Moya instructed Gao Yue on a few things, then left the cave to fetch some items. Before leaving, he warningly told Snowball Pig to behave, since this female was so fragile that she could get a fracture just from jumping down and being caught, and couldn't withstand Snowball Pig's mischief.
Snowball Pig grunted a few times aggrievedly, curling up motionless in Gao Yue's arms, sulking.
Fine, this stranger wasn't someone it could afford to provoke.
Soon Moya returned, bringing quite a few things with him. There were two large items: one was a soft animal skin blanket for Gao Yue to sleep under, and the other was a huge wooden tub.
The wooden tub was filled with water just drawn, and there was no telling how heavy it was, but Moya carried it back with one hand, his strength astonishing enough to leave Gao Yue speechless.
The tub, filled with water, was set down steadily in front of the stone bed, and not a single ripple splashed out when it was placed.
"Go wash up," Moya said to her.
There was still a bit of mud and sand left in Gao Yue's hair from the flood earlier. Although being submerged in the Holy Lake had washed away much of it, some still remained, which Moya had noticed earlier when he was holding her.
"Okay!"
Gao Yue immediately agreed, overjoyed.
Being able to bathe was wonderful. She felt like she wasn't very clean and needed to wash up, but... she looked toward the wide-open cave entrance.
What if someone passed by and saw her? Bathing in an environment like this really made her worry about being seen completely exposed—she couldn't be that bold about it.
Moya followed her gaze and looked over, thinking with amusement that this little brat was still worried about being seen.
But then, thinking of Gao Yue's full figure, he felt a bit uneasy himself.
Well, it was true that some caution was warranted.
"Don't worry, I'll stand guard at the entrance."
As he spoke, he found the spare torches stored inside the cave, lit a few, and stuck them into the rock wall. Then he walked to the entrance, and amid a flash of white light, transformed into his Python Form, a massive black python, blocking the entrance completely.
With the torches providing light, the cave did not fall into darkness.
Gao Yue stared blankly at the enormous python blocking the cave entrance. This time, seeing the giant python, what she felt was not fear but reassurance—a sense of being protected.
When she was little, she'd loved a movie, King Kong. She'd cried quite a few tears watching King Kong get killed for the female lead, wishing she could jump into the screen and become King Kong's good friend.
She never imagined she'd one day experience the feeling of being protected by a massive monster herself.
It was truly astonishing.
She was only dazed for a moment before Gao Yue snapped back to herself. Avoiding her injured arm, she took off her animal skin skirt and slowly climbed into the tub.
The water was cold.
For autumn, this temperature was really unbearably cold.
But she felt too embarrassed to trouble Moya further by asking someone to heat bathwater specially for her, so she gritted her teeth, grimacing, and silently slid herself into the water.
She really did need a good wash.
Having soaked in such filthy floodwater, she worried she might catch some kind of skin condition if she didn't clean herself, and the spots where her skin had been scratched by broken branches in the flood also needed proper washing, or the wounds risked infection.
At the cave entrance, Moya in his Python Form heard the faint rustling sounds of bathing from inside, and his entire body felt extremely awkward. He resolved that tomorrow he'd find a female Giant-type python to stand guard at the entrance instead.
After carefully scrubbing her whole body, including her hair, Gao Yue finally felt clean.
Amid the splashing sound of water.
She carefully stepped out of the tub and changed into another animal skin skirt that Grandma Ya had given her earlier.
This set of Beast Skin Clothing was brown, with a thin, light texture, somewhat like a bathrobe style, but with one shoulder left bare, requiring it to be pulled on over the head. It also came with a belt studded with tiny gemstones, though she had no use for it at all.
The skirt fit her a bit snugly, with no need for a waist tie at all.
Once she put it on, she looked down and saw that her large chest was pressed even more prominently against the fabric of the skirt. She felt a bit embarrassed—what was meant to be a loose-fitting garment had turned into something form-fitting on her.
Still, putting on dry clothes felt much more comfortable.
The whole time, she kept her head lowered, worried that her still-dripping long hair would wet her clothes.
"I'm done!"
She called out to the python at the entrance.
The giant python blocking the entrance glowed with white light all over, its body rapidly contracting, and it transformed back into a broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, long-legged handsome man.
Seeing Gao Yue inside the cave with her head lowered, her soaked long hair all gathered at her forehead, droplets still steadily dripping from the ends, Moya's brow lifted slightly.
Didn't this female cub know she could transform into her true form and shake her fur dry?
Recalling that Gao Yue had been unwilling to transform into her true form before—perhaps she didn't quite like her true form—a flicker of helplessness passed through his eyes.
"Wait for me a moment."
he said to Gao Yue.
Then he vanished from where he stood.
Gao Yue was momentarily flustered but had no choice, so she sat down at the edge of the stone bed and twisted her wet hair with her hands, trying to wring it drier.
She was a bit troubled—there was no hair dryer, and she had no idea how to get her hair completely dry.
Her constitution was quite poor; if she slept with wet hair, she'd wake up the next morning with a terrible headache, and might even run a fever.
In fact, her head was already starting to ache a little.
Just as she was thinking of grabbing some clothes from her suitcase to blot the water with, she saw Moya return, now carrying a piece of oddly textured, thin animal skin as well.
He came over and sat down at the edge of the stone bed, gently draping the soft animal skin over the top of Gao Yue's head.
Then those long, slender hands, through the thin layer of animal skin, pressed against her wet hair—clumsy in motion but extremely gentle.
Gao Yue froze, blinking in fluster.
Aside from the hairdresser at the salon and her mother when she was little, she couldn't recall anyone ever drying her hair for her like this.
She could feel the pressure of his fingers—very light, carrying a kind of tentative caution, slowly rubbing through her hair.
She knew that in his mind, she probably seemed like a person made of cookies, as if he feared that with a bit too much force he might shatter her skull, so his touch was unusually gentle.
Gentle to the point of being almost excessive.
The cave was very quiet, with only the faint rustling sound of hair rubbing against animal skin.
She kept her head obediently lowered, her line of sight only able to see his long legs and the hem of his clothes. A cool, distinctive scent that belonged only to him seemed to linger near her nose, mixed with the dampness of water—unusually pleasant, without any of the fishy smell one might expect from a giant python. Instead, it was a strange, cold fragrance, rich and heady, faintly intoxicating.
Snowball Pig poked its head over to watch, its beady black eyes observing them, though there was no telling what it was thinking.
Gao Yue, watching it: "..."
Moya's attention was entirely on how to dry this head of long hair. Seeing Gao Yue stay perfectly still, he found this female cub exceptionally well-behaved, and felt quite pleased about it.
The animal skin in his hands worked remarkably well, with extremely strong water absorption. After only a few passes back and forth, her hair, which had been steadily dripping, had already stopped dripping and turned half-dry.
He patiently gathered her long hair again and blotted it repeatedly with the skin, from root to tip.
After a while, when Moya finally stopped and lifted the skin away from her head, Gao Yue's hair had turned into a fluffed-up, static-charged mess of dry hair.
She reached up instinctively and touched her own hair.
Then she discovered, to her surprise, that her long hair, once thoroughly soaked, was now already eighty or ninety percent dry, with only a hint of dampness left, the strands fluffy and light.
This animal skin's water-absorbing ability was simply beyond imagination, comparable to those highly efficient modern suede towels.
At this level of dryness, she shouldn't catch a chill or get a headache from sleeping on it.
Moya took the tub of water Gao Yue had bathed in outside and poured it out, then set the empty tub back inside the cave, adding a touch of everyday life to the otherwise cold, bare cave.
Gao Yue took out a comb from her suitcase and combed through her hair.
As she combed, she felt her throat growing a bit dry.
When Moya came back, she quickly told him she was thirsty. "I'm thirsty, I want some water. Is there any water to drink?"
Moya: "..."
He had just poured the water out.
"Wait here."
He left the cave again, taking the tub with him, and when he returned, the tub was filled once more. He rummaged around and found a stone cup tucked in a corner of the cave, scooped up a cupful, and handed it to Gao Yue.
"Drink up."
Gao Yue fell silent. This... she was just supposed to drink it straight? Mr. Giant Python, you're being a little careless about this.
"...Where was this water drawn from?"
Moya: "There's a river in the tribe. Don't worry, it's very clean."
Gao Yue tilted her head up, trying hard to fake the moist, wide eyes of a cub, putting on a cutesy, wheedling tone: "No, I can't drink river water straight, I'll get sick. I need to drink boiled water."
Moya's brow furrowed.
Drinking river water would make her sick?
Even the females in the tribe weren't so delicate and fragile. The river water in the tribe was very clean—he'd never heard of any female cub falling sick after drinking it, not even newborns fresh out of the egg.
But thinking of this female cub's uniquely fragile constitution, unlike anyone else's, he hesitated and fell silent again, said "wait here," and left the cave once more.
Gao Yue felt quite embarrassed, making him run back and forth like this.
But there was really no way around it—even if it meant troubling someone else, she had to grit her teeth and ask, or else if she ended up drinking something with parasites in it, that would be a real problem; she might end up with diarrhea in the middle of the night.
Either way, she absolutely would not drink untreated water!
When he came back again, Moya was carrying a bundle of firewood along with a stone pot.
There was a fire pit outside his cave, though Moya had almost never used it.
Although many male beastmen in the tribe would roast their own meat, he found it too much trouble. When he got hungry, he'd simply transform into his Python Form and go into the forest to eat a Fierce Beast—one meal could sustain him for several days.
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