Chapter 26

After giving the woven backpack to Lu Xi, Cheng Youyou picked up her basket and headed to the river to wash it. Although activating her wood-type ability made weaving effortless, her body was currently drained of energy, and she couldn’t use her powers for the time being.

This beast-world wasn’t as dangerous as the apocalypse, but it was still riddled with hidden threats. Thankfully, she was now in a large tribe and, as a rare and precious female, far safer than she had been alone in the post-apocalyptic world.

The rotten mushroom juice had contaminated the basket—there was no way to use it without a thorough wash. Watching the basket gradually become clean in the water, she began planning to fill it with small stones.

She’d take them back to the cave and slowly carve them with a bone knife to make a few stone bowls. After all, eating straight from the pot every time was just too crude.

Just as she was about to stand up, a rustling wind swept past her, followed by the heavy splash of something crashing into the water.

With a loud “splash,” water sprayed everywhere.

Standing by the river, Cheng Youyou was instantly soaked. She wiped the water from her face expressionlessly, already halfway through cursing the other party’s father.

When she opened her eyes, she saw a massive wild boar—easily several hundred pounds—floating up from the riverbed.

Behind her came Zi Wu’s crisp, youthful voice: “Trash, this pig should be enough for you to eat, right?”

“What!?” Cheng Youyou quickly swallowed her curse, the anger that had just flared up vanishing instantly. She asked in disbelief, “This is for me!?”

She turned around in surprise and saw Zi Wu standing in the forest, backlit by sunlight. He wore a proud expression, like a young master showing off, and said, “Of course. Otherwise, you’ll faint from hunger again and embarrass me.”

Cheng Youyou stared at the wild boar bobbing in the water, swallowing the saliva that was flooding her mouth. She took back everything she’d said before—Zi Wu wasn’t a brat, he was a walking pillar of support. With a thigh like that to cling to, how could she ever worry about meat again?

The joy of being fed without lifting a finger was beyond words.

Zi Wu watched Cheng Youyou gaze at the boar with starry-eyed obsession and felt a surge of smug satisfaction. Now she should know which of her beast-husbands was the strongest, right?

Hmph! Even if she tried to butter him up now, he wouldn’t give her the time of day. But things didn’t go quite as he imagined. All he heard was Cheng Youyou let out a loud “whoop!”

She tossed the strange item in her hand to the ground, where it rolled a few times before lying there, abandoned. Its owner had already rushed into the river.

Just like that object, he too had been cast aside.

Once Cheng Youyou confirmed the boar was hunted for her, she didn’t spare Zi Wu a single glance—her eyes were locked solely on the pig.

In her eyes, he didn’t even compare to a wild boar!

Zi Wu was in turmoil. She used to look at him with sticky, greedy eyes that made him feel disgusted. But now her gaze was no longer repulsive—it was vivid and lively. Yet it no longer landed on him, and that left a strange emptiness.

Zi Wu turned and walked away without hesitation.

Meanwhile, Cheng Youyou was fully absorbed in her battle with the boar in the river, completely unaware of when Zi Wu had left.

Only when she realized she couldn’t pull the boar out of the water by herself did she turn to call for help—only to find the forest behind her empty. Standing in the middle of the river, she sighed helplessly. That thigh was indeed a thigh. He delivered the goods and left, without even considering helping her finish the job. Hauling the boar back to the cave would’ve been a breeze for him.

Then again, the boar hadn’t been gutted. If she dragged it back and butchered it inside, could the cave still be livable?

Unable to move the boar, Cheng Youyou finally transformed into her beast form and slowly dragged it to shore. After putting her beast-hide clothes back on, she collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily, and looked toward where Zi Wu had stood.

Estimating the distance from the river’s center, she winced. He’d tossed a several-hundred-pound boar that far with ease—top-tier male beastfolk really weren’t just talk.

According to the original host’s memories, Zi Wu hadn’t even fully matured yet. Dragon-type beastfolk had to undergo an evolution to reach adulthood. If he was already this strong before maturing, what would he be like afterward?

Whatever. Whether Zi Wu matured or not had nothing to do with her.

She planned to find the right moment to dissolve her contracts with all her beast-husbands. Forced relationships weren’t sweet, and she wasn’t thirsty enough to settle.

In this beast-world, females could dissolve contracts with males. However, males could never dissolve contracts with females—unless the female committed an unforgivable crime, in which case the bond was lifelong.

Moreover, males couldn’t harm their contracted females, or they’d suffer backlash. That was the real reason the original host could act out so recklessly in front of her beast-husbands without getting beaten to a pulp.

After a short rest, Cheng Youyou picked up a sharp bone knife and began scraping the boar’s coarse, long hair. It was far too rough to make beast-hide.

With each stroke, pale, tender pork was revealed. After a long bout of work, she finally finished cleaning the boar. She split it open with the bone knife, and the pungent smell of offal hit her in the face.

She merely frowned, unfazed. Compared to the stench of zombies in the apocalypse, this was nothing.

Beastfolk never ate offal—the smell was torture for their sensitive noses. Usually, they’d gut their prey before bringing it back.

She wasn’t sure why Zi Wu hadn’t done that this time. Maybe he was in a rush and forgot? No matter. It was perfect for her—she was a hardcore offal lover.

Stir-fried intestines, stewed pig stomach, chilled pig heart; just thinking about it made her hands move faster. She quickly cleaned all the innards and deboned the entire boar.

Potato-braised ribs sounded amazing, and she’d just dug up a whole basket of potatoes. She just didn’t know where to find the spices for red-braising.

After finishing the butchering, Cheng Youyou wiped the sweat from her forehead. Looking at the messy piles of meat, she grinned from ear to ear.