He whipped his head around. "Get your Beast Skin Skirt on first. I’ll go get you some hot water."
Watching Xin Feng’s hasty retreat, Bai Wanwan looked down at herself.
The coarse linen clothes were properly on her body, but the sleeves were very loose. When she had raised her arms, the sleeves had fallen all the way down.
’He’s so easy to tease... but I like it.’
She quickly wrapped the Beast Skin Skirt around herself, but it was still chilly.
Bai Wanwan shivered as she got off the bed.
"System, I’ll get a reward after I give birth to the cubs, right?"
"Yes, Host."
"Don’t you lie to me! If you try to trick me, I’ll definitely find a way to make your life miserable too."
"You’ve got it all wrong... Host, these are the rules set by the system. I wouldn’t lie to you. I’m counting on you to have more cubs with powerful Beastmen to earn enough Points."
While fastening the belt on her Beast Skin Skirt, Bai Wanwan asked, "What do you need Points for?"
"The Points are my performance metric. This world has many parallel universes with many systems like me, and we all have to earn Points through our hosts. The better my performance, the more likely I am to get a chance to upgrade and go to bigger worlds to earn more Points."
’It talked for a long time but didn’t say anything useful. It’s a system—it doesn’t have a life, and it doesn’t seek material pleasures. What does it need Points for?’
"Mm, and then what? What will you do after you’ve earned more Points?"
This question silenced the system.
"Host, the system has encountered a bug and needs to restart. I’m going offline now."
"Hey... Don’t play dead."
The mechanical voice completely disappeared.
’Whatever... Given my current situation, how much worse could things get?’
’I’ll just wait until this litter of cubs is born and see what happens.’
In the time she spent talking with the system, Xin Feng had already heated the water and brought it in for her.
"Were you just talking?"
"You heard wrong," she said, quickly changing the subject. "Yesterday, I saw several Traveling Merchants wearing fine linen. Are the outside tribes able to weave fine linen now?"
"It was probably brought from the Super Tribes. The other large tribes only have coarse linen..."
Xin Feng thought of the little female’s arms he had seen that morning—slender and soft, probably even softer and more delicate than fine linen.
’She must be really uncomfortable with coarse linen against her skin, right?’
"I’ll go trade with the Traveling Merchants later..."
"Wait... I was just asking. With our current resources, we can’t afford fine linen. I was just curious."
The Cat Clan Tribe traded for all its coarse linen from Traveling Merchants; they couldn’t afford fine linen either.
Bai Wanwan actually did find the coarse linen on her body too abrasive against her skin. It wasn’t comfortable to sleep in at all.
"It’s alright. I still have some valuable beast hides and salt bricks. I can trade them for fine linen."
Judging by his tone, a single fine linen garment required a lot of resources to trade for.
"Stop right there. Get that idea out of your head right now. Our resources are limited. If you trade them all away, what will we do?"
’There will be time for fine linen clothes later, but right now, we can’t go hungry. We need to eat well and be happy.’
"You’re a Holy Female. You’re supposed to enjoy the very best of everything. Those things are just sitting there, useless..."
Bai Wanwan reached out and covered his mouth.
’If I had known, I never would have brought this up.’
She had just been purely curious.
"I’ll definitely be able to wear fine linen in the future, maybe even better clothes. But for now, we have to save what we can. The most important thing is for you to recover first. Your Talent is so strong. Once you’ve recovered, do you think I’d still be worried you couldn’t get me some fine linen?"
Xin Feng’s hands, hanging by his sides, clenched into fists. Before, when Wanwan had said she would help him recover his Talent, he had treated it as a last-ditch effort, clinging to a sliver of hope.
But now he was very worried. ’What if I can’t recover?’
’Wanwan is a Holy Female. If her identity gets out, the most powerful Beastmen on the Beast World Continent will surely fight over her.’
’If I’m not strong enough, I won’t be able to help Wanwan drive away the males she doesn’t like.’
"Really, you have to believe me. Once I give birth to the cubs, things will definitely get better and better for us. You are not allowed to go behind my back and trade our things. Do you hear me?"
Her eyes were fixed on him. She wouldn’t feel at ease until she got an answer.
After all, they only had so few salt bricks. If Xin Feng was stubborn enough to trade them all for fine linen clothes, she would cry her eyes out.
Seeing that Xin Feng was clearly still considering it, Bai Wanwan had to up the ante.
"You’re not going to listen, are you? Well, let me make this clear. If you trade our things for it, I won’t wear it even if you bring it back. And I mean what I say."
After speaking, she huffed and turned away to wash up.
Seeing that she was ignoring him, Xin Feng finally relented with a sigh. "Alright, I won’t trade for it. When I recover my Talent, I’ll get you fine linen to wear."
Only then did Bai Wanwan smile. "Okay. I’ll be waiting."
After Bai Wanwan finished washing up, Xin Feng had already sliced the meat and was grilling it on a stone slab.
The SIZZLING sound of the oil once again made her stomach rumble with hunger.
Seeing her ravenous expression, Xin Feng smiled and placed a piece onto the Stone Plate in front of her.
Bai Wanwan enjoyed his doting care. She would eat a piece herself, then feed one to him.
The two of them were eating happily.
Yesterday’s uninvited guest appeared again.
"Mmm, that smells amazing!"
Without a word, Roger, acting even more familiar than before, sat right down on the stone stool beside them.
"Is this meat grilled over a fire?"
Roger stared curiously at the stone slab, then grabbed Bai Wanwan’s wrist as she held a piece of meat with her chopsticks.
"What are you doing?"
The next second, the piece of meat, covered in sauce and destined for her mouth, ended up in Roger’s.
After just two chews, Roger’s eyes went wide.
"Delicious!"
Bai Wanwan huffed. ’Of course it’s delicious.’
’These Beastmen’s palates are almost completely undeveloped. The richly flavored grilled meat was like opening the door to a whole new world for him.’
Finishing one piece wasn’t enough. He picked up the wooden chopsticks nearby and, mimicking Bai Wanwan, tried to grab some meat.
Bai Wanwan blocked him with her chopsticks. "What do you think you’re doing? If you want to eat, go home and make it yourself."
"Can’t I even have a couple of pieces of your meat? Look how nice I am to you..."
As he spoke, he picked up a small box and opened it.
Inside, aside from various types of jerky, were colorful stones that looked like gems.
"I’ll give you all this, just for a few pieces of meat."
Bai Wanwan was no philanthropist.
’I can’t accept it if he’s just giving it away for free. His intentions aren’t pure.’
’But if he wants to use it to trade for meat, I’ll definitely agree.’
’Even if it’s not an equal trade, as long as he’s willing, I won’t owe him anything.’
"Really? Just for a few pieces of meat?"
Roger popped a piece of meat into his own mouth, chewed, and swallowed before giving her a sidelong, smiling glance. "All this stuff, just for one meal?"
"Then what do you want?"
"For the entire time I’m in the Cat Clan Tribe, I want to eat this for every meal."
"In your dreams!"
Bai Wanwan glanced at the items in the box.
’I’m so poor right now, with no savings to my name.’
’It would be a crime not to fleece a sucker like this.’
"If you bring your own meat, I can consider it."
’If he brings the meat, Xin Feng can eat more too.’
’This deal... is a bargain no matter how you look at it.’
Her little scheme was painfully obvious. Roger snorted, sounding like he was grinding his teeth.
"Fine! Little female, you remember this. This is the first time I’ve ever made a losing deal."
Bai Wanwan didn’t indulge him at all. "If you’re not willing, you can choose to leave right now."