Chapter 38: The Virtue of Respecting the Elderly and Caring for the Young

Zhuzhu smacked her little lips, gave him a shy smile, then stretched out her short little hands to cradle the big, bright-red fruit. Lowering her head, she went nom—a huge bite.

The other kids stared eagerly. “How is it? How is it? Is it sweet?”

“Sweet. Sweeter than sugar.”

Zhuzhu lifted her soft, pudgy little face and nodded again and again, her words muffled as she chewed. The sugary taste made her big eyes squint in happiness. A ring of red juice was smeared around her mouth—cute as a little greedy kitten that had just found a once-in-a-lifetime delicacy.

“Right?” Haru’s thick brows practically flew up with delight. With a smug look on his rough face, he kept “evangelizing” to them: “These danmu fruits aren’t just sweet—they fill you up too. Three of them can keep a grown adult like me from feeling hungry all day. You little brats—one is probably enough for each of you.”

“Waaah—” The kids opened their mouths wide in envy.

“It’s just… it’s so sweet it gets a bit cloying,” Haru said, then let out a sweet, satisfied burp to show off.

Yun Xiaoyu rolled his eyes at him. “Hmph. Adults just love showing off.”

“Yeah, yeah—how could it be cloying? I love sweets.”

“At home, Mom only let me have candy once. It was so sweet, so good.”

“Right right right—let’s go pick fruit! I can climb trees!”

“Me too, me too!”

A whole pack of kids chattered excitedly as they ran toward the danmu trees, practically skipping with excitement.

“Come on, let’s pick too.” Old Man Tang’s eyes shone as well; even his beard trembled with excitement.

Today he’d only eaten the cucumbers the kids brought him—he hadn’t even had time to drink a bottle of nutrient solution. His stomach had been growling for a while now. These big red fruits—sure, the color was a bit gaudy—but they looked incredibly appetizing.

On this barren Exile Planet, any fruit you could eat was always wildly popular.

There were ten danmu trees in a row, and almost every one of them was already “claimed.”

Yun Xiaoyu looked left and right. In the end, his gaze landed on the tree at the far end—the one with the most fruit.

He led his “kid soldier regiment” over, heads high and chests out.

“Move it, move it—this tree’s ours.” The skinny monkey, Hou Qi, squatted on the lowest branch. He chewed fruit with narrowed eyes while flicking his hand down at the kids below, bossing them away with a look of disgust—like he was shooing flies.

The children instinctively shrank back a little, but Captain Yun Xiaoyu stood his ground, unwavering. He frowned, glaring at that skinny monkey in displeasure.

He shouted fiercely, “This belongs to Earth Village. You can’t just take it.”

Hou Qi looked at him with contempt. “Tch. What does a little brat know? Anything we Black Skull star pirates claim is ours. Keep yapping, and don’t blame me for getting rough.”

With the village chief—the one the star pirates feared—gone, Hou Qi wasn’t afraid of a few little brats at all. The corner of his mouth curled into a sinister smile as he pulled out a dagger to threaten them.

Haru hurried over, shielding the kids behind him like a mother hen protecting her chicks.

“Hou Qi, don’t bully children.”

Hou Qi grinned, giving him a meaningful look. “Oh? Then can I bully you instead? That beating you took earlier—those injuries aren’t healed yet, are they?”

Haru winced. His black-and-blue, swollen face twisted with resentment.

Damn it—those bastards had beaten him half to death earlier. Everything still hurt.

And star pirates were heartless trash; they weren’t the type to show mercy to young ones. So in the end, Haru could only swallow it, turn back, and coax Yun Xiaoyu carefully. “How about we pick another tree? The one next to it has lots of fruit too. A-Hua and the others are friendly—we can pick with them.”

“Yeah, yeah—little ones, come to our tree!” A-Hua, who’d just climbed down, immediately turned his dark face and waved at them enthusiastically.

Yun Xiaoyu pouted, unconvinced. “But this tree has the most fruit.”

“Then I’ll help you knock them down,” Pei Yu said with an “ah-woo,” grabbing a green vine and swinging over from another tree—nimble as a gorilla. He finished with a full 360-degree spin and landed beside Mo Xie, who’d arrived a step later. Then he spread his arms in a “successful landing” pose, earning thunderous applause from A-Hua.

Only then did Pei Yu make a satisfied “curtain call.” He reached up to pull the vine back from the tree, his eyes shining as he stared toward the star pirates, cracking his knuckles—itching to fight.

But before he could make a move, a string of red light abruptly flared above the pirates’ heads.

[Beep beep beep—Detected: slaves yelling at younglings and attempting to threaten younglings. Violation of Earth Village’s virtue of respecting the elderly and caring for the young. Punishment mode activated.]

“Holy—”

Star pirate boss Zack was the first to sense danger. He threw away the danmu fruit he was about to get and tried to scramble down the tree—but he was still slower than lightning.

So, under the stunned gaze of Pei Yu and the others, seventeen star pirates put on a live performance right in front of them: fiery trees and silver blossoms—lightning strikes skeletons.

Seventeen people, as if getting X-rayed, were reduced in the silver glare to mere frames of bone. The skeletons jerked into all sorts of epileptic poses, then stiffened, then—thud, thud—collapsed to the ground.

The onlookers: …

Pei Yu stared, wide-eyed, at the twitching “exploded hair” on the ground, then looked at the kids—faces bright with excitement. With a scared expression, he took a few steps back.

Can’t mess with that. These days, even little brats might be hidden gods.

The kids couldn’t be bothered with the bodies on the ground. Seeing no one left in the tree, they immediately cheered and swarmed forward.

A few brave ones—like A-Er, like Yun Xiaoyu—went heave-ho and climbed up in a flash, agile as little monkeys.

Even little Zhuzhu climbed up with the help of Haru, her “nanny dad.”

Before long, the tree was packed with children perched all over it, giggling as they picked fruit.

Pei Yu, who had already eaten three fruits and was so full he could barely move, tilted his head up to watch them, murmuring enviously, “What kind of god-tier village is this? It even has the virtue of respecting the elderly and caring for the young. Damn it—I was born thirty years too early.”

“…”

Mo Xie turned to look at him with an indescribable expression. “Why are you in the North District?”

Pei Yu paused, then shot him a wounded look. “Cousin, you don’t care about me at all.”

Mo Xie’s face hardened. He said sternly, “Talk properly.”

Pei Yu let out a whiny “mm,” then said aggrievedly, “Cousin, you’ve started acting like Xiao Zheng—so old-fashioned. Hmph. Why did I come here? Obviously because I can’t control the dark matter in my body anymore, so I could only come here in tears to wait for death.”

“Cousin—since I’m about to die, can you be nicer to me? Like… give me a little more pocket money?”