Love from the Male Protagonist’s Harem - Chapter 34-2

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Chapter 34 Studying Hard Part 2

Translated by Snowfall77

Xia Ge had a hazy dream.

In the dream, someone caressed her face, speaking in a light, ethereal voice.

“……I will be your mighty army.”

“Please…don’t abandon me.”

Then that murmuring voice ceased, replaced by a little girl’s sharp and clear tones, joyfully chanting an unknown nursey rhyme, making the listener’s head hurt.

“……lost the way, don’t know how to return……”

“Foolish girl, stupid blockhead, wear a string of candied hawthorn; make sweets, act the Dragon man, scatter the beans to complete the mannequin……the generals and the princes are all in the yellow soil, the bones of the dead are waiting for their master to return—–hehehe……”

Giggle, giggle……

Are you a chicken or a prostitute?  Tittering and going cluck-cluck about what……

Furthermore, what kind of slow-witted girl wore candied hawthorn?  Come here, we should talk about life!

What the hell are you gratuitously singing about?

A spontaneous and inexplicable sense of suffocation came over Xia Ge.  Jolted awake with an aching head, she yanked the cloth from her eyes and kneaded her temples.  Checking the color of the sky, she found she’d slept until about midnight.

“What was that fuckin’ singsong……”

System: [???]

Xia Ge: “Never mind, I was just dreaming.”

Nimbly hopping out of bed, Xia Ge changed her clothes.

The system felt things were a little fishy: [What Are You Doing?]

Naturally, Xia Ge was covering herself all in black.

“Stuff.”

System: [……]

Taking Guilongyu with her, Xia Ge rolled down her sleeves: “I don’t believe that all the Liuli trees could disappear from the back mountain over the course of one night.  And even if someone or something powerful harvested them, surely a few were missed, right?!”

System: [Do You Have To Go Looking For That……How About You Go To The Carpenter’s House And Make A Nice Normal Wooden Box?]

Xia Ge’s expression was profound: “Because only a box made from a Liuli tree can truly express my deep sincerity and assurance that I didn’t deliberately break that corner off Guilongyu.”

System: [……]

No.  It didn’t matter how gorgeous a box made out of Liuli tree might be, nothing changes the fact that you purposely broke off a part of Guilongyu.

Xia Ge stealthily made her way to the back mountain, easily avoiding Jianfeng’s eyes and ears: “Besides, little puppet, don’t you know the old saying ‘buying the casket and returning the pearl?”

System: [……]

Defeat.jpg

So Xia Ge reversed her day and night.  Sleeping during the day and hunting Liuli trees during the night.

Unfortunately, it did not yield the hoped-for results.

The system tried advising: [You Know You Won’t Be Able To Find Liuli Trees On The Back Mountain, So Why Are You Still Going?]

Xia Ge: “Don’t know.”

System: [……]

Xia Ge: “At first I was sure I could find some……but even though I couldn’t, I can’t help feeling like there’s no other place to go to at night.”

Oh.  You got your sleep schedule all screwed up, you can’t be bothered to fix it, and now you’ll just go amuse yourself on the back mountain regardless?

System: [……Is Reading A Book At Home No Good?]

Xia Ge: “I’m poor and candles cost too much.”

System: [……One Of These Days You’re Going To Fall And Break A Leg, Traipsing Around The Back Mountain At Night.]

Xia Ge snorted a couple of times, but said nothing.

Though she didn’t know what kind of attractive force it was…yet in the past two days, she felt something pulling her to the back mountain.

It wasn’t Liuli trees—definitely something else.

Glancing at the bright moon outside, Xia Ge’s pulse quickened.

……she had to go.

Meanwhile, Ye Ze had been surprised to discover that his friend and next-door neighbor Xia Wuyin, who was usually obsessed with eating, drinking, and making merry, was acting like a whole new person.  Except for a hurried trip to buy food every morning, Xia Wuyin was spending all his time at home.  Not stepping a foot out his door, he was no longer trying to naughtily steal eggs or cajole Ye Ze into going drinking everywhere.

Instead, Xia Wuyin’s entire attitude was of one studying diligently and assiduously.

Ye Ze felt rather gratified.

Apparently, his words had not been in vain the other day.  The younger boy had actually listened and taken it to heart.  Applying himself thoroughly, being a paragon of studiousness just like Ye Ze had been.

Therefore, Ye Ze made sure not to disturb Xia Wuyin.

When in fact……

During the day, within her hut……

The new, blank danshu book Senior Sister had given Xia Ge was tossed aside on the table, and the exemplar of a ‘excellent student’ was lying on her bed, wrapped up like a glowworm in the cocoon of her blanket.  Hugging her wooden pillow, she was also trying to contain her excessive drooling: “I smell roast chicken……smells so good……I want to eat it……”

System: [……]

Nighttime—-

Xia Ge was practically treating the back mountain like her own backyard, as Jianfeng’s patrolling disciples were oblivious to her presence, never sensing anything amiss.

Having expended much effort pulling up clumps of grass and weeds underneath a fir tree, Xia Ge silently stared on the tiny Liuli tree glimmering in the moonlight for a long time.

Finally the system couldn’t take it anymore: [Don’t Harvest It, It’s Barely A Sapling.]

Xia Ge gave a nasty laugh: “This is the first Liuli tree I’ve found after all these days, and you want me to let it go?!  If I let it off the hook, who’s gonna let me off?”

System: [……]

And why do you need to use Liuli trees again?

Puzzlement.jpg

Besides, the tiny Liuli tree obviously wouldn’t be able to grow up overnight.

Lost in its own thoughts, the system abruptly registered Xia Ge’s faint voice: “Doraemon……”

The system remained calm: [Plant Growth Solution Is Sold By The Points Mall.  However, It Is Only Effective On Ordinary Plants.  It Would Be Useless On A Liuli Tree.  And Even If You Do Still Want Plant Growth Solution For Spirit Plants……You Might As Well Just Buy The Surprise Gift Box.]

Even as the system was droning on, Xia Ge opened the Points Mall, glanced at the heartache-inducing number of zeros behind Spirit Plant Growth Solution, and soundlessly closed it.

As expected, the harsh world had no mercy for the poor.

But Xia Ge just couldn’t resign herself.

Glaring down at the diminutive Liuli tree, gleaming and glittering at the base of the fir tree, Xia Ge asked: “……how many points could I sell this for?”

System: [Estimate-1 Point.]

That Liuli tree was like a child…please just let it be.

““No value, but I don’t want to give it up,” Xia Ge sighed and stood up, “Just like the meat on chicken ribs.”

“Oo, oo……”

A low, unknown cry suddenly interrupted Xia Ge’s griping, coming from deep within the woods.

That the back mountain was usually dead quiet, absent even the buzz of cicadas, only made the abrupt sound even stranger.

Looking around, Xia Ge rapidly realized that in her hunt for Liuli trees, she’d unknowingly ventured much farther into the depths of the back mountain than usual!

No wonder that, after searching the back mountain’s outskirts for days, she’d finally found a small Liuli tree…

“Oo, oo……”

Time to get the hell outta here!

Making to leave, Xia Ge activated {ghost and shadow}, when she heard a heart-piercing scream.  The next second, several dark streaks flew towards her from the pitch-black undergrowth, roiling murderous qi filling the air!

“Ow—-”

“Ow—woo—-”

A hard light flashed through Xia Ge’s fierce eyes, her silver ring gleamed, and the huge black sickle appeared.  As soon as her grip was on the sickle’s handle, Xia Ge made a relentless sweep, horizontally slashing the fir tree before her with the cold metal.  Cut in half by the icy blade, when Xia Ge jumped up and kicked the tree’s trunk, it fell towards the ominous shadows.  Using {ghost and shadow}, Xia Ge then abandoned her position.  She heard a thump behind her, and when she turned to look back, she was stupified to find that the ground she’d been standing on before was completely torn up.  The felled fir tree was slowly pressing down on its neighbors, like a toppling domino.  First it crushed one tree, then two trees fell, then three, four, five, all in a row.  Tree roots ripped out from the ground, a boom sounded, and the ground trembled from the impact!

Dragon man ( scientific name : Homo longi , meaning ” people of Heilongjiang “), whose fossils were found in what is now Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in 1933 , by a team of scholars from China, Australia and the United Kingdom, through the study of this ancient human skull in Harbin Fossil, on June 25, 2021, published its research results in the form of a cover article in the magazine “The Innovation”, identifying the discovery of a new species of hominin, named Dragon Man [1] [2] [3] . Dragon Homo is also an extinct human species that may have replaced Neanderthals as the closest relative to modern humans.

买椟还珠[mǎi dú huán zhū]    meaning–show lack of judgment

keep the glittering casket and give back the pearls to the seller

buy the casket without the jewels

Buying a casket and returning a pearl is an idiom that originated from Han Fei ‘s ” Han Feizi: Foreign Reserve Said Upper Left ” [1] during the Warring States Period .

Some of the people of Chu sold their pearls to Zheng as a cabinet of magnolias. They were infused with cinnamon peppers, decorated with pearls and jade, decorated with roses, and assembled with jadeite. [2]  The people of Zheng bought their caskets and returned their pearls. (Warring States·Han Feizi ” Han Feizi·The Foreign Reserve said the upper left “)

鸡肋[jī lèi]

chicken ribs — things of little value or interest

Chicken ribs (Chicken ribs), Chinese words , pinyin is jī lèi. Literally means the ribs of a chicken. It doesn’t taste much meat, and it’s a pity to throw it away. One refers to things that have little value and meaning, but cannot bear to give up; it also refers to a thin body.

The term “chicken ribs” is widely used in work, life, feelings, etc. It describes a sub-healthy living state of modern people. From the seventy-second chapter of “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. [1]