Chapter 66: The Banana Destroyed

"This..."
Li Zhi hesitated, feeling reluctant to destroy so much food. "I just can't help but feel it's wasteful," he said. "It seems wrong to squander all this food."

"If you don't want to help, then don't. I'll do it myself," Lin Yamei replied, raising her stone axe.

A perfectly healthy banana tree fell to the ground with a swift chop.

Li Zhi winced as he watched the bananas, so fresh and ripe, being ruined for nothing. Still, he couldn't help but plead, "Lin Yamei, I think you've vented enough. There's no benefit in wasting so much time here. We’d be better off gathering firewood."

"You don't understand," Lin Yamei retorted. "This is about suppressing potential rivals. If I let those competitors around us keep getting stronger, it’ll only be us who suffer in the end!"

Li Zhi found himself unable to argue with her. Mostly, he realized her logic was twisted, but he didn't dare contradict Lin Yamei. After all, finding a girlfriend in the real world was hard enough; in this strange place, he hadn’t even met another person, let alone another woman.

He worried that if Lin Yamei abandoned him, he would be left to grow old alone in this place—utterly isolated. And solitude in this desolate land was unbearable.

Lin Yamei swung her axe again, chopping down another green banana tree, then kicked it several times for good measure. When she noticed Li Zhi really wasn’t helping, she snapped, “You know it takes a lot of time to chop these bananas, and you still won’t help? Just going to stand there and watch?!”

Li Zhi was speechless. Just moments ago, she had said, "If you don't want to help, then don't." Now she was blaming him for not helping? But he let it go.

As the old saying goes: "Only petty men and women are hard to deal with." What else could he do?

"I'm coming," Li Zhi replied, stepping forward to select a banana tree that had just begun to bear fruit. He raised his axe, about to chop, when—

"Hey, a rabbit!"

Li Zhi suddenly shouted, abandoning the meaningless banana tree destruction and rushing after the rabbit. Unfortunately, the rabbit darted swiftly into the grass and disappeared.

---

Just as Li Zhi was feeling disappointed, Lin Yamei suddenly shouted, "That way, Li Zhi, over there! The rabbit ran into that patch of grass—go after it!"

"Don’t let it get away! If we catch it, today will be a success and we won’t have to chop down those damned banana trees!"

"Li Zhi, hurry! See that moving tuft of grass? Right there in the tall patch!"

Lin Yamei was shouting because she knew Li Zhi cared about the banana trees. He had grown up unloved by his parents, raised by his poor grandmother who scavenged for trash and bought only damaged fruit to save money.

She had seen through Li Zhi’s attachment to the bananas—he saw them as good fruit and couldn’t bear to cut them down. It was a deeply ingrained habit.

But Lin Yamei was being deliberate; she wanted to manipulate Li Zhi, to exploit his weaknesses. Only then could she control the man before her.

Now, though, with the prospect of delicious rabbit meat, Lin Yamei lost interest in her games; she simply wanted a tasty roast rabbit for dinner.

Neither of them expected that, hidden among the grass where the rabbit had vanished, was Ye Da’s... fortune beyond imagination.

---

Ye Da, using his analytical glasses and sharp senses, confirmed no one was outside the cave. Only then did he lead the two wolf pups into the cannibal tribe's hall, intending to sneak out along the path and leave the place for good.

As he stepped from the inner cave into the hall, Ye Da planned to swipe the dark, resinous paste set beside the campfire.

Suddenly—

With a rush, Little Grey was pulled up into the air.

Ye Da turned and saw that Little Grey had triggered a trap, one back leg caught by a thin cord and dangling, swinging helplessly. Terrified, the pup howled and yelped.

Little White barked frantically in response.

"Damn!" Ye Da frowned, sensing trouble. The hall was too dark for him to spot the trap’s cords, nor could he tell if there were more traps lurking.

He distinctly remembered his analytical glasses hadn’t warned him of any traps here. The sudden appearance of traps meant only one thing—

Someone knew he had been here and had deliberately set traps to catch him!

---

But his adversaries hadn’t expected he’d have pets.

Sure enough, just moments after Little Grey was caught, three natives emerged.

The leader was an old native, barely over four feet tall, dressed in a fur apron. His skin was dark, features flat, face covered in hair. He looked more like a primitive man than anyone from the modern age.

Beside him stood two slightly taller, younger women, similarly dressed only in aprons, without upper garments.

Yet, seeing the two topless natives was not a pleasure, but rather a kind of torment. At least Ye Da thought so—their bodies were dreadful, and their thick body hair made him avert his eyes.

The cannibals began chattering and squawking in their guttural language.

Fortunately, Ye Da’s analytical glasses doubled as a translator, otherwise he’d have no idea what they were saying.

"You little thieves!"

"How dare you steal from us—hand over the goods, or I’ll eat you all!"

"I’ll sacrifice your bones and souls to the forest god, condemning you to eternal torment!"

Their threats made Ye Da’s expression turn cold.

True, stealing was his fault, but scaring him was theirs.

"All you people think about is eating?" Ye Da sneered. "If you’re so hungry, then eat this!"

He hurled the last explosive fruit he had at the cannibals.

The leader, unaware of what it was, instinctively caught it.

A deafening explosion followed.

The tribe's chief was blown to pieces by the fruit. Whether it was due to his thick skin or his wives’ resilience, the two women beside him suffered only minor injuries, even as the chief was obliterated.