Chapter 241: The monkeys are very understanding of human nature

The degree to which these monkeys understood human nature far exceeded Ning Jinli's expectations.

Moreover, gaining trust across species was truly moving; even Xiao Qidi felt touched seeing this scene.

Ning Jinli gently stroked the two small thin monkeys in her arms, "Qidi, bring me the medicine box."

Xiao Qidi didn't hesitate, turned and went to the tent, quickly bringing back the wilderness emergency medicine box.

This medicine box is specially for the military, and since it's for special forces as a precaution, both its tools and medicines are top-tier in the emergency category.

Primates are extremely similar to humans, so theoretically, these medicines would work just as well on these monkeys.

Ning Jinli opened the medicine box, took out the tools and antiseptic, and skillfully cleaned and disinfected the wounds of the two small thin monkeys.

The two small thin monkeys were half-conscious, grimacing in pain,

More than ten other monkeys watched from the side, also grimacing and lowly growling, their faces full of tension and worry; some even jumped up and down anxiously, seemingly ready to attack Ning Jinli.

The white-eyebrow old monkey muttered a few sounds, turning its head, and the monkey troop then quieted down.

Ning Jinli discovered that the deepest wounds of the two small thin monkeys still contained thorns from vines, not only deeply embedded but the broken thorns inside seemed quite long.

She then had Xiao Qidi turn on two flashlights to illuminate her.

As soon as the flashlights lit up, over a dozen pairs of eyes in the monkey troop stared straight at them.

Especially the white-eyebrow old monkey, its eyeballs visibly widened.

This was exactly the magical treasure capable of emitting dazzling light, as described by the Kuai Zi Strategist.

Not to mention the monkeys had never seen such a thing.

Even people of this era had never seen it; upon hearing that something could emit light at night without being fire, they would inevitably deem it an absolute treasure.

This time, the monkey troop was dispatched under orders to seize the treasure.

The Kuai Zi even demanded they spare no effort, even if it meant swarming and biting to death the man and woman.

Monkeys themselves possess formidable combat strength, especially this type slightly thinner and shorter than average humans; when enraged, even the water bandits of Black Water Stronghold dare not duel them one-on-one.

Furthermore, they possess extremely high intelligence, have certain battle strategies, and with their large numbers, ordinary people cannot withstand them.

Of course, the Kuai Zi also considered that a young man and woman carrying a supreme treasure could flee to such a godforsaken place to hide, surely they must be highly skilled.

Therefore, after weighing the options, he believed that his Ten Yang monkey troop, if they fought desperately without regard for cost, might be able to bite the man and woman to death, which was not unreasonable.

But he did not know that the man and woman's abilities far surpassed his cognition and imagination.

At this moment, Xiao Qidi held up the flashlights to shine light, while Ning Jinli focused intently on extracting the thorns embedded in the small thin monkeys' bodies, unaware that many monkeys were gazing at the flashlights with covetous looks.

This "treasure" itself was naturally useless to the monkeys.

But if they failed to bring it back, they would surely suffer beatings and starvation punishment from the Kuai Zi Strategist.

"Huu... done." Ning Jinli exhaled deeply, holding up the two blood-stained thorns just pulled out, each five centimeters long, "If such long thorns hadn't been broken inside, had it not been for us, this monkey wouldn't have survived."

After the thorns were removed, the two small thin monkeys obviously felt much better; although still in pain, they realized Ning Jinli was helping them, so they stopped baring their teeth, and their gazes became much more obedient.

Next was to apply medicine and bandage the wounds.

Xiao Qidi continued to help by handing Ning Jinli things, casually placing the two flashlights on the ground beside him.

The white-eyebrow old monkey stared at the flashlights, its eyes faintly showing a complex expression.

At the same time, a few relatively strong monkeys quietly approached the flashlights, then, taking advantage of Xiao Qidi's inattention, swiftly snatched them and ran back to the monkey troop.

Immediately afterward, the monkey troop let out cries resembling cheers.

The monkey that seized the flashlights also held them high, grinning widely with bared teeth.

"Huh? What are they doing?" Xiao Qidi looked bewildered at the strangely behaving monkey troop.

Ning Jinli glanced, smiling, "Monkeys, you know, are naturally curious; they've never seen such a thing."

The two also couldn't be bothered to intervene; after all, the flashlights weren't rare to them, so let the monkeys play if they wanted.

The monkey troop cheered and jumped about, with some monkeys chattering and gesturing toward the white-eyebrow old monkey, also pointing in the direction of departure.

The white-eyebrow old monkey glanced at the two people earnestly bandaging the small thin monkeys' wounds, then at the "treasure" they had secured, pondered for a moment, then suddenly flashed a fierce look and roared at the monkeys.

The roar was not loud, but full of deterrent power.

The monkey troop instantly fell silent.

Many monkeys' faces clearly showed surprise and incomprehension.

The white-eyebrow old monkey emitted consecutive sounds from its mouth, rhythmic with pauses, while its hands kept gesturing something.

Within the monkey troop, a few monkeys, unwilling, bared their teeth at it in dissatisfaction, but were all suppressed by the white-eyebrow old monkey's aura.

"Jinli, they seem to be communicating something." Xiao Qidi whispered, "I didn't expect the monkeys' group organization and communication skills to be this high; I've truly broadened my horizons."

Ning Jinli said, "Monkeys are naturally social animals, just like humans, possessing complex social group attributes; moreover, these monkeys seem even more intelligent, a pity I can't understand what they're communicating."

Just then, the white-eyebrow old monkey let out a few urgent howls at the monkey that had seized the flashlights.

The monkey holding the flashlights wore an unwilling expression.

The white-eyebrow old monkey went up and punched its head repeatedly, beating it so badly it clutched its head and scrambled about.

In the end, that monkey placed the two flashlights back beside Xiao Qidi, and when returning to the troop it took three steps, looking back each time, its face full of resentment and reluctance.

"Hahaha!" Ning Jinli laughed out loud, "I see, the old monkey was scolding it for taking our things, giving it a dressing-down and a few blows, ordering it to return them; these monkeys are really interesting."

Xiao Qidi nodded, "So understanding of human nature, even to the point of knowing courtesy, is truly rare."

By now, Ning Jinli had already finished treating the wounds of the two small thin monkeys.

She believed the white-eyebrow old monkey could at least somewhat understand her words, so she patiently said, "These two small monkeys are fine, but be careful not to run around; you two protect them well, and when we leave later, go slowly and stay safe."

Her words had just finished.

The white-eyebrow old monkey suddenly stood upright, imitating a person, and made three bows toward Ning Jinli.

Ning Jinli was so astonished she couldn't close her mouth.

Then the white-eyebrow old monkey, gesturing and shouting at the monkey troop, conveyed something, then turned and leapt onto the big tree.

The monkey troop instantly became restless, jumping up and down, with a few monkeys also wanting to follow.

The white-eyebrowed old monkey turned back and let out a few roars; the monkeys that wanted to follow lowered their heads and silently returned to the ground.

This scene made Ning Jinli and Xiao Qidi vaguely feel quite unusual, far stranger than the behavior previously displayed by the monkey troop.

Earlier series of actions could still be guessed at their meaning, but the present situation really leaves us clueless as to what's going on.

The white-eyebrowed old monkey let out a long cry, its voice faint and seeming to carry an indescribable sorrow.

And the monkey troop responded in low voices, sounding just as sorrowful.

Afterwards, the white-eyebrowed old monkey climbed to the treetop, glanced back once, then slipped into the gaps between branches and vines, quickly disappearing from sight.

"What does that mean?" Ning Jinli wondered, "It left, but had the other monkeys stay here?"

Xiao Qidi pondered, "It seems to be the case, but why would it do that?"

The white-eyebrowed old monkey's figure vanished.

The monkey troop went into an uproar, howling and jumping about more anxiously and restlessly.

Moreover, several monkeys clung to Ning Jinli's and Xiao Qidi's thighs, shouting anxiously while gesturing toward the direction the white-eyebrowed old monkey had gone.

The two looked at each other.

Ning Jinli tried asking, "Could it be that you mean it's in danger?"

The monkeys squealed loudly and nodded vigorously, almost like humans.

Xiao Qidi also immediately followed up, "What danger?"

The monkeys scratched their heads, thought seriously, then exchanged some communication, after which they scattered to clear a space, leaving one large and one small monkey.

The smaller monkey hunched its back and bent over, making a hunchbacked posture, tapped twice above its eye sockets, then walked in a circle with an eight‑shaped gait.

"You represent the white-eyebrowed old monkey, right?" Ning Jinli asked.

The smaller monkey nodded repeatedly.

Next, the somewhat larger monkey tried to stand straight and imitated human walking.

"This one represents a person," Xiao Qidi said.

After a few steps, the larger monkey began to limp.

Xiao Qidi let out an "oh" and said, "Or rather, a person with a lame leg."

Immediately, the large monkey walked up to the small monkey with a limp, standing upright, while the small monkey shrank its neck, showing a posture of submission and fear.

The large monkey picked up a branch from the ground and whipped the small monkey's body.

Of course, it was merely pretending to strike hard.

The small monkey also cooperated by letting out a whimper of pain.

Then, the large monkey, mimicking a person, took a vine, bound the small monkey's hands, and flung the other end of the vine onto a branch.

The small monkey continued to cooperate, leaping high and hanging its hands from the branch.

The demonstration here is rather crude, but the two monkeys did their best, after all they couldn't possibly replicate overly complex movements.

But Ning Jinli and Xiao Qidi both understood: this meant the white-eyebrowed old monkey would be bound with a rope and hoisted up by a lame‑legged person.

The large monkey continued to brandish the branch as if whipping.

The small monkey, after being struck, fell to the ground and assumed a pitiful, near‑death crawling posture.

"This imitation of being beaten is truly lifelike," Xiao Qidi couldn't help but praise.

Ning Jinli furrowed her brows, "The reason they can mimic it so well is undoubtedly because…… they often get beaten."

Xiao Qidi said solemnly, "That seems right; thus these monkeys are likely trained by that lame‑legged person, and that person must be a member of the local water‑bandit gang."

Based on the monkeys' performance and demonstration, the two quickly inferred some clues.

As for the white-eyebrow monkey leaving the troop and going back alone, it must be to prevent the other monkeys from also suffering beatings and abuse.

What a sentimental and righteous leader of the monkey troop.

Who knows how many people in the world cannot compare to it.

Xiao Qidi couldn't help but look at it with new respect.

"Qidi, let's go rescue the old monkey!" Ning Jinli decided without a moment's thought.

Xiao Qidi nodded in agreement without hesitation.

The two were about to head straight in the direction the white-eyebrowed old monkey had left, following its traces to search, when immediately a monkey grabbed their cuffs and pointed to the ground.

The two stopped.

The monkey troop immediately sprang into action, fetching branches and scraping out a series of crooked marks on the ground.

Soon, with the cooperation of over a dozen monkeys, a rather rough map appeared before Ning Jinli and Xiao Qidi's eyes.

The two examined it carefully and were surprised to find that it covered a broader area than the range surveyed by the Special Operations Team using drones over the past few days.

Moreover, some places have terrain too complex to be surveyed temporarily, yet the monkeys drew the hidden passages concealed within them.

"Hiss..." Ning Jinli sucked in a breath of cold air, "Your intelligence keeps refreshing my cognition; compared to humans, you're probably just short of being able to speak human language."

"Jinli, look, this is where we are," Xiao Qidi pointed to the map's corner, where a crooked triangle was drawn; the surrounding situation closely resembled the map produced by the drone survey.

When the two's attention fell here,

A monkey immediately poked the triangle with a long branch, pointed at Ning Jinli and Xiao Qidi, then moved the branch, laboriously drawing a similarly crooked long line.

The long line zigzagged, bypassing many spots, even including hidden routes, and finally reached the two zig‑shaped lines at the top of the map.

Ning Jinli discovered that this exactly filled in a central area that had not yet been surveyed due to environmental constraints.

As it turned out, hidden within that impenetrable jungle was a river bend.

The monkeys poked the middle of the river bend with branches while hopping about and emitting urgent calls.

Ning Jinli snapped her fingers, "I get it! The white-eyebrowed old monkey going there proves that is your master's hiding place!"

Xiao Qidi added, "It also seems to be the stronghold of the water‑bandit gang."

"You wait here," Ning Jinli told the monkey troop, "don't run about randomly, and certainly don't cause damage; we promise to rescue the old monkey."

The monkeys all stood upright, bowing to her.

——

Dark night, fierce wind.

Quezi the Strategist, wrapped in a beast‑hide blanket, sat dozing on the edge of the bed.

A familiar creak of the floorboards woke him.

He yawned, turned up the oil lamp, got up and opened the window.

Cold wind poured in, making him shiver, "Freezing my ass off… hurry up and come in!"

As his words fell, White‑eyebrow Old Monkey leapt inside.

Quezi shut the window and began asking about the situation.

White‑eyebrow Old Monkey gestured wildly at him, and Quezi, watching, grew increasingly grim.

"What? You say that man and woman are both wonderful people, and you don't want to steal their treasure?"

"Squeak… squeak‑squeak…"

White‑eyebrow Old Monkey lowered his head.

Quezi's eyelid twitched, he bent slightly, and asked in a low voice, "Tell me, did you find the treasure?"

White‑eyebrow Old Monkey raised his forelimb and gestured again with a series of whines.

Quezi instantly flew into a rage.

"You got it and then gave it back to them? You bastard! You're asking to die!"

He shouted a curse, kicked White‑eyebrow Old Monkey away, then grabbed the whip lying on the nearby table.

White‑eyebrow Old Monkey hit the wall corner, his whole body twitching with pain, yet he crawled back, bowed low, returned to Quezi's side, and, whimpering softly, cautiously continued gesturing with his forelimb.