Tiye stuck his head out through the small wooden window.
At that moment, he was still bustling around inside the house, busy preparing dinner.
Originally, Si Bai had planned to cook tonight as a reward for Tiye, but unexpectedly, Tiye looked so energetic that he did not seem tired at all.
Tiye simply would not give Si Bai a chance to enter the kitchen.
Si Bai had tried to help several times as he watched Tiye running back and forth, but in the end, he was completely defeated by Tiye’s diligence.
There was not even the slightest opportunity for him to squeeze in and assist.
In truth, Si Bai was not particularly confident in his own cooking skills anyway.
Tiye, on the other hand, clearly looked like someone who had been cooking since childhood.
His food smelled incredible.
Since Tiye obviously had everything under control, Si Bai gave up trying to compete for the stove.
By the time Si Bai had finished eating two fruits, Tiye had already finished preparing the meal.
There was a large platter of roasted chicken, its golden color rich and enticing.
Fresh green herbs were sprinkled over the top, and the aroma that rose from it seemed to awaken the most primitive hunger hidden in one’s heart.
There was also a light steamed soup.
Various vegetables that Si Bai could not identify floated within the clear broth alongside chopped fruit.
The ingredients drifted gently up and down in the bowl.
The flavors looked light and refreshing, perfect for quenching thirst.
In total, Tiye prepared five or six different dishes.
The taste was absolutely exceptional.
After both Si Bai and Tiye had eaten their fill, they went to sleep.
They slept together inside the large wooden house.
One on the left.
One on the right.
Si Bai fell asleep quickly.
At first, he had been sleeping peacefully by himself.
Then, at some point, he felt something soft and fluffy surrounding him.
The fur was incredibly thick.
Warm and stuffy air pressed in from all directions, bringing with it a faint sense of suffocation and discomfort.
Si Bai was eventually awakened by the heat.
His face was flushed red.
Sweat poured down his body.
It was already the middle of a hot summer, yet a “thick-furred tiger” had wrapped him in a tight embrace without leaving even the smallest gap for air to pass through.
His clothes were damp with sweat.
The discomfort was unbearable.
“Tiye?”
He tried to wake him up.
Unfortunately, Tiye was sleeping like the dead.
Si Bai was so overheated that he could not stand it any longer.
He pushed hard against the heavy weight lying on top of him.
The problem was that the other party was a giant tiger measuring five or six meters long and weighing several hundred kilograms at the very least.
After much effort, Si Bai finally managed to push him away a little.
Yet almost immediately, the tiger reacted instinctively.
He rubbed and nuzzled against Si Bai’s chest again while letting out a series of indistinct purring sounds from deep within his throat.
He sounded extremely comfortable.
As a result, Si Bai ended up being hugged even more tightly than before.
“…”
The stars outside were sparse in the middle of the night.
Only two illumination crystals provided faint light within the room.
By that dim glow, Si Bai could vaguely make out the sleeping face of the large orange tiger.
Even though Tiye had transformed into his tiger form, the exhaustion that emerged naturally when his body was completely relaxed could not be concealed.
It was the most honest reflection of his physical condition.
No amount of disguise could hide it.
After days of continuous hunting, Tiye must have been extremely tired.
A person’s appearance could be carefully maintained.
Their energy and confidence could be deliberately displayed.
But the exhaustion accumulated through countless days of travel and hunting could never truly be hidden.
Thinking about how this silly tiger had deliberately forced himself to stay energetic in front of him, acting cute, trying to please him, rushing to do all the cooking, and refusing to let him do even the slightest bit of work.
Si Bai’s heart ultimately softened.
“Forget it.
Get some proper rest.”
Subconsciously, Si Bai reached out and rubbed his head.
Then he closed his eyes again, unable to bear disturbing his sleep.
Perhaps because it was too hot and stuffy, Si Bai slept very poorly that night.
He seemed to have a dream.
A dream that was far from pleasant.
He woke up with a start in the middle of the night once again.
Yet the people and events from the dream had already faded away.
Only his startled pupils remained tightly contracted, his eyelashes trembling slightly as though he had been frightened by something terrible.
Si Bai’s clothes were soaked through again.
This time, however, it was entirely cold sweat from shock.
Goosebumps covered his body.
Only a vague impression remained.
In the dream, there seemed to be a faint crying voice constantly calling out to him.
It was distant and enchanting, like the bewitching song of a mermaid from a fairy tale.
The voice pulled the lingering fragments of consciousness deeper and deeper into a spiraling dreamscape, sinking endlessly downward.
For one brief moment, Si Bai felt as though he was about to drown within that strange dream.
As though he would never wake up again.
Even after waking, a voice continued to linger in his mind.
No matter what he did, he could not drive it away.
It seemed glued to his consciousness.
The voice was extraordinarily beautiful.
Ethereal and heavenly.
The unfamiliar voice restrained soft sobs, the faint sounds of weeping seeming to come from a distant horizon.
It sounded like a desperate plea for help.
The quiet crying stirred pity in anyone who heard it.
Save me…
I don’t want to die…
“…”
Whose voice was that?
Si Bai slept terribly that night.
After waking from the dream, he never dared fall asleep again.