhuang Zhou: "........"
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The author has something to say---P.s.
Zhuang Zhou: If I'm my own dad, then is my own dad still my own dad?