Chapter 454
Chapter 454
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 454
>Chapter Title: The Hour
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Just as the bloodsucking leeches were about to crawl onto the tops of his shoes, Li Huowang lifted his foot and stomped the leech by his feet to death. Then, unusually, he looked at the Yang kid in front of him with a trace of heartache.
"This thing often latches onto your legs?"
"Plowing the fields, you know—there are cow crotch rot leeches in the water, unavoidable. As long as it's not water snakes, it's fine. It sucking human blood is no big deal; people have hands and can pull them off."
"But if it gets on the cow, that's trouble. Cows don't have hands, so they can't remove them. They just let these things suck away. That's why they're called cow crotch rot leeches."
Li Huowang looked at the young Yang kid's childish face. If this child were in the modern world, he'd probably be around sixth grade in elementary school. But here, he had already become as mature as an adult.
After thinking for a moment, Li Huowang patted him on the shoulder.
"Don't plow the fields anymore from now on. At your age, you should be in a private school learning to read, not working in the fields. Let the tenant farmers handle that kind of labor."
Once Li Huowang gave the order, Oxheart Village soon had a new schoolteacher.
Though Oxheart Village was remote, as long as the silver flowed freely, finding a failed scholar-turned-teacher was no trouble at all.
This wasn't just for the Yang kid—Li Sui was also in the private school, following Li Huowang's instructions to listen quietly without speaking as the teacher lectured.
Besides them, anyone in the village with free time would crowd at the windows, eavesdropping and peeking, as if absorbing even a little more knowledge meant earning a bit more.
Even Lv Zhuangyuan came by, cradling his infant grandson, claiming he wanted the child to absorb some scholarly aura to make passing the imperial exams easier in the future.
Seeing this, Li Huowang simply opened the door. From then on, anyone in the village who wanted to listen could come into the private school—it was just one of Oxheart Village's perks.
Watching everyone inside the private school listening attentively, Li Huowang's face broke into a faint smile. Even his previously gloomy mood brightened considerably.
"What are you smiling about?"
Bai Lingmiao, standing beside him, asked in surprise.
"Look how good this is. No matter how many hardships we've endured on the road, life is always getting better. Isn't this exactly what they wanted?"
Bai Lingmiao reached out and interlaced her fingers with his fleshless hand, leaning her body slightly toward him.
"Yeah, life will only get better and better. So, no matter what happens in the future, don't go seeking death. Whatever comes, it will pass someday."
At that moment, the schoolteacher inside was teaching the students something else.
"Zhi, hu, zhe, ye—learning that stuff is useless for you lot. This old man doesn't expect any of you to pass the scholar exams anyway. Just learn practical things, like recognizing characters or calculating with counting rods!"
"Master those, and you'll have a real skill—no starving wherever you go! Today, we'll start with counting rods!"
The schoolteacher raised a cylinder of chopsticks high.
"A day has eleven hours!"
He picked out eleven chopsticks from the cylinder and laid them on the ground.
"For example, say a peddler comes to your village to sell goods and spends five hours on the road."
The schoolteacher removed five chopsticks from the eleven.
"How many hours does he have left to sell goods and sleep?"
"Hmm?"
Li Huowang's expression turned unpleasant.
Sensing the change in Li Huowang's face, Bai Lingmiao asked in surprise,
"What's wrong? Isn't this schoolteacher pretty good?"
"A day has twenty-four hours, and each hour is two hours long—that makes twelve hours in a day. I have no idea where this guy gets eleven hours from."
"He can't even get the most basic time right. No wonder he failed the scholar exams. Find an excuse to dismiss him, lest he mislead the children."
Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao's pale pinkish eyes filled with doubt.
"Li Huowang, what on earth are you talking about? A day has always been eleven hours. Where did you get twelve hours from?"
"What?!"
Li Huowang's mind felt like it had been smashed by something, buzzing loudly.
He first stared at Bai Lingmiao in shock. After getting her firm confirmation, he rushed straight into the private school and demanded of the schoolteacher,
"A day really only has eleven hours?"
"Nonsense! If not eleven, then how many? What's your brilliant insight?"
The schoolteacher was quite displeased with this man who had burst in, interrupting his lesson, wrapped head to toe in white bandages.
Li Huowang, face full of shock, turned to the crowd behind him and asked them all,
"A day only has eleven hours?!"
The Yang kid looked utterly baffled by Li Huowang's shock.
"Yeah, Senior Brother Li, hasn't a day always been eleven hours? What's so strange about that?"
"Only eleven hours? That means a day here is only twenty-two hours long? Where do those missing two hours go?"
In an instant, Li Huowang felt a profound sense of unreality about this world.
Bai Lingmiao walked into the private school, brow slightly furrowed, and pulled his hand, leading him outside.
"What's wrong with you? Isn't it normal for a day to have only eleven hours?"
"No, something's still off."
Li Huowang calmed himself and decided to find the answer himself.
"Miaomiao, does the village have any timekeeping devices? Bring them all out—I need to use them."
"Timekeeping devices? Will a water clock do? That's all the Bai family has."
"That'll work!"
Soon, three large connected wooden buckets, arranged from highest to lowest, were placed before Li Huowang. The top one was full of water, which dripped drop by drop through a thin tube into the second bucket.
Each drop took roughly the time of one second. Li Huowang didn't even fully trust the tool and silently counted in his mind to verify.
But no matter how he calculated, the final result was undeniable: a day had eleven hours.
Though there might be some minor discrepancy in the method, it couldn't possibly be off by a full two hours.
Li Huowang, who hadn't slept all night, finally accepted this reality. This world truly had only twenty-two hours in a day.
He rubbed the corners of his sore eyes with the back of his hand and murmured to himself,
"So that's it. Is that why I've always felt like I was oversleeping in the past? Because the day is two hours short?"
Ever since leaving Clear Wind Temple, he'd either overslept or felt like he wasn't getting enough sleep. Now it made sense—it was a matter of time.
Bai Lingmiao, standing behind him, looked at him with deep concern in her eyes.
"Li Huowang, what madness are you on about now?"
Li Huowang accepted this "a day has twenty-two hours" setting far faster than she imagined. If even this world was insane, then abnormal time was to be expected.
He stood up and gently hugged Bai Lingmiao.
"By the way, back at Clear Wind Temple, was a day also eleven hours?"
"Of course."
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Does something like that need telling? How was I supposed to know you didn't even know this?"
As the two conversed, in the distance, Zhuge Yuan listened to the faceless Sitting and Forgetting Daoist, who wore an expression of gleeful mischief, whispering softly,
"See that? That's a bewildered heart element! Quite the eye-opener, huh?"
(End of chapter)