The light of sunset reflected on a hillside.
On the hillside’s relatively flat side, there was a straw shack.
Inside the grass shack was the giant, this was his residence. The caves in the ravine were big enough, however the giant snored when he slept, causing echoes and loud noises.
As a result, after more and more people protested, the old boat craftsman built this shack for the giant.
Zhen Jin, Cang Xu, Lan Zao, and three others were greeted by the boat craftsman.
“Villain!” The giant withdrew to his shack and bared his teeth at Zhen Jin.
“Shut up you idiot.” The old boat craftsman insulted, “You must thank Lord Zhen Jin, he protected you, you idiot, thank him now!!”
The stupid giant was still baring his teeth, he scratched his head in confusion and scowled at the boat craftsman with suspicion and outrage: “But father, he hit me!”
The old boat craftsman shook his head: “He did hit you.”
The giant became even more dumbfounded, he also shook his head: “Hitting me, is wrong, that is wrong.”
The old boat craftsman coldly snorted: “Have I ever hit you?”
The giant blankly stared; his mind immediately recalled countless scenes.
Often during childhood, he ate too much food.
The boat craftsman had finite things and often went hungry.
After one exhausting day, the boat craftsman only wanted to sleep.
But when he returned to his residence, he was flabbergasted.
His cabin was in disarray, with the baby giant continuing to overturn trunks and boxes.
“What are you doing? You are a small scoundrel!”
“Ah, did you eat all my tobacco? You idiot, idiot!” The old boat craftsman violently slapped his buttocks.
Giant: “Wa wa wa……”
Late into the night.
The old boat craftsman was woken up by pain.
“Are you biting me? You moron, I am not a woman, there is no milk here!”
The wounded boat craftsman flew into a rage and slapped the still small giant’s buttocks again.
Giant: “Wa wa wa……”
Later on, in the giant’s life.
“Good, do you remember? The deck is wiped with this cleaning rag and water. If there is not enough water, go to the side of the boat and draw some water. Work hard, this boat does not raise useless people, do you understand?” The boat craftsman warned repeatedly.
The giant nodded: “Father, be at ease.”
“What are you doing? My god!” After half a day, the boat craftsman saw cracks everywhere, there was even a hole in the deck. Upon seeing this, he tore his hair out and nearly lost his mind.
The giant squatted at his side, he was very puzzled: “Father, you told me to ‘work hard’.”
The boat craftsman closed his eyes, raised his head, and took a deep breath, then he walked in front of the giant and raised his fist.
Thump thump thump.
“Wa wa wa……”
A ship battle had just finished, and blood flowed across the ship deck.
The boat craftsman wrapped up the giant’s wounds: “I said don’t charge ahead you blockhead!”
“But they hit you father! They are villains!” The giant retorted.
“You even learned how to talk back!” The boat craftsman angrily glared at the giant, “Damm it, not enough medicine. The blood won’t stop! Damm it, how wretched.”
“Father don’t worry, I am not in pain.” The giant comforted.
“Shut up for me!” The boat craftsman subconsciously slapped the giant’s face, but just as he did that, he realized how it was inappropriate and withdrew more than half his strength at once.
The boat craftsman’s cabin room was tightly closed.
The giant squatted outside the door, overcome with boredom, he gazed at a flying insect.
The insect buzzed in front of him while a man and a woman gasped for breath inside the cabin.
“You devil……”
“He he, Madam, don’t look at my old appearance, I am actually quite strong!”
“Eh……ah……eh……ah……”
Bang.
All of a sudden, the giant knocked open the cabin door.
“Father!” The giant shouted.
“Ya——!” The women shrieked.
The boat craftsman was indignant: “What are you doing!! You said, no matter what you heard, you wouldn’t move.”
“But father, you sounded like you were in pain. You were constantly gasping for breath, you were tired! You're dying!”
The boat craftsman’s eyes bulged: “Dying?!”
His canthus twitched, he immediately leapt out of the bed and kicked the giant constantly: “You said I was dying? You said I was dying?!”
The giant cried and fled ignominiously.
Returning back to reality.
Seeing the giant lost in thought, the boat craftsman repeated: “Have I ever hit you?”
“You hit me many times.” The giant answered honestly.
“I hit you, but have I ever genuinely harmed you?” The boat craftsman continued, “Never? Therefore, those beatings are different from others. These beatings love and protect you. Understood?”
“Without Lord Zhen Jin knocking you unconscious, you would have caused more damage and more trouble!”
“Your Lordship hitting you is for your own good, understood?”
“Giant does not understand……” The giant shook his head.
“What?!” The boat craftsman glared and raised his fist.
The giant promptly nodded: “Under, understood.”
“Good.” Seeing the boat craftsman stabilize the situation, Zhen Jin smiled, “Seeing you guys being energetic is good.”
Saying this, the youngster looked at Cang Xu.
Cang Xu nodded and entered the grass shack.
The boat craftsman yelled: “Don’t move.”
The giant was motionless, allowing Cang Xu to stand around and create difficulties. Cang Xu then waved, making the giant lower his head.
Of course, the giant would not normally do this, but the boat craftsman quickly ordered him to do so.
Cang Xu lifted the giant’s eyelids and carefully looked at his pupils. The boat craftsman then made the giant open his mouth, Cang Xu had to tolerate the giant’s fishy breath as he examined his teeth.
After observing like this for a long time, Cang Xu withdrew from the shack.
Returning to Zhen Jin’s side, the old scholar shook his head: “My Lord, I fear I have disappointed you.”
“Don’t hesitate, everyone knows you're not a doctor.”
The old scholar replied: “It is clear, based on many physical signs indicating his giant bloodline, he is a half breed. The giant bloodline is very thin, it seems very low leveled. Your Lordship knows, many giants have worrying intellect. Perhaps because of this low level giant bloodline burdening him, the giant never had an ordinary person’s intellect.”
“I am unable to determine the cause of his insanity. But I suspect it has something to do with his brain. If we opened his skull and dissected it, I might be able to find the root cause.”
Cang Xu’s words immediately scared the boat craftsman.
But luckily, Zhen Jin immediately opened his mouth: “Don’t bring up dissection at the drop of a hat, I understand. The giant will rest for the next few days, he shall not work. We will return first.”
The boat craftsman respectfully sent them off at once.
On the way back, Zhen Jin looked at Cang Xu: “What is the best way to deal with the giant?”
Cang Xu analyzed: “The giant is very valuable. Although he eats more food, he works more than anyone. He has worked hard and contributed much. Sometimes, the giant can accomplish many things, while others take longer or even fail doing the same work.”
“Although the giant’s madness caused damage, after adding everything up, because your Lordship promptly stopped him, there wasn’t that much. Many people were injured but no one died.”
Cang Xu analyzed with consistent calmness and rationality.
At this moment, Zhen Jin looked at Lan Zao behind him: “I am quite curious, the giant has great strength, his madness must have been a great threat to the ship. Why was he allowed to remain on the Hog’s Kiss?”
Lan Zao was silent for a time, then said: “The main reason was the old boat craftsman. He had been on the boat longer than me, I also heard from others that for the old craftsman to bring up his son, he had paid a heavy price.”
“Master, you have seen the old boat craftsman's excellent skill, ordinary people cannot build a ship.”
“Of course, because we were constantly guarding against the giant, whenever we were near the giant, we were all scared and on edge. That greatly reduced the damage the giant caused.”
Zhen Jin slightly frowned: “But I saw some sailors among the wounded”
“Yes master. Since coming to this island, the giant never had symptoms. After a long time, the sailors focused all their attention on how to survive and escape this place. Overlooking the giant’s danger is normal, I was one of them.”
Lan Zao continued: “In fact, in order to protect the ship and confront the giant, the captain spent a great deal of money on a magic item.”
“Maybe……that was the reason.”
Saying this, Lan Zao’s tone became somewhat hesitant: “We suspect the giant’s symptoms are also a warning sign. Whenever danger approaches, the giant will show symptoms.”
“Eh?” Zhen Jin and Cang Xu stopped walking.
Cang Xu was skeptical: “During our entire journey, we encountered many dangers, yet the giant never showed symptoms.”
“Is it accurate?” Zhen Jin scowled.
“It is not accurate.” Ashamed, Lan Zao smiled, “In fact, we cannot confirm anything.”
“But one year, it happened several times. No long after the giant showed symptoms, a storm, gale, or tsunami would appear.”
Cang Xu question closely: “How many times per year does the giant show symptoms?”
“Twenty? Thirty?” Lan Zao shook his head, “We don’t count them up.”
Cang Xu laughed and shook his head: “Many times, the climate of the deep sea has the temperament and mood of a young romantic lass, it is impossible to predict.”
“However, sailors have narrow lives in ship holds, every day there is hard work and every day they are faced with an endless ocean, with such large pressure on them, sailors will invest their hopes into anything. As a result, sailors are more pious than people living on dry land.”
“My Lord, please allow me to be excused.”
“You may leave.” Zhen Jin nodded his head, he knew Cang Xu had the hard assignment of managing the overall plan and was mired in minor details.
After Cang Xu parted ways, the master and the servant arrived at the cave where the wounded were being treated to express their sympathies.
Notes
Tldr, still a better childhood than Zong Ge’s. Though he is still a terrible father for never giving his adopted son an actual name. What happens when a second giant shows up? I would also like to take this time to point out, not a single father figure or parent even has had a name in this entire story. None. I don’t actually know why this is the case, but Zhen Ren has a pretty whack naming sense these days.