Chapter 197 - 194: "Mr. Gao"’s Rules and Loopholes

Song Ciwan handed three Ancestral Dragon Coins to Xie Yunxiang and told him to go to the village to buy some Pillows.

Xie Yunxiang agreed and was about to set off.

Mr. Gao shrieked, "Wait!"

He no longer cared about asking Song Ciwan how much money she had left. He just said hurriedly, "If you want to buy Pillows, why go to the village? Your teacher—I have Pillows right here!"

Xie Yunxiang stopped and looked at Song Ciwan with a questioning gaze.

Song Ciwan feigned difficulty. "But, Teacher, I need to buy over twenty Pillows. Do you have that many here?"

Mr. Gao’s right eye widened, the remaining eyeball rolling around frantically in its socket. His left socket, which was missing its eye, was filled with a dense mass of slender tentacles, each about an inch long.

These tentacles also writhed and coiled in his left eye socket, horrifyingly active, as if they could lose control at any moment.

The atmosphere was terrifying. Mr. Gao raised his head and said, "It’s only twenty Pillows. I certainly don’t lack for them. But the money... Heh, three copper coins are too few. It should be at least four... no! Five copper coins!"

As he spoke, he held out a pair of short, chubby little hands and showed Song Ciwan the number five.

If you ignored his terrifying eyes and tentacle-covered feet and only looked at his small, cute, chubby hands, who would have thought that this little child was, in essence, so bizarre and unpredictable?

But Mr. Gao’s power was difficult to gauge. However, through her recent series of tests and Mr. Gao’s current reaction, Song Ciwan had confirmed a few things:

’First, it’s certain that the Ancestral Dragon Coins are indeed of great value in this Deceitful Realm.’

’The value of ordinary copper coins from the outside world can’t be used to measure the Ancestral Dragon Coins. The two are incomparable!’

’Second, although Mr. Gao is an extremely powerful aberration, he is bound by the rules of the Deceitful Realm, just like me and the other outsiders.’

’The Deceitful Realm doesn’t just suppress living people from the outside; it also suppresses the aberrations within it!’

’This was consistent with Wealth Village. The aberrations there also had to follow the rules of the Deceitful Realm, or else they would suffer a backlash from it!’

’Therefore, Mr. Gao is very powerful. He can make Xie Yunxiang ten years younger with a simple point of his finger and make Zhang You ten years older with a single sentence. Yet, despite his extreme greed, he couldn’t just actively snatch the money from my hands.’

’Why is that? I suspect it might be related to his identity as a teacher in this academy. For instance, all the methods Mr. Gao uses against us students fall within the scope of a teacher’s actions.’

’Since he is a teacher, how could he possibly resort to robbery?’

’Third, Mr. Gao’s own understanding of money seems rather simplistic.’

’For example, just now, when he said three copper coins were too few for twenty Pillows, he didn’t make an outrageous demand. He didn’t ask for six, ten... or even more, like twenty or thirty copper coins.’

’Why didn’t he just double the price? Or multiply it by ten, twenty, or even a hundred times?’

’Is it because he’s merciful enough?’

’Aberrations aren’t merciful, of course. But they seem to possess both their bizarre nature and some twisted form of humanity...’

’Humanity... Well, Humans can’t see things beyond their own cognition, nor can they earn money beyond their own cognition.’

’It’s like a farmer in the fields fantasizing about the Emperor’s life. At most, he would only dare to imagine the Emperor using a golden hoe to till the fields, the Lady of the Eastern Palace flipping flatbreads, and the Lady of the Western Palace rolling scallions. A life without any worries about food or clothing!’

’Could he possibly imagine what the real Emperor, sitting on his supreme throne every day, actually thinks about and does?’

’He couldn’t. He doesn’t even have the concept.’

’And it’s the same for Mr. Gao right now—’

Mr. Gao, when haggling, only dared to raise the price from three copper coins to four or five. His approach was almost cautious... This undoubtedly showed that the limits of his cognition were very narrow.

This was a key piece of information, one well worth Song Ciwan’s attention.

So, Song Ciwan put on a troubled expression in front of Mr. Gao again and said, "But, Teacher, I still have to save some silver coins to give you as a gift. I really can’t afford five copper coins for twenty Pillows."

"Teacher..." Song Ciwan asked again, with a careful and ashamed expression, "Can I truly not buy twenty Pillows with just three copper coins?"

Mr. Gao: ...

The moment Mr. Gao heard Song Ciwan say the word "gift," his saliva had already started flowing like a small waterfall, SPLISH-SPLASHING all over the ground.

SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH. The drool splashed out, running over the ground. Occasionally, you could even see some bizarrely shaped small fish and shrimp struggling and swimming in the stream.

Song Ciwan took an imperceptible step back, avoiding the horrifying waterfall of saliva.

Mr. Gao raised a hand to wipe the drool from his mouth, managing to stop the gushing stream.

Then he opened his mouth and laughed. "Haha, hahaha! Good, very good! Ah, Xin Mian, you’re the thoughtful one. Alright, three copper coins it is!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Xie Yunxiang, who was holding the money, perceptively handed the copper coins back to Song Ciwan.

Song Ciwan crouched down and placed the three Ancestral Dragon Coins on the wet mud in front of Mr. Gao.

Mr. Gao’s grin split his face as he immediately crouched down and snatched up the three copper coins.

He chuckled and said, "Xin Mian, you just wait a moment. Twenty Pillows, coming right up."

With that, he pursed his lips and let out a whistle into the air.

The moment the whistle sounded, a flock of sharp-beaked little birds suddenly flew in from the sky.

These birds were pitch-black. They were in groups of ten, forming a circle to jointly carry a single Pillow in their beaks.

In this manner, twenty groups of birds came, a vast and mighty procession, carrying twenty Pillows.

They flew in from the horizon, getting closer and closer, like a troupe of Elves descending from the heavens, circling with the Pillows in front of Song Ciwan and the others.

To be honest, the scene was both bizarre and whimsical, with an indescribable sense of awe.

Song Ciwan reached out and took two Pillows from the flock of birds.

She then reminded her other classmates to take their Pillows, and the white-haired students all followed her lead.

Before long, all the Pillows were in the students’ hands, with each person holding two. This included Zhang You, who had previously been excluded by Mr. Gao and ordered to copy poems a hundred times. He also received two Pillows.

Only Jiao Zuo, who was lying on the ground, had no Pillow in his hands.

He was severely injured, unable to move, and on the verge of death.

Mr. Gao, beaming and in an excellent mood, said, "Xin Mian, I’m afraid this donkey will be hard to save. What do you intend to do now? Do you want to try and save the donkey first, or will you follow your teacher back to the academy for a lesson?"

Holding the Pillows, Song Ciwan also smiled faintly and said, "May I ask, Teacher, if saving a life were also part of the lesson, would you then be teaching us the Chapter on benevolence?"