Chapter 3

She made another trip, piling up soap pods along the riverbank. After confirming no one was around, she stripped off her animal hide and submerged herself fully in the water.

This original body—had it gone eight hundred years without a bath? The grime on her skin could practically be forged into armor.

As the soap pods slowly scrubbed away the filth, Cheng Youyou felt an overwhelming sense of relief, as if her freshly cleaned skin could finally breathe again. Layer after layer of pitch-black gunk sloughed off and drifted into the river.

The surrounding water turned murky and foul. Cheng Youyou twitched her lips helplessly—this body’s laziness defied description. She scrubbed for ages, until even the sun had sunk below the horizon, leaving behind clouds that looked like burning embers. The temperature dropped, and she shivered. She needed to get out—catching a cold now would be a disaster. Just as she was about to climb ashore, a loud splash erupted behind her, rapidly approaching from afar.

Startled, Cheng Youyou instinctively turned toward the sound. In the clear river water, a long black shadow several meters in length was speeding toward her. Her pupils contracted sharply. She screamed and scrambled up the bank.

Honestly, even in the apocalypse, she’d only found the limbless zombies disgusting. But cold, footless creatures? They triggered a primal fear she couldn’t override. Her feet hit solid ground, and a sliver of safety returned. She glanced back and saw Zi Wu standing in the water, crystalline droplets tracing the contours of his flawless body before falling back into the river, sending ripples outward. His gray-blue eyes stared straight at her, full of disdain.

Still recovering from the scare, Cheng Youyou hadn’t expected to run into Zi Wu here. A cold night breeze swept past, and she suddenly remembered—she was stark naked. Her cheeks flushed crimson, and she hastily covered her vital parts with both hands.

“Trash. What are you even covering up for? With all that flab, I’ve got zero interest.” His voice was crisp like spring wind, but the disgust in his words was utterly unfiltered.

Still uneasy about the shadow she’d seen in the water, Cheng Youyou ignored his tone. “Did you just see a long black snake in the river?”

“What! You’re not just fat and greedy, now you’re blind too? I’m a dragon, not some lowly snake!”

The revulsion in Zi Wu’s eyes practically poured out at her.

Wait—dragon? Snake? Zi Wu?

She finally connected the dots between him and the shadow.

Zi Wu was a dragon egg her father had picked up from who-knows-where outside the tribe and patiently incubated over time. And the grudge between Zi Wu and the original host? It started when he was still an egg.

The original host had been furious that her father doted on a mysterious egg and nearly roasted Zi Wu alive.

After hatching, Zi Wu was bound to her at her father’s insistence. Though reluctant, his fledgling attachment made him agree to anything her father asked. Technically, Zi Wu was her first beast-husband. But looking at his delicate, androgynous, yet clearly youthful features, Cheng Youyou’s mouth twitched. He was just a brat. Her father must’ve been really worried she’d never find a beast-husband—he’d even considered pairing her with a child.

Zi Wu’s expression darkened further. The filthy river was clearly polluted by the “trash” in front of him. He’d just returned to the tribe, covered in dust, and wanted a proper wash. Who would’ve thought the once-clear river had turned greasy? He’d shifted into beast form to investigate upstream and ran into her. And he even got mistaken for a snake.

“Get lost. Just seeing you ruins my mood!”

Cheng Youyou bristled. Seeing Zi Wu look like he was about to vomit just from glancing at her made her even more annoyed. “Your bad mood’s none of my business. If you don’t want to see me, then you get lost!”

“You…” Zi Wu was thrown off by her retort. Ever since he’d hatched, Cheng Youyou had always squinted at him with greedy, sticky eyes, but today, she seemed different. That repulsive gaze was gone. Even her pockmarked, greasy face looked slightly more bearable. Just slightly.

Zi Wu looked at the now-filthy stream and gave up on bathing. He transformed into his beast form and walked away along the bank.

Watching his live transformation, Cheng Youyou felt the reality of her transmigration from the apocalypse to the beast world sink in. She returned to the riverbank and struggled to wash the oily animal hide. The grease on the chest area was impossible to remove.

Forget it.

She put on the damp hide anyway, shivering from the cold. The temperature difference between day and night in this beast world was brutal. The massive, disc-like moon had already climbed into the star-studded sky. She sighed, gazing at the moon’s reflection in the water, but when she saw her own reflection—covered in pustules—her appetite vanished instantly. Still, with her current physique, she could go a few days without food and be fine.

Under the moonlight, she passed cave after cave, lit by bonfires, until she returned to the one from her memories. Not the cave she’d transmigrated into earlier that day, but the one her father had left behind—filled with the scent of herbs.

Following her memory, she found the beast-hide skirt her father had prepared and changed out of the wet one. She rekindled the long-dead bonfire. Its warm glow filled the cave and wrapped her in comfort. Along with it came a gnawing hunger. She’d clearly overestimated her body.

She really couldn’t go without food. Resigned, she trudged back to the riverbank. Watching the fish and shrimp swim in the water, her mouth watered uncontrollably.

She shook her head, trying to resist. The original host had eaten only meat, never taken vitamins, and never exercised. No wonder her body was overloaded with toxins—hence the obesity and acne.

Cheng Youyou shifted her focus and entered the forest. Soon, her beast-hide skirt was filled with mushrooms. But her gaze kept drifting back to the water. Eventually, she gave up resisting and closed her eyes.

Nearby, the drooping branches of a tree seemed to come alive, growing rapidly. In moments, its limbs reached the water’s surface. Suddenly, it lashed out—smacking the fattest fish unconscious and delivering it straight into her hands.

She looked down at the unusually plump fish in her hands, and tears of defeat welled up at the corners of her mouth.

But what Cheng Youyou didn’t know was that, in the darkness, a pair of glowing eyes had witnessed everything.