Chapter 453 - Time

The leech slowly crawled towards Li Huowang. He stomped it to death before looking at Yang Xiaohai pitifully.

“Do you always get leeches on your legs?” Li Huowang asked.

“Of course. It’s pretty much impossible to protect yourself from leeches if you work in the fields. I’m fine with it as long as I’m not dealing with snakes. It’s okay if we get bit by leeches. We can always pull them off with our hands, but it's another issue if they bite cows. Cows don’t have hands and can’t pull leeches off, so they have no choice but to let the leeches drink their blood. That’s why we also call leeches Rotten Cow Crotches.[1]

Li Huowang looked at Yang Xiaohai, who still had the face of a child.

He’s probably only a sixth grader in the modern world, but he’s already like an adult in this world.

Li Huowang patted Yang Xiaohai’s shoulder. “You don’t have to work in the fields anymore. You should be studying at this age instead of working in the fields. Leave the fieldwork to the serfs.”

After Li Huowang gave out some orders, Cowheart Village quickly acquired a teacher.

Cowheart Village was a rural area, but with the right amount of money, it had been easy enough to hire a teacher. Some scholars had to work as teachers for a living because they had failed to pass their exams and become officials.

Yang Xiaohai wasn't the only student. Li Huowang had instructed Li Sui to attend classes too. All Li Sui needed to do was to listen and say nothing while the teacher taught the lessons.

The other villagers would come and stand near the window of the classroom whenever they had free time. It was as if they would gain something just by eavesdropping.

Even Lu Zhuangyuan brought his grandson, who was barely a year old. He wanted his grandson to be surrounded by scholars and hopefully become an official once he was older.

Seeing this, Li Huowang decided to open the door to the classroom for everyone. Anyone could enter the classroom and listen to the lessons. He considered it as a social benefit for the people of Cowheart Village.

Li Huowang smiled as he watched the villagers listening to the teacher’s lessons. His sour mood was gone, and he felt much happier these days.

“What are you smiling at?” Bai Lingmiao asked puzzledly.

Li Huowang answered, “Look at how well everyone is living now. No matter how much difficulty we faced during our travels, we managed to survive, and now everyone’s life is improving day by day. Isn’t this what everyone wanted?”

Bai Lingmiao extended her hands and held his skinless fingers, gently leaning against him. “Yes. Our lives will keep getting better. That’s why you must not seek death even if you face difficulties in the future. Life will always get better again.”

The teacher was currently giving a lecture in front of the class.

“You don’t need to learn like a scholar, and I don’t expect anyone here to be able to become an official in the future. You just need to learn what you need for everyday life, such as reading and counting! Once you are able to read, write, and count, you will not starve to death in the future! With these skills, you can consider other ways to make a living. Today, you shall learn how to count!” the teacher said, raising a small bamboo tube filled with chopsticks in the air.

The teacher continued, “There are eleven divisions in a day!”

He pulled out eleven chopsticks from the tube and laid them on the ground.

“If a peddler took five divisions to reach your village, how much time does he have left to sell his wares and sleep?” the teacher asked, picking up five chopsticks from the ground. [2]

“Hm?” Li Huowang was confused.

Bai Lingmiao sensed his confusion and asked, “What’s wrong? The teacher is doing a good job.”

“There are twenty-four hours in a day. A single period consists of two hours, so instead of eleven, there should be twelve divisions in a day. What kind of teacher teaches others about a day having only eleven divisions? He can’t even count time. No wonder he can’t become an official. We should find an excuse to fire him. I don’t want the others to be taught the wrong information.”

Hearing that, Bai Lingmiao felt even more confused. “Li Huowang, what are you talking about? There are only eleven divisions in a single day. Why did you say there are twelve?”

“What?”

Li Huowang's mind seemed to go numb as if he had been smacked senseless by something. He looked at her in shock before confirming it with her again.

Then he ran into the classroom and asked the teacher, “Are there only eleven divisions in a day?”

Seeing a man covered in bandages rush in and interrupt his lesson, the teacher retorted indignantly, “Of course. How many divisions do you think we have if not eleven? Do you have a problem with my lesson?”

Li Huowang turned around in shock and looked at the other students. “Are there really only eleven divisions in a day?”

Yang Xiaohai was curious as to why Li Huowang was acting this way. “Yeah. Senior Li, there are only eleven divisions in a day. What’s wrong with it?”

“Only eleven? That means a day only lasts for twenty-two hours...? What happened to the remaining two hours?”

Li Huowang suddenly had a feeling that his world had just turned unreal.

Bai Lingmiao entered the classroom with a frown and pulled Li Huowang outside.

She asked, “What are you doing? Isn’t it normal to only have eleven divisions in a day?”

“No, that’s not right.” Li Huowang calmed down and decided to find the truth himself. “Miaomiao, do you have anything in the village that can be used to count the time? Bring it to me.”

“Something to count the time? Is a water clock fine? That's all we have here.”

“Yes!”

Soon, three wooden buckets of different heights were placed in front of Li Huowang. The tallest bucket was filled with water, and there was a small tube that dripped water consistently into the second bucket from the first.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

A drop of water took around a second to reach the second bucket, but Li Huowang did not trust it He decided to count the time himself.

But the result was not what he had expected. There were indeed only eleven divisions in a day.

Even though there might be a margin of error, it was impossible for Li Huowang to miscount two entire hours.

After staying up for the entire night, Li Huowang finally accepted this reality. There were indeed only twenty-two hours in this world.

He rubbed his tired eyes and mumbled, “No wonder I kept oversleeping. Guess it's because this world's missing two hours?”

Ever since Li Huowang escaped from Zephyr Temple, he'd always felt that he had overslept or didn’t get enough sleep. It appeared to be because of the time in this world.

Bai Lingmiao stood behind him worriedly. “Li Huowang, are you going crazy again?”

Li Huowang had a much easier time accepting this reality than he had thought. It made sense that even time was different in this bizarre world.

He stood up and hugged Bai Lingmiao. “Does it mean that we only had eleven divisions in a day even while we were in the Zephyr Temple?”

“Of course.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Do I need to tell you this? I didn’t know that you were clueless about it.”

Meanwhile, Zhuge Yuan was listening to the faceless Hong Zhong illusion taunt him. “Do you see that? That’s the sense of confusion of a Strayed One! Did you learn anything today?”

1. It’s a literal translation here. I can’t find anything about it so most likely it's a regional thing where people called it whatever they liked. Kinda like how Asian Koels are called uwu birds because their calls are literally “uwu” ☜

2. One Division = Two Hours ☜