Communication barrier

After drawing up his daily schedule, Wen Xiancheng copied it out several times, pinned one copy up in his room, and put the others in his bag.

After tomorrow, once Xue Ruigao, Cui Qianqian, and Xue Ning arrived, he would take them to stay in the teachers' dormitory provided by the Noble Primary School.

He would need to put up a few copies there, too.

With that done, Wen Xiancheng went out for dinner.

Meanwhile, the Mouse Clone returned to the room he had previously rented.

The room had already been cleared out, and the door was locked. Everything inside was pitch-black.

The Mouse Clone slipped through the hole in the window and stood on the table.

He looked hesitantly under the bed.

Although he was now a Mouse Clone, he was still a person at heart.

It was so filthy under the bed that he really did not want to go down there.

But remembering what Xiao Xiao had said, he climbed down from the table and crawled under the bed anyway.

Sure enough.

In the corner where the head of the bed met the wall, there was a hole the size of a fist.

A large pile of dirt lay beside it.

The Mouse Clone shook his head and approached with a glum expression.

Stopping at the hole, he stole a peek inside.

The next moment, he actually saw a pair of beady black eyes looking back at him.

The Mouse Clone jumped in fright.

The owner of those eyes was so startled that it immediately turned tail and fled, darting back into the hole.

It took the Mouse Clone a good while to recover.

Weren't those just mouse eyes?

What the hell was I getting scared for?

The Mouse Clone was about to crawl inside.

But then a chorus of mouse squeaks rang out.

Ten little mice came racing out.

Perhaps it was because his own body was a mouse's, but the Mouse Clone could actually tell all ten little mice apart. Each one was slightly different.

For instance, the mouse at the very front was easiest to recognize by the missing section of its tail, but its head was also a little more pointed than the others'.

Another example was one of the three little mice from before, which had an especially long whisker on its left side.

Then there was the third of those original three mice, whose eyes looked slightly larger.

After rushing out, the ten little mice ran swiftly around the Mouse Clone.

The three little mice from before pressed close to him, sniffing him all over and squeaking nonstop.

The other little mice began squeaking along with them.

Another little mouse ran over and sniffed at the Mouse Clone's mouth with its own.

Holy crap!

The Mouse Clone hastily backed away. What was this unfamiliar little mouse trying to do?

Did it seriously think it could steal my first kiss as a Mouse Clone?

Seeing this, the little mouse sidled up again.

The Mouse Clone flew into a rage, widening his eyes and adopting an attack stance. Only then did the little mouse stop, tilting its head and regarding him with a puzzled expression.

The three little mice from before all stopped, then headed out from under the bed, looking back and squeaking at the Mouse Clone as they went.

They seemed to be telling him to follow.

The other little mice followed them, too.

Only then did the Mouse Clone go after them.

The procession of mice raced out of the room.

Outside, night had already fallen.

The mice ran toward the Royal Academy.

The Mouse Clone understood.

These mice were planning to steal medicinal herbs from the Royal Academy's herb fields again.

They had probably been going there over the past few days while he was cultivating.

Seeing that they were about to head over again, the Mouse Clone hurried to the front, squeaked twice at the little mouse with the broken tail leading the group, then headed toward the new house.

An almost human look of bewilderment appeared in the broken-tailed mouse's eyes, but it followed him anyway.

The other nine little mice followed as well.

Before long, they had all arrived at the new house.

All the lights in the new house's living room were on.

The ten little mice did not dare approach. They hid in a corner by the wall, watching in terror as the Mouse Clone entered the room and disappeared.

The ten little mice huddled together, chattering, but none of them dared move.

Inside the new house, the Mouse Clone was rather speechless.

Not a single little mouse had followed him in.

Mice certainly lived up to their reputation for timidity.

The Mouse Clone ran to the room where he slept and dragged out a bag of biscuits.

Biting through the packaging, he pulled out two biscuits with his teeth and headed out of the living room.

Outside, the little mice were still hiding in the corner.

Just then, under the lights, the Mouse Clone swaggered out carrying two biscuits in his teeth, set them down in the illuminated doorway, and squeaked twice at the mice.

After squeaking, he even started nibbling on a biscuit right there.

All ten little mice stared fixedly at the distant biscuits, their tiny mouths twitching nonstop.

After holding out for nearly five seconds, the little mouse that had sniffed the Mouse Clone with its mouth was the first to race over.

After running a few steps, it stopped and looked around.

Seeing no movement nearby, it started running again.

Before long, it reached the Mouse Clone's side and began nibbling the biscuit, its tiny mouth working rapidly.

When the other nine little mice saw the Mouse Clone and their companion eating biscuits without anything happening to them, they finally ran over too.

The eleven little mice gathered around a small piece of biscuit and feasted.

Not far from the doorway, a pair of lifeless eyes stared fixedly at the scene.

It was Xiao Xiao!

Xiao Xiao crouched on the ground like a skeletal frame, utterly motionless.

Only the occasional flash of silver snakes through its eyes broke that stillness.

The eleven little mice finished the two biscuits, all still hungry for more.

Seeing this, the Mouse Clone walked back inside, squeaking at them as he went to signal that they should follow.

The ten little mice let out another chorus of squeaks.

Only after quite a while did they follow the Mouse Clone one by one, cautiously entering the room.

The Mouse Clone pulled the biscuits out of the bag with his teeth, one at a time, and set them on the floor.

The ten little mice raced over, grabbed the biscuits in their teeth, and ran.

Only once they had run into the shadows outside did they resume eating, squeaking as they nibbled.

The Mouse Clone truly felt mentally exhausted.

This was the trouble with not knowing a "foreign language"!

At this point, he could only look toward Xiao Xiao, crouching at the entrance to the house.

He could only pin his hopes on Xiao Xiao solving this thorny problem.

The Mouse Clone stood in the doorway, staring blankly at the ten little mice gathered together eating biscuits.

In fact, unlike his human body, which had retained some residual consciousness when he transmigrated into it, this body had nothing of the sort. With that residual consciousness, he could at least learn a few things.

When he had transmigrated into this body, there had been nothing at all. It had been like a blank slate!

Still, even if some consciousness had remained, it would only have contained a mouse's memories.

He was human in spirit. How was he supposed to understand any of that?

The Mouse Clone now felt rather like someone clutching a gold brick while still going hungry.

I clearly came into this world with a clone cheat, so why couldn't it have come with a language system thrown in?

This was obviously just messing with me!

Before transmigrating, foreign languages had been the very thing he dreaded at school.

He had never imagined that after transmigrating, even in another world, he would still have to learn a "foreign language"!

The wheel of heaven truly turned full circle, and retribution never missed its mark!

(End of chapter)