Chapter 65 - Punishment (2/2)

“Then, it’s enough to teach just me!” Xiong Ye didn’t think twice before saying this. He decided to first learn it himself, and then go and teach it to the priest.

“In that case, I’ll teach you how to write numbers.” Zhou Ji said.

“Write?” Xiong Ye asked.

“Yes, write.” Zhou Ji took out the piece of charcoal that he himself used as a pen and handed it to Xiong Ye, “Use this to write.”

Xiong Ye accepted that piece of charcoal, and Zhou Ji began to teach him how to write.

Zhou Ji had even come up with a way to write down every number. It was too impressive! He was even more amazing than the previous priest.

Xiong Ye stared at Zhou Ji in admiration as he held the piece of charcoal in his own large hand and slowly began to write in the cave.

Zhou Ji: “Your ‘8’ is written badly… I’ll hold your hand and guide you.”

“Alright!” Xiong Ye agreed right away. Zhou Ji then reached out to hold his hand.

His hands were rough and coarse, but Zhou Ji’s hands… They were especially tender and smooth!

Xiong Ye became rather restless, and he then heard Zhou Ji said, “You’re not concentrating on your writing. I’ll give you a small punishment.”

“What punishment?” Xiong Ye asked.

Zhou Ji used the charcoal to draw a circle on Xiong Ye’s face.

Xiong Ye didn’t understand––why did this count as punishment? It didn’t hurt, and it didn’t itch…

And then, he ended up with a good many circles on his face, and there were even some on his body…

Xiong Ye didn’t feel that anything was wrong. What Zhou Ji was teaching him now had most likely come from knowledge the Beast God had imparted. The things he had learnt from the priest hadn’t been like this, but he would have been beaten if he hadn’t learnt it properly. Now, if he didn’t learn well, he simply ended up getting a circle drawn on him. Wasn’t that pretty insignificant?

Xiong Ye muttered and puffed and spent an entire afternoon learning how to write the Arabic numerals for one to nine. He also practiced counting to one hundred smoothly.

At this time, Xiong He’s voice rang out through the valley, “It’s time to eat!”

Xiong He immediately ran outside, “Zhou Ji, I’m going to eat first! I’ll come back and learn more later!”

Zhou Ji: “……” This fellow had forgotten to wash his face!

Zhou Ji was too lazy to go down with him and directly went to lay down.

Xiong Ye was so excited when he heard that it was time for food that he had completely forgotten that he had circles on his face until he arrived outside.

However, he didn’t take it seriously. It wasn’t a big deal that he’d forgotten; wasn’t it just some drawings on his face? It didn’t affect his ability to do anything at all!

But the people of the tribe were surprised when they saw his appearance, “Xiong Ye, what is that on your face?”

“They’re circles. Zhou Ji drew them for me.” Xiong Ye replied.

“They’re drawn so nicely! Xiong Ye, you look particularly good like this!” Xiong Qi began to praise him, “Look at this circle, it’s so round, and it’s just as round on both sides!”

Zhou Ji hadn’t been scribbling casually when he drew circles on Xiong Ye with the charcoal. He had paid attention to symmetry, causing the circles on Xiong Ye’s face to appear very mysterious!

The priest came over, “Xiong Ye, why did Zhou Ji draw circles on you?” Could this be some strange ceremony or sacrificial ritual?

“Zhou Ji drew it for me when he was teaching me how to count.” Xiong Ye originally wanted to say that Zhou Ji drew it whenever he hadn’t learned something properly, but he didn’t want others to know that he was stupid, so he simply didn’t mention it.

“Counting?” The priest was curious.

“Arithmetic.” Xiong Ye looked at the priest, “Grandpa Priest, do you know how much it is if you add one plus two plus three all the way up until ninety-nine?”

“That’s a little hard. I need to calculate it slowly, and there might not be enough sticks.” The priest started looking for sticks.

Xiong Ye explained, “In fact, it’s very simple, it’s like this…” He repeated everything that Zhou Ji had said.

The priest was instantly shocked. It could be done that way? How amazing!

Especially since… Xiong Ye actually wrote numbers on the ground!

Could numbers be represented by symbols like these? It was so much more convenient! He had always used wooden sticks and placed them on the ground to count. If it had to be written, he could draw out lines instead of placing sticks everywhere… It made his hand particularly tired whenever he did so.

The priest had an excited expression on his face, and he gazed at the circles drawn on Xiong Ye’s face as though he had just seen a pile of treasure.

The priest’s eyes were full of reverence as he stared at the circles on Xiong Ye’s face.

Zhou Ji didn’t want to go down into the valley below, so he made some barley porridge. He rather missed eating elephant bird meat.

They had eaten fish every day, and he was starting to get tired of it. He wanted to eat some other types of meat.

There wasn’t much to do today, so Zhou Ji didn’t use his spiritual powers to observe the situation in the valley. It wasn’t until someone climbed up to the entrance to the cave that he turned his head and saw the priest’s gnarled face.

The priest grinned at him, revealing gums with only a few teeth left, “Zhou Ji, can you draw a few circles for me too? I also want to learn more knowledge from the Beast God!”

Zhou Ji: “……” What exactly did Xiong Ye say down there!