I Am Your Natural Enemy

Even as the deputy minister of Nanwu County, he kept a very low profile and was highly cooperative with some tasks.

If there was anything that needed to be reported, it didn’t bypass Feng Yao, but he let Feng Yao report it to the higher-ups.

Under such circumstances, even without an official minister, the atmosphere in the Nanwu County Scorching Sun Department was remarkably well-maintained.

However, Feng Yao himself was under tremendous pressure, walking on thin ice every day, fearing he might make a mistake.

Staying overnight in the department and not returning home for a week was the norm.

Now that the General Director has given authorization, it’s to some extent a show of support for him.

Feng Yao truly missed the days when Cai Heizi was still around; he just needed to work, do the job well, without having to make decisions or having to quickly make the right decision on the spot.

Checking the time, Feng Yao took out the phone and called Wen Yan.

"What’s up?"

"I have a question for you."

"Go ahead."

"Can Minister Cai come back?"

"Huh, why are you suddenly asking about this? Cai Heizi has been gone for quite some time."

"I’m not asking if Minister Cai is gone or not, I’m asking if he can come back, and roughly when he might come back."

"I wouldn’t know; you’d better ask him yourself."

"Alright."

Feng Yao hung up the phone and actually took out his own mobile phone, found Cai Qidong’s contact, sent him a message, described recent events, and inquired if Cai Qidong could come back to continue being the minister, as he was currently under a lot of pressure; doing the work was fine, but making decisions truly felt overwhelming.

On the other side, Wen Yan puzzledly put down the phone, wondering what was up with Feng Yao?

After blessing his family, he took a bowl of oil-splashed noodles to the underground beehive.

Of the three cages that were once here, only Huo Yong remained; the other two had dissipated.

Wen Yan held the bowl, opened the cage, and entered it. Seeing him, Huo Yong immediately prepared to go into a closed-off state.

"No rush, I’m just back from outside. During meal time, I came to see you, to chat a bit, that’s all. Why are you so afraid?"

"Me, afraid of you?!" Huo Yong scoffed but then prepared to shut down again.

"Really, just a casual chat. If there’s something you don’t want to talk about, you simply don’t have to, as if forcing you would do any good."

Wen Yan left those words and began eating the noodles.

Seeing Wen Yan eat with such relish, looking extremely relaxed, Huo Yong finally let down his guard a little.

"What is it you’re eating?"

"Oil-splashed noodles, a type of noodle dish. It’s been a long time since I’ve had it, and I felt like having some. Our family steward is very good at making these, very authentic. Do you want some? I could bring you a bowl in a bit."

"No."

"Alright, suit yourself. While I was out, I learned about some things from the past.

I heard that back in your time, when going out hunting, you could borrow weapons, right?"

Huo Yong kept silent.

"Why are you so tense? Can’t we even talk about this?

You know, there aren’t many records from your time actually left now.

History doesn’t contain much, only some significant legends have been passed down verbally to this day.

However, those legends have changed over who knows how many tellings and likely are no longer as they originally were.

How people lived, what they ate, what they did, what customs they had, these are all crucial.

These are traces of civilization, signs of existence.

Do you think I’m here to just chat about fighting and killing?"

After a moment of silence, Huo Yong replied.

"There were indeed people like you mentioned."

"Then initially, they mortgaged food and dwellings to exchange for weapons.

Later, they began mortgaging their lifespan to get better weapons and warming furs.

In the end, even souls were mortgaged, right?"

"No souls involved, at least I hadn’t heard of it." Huo Yong refuted Wen Yan’s final statement.

Wen Yan realized that it was indeed very ancient. In Huo Yong’s era, pawnbroking had already developed to quite an exaggerated extent.

After Huo Yong started talking, he thought for a moment and continued.

"The kind of people you mentioned were very unpopular. They contributed nothing to the tribe but held a lot of resources. I heard that one of such people was nailed to a cliff, and his eyes and heart were pecked out by a Big Bird from the mountaintop."

Huo Yong’s tone carried an air of ’just what they deserved.’

"Looks like you suffered a lot from them too." Wen Yan casually added while eating.

"Those kinds of people deserved to die."

"I met someone like that on this trip as well. He was torn apart by the Lost Souls of his victims — unfortunately, no matter how tragic the death, it can’t undo the harm already caused."

Wen Yan finished his meal, took his bowl up, and brought down another bowl, mixed it well, and placed three incense sticks in it.

"Give it a try. This is the most common meal in an ordinary family, very cheap food."

Wen Yan turned and left without lingering.

Huo Yong stared at the bowl of noodles for a long time but eventually couldn’t resist trying it. It was a taste he had never experienced before, and he could feel it was quite filling.

If his tribe back then could have had meals like ordinary people today, maybe everything would have been different.

Wen Yan returned to the surface, pondering the conversation he’d just had with Huo Yong.

He was now fairly certain that although pawnbroking had a long history, it seemed to have little to do with Huo Yong; Huo Yong wasn’t a deeply scheming person.

Pawnbroking probably had little relation to Huo Yong, yet it had already emerged during Huo Yong’s era.

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