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Chapter 196: Let’s Run, Fox (XII)

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    遭遇上次的死亡旋冰后，狮族部落正式进入休猎阶段，不再随意外出。

After running into that last ice tornado, the lion tribe formally ceased hunting and no longer went out.

    尚可休养了几天后，终于缓过劲来，但穆图依然不放心，每天用厚厚的毛皮将他裹得严严实实，晚上还会给他暖手暖脚，顺便暖床，被他当宝贝一般，宠得毫无底线。

After Shang Ke recuperated for a couple days, he finally regained some strength. But Mutu still worried over him and used thick furs to bundle him tightly. He would warm his hands and feet each night while warming his bed. He was treated and loved like a priceless treasure.

    因为“狗笛”立了大功，于是，穆图又给尚可做了摇铃、风铃、垂铃等等，各种能够发出响声的器物。不但往尚可身上戴，还在屋里挂了不少，只要风一吹，立刻就能听到一连串叮叮咚咚的声音，倒也别有一番生趣。

Since the flute had shown its usefulness, Mutu made a variety of bells for Shang Ke. Handbells, windchimes, hanging bells—anything that could ring were made. No only did he hang them on Shang Ke, he had also hung a lot around the house. When the wind blew they would hear the countless tinkering sounds of chimes and bells, it was rather lively. 

    尚可开始还饶有兴味地旁观，但很快，他就意识到不妙了。某天晚上，他忘记取下脖子上的铃铛，两人亲热时，铃铛发出清脆的响声。这种响声似乎让穆图异常兴奋，冲击得更加大力，每每顶到至深处，乐此不疲地制造声响。

Shang Ke first watched with the interest of a spectator, but soon, he realized the shortcomings of it. On a certain night, he forgot to take off the bell around his neck. While the two were having their passionate night, the bell would ring sharply and crisply. The sound stimulated Mutu’s excitement and he would work even harder to aim for the depths and create ringing sounds with each thrust.

    这种铃声很悦耳，听在耳中并不觉得难受。但是，以兽人们敏锐的听觉，尽管铃声不大，也能听得清清楚楚。从铃铛碰撞的节奏和声音的震动，就可以听出两人的激烈程度。

The ringing of the bell was very nice, it didn’t irritate the listener. But with the beastmen’s keen hearing, even if it was soft, they could still hear the ringing clearly. From the intervals of each ring, other listeners can immediately deduct how hard they were going at it.

    等到第二天，几乎所有兽人都得知了他们的次数、频率和持续时间。

The next day, almost all of the beastmen knew how many rounds they went, the frequency and duration as well. 

    不少兽人由衷地赞道：“不愧是族长，果然厉害！”

Countless beastmen sincerely praised Mutu: “As expected of our Chief, so strong!”

    对于尚可，则是无尽的羡慕。

As for their attitude toward Shang Ke, it was endless envy. 

    尚可只能选择无视，并且不停在心里告诉自己：这是原始社会，是一个连露天野战都可以大方围观的无下限世界，听墙角这种“保守”的小事，根本不算什么。

Shang Ke could only selectively ignore them and continue to repeat to himself: This is a primitive society, this is a world without a bottom line—people can even couple and have spectators watch outside, something as ‘conservative’ as listening in is simply nothing. 

    尽管这么宽慰自己，但尚可之后还是坚持要把身上和床上所有会发出声音的物品全部清理掉，才允许穆图碰他，不然谁知道这家伙会不会一时“性”起，给他弄来一个惊天震地的铜钟？

No matter how he consoled himself, Shang Ke still immediately insisted on clearing anything that rang on his person and bed, before allowing Mutu to touch him. Otherwise, who knows how far this guy would go. He might straight up give him a huge bronze bell!

    穆图小声嘟囔：“族里那几个狼人每做一次都要嚎上几嗓子，也没人说什么啊。”

Mutu muttered to himself: “The wolf beastmen in the tribe would all howl when they do it once, and no one said anything.”

    尚可一瞪眼，穆图立刻闭嘴了。

Mutu immediately shut up with one glare from Shang Ke.

    只是等尚可熟睡后，他会偷偷给他戴上铃铛，然后趁他迷迷糊糊时做上几次。如此一来，铃声小了，频率低了，时间短了，其他兽人于是又开始怀疑他们的狮王是不是不行了。

But Mutu would still sneak a small bell on Shang Ke when he fell asleep then while he was still half-conscious, go for a few rounds. As such, the ringing became quieter, the frequency lowered and the time was also shorter. Other beastmen started to wonder if their Lion King was done in.

    自此之后，部落的夜晚，经常能听到叮叮咚咚的脆响声，如歌如泣，此起彼伏……

From then on, the ringing of a small bell could be frequently heard throughout the tribe night like music that looped on without end.

    狮族没有过年的传统，只有成年礼或者新狮王继位时才会庆祝狂欢。娱乐生活几乎一片空白，整整一个寒季，难免显得有些清冷。

The lion tribe did not have the tradition of celebrating new years. They only celebrate when someone enters adulthood, or when a new Lion King was crowned. Their entertainment life was pretty bland and the cold winter made their life seem even more bland.

    不过，尚可一点也不觉得枯燥。白天打理打理菜园，研究研究原始菜谱，顺便教其他人一些生活小技巧，其中一项就是教他们认识石油。

However, Shang Ke did not feel that things were boring. During the day he would take care of his fields, do some research on ancient menus, and teach others some life skills. One of the things he taught was the recognition of crude oil.

    这个时代没有人开采石油，有些石油原液溢出地表，被大多数人当作一种毒物，雉狗族必然是在机缘巧合之下才得知石油的作用。狮族吃过石油的苦头，对这种燃料心怀畏惧之情，尚可不要求他们物尽其用，只希望他们对此有所了解，以免重蹈覆辙。

No one extracted crude oil in this time period. Some of the oil would flow up to the surface and was treated as something poisonous by most people. The avanis had found the usage of oil mainly by accident. After suffering from the crude oil once, the lion tribe would have a natural fear toward it. Shang Ke did not expect them to make use of it, he only wished to educate them to understand what it was to avoid repeating the disaster from before.

    尚可掌握的各种技能中，最能激发狮子们热情的就是厨艺。当然，让他们感兴趣的不是做，而是吃。部落中所有人都尝过尚可的手艺，并且毫无例外被其征服。

Amongst all the skills Shang Ke had, cooking was the one that aroused the lions’ passions the most. Of course, they were not interested in doing the cooking, but the eating. Everyone in the tribe had eaten his cooking before and were all conquered without exception.

    尚可找他们帮忙，只要一顿饭，必然有一大群人响应，比穆图的命令还奏效。半个寒季过去，尚可俨然超过穆图，成为部落中人气最高的人物。

When Shang Ke needed their help, all he had to do was offer a meal and a whole group would respond. It was even more effective than Mutu’s orders. After half the winter had gone by, Shang Ke had surpassed Mutu’s prestige and became the most respected one in the tribe. 

    之后，他让穆图帮忙做了几个棋盘，磨出几十上百颗棋子，没事就找穆图下棋。当然，他们下的不是围棋、将棋这种需要费脑的棋，而是跳棋、五子棋、飞行棋、大富翁之类的休闲棋。

Afterwards, he had Mutu help him make a few chess boards and mold some chess pieces. When he had nothing important to do he would play with Mutu. They did not play anything hard like Go or Shoji that needed brainpower, but things like Checkers, Five-In-A-Row, Aeroplane Chess, and Monopoly were free to play for leisure.

    尚可做这些还有另外一个目的，那就是借由游戏，教穆图学习算数知识。自从发现很多兽人连简单的数数，都需要用到自己身上的毛，尚可就感觉有些无法直视了。

Shang Ke had another purpose for making these—to teach Mutu how to math through games. Ever since he found out how many beastmen even needed to go beyond their fingers and use their fur to do simple math, Shang Ke had been unable to look at them straight. 

    比起大部分兽人，穆图的头脑算得上出类拔萃了。在没有任何基础的情况下，很快便掌握了简单的加减乘除法，口诀也背得很顺溜。

Compared to most beastmen, Mutu’s brain was above average. Under the situation where he had no foundations to build off of, he quickly grasped simple math and could repeat arithmetic tables easily.

    除此之外，尚可还将狮族所有成员编成了名册，并详细记录了每个人的出身年月，性别种族，性格特长，亲属关系等等。因为文字不太完善，所以尚可多以图形示意，比如有的兽人擅长射箭，他就在特长后面画上一把弓箭；有的擅长打造，就用火焰和锤子来表示。

In addition to that, Shang Ke made a register for all the members of the lion tribe. He made a detailed record of everyone from their birthday to their gender, race, speciality, family relations and so on. Due to limited characters of this time, Shang Ke had used a lot of pictures as replacement. For example, some beastmen were good at archery, so under speciality would be a picture of a bow and arrow; some were good at forging, so he would draw a fire and hammer to express that.

    在此之前，兽人们的管理十分粗糙，只要是雄性必定要求外出狩猎，以猎物的多少和战力的强弱来衡量一个人的能力。但是，有些雄性兽人天生体质偏弱，更擅长编织或者其他细致的手工活。在食物比较充沛的情况下，兽人们完全可以选择更适合他们的工作，人尽其用。

Before this, the management of beastmen was very crude. As long as they were male, they had to go out and hunt. Their capabilities all hinged on how much prey they catch and how strong they physically were. But some male beastmen had naturally weak bodies and were more suited for weaving and other delicate handwork. Under conditions of when the tribe had abundant food, beastmen could choose to do work that was more suitable for them, making them more productive.

    当然，这些事情，尚可并不打算直接插手，而是交给穆图自己决定，他只是提供一些基本的管理方式。但无可否认的是，这份石刻名册，对原始部落的发展有着极其重要的意义，被后世兽人当作人口资源管理的基础，一直沿用下来，并且不断完善。

Shang Ke did not plan to get involved in the management of this though, he had Mutu make decisions himself. He merely offered a way to do some basic management. But this stone register was no doubt extremely important for the development of an ancient tribe. Later generations would use it as population and resource management and continue to improve it.

    而在此时，它只是尚可用来帮助穆图更好的掌管部落的工具，也是他拉着穆图躺着床上一起完成的。原本三天就可以完成，两人却足足用了十天。

For now, it was a tool Shang Ke made to help Mutu better manage the tribe. He had pulled Mutu into bed to help him with it. Something that should have taken three days took them a full ten days instead.

    其过程，自然是深入浅出、高潮迭起……

The course of events was naturally a simple yet indepth exploration with new heights one another another… 

    穆图就像一块海绵，贪婪地吸收着尚可教给他的一切。

Mutu was like a sponge as he greedily absorbed everything Shang Ke taught him.

    从长老的屋子出来，穆图朝尚可的住处走去。如今那里已经成为他和狐狸的家。虽然简陋，却非常温馨。

Making his way out of the elder’s house, Mutu headed for the place that had become both of their homes. Although simple, it was very comfortable.

    “亚努，亚努，这是什么？”一个稚嫩的声音从那边传来。

“Yanu, Yanu, what is this?” A young voice transmitted from there.

    穆图抬头望去，只见一个熟悉的人影正坐在石椅上，用一根树枝在沙盘上画着什么。在他身边，围着一群小兽人。

Mutu raised his head and saw a familiar face sitting on a stone chair. He was using a branch to draw something on the ground while being surrounded by a group of young beastmen.

    狐狸脸上挂着淡淡的微笑，白色的头发随意垂在脸侧，眉眼之间尽是温柔，软软的大尾巴护着一个刚刚学会走路的小兽人，以防他不小心摔倒。

A soft smile lingered on his face as his white hair hung freely, thoroughly giving him a gentle appearance. His soft large tail helped along a young beastmen that had just learned to walk so he wouldn’t fall.

    小兽人抱着他的尾巴，靠在他身侧，眯眼眼睛一副很舒服的样子，只是嘴角留下的口水有点煞风景。

The child hugged his tail, learning against him in a comfortable manner. The only thing that smeared the nice scenery was the drool at his mouth. 

    穆图眼见口水就要蹭到那条大尾巴上，脸色一黑，大步走过去，一把将小兽人从尾巴里拎起来，扔到他哥哥怀里。

Watching how the drool was about to drop onto that fluffy tail, Mutu’s face darkened and he strode over. He picked up the child off the tail and gave him back to his brother.

    小兽人被迫离开暖暖的大尾巴，委屈得不行，嘴巴一瘪，作势欲哭。尚可连忙从怀里掏出一件东西递到他怀里，顺利转移了他的注意力。

Being forced to part with that large warm tail, the child felt wronged and made an unhappy face that was seconds away from crying. Shang Ke immediately took out something from his bosom and handed it over, cleaning drawing his attention. 

    穆图定睛一看，是一个小巧的拨浪鼓。他知道狐狸给族里的孩子做了很多新奇的小玩具，还经常教他们玩游戏，给他们做好吃的，不求回报，只为单纯的笑容。

Mutu stared, it was a drum-shaped rattle. He knew that his fox would often make a lot of toys for children and would teach them games. He also made a lot of tasty food for them and did not ask for anything in return. He merely wished for their smiles.

    还记得以前，因为不会说话，狐狸很少与其他人交流，一直孤孤单单，默默无闻。直到他逐渐显露真性情，用自己的行动赢得了全族人的好感。他的世界好像与众不同，虽无声，却多彩。

He still remembered how in the past, because he could not talk he would have few interactions with others and was always alone and unknown. Now he had come out and used his actions to win everyone’s favor. His world was different from others, although silent, it was colorful.

    穆图忍不住俯身亲了他一口，回味一下，又亲了一口。

Mutu couldn’t help but lean down to kiss him. After a short reflection, he kissed him again.

    尚可：……？

Shang Ke: ……?

    小兽人(⊙o⊙)：……！

The children (⊙o⊙): ……!

    穆图没理会这些小屁孩的注视，大大咧咧地霸占尚可身边的位置，两只大手很自然地钻进狐狸的衣服里暖着。

Mutu did not pay attention to these children as he openly dominated the place next to Shang Ke and his two large hands naturally entered Shang Ke’s warm clothes.

    这个人的气息，让他眷恋不已。这个人的温柔，让这个冰冷的寒季，变得无比充实和火热。

This man’s scent made him long endlessly. This man’s gentleness turned this cold winter into a rich and warm one.

    寒季结束的前半个月，狮族的食物开始捉襟见肘，从一天两顿，缩减为一天一顿。不过众人依然很有信心能够度过这个寒季。因为以往这个时候，狮族已经有饿死的人出现，而今只需要忍受几天的饥饿就可以度过危机了。

Half a month before the end of winter, the portions of food started to cut down. From two meals a day, to one meal a day. But everyone was still pretty confident in surviving this winter. Because in the past, by this point they would have already have people that starved to death. And now, all that had to do was endure a couple days of hunger and they will survive.

    不过饥饿的兽人容易暴躁，部落里时不时发生争斗，谁获胜，谁就能得到对方的食物。有些战斗力不强的兽人，每天的食物都会被别人“赢”走，不得不靠积雪和树枝强撑。

But hungry beastmen were often in irritable moods, and battles would happen from time to time within the tribe. Whoever won would have the loser’s food. Some weaker beastmen would have their food ‘won’ away everyday by others and have no choice but to rely on snow and branches to endure.

    继续下去，尚可不知道这些人还能坚持多久。他的任务是确保狮族无一饿殍，眼看寒季即将过去，他绝对不能马前失蹄。

If this continued, Shang Ke did not know how long these people might endure. His mission was to ensure nobody in the tribe starved. With how close winter was ending, there was no way he would lose like this.

    他把自己制作的腌菜腌肉全部从地窖中取出来，然后将那些备受欺负的兽人召集过来，请他们帮忙开垦土地，等到晚上就将这些食物当作奖励，分发给他们。

He took out the pickled vegetables and meat from his cellar and called over all the beastmen who were bullied to help him clear out a patch of land. Once night fell, he would give them the food as reward.

    他很清楚，如果白送的话，必然会引起其他人的不满。即使人人有份，也不能保证这些人的食物不会被抢。但是只要在他的地方，其他人就不敢放肆。

He understood that if he handed out food for free, others would feel resentful. Even if everyone had a share, he could not guarantee that their food would not be snatched. But as long as it was on his territory, no one would dare.

    这样既能让这些兽人吃个半饱，又不至于招来太多非议。尚可的地窖，很多人都参观过，有多少存货大家都知道。有人悄悄计算过，几天下来，他基本将自己的食物，全部贡献出来了。在这种关键时候，他的举动无疑给众人很大的触动，部落中的争端也逐渐平息了。

In this way, these beastmen would at least be half full each day and wouldn’t be criticized too much. Many people have seen Shang Ke’s cellar before, so how much he had stocked everyone knew. Someone had quietly calculated, in a few more days, he would have distributed almost all his food. At such a crucial time, his action had no doubt touched quite a few people and the conflicts within the tribe gradually settled down.

    “狐狸，给你。”穆图将自己的大块肉干递给尚可。

“Fox, for you.” Mutu gave his large dried meat to Shang Ke.

    尚可不解地看着他。

Shang Ke looked at him in confusion.

    穆图心疼地说：“你最近瘦了不少，不要再忍着了，吃吧，我的食物都给你吃。”

Mutu spoke with worry, “You have gotten a lot thinner recently. You don’t need to hold back anymore, just eat it. I will give you all of my food.”

    尚可默默地望着那块肉干：你的食物都给我，那你自己呢？

Shang Ke silently stared at that dried meat: If you give me all your food, what about you?

    穆图像是知道他在想什么，拍着胸脯道：“你放心，我不怕饿！”

As if Mutu read his mind, he patted his chest and spoke, “Don’t worry, I’m not afraid of hunger!”

    话音刚落，就听到肚子里传来一阵敲鼓似的咕噜声。

He had only just spoken when a drum-like grumble came from his stomach.

    穆图：“……我放了一个屁。”

Mutu: “…I farted.”

    尚可：“……”

Shang Ke: “……”

    忍住笑意，尚可将他手里的肉干接过来，用小刀切开，一人一半。事实上，他并不是很饿，园子里的蔬果已经足够他充饥，但是他愿意和这头狮子一起同甘共苦，分享食物。

Enduring the urge to smile, Shang Ke took the meat and sliced it in half. He was not all that hungry, the vegetables and fruits he had were enough to relieve his hunger. But he wished to share life’s joys and sorrow with this lion, so they can share food.

    穆图犹豫了一会，最终还是接了过去，然后认真地对尚可说：“狐狸，下一个寒季，我发誓一定不会再让你忍饥挨饿。”

Mutu hesitated for a moment, then finally took it. He then earnestly told Shang Ke: “Fox, I promise you that I will not let you go hungry again next winter.”

    尚可两眼弯弯地看着他：嗯，我相信你。

Shang Ke’s eyes curved happily as he looked at him: Mhm, I believe you.”

    【完成附加任务1——确保这个寒季狮族无一饿殍。】

 【Completed Additional Mission 1—Make sure no one starves in the lion tribe this winter.】

    在寒季结束的最后一天，尚可收到了系统的提示信息。他发现一个问题，好像从上个世界开始，附加任务不再奖励滞留时间，不知道这是否意味着某种限制被打破了。系统最近经常装死，基本不回答任何问题，好像从人工智能退化成了一个简单的程序。

On the final day of winter, Shang Ke obtained the notification from the System. He noticed a problem at the same time, ever since the last world, the additional missions no longer rewarded him any detainment time. He did not know if this meant some kind of restriction was broken. The System would frequently play dead these days and basically did not answer any questions. It was like an artificial intelligence had degenerated into a simple computer program.

SnowTime: I am half an hour past midnight welp. If there are more typos than usual, forgive me. My brain is half dead and my fingers type words more randomly than what my brain wants. 

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