Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 173 - 118: Didn’t Expect Aman to Be So Awesome!

Chapter 173: Chapter 118: Didn’t Expect Aman to Be So Awesome!

According to the somewhat outdated Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, physiological needs are the most basic and strongest human desires, and among them, the most fundamental is eating.

Ah Man was born in a shitty era, didn’t get much education, never studied these theories, and that’s why her wicked plan utterly failed.

Ah Qian and Ah Yu weren’t much better off than when they’d just met Harano. Begging was their daily life, starving two meals out of three, green eyes from hunger, and today they’d been tied up for most of the day—their stomachs were flat as pancakes. The moment food was brought in, they pounced like wolves, totally ignoring Ah Man’s snark and ridicule from the side as if they were deaf, shoving as much as they could down their throats with all their might.

At this point, forget about Ah Man’s attempts to make noise—even if meteor showers were falling outside and corpses laying about in droves, they’d still have to eat their fill before giving a damn!

Ah Man cursed and ranted for ages but got absolutely nowhere. Watching how deliciously and voraciously they ate, she actually started feeling the pain—finally couldn’t hold back, went up and pinned Ah Qian down, forcibly digging a piece of fried chicken out of her mouth, scolding: "You two useless things, can’t you hear me talking?! Still eating, are you? Spit it out, now!"

Ah Qian couldn’t win against her, but didn’t bother arguing with her crap either. She just turned around, grabbed a bowl of soup, downed it in one go, let out a full-on burp, eyes vacant and muttering, "So damn good... If I drop dead right now, I’ll have no regrets."

After saying this, she licked her lips, giving the remaining food a long, lingering look with a kind of perpetually-hungry gaze modern people just can’t understand. She wanted more, but her body couldn’t handle it, so she had no choice but to turn her head and hesitantly ask Ah Man: "Is this what you guys eat all the time?"

Just in terms of quality, this was already better than what most big local clans usually got. Add taste into it, and unless you’re one of those public-frugality-roleplaying celebrities, even an average Daimyo couldn’t easily get hold of chow this good.

Seeing that look on her face, Ah Man finally felt like she’d scored. She put on a modest air and said, "It’s not like we eat this well every meal. Usually, it’s just in the evenings we get something good. During the day, everyone’s too busy, it’s just some rice balls to get by. After all, now that I’m high up the ranks, gotta set an example for the folks downstairs—can’t be too extravagant."

"Being able to have rice balls every day? That’s pretty damn good already..."

"Every bit of this was fought for with my life." Ah Man spoke lightly, and slowly began telling these two "old friends" how she’d accidentally met Harano by chance, then trekked more than four hours, hacked over forty river bandits to death in a single night to save him, and how she’d worked her ass off ever since—advising, assisting him, running his affairs, helping him become the most profitable Lord in Owari.

She then recounted in detail the night battle at Takeshige Manor—how she’d beaten back more than forty enemy assaults like a goddamn tide, pulled off schemes to kill the enemy’s Grand General and flip the battle, and finally, how she’d carried Harano all the way through four thousand enemy troops, soaked in blood, fought her way out alive, and saved his life once again.

Bottom line: the Nozawa family could only have today thanks to her; her credit ranked first, top-tier treatment was her rightful due, and nobody could say a damn word otherwise.

She finished her story, and instantly felt a big wave of pure satisfaction rocket up her spine and straight out her skull—so damn comfy—she’d been itching to brag like this for ages and just hadn’t gotten the chance. Finally popped off today, and damn, that wasn’t easy either.

Ah Qian had already turned into a gape-mouthed little frog; the shock was real. She couldn’t believe so much had gone down in just a year or so, and she never imagined Ah Man could end up this badass—fighting through enemy lines, taking down generals, grabbing banners, and rising to be a pillar and senior minister in a new upstart clan—an absolute top dog.

After Ah Yu tugged her sleeve and whispered a few words in her ear, she finally snapped out of it and instantly raged: "Bullshit! Three or four river bandits could hack you to bits, and you expect me to believe you took down forty by yourself? Yeah, right!"

Ah Man was in a great mood, so she didn’t stoop to her level. She just tilted her head back, shot her a "I’m the shit and you’re not" look through her nostrils, and said, totally unconcerned: "You two frogs in a well... Yeah, you don’t even know what that means, right? So there’s no way to explain what ’three days apart, you gotta see me with new eyes’ actually is. You two little brats don’t know jack."

Truth is, Ah Qian really didn’t get it. She was an illiterate, just like Ah Qing had been. But tears were starting to well up in her eyes again—damn heavens sure are unfair. Why the hell does this shameless old hag Ah Man get so lucky? Just picks up a rich dude by pure chance and ends up living the freaking good life.

Ah Man making it big? That stings worse than death.

Ah Man saw the look on her face and felt even better. Done savoring it, the value of these two "old friends" suddenly dropped to about zero. Her dog face switched up quick: "Alright, enough catching up, let’s get down to business! What are you two doing here anyway? Don’t tell me you got hired by the Saito family again to stir shit up? If you really are here to make trouble, don’t blame me for forgetting old times—I’ll tie you to rocks and toss you in the sea!"

Catching up my ass, it’s all just you running your mouth anyway...

Ah Qian cursed Ah Man like mad in her heart, but after hesitating a bit, didn’t bother hiding things. She said straight up, "Yeah, this time it was the Saito family who paid us to come, but it’s got nothing to do with you lot. Just asked us to wander around and get a feel for how things are in Owari. The old man also told us to try finding you guys... We searched last year but didn’t run into you, figured you... uh, anyway, the old man had us look again this time, so we poked around while we were here."