After thinking it over, Gao Yue still worked up the nerve to speak: "I'm an omnivore, I can't only eat meat. I also need roots, stems, and seeds from plants, as well as vegetables and fruit, or I'll get sick."
"Vegetables especially. If I go too long without eating vegetables, I'll... um..."
She got stuck. Facing this handsome yet cold face, she really couldn't bring herself to say the word "constipated" outright, so she settled for something vague instead. "My stomach will get upset, and I'll get sick."
Moya nodded, indicating he'd noted it down.
"What else?"
"There's also... I can't think of anything else right now..." Gao Yue scratched her head, unable to come up with anything on the spot. Then suddenly she gave a start and hurried to add something.
"Oh right! I'm especially afraid of bug bites—wasps, poisonous caterpillars, centipedes, that sort of thing. The people here probably have resistance to them, but I don't. One bite and I could die."
Even something as small as a tick had cases of biting people to death.
Thinking of the small threats that might be lurking in the grass, she felt a chill of fear and quickly checked herself over for any bugs that might have crawled onto her.
Ticks loved to hide in grass most of all.
Hearing this, Moya relaxed slightly. "Bugs fear the presence of a giant python. With me around, ordinary bugs will naturally keep their distance."
But he soon remembered the mite Gao Yue had mentioned before, and his tone carried a trace of uncertainty again. "But perhaps... there might be a rare exception, that mite you spoke of."
Gao Yue: "Mites don't count as bugs!"
She was in a great mood.
She should have realized it sooner—there wasn't a single bug in the cave. At night when she slept it was dead silent, and she couldn't hear any insect sounds from outside the cave at all. She hadn't expected that Moya really did have the ability to repel bugs.
This was just wonderful.
Having confirmed this, her heart bloomed with joy. "Then I don't need to worry about that."
Seeing her happy, and recalling that she'd said she wanted to eat fruit, Moya stood up and picked a bright red fruit from the vines hanging outside the cave, then handed it to her.
Gao Yue took a bite.
It was sweet, and the texture reminded her a little of the red apples she remembered.
As she ate, she secretly sized Moya up, thinking that this guy really was cold on the outside but warm at heart—handsome in looks and kind in nature.
Of course, this favorable treatment was mostly thanks to her current mistaken identity as a cub.
She'd made up her mind—she was going to keep this cub disguise welded firmly to herself.
Back when she used to travel up north, she'd envied those tall, long-legged beauties. But now, she felt that her own height was truly wonderful, truly marvelous.
Moya brought over the ointment the Medical Priest had given them.
He crushed up some Yuyu Flower and mixed it in, then had Gao Yue apply it to the wounds she'd scraped during the flood.
The ointment was remarkably effective—after just one night, all the scrapes on Gao Yue's body had already scabbed over, with no sign of infection at all.
Moya watched the whole time as Gao Yue applied the medicine to herself.
Right now, Gao Yue looked thoroughly battered all over—broken bones, scrapes, bruises, rashes...
Moya felt somewhat defeated.
After a full day of caring for her, she'd ended up with even more injuries. If he wasn't careful—extremely careful—she might end up getting cared to death under his watch.
Though Gao Yue's smile was bright and she radiated a cheerful air, seeming to adapt quite well, never once complaining of hardship or pain—just a moment ago she'd been happily munching on fruit, even drinking water seemed to make her happy—she didn't look the least bit resentful.
But a Female like this only made him ache for her more... it made him want nothing more than to heal every last wound on her body.
He suddenly asked Gao Yue, "How old are you this year?"
Gao Yue's smile froze, alarm bells blaring in her mind, and she quickly adjusted her expression. "How old do you think I am?"
Moya looked at her strangely, his tone flat and even. "Thirteen, I'd guess."
Gao Yue was sweating bullets inside, but on the surface she forced herself to stay composed, even squeezing out an innocent smile. "You guessed exactly right!"
She shamelessly shaved ten years off her own age.
Moya frowned. "Then that means five more years until you come of age."
Gao Yue was startled—so eighteen was the age of adulthood here too?
Moya: "Once you come of age, you'll be able to take a Mate, and let your Beast Husband help you absorb Beast Crystals."
Gao Yue: "Can't I digest them myself?"
Hearing this question, the look in Moya's eyes as he watched her turned thoughtful, and he answered, "A Female needs a Beast Mark to assist with internalizing them, otherwise it's no different from eating stones—you'll fall ill."
"Just bear with it for five more years. Once you come of age, your Beast Husband can use his Beast Mark to help you digest high-tier crystal cores. By then, your bones will be strengthened, your skin won't be so fragile anymore, and every scar on your body will vanish too."
He paused, his pale green eyes beneath their long lashes flicking over Gao Yue for a moment before quickly withdrawing, his voice flat. "The stronger the Beast Husband, the stronger the crystal core he can help you internalize. Given your condition, you'd best be able to absorb a crystal core above Tier 4, so you'll need to find a Beast Husband above Tier 4."
Gao Yue listened, utterly dumbfounded.
Good grief, there was a whole system like this?
Taking a Mate, Beast Marks, digesting crystal cores... no wonder that Medical Priest had told her to find a strong Companion, and the sooner the better.
Suddenly, she didn't feel like keeping up the cub act anymore.
Just as the two of them were chatting idly, Moya suddenly sensed the presence of an uninvited guest. He turned his head to look outside the cave. "Stay here."
The moment he finished speaking to Gao Yue, he had already vanished from the spot.
Gao Yue only felt a gust of wind, and then, in the blink of an eye, found that Moya was already dozens of meters away from the Cave Entrance.
Standing there, having appeared at some unknown point, was a handsome man with his arms crossed and a wickedly unrestrained air about him.
This handsome man wore an ink-colored python-patterned leather skirt on his lower body, his medium-length hair tied back with numerous small braids on either side, bone beads strung through the braids. He had a high nose and deep-set eyes, an imposing presence, and clearly wasn't here with good intentions.
"I hear you picked up some Female Cub from who knows where?" the handsome man said, narrowing his eyes at Moya.
Moya looked at him flatly. "What of it?"
The other man gave a cold snort, ignoring what Moya said and continuing on mockingly, "Picked up, you say? Who's going to believe that? Wasn't she abducted from somewhere?"
Moya frowned impatiently.
Gao Yue hadn't originally wanted to go over, but the other man was speaking so loudly that she'd heard him, and worried it might cause trouble for Moya, she immediately ran over to them and declared loudly to the stranger, "That's not true, I really was picked up by him!"
The other man's gaze immediately snapped to her, giving her a light, breezy glance, a flicker of surprise crossing his eyes at how plump she was. Then, as if he hadn't heard her at all, he turned his head aside and dug at his ear, before curling his lips into a smile and saying to Moya:
"Moya, oh Moya, you really have fallen far. Just because Lin Xi chose me over you, have you gone twisted? Abducting cubs now?"
Gao Yue ran up to them. "Why are you just talking to yourself? I already told you, I'm the one he picked up."
Wait.
Had he just said Lin Xi chose him?
Then he must be that legendary Shoupan—the one Lin Xi had announced at the Autumn Moon Festival would become her Beast Husband.
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