The Infrastructure’s Guide [基建指南] by 岛里天下 Chapter 2

The rain gathered on the massive tree leaves until they bent under the weight. Qiu Juan was struck on the shoulder by one of these several liters heavy downpours and felt a stinging pain. The soft rabbit fur hung wetly in his hand, so soaked by the rain that it was no longer fluffy.

His thoughts were now dominated by the image of Kong Jia and Tang Tong mingling. In the rain curtain, where no one was watching, the corners of his eyes, which had always been unyielding, were seared red, and the sorrow in his pale eyes couldn't be hidden.

He had the scent of the male's breath on his body. If he was really separated from Kong Jia, no decent male would ever be faithful to him for the rest of his life. Overall, no male would accept that his partner had the smell of other males unless this male was extremely powerful and could suppress the former male's breath.

Despite the fact that there were many strong males in the tribe, most of them already had partners, except for Kong Jia.

While the sub-female dared not to demand too much from his partner, Qiu Juan still wished that his partner was only his.

In the face of this blow, he had lost faith in his partner, and his steps in the rain had become so clumsy that he unintentionally stumbled on a sharp branch split by the previous lightning strike.

Qiu Juan hissed, his feet sagged, and he collapsed to the wet ground. The bunnies in his hand had also fallen to the side.

He flopped out of the puddle and sat on a collapsed tree stump. When he lifted his aching foot, he discovered a thumb-thick wooden stick jammed in the middle of his foot. He clenched his teeth and yanked the branch out. Withdrawn, the blood spurted from the wound and dripped down his feet.

The searing agony jolted the desperate person out of his stupor. The forest was riddled with continuous flashes of lightning, which was extremely dangerous. In fit of mad idiocy, he had charge outside in this weather. What would his mother do if anything terrible really happened to him? While blaming himself, he went to get the dropped rabbits and prepare to return home.

The rabbits had rolled down on the mound of blackened branches. He had just picked up one rabbit by the ears and was limping to get the other one when the messy pile of black branches shifted. When he was wondering if he had seen it wrongly, the branches on the ground abruptly lifted, and a dark figure stood up.

A chimpanzee-like black shadow flashed in front of him. He recoiled, his heart pounding, and because of the injured leg, collapsed to the ground. Instinctively, he reached back with his hand to retrieve the spear he was carrying.

“That mothereffing guide!” The figure that emerged from the tree branches cursed.

Meng Sheng, who was charcoal black, stood dizzy in the middle of the shattered blackened branches, with a handful of crispy leaves sticking on top of his hair. He shook his heavy head and exhaled a puff of black smoke, which made him feel a little more clearheaded.

Raising his hand to wipe his face, he brushed back his hair and was shocked to see an aborigine pointed at him with a spear. His back turned cold. He clenched his fist, reflexively wanting to subdue the aboriginal, but first, he watched to determine what the other one would do.

Suddenly, he recognized the other man.

"It turned out to be you."

Meng Sheng had been in this majestic environment for over a month, but this was the first time he had spoken to the tribe's inhabitants. For one thing, he's accustomed being alone and doesn't bother paying attention to these locals. The second reason was self-protection. He was a field explorer prior to this, but he ended up here by accident.

As soon as he crossed to this primitive world, he witnessed a weak native being swallowed by a beast. After confirming that he truly was displaced to another world, he used a mysterious “The Infrastructure’s Guide” to lead him to the eaten native's cave and let him pretend to be one of the aboriginals.

Fortunately, the original primitive not only had the same name as him, but he was also a feeble male. He spends most of his days with his head down and seldom went hunting. He'd spent much of his time alone. His presence was weak, and almost no one paid attention to him. He just had to keep his head down to keep the image. Despite the fact that the cave's owner changed, while wearing an ugly headpiece, no native found out

The current native in front of him turned out to be his cave neighbor. Meng Sheng saw this sub-female the most among the locals.

When he went out to hunt today, he picked some fruits. He wasn’t sure if they were edible, so he simply called out his guide to ask questions. How could he have anticipated that "The Infrastructure's Guide" would serve as an electrical conductor and draw lightning on a stormy day?

The lightning crashed towards him. Fortunately, he immediately closed the guide, allowing the lightning to be redirected to a nearby tree, taking away the brunt of the power; otherwise, even a powerful individual would have turned out as nothing more than smoking ash.

"Who are you?" Qiu Juan on the ground stared at the upright male and didn’t recognize him.

As he saw the sub-female's surprised expression, Meng Sheng cursed wordlessly. He had forgotten to portray the weak original in the prior excitement!

Since he had been seen, he didn’t hide, but instead tried his luck: "I am in the cave next to yours."

"Meng Sheng?" Qiu Juan asked incredulously.

The male grumbled under his breath disdainfully: not my day.

Qiu Juan opened his mouth to comment that this was the first time he had seen him raise his head, but he realized it was impolite to do so, so he closed his mouth.

Meng Sheng was used staying unseen, therefore he wasn’t surprised by the sub-female’s reaction.

Since there was no threat, Qiu Juan relaxed and withdrew the spear: "I'm sorry, I thought it was a beast."

Meng Sheng cast a sidelong look at him, pleased to see that Qiu Juan really accepted it. Since his neighbor believed it, he wasn’t worried that other natives wouldn’t.

He didn't react to sub-female's words and walked straight out of the pile of tree trunks, but the blood on the ground drew his attention.

"Are you injured?"

He squatted down and saw blood oozing from sub-female’s heel. Her eyes were also bloodshot, which was most likely due to pain.

In truth, when Meng Sheng first saw Qiu Juan, he thought the aboriginal looked very much in line with his aesthetic standards, especially the light-colored eyes when they shone with fortitude.

However, after many encounters with him, he found that he was always walking alongside another male. After learning about the tribe's customs, he had to give up his appreciation in his heart.

"Where did your partner go?" he inquired again, as the sub-female had yet to react.

Meng Sheng's words were entirely unintentional. He was unaware of what had happened to Qiu Juan. He simply thought it was very irresponsible of the male to allow his sub-female to go out hunting during the thunderstorm when he was not present.

Qiu Juan's tone changed when he heard the word partner: "I can do the same things without a partner!"

He rose up from the stump. Rain washed out the blood under his foot, but the wide leaves underneath had already been dyed red.

Meng Sheng's brows furrowed. "If you walk back like this, your foot will be useless."

"Don't frighten me. My usual hunting wounds are much more severe than this."

“You hurt your heel -” Achilles tendon! But he didn’t say out loud the latter because people here didn’t understand anatomy.

As the rain continued to fall, he cast a glance at the animal skin skirt that covered the sub-female. If he held him on his back, they would have too much of skin to skin contact.

Without any charming thoughts, he said to the sub-female in front of him, “You stand and lean on me. I’ll help you get back.”

Qiu Juan was obviously stunned, and he took a few steps back.

"Don't worry, I'll take my breath away so as to avoid misunderstandings between you and your partner." Without allowing Qiu Juan to retort, he took the sub-female’s arm and draped it over his shoulders.

Qiu Juan had always been a reserved sub-female, and he had never been so close to anyone, not even Kong Jia.

His face instantly burned, and he wanted to flee as soon as possible. But the male, who always appeared frail out of nowhere, had turned powerful and firmly buckled him. The male's brows furrowed in dissatisfaction as a result of his struggle.

"Let go!" Qiu Juan's tone changed to alarm as he realized there was a significant difference in strength between himself and the male.

He was the kind of person that was concerned about his reputation. If others saw him with other males in an easily misunderstandable situation, they would make wild guesses and spread rumors.

The two people's hands and shoulders were touching. Meng Sheng initially had two sets of clothing, but in the forest, he wore animal hides to avoid needless trouble. Now that the two people's skin was touching, he naturally felt the sub-female opposing and restlessness.

He patiently said: "On a rainy day, the tribe retreats to the caves. Nobody is going to pay attention. Furthermore, what happens if they did see it? We are doing nothing wrong. But if you dragged alone your wounded foot, you might encounter danger on the road. You’ll only worry your mother more.”

When his mother was mentioned, Qiu Juan, who had been agitated, was far more at ease. He'd been gone for a long time, and his mother had probably been pacing around the cave all this time.

This time he stopped struggling and kept his mouth shut.

Seeing this, Meng Sheng increased his pace. While sub-females were marginally smaller than males, a sub-female like Qiu Juan should not be underestimated when it comes to resisting. Meng Sheng had just been struck by lightning, and his mind was still a bit murky. If the sub-female next to him made another fuss, he would most likely knock him to the ground.

He took long strides when he abruptly recalled something and inquired.

"By the way, what was your name?"

Qiu Juan was taken aback: “You don’t know my name?”

"I often stay in the cave. Nobody told me."

Although his answer was far-fetched, Qiu Juan seemed to believe it and breathe a sigh of relief.

Qiu Juan assumed that a male who didn't even know his name had no affection for him and was acting only out of kindness. In turn, he sympathized with the male, who seldom engaged with the tribe and was most likely lonely.

"My name is Qiu Juan."

Meng Sheng nodded, "A very good name."

After these few words, the two remained silent for the rest of the journey. As they arrived near the cave's entrance, Meng Sheng let go of Qiu Juan.

“I’ll be going now.”

“Alright.”

Qiu Juan took two strides towards his cave before turning his gaze to Meng Sheng, who was still standing in the rain. His dark cheeks had been washed clean by the water. At this moment, his true appearance was revealed, and it turned out to be no less handsome that of Kong Jia.

In comparison to his usual hunchback posture, his straight body with broad shoulders and narrow wist appeared strong.

When he noticed that the person in the rain was also staring at him, he immediately averted his gaze, walked back lamely, and handed him one of the rabbits he was holding.

"Thank you, Meng Sheng."

Meng Sheng would never desire a sub-female prey, let alone one gained through injury.

Qiu Juan became anxious when he did not respond: "Please accept my gratitude! Otherwise, I'll be upset!"

Meng Sheng glanced at the sub-female, who was thirteen to sixteen centimeters shorter than him, and then at the wet rabbit in his hand. The fur was soaked, making it look shrunken, but this really helped one to see how fat the gray-haired hare was.

Perhaps this symbolized the self-esteem of the sub-female and he had little choice but to accept it: "Actually, you don't have to be so polite."

"Qiu Juan!" As the two stood facing each other, a sub-female's cry sounded from the cave.

"Mother!" exclaimed Qiu Juan as he turned around.

"Come in, it's raining heavily outside."

Meng Sheng nodded knowingly, and the Qiu Juan approached his sub-female mother.

He didn't plan on staying, so he walked back to his own cave.

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