Ordinary Man with an Ordinary Strange Illness

The air was tranquil. The night breeze carried the fragrance of flowers mixed with faint musky, bloody odors as it drifted past their noses. Beneath the stove came the whooshing and crackling of burning firewood. Sparks danced inside the firebox, painting Wu Chu's cheeks red as he sat before the stove tending the flames. Bits of fat floated in the oil pan, sizzling as the greasy scent of oil wafted through the air.

Yibao swung her little bare feet, a smile curling her lips as she watched the solemn-faced Wu Chu from the corner of her eye.

It could be said that she, his Phone Sprite, knew Wu Chu, her master, inside and out. In a sense, she could be considered Wu Chu's little wife, and teasing him whenever she had the chance had become one of the pleasures of her current life.

Wu Chu had mixed feelings about that—both pained and delighted.

On one hand, Yibao's appearance was a comfort to him. In this Primordial World, far from all his family and friends, Yibao was the only "person" familiar to him.

On the other hand, Yibao knew him far too well. Just as she had said, she knew every detail about him, even his size.

That was rather embarrassing.

Wu Chu could only pretend nothing was wrong as he silently fed firewood into the stove, waiting for the bear fat in the pot to slowly render into cracklings. Then he picked up the handle of a toothbrush, considering how to bore holes into it and secure the wolf hairs inside them.

"Master, are you angry?"

Seeing that Wu Chu remained silent, Yibao began making conversation for the sake of it.

"No. I'm not that petty, and you weren't wrong either..."

"But you're a Scorpio!"

"..."

Sure enough, this conversation could not continue.

What was wrong with Scorpio men? Did being a Scorpio man automatically mean being scheming, cold-blooded, and petty?

What nonsense! When would Scorpio men finally rise up?

"He's getting worked up! Master's getting worked up!"

Wu Chu flashed Yibao a brilliant smile. "Yibao, do you know why childhood sweethearts in love stories so often lose to the heroine who suddenly appears out of nowhere?"

Yibao tilted her little head in confusion and looked at him blankly.

"Because childhood sweethearts are too familiar with each other. You know my length, I know your depth; everyone knows each other inside and out. There's no sense of novelty, so it's hard to spark any romantic chemistry. At heart, humans are all drawn to the new and tired of the old. The reason some people can remain faithful is simply because their moral bottom line is higher."

"..."

Yibao pondered that in confusion for quite a while before saying, "Master, are you saying that I'm your childhood sweetheart, while Little Moon Spirit is the heroine who fell from the sky? Wow! Master, Little Moon Spirit is still a little loli! Although her real age may already be... But... well, this world has no laws to restrain you. As long as your moral bottom line collapses, it's not like you can't do it! Soft voice, gentle body, easy to push down! She admires you so much!"

"..."

Sigh! Forget it. He could not argue with her. Her butt was bigger.

They silently rendered a whole pot of oil. Wu Chu ladled the oil into a bamboo bucket to cool, then scooped the cracklings into another bamboo bucket before putting more bear fat into the main pot.

By the time he had rendered the third pot, Little Moon Spirit returned.

She carried an enormous honeycomb in her hand. The holes in the comb were each as large as fists, and thick liquid dripped from beneath it. It seemed to be restrained by some invisible force, unable to spread out. That thick liquid was presumably this world's honey.

Wu Chu glanced at the water bubbles wrapped around the bear hide not far away and gained a deeper appreciation of Little Moon Spirit's strength. He had no idea how far she had traveled through the forest, yet the alkaline liquid surrounding the bear hide had not dispersed.

"Brother A Chu, I'm back. Is this the Wild Mountain Ginseng you mentioned? It looks somewhat like the picture you showed me, except it's a bit larger. I saw some smaller ones there too, but I dug up the biggest one." Little Moon Spirit placed a giant radish, thicker than her own body and covered in wrinkles, before him. "The spiritual energy inside really is incredibly dense. It's even richer than that Lingzhi from this afternoon!"

This afternoon?

Wu Chu paused, then came back to himself.

That was true. For Yueling, it really had happened in the afternoon. All he could say was that a single day in the Primordial World was simply far too long for an Ordinary person like him.

Wu Chu looked at the Wild Mountain Ginseng that did not resemble ginseng at all and sighed inwardly. Who knew how many years it had grown for, only to be harmed by Little Moon Spirit just like this.

They said mountain ginseng possessed spirits. Yet it had grown so huge—why had it not known to run?

"Has it taken Transformation Form?" Wu Chu asked.

Little Moon Spirit tilted her little head, and her two caterpillar-like eyebrows wriggled. "Transformation Form? If it wants to take Transformation Form, it has a long way to go! Even after another few tens of thousands of years, it probably still won't succeed."

"..."

The creatures of the Primordial World!

Wu Chu did not know what to say. Tens of thousands of years—what an endlessly long and boring span of time that would be. What use was such longevity?

After spacing out for a moment, Wu Chu came back to himself and said, "Forgive me for asking, but how long did it take Little Moon Spirit to take Transformation Form? Is that considered taboo among your kind?"

Yueling shook her head. "That isn't taboo, but Brother A Chu, can I not say?"

As she spoke, she cautiously glanced at Wu Chu, seemingly worried that he might be angry.

Wu Chu smiled. "If you don't want to say, then I won't ask. Come, put that honeycomb on top of that bamboo bucket and let the honey slowly flow out of it..."

After arranging everything, he continued rendering oil. Wu Chu rendered dozens of pots before he finally finished all the bear fat. Of course, the pot used for rendering was that earthenware basin, which was not especially large, but after dozens of batches, they had obtained quite a lot of bear oil.

After tidying the stove, Wu Chu said, "If you're interested, you can roast some bear meat yourself and try something fresh. I'm going to rest for a while. I'm a little sleepy."

Yueling nodded slightly. Though she found it somewhat strange, she had actually begun gradually accepting Wu Chu's claim that he was an Ordinary person.

During the day, she had seen Wu Chu rest dozens of times. Each rest was not especially long, but he still needed to rest. He was genuinely resting, not cultivating.

A normal creature of the Primordial World did not need to rest like that, unless that creature had contracted some strange illness and lost all its magical power. This strange illness was called "Ordinary." Only that could explain the oddities surrounding him.

Wasn't someone afflicted with the strange illness "Ordinary" simply an "Ordinary person"?

Little Wolf Cub did not follow Wu Chu indoors to rest. Instead, it sat before Little Moon Spirit, its dark eyes gazing at her expectantly as it wagged its little tail with all its might.

Yueling reached out and patted Doggy's head, smiling. "What? You want some? Then make a sound."

"Wau! Wau..."

"Come on, turn in a circle again!"

The Little Wolf Cub, whose loyalties lay wherever there was food, shamelessly began spinning in circles before Little Moon Spirit, chasing after its own tail to bite it. It was becoming more and more like Doggy.

"Hehehe..."

Little Moon Spirit laughed happily.

In the darkness, Wu Chu lay on the bed, and his thoughts drifted away with the night.