Chapter 115: “Dad Will Take Care of You”

Coincidentally, the other locals all wore the same pained, miserable expressions.

Aunt Meifang irritably scratched her head, her eyes wide with confusion. “You have to know how to read to type? I really can’t learn this.”

Just thinking about how Cook had taught her those enormous, clumsy characters back then made her head spin.

Hawei scratched his head too, looking at Cook with guilty eyes.

Cook glared at his son with a stern face. “I taught you how to read before.”

Hawei’s face fell, and he stammered, “I—I forgot everything. I never needed it, so I thought it was useless.”

Back in their tribe, they spent all their time searching for food just to survive. Who had the time or energy to learn to read? And since they never used it, he never put in the effort.

Who would’ve thought that now, with good days finally here, they’d have to learn to read? What were they supposed to do?

Seeing his father’s stern gaze, Hawei couldn’t help but look to his mother for help.

Surely fellow underachievers could sympathize with each other.

But Meifang just glared at him with a look of utter disappointment, finally letting out a resigned sigh. “Forget it, forget it. How could my illiterate son ever be worthy of someone like Village Chief Yun? This marriage is definitely off.”

Cook: …

He was speechless. He hadn’t expected his wife to still be thinking about that.

His own son and Village Chief Yun…

Cook shook his head. No matter how you looked at it, it just wasn’t going to happen.

Hawei forced a smile, his face falling into dejection. He said helplessly, “Mom, you finally understand. I was never in the same league as Village Chief Yun. I grew up on a refugee planet—how could I ever be worthy of a noble lady? I heard noble ladies from the interstellar world are all so refined, and they only marry princes or other nobles.”

And he was just a country bumpkin who couldn’t even read…

Seeing her son so downcast, Aunt Meifang rolled her eyes at him. “Alright, alright, I won’t try to match you with Village Chief Yun anymore. Honestly, if it really happened, I’d feel guilty about it.”

Hawei: …This is my real mom!

He hesitated, then returned to the original topic. “Actually, since we live so close, we don’t really need the chat channel. Do we still have to learn to read?”

Meifang and Cook answered in unison, “Yes.”

Meifang’s expression turned serious. “Before, we didn’t have the means, but now we do. Earth Village is only going to get better from here. If we can’t read, we’ll fall behind. We’re all proud villagers now—how can we not keep up? How can we not know how to read? We have to learn, and we have to learn as hard as we can.”

Cook grinned in agreement. His wife really understood the bigger picture.

“So, should we start now? I brought the books from our Tiangou Tribe.”

Meifang and Hawei exchanged a look, their faces stiffening for a moment.

“No, no, not now. We still have to help Village Chief Yun weave cloth and make clothes.”

“Yeah, Dad, I need to go hunting with the chief, too. Yesterday, I went with him and caught three Dangkui chickens. We earned five spirit coins! We can’t delay important money-making business.”

“That’s right, son’s right. Right now, earning spirit coins is the priority. We can learn to read slowly,” Aunt Meifang agreed, then shot her son a look. “Go pick three Danmu fruits for a snack. We have to get to work soon.”

“Okay!” Hawei replied cheerfully, then dashed out of the house.

Watching his wife and son so eager to avoid studying, Cook was happy to play along. He chuckled, “Alright, we’ll study after work tonight. Village Chief Yun is kind enough to give us plenty of time off.”

Hearing this, Meifang hesitated, her smile a bit forced. In the end, she gritted her teeth and said, “Fine, we’ll study tonight.”

At the Masa household—

Gemo patted his chest in relief. “Thank goodness I’ve been learning to read with Mom. I can type out a lot of words now.”

Hualan smiled with pride. “My son’s smart—he learns everything quickly, just like me.”

Masa, not wanting to be left out, chimed in, “What about me, wife? Our son takes after me too!”

Hualan laughed and pushed his head away. “He’s nothing like you. You’re the chief, but you can’t even read as well as your son.”

Masa protested, feeling wronged. “I used to learn ancient Earth script from old books! As for the current interstellar language, I’ve just been too busy to study.”

Hualan looked at him, amused. “Alright, you two keep studying with me tonight. For now, your son and I need to get to work. We can’t afford to fall behind.”

“Okay!” Masa replied cheerfully, then cleared his throat and asked, “Wife, are you planning to keep working for Village Chief Yun? I actually did pretty well yesterday—opened five treasure chests, got meat, salt, and eighteen gold coins. That’s enough to cover this month’s rent and water bill. You don’t have to work if you don’t want to.”

Just the day before, Masa had been downcast about being unemployed, but after yesterday’s monster-hunting, he was full of confidence, feeling like he’d found a new lease on life.

Gemo looked a little envious. “I hunted five treasure chests with Village Chief Yun yesterday too. He said we could keep them, but the avalanche came so suddenly I didn’t get to open them. Otherwise, I’d have gotten a lot of stuff too.”

Masa patted his son’s shoulder comfortingly. “Don’t worry, Dad will take care of you.”

Hualan thought for a moment, then decided, “If Village Chief Yun still needs people, I plan to stay at the textile mill. Making clothes isn’t bad either.”

Masa had no objections—in fact, he fully supported it. “Alright, I’ll provide for the family. It doesn’t matter if you earn a wage or not. Working at the textile mill is safer, too.”

Gemo nodded in agreement. His mother was so gentle—she wasn’t suited for dangerous monster-hunting. If anything happened to her, he and his father would be devastated.

“What about you, son?”

Gemo said, “I don’t know if Village Chief Yun is still forming a hunting team. I’d like to go hunting with him if I can.”

Masa nodded approvingly. “That’s a good idea. Village Chief Yun’s team is the vanguard—you’ll learn a lot by going with them. Why don’t you ask him today? If he’s forming a hunting team, sign up. If not, you can hunt with our own people. Look at Luke—he’s leading the Qiong Whale Tribe and doing great.”

Gemo nodded eagerly, full of anticipation. “Yeah, I’ll ask today. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll hunt with our tribe—and bring Uncle-in-law along. Oh, wait, he’s not Uncle-in-law anymore, he’s Ava. If we bring Ava, we’ll be even safer.”

“Sounds good,” Masa said, tugging at his lips. He suddenly thought of his sister back in the Tiangou Tribe. Sigh, he wondered how Mana was doing these days."