From that time on, Hua Yi acquired a nickname: “Big Fool”

 

That year, Chang An was six years old, and Hua Yi was fourteen.

Hua Yi was the youngest son of the Snow Wolf Tribe’s chief, from the other side of Mount Yufeng. He had three older brothers above him.

The Snow Wolf Tribe did not raise weak persons. Once every young beastman reached seven or eight years old, the chief would throw them out of the tribe and make them leave alone to train and gain experience. A year later, they would return to undergo the elders’ examination. Those who failed would be kicked out again to start over from the beginning.

Hua Yi was exceptionally gifted. He had been born with the rare silver beast markings and possessed immense natural strength. He passed the examination on his very first attempt. However, the story of how he had given all his travel rations to a crippled sub-beastman he had never met before quickly got extracted from him by his chief father, and by the next day the entire Snow Wolf Tribe knew about it.

The chief could not understand how, after a lifetime of shrewdness, he had somehow ended up producing such a foolishly naïve brat. If Hua Yi had not resembled him so closely — their brows and eyes looking as though they had been carved from the same mold — the chief would almost have suspected that his sixth wife had made him wear a green hat (NT: he was cheated on by his wife ). After contemplating it for a long time, the chief finally came up with a reasonable explanation: it must have been that sixth wife of his. She was nothing but a pretty face with no substance, one of those long-haired, short-sighted women. Naturally, the son she gave birth to was not very bright either.

From that time on, Hua Yi acquired a nickname: “Big Fool.”

When Hua Yi reached eleven or twelve years old, it was as though someone had pumped him full of air. He shot up in height at an alarming rate, quickly catching up to his nearly grown third brother, and looked likely to keep growing even taller. Thus, the nickname “Big Fool” became firmly established.

But although he had grown into a huge figure that intimidated others, his temper was unbelievably gentle. He never argued with anyone.

Everyone said fourth young Master’s temperament was inborn. Back when he was less than six months old and had only just learned to sit up, his third brother had snatched things away from him, yet Hua Yi had never cried or thrown a tantrum. At most he would look up once, and then… if it was taken, then it was taken. He simply would not want it anymore.

The chief had originally thought that once this disappointing youngest son grew up, went through training, and saw bloodshed, things would improve. Yet Hua Yi quickly reached fourteen years old and was still just a towering lump of dough — huge and sturdy, but without a trace of a man’s fierceness.

Whenever the chief had nothing better to do, he would inevitably end up worrying about this son again.

He had eight wives and four sons. Other than Hua Yi, the other three were all rotten to the core. Once he died and Hua Yi’s brothers became the tribe’s new chief, what would they do to this foolish giant of a younger brother?

Because it was summer, the chief sat on his couch bare-chested except for a draped beast hide, watching the Grand Elder fiddle with a rare novelty brought by a merchant caravan from the south.

The Grand Elder had followed him since childhood and was the chief’s “Gongbuduo” (NT: 工布朵 , does not seem to mean anything specific in Chinese)— meaning his most loyal brother . When the sons of chiefs and elders were young, each would be assigned a gongbuduo, who acted as both playmate and servant. Once grown, they became trusted right-hand men.

Whenever the chief had something on his mind, he preferred speaking to the Grand Elder about it. After spacing out for a while, he finally sighed softly. “Clearly a sheep, yet born with a wolf’s claws and fangs…”

The Grand Elder paused. “Chief, are you talking about fourth young Master?”

“Who else?” the chief snorted, speaking with disappointment born from high expectations. “If all he did was resemble his foolish mother, fine. If he were a sub-beastman or a girl, his brothers wouldn’t necessarily be unable to tolerate a younger sister. But he just had to be…”

He just had to be a rare silver-marked beastman.

Most beastmen markings were black or brown. Silver-marked beastmen were said to appear only once every several thousand years — seeds left behind in the mortal world by the true gods. Each one possessed divine strength from birth. When transformed into beast form, they could fight a hundred enemies alone.

The Grand Elder thought for a moment. It would not be good to join the chief in insulting his own son, so he could only offer some harmless consolation.

“A silver-marked beastman… I’ve lived this long and fourth young Master is the only one I’ve ever seen. When I was little, the elders used to say that people who are one in ten thousand are destined never to have ordinary lives. Without great rises and falls, they cannot reach the end of their lives. No matter what road they walk — whether good or bad — they are destined for great achievements.”

“Either achieving fame and success, or meeting a bad end,” the chief muttered, still frowning. “Look at that spineless appearance of his. Does he look like someone capable of achieving fame and success? If…”

The chief never finished voicing his worries, because at that moment a sub-beastman attendant knelt outside the tent in a panic.

“Chief! third young Master and fourth young Master have gotten into conflict — they’re fighting!”

The attendant had only recently come of age and clearly regarded this as a catastrophe. Yet after he spoke, no sound came from inside the tent for quite a while. Unable to resist, he raised his head and cautiously called again: “Chief?”

Then he heard the chief respond in a completely indifferent tone: “I know. You may go.”

“Fighting? That’s a nice way to put it.” The chief gave a bitter laugh and stretched lazily. “Him? Fighting with third? I don’t believe it for a second. At most, that brat third is bullying people again. Come on, let’s go take a look.”

At that moment Hua Yi was sweating profusely.

His third brother was a thoroughly rotten person. Other than bullying the weak and fearing the strong, he had no hobbies at all. He had always been arrogant and domineering. He dared not provoke the eldest or second brother, but ever since fourth brother Hua Yi, this silver-marked beastman, had been born, third brother had disliked him intensely.

How could a fool like this giant deserve silver markings?

And once it became clear that Hua Yi had the temperament of a sheep, third brother became even worse, escalating things further and further.

The cause of this conflict was Hua Yi’s gongbuduo.

Hua Yi’s gongbuduo was named Gu Cheng. He had not yet reached the age for training and was still just a young beastman child, but he was extremely clever and full of schemes. So even though he was a bit too young, the chief had still chosen him — because the chief valued how well he complemented his foolish son.

Gu Cheng was small, but his temper certainly was not.

Which master a gongbuduo ended up serving depended entirely on luck, and among all the gongbuduos, only his master treated him genuinely well. Gu Cheng believed Hua Yi was an incredibly good person, and he especially could not stand seeing others bully him.

So after third brother brazenly stole a nine-headed deer skin that the chief had given Hua Yi, Gu Cheng secretly did something behind Hua Yi’s back: he sneaked into third brother’s tent and stabbed over ten holes into the precious hide.

Unfortunately, he overdid it and got caught on the spot.

Third young Master had never imagined that the worthless servant of his useless fourth brother would dare climb onto his head like this. Instantly furious beyond measure, he ordered people to beat Gu Cheng to death.

When Hua Yi learned what had happened, he rushed over to stop them, and thus had his first real conflict with his third brother.

At first, Hua Yi felt Gu Cheng was in the wrong and that they were at fault. So he apologized humbly and submissively, even pressing Gu Cheng’s head down to force him to kneel and apologize to third young Master.

But unexpectedly, third brother pushed his luck further and insisted on killing Gu Cheng no matter what.

At that point Hua Yi refused to back down anymore. He shielded Gu Cheng behind him, and the two sides confronted one another.

If something was stolen, then fine — let them have it.

But Gu Cheng was a person. How could someone simply be beaten to death? Although Hua Yi had a good temper, he still had principles.

Straightening his chest, the man who normally carried a smile for everyone finally let his face grow cold as he said to his third brother:

“Gu Cheng is my gongbuduo. My brother. If you want to beat him to death, kill me first.”

Everyone knew that fourth young Master’s hunting and martial skills had been personally approved by the chief. Among all those tested by the elders in the last twenty years, he was the only one to pass on the first attempt. Seeing him finally put on a stern face, even third young Master’s guards instinctively backed away a little.

Hua Yi was usually calm and mild-tempered, so his words were not particularly arrogant, nor did they contain deliberate provocation. But even that tiny bit of resistance completely ignited third brother’s fury.

Wonderful, third brother thought. Even this useless coward dares to rebel against me now?

At that moment, the chief’s eldest and second sons returned with their men.

The eldest brother immediately understood the situation at a glance and shouted from afar: “What are you doing? What kind of disgraceful behaviour is this?”

With a wave of his hand, people immediately stepped forward and separated third brother and Hua Yi, who were on the verge of grabbing each other.

The eldest brother smacked the back of Hua Yi’s head, then shot third brother a vicious glare. After hearing what had happened, he felt disgusted.

On one hand, he also looked down on this so-called silver-marked fourth brother. On the other hand, he was annoyed by this ignorant third brother who did not know the immensity of heaven and earth (NT: idiom meaning overestimating himself and acting arrogantly).

So he punished both sides equally.

“Gu Cheng committed an offence. He should be locked in the punishment hall and given no food for one night.”

Still oblivious to the situation, third brother loudly shouted: “He ruined my things! I want him beaten to death!”

“Shut up!”

Without any politeness, eldest brother slapped third brother hard across the face and said icily: “Gongbuduo are chosen by Father. Even if one is to be beaten to death, Father must decide it. What the hell are you supposed to be?”

Third brother was stunned senseless by the slap and could only clutch his face speechlessly.

After dealing with him, eldest brother glared at Hua Yi. “You can’t even manage your own people. Useless!”

Seeing that Gu Cheng’s life had been spared, Hua Yi no longer asked for anything else. As for this utterly uncreative insult, he treated it like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water. He silently accepted it all, which instead infuriated Eeldest brother enough to storm off.

Second brother, who had been watching the show all along, finally spoke up.

First he lifted third brother’s face and examined it carefully, clicking his tongue. “Big brother really hit too hard. Don’t talk back to him next time — the one who suffers is you. Tonight I’ll have someone send medicinal wine over for you. Alright, alright, he’s the eldest brother after all. Go back now. We’re family; making such a scene really looks bad.”

With just a few words, he coaxed third brother away.

Then he turned around, slung an arm over Hua Yi’s shoulders, and dragged him away while speaking quietly into his ear: “Don’t worry about your little gongbuduo. I’ll secretly have someone send him food, so he won’t go hungry. It’s not a bad thing for a child who made mistakes to get frightened a little. It’s been a long time since second brother drank with you, hasn’t it? Come to my place tonight. I’ll give you some roe deer hide — you can make winter gloves from it.”

From a distance, the chief and Grand Elder walked over and saw exactly this scene.

The Grand Elder clearly saw the chief frown. “Chief?”

“Eldest always had a violent temper, fine,” the chief said slowly. “But to actually slap his younger brother in public…”

“He’s really no good.”

The Grand Elder lowered his head slightly, unsure how he ought to respond.

“That useless third,” the chief continued. “It took him four extra years before he finally passed his training. He’s never accomplished anything worth mentioning in hunting, but when it comes to bullying his younger brother, his methods are wonderfully diverse.”

The more the chief spoke, the more he felt utterly unlucky in the matter of children, and he shook his head sorrowfully. Then his gaze flickered toward the direction Second Young Master had left in.

“And Second… ah, this Second one…”

Second Young Master was a sub-beastman. The moment the chief said those words, the Grand Elder already understood what he meant.

No matter how socially adept and resourceful a sub-beastman might be, how could he possibly shoulder the burden of an entire tribe?

“Still…” the chief said only those two words before trailing off without finishing.

But the Grand Elder understood him as clearly as if he were a worm in the chief’s stomach. From afar, he glanced at Hua Yi’s departing figure.

Still… this fourth young Master, who normally never argued with others and allowed himself to be kneaded and pushed around by anyone, had unexpectedly shown quite a bit of loyalty and righteousness. It turned out he was not entirely lacking in courage either.

The chief sighed. “Let me think about it a bit more.”

Once he started thinking, he also began taking action.

So at the end of that month, with a single command from the chief, several hundred warriors of the Snow Wolf Tribe, the Grand Elder, the wife he favoured most, and all four of his sons travelled several hundred li to visit the Vulture Tribe on the other side of Mount Yufeng.

 

Translator : DarNan