He changed Tiwat

—But Mr. Al's research on Hilichurls is just as unreliable as his daughter's.

Even Han Fulai could tell that these were definitely not poems praising the north wind, since he had heard the water Hilichurl shaman chant these spells in the game. In fact, the "lata movo dada" that Ella just chanted was a "word of power" of the water Hilichurl shaman, which roughly means "Supreme Water Elemental".

But when he gave Lisa a protesting look, she ignored him...

Han Fulai shook his head and continued with Ouyang Xiu's "Yulouchun":

“Lovers are born with sentimental feeling heart;

Human life is inherently filled with passionate love.

Nor moon nor wind has taken in their grief a part.

This sorrow has nothing to do with the wind or the moon.

...The two of them chatted back and forth, using famous lines of poetry from ancient and modern times, both Chinese and foreign, and Qiuqiu language poetry that they had completely misunderstood. They went on for more than thirty rounds, and in the end, Han Fulai's "ammunition depot" won slightly.

The Hilichurls only have about a hundred words, and it's already quite difficult to find more than thirty short phrases related to "movo," but Han Fulai's poetry reserves are far from exhausted.

Seeing that simply quoting ancient Chuqiu poetry and literature was not enough to suppress her opponent, Ella steeled her heart and decided to use her "ultimate move".

Chapter 280: Qiuqiu Language Version of "Qiuqiu Ballad" [4k5]

The obscure subject of "Hylocereus" is formally known as "the rules of spoken language application in Hilichurls," and in Mondstadt, it has always been studied by only the Musk family, who are considered "eccentrics."

Or rather, only the Musk family would consider the sounds of the Hilichurls as a "language," and even treat the Hilichurls as a subject of study in "folklore."

For ordinary people who view Hilichurls as monsters, what use is there in studying their language? Are they supposed to befriend those strange and ugly Hilichurls? Will they be able to find a job after learning it? Will they be able to make a lot of money?

Back then, Jacob Musk, the "Poet Laureate of Hilichurls," risked his life by infiltrating the Hilichurls' tribe and wandering the wilderness with them. He was constantly threatened with being captured and sacrificed to the gods, or having his buttocks used as percussion instruments... This is how the book "Selected Poems of Hilichurls" came about.

But his research results were buried in old books, just like the book "The Book of Mountains and Seas" written by his ancestor.

Centuries have passed, and most of the audience members present today have never even heard of the title "Poet Laureate of Qiuqiu Language," let alone know how much effort he put into collecting those materials.

Like Ella's great-grandfather, the previous generation's Ella Musk, who, in order to write a biography of the Hilichurls, went to study how the Rocket Hilichurls learned to use crossbows and fire, but was shot by a Hilichurl's rocket and became disabled.

Ella's father, Al Musk of this generation, traveled to every inch of Mondstadt to write his book, "An Investigation of the Human Customs of the Land of Wind," and even spent several months in the dangerous Dragonspine Mountains to study the distribution of Ice Shield Hilichurl thugs, which led to the publication of the "Thug Index." However, his wife left him because she could no longer tolerate a husband who was rarely home.

Ella and her sister were raised by their grandmother from a young age, spending far more time doing research at the library than with their parents—in fact, Ella was probably closer to the librarian Lisa than to her father.

Ella's title of "Professor of Hilichurl" has always been an exclusive title passed down from father to son in the Musk family.

The previous "Hicrull Language Professor" was her grandmother, and the only graduate student her grandmother recruited was her granddaughter, Ella. After her grandmother passed away, Ella automatically inherited her grandmother's title and research lab, becoming the current "Hicrull Language Professor" of Mondstadt School, Ella Musk.

Ella may not be particularly gifted in linguistics, but the Musk bloodline within her is genuine, and like all Musks, she aspires to carry on and complete her father's research.

However, her childlike body posed a great constraint on her—she couldn't conduct field research like her parents.

Learning a language requires a language environment, and academic research on Hilichurls is severely lacking in this environment, since there's practically no context for Hilichurl usage in Mondstadt. Therefore, the Musk family researchers have largely guessed the meanings of many Hilichurl words.

If we could communicate face-to-face with the Hilichurls, many linguistic mysteries could be easily solved. The Musk family has always relied on field research as their most fundamental research method.

However, Ella lacks the physical strength necessary for long-term field research, and more seriously, she lacks the ability to protect herself. With her small arms and legs, if she were to approach a Hilichurl and something happened, she wouldn't even be able to escape...

She also wanted to ask like-minded people for help, but unfortunately there were very few people interested in Hilichurls. Apart from those who approached her because they were interested in her special physique, apart from the librarian Miss Lisa and her sister Edith, the only person she could talk to was the alchemist Miss Sugar, whom she met by chance in the library.

However, her research interests differed from Miss Sugar's. She studied living Hilichurls, while Miss Sugar was more interested in Hilichurl bones...

To continue her Hilichurl research, she needs to hire adventurers to help her collect data and samples.

Hiring adventurers requires funds.

Unfortunately, while the Musk family is an academic family, they are a very poor one. Their savings seem to have been poured into academic research and fieldwork without end. Ella, on the other hand, is actually quite short of funding.

To date, apart from a blonde adventurer who asked for an exceptionally low price and her white companion, no other adventurer has taken Ella's job—nor has any adventurer been willing to go to a Hilichurl with a tattered piece of paper covered in incomprehensible words to "talk to" her.

She had considered recruiting several graduate students to form a research team, but there was no job opportunity after studying "the rules of spoken language application in the chuchic language".

Naturally, this professor couldn't recruit any graduate students.

However, if they can't recruit students, the school won't provide funding; without funding, there's no money to hire adventurers; and without money to hire adventurers, the research can't continue...

Seeing her research hit a bottleneck, Ella was extremely worried and spent her time in the library looking gloomy. And just when she was feeling down, she happened to run into the most annoying creatures in the library: couples.

On the eve of the "Badminton Festival" celebration, Mondstadt is filled with couples, and some couples always find a unique way to date: they go to the library.

Those couples hid in the corners of the bookshelves, thinking no one could see them, and talked about love without restraint: some pretended to be discussing academic matters but ended up holding the books upside down, some held a book of love poems and read it endlessly, and some tore open the book and hid roses inside to make their girlfriends happy... And most importantly, they were all very noisy.

Unable to stand it any longer, Ella had a big argument with them, which attracted the attention of the librarian, Miss Lisa.

After disciplining (Blitz) the couples, Lisa asked Ella why she was in such a bad mood, so Ella confided her troubles to this wise and understanding older sister.

Lisa's suggestion to her was to participate in this "Poetry Recitation" competition.

Jacob Musk published "Selected Poems in Hulchul" after winning the "Poetry Reading" competition, under the title of "Hulchul Laureate Poet." Although the book didn't sell very well, it was still considered an academic work, and Mr. Musk subsequently obtained a professorship and a research lab at the university.

If Ella can make a name for herself at this conference, showcase her research on Hilichurls, and spark public interest in the language, then she won't have to worry about funding anymore, right?

The number of Hilichurl poems collected by predecessors is limited, and Ella has already used them all, but Han Fulai is unusually strong, managing to fight her to this point with original poems.

To defeat Han Fulai, the only option is to counter originality with originality, since citations are finite, while originality is infinite.

So Ella decided to use her secret "secret weapon"—her unpublished work on Hilichurl language research—"A Collection of Hilichurl Poems".

This collection of Hilichurl poems is her first research achievement after inheriting the name "Ella" and becoming a professor. It contains the hard work of many people: the acknowledgments mainly include the predecessors of the Musk family, as well as the blonde adventurer Luminous who was hired to help her communicate with the Hilichurls, and her white companion.

The collection is divided into three parts: “Friendly Recitation Poems”, “Exhilarating Narrative Poems”, and “Beautiful Lyric Poems”.

Miss Lisa gave her such a great opportunity to showcase her research findings, so of course she had to present them to the public in a good way.

Ella composed herself and began to recite one of her original "friendly poems" with great feeling:

“Olah! Yoyo movo olah!”

Yoyo mosi mita!

Nye,nye mosi mita,

Yeye mosi gusha!

Mosi gusha, mosi tiga,

Yeye kucha kucha!

This poem is the one she is most satisfied with in her collection.

She once asked Ying to help her find a Hilichurl tribe with an Anemo Shaman to recite this poem. According to Ying's feedback, the Hilichurl were extremely excited after hearing the poem, and even gave Ying their sticks as gifts, which shows that the Hilichurl were very happy to hear it.

The host, Wendy, lowered her head and covered her face.

Lisa, sitting on the judges' panel, covered her mouth and laughed.

Han Fulai finally couldn't help but protest: "Wait a minute, I have a problem with that. Miss Ella's recitation just now was definitely not a hymn to the wind!"

He didn't understand the other words, but he really understood the words "Olah", "mosi mita" and "mosi gusha" because these were Hilichurl words that were specifically mentioned at the Genshin Impact voice actor tea party, and he had just happened to have watched that episode.

Of these three words, "Olah" is the "hello" that Hilichurls use to greet each other, while the other two words literally translate to "eating meat" and "eating grass," respectively, expressing the emotions of "happy" and "sad."

In addition, after listening to Ella recite dozens of "poems" just now, he was already able to guess the meaning of many of the frequently repeated words.

If Han Fulai were to translate Ella's recitation of this "poem of friendship," it would be something like this:

Hello, you've arrived!

"Please have some meat."

"No, you are not allowed to eat meat."

"You are only allowed to eat grass!"

"Eat grass, eat grass, and take this stick!"

He guessed that the last phrase, "Yeye kucha kucha," meant "You are all so sickly," because he had also heard the word "kucha" in someone's song.

The phrase "Yeye kucha kucha," combined with Ella's childish appearance, could easily be translated as "miscellaneous fish, miscellaneous fish"... What kind of friendly recitation is this? It's clearly a direct taunt!

Upon hearing Han Fulai's question, Ella immediately adopted a "professor" demeanor: "Are you questioning my academic standards?"

Since Musk's family is the only ones in Mondstadt researching Hilichurls, Ira Musk is the only "Hichurl language authority" there.

Of course, she knew her research on Hilichurl was far from complete, but she couldn't admit defeat now. What would happen to her funding if she gave up here?

Han Fulai turned to the judges' panel, relayed his translation to them, and asked them to make their judgment.

This is equivalent to a poem having two vastly different translations: one a "friendly recitation poem," the other a "direct and sarcastic poem." If Han Fulai's translation is chosen, Ella would be eliminated on the spot.

Barbara and Victoria, who knew nothing about the Hilichurl language, naturally turned their attention to Lisa. Lisa said noncommittally, "Mr. Han's doubts are not without merit. There are indeed many instances of polysemy in the Hilichurl language, and the academic community has not yet reached a conclusion on this matter."

“But…” Lisa changed the subject, “The premise for raising questions is that Mr. Han, you also understand Qiuqiu language. Mr. Han, can you guarantee that your questions are valid?”

As the saying goes, "No investigation, no right to speak," and to shout "Dissent Ali" in court, you need to have evidence in hand.

Faced with Lisa's questioning, Han Fulai's answer was—

"Of course I understand Hilichurl. Not only do I understand it, but I can also sing a Hilichurl poem on the spot to prove it."

These words shocked the entire audience once again.

—How does this person even understand Hilichurl? Is there anything he can't do?

Bathed in the astonished gazes of the entire audience, Han Fulai cleared his throat and began to sing a ballad in the Qiuqiu language in a deep voice:

“Unu ya kucha, Du ya movo;

Big Qiuqiu is sick, so Second Qiuqiu goes to check on him;

Du unu ya gusha, Dudu ya celi;

Three hills gather herbs, four hills decoct them;

Mani ya nini, Mani unu ya todo ye;

When the fifth hill chief died, the sixth hill chief carried him away;

Mani du ya sada movo, Ya upa sada.

Dig pits in seven mounds, bury them in eight mounds.

Sama boya celi lata, Nini yaya lata dada.

A dark moon, cold corpses.

Nini beru nini gusha, Celi upa movo upa.

The cries of sorrow cannot bring back the sun; it rises again.

Mani dudu unu ya gusha.

Jiuqiuqiu started crying on the grass.

Yaya beru dala gusha?

They asked him why he was crying.

'Yaya beru mani ya nye movo eleka. '

'Wu Qiuqiu went and never returned.'

—This is Hu Tao's representative work, "The Ballad of Qiuqiu".

A few months ago, at their "Alleyway School" poetry gathering, Han Fulai, in an effort to help Guoba regain his senses, mentioned asking Yun Jin to write a play about the Kitchen God. When Hu Tao heard he was going to see Yun Jin, she also told him an interesting story about Yun Jin:

"Yun Jin is very elegant in formal settings, but she's very approachable in private! I made a bet with her last time; the loser had to sing the lyrics written by the other person in their own preferred singing style. Oh my, you really should listen to the Qiuqiu language version of the Qiuqiu ballad!"

Then Hu Tao proudly demonstrated the "Qiuqiu Language Version of Qiuqiu Ballad" to him.

Han Fulai was deeply impressed by this catchy song. Although he wasn't sure if Hu Tao's version of Qiuqiu language was correct, Hu Tangzhu not only came from a family with a long history of learning, but she was also the one who controlled the "boundaries." She was knowledgeable in both Yin and Yang, and knew all sorts of strange and wonderful things, so it was quite reasonable for her to know some Qiuqiu language!

Besides, if Ella can make things up, why can't our Master Hu? Master Hu's stories are clearly better!

After he finished singing "The Ballad of Qiuqiu," Ella was stunned on the spot.

Before Han came, he had heard Ella recite so many sentences in the Hilichurl language, and had already mastered the basic pronunciation rules of the Hilichurl language. Combining his memory with singing the song, it was not difficult for him.

But what was not difficult for him was astonishing to others—at least Ella was deeply shocked.

Putting aside the ambiguity in understanding some words, Ella's research on Hilichurls is quite advanced; at least she can understand most of the words in this long poem. And the quality of this long poem alone already surpasses her "Hichurl Poetry Prototypes," at least she couldn't write such a long and rhythmic Hilichurl poem.

Also... this person actually sings quite well.

Hilichurls generally have hoarse voices and their vocalizations are mostly shouts, so they rarely write poetry that sounds so deep and melancholic.

As a scholar studying Hilichurls, this was the first time Ella had truly experienced the charm of Hilichurl poetry.

Although she was unwilling to admit it, Ella had already realized in her heart that she had truly been defeated by her opponent.

Lisa smiled and held up the scoreboard in her hand, which had a big "○" on it.