Little Bei happily wagged his tail and plopped down beside Xi Nan, devouring his skewer of roasted meat.
Grease splattered onto the corner of his mouth, wetting the fur there.
Watching the two brothers interact, Xi Yao was touched, and her expression softened unconsciously.
She stretched.
Her body felt sticky, which was really uncomfortable.
She hadn’t really noticed before, but the moment she thought about bathing, she felt her entire body start to itch, especially her scalp.
The sky outside the cave had gone completely dark.
She decided she would take the two little ones to the river for a bath after they finished eating.
Xi Yao stood up, brushing off some nonexistent dust.
She spoke to the cheerfully eating Little Bei, “Xiao Nan, Little Bei, after we finish eating, we’re going to the river for a bath.”
Xi Nan, who was turning the roasting meat, froze.
Little Bei, his mouth stuffed with meat, instantly stopped chewing when he heard her.
He even unconsciously tucked his tail tightly.
Xi Nan was the first to recover, his tone tinged with resistance.
“If you want to bathe, you can go by yourself.
I’m not going.”
His gaze shifted, not daring to meet Xi Yao’s eyes, afraid she would see the terror hidden within them.
Little Bei hastily swallowed the meat in his mouth, his voice strained with panic.
“Mother, it’s dark outside and very dangerous.
Let’s not go, okay?”
He couldn’t stop his body from trembling, and his claws dug into the ground unconsciously.
Xi Yao was puzzled by the two little ones’ unusual reactions.
“No, that won’t do.
You’re both so dirty.
How can you sleep without a bath?”
Little Bei’s eyes turned red.
He gripped Xi Nan’s tail tightly with his front paws and said in a choked, tearful voice, “Mother, I don’t want to go to the river.”
Seeing how strongly they resisted, Xi Yao grew suspicious and searched her mind for any relevant memories.
In an instant, vague fragments flashed through her mind like shattered light and shadow.
…
Xi Yao’s eyes snapped open, filled with shock.
The shock was followed by a sharp, spreading ache in her chest.
“Okay, if you don’t want to go to the river, we won’t go.
Mother will fetch some water to wash you here.”
With that, she walked toward the cave entrance with frantic steps.
Halfway there, she remembered she hadn’t grabbed clothes, so she turned back to get a clean animal-hide skirt and chest wrap before picking up the bucket and heading out.
The night was as black as ink.
Xi Yao hurried toward the river, bucket in hand.
Her entire body trembled as she recalled the horrifying memory.
‘She’d thought that tying them to a tree and throwing them to the Hunting Team as bait was already despicable.’
‘But she never imagined that the original owner had tried to kill them right after they were born, throwing them into a frozen river when their fur hadn’t even fully grown in.’
‘No matter what, she had carried them for months before giving birth to them.’
‘How could she be so cruel?’
Moonlight spilled over her, outlining her slender figure.
She felt a chill seep deep into her bones.
Xi Yao reached the riverbank.
The river shimmered under the moonlight, but she was in no mood to admire the beautiful scenery.
After vigilantly scanning her surroundings and confirming there was no danger, she quickly stripped off her clothes and waded into the river.
The cool water rose past her knees, instantly washing away her fatigue.
She shivered, then quickly cupped water in her hands to pour over her shoulders and back.
Once she had acclimated to the temperature, she squatted down, letting the water rise past her shoulders.
She scrubbed herself in the river for a long time until she was finally clean.
It felt like she’d scrubbed off a pound of dirt.
‘She had laughed at the other females before, but she never expected her own body to be just as dirty.’
‘She reached up and touched her bird’s nest of hair; it was greasy and tangled.
If she had scissors, she would just snip it all off.’
‘How did she have the gall to laugh at other people yesterday?!’
‘I can’t take it anymore!’
‘It’s so filthy, and I don’t have any shampoo.
How am I supposed to get this clean?’
As she was scratching her head in frustration, her wrist suddenly grew warm.
She looked down and saw that a blue iris had appeared on it.
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
‘My terminal is back!’
Xi Yao stared at the blue iris that had suddenly appeared on her wrist, both shocked and overjoyed.
She subconsciously reached out and touched it.
Instantly, a virtual interface materialized in her mind.
The familiar operating system nearly brought her to tears.
‘This was no ordinary terminal.
It was connected to a vast storage space, filled with all the things she had painstakingly collected in her past life.’
She tried calling out to the AI a few times, but there was no response.
‘That makes sense,’ she thought.
‘There’s no internet or electricity here.
It would be weirder if the AI did work.’
Her eyes scanned from daily necessities to clothes and shoes, and then to the shelves piled high with melee weapons and firearms.
Her confidence swelled.
Her gaze fell back on the daily necessities section.
‘Shampoo!’
Xi Yao thought the word, and a bottle of shampoo instantly appeared in her hand.
It was her favorite brand from her past life, and the familiar scent instantly brought back a flood of memories.
‘I wonder if the Insect Clan has been annihilated yet.’
Shaking off her thoughts, she squeezed the shampoo into her hand, worked it into a lather, and massaged it into her tangled hair.
She had to wash it three times before the greasy feeling was gone.
Then she applied a hair treatment and wrapped her hair up.
Next, she started on her body.
Body wash with a faint, pleasant scent flowed into her palm.
She eagerly stood up and lathered her entire body, scrubbing carefully.
After washing twice, she finally felt refreshed.
After her bath, she got out of the water and dried herself with a towel, sighing in contentment.
She put on her undergarments and changed into a clean animal-hide skirt.
She took some concentrated laundry detergent from her terminal and washed her dirty animal-hide skirt.
Once everything was packed up, she filled the bucket with water and started walking back.
She didn’t notice that on the opposite bank of the river, perched in a large tree, was a bird that resembled a rooster.
Its eyes were fixed unblinkingly on her retreating figure.
By now, it had shed its avian form and transformed into a human.
He was tall and slender, his black clothes concealing him in the darkness of the night.
He had been there even before Xi Yao arrived.
At first, he’d wanted to make himself scarce, but thinking of the purpose of his trip, he dismissed the idea of leaving.
It was precisely because he hadn’t left that he’d been able to witness such a fascinating scene.
‘So she’s the anomaly the High Priest spoke of?’
“Interesting.”
With a flicker, he reverted to his beast form and silently followed behind Xi Yao.
When Xi Yao returned to the cave, Xi Nan and Little Bei had already finished their roasted meat.
The two little ones were sitting on the edge of the stone bed, talking.
When they saw her enter, they both fell silent in perfect accord.
Xi Yao hung the animal-hide skirt up to dry, then carried the bucket to the stone bed and began to clean their dirty fur and paws.
This time, the two little ones didn’t resist, letting her wash them.
Xi Yao had the feeling that she was being watched.
She scanned her surroundings and even stepped outside the cave to look, but she found nothing out of the ordinary.
‘It must be my imagination,’ she thought, and didn’t dwell on it.
She lowered the animal-hide curtain.
‘I have to build a proper door tomorrow.
This single flap of hide offers no sense of security at all.’
She sat by the fire, waiting for her hair to dry and planning her tasks for the next day.
She slept soundly until dawn.
The moment she lifted the hide curtain, she saw several Beastmen standing at the cave entrance, which nearly made her jump out of her skin.
“Can I help you?”
“Xi Yao, we came to thank you.
Thank you for saving our Duoduo.”
“She’s awake?”
Kai nodded forcefully, his face filled with the relief of someone who had narrowly averted disaster.
“If it weren’t for you, I can’t imagine what would have happened.”
“If there’s anything you need, just say the word.
We’ll definitely help you get it done.”
Xi Yao nodded.
As it happened, she did need something.
“Could you help me cut down some thin logs from the mountain and bring them back?”
‘I want to build a fence around the yard,’ she thought.
‘It would take me at least a few days to do it alone.’
“Of course, that’s no problem at all.
Just tell us what kind you need, and we’ll haul them back for you.”
Xi Yao didn’t hold back.
“About as thick as a fist, and this tall.” She gestured with her hand above her head, then added another sentence, afraid they might not understand.
“Uh, about as tall as you guys should be fine.”
“Alright.” The fact that she made a request actually made them feel relieved.