Chapter 121 – C-Section?
The two fish were still desperately flopping around, trying to leap over the pheasant carcass that loomed before them like a mountain. Their golden scales looked beautiful in the refracted sunlight.
When they saw Tu Ran approaching, the two fish were startled and flopped even more frantically.
A two-legged beast that could easily subdue seven or eight pheasant monsters would surely have no trouble crushing them.
Tu Ran pulled out her pistol and aimed it at one of them, ready to pull the trigger.
“Don’t! Don’t kill us!”
Tu Ran: “?”
Was she hallucinating?!
Did she just hear human language?!
“Don’t kill us! We’ll give you whatever you want.”
The two fish continued to speak, confirming that she wasn’t hallucinating.
The world was vast, full of wonders.
Tu Ran once again witnessed the diversity of different species.
“I want your powers,” Tu Ran said straightforwardly.
“Pick something else, the inner cores are very important to us,” the two fish pleaded pitifully.
Tu Ran raised her pistol.
The two fish: As expected, weak fish have no diplomacy.
“Don’t shoot us! We’ll give it to you!”
Tu Ran lowered her pistol.
Tu Ran: Indeed, the gun is still more effective.
“You two… two fish can talk, so do you both have inner cores?” Tu Ran asked, staring at them.
“No,” one of the fish said, wagging its tail proudly, “We Henggong fish are born with the ability to speak, not only your two-legged language but all species’ languages.”
“The inner cores are so precious that out of the tens of thousands of Henggong fish, only two have them. Without the inner core, I wouldn’t be the admired one I am now.”
“Which two fish?”
“One is me, and the other is my brother.”
Tu Ran glanced at the small goldfish beside it, “And who is it?”
“It’s my mate.”
The two fish began to nuzzle each other intimately, as if no one else was there.
Tu Ran: …
Even a fish had a partner.
And they were showing off their affection right in front of her.
Tu Ran was very unfeeling: “Hurry up and hand over the inner core.”
She was like a robber.
A robber who split up lovers.
The two fish were startled by her tone.
The male protectively shielded the female behind him.
“Wait a moment, I need to prepare myself.”
Tu Ran was puzzled, “Prepare for what?”
“Prepare a certain feeling, so I can pull it out for you.”
Tu Ran: “…”
She wanted to perform a C-section.
“The feeling is coming, it’s coming,” the male Henggong fish said, quickly wagging his tail.
Amidst the shimmering water, a white, glistening bead emerged.
The female Henggong fish caught it with her head and, wagging her tail, presented it to Tu Ran.
For a moment, Tu Ran didn’t know whether to take it or not.
Why did they have to let her witness the process of producing this inner core?!
How could she bring herself to eat it now?!
“Take it quickly, this is one of the only two inner cores in the Henggong fish family. It’s incredibly valuable. Eat it, and you’ll be able to understand our speech,” the male Henggong fish urged, wagging his tail.
Tu Ran gave herself a pep talk.
She’d come this far; it was just a bead, nothing too hard to accept.
Tu Ran bent down and took the bead from the female Henggong fish’s head.
The bead was very clean, possibly washed by the water, and it had no strange smell.
The two fish wagged their tails in unison, looking at the much taller two-legged beast before them, watching her every move.
Tu Ran had already brought the bead to her lips but couldn’t make the next move.
‘I’ve eaten pig intestines!’
She silently reminded herself.
‘Pig intestines have also held feces!’
‘This bead is cleaner than pig intestines!’
‘This bead is more nutritious than pig intestines!’
‘This bead—
Tu Ran mustered all her courage, tilted her head back, and threw it into her throat.
The inner core dissolved into a stream of energy, disappearing without a trace.
Tu Ran opened her eyes.
Her mouth hadn’t even touched the inner core, indirectly proving she hadn’t eaten this—excreted—inner core!
Yes, she hadn’t eaten it.
Tu Ran deceived herself.
The two fish, seeing that she had eaten it, asked, “Can you let us go now, two-legged beast?”
Tu Ran glanced at the pile of pheasant monster corpses and began to move them one by one.
With the stream clear, the two fish happily swam away with the current.
Tu Ran recalled the narrow downstream section and wondered how these two large fish would manage to pass through.
That wasn’t her concern. She turned back to face the pheasant monster.
The chubby pheasant monster was still lying there obediently.
One of its legs had been hit by Tu Ran, so it couldn’t walk, and it was too heavy to fly.
Unable to escape, it decided to just lie there.
“Are you hungry?” Tu Ran looked down at it.
“Hungry,” the pheasant monster replied.
Now, Tu Ran could understand its language.
“My stomach is already flattened with hunger.” It patted its stomach with its wing.
Tu Ran glanced at its belly, which was as round as a ball.
Was “flattened” really the right word here?
“I can give you a lot of delicious food,” Tu Ran said, “if you help me find your leader and assist me in taking its inner core.”
“Do you agree?” Tu Ran toyed with her pistol.
The pheasant monster: “…”
It felt the blatant threat.
“I agree,” it said.
Tu Ran’s lips curled into a smile, “You’ve made the right choice. From now on, your name will be Pangpang.”
“Pang… Pang?” The pheasant monster repeated the name, “Pangpang, Pangpang, Pangpang!”
It really liked the name.
Tu Ran gave it a strange look, wondering what was so exciting about a name.
“You call me Pangpang, so what should I call you?” Pangpang wagged its tail, asking happily.
Tu Ran squatted down to check the wound on its leg and replied, “Call me Boss.”
“Boss?” Pangpang tilted its head, “Does ‘Boss’ mean leader?”
“Something like that,” Tu Ran said, her face expressionless.
She was carefully examining its wound.
The bullet had completely pierced through its plump chicken thigh, leaving a scorched hole that was still bleeding.
This creature managed not to make a sound, showing some grit.
Tu Ran, however, had a headache. She regretted shooting it in the leg.
Now she had to deal with the aftermath.
“So Pangpang has two bosses now,” Pangpang said, counting the feathers on its wings, “The leader is my boss, and the two-legged beast is also my boss.”
It sure was talkative.
Tu Ran ignored it, taking a first aid kit from her backpack and started cleaning its wound.
She applied ointment and bandaged it properly.
After finishing, she stood up. “Can you sit up now?”
Pangpang used its wings to push itself up from the ground and managed to sit up.
It was only a leg injury; it could sit up just fine.
“Try standing up,” Tu Ran instructed.
Pangpang used its uninjured leg to push against the ground, attempting to stand.
After several attempts, it couldn’t get up.
One leg wasn’t enough to support its heavy body.
“Don’t you have wings?” Tu Ran suddenly realized, “Why don’t you try flying?”
Pangpang: Of all things to bring up, it had to be its weak point.
“I… I can’t fly,” it said shyly, blinking.
**TN
Pangpang (胖胖) – Fatfat or Chubchub
