"Curry sauce! Although it's a yellowish paste made of various aromatic seasoning plants with a peculiar smell, it may not be enough to drive away some animals that don't like it!"
"That makes sense."
Tang Xiaoguo pondered: "Perhaps it could evoke terrifying memories for them."
Lin Qianqian shook her head: "That seems like a stretch! Or why don't you sing a bride's wedding song, the groom isn't me! Let's see if they run away!"
"I don't even know that song..." Tang Xiaoguo sighed. "Come on, think of a sensible way to get rid of these disgusting creatures!"
Lu Zhe shook his head: "As fellow members of nature, animals have equal rights to survival as us. We need to find a way to coexist peacefully with them."
Lin Qianqian nodded: "Lu Zhe is so kind."
Tang Xiaoguo sighed: "Boss, is being kind enough? How do we get rid of them?"
"Why don't... I go talk to them!"
"Negotiate with Komodo dragons?"
"Yeah, from their orderly steps and friendly eyes, I can see they yearn for peace. Don't worry, I'll talk to them properly. Even if negotiations fail, they can't catch me! You two go hide first."
"Be careful..."
"Got it!"
Lu Zhe pulled out a paratrooper knife and walked over.
The lizards seemed confused when they saw Lu Zhe, tilting their heads in unison to one side.
Lu Zhe then noticed all the lizards had cloudy right eyes, as if sharing the same physiological defect.
That's why when Lu Zhe approached, they tilted their heads slightly to one side, observing him with their functioning left eyes.
Unfamiliar with humans, they didn't attack outright, only surrounding him while flicking their bifurcated tongues and hissing.
Tang Xiaoguo and Lin Qianqian watched anxiously from afar, palms sweating profusely.
They saw Lu Zhe saying something to the lizards, then waving his arms.
The lizards became agitated, seemingly swaying along to Lu Zhe's gestures.
Soon after, as if actually comprehending Lu Zhe's words, they turned and crawled away one by one.
Lu Zhe thoroughly rinsed his paratrooper knife before walking back.
"They actually left?"
"Were they that reasonable?"
"Not exactly! They wanted to eat me at first, but got distracted by my charming personality and didn't dare make a move."
"Then they suddenly saw the error of their ways and turned vegetarian?"
"It wasn't that simple! Even though we shook them off for now, they can still track us down by our scent and cause trouble later. Knowing their keen sense of smell depends on those forked tongues, I took the chance when they stuck out their tongues and swiped my knife, severing them in one swift motion."
As he spoke, Lu Zhe slashed out swiftly with his arm, precisely striking a passing insect with blinding speed and reflexes that left the two girls awe-struck.
"As I was leaving, they even gave me their tongues as souvenirs. I figured I had no use for them so threw them away. Now we can rest assured they won't be able to track us."
You see, not only did I get rid of their pursuit, but did so without harming their lives. That is the ultimate respect one can show nature!"
Tang Xiaoguo asked incredulously: "Will their tongues grow back?"
Lin Qianqian pondered: "They...they should, right? Doesn't a lizard's tail grow back when severed?"
"Do Komodo dragons have that ability too?"
Lin Qianqian shook her head: "I don't know. Lu Zhe, do you?"
"Well..." Lu Zhe suddenly redirected, "I noticed all the lizards share another trait - cloudy right eyes!"
"Special breed?"
Lu Zhe shook his head: "More like a physiological defect."
"How strange they all share the exact same defect?!"
"At first I also found it odd, but then realized there's a possibility - this island may have originally only had one lizard!"
"Just one?"
"Yeah!" Lu Zhe nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe a few hundred years ago, some voyagers captured a few giant lizards. Halfway through the journey, they discovered a defective female and dumped it on this island."
"One lizard could reproduce? Hermaphroditic?"
"I've seen the 1998 Godzilla film where it laid a bunch of eggs by itself. But Komodo dragons aren't hermaphroditic. Rather, there's another reproductive mode in the animal kingdom called parthenogenesis. Simply put, some female animals can reproduce without male fertilization, creating genetic clones of the mother."
"There's actually such a thing?"
Lin Qianqian pictured a bunch of baby Tang Xiaoguos crawling all over herself and murmured in delight: "How cute..."
Whereas Tang Xiaoguo pictured a horde of little Lin Qianqians swarming towards her, turning deathly pale.
We still have to rely on Boss Lu Zhe!
"Alright, enough imagining parthenogenetic lizards, let's get back to tracking that wounded billy goat!"
The three continued into the jungle.
Soon they reached a shallow river estuary.
There were no more specks of blood or any scent related to the goat.
Lu Zhe nodded.
"Lu Zhe, we've lost it!"
"Stay calm. African hunters lack acute hearing and smell, so what's their secret to being the greatest trackers?"
"What is it?"
"Their minds!"
Lu Zhe tapped his temple. "They observe the surroundings - footprints, feces, torn spiderwebs - to track prey. When all signs disappear, they stick out two fingers to mimic a goat's horns and perform an ancient ritual!"
"What ritual is that?"
"Imagining themselves as the goat and guessing which direction it would flee!"
"Why don't you try that then?"
"I'm already visualizing it in my head!"
Lu Zhe surveyed the area. The right led to marshlands with open visibility - not an ideal hiding spot.
The front left had uneven, rocky terrain that would be difficult to traverse. Under normal circumstances that's where the goat may have fled, but with its injured testicles even running and jumping would be excruciating. It likely didn't go that way.
That left the front right area of dense woodlands - perfect concealment with abundant foliage for recuperation.
Lu Zhe smiled. "Let's go this way!"
The trio carefully picked through the woods until finally hearing the goat's bleating.
Lu Zhe crouched low and slowly approached the goat.
It seemed to be writhing in immense agony, neither eating nor drinking, just endlessly crying out.
At this moment, it had not a single companion by its side.
Lu Zhe readied another marble, taking aim at its remaining testicle!
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
