Don't Want?

When the sun began to peek through from where it always should, the village in the jungle had long since come alive.

A crowd of muscle-bound men, big and small, were huffing and shouting in the morning breeze, burning off their excess energy. Women in the kitchens would occasionally glance down through the windows at their children or men, silently smiling.

Barely two days had passed on this side, yet Little Cat looked haggard, listless in everything she did. In these two days, someone very important to her had vanished from her life.

The noisy commotion outside suddenly fell silent, followed by a jumble of greetings.

Little Cat's gloom lifted at once, her expression brightening. She hurried out of the treehouse and down to the ground, and when she saw that familiar figure approaching in the dawn light, she smiled happily, the shadows in her heart swept clean.

Even though Bai Yang's outfit was strange and unfamiliar, Little Cat still walked up to him amid the villagers' chaotic, teasing shouts.

Coming back this time, Bai Yang had dressed with some care: a white T-shirt, washed-out blue jeans, and a pair of outdoor leather boots on his feet.

None of that was off, but a floor-length black trench coat worn on top was just too flashy. And if he was also wearing sunglasses on his face this early in the morning, he looked like a complete lunatic...

"Hey, how's everyone?"

Seeing the villagers crowding around him warmly, Bai Yang waved to greet them. In his haste, he spoke Chinese, which came out as a jumble of gibberish to these villagers...

No help for it—he barely understood their language to begin with, and after a few days back home, he'd almost forgotten it.

When he saw Little Cat standing gracefully before him, her little face all set to cry with grievance, he felt a bit awkward. Anyone watching might think he'd seduced and abandoned her.

"Little Cat, I'm back."

Bai Yang waved and greeted her, speaking their language slowly and haltingly.

Why the hell does my tone sound like a husband coming home from a trip? Bai Yang grumbled inwardly.

"I... I'll go make you something to eat..."

Little Cat smiled happily, tossed out that one sentence in a rush, and turned to run off. She didn't care where Bai Yang had gone—as long as he was back, she would still take care of him as meticulously as before.

So awkward. My hand's still in the air. And speak slower—I didn't catch all that...

Bai Yang scratched his head to cover it up, then took off his sunglasses. The light in the jungle was dim at this hour anyway; wearing shades had nearly made him blind.

"Here, play with this."

Seeing Hu Zi staring at the sunglasses in his hand with burning curiosity, Bai Yang tossed them over with a resigned air.

Hu Zi fumbled to catch them, put them on like Bai Yang had, couldn't adjust to the light change, and face-planted on the ground after two steps...

This guy is hopeless!

Clapping his hands to draw the villagers' attention, Bai Yang pointed toward the edge of the village and said in their language, stumbling and waving his arms like a madman, "I brought you all some gifts. Help me carry them over!"

No problem at all. A crowd of muscle-bound men, big and small, charged out. Before they'd gone a hundred meters, they spotted a huge pile of stuff behind a few big trees.

The villagers were simple and honest. They didn't touch anything randomly, just hauled the whole pile to the open space in the village.

Bai Yang was speechless. So much stuff had appeared out of nowhere outside the village, and these folks weren't even curious? Their acceptance was way too strong.

After getting everything ready on Earth, Bai Yang had snuck over to take a look, picked a time about an hour or two before dawn, and started moving things. It took him half an hour back and forth to finish, then he dressed up in that flashy outfit and stepped into the villagers' sight in the morning light.

"Young Master Bai, this is...?"

The white-bearded village chief appeared beside Bai Yang, pointing at the huge pile in confusion.

In these villagers' eyes, Bai Yang was some rich young master from who knows where. After learning what "Young Master Bai" meant in their language, he'd corrected them countless times, but they never changed, so he just let it go.

Catching the village chief's meaning, Bai Yang pointed at the pile and said, "Thanks for taking care of me before. I prepared some gifts for everyone—this is it!"

Saying that long sentence was a struggle for Bai Yang; most of it was gestures...

"How can this be..."

The village chief waved his hands quickly. He didn't know what the stuff was, but there was so much of it. Given Bai Yang's usual style, it had to be incredibly precious.

Bai Yang hadn't just brought the forged Titanium Alloy Armor and Titanium Alloy Blades—those could only equip a hundred people. The villagers wore ragged clothes or none at all, so he'd gone across half the city to find a fabric store, nearly cleaned out their warehouse, and hauled a whole cartload of various cloth.

Since everyone here, adults and kids alike, had big hands and feet, he couldn't buy clothes that fit them all at once. So he just got a bunch of cloth for them to make their own. Having watched their daily habits, Bai Yang knew they were decent with needlework, so he'd also bought a pile of needles and thread...

Pointing at a hundred and fifty-five cloth bundles the size of tables, he said, "These are all cloth and needles and thread. One for each family!"

That sentence came out just as haltingly, most of it relying on gestures to get the meaning across.

Yeah, there were exactly a hundred and fifty-five households in this village—Bai Yang had counted. The cloth had been pre-sorted by the shop when he bought it, saving him the trouble now.

With the village chief's approval, the villagers stepped forward in an orderly way, each family carrying one bundle away. Soon, exclamations of wonder came from the treehouses...

Bai Yang was satisfied that the villagers accepted his gifts, but he seemed to have forgotten his own "home." Little Cat was watching him from the window of his treehouse with a hurt look...

Next came the main event. Bai Yang pointed at the pile of Wooden Boxes and said to Number One Barbarian, "Zhu Zi, bring over one small box and one big box!"

Though the boxes holding the Titanium Alloy Armor and Titanium Alloy Blades weighed four or five hundred jin, Zhu Zi easily carried one in each hand.

Scanning the crowd, Bai Yang picked up a meter-long "small knife" from a rack, walked to the wooden boxes, and chopped the armor box open with a few crack sounds. The armor inside was revealed to the villagers.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw every villager's eyes wide and gleaming, like an old bachelor who'd been single for eighty years spotting a naked beauty!

"Zhu Zi, try it on," Bai Yang said.

After some fussing and Bai Yang's demonstration, Zhu Zi finally got the 110-jin Titanium Alloy Armor on. Standing there, he looked like a cold metal statue!

Bai Yang heard the sound of swallowing. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the remaining boxes like bulls in heat.

With a few more crack chops, he split open the box holding the Titanium Alloy Blades. Ten blades clattered to the ground. Bai Yang picked one up, tossed it at Zhu Zi's feet, and gestured for him to pick it up.

Zhu Zi, clad in Titanium Alloy Armor, bent down and grabbed the Titanium Alloy Blade, then with a shua sound he drew the long, savage blade. Under the morning light, he was like an icy god of death, and the surrounding crowd let out gasps of cold air.

"Ah..."

This guy Zhu Zi suddenly let out a strange yell, then bang bang bang ran to a tree that took one person to wrap their arms around. With a swing of the Titanium Alloy Blade, a flash of cold light passed, and the great tree crashed down, the cut so smooth it didn't even have splinters!

"But if this lunatic chops down a tree and crushes a wooden house, will he get beaten to death?"

Bai Yang muttered to himself, then looked at the white-bearded old man and said, "Village Chief, one hundred sets of this armor and blade. You help distribute them."

The white-bearded old man was trembling all over. His aged expression suddenly flushed red, his breathing grew rapid, and he looked like he was about to die of a heart attack at any moment.

Under Bai Yang's dumbfounded gaze, the old man let out a series of garbled shouts, and then Zhu Zi reluctantly took off the armor and put down the Titanium Alloy Blade.

Seeing this, Bai Yang was confused.

The old man bowed deeply to Bai Yang, but Bai Yang dodged it—he couldn't bear such a gesture...

Looking at Bai Yang, the old man spoke very slowly: "Young Master Bai, we accept the cloth. But these armors and weapons are too precious. Please forgive the ignorance of us mountain folk—we cannot estimate the value of these weapons and armors, so we cannot accept them!"

Bai Yang had imagined many ways of giving the armor and weapons to them, but he never expected this. If you don't want them, they're useless to me too. With my build, even if I wore them, they wouldn't fit, and could I even walk after putting them on? Besides, when would I ever finish wearing a hundred sets?

His eyes rolled, and Bai Yang had an idea. He said, "These things aren't free, of course. They're just payment. How about letting a few villagers serve as my guards for a while? After all, being a guard often comes with life-threatening danger. Life is priceless, so these things are trivial in comparison, right?"

This long stretch of words really put Bai Yang through the wringer. He stumbled through it, and on top of that, he had to jump around like a shaman and gesture wildly just to get his meaning across...

(To be honest, I'm very dissatisfied with this chapter. I'm too embarrassed to ask for recommendation votes or collections.)