“Brother Mo Ling, are you there?”
The last time Mo Ling had been driven away by You Nian, he’d left without saying a word. It had been a little frightening.
Li Yaoyao hadn’t dared to follow him and risk provoking him.
But she still hadn’t given up. Every few days, she would wander around near Mo Ling’s cave.
She truly wanted to win over the Black Tiger Tribe’s only five-mark beastman.
With Mo Ling on her side, who in the Black Tiger Tribe would dare disobey her, Li Yaoyao?
Besides, Mo Ling didn’t have a female by his side now, and he hadn’t driven her away. Didn’t that mean he was giving her a chance?
What’s more, she now had a very important piece of information—enough to make Mo Ling give up on You Nian for good.
Mo Ling was feeling rather vexed.
He was also barely responsive to Li Yaoyao’s presence.
But Li Yaoyao was the chief’s daughter, after all. He had no reason to lose his temper with her or give her the cold shoulder for no reason.
In Li Yaoyao’s eyes, however, Mo Ling’s tolerance meant something else entirely.
“My mate hunted a wild ox today. Everyone’s eating beef together. Would you like to join us?”
“No. I don’t eat beef.”
Mo Ling rejected her without a moment’s thought.
It wasn’t as if he couldn’t hunt for himself. Why should he go eat beef caught by Li Yaoyao’s mate?
Li Yaoyao suddenly put on a troubled expression and let out a heavy sigh.
“Brother Mo Ling, have you still not forgotten that You Nian?”
Mo Ling’s heart jolted. He had to admit that Li Yaoyao had hit the mark.
But his pride as a male beast wouldn’t let him admit that he was making a fool of himself by pining for the female who had deceived him.
Mo Ling had seen You Nian and that little bastard from a distance several times.
He’d been waiting for her to be unable to get by and come crawling back to him.
But she seemed to have learned how to hunt. She’d caught plenty of fish and wouldn’t be short of food anytime soon.
The little bastard was being fed well, too. Not only was he still alive, he seemed to have awakened an ability.
Mo Ling had neither a reason nor an opportunity to approach You Nian.
Li Yaoyao saw his expression shift and was certain she’d guessed right.
She hurried closer, looking as if she were indignant on Mo Ling’s behalf.
“Brother Mo Ling, you’ve been pining for that shameless female, but what about her?”
“She’s living it up in the forest with that beastly adulterer. How could she possibly still remember you?”
“What did you say?!”
Mo Ling’s pupils contracted. As though he’d been struck by a tremendous blow, he sprang to his feet, a terrifying, violent aura erupting around him.
The force of it made Li Yaoyao’s heart pound with fear. She forced herself to calm down, still wearing an expression of outrage on Mo Ling’s behalf.
“She… She is living with a male now.”
“And the beastfolk in the tribe have seen him from a distance. He’s dressed all in white, and he has white hair…”
Mo Ling could barely contain his fury.
White hair, dressed all in white… His fur was white, and that little bastard’s was white, too!
It all fit. Every last bit of it!
He was the beastly adulterer who’d been sleeping with You Nian!
Mo Ling could no longer bear the pain and anger he’d kept bottled up for so long.
The evidence was overwhelming. You Nian could no longer make up lies and keep deceiving him!
He was going to find that damned adulterer and demand justice!
…
Over the past few days, You Nian had successfully fired her first batch of red bricks. Using them, she’d built a kiln and fired her first batch of ceramic pieces.
“Look at this bowl and this jar. They turned out pretty well, didn’t they?”
Beaming, You Nian held the finished pieces up to Baixi, eager to show off her handiwork.
The kiln was crudely built and nowhere near as precise as a modern one, so the heat sometimes spread unevenly.
Besides, You Nian wasn’t a ceramicist. She only knew the basic theory.
The success rate of her first batch was low. She’d fired more than ten pieces, but only three had come out usable.
Still, everything was hard at the beginning. The fact that she’d managed to make any at all meant the approach could work.
Baixi took the ceramic pieces from You Nian.
His long, slender fingertips tapped them lightly. They felt completely different from mud. When he leaned in to smell them, the earthy odor was gone, too.
So this was why Niannian had been playing with mud all this time: she’d been trying to make things like these.
“My Niannian is so clever. But what are these for?”
You Nian was momentarily at a loss for words. She hadn’t expected him to ask.
Did snakes usually drink by stretching their necks out and drinking straight from the lake?
Come to think of it, that really might be what they did.
“You use them to hold water. From now on, we’ll boil our drinking water over a fire, pour it into this jar, and let it cool before we drink it.”
After You Nian explained, Baixi was even more confused.
“Why? Do we have to boil water over a fire before we can drink it?”
“You Nian: Because drinking it like that will make you sick.”
Baixi didn’t seem convinced. He’d drunk water that way all his life and never gotten sick.
Seeing that he wasn’t taking her seriously, You Nian brought out her ultimate weapon.
She said sternly, “If you keep drinking untreated water, I won’t let you kiss me anymore.”
“Then I think drinking boiled water from a jar is better. I’ll do what Niannian says.”
Baixi clearly wasn’t about to put up with that. His expression changed in an instant.
Only then did You Nian relax. She asked, “How do beastfolk usually drink water around here?”
Drawing on his few memories of interacting with other beastfolk, Baixi thought for a moment.
“They use containers made from segmented wood, leaves, or they drink straight from the water.”
You Nian quickly figured out what he meant by “segmented wood”: probably something like bamboo.
In that case, her pottery had plenty of potential. It could also be used to store things.
She’d keep the pieces she’d just made for herself. Once she’d built up a stock, she could consider selling some to other beastfolk.
As You Nian planned her business venture, Baixi suddenly pressed himself against her, like a clingy snake.
No—he was a clingy snake! You Nian sighed helplessly.
“Baixi, why are you so clingy?”
Baixi answered matter-of-factly, “Snakes are clingy!”
You Nian thought it over. Well, he wasn’t wrong.
Baixi’s long, slender fingers traced the pulse in You Nian’s neck and slid downward, his touch both dangerous and inviting.
His fingers came to rest on a snake-shaped mark below her neck, just above her collarbone.
It was the mate-bond mark he shared with You Nian.
A mark left on a female’s neck could make her feel as though the male represented control or even suffocation to her.
Baixi sighed. “I suppose I was too hasty back then. If I’d taken my time getting to know you, would I have appeared over your heart instead?”
You Nian was confused by that.
Was there some significance to where a Beast Mark appeared? At the time, she’d only felt her neck grow inexplicably hot and thought Baixi had secretly bitten her.
“If you can appear on my body, what about me?”
You Nian suddenly felt a little put out. Why was it that when a female and a male got together, each had to bear the other’s mark?
It was like a slave branded by her master.
Baixi untied the white gauze around himself, took You Nian’s hand, and guided it beneath his hide, pressing it against the soft, springy muscle over his left chest.
“You’re on my heart.”
You Nian lifted the edge of the white gauze and, sure enough, saw a black mark in the shape of a tigress beneath her palm, on Baixi’s firm, full chest.
Well, it turned out things were equal between males and females after all. In that case, never mind.
Just as Baixi and You Nian were lost in each other, a somewhat familiar, furious voice suddenly rang out from beyond the cave entrance.
“You Nian, get out here! You lying female! How much longer are you going to deceive me?”
Mo Ling stood at the cave entrance with a livid face, Li Yaoyao beside him. He was ready to settle the score with You Nian once and for all!