Transmigrated into a Beast Tribe

by Usui Takumii

not mine, this is banana tl. Beware bl and mpreg.

5. 41 to 50

Chapter 41 Howth

When the team gathered up, there were two more people added inside – Howth and Ba-Ao.

Patrik and his team have hunting duty today, but their precious females are going up the mountain. Naturally, they will want someone to follow and protect them, and that person will have to be the 'manual labour' as well. Because the females' future partners were not able to follow, Ryan nominated the idle Howth and Ba-Ao to help.

Ryan expressed his helplessness about Howth's actions against Ba-Ao. He talked to Howth many times, but Howth was always against Ba-Ao. Ryan couldn't understand how the honest Ba-Ao could cause Howth to be annoyed at him. If it was because he took care of Ba-Ao when he was injured before, Ba-Ao has already avoided contact with him as much as possible, but Howth still targeted him. Howth's behaviour made Ryan feel awkward when facing Ba-Ao. The main thing is that Ba-Ao's behaviour of avoiding him whenever he saw him made him feel uncomfortable. Everyone are brothers in the tribe, so it's not good at all if one have to hide whenever they saw each other.

Ryan felt that Ba-Ao is an honest and loyal person, and he(BA) has been tolerating Howth's trouble-making. If it were someone with a temper, Ryan couldn't imagine how many time they would have duelled by now. Ryan felt that the reason why Howth was so focused on troubling Ba-Ao is because he didn't know Ba-Ao. He thought that if the two of them get along more, Howth may be able to see that it's good to have a beastman brother like Ba-Ao. Hence, when Lin Mu decided to go up the mountain, Ryan pushed Ba-Ao and Howth out to take the task. Howth doesn't want to disobey his brother's intentions, and Ba-Ao is someone who can't defy anyone, so they joined this team to go up the mountain.

After putting Qiuqiu in his back basket, Lin Mu thought to himself that Casso would be responsible to escort Qiuqiu, but unexpectedly, Casso was reluctant to follow him, and Qiuqiu angrily jumped into his back basket; unwilling to come out. Lin Mu looked at Casso, who had a stinky face, and Qiuqiu, who was obviously angry, came to a conclusion – These two are fighting again? But Casso didn't come to coax Qiuqiu like he used to so Lin Mu was surprised. Lin Mu saw both acting annoyed and frustrated, and Casso lying down in front of the door not coming out, and he felt amused. Thinking that their anger will simmer down overnight, he took Qiuqiu up the mountain. As for Casso, well, Casso is not his pet, so he is definitely on Qiuqiu's side.

Lin Mu and the gang carried their own basket on their back. Although the mountain road was muddy because of the rainy season, it did not affect their happiness. They walked all the way up and did not feel tired.

Howth and Ba-Ao followed behind and walked slowly.

Ba-Ao looked at the females walking happily in front of him. Thinking back, he used to protect the females from his tribe just like this before; happily watching them laughing with each other. He lost those, but right now it is quite good as he also has his own tribe. Although sometimes he would still feel sad whenever he recalled the past, he doesn't feel hopeless about the future anymore. Look at the females and cubs in his tribe now, he feels that they have unlimited hope.

Howth saw Ba-Ao looking at Lin Mu with a silly smile, and got angry. He didn't know why he disliked seeing Ba-Ao so much. Whenever he saw him(BA), he just felt angry.

"What are you looking at?! Don't even think of having any chances with them," Howth said in contempt.

"Ah?" Ba-Ao didn't understand what Howth was saying.

Howth simply hated seeing Ba-Ao giving him a stupid look. He threw a contemptuous gaze at him; too lazy to bother with him.

Although Ba-Ao is not a smart person, he would stupid if he can't see the obvious hatred in Howth's eyes.

"Howth, why are you always targeting me?" Ba-Ao wanted to ask this question a long time ago. He couldn't understand why, but after Lin Mu gave him some reminders, he felt like he understood, so he moved out of their room. But then Howth still targets him, which made him wonder.

Howth stopped and looked down at him with his arms crossed, "I'm targeting you, so what? I'm just feeling frustrated looking at you."

For Ba-Ao, they are both in the same tribe now. If there is a contradiction, they should settle it according to beastman's rules, although this contradiction only happened one-sidedly in Howth.

"Howth, let's duel."

"Humph!" Howth felt that was funny and said, "Challenging me to a duel, you?"

Although Howth looked down on him and his beast form might not beat Howth, Ba-Ao still nodded gravely and replied, "En, according to our beastman's rules, let's duel. But we must be reconciled after the duel."

"Say that after you beat me."

"This…I will try to knock you down." Ba-Ao thinks he can try.

Howth curled his lips. Want to knock him down? Dream on. He turned to walk forward to keep up with Lin Mu.

Feeling that he somehow has determined the solution to this matter, Ba-Ao happily went to keep up.

…

Back to Lin Mu's side.

Along the way, the females managed to pick a lot of wild vegetables. Not sure if it was because of the rainy season, these vegetables are particularly well-grown. However, thinking that their back baskets have limited space, they tied up all of the vegetables they picked with rattan and hung on the branches by the road. They will return to pick these up on their way back later. Although they picked a lot of vegetables, they did not find anything new.

"Let's take a break first, I'm so tired." Sasha lightly hammered his leg.

Misha is also tired and wants to sit down.

Lin Mu is tired as well. He hadn't been out for a long time but gotten tired quickly. Glancing up at the sun in the sky, he somehow felt that the noon came quickly. He checked where they are now, and realized that they are already halfway up the mountain, and this place is quite wide. He spread the animal skin he carried with him on the open ground. He knew that they wouldn't go back at noon, so having a picnic like this is nice. The blanket was large, and the gang lay on it to have a break, resting their heads next to each other.

"We really should exercise our body more. Just this short trip alone left us exhausted and panting, it's not good."

Lin Mu has been thinking about how to train himself to be strong, and the most important thing is to raise his height. Although he said that he may not be able to beat Patrik, he still wanted to work hard. Who knows, maybe one day he gets lucky1

? Apart from that, he still needs to grow some muscles. Look at this arm, pale and thin. How to fight with Patrik? Lin Mu make a decision to get up early every day and run to exercise.

Sasha: "Exercise…"

Phil: "Alright. I was busy a few days ago, and it feels very tiring, but I can feel that my strength has become stronger, and my body is comfortable."

Misha: "Exercise? How to exercise?"

Lin Mu sat up and said, "I haven't thought about it yet, I'll think about it later. For now, let's think about what to eat."

Sasha sat up quickly, "Hehe. Lin Mu, what do you have in mind?"

Lin Mu smiled at him, then walked towards Ba-Ao and Howth.

"Help me hunt some long eared beasts2 and colorful birds3."

Howth turned to Ba-Ao and said, "Ba-Ao, you go." They need someone to stay back and look after the females.

"Alright." Ba-Ao turned and entered the forest.

Since all they need to do is wait right now, Lin Mu glanced at the side of the road; wanting to stroll around.

"I'll take a look around here, I won't go far."

Howth nodded.

Lin Mu picked up a stick and randomly poked the grasses beside the road, thinking about the God Offering day.

"If God really will appear on God Offering Day, then I can make some fresh food for Him. But if He doesn't know about our offerings, or come later than expected, then some certain food cannot be offered as they will go bad. So I have to make something that can be kept for a long time, provided that God will really come."

Lin Mu poked the grass that was more than a meter high, while thinking about the recipe in his heart, then suddenly stopped because of the thing he saw.

"Sichuan pepper (花椒/huājiāo)?"

Staring for a moment, Lin Mu reached out and plucked some of the leaves. He looked at the small roundish seed pods, and smelled it, "This smell is right. But the smell of this leaf…" Lin Mu thought he could smell MSG (Monosodium glutamate)4.

"It would be nice if it tastes similar to MSG, but I'm not sure if it can be used."

He shouted at the gang nearby, "Phil, Lais, come here for a moment."

Hearing Lin Mu calling for them, Phil and Lais got up to find him. Sasha continued to lie down on the animal skin blanket and took out the fruit he brought with him. Misha glanced at him, "Brother Sasha, do you have more? I want to eat it too."

Sasha took another one out like a magic trick, and Misha happily shared half with Qiuqiu. But Qiuqiu still stayed upset.

"Lin Mu, what's wrong?"

Lais and Phil came to Lin Mu.

Lin Mu showed them the Sichuan peppers and 'MSG-like' leaves he found, "Look, is this thing poisonous?"

Two of them took a look, and Phil said, "This smells strange, but it's not poisonous."

Lais also nodded, "I saw some people picking it and use it with barbecue, but the taste is a bit weird. Many people don't like it, so only a few people would pick it."

Lin Mu looked at the leaves in his hand with joy. "It's good if it's not poisonous. I wonder if I can use it like MSG?"

They picked some back and saw that Ba-Ao has already returned. The rabbits and chickens have been dealt with and were placed on some leaves. Ba-Ao also brought back a big hive, which made Lin Mu very pleased. Honey glazed barbecue is the best.

Sasha strangely watched as Lin Mu wrapped the chicken with some leaves, and then smearing the outer layer with mud.

"Lin Mu, what are you doing?"

"This is a new way of eating, this dish is called Beggar's Chicken." Lin Mu has never made one before, so he doesn't know if it will succeed. But thinking that these people have never eaten one before, Lin Mu believes that it doesn't matter how the end product looks like, no pressure.

Meanwhile, Sasha and the rest are still looking forward to Lin Mu's new way of eating. As for the extra rabbits and chickens, they were handed over to Howth and Ba-Ao since barbecue is a strong point for beastman. It will be Lin Mu's loss if he doesn't utilise them. After teaching the beastman how to apply honey on the meat, Lin Mu waited to eat with confidence.

The tantalizing Beggar's Chicken and fragrant barbecue got the group addicted to it. Even Qiuqiu, who doesn't have the mood, eats its portion fiercely.

"Lin Mu, this is really delicious, and the taste is extraordinary. Is it because of the leaves you added?" Sasha asked with his mouth full of oil and was eating chicken legs.

Phil nodded in agreement.

Lin Mu ate the roasted rabbit meat, the delicious smell makes Lin Mu happy and also, the fact that those leaves can really be used as MSG. To be able to find new condiments always make Lin Mu.

After lunch, they continued to look around in the mountains. Lin Mu found some radishes, and they also picked a lot of mushrooms. Thought they have a great haul, Lin Mu still regretted that he did not find anything special to use for God Offering day.

For dinner, they made radish meat stew and boiled mushroom soup. The addition of Sichuan pepper and the MSG enhanced the taste of the dishes to become more delicious.

…

At night

Lin Mu sighed in Patrik's arms.

"Although today's mountain trip is quite rewarding, we only found vegetables. If only we can find some rice or wheat, it will be nice. With flour and rice, I can make some different foods. My head is going to burst from thinking about God Offering day, I don't know what to do."

Patrik tightened his arms around Lin Mu. "Don't worry, just try your best."

"I still hope that the beast god will receive our gifts. With His blessing, we can definitely live better."

Patrik kissed Lin Mu's forehead. "Even without the beast god's blessing, our lives can still be good. So relax, Mu Mu. As long as we have the beast god in our heart, the beast god will know." Patrik firmly believed this.

That being said, Lin Mu still longed for the beast god to choose their food that day. In this way, the people in their tribe will be more confident.

"I want to go to the mountain again tomorrow." Lin Mu decided to go search again, maybe they will find some good things.

"Alright, I will accompany you."

---

Extra 1 Part A Qiuqiu and Casso(PS: This is not chapter 42)

Qiuqiu knows that he is round, fluffy, very cute, and is the best choice for a pet. In Qiuqiu's mind, he fantasized how good it is to be someone's pet! To have someone to feed him, love him, and also play together with him, what a good deal. So, Qiuqiu decided to find a feeder for himself, and of course, his first choice is a female. This was Qiuqiu's goal when he left the Mist Forest.

The Mist Forest is one of the most peculiar places on the beastman continent. It is said no beastman ever came back out from the forest after entering, so the Mist Forest is a mysterious place in the hearts of many beastman.

As far as Qiuqiu could remember, he had already lived in the Mist Forest when he had memories. He ran around in the forest every day, but he had never seen his own kind, nor had he ever seen a beast that could be called his parents.

Qiuqiu has a best friend named Songsong, a giant chipmunk. Songsong likes to eat pinecone. Although Songsong's father, the old chipmunk often scolded Songsong for being a glutton, Qiuqiu can see that the old chipmunk loves Songsong very much. This makes Qiuqiu envious, but he couldn't find his parents to care for him.

Songsong: "I heard Dad said that he has never seen a beast like you before in the Mist Forest. You seem to just appear all of a sudden."

Qiuqiu was depressed because he couldn't find out anything about his parents. However, the Mist Forest is very beautiful, and there are many animals of his size that can be his friend. Qiuqiu's life is actually very happy. It's just that Qiuqiu will miss his parents when he is sleeping at night, thinking that if they are by his side, then Qiuqiu will have someone to care and love him as well.

The urge to search for his mother and father has been hidden in Qiuqiu's heart, so Qiuqiu's favourite thing to do every day is to run around in the Mist Forest. Although Qiuqiu told Songsong that he was just exploring and playing around, he actually wanted to find his parents or even his own kind. Just like Songsong has a lot of beasts that looked like him, like those little children?

But the Mist Forest is too big. When Qiuqiu was 3 years old, he still couldn't find the edge of the Mist Forest. Apart from that, the old chipmunk told Qiuqiu that there are many dangerous places in the Mist Forest. So, if he wants to find his parents, he can try to ask the fox.

The fox's cave is not very far from where the chipmunks live. The fox is bluish-black in colour and was in an aging stage, so the fox decided to spend the rest of his life in a cave located in the center of the Mist Forest. This is what Qiuqiu could think of because he thinks powerful beasts only come to live in the forest when they get older. From what he heard from the chipmunks, this fox was quite powerful and had been to many places in the Mist Forest. Qiuqiu listened to the old chipmunk's suggestion, and originally wanted to take Songsong with him, but Songsong was too afraid of the fox, so Qiuqiu had to go by himself.

At the risk of being eaten, Qiuqiu asked the big fox for advice. Fortunately, the fox seemed to be already full when he went to see the fox, lying lazily in the sun. Actually, Qiuqiu thinks that the real reason why the fox didn't eat him was not only because he(F) was full, but also because he(QQ) was too small; not enough stuff his(F) teeth. That's why he managed to escape the tragic fate of being ration.

Qiuqiu has a deep impression of that day. He remembered that when he cautiously came to the fox's cave, he saw a big fox lying in front of the cave, and yawned lazily at him. However, the fox suddenly pounced at the next moment and pressed Qiuqiu under his paws. When Qiuqiu thought that he is going to die, he lamented his bad luck, and regretted that he still hasn't found his parents yet, he realized that the fox didn't do anything further; just pressing him(QQ) under his paws, and continued to lie down to sunbathe.

This fox is called Kanos, and he is the only non-white fox in the Mist Forest. Because the colour of his coat is different from other foxes, he is shunned by them. However, as Kanos grew up, his strength was significantly powerful than other foxes. He explored the Mist Forest and fought with other beasts, which made Kanus felt very interesting. But as time went by, it became more and more boring for Kanos. Although the Mist Forest is large, as if no one could ever touch the border, in Kanos' eyes it was just a boring scenery. He started thinking to leave the Mist Forest, he wanted to see the scenery outside.

All the animals in the forest know that that bluish-black fox left the Mist Forest. They think that Kanos is very powerful because he is the only beast who managed to get out of the Mist Forest. For some reason, many animals couldn't get near to the edge of the Mist Forest, so they couldn't leave.

Kanos's return was as sudden as his departure. It was 10 years later, Kanos appeared again in the forest. To everyone's surprise, Kanos came back with a body full of wounds. Even the powerful Kanos was injured in the outside world, it made the beasts in the forest even less desire to go out. Kanos stopped running around in the forest to find other beasts to fight like he used to. He became very quiet and liked to laze in the sun.

In Qiuqiu's mind, he had imagined countless ways for Kanos to eat him. Just when he was scared to death, Kanos yawned and asked lazily, "What do you little meatball want with me?" As he said that, he revealed his sharp fangs, "Are you sending yourself to my doorstep as food?"

The teeth glinted. It scared Qiuqiu, and he screamed, "No! I don't want to be eaten, I just want to ask you something!"

Kanos put his head on his forelegs and looked at Qiuqiu, who was not even half as big as his own head. His voice was still lazy as he asked, "What do you want to ask me?"

"Have you ever seen a beast like me?" Qiuqiu asked quietly. After all, he is still under the fox's paws, and his life is not under his own control now.

Kanos' eyes were half-open, "Like you…" He loosened his paws and took a closer look at Qiuqiu's figure. "Hmm, I have seen small and roundish beast similar to your size, but I have never seen one that looked like you."

Kanos' words made Qiuqiu very disappointed and agitated.

"Why not?! Aren't you the most knowledgeable beast here? Aren't you the only beast that can leave the Mist Forest? How is it that you never have seen a beast like me before?!"

Kanos lifted his paw and flicked Qiuqiu away. "I've been to many places in the forest and outside the forest, but I indeed have never seen a beast like you." As he said that, he revealed his sharp fangs again.

Qiuqiu flinched and ran away.

Kanos watched as Qiuqiu ran away, and muttered, "Outside is not good anyway." He looked at the distance, and his gaze was lonely. Then, Kanos swiftly returned to his lazy state and rested his head on his front paws to continue sunbathing.

Not able to obtain information about his parents, Qiuqiu was very depressed, so he wandered aimlessly in the forest. And this is the day where Qiuqiu met a special person. After that, he came to know about his own background and made a special decision — He is leaving the Mist Forest. He managed to know more about himself, and he listened to that man telling him how charming and colourful is the world outside the forest in a tempting tone. Qiuqiu decided to fulfil the responsibilities that that person told him. It was not difficult anyway, plus he also get to check out the outside world that he has been curious at, Qiuqiu feels nothing's wrong with his decision.

After saying goodbye to his best friend Songsong, Qiuqiu was sent out of the forest by that person. The different scenery outside the forest made Qiuqiu delighted. He happily ran around the entrance of Mist Forest to express his excitement. But after he calmed down, Qiuqiu began to worry – Where should he go?

Qiuqiu: "According to that strange person, females like cute animals, and females are precious. It is best to be their pet. Hehe, how good is it to have someone to feed me and play with me." And so, Qiuqiu's goal is to find a female to be his owner, and then live a good life.

Although Qiuqiu's ideas were good, the difficult part is that the females in this world are so rare that they do not leave their tribe at all. Not able to find any tribes nearby, Qiuqiu ran around like a headless fly. Compared with those beasts with wings, Qiuqiu, who can only rely on his four short stubby legs, it was very hard for him to travel around. Other than that, he also has to avoid being captured by those carnivorous animals. Although he really doesn't have much meat on himself, Qiuqiu doesn't want to be the meat in other beast's teeth.

Because he still hasn't found any tribe after a long time, Qiuqiu lost his patience. He decided not to look for any females, and he was too lazy to walk. In the forest, he found a small abandoned nest. He doesn't know what kind of animals lived there before, but Qiuqiu decided to settle there.

In an unfamiliar forest, with no friends around, also the food is unfamiliar as well. He saw a lot of foods that were not seen in the Mist Forest before, but many foods in the Mist Forest cannot be found here too. These make Qiuqiu miss the days he lived in the Mist Forest. Qiuqiu laid in his nest at night, looking out at the black sky outside the hole, and began to feel homesick. He missed Songsong, he missed the old chipmunk uncle, he missed the flowers and fruits in the Mist Forest…

Just when Qiuqiu is feeling sad for himself, a sudden drop of water carried by the wind fell on the tip of his nose.

"It's raining?" Qiuqiu felt even sadder.

"What amazing beastman continent? What owner who is good at cooking? Lies! Wu wu wu… Songsong, I was deceived…"

After the rain.

Qiuqiu came to the river to drink water, and he looked at his reflection in the water, "I'm still very cute. It's a pity that I couldn't find an owner." Qiuqiu held his face with both paws, continued, "So cute, what a pity." The idea of finding a feeder for himself has always been in Qiuqiu's heart.

The day when he met Lin Mu, Qiuqiu has just found a piece of mushroom. The delicious mushroom made Qiuqiu very happy. But then he sensed a dangerous aura approaching him, causing him to hide away subconsciously. This aura was stronger than any beasts he has ever meet, but then it gave off a slightly different feeling from those carnivorous beasts (Author note – Still remember the scene where Patrik caught Qiuqiu? The aura Qiuqiu mentioned was intentionally released by Patrik so that other beasts can't get close to them).

Qiuqiu stayed still while hiding in the grass, and then he saw two people approaching. He quietly looked at the two people and secretly thought 'These two people looked like that 'strange man'. Especially the shorter one." Qiuqiu decided to eavesdrop.

"Patrik, the air here is so fresh, feels very comfortable to take a deep breath. Unlike my place, there is a hint of bad smell in the air."

"En."

"Ai, I still haven't found the vegetable I want. It's not early anymore, let's pick some fruits and go back. What do you think?"

…

Qiuqiu does not know why he was found, he felt extremely uneasy being caught in Patrik's hand, whose aura is pressing on him. He struggled desperately but couldn't get away, which made him yelped in fright. At the next second, he was sent to another person's arms. This person's aura is soft, making Qiuqiu feel comfortable and at ease. Listening to this person praising his cuteness, and said he(LM) likes his appearance, Qiuqiu generously decided to let this female called Lin Mu be his owner. Although Lin Mu named him Qiuqiu, which he found was unpleasant, but this name was much better than others, hence he reluctantly accepted it.

Qiuqiu was very happy with his new owner, so he decided to give him some gifts. Thinking of the delicious mushrooms he just discovered, Qiuqiu generously decided to share it. As expected, his owner liked his gift very much, making Qiuqiu feel proud.

When he was carried back to the beastman team by Lin Mu, Qiuqiu discovered that there were many others like them. He thinks that these people are of the same kind, and he felt that it is really good for everyone to live together like this. Just like the chipmunk family in the Mist Forest, many beasts living together felt very lively.

Qiuqiu really hated Casso when he first saw Casso. You ask why? Very simple, Casso is also very cute.

Qiuqiu knows that he himself is small, round, fluffy and, very cute. But Casso is also fat, fluffy, and silly, plus he is small as well. 'That person' said it before that females like this kind of fluffy and cute animal the most. The proof is his owner likes to rub Casso's head whenever he saw him, his owner thinks Casso is cute. So in Qiuqiu's heart, Casso will compete for affection with him, causing his owner to not like him(QQ) as much. That's why Casso is the most annoying beast.

Chewing the grilled meat in his mouth, Qiuqiu couldn't help sighing that it is really delicious. That man was right, this owner can provide him with delicious food indeed. It's just that this stupid wolf is too annoying for eating so much. Qiuqiu decided in his heart to snatch Casso's food.

But how can the greedy Casso tolerate other beast snatching his food? Although Casso knew that Qiuqiu is Lin Mu's pet, he doesn't concern himself with this tiny beast at the size of his head. When Qiuqiu wants to snatch his food, he will push Qiuqiu away with his head. But who is Qiuqiu, he is the beast that came out of the Mist Forest. Being pushed away is nothing, how could he give up? So Qiuqiu continued to rush forward to snatch Casso's food.

Casso became impatient. "Of all the people here, why do you insist on snatching mine?"

"Because I disliked you. Who ask you to be so cute when you are obviously a wolf ?" Qiuqiu replied in his heart. In Qiuqiu's mind, wolves are powerful animals, unlike this little thing in front of him now. Qiuqiu continued his snatching attempt until Lin Mu picked him up with a smile. The grilled mushrooms Lin Mu gave him was super delicious. Qiuqiu felt happy that he has an owner to feed him from now on.

Casso was very curious about that little animal named Qiuqiu that Lin Mu brought back. He had never seen such a little animal. It's fat and chubby, makes him wonder if Qiuqiu tastes good or not. Seeing Qiuqiu resting beside the tree to bask in the sun, Casso stepped up. He squatted in front of Qiuqiu, as he checked him out in curiosity. "Father said he had never seen such an animal like you, even Uncle Patrik said the same. How strange." He reached out a paw and poked Qiuqiu, "Hey, what kind of beast are you? I haven't seen anything like you before."

Qiuqiu was lazy to answer, and he didn't even bother to open his eyes. He turned around and used his b*tt to face Casso.

Casso saw Qiuqiu ignoring him, and poked Qiuqiu with his paw again, "Hey, why aren't you answering my question?" After asking that, Casso suddenly thought of something and said, "I forgot, you are just an ordinary beast and not a beastman. Of course, you can't understand what I said." Thinking of the other party is just an ordinary small animal, Casso walked proudly in front of Qiuqiu and said, "You are just an ordinary small animal. Such courage you have there to snatch my food. I'm warning you now if you try to snatch my food again, I will eat you. Hehe." After he said that, he opened his mouth to reveal little wolf teeth.

Qiuqiu stood up angrily, took a swipe at Casso's face and ran away immediately. Don't see that Qiuqiu looked tiny, his claw strength is not small. Casso cried out in pain, and try to grab Qiuqiu angrily.

Annoyed, Casso vowed to tear Qiuqiu to pieces. What an infuriating guy for an ordinary beast. Qiuqiu fled in the crowd, with Casso chasing behind, causing commotions. Finally, Qiuqiu jumped into Lin Mu's arms and hid there.

Casso yelled angrily at Qiuqiu, "You useless little beast, don't hide in Lin Mu's arms. See I don't tear you to pieces." Casso angrily ground his teeth, "Come down this instant!"

Qiuqiu made jiji sound at Casso and gave him a look of contempt. Then he buried himself into Lin Mu's arms and faced his b*tt to him.

"Idiot Casso, stupid wolf!" Qiuqiu scolded Casso many times in his heart, many times.

Casso is fuming in anger. He thinks that even as an ordinary beast, Qiuqiu should not hide in the arms of females to seek protection. He must tear Qiuqiu into pieces.

Lin Mu thought that they were playing around, so he smiled and rubbed Casso's head. But thinking that Casso is not an ordinary beast, he took back his hand and placed Qiuqiu on Casso's back.

"Casso is bigger than Qiuqiu (in size), so Casso must tolerate Qiuqiu a bit more."

Qiuqiu did not expect Lin Mu to put him on Casso's back, nor Casso too. Hence, Casso became furious that an ordinary beast is riding on his back. This is an insult to him, so Casso threw Qiuqiu on the ground angrily and pounced to bite him.

Lin Mu was stunned by the unexpected situation.

Stunned by the incoming attack, Qiuqiu froze on the ground and forgot to escape.

Fortunately, Damon stopped his child in time, saving Qiuqiu from the danger of being killed by a wolf 'kiss'.

Held in Lin Mu'a arms, Qiuqiu felt angry and aggrieved. He didn't expect that the abominable little fat wolf is really going to kill him, so awful. Qiuqiu felt despair in his heart, staying in Lin Mu's arms listlessly.

Although Casso is still angry with Qiuqiu, his anger dissipated as quickly as it comes. Thinking that the other party is just an ordinary beast, and is also Lin Mu's pet, Casso decided not to be petty with Qiuqiu. Of course, this is also what Damon taught him. After all, everyone can see that Lin Mu likes Qiuqiu very much, and Lin Mu is also very good to Casso. If Casso really hurt Qiuqiu, Lin Mu will definitely be sad.

During a meal, Qiuqiu slumped in Lin Mu's arms and stopped snatching Casso's food, while Casso only cared about eating and would not care about Qiuqiu. Qiuqiu watched as Casso joyfully ate his food, and felt a bit unhinged. This fat little thing actually dared to try eating him. Qiuqiu decided to be arch enemies with Casso. After Qiuqiu made up his mind, he started to snatch Casso's food again. How could he let Casso eat so smoothly?

Casso saw Qiuqiu wants to snatch his food again, and was about to kick him away, but Misha picked Qiuqiu up and fed Qiuqiu with food to please him. Casso swore that Qiuqiu's smug look must be trying to provoke him, his gaze was filled with contempt. He was about to get angry but was stopped by his father again.

"Eat your food properly, why are you trying to get angry with an ordinary beast? Eat quickly!" Then he whispered a reminder to Casso, "Do you want Misha to teach you a lesson?"

In Casso's eyes, Misha is the most unreasonable and savage person. But then because he(M) is a female, he has to listen to him(M). Casso glared resentfully at Qiuqiu eating skewers smugly and muttered, "Humph, only know to make the females protect you." Then he looked at the happy Misha holding Qiuqiu with a smile, "Females only like good-looking but useless thing, humph!"

In the following days, Qiuqiu and Casso will fight for food every time they eat. In normal days, Casso will chase Qiuqiu all over the woods. Qiuqiu will also provoke Casso every day and ended getting chased everywhere. The two have been in a state of loathing each other for days.

Lin Mu often can see Qiuqiu holding his paws up trying to get a swipe while Casso is not paying attention to him, and then Casso will get up and started chasing him. Lin Mu knew that there is a conflict between the two, but he did not try to intervene to resolve it. After all, isn't it amusing to watch them being noisy?

For so many days, Casso and Qiuqiu met each other with baring teeth. This scene was not uncommon; hence it was quite surprising to see Qiuqiu huddling under a tree motionless today. Casso was very doubtful towards Qiuqiu's corpse-like state. He saw that Qiuqiu did not come to provoke himself today, nor did he tried to grab his food. That was very strange. If it was the usual, even if Casso is eating fruit, Qiuqiu will go to grab it. Unlike now, even if he is eating not far away, Qiuqiu still didn't move.

Casso walked in front of Qiuqiu and saw Qiuqiu listlessly opened his eyes, looked at him, then closed his eyes again. Seeing him like this, Casso was very uncomfortable. He extended his paw to poke Qiuqiu but was ignored. Seeing that Qiuqiu didn't respond, Casso pushed him again. Qiuqiu's body moved a bit, but still no response. Casso became irritable, he won't believe that he couldn't make Qiuqiu move.

Nudging Qiuqiu with his head, Casso pushed Qiuqiu with his front paws. Qiuqiu's body was originally round, and when pushed by Casso, he rolled forward like a ball. But even then Qiuqiu didn't get angry and didn't respond. Casso pressed Qiuqiu with his paws and asked, "What's wrong with you today? So weird!"

Qiuqiu just looked at him weakly and didn't respond. Casso looked down, picked Qiuqiu by the scruff with his mouth and left.

---

Extra 1 Part B Qiuqiu and Casso

Casso has decided to take Qiuqiu to a place. They came in front of a small tree. The tree was very strange in shape, and some of its branches grew to form a flat area like a platform. After Casso placed some branches and thatch in it, this place became his secret den. Casso picked Qiuqiu up and jumped into his nest, then placed Qiuqiu beside him. Seeing Qiuqiu still pretending to be motionless, he nudged him with his body,

"Hey, this is my secret den, even Misha doesn't know about it." From here, you can see the small river across from the gap between the trees.

Upon hearing Casso's words, Qiuqiu looked up and followed his gaze at the opposite river.

Casso: "Hey, what's the matter with you today? You didn't even come to snatch my food."

Qiuqiu glanced at Casso and flopped down on the thatch again. Casso knew that Qiuqiu is intelligent and could understand what they were talking about, although Qiuqiu could not speak for himself.

"I'll go down for a while, wait here for me and don't run around." Casso jumped off and ran away.

Qiuqiu watched as Casso ran away to somewhere and continued lying on his back. He pressed his four short legs together and curled up, looking even more like a ball now.

Actually, the reason why Qiuqiu is listless is simple – Lin Mu forgot to feed him food. The fact that Lin Mu has forgotten to feed him was not a big deal, but it happened today when Qiuqiu is feeling homesick. Lin Mu didn't feed him like he used to, so the homesick Qiuqiu started to think negatively in a depressed mood, resulting in an even lower mood.

Actually, there were few reasons why Lin Mu didn't feed him as usual. First, because he was a little busy1. Secondly, it was because Qiuqiu always tried to snatch Casso's food. Hence, in Lin Mu's opinion, as long as Casso had Qiuqiu, he won't go hungry.

Casso came back with a big fruit in his mouth. He placed the fruit beside Qiuqiu, and the orange-yellow fruit exuded a tantalizing sweet fragrance.

"I'm giving this to you to eat."

Qiuqiu gave Casso a puzzled look, then sat up and looked at the fruit. Being stared so much, Casso became embarrassed intentionally said in a grumpy tone, "What are you looking at?! I already gave you food, why are you not eating?!"

Qiuqiu thinks that Casso is acting quite strange, but also very interesting. He was about to hug the fruit to chew on it when Casso suddenly took the fruit back. A kacha sound and Casso has bitten the fruit into half. Then another kacha, each half of the fruit was divided into two again.

"This fruit is too big for you. I've helped you to divide it into smaller sizes so that it's easier for you to eat. Eat it quickly!" Casso felt proud of himself to be able to think of a small detail like this.

Qiuqiu looked at the bitten and messy-looking fruit, and couldn't help rolling his eyes at Casso. He thought to himself in disgust, 'It's all covered with your saliva, still making other people eat it!' But he still took one to nibble. Qiuqiu thought in his heart, 'It's because I am hungry right now, I'm definitely not feeling grateful!"

Two small ones have to work together to finish the fruit. Of course, Casso is responsible for eating the rest that Qiuqiu cannot finish. Qiuqiu didn't feel uncomfortable anymore after he is full. He laid in Casso's nest and began to sleep. Casso felt that Qiuqiu should be back to normal. Don't think that he didn't notice that eye roll just now. Seeing Qiuqiu sleeping, Casso started to feel a little sleepy too, so he fell asleep beside Qiuqiu.

When the two woke up, strictly speaking, they were awakened by the tempting aroma of grilled meat. Originally the group of drifter beastman doesn't eat lunch, but ever since Lin Mu joined them, they have developed the habit of eating lunch. The two small ones jumped out of the nest and immediately ran towards the gathering spot.

Qiuqiu jumped into Lin Mu's arms and was instantly cured when Lin Mu gave him a skewer of grilled meat. The delicious snow fungus soup makes Qiuqiu very happy as well.

Casso couldn't help but roll his eyes at Qiuqiu's joyful expression. Lin Mu said he is a glutton, but he thinks Qiuqiu is the real glutton here, even forgot to be angry with the food in sight.

Their relationship became better ever since they shared that fruit together. Sharing food has always been a symbol of deep friendship between beastman, although Casso didn't think about that when he gave the fruit out. But after he suddenly realized that he had shared a fruit with Qiuqiu, as a very conservative beastman, Casso decided to regard Qiuqiu as his good friend in the future, although he is an ordinary beast. But Qiuqiu is very smart and able to understand him, so Casso doesn't mind him being an ordinary beast now.

After Casso decided to regard Qiuqiu as a good friend, he started playing with Qiuqiu and didn't mind Qiuqiu snatching his food anymore. He also likes to follow Qiuqiu to run around. Looking at Qiuqiu sleeping in the shade of a tree, he somehow felt Qiuqiu looked cute and round the longer he stared. No wonder Lin Mu likes Qiuqiu so much. Casso laid down next to Qiuqiu, but Qiuqiu seemed to feel hot, so he shifted a little bit to the side again.

Misha sees Casso running around with Qiuqiu every day, and they didn't even ask him to join when they went out to play. Seeing that Casso is sleeping with Qiuqiu under the tree, Misha silently approached, wanting to take Qiuqiu away. Misha complained in his heart, he also liked Qiuqiu, but why won't Qiuqiu play with him? Just when Misha is about to reach out, Casso suddenly opened his eyes.

"What are you doing, Misha?"

Being found out, Misha rightfully replied, "Of course to play with Qiuqiu."

"He is sleeping now."

"I want to hug him even if he's sleeping," as he said that, he picked Qiuqiu up. Then he humphed at Casso and said proudly, "Look, Qiuqiu can also fall asleep in my arms." After that, he gently touched Qiuqiu's hair with his hand.

"Hmph!" Casso humphed at Misha too and muttered in his heart, "Misha is very willful, not as good as Lin Mu."

Qiuqiu woke up in Misha's arms shortly because Misha keeps touching him; it's either touching his ears or pulling at his little paw. Sighing in Misha's arms, 'You can't even let this beast sleep, what an abuse.' Of course, this was said in his heart; he can't say it out.

On the days when they temporarily camped to rest, Qiuqiu followed Lin Mu to find food, and they managed to discover a lot of delicious food. This was the most gratifying thing for Casso and Qiuqiu, the glutton duo. As time passed, Casso developed the habit of following Qiuqiu around. Originally, Qiuqiu slept with Lin Mu, but Uncle Patrik is pursuing Lin Mu, and since the accident that day, Uncle Patrik has pulled Lin Mu to sleep together, so Casso asked Qiuqiu sleep together with him.

Talking about the accident that day, Casso also came running together with the beastmen when he heard the roar. But when he arrived, he only saw the stranger beastman that has been bitten to death by Patrik, and the two men hugging each other in the river. Compared with Casso, Qiuqiu saw that his owner being happily hugged by Patrik, and he didn't want to accept it. His owner is going to be cheated away.

"Qiuqiu, Uncle Patrik and Lin Mu are sleeping together, so you better don't sleep with them."

Qiuqiu knows that Patrik is pursuing his owner, which has become more obvious recently, and it seems that his owner has no intention of refusing as well. It will be bad for him to sleep together with them. After all, he is also a beast, although the other beastman always says that he is an ordinary beast, but Qiuqiu knows that he is not any ordinary beast. How can he be ordinary? He is not ordinary!

"So, where do I sleep?"

Casso was waiting for Qiuqiu to ask this and replied, "You can sleep with me; my nest is quite big." Casso's nest has initially been next to his father, Damon, but now he has moved to some distance away from others.

Qiuqiu saw Casso's nest was okay and nodded. Since then, Qiuqiu stayed with Casso.

Qiuqiu has a secret. He can actually speak the beastman's language. But according to 'that person', he can't be a pet if he knows how to speak. Thinking about the benefits he gets from being Lin Mu's pet, Qiuqiu decided to live his life only saying ji ji ji.

Staying together with Qiuqiu every day, naturally, there will be times that they get into disagreements, but every time Casso will apologize first. After they reconciled, they will continue to run around together every day.

Casso discovered Qiuqiu's secret that he can speak due to an accident. They were playing in an area with lush grass that day. Qiuqiu's figure was small, and he deliberately curled up to make it harder for Casso to find him. On the other hand, Casso's figure isn't much taller, but he can detect Qiuqiu by his scent. So Casso moved slowly, following his scent. The reason why he didn't quickly go to catch Qiuqiu was because Casso thought it's fun to play like this. He will move silently then give Qiuqiu a scare when he found him. Casso was imagining how Qiuqiu would jump in shock, didn't notice that a huge scorpion was quietly following him.

Initially, Qiuqiu was staying low in the grass, secretly spying on Casso. He was small in size, so his point of view gets even lower when lying down on the ground. When Casso passed by, he saw the scorpion behind Casso is about to attack him. He can see that the scorpion is an extremely poisonous insect, so he immediately shouted, "Casso, run!"

The moment Casso heard the warning, he swiftly evaded the attack. Then he rushed over to Qiuqiu's location, picked him up by the scruff, and ran away. The giant scorpion missed the target and started chasing them in exasperation. Its movement was very fast. Casso sped up and spread his wings. Although he can't fly very high now, it is better than walking through the grass.

Casso stopped on a big tree and saw that they had thrown the scorpion off their trail. So, he flew down from the tree, then dropped Qiuqiu from his mouth when they reached the ground. He stared at Qiuqiu vigilantly, "Say, you obviously speak beastman language, why haven't you told us about it?"

Casso worried that Qiuqiu is a spy. He heard Lin Mu said that there are numerous beastman who want to destroy them. Lin Mu also told him many stories about war; that's where he came to know the word 'spy'. He hates spies.

Qiuqiu could feel Casso's strong attitude towards him, which made him very wronged; he doesn't want to care for Casso anymore.

Seeing that Qiuqiu is not talking, Casso poked him with his paw, "Speak, you must be a spy!"

Qiuqiu didn't know what a spy is, but Casso's tone made him angry, sad, and aggrieved. It wasn't that he didn't want to speak, 'that person' told him not to. He clearly spoke to save Casso, but Casso still treats him like this.

"Talk!"

Wuwuwu… Qiuqiu cried.

Casso was dumbfounded; he never thought Qiuqiu would cry. Listening to Qiuqiu's crying, Casso felt uncomfortable in his heart.

"What are you crying about? I haven't done anything to you yet. Even if you are a spy, we won't kill you."

Qiuqiu continued to cry with his b*tt facing Casso.

Seeing that Qiuqiu is crying even louder, Casso scratched his head with his paw and wondered what to do.

Qiuqiu was crying so badly because the grievance made him feel homesick again.

Casso turned to Qiuqiu, and comforted, "Don't cry, it's not a big deal. I'll let you go, so they won't hit you."

Casso thought Qiuqiu cried because his identity as a spy was discovered. Didn't Lin Mu say that spies are afraid of being seen through? Although he felt great to be able to detect a spy, he is not happy at all with Qiuqiu crying so sadly. (Spies or whatnot, Lin Mu has complicated the children2)

Qiuqiu cried and shifted his body to continue facing Casso with his b*tt.

Casso had no choice but to listen to Qiuqiu crying and scratching his ears.

Qiuqiu's crying slowly decreased, and finally, he stopped making any sound.

Casso stepped forward carefully and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Qiuqiu didn't respond.

Casso touched him gently with his paws, but still no response. Then he leaned closer and heard Qiuqiu's even breathing. "Fell asleep." He picked up Qiuqiu and went to his secret den. Looking at the sleeping Qiuqiu, Casso sighed; he didn't want Qiuqiu to be a spy.

Qiuqiu woke up at night. When he opened his eyes and saw Casso, he got angry again and ignored Casso. Casso tried to approach him, but he waved his small paw to express that he will hit him. Casso was helpless, "Qiuqiu, let's talk. You have to tell me why you pretended to be an ordinary beast." Qiuqiu ignored him. Casso nudged him with his body, "Qiuqiu, tell me, tell me."

"I can't be Lin Mu's pet if I can talk," Qiuqiu said very quietly, but fortunately, Casso put his head close enough to hear it.

"Why can't you be a pet if you can talk?"

"Of course, you can't be a pet anymore if you can talk. Look, you can speak, so Lin Mu doesn't take you as a pet."

So it's like that?

"What's good about being a pet?" Casso doesn't think being a pet for others is good. Have to get rubbed and kneaded by other people, not good at all.

"Of course it's better to be a pet. You will have someone to love you and feed you."

Casso couldn't understand what's good about that. Although Lin Mu made delicious food for him, he wouldn't want Lin Mu to treat him like a pet just for the sake of eating. Casso thought for a while and said, "So you just want to be a pet, not a spy."

Although Qiuqiu doesn't know what a spy is, it doesn't sound like a good thing, so he snapped back, "I am not a spy! You are a spy!"

Since Qiuqiu is not a spy, Casso is not worried anymore. He thought for a while regarding the reason why Qiuqiu chose to be a pet. "Qiuqiu, I can also love you and feed you. Then, you can be my pet." How happy is it to have the cute Qiuqiu to be his pet.

"Never!"

"Why?" Casso was disappointed.

"You can't make delicious food like my owner did."

Hence, Casso doesn't feel sad anymore. After all, he really can't make delicious food like Lin Mu.

"Casso, you have to promise me one thing." Qiuqiu looked at Casso seriously.

"What is it? You can say it."

"Do not tell others that I can speak, especially to my owner. This is a secret between us; no one can know." If Qiuqiu knows what a pinky promise is, he will stick out his little finger to hook Casso's finger. After all, being a pet is his goal.

A secret between them, and no other people will know, that is to say, he and Qiuqiu are best friends; hence Casso readily agreed. With a shared secret between them, they are now even more intimate. Even when they have built a house in the valley, Qiuqiu still sleeps with Casso. However, no matter how good their relationship is, they will fight once a while. For example, Qiuqiu ignored Casso, and Casso is unwilling to follow Lin Mu up the mountain.

In fact, the reason for their argument is very simple.

Qiuqiu and Casso were lying in a small cave. This cave is very small and quite close to the salt cave. They found it during the rainy season, and this has become a secret base for both of them.

"Qiuqiu, are you a beastman?" Casso knew that beasts who can talk are definitely not ordinary beasts.

"I do not know."

"It would be nice if Qiuqiu is a female, then you could be my partner in the future."

When Casso said this, he suddenly thought of the fact that even two beastman could be partners, but Qiuqiu humphed before he could add on.

"I don't want you to be my partner. Look at your chubby appearance, definitely not as great like our tribe leader. If I'm looking for a partner, I will definitely look for one like Patrik, hehe." Patrik is a tribe leader, and a tribe leader can eat the best food.

"But Uncle Patrik is Lin Mu's partner. You can't fight for partners with your owner." Casso was furious.

"Even so, I won't choose you."

"I am also very powerful. I am a winged wolf. You can see how powerful I am in the future by looking at my father."

"Still not as great as our tribe leader."

Casso knew that even if he grew up, he would not be as powerful as Patrik. Seeing Qiuqiu looking like he won't marry if it's not Patrik (is there?)3, he ran away angrily.

When Casso ran away, Qiuqiu waved his small paws, "Little stingy guy." Laying on the ground, he contemplated the possibility with Casso, "Partners with Casso huh…" Thinking of Casso taking care of him, listening to his words and compromise, Qiuqiu feels that he can actually consider it. (You are just 4 years old now, Qiuqiu)4

…

On the next day, he found that Casso is still sulking, ignoring him(QQ). Qiuqiu is such an arrogant beast. So, if you ignore me, I will ignore you. This is how the two started a cold war.

Qiuqiu initially thought that Casso would come and apologize to him the next day, just like before so that he could forgive him. But he didn't expect that Casso would still be angry. Qiuqiu became angry as well, but being ignored by Casso made him listless. Hence, when Lin Mu's team returned, Qiuqiu saw that Casso was lying in front of the door and had no intention of reconciling with him. That caused Qiuqiu to ran away in anger.

Casso actually regretted making Qiuqiu angry, but Qiuqiu keep ignoring him, and he didn't know what to do. And it was clearly Qiuqiu's fault. But seeing him come back and then ran away, Casso still couldn't rest assured and chase after Qiuqiu.

Qiuqiu ran to the small cave and started sulking. Casso is a meanie for treating him like this.

Casso saw Qiuqiu lying in the thatched nest, hiding his head, and stepped forward, "Qiuqiu."

"Aren't you ignoring me? I'm ignoring you now." Qiuqiu's voice came from the thatch, which was a bit dull.

"But you said you want to be partners with Uncle Patrik. Of course I am angry."

Qiuqiu raised his head, "When did I say I want to be a partner with Patrik. I didn't!"

That's great, Casso was happy. However, when Casso recalled that Qiuqiu said that he would not be partners with him, he couldn't be happy anymore.

"You also said you don't want me to be your partner."

Qiuqiu embarrassedly scratched his fur, "If you want to be my partner, you have to give me all the delicious food in the future."

This condition is too simple. Hasn't he been giving all the delicious food to Qiuqiu?

"Alright." Casso happily sat beside Qiuqiu and said, "Qiuqiu, you have already promised me. When I grow up, you will be my partner."

Qiuqiu shyly agreed in a soft voice. Casso sticks his tongue and licks Qiuqiu in excitement.

"I have a partner now."

Therefore, it is really a tradition for beastman to find a partner since young.

---

Chapter 42 Searching for ingredients 1

Lin Mu woke up unusually early today, and it was still misty grey outside the house. Lin Mu is used to sleeping in Patrik's arms. Because he woke up earlier than usual today, he doesn't dare to move around, afraid to disturb Patrik in his sleep. Sighing in his heart, he can't sleep well with something in his mind. Then he turned to look at the sleeping Patrik. He gently rubbed against Patrik's shoulder and was subconsciously hugged by Patrik, making his head rest by his shoulder.

Lin Mu smiled, he likes this kind of life, being cared and loved by someone. He likes the simplicity here, there are no schemes or emotional betrayal, everyone here just wants to make their life better. Although their living conditions were not good, Lin Mu feels that as long as this person is beside him, nothing can be a problem.

When Patrik woke up, he saw Lin Mu smiling at him. But seeing that Lin Mu doesn't seem to notice that he is awake, it seems Lin Mu has zoned out again. However, waking up to his female staring at him in mesmerization early in the morning (are you are sure that zoning out can be considered being mesmerized?)1, it makes Patrik feels like a true beastman. With such a good start early in the morning, Patrik felt blissful, physically and mentally. Patrik couldn't help but lightly printed his lips on Lin Mu to wake him up.

Lin Mu looked at Patrik in confusion, then he became sober and said, "Oh, you are awake? Then let's get up quickly. We have so many things to do."

Patrik thought his Lin Mu is really cute as he watched Lin Mu in a hurry to get out of bed. He couldn't help placing another kiss on his forehead before nodding.

The two went to the river to wash. The early autumn morning gave people a feeling of refreshing coolness. Patrik watched Lin Mu gathering some water in his hands and sprinkled it gently on his face. His white cheeks were wet with water, indescribably refreshing. Sensing Patrik looking at him, Lin Mu gave him a smile. Patrik felt that Lin Mu's smile was more dazzling than sunshine.

Because the weather is not cold, Lin Mu did not wipe his face with an animal skin towel but let the water dry naturally. Although some animal skins are really soft, but for Lin Mu who is used to use modern towels, towels made of animal skins are really uncomfortable. Shaking some water of his hands, Lin Mu stood up to return with Patrik. Then he saw Lais and the rest coming to wash by the stream one after another.

Sasha: "Lin Mu, why are you earlier than us?" He yawned, "If it's not because we have to go out today, I really don't want to get up so early."

Lin Mu smiled and said, "Look at your sleepy head, go wash your face to refresh yourself. Remember to wash your messy hair with the Soapy fruit."

Sasha waved his hand, "Alright, alright, I was thinking of washing my hair as well."

Lin Mu didn't know what can be used to wash his hair at first. When chatting with the females, he complained about his greasy hair and that it was not washed cleanly, Lais told him that there is a fruit that has cleaning effect2. Lin Mu feels that it's working quite good after trying it.

So that turquoise fruit is called Soapy fruit. Sasha was wondering why it was called Soapy fruit and not any other name at that time.

"Because it's how we call it back in my hometown." Of course, Lin Mu is fooling Sasha. But Sasha still have some doubts, "Since you said it's called Soapy fruit back at your hometown, then why didn't you know about it earlier?"

"En, that is because I have never used it before."

Phil was curious about what Lin Mu used to wash his hair before this, but Sasha has helped him to ask that question.

"Then Lin Mu, what kind of item do you use for washing hair? I always feel that the things you have in your hometown are amazing. There are so many things that are different from what we have here."

In Lin Mu's mind, he thinks that there are not many things Earth have in common in this world. Even the things with the same function exist in different appearance in this world. For example, this Soapy fruit has the same function as the Chinese honey locust3, but it is oval-shaped like a mango. After peeling off the thick layer of green skin, there will be some greenish juice flowing out, giving off some unknown fruity scent, quite nice to smell. The flesh of the Soapy fruit is transparent light green colour, dotted with small black seeds in the middle, looking crystal clear. Lin Mu experimented with the fruit and found out that the pulp of the Soapy fruit can be used as soap to wash clothes, and the cleaning effect is excellent.

"We have shampoos for hair, shower gels for baths, facial cleansers for face, and soap and hand gel for hands."

Sasha sighed, "That sounds troublesome, ours are better. We just use the Soapy fruit for everything we wash."

Phil nodded. He felt the people in Lin Mu's hometown would have to bring a lot of things when travelling, so theirs are better. Soapy fruit can be used for washing everything, and it is convenient to carry around.

Thinking about it, Lin Mu felt that there will be so many consumer goods, probably because of social development, and people's needs have begun to increase. As the standard of living improves, they naturally want to live a comfortable and convenient life. Of course, when one is rich, luxury products were born. So, what exists in that era is still determined by the level of social development.

Lin Mu looked at the people in front of him. They wore animal skins and lived a prehistoric life, but Lin Mu believed that the gear of development would always lead people to a more modern life. However, when that time arrives, he doesn't know whether that development is a gain or a loss.

Back to the part where Lin Mu is talking with Sasha by the river…

Looking at Sasha's bright blond4 hair, Lin Mu couldn't help reaching out to touch his own hair, feeling that his hair has grown longer. The bangs in front had begun to obstruct his eyes, but because there were no scissors here, Lin Mu wasn't able to cut his hair. If you say to use a knife, Lin Mu will say he wouldn't do it. He was worried that he wouldn't be able to go out and see people after cutting his hair with a knife.

The female's hair is very long, probably because they have never have cut it. As for the beastman, their hair is uniformly long, but it is not comparable to the females, even though they have never cut their hair as well. Lin Mu thought, maybe because they can transform into beasts, their hair will not grow as long as the females. Thinking in this way, their hair would become their fur after transformation. Maybe this is the reason, just like how lion's mane stayed the same length even though it has never cut its hair. Even if the beastman doesn't care about his appearance, he will not casually cut his hair, worrying that his fur will be uneven after transformation. In that case, it must be very amusing to watch.

For breakfast, Lin Mu simply drank some fruit soup and ate stir fry vegetable. He still didn't like to eat meat in the morning. Although Patrik felt that Lin Mu is too thin and should eat more meat, but seeing Lin Mu resisted, and also gave him a long speech about his healthy diet, Patrik stopped persuading Lin Mu. This gave Lin Mu a sense of pride for his eloquence in words. But actually, Patrik simply thinks that although Lin Mu doesn't eat meat for breakfast, Lin Mu would eat some fried fish fillet and cold meat platter from time to time. Hence, it's nothing for Patrik if Lin Mu doesn't eat much meat during breakfast.

It was the most lively when everyone gets together for dinner; chatting, joking, and of course, some teeth grinding. Like Howth and Ba-Ao, but it was Howth who one-sidedly find faults with Ba-Ao.

Like now:

Howth scowled at the Ba-Ao sitting next to him and said, "Can't you stay away from me? Don't you know I get annoyed when I look at you?"

Ba-Ao was puzzled and lost. "But..".

"No buts." Howth hates seeing Ba-Ao acting like a pitiful large canine, don't think he is getting soft-hearted, he just feels annoyed when he sees Ba-Ao.

"Haven't we fought already? Didn't we reconcile after the duel?" Ba-Ao asked quietly.

Everyone knows that Ba-Ao is going to duel with Howth, but no one knows when and where exactly did they fight. Of course, they also don't know who won. If someone dares to ask Howth, he will throw them an icy glare, and Ba-Ao would avoid the question altogether. However, according to Lin Mu's speculation, Ba-Ao should have won. Otherwise, with Howth's character, he would have strongly expressed his disdain towards Ba-Ao every day if he really won. He can see Howth troubling Ba-Ao every time they gathered to eat lunch/dinner. Fortunately, the big guy didn't show any bad emotions except looking a little despaired5, so there is not much to worry about. Everyone has gotten used to this situation after a while.

However, Sasha blushing and glancing at Lin Mu from time to time; what does he(S) wants? Lin Mu didn't pay attention to Sasha's behaviour at the beginning. After all, Sasha is usually very focused on eating in the past, as if he hadn't eaten in years, and Locke would be waiting beside and serving him. However, during today's breakfast, though Sasha didn't stop eating, Lin Mu somehow found Sasha keep stealing glances at him, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Lin Mu might not be aware at first, but he couldn't help noticing it considering the frequency Sasha keep blushing at him. That caused Lin Mu to think, what is this situation? But then he calmly continues his meal because he knew Sasha will be anxiously coming to tell him later. If he doesn't start eating soon, Patrik will come to feed him personally. As expected, Sasha awkwardly came over when everyone finished eating and started cleaning up. Lin Mu smiled and waited to see what Sasha wanted to do; looked a bit silly, so funny.

"Lin Mu ah…"

"Yes?" Lin Mu felt that his eyes must be looking very sincere right now.

"Do we have any task today?"

Lin Mu nodded, "Yes, we still have to find ingredients. After all, we want to make a special meal for the beast god during God Offering day."

"Ah, I see," Sasha replied with a blush. "Can I not go this time? Locke doesn't need to go out hunting today. So he said he would take me out of the valley to play. Of course, we will also search for ingredients along the way." Sasha quickly promised.

"Oh, Locke said that huh…"

Lin Mu playfully stared at Sasha until his head bent lower and lower and answered, "Of course, you can go ahead to play."

Seeing how Sasha looked happy when he heard his words, Lin Mu felt that 'couple time' with partners is quite essential. At the moment, everyone lives together in one house. Although beastman are generally more open to intimacy, the females were not. Moreover, most of the beastman in the tribe doesn't have a partner yet, so it's better not to attack their fragile hearts with public displays of affection(PDA).

Since Sasha has gone for his 'couple time', Lloyd and Jason probably don't need to go hunting as well, so Lin Mu asked Lais to inform Phil to let their own beastman take them out for their couple time too. After all, there are many mountains in the valley. Searching for ingredients separately might have a greater possibility of finding good things. Moreover, the couples haven't been getting any couple time for so long. It's better for them to go out and enjoy the time. It's not a good thing for a beastman to 'endure' for a long time. He knows this too well.

Looking at the pairs happily flew off, Lin Mu smiled and said to Patrik, "Let's go too."

Patrik took Lin Mu's hand, they are going up the mountain. Lin Mu is going to look at the mountains southwards. He didn't plan to look outside the valley today. After all, the mountains are too vast. Since the 3 pairs of couples went out to play, someone should stay back to watch the door. Perhaps there was an unexpected discovery at his side.

After they left, the other beastmen started busying with their own task. Hunting team will go out to hunt, while the rest stayed back to build the houses. Although building the houses is important, God Offering day is the most crucial, so the beastmen were supportive of the females going out to play while searching for ingredients. After all, making good food offering to beast gods is very, very important to them, so they forgive those lucky beastman who can go out with their females.

Casso watched from a distance as the couples left the house. Since he and Qiuqiu couldn't help anything with the construction, he said to Qiuqiu next to him, "Let's go out and play, we can't help out anyway."

Qiuqiu looked at Lin Mu's distant figure and asked, "Why didn't my owner take me with him?"

"Lin Mu wants to be alone with Uncle Patrik, of course. Don't you want to be alone with me? Let's go."

Qiuqiu muttered his displeasure and pouted, "I don't want to go to that cave with snakes." Casso couldn't fly high enough to take him out of the valley so they could only go to the cave where Patrik had arranged many snakes as guards.

"They won't bite us."

"Nevertheless."

Casso contemplated, "Then we can only climb the mountain." Then he looked at the high peaks. "We can still play anyway. So let's go climbing, Qiuqiu. Lin Mu went to the south, so where should we go?" Casso lets Qiuqiu choose.

Climbing mountain sounds alright to Qiuqiu as long as he can rush back for dinner since both of them don't know how to cook. Qiuqiu turned to look at the mountains on all sides and found one with a higher slope. "Let's go to the north." After saying that, he took the lead and started running.

---

Chapter 43 Searching for ingredients 2

Sasha sat on Locke's beast form as they fly in the sky. Locke's beast form is a huge horned lion. From just looking at his spiky fur, one would think it feels very prickly, but in fact, Locke's fur is very soft. That's why, although Sasha felt that Patrik is a powerful person, which his beast form is very powerful as well, he(S) still likes Locke's beast form. Fluffy and comfortable, whether it's sitting on Locke or touching his fur. Unlike Patrik and Jason's beast form, although they looked huge, they are definitely uncomfortable to sit on. Therefore, the Sasha who consciously know that he cannot compare to Lin Mu in many aspects, believes that his partner has a much better beast form than Lin Mu's. Sasha has low-key showed off to Lin Mu before (about how great is Locke), although he didn't really dare to say it out to everyone, worrying that Patrik might challenge Locke to a duel.

"Sasha, where do you want to go?" Locke's voice became very thick and deep after transforming to his beast form.

Sasha glanced at all directions. They are flying in high altitude right now and can easily see the scenery in all directions, although not very clear. Sasha saw a patch of different colour in the southeast direction, but he didn't know what that was. Patting Locke's head, Sasha pointed to that place and said, "Do you see that? I want to go to that colourful place."

Locke turned to look at the direction Sasha pointed and flew towards the destination.

Sasha was fascinated by the sight in front of her when they arrived. "It's so beautiful here, there are so many flowers."

The location they landed at is a hillside, the scenery here is very peculiar, and the hillside was full of various flowers as if there is a huge flower wreath circling around the hillside. Such a peculiar scene makes one wonder if it is man-made or naturally grown. Sasha stood among the flowers, enjoying the scenery. The flowers grow together in various colour, but they don't feel messy, aesthetic wise. Sasha feels curious about this place, he must bring Lin Mu to take a look next time. This is really a sea of flowers.

Locke watched as Sasha admired those flowers in fascination. Although he didn't understand the beauty of these flowers, it's fine as long as Sasha like it. He picked up a golden coloured flower, but he didn't know what type of flower it is. The large golden petals were dazzling under the sunlight, just as charming as Sasha's hair colour. When Sasha squatted down to pick some flowers, Locke walked to Sasha and held out the golden flower in front of Sasha, "Give you."

Sasha didn't expect this silly guy to know to gift flowers to make people happy. He stood up and happily accepted the flower. Then he bowed his head to smell it. The floral fragrance was very light, but it smelled good.

"Thank you, I like it very much, it's beautiful."

Locke smirked, "Not as beautiful as Sasha." (Nonsense, even a piece of meat is more beautiful than a bunch of flowers in your eyes.)1

Sasha blushed a little when he heard Locke's words, "Humph, when did you learn to speak so nicely?"

Locke quickly said, "I'm sincere, I really think that Sasha looked better than all the flowers here." Locke heard other beastman said before that when describing the beauty of females, they would say that they are as dazzling as flowers, but Locke thinks none of the flowers here is comparable to his Sasha's beauty. Sasha is feeling sweet because of Locke's praise, but let's talk about Phil's side over there.

The main purpose of Phil's trip is to look for medicinal herbs. Lin Mu told him to collect more herbs during this season. Because in the late autumn and winter, the plants will become wither, and the herbs will be much difficult to find. He and Lloyd came to a place where the trees were densely grown. In his knowledge, medicinal herbs are generally easier to find, the deeper the jungle. They landed at the foot of a mountain, and because they were looking for herbs, they were in no hurry on their travel; hence the two slowly walked around the forest. Less than an hour after they started walking, Lloyd saw a thin layer of sweat on Phil's forehead. Feeling his heart aching for Phil, Lloyd crouched down and said, "Phil, come up, I will carry you."

"It's alright, Lloyd. I can go by myself." Phil lightly pushed at Lloyd's back embarrassedly and made him stand up.

Lloyd stood up but didn't budge. "Either you let me carry you on my back, or I will carry you on my arms(princess carry), pick one."

Phil bowed his head shyly. Although he stayed in the same room with Lloyd every day, he would still blush unconsciously when the other party stared at him.

Lloyd simply adored Phil shyly looking at him. So cute! He really couldn't understand why those beastman can't see the excellent points on Phil, but it was fortunate that no one can see it. Because then he can get Phil all to himself. He stepped forward to hug the small Phil in his arms, and deliberately moved closer to his small, pale ear and whispered, "Phil, which one will you choose?"

It was nice to see Phil blushing up to his ears.

Phil nervously replied, "Back, please carry me on your back." Then he heard Lloyd's loud laugh beside his ear.

"Phil, you are so cute." Then he kissed Phil hard on his face, before turning around and squatted down to let Phil get on his back.

Blushing, Phil thought to himself, 'Lin Mu is right. Beastman likes to tease people the most. Yes, tease. This new word is really appropriate.' He laid on Lloyd's back and reminded, "If you are tired, you must let me down."

Lloyd agreed with a smile and then carried Phil on his back. Holding Phil's b*tt in his hands, Lloyd's heart started to get bothered, so he couldn't help but gave it a squeeze. En, feels good.

Phil was already feeling embarrassed by the warm feeling coming from his b*tt. Who would have expected Lloyd to take further action? Phil's face was so red that blood can almost drip out. He felt that he had made the wrong choice. Being carried on his arms is definitely better than on his back

"Lloyd…" A hint of complaint could be heard in his voice, but the shy tone caused Lloyd's blood to boil.

It seems that their tribe leader's decision to build more houses is really wise. They need to make it as soon as possible, alas, his female is too shy. He really envied that their tribe leader could soon hold a ceremony with Lin Mu. Seriously, there isn't any beastman who could win their female so easily like their tribe leader. As expected of their tribe leader!

Lloyd calmed his mind, in case he turned into a 'beast right now. So he tried to not think about Phil's b*tt in his hands.

"Phil, Lin Mu and our tribe leader will hold their ceremony after the God Offering day, so when do we hold ours?"

"Ritual ah…" Then, no more sound could be heard.

"What?" Lloyd doesn't have any problems with his hearing, not to mention they are sticking close to each other right now.

"…what do you think?"

Phil's voice almost didn't come out of his throat, but Lloyd heard it, and the content was very satisfactory. If Phil is asking for his opinion, doesn't that mean he has a chance? Lloyd placed Phil down on the ground. Then he spread open the animal skin he carried with him on the ground, before pulling Phil down to sit on his lap. "I think we can have a good chat."

"En."

Lloyd tightened his hug and asked, "What do you think about holding the ceremony on the same day, together with our tribe leader? You liked and admired Lin Mu so much, so isn't it nice to hold our ceremony together with them?"

Phil felt happy, thinking that he would hold the ceremony with Lloyd, and even on the same day as their tribe leader. Although it was not in line with their principle as a female to make the males wait for several years, he still nodded gently.

Seeing that Phil agreed, Lloyd kissed him happily, "Phil, you are so cute."

Lloyd was immersed in the joy of a successful marriage proposal, while Locke is also successful with his proposal at the same time. Whether Sasha was persuaded by Locke's flowers attack or was touched by Locke's honesty and sincerity, the end result was Locke got his wish to make Sasha agree. Though he got his wish, they cannot forget about their task for God's offering day. They happily played in the mountains, and… also searching for ingredients along the way.

As for Lais and Jason, this pair was much calmer, because Lin Mu only got Lais to pick Sweety fruits2, worrying that some bird/bugs might spoil the fruits if they waited longer. Hence, their task is simple and clear, that is, pick Sweety fruits. The request was 'the more, the better'.

Jason's character has determined that he is not a person who talks much. Even in front of the female he likes, he still couldn't say any praises or nice words. He can't be like Patrik, whose character was initially cold, but gets passionate after meeting Lin Mu. Even Jason himself was surprised, surprised that Patrik was able to laugh like that. He didn't know why he couldn't do it and shifted his gaze at Lais. He thinks Lais is very good, but his character determined that he is someone who expressed his words with actions.

The area they came to was a place where most Sweety fruit trees grow. When they arrived, the two started working and filled up the two large baskets they brought. Jason could see that Lais is tired out. He raised his hand and wiped away his sweats then he took out the animal skin and a bamboo tube containing water from his back basket.

Jason: "Drink some water first."

Lais took the bamboo tube and drank the water while watching Jason spread the hide under the tree for him to sit. Busying for some time, although most of the physical work was done by Jason, Lais still feel very tired. It was nice to sit down under the shade and take a rest. He said to Jason, who was organizing the baskets, "You sit down too."

Both sat quietly, drinking water. Lais looked at Jason's well-defined face. He knew that Jason's character is cold, but he(J) treated him differently from other people. It's already enough for him to know about this. Lais shifted nearer to Jason and rested his head gently on Jason's shoulder.

Jason glanced at Lais and reached out to hug him gently.

Looking up, Lais could see Jason's expressionless face, but he didn't miss the slightly slanted corner of his mouth. Then he(L) lowered his head and smiled. Taking the initiative is correct. It seems that Lin Mu's decision to give them personal time to get along alone is very useful.

As for Lin Mu himself.

When the two of them reached to the foot of a mountain, Lin Mu looked up at the mountain and sighed. At the next moment, Patrik reached out to pick him up in a princess carry.

"Wah! What are you doing?"

"Relax, nobody will see us now." Patrik knew that Lin Mu can be shy easily.

Lin Mu glanced around at the uninhabited surroundings. Then he raised his chin up, hold onto Patrik's shoulders and proudly said, "Well then, this young master will generously let you hug as much as you want."

In fact, in the absence of other people, the princess carry actually feels comfortable, just like a humanoid walker. The current situation is the one carrying is satisfied, and the one being carried is comfortable. Along the way, Lin Mu was easily held by Patrik in his arms, while Patrik obediently heads towards to the destination Lin Mu pointed. For convenience sake, the princess carry turned into a child carry. But for Patrik, who has strong arms, it is really a piece of cake to let Lin Mu sit and hug him on his arms.

After walking for so long, Lin Mu sighed at Patrik's neck. He still hasn't encountered anything new that he like. "Why can't I find what I want?"

Patrik patted Lin Mu's face, "What does Mu Mu want to find?"

"I don't know." Lin Mu dipped his body down, "Put me down first."

Patrik placed Lin Mu on the ground. "Are you thirsty? Do you want to drink water?" Then he untied the bamboo tube tied around his waist. "Here, take a drink first. I'll give you a fruit later."

Lin Mu took the bamboo tube and walked beside Patrik. "Did you really just presented some raw meat for your previous God Offering day?"

Patrik shook his head. "We also presented various things that we think are precious."

"Precious things? Why does God want your precious things?"

"We just want to dedicate the best to our God."

"The best… what do you think is your best thing?"

"The best thing? Let me think about it." Patrik pretended to think, then looked at Lin Mu and said,

"Mu Mu, you are my most precious thing, but I am not willing to offer you to God."

"Tsk, you are a thing, your whole family is a thing." Although the words were loud, they cannot conceal the smile on his face.

"You…" Patrik suddenly stopped his footsteps and made a gesture to stay silent to Lin Mu.

Lin Mu mouthed his question to ask what was going on when he suddenly heard, "Cohen, I will stab you when you do that again… Mmm…"

Lin Mu's eyes widened in surprise and exclaimed silently, "Lal?!" Although he already knew that the two had an affair between them, it was the first time he bumped into their 'action'. In this world of passionate people, Cohen and Lal should be considered thoroughly gay. Although he feels that he and Patrik are also male x male, not many people recognize that fact.

The moment Lal's tone changed, Lin Mu hurriedly pulled Patrik and ran away from the scene. It wasn't that he is respectful towards their privacy or something, he was worried about his 'chrysanthemum'. Guys are animals who think with their lower body, not to mention Patrik has more than half of animal genes in his body. Lin Mu was afraid that Patrik will turn into an 'animal' on the spot. Who knew that Lal could make such bewitching sound?

However, Patrik leaned down and whispered in his ear, "Your cries are better than him."

Lin Mu was frightened and immediately escaped from the scene while pulling Patrik with him. But it was late. Patrik pressed him against a tree, kissing him fiercely, only letting go when his legs(LM) turned to jelly from the lack of oxygen. Just when Lin Mu was glad that he didn't die from suffocation, Patrik's lips came to his chest. He lightly licked the pinkish-red on Lin Mu's chest, making Lin Mu g r o a n involuntarily. When Patrik's hand came down to Lin Mu's lower body, he(P) couldn't help frowning.

Lin Mu is wearing a black long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans today. Although Patrik has seen the outfit more than once, he simply doesn't know how to get started. He did think that Lin Mu's clothes looked nice some time ago, but they are not as convenient as animal skin skirts at this moment. At least if Lin Mu is wearing an animal skin skirt, he can easily put his hand in. Just when Patrik is about to tear Lin Mu's only jeans apart, a 'jiji' sound was heard. Qiuqiu covered its eyes with its paws, and there was a blue ball of something beside it.

The familiar sound woke Lin Mu from indulgence.

"Qiuqiu." He quickly pushed Patrik away. They cannot be a bad influence on the children.

A swept of icy gaze from Patrik caused Qiuqiu to be frozen, but it still rolled its ball fearlessly to Lin Mu to let him see.

In Lin Mu's opinion, Qiuqiu is really a strong beast, to be able to lift a ball about the size of his own body. Lin Mu crouched down and took the blue ball in his hand. It should be a fruit, but why did Qiuqiu give him this? For him to eat? Then he saw Qiuqiu waving its little paws and gently swipe at the ball with sharp nails. No juice came out as Lin Mu thought it would, but some white powder poured out. Lin Mu squeezed a bit in his hand and rubbed against his fingers. It felt smooth.

"Not poisonous?"

Qiuqiu nodded, how could it give anything poisonous to Lin Mu?

Lin Mu took a whiff of the powder, it has a light fragrance.

After Patrik calmed himself down, he saw the white powder on Lin Mu's hand and asked, "What is this?"

"I don't know, but I wondered if it's what I thought it is?" He licked it lightly, and the taste really resembled flour? "Flour! Qiuqiu, you're too helpful." After that, he gave Qiuqiu a big kiss on the cheek.

That's what Casso saw when it arrived. The picture was quite uncomfortable to it.

Placing Qiuqiu down on the ground, Lin Mu turned to kiss Patrik happily. Next, he immediately announced that he is going to find more of this ball without giving Patrik a chance to deepen that kiss. Lin Mu followed Qiuqiu, and they came to the place where it found the Flour ball. Lin Mu gave that name to the ball, and it felt quite true to its name.

Staring at a patch of dark blue in front of him, Lin Mu felt that it is somewhat unimaginable that the Flour ball is a vine plant, flour inside fruits that looked like melons.

"The flour has become melons, I don't know how to check which one is matured." Lin Mu looked up, posing in a thinking pose.

Just when Lin Mu was thinking what to do, Qiuqiu ran to the patch of Flour ball and started swiping at the fruits with its small paws. Of course, it is only responsible for swinging its claws to remove the matured Flour ball from the vines. As for picking it up, it is not its responsibilities.

Lin Mu and Patrik didn't return to the house for lunch. They hunted some animals on the mountain and cooked it. However, Patrik stared intently at Casso and Qiuqiu stuffing their cheeks during lunch. Although they helped to find something useful, they also have disturbed his chance to get along with Lin Mu alone. He felt that he need to get something for these two little guys to do.

It was still early when they returned to their tribe, the beastman who went out to hunt had not returned yet. Phil and the females have not returned either. Lin Mu directed Patrik to put the Flour balls in the storage room first. Then he took one ball with him and poured all the powders inside on a wooden bowl. "I wonder if it really tastes the same as flour."

He added a little water to the bowl and whisked it nonstop with chopsticks. He wanted to try making flour soup (面汤)3. Looking at the mixture starting to form small lumps under stirring, Lin Mu felt that it really looks very similar to flour. He cut some green onions and diced some meat, then waited for Patrik to heat up the pot. The diced meat was placed in the pot to cook first. After the water starting boiling, Lin Mu slowly lowered the flour mixture into the pot and stirred it with a wooden spoon. When it's cooked, he added chopped green onion and salt.

Watching the food turned into something familiar, Lin Mu doesn't know how to describe his mood. They even found flour, flour that can be used as a staple food! The first real staple food in the beastman continent, Lin Mu was so moved that his tears almost fell off. At this moment he finally realized that even flour soup can be so delicious.

"Patrik, this is really flour! With flour, we can make more food!"

Patrik also thinks that the meal made from this thing called flour is delicious. Seeing Lin Mu is so excited makes him happy too.

Sasha brought a lot of things back when he came back. Lin Mu couldn't help cheering from time to time as they went through the things that were brought back.

"Sasha, you are amazing. You even found tomatoes and carrots, although the carrots are strangely purple in colour. And wow, this should be duck eggs. So big!"

"What is a tomato? I just think that it tastes a bit sour and quite tasty. The colour is beautiful too. I tried feeding small animals with it, and they were fine. I ate some too, and they were really delicious. As for the carrots, I think the long-eared beast eat them so I thought we should be able to eat it and brought some back. And these eggs are from long-mouthed beasts4, which I found with Locke. But I didn't take all and left some for the beasts."

Looking at the duck eggs in his hand, Lin Mu thinks that they can consider raising some chickens, ducks and rabbits.

Phil brought back some cucumbers and cabbages, which made Lin Mu happy. Both cucumbers and cabbages can be marinated as winter vegetables.

Lais didn't have any other special gains, but when he took out a flower that was said to be given to him by Jason, Lin Mu realized that there are sunflowers in this world. The dream of eating sunflower seeds won't be very far behind. Nibbling on sunflower seeds are the best during chatting.

"Today's harvest is quite fruitful, so we can make good use of these new food at night."

Lin Mu's suggestion is unanimously supported by everyone. Who would reject good food?

---

Chapter 44 Preparing food

The females curiously watched as Lin Mu took the blue ball… uh, it should be called Flour ball now, and cut it open with a bone knife. Then they saw white powder pouring out. They have seen this kind of green fruit before, and some people thought to eat it like normal fruits, but the taste… Although it is not poisonous, no one wants to eat this white powder. Of course, no one knows how to eat it either.

"Lin Mu, how do you eat this?" Phil said, pinching some white powder and rubbing it between his fingers, "It's so slippery."

Of course, Lais and Sasha also started rubbing the powder between their fingers. That made the three small ones wanting to reach out and try touching the powder, thinking it's something new to play with. But Lin Mu stopped them and said, "This is food material, and you three small thing did not wash your hands."

In the past, who would wash their hands before eating? Holding their meat with bare hands to eat is the way they are used to. Hygiene is naturally not within their consideration. However, Lin Mu couldn't stand it anymore. Their habit of not washing their hands even after going to the toilet made Lin Mu speechless. And so, after eating the meat that someone handled without washing their hands, Lin Mu solemnly told everyone about the importance of hygiene and when they should wash their hands. Coupled with some alarmist cases caused by bad hygiene that Lin Mu told them, the beastmen have gradually developed a good habit of washing their hands.

Being prevented from touching the powder, Misha pouted. "Lin Mu, I'm not 'thing'. I'm different from them." He pointed at Casso and Qiuqiu which were looking up at Lin Mu with their heads raised.

Lin Mu was amused by Misha's childish argument. "En, Misha is the most precious little female in our tribe. Not 'thing/只'1, should be 'one/个'2… hehe…"

After listening to Lin Mu's words, Misha felt like 'one' isn't any better than 'thing'.

"Zhi zhi…," Qiuqiu cried out.

If this is like normal days, Qiuqiu would have already been on the cooking counter. But Lin Mu told it solemnly that it is not allowed to make any trouble during cooking (Qiuqiu feels that it has been misunderstood by its owner, it really did want to help… though… it accidentally knocked over something, but it really didn't deliberately drop the things)3, or its usual snacks would be confiscated. Qiuqiu could only reluctantly agree. After all, although 'helping out' is fun, snacking is also his favourite pastime. The dried meat Lin Mu made is delicious.

Lin Mu saw Qiuqiu staring at him with its small beady eyes, he immediately reached out and gently patted its small head. "Qiuqiu has contributed the most this time, I will give you a good meal later."

"Jiji…"

Qiuqiu expressed that it is very happy, but still tried to stretch out its small paws, wanting to touch the flour. Since it is the one that found the flour, and also has touched the flour before, Qiuqiu just wanted to touch it again right now. Hehe, Lin Mu only let me touch it, but not Casso and Misha, such privilege.

Lin Mu naturally didn't know what Qiuqiu was thinking, but he can see its intention as it extended its paw toward the flour.

"Qiuqiu, be obedient, you also didn't wash your hands."

Qiuqiu looked at its two small paws in disappointment, and the phrase 'didn't wash hand' flashed in its head. Then it stuck out its tongue and started licking its paws. Next, it showed its paws to Lin Mu, as if to say 'I just washed my paws'.

Lin Mu and Lais were both amused by Qiuqiu's move, and Misha laughed. Hence, Casso carried4 Qiuqiu away before it became angry.

"Misha, go and play with them. You just have to wait to eat."

Misha knows he can't help, but he doesn't want to go to Casso either. Who knows where Casso took Qiuqiu to comfort it. Looking at his father busying outside, Misha has decided to go to his father first. Lin Mu will take some time to cook the food anyway, and right now some beastman has started preparing to roast meat.

The weather is clear, so Lin Mu does not want to continue cooking in the house. Before this, it was due to the rainy season, it was quite inconvenient for a large group of people to barbecue inside the house. It's better to do it on open ground.

After the small ones left, Lais said, "Lin Mu, teach me how to do it, I'll help out."

There are many things that he could make with flour. But thinking that this the first time they consume flour, plus those beastmen are carnivorous animals, Lin Mu decided to make meat flatbread. Of course, in his opinion, meat flatbread is a bit greasy, and he wanted to eat something light. Seeing the carrot in hand gave him an idea.

"Let's make some meat flatbread first. You can watch how I make them first."

Several people nodded. Although they don't know what meat flatbread is, they have confidence towards what Lin Mu said is delicious.

To make meat flatbread, they will need minced meat. Of course, those beastmen will not let them be tired by this kind of task. As for the choice of meat stuffing, Lin Mu's favourite meat is beef stuffing, but he doesn't know whether there are cows in this world, so he will use 'pig' first. Lin Mu chose some meat that has even amount of fats and meat, then he asked the beastman to help mince it. Since all of the females were busy making the flatbread, the beastman will make the soup instead.

It was quite easy for the beastmen to learn how to make some soups under Lin Mu's guidance, they were especially fond of the meat soup. Of course, the egg drop soup that the females like would be prepared as well, and they won't add any meat into it as the females still prefer to eat 'leaves'. Of course, the beastman who likes to drink egg drop soup could prepare a pot for himself. Adding enough diced meat and eggs into the soup, it can be delicious as well.

A rolling pin is needed to make flatbread, and this task was given to Patrik. He came back with one shortly afterwards. The rolling pin was smooth, and it fits perfectly in Lin Mu's hand; not too big or inconvenient to use. Lin Mu first showed the females how to knead and roll the dough now that the rolling pin is available. He rolled the kneaded flour into long thick strips, and then stretched the dough twice as large. Using the rolling pin to roll the strips into a thinner dough, he then added the meat filling that has been seasoned, which he would pull the edges together to make a deformed bun shape. Looking at the bun shape in his hand, Lin Mu sighed. He actually wanted to eat the steamed buns, but he still has to wait until they can make a steamer in the future. Moving on, he rolled the deformed bun shape with the rolling pin and checked his finished product. Good, no leaking.

After Lin Mu is done with his first flatbread, he let three other people try making one as well. Fortunately, Patrik caringly prepared 4 rolling pins for them. Anyway, the cooking table is long enough for everyone to make their flatbread, with space to move around. Moreover, Lin Mu is not very demanding about the shape and size, as long as the filling is not exposed. So in the end, there were various shapes of flatbread that didn't look like circles, but Lin Mu didn't mind.

To fry the flatbread, Lin Mu couldn't use their usual cooking pots. Fortunately, the pan-fried steak Lin Mu made previously was very popular, so they have many kinds of thin stone slate in the house. The beastman have prepared the fire and the stove, just waiting for the females to use it. Lin Mu brushed the slate with oil, and after the oil is hot, he put the flatbread on it.

The stone slates used for frying meat steaks have been quite satisfying to use. Lin Mu does not know what kind of stone the stone slate was made of, but there is no sign of stone fragments or cracks even after using it for so long. Plus the heat conduction is fast. Lin Mu once thought that the stone slate is the best choice to make teppanyaki, which is comparable to iron plate.

Lais and the rest followed the steps that were taught to them, and they were very serious in learning cooking with Lin Mu. Not only because they like delicious food, but also for their beastman sake. After all, letting their partner eat well will make them happy as well. Moreover, after those houses were built, they can't eat together in a big communal pot like they do now anymore. So, they naturally have to take the opportunity to learn the recipe of some delicious food. Of course, the one strongly supported the idea5 was not the females who were feeling distressed for their own beastman, but the single beastmen. Their tastebuds have been spoilt by Lin Mu's good food. Right now, they can still eat those delicious foods, but as soon as the houses were built, there won't be any chance like this anymore. Therefore, they need to seize the time now to learn whatever they can.

Lin Mu hadn't thought of the single beastmen's problem because, in his opinion, they didn't starve to death before they met him. Hence, at this moment, he is frying his flatbread very seriously.

While the females are making flatbreads, the beastmen are not idling either. The fragrance of the barbecue had already floated around them. Although Lin Mu can make many new types of food, roasted meat is still a staple for the beastman. After all, Lin Mu's strength is limited6. Moreover, after Lin Mu came, their roasted meat tasted better now.

Patrik came to the cooking counter to feed Lin Mu after he had roasted a dozen skewers of meat. The meat he grilled were not big or thick, which is very suitable for Lin Mu. When Patrik came over, Lin Mu's flatbread had already begun to exude a tantalizing fragrance. Lin Mu didn't refuse when Patrik handed the meat skewer to his mouth, he simply lowered his head and took a bite. "En, this roasted meat is delicious."

Just as Lin Mu is about to finish eating a skewer of meat, Qiuqiu and Casso appeared and the two squatted next to Lin Mu, their eyes stared unblinking at the flatbread on the stone slate. This special fragrance of flour and meat is irresistible. Misha stood nearby Phil as soon as the nice scent began to drift. You asked why didn't he choose other people? The answer is simple. Lais is very gentle, but he is constantly protected by the ice cube Jason, while Sasha himself is a foodie. It's difficult to grab food from his mouth. As for Lin Mu, Misha knows that Qiuqiu will stand guard there, and didn't Lin Mu said earlier that he will make Qiuqiu some good food7? Which means Misha could only wait for the next one when he went there, so he naturally chooses to stand by Phil's side. In order to get the first batch of flatbread, Misha has to do some critical thinking.

Even those beastmen were unable to resist swallowing saliva when they smelled the aroma of the flatbread, but they couldn't fight for food with the cubs. They couldn't be sure if the second batch has their share. Didn't they see the females' partner by their side? Therefore, it is very clear that these single beastman will have to cook for themselves. They got a stone slate each and followed how the females fried the flatbread. They have grilled Lin Mu's style steaks before, so frying the flatbread is actually quite similar to them. Hence, everyone is frying meat flatbread everywhere in the cooking area. Of course, Lin Mu made a pile of flatbread in advance so these beastmen will just need to fry them. Kneading the dough is still an impossible task for the beastmen.

Lin Mu turned to look at the two pair of eyes waiting beside him. It happened that he is frying two large bread at that time. When the bread became yellow and exuded the smell of cooked flour, Lin Mu used chopsticks to shift them onto a tray made with rattan strips. Then he said to the two impatient little guys, "It's very hot now, you have to wait for a while." Seeing the children looking at him pitifully, he added, "Rest assured that these two are yours, no one will fight with you."

And so, Casso and Qiuqiu crouched in front of the tray, staring at their flatbread while drooling. Lin Mu saw it and couldn't help shaking his head with a smile.

When Lin Mu finally get to taste his flatbread, Casso and Qiuqiu have already finished theirs, sporting a round belly. The moment he took a bite at the fried flatbread in his hand, the familiar and delicious taste caused Lin Mu to speed up his swallowing speed. Of course, if Lin Mu is eating the flatbread, Patrik's portion will not be missed out. Lin Mu looked at Patrik's expression. Although it was not obvious, he could see from Patrik's shining eyes that he liked the flatbread. Smiling, Lin Mu asked while chewing his food, "Is it delicious?"

Patrik nodded. "It tastes good and quite fulfilling. I've just eaten 3, and I'm already half full."

Lin Mu couldn't help having black lines on his face upon hearing Patrik's words. Half-full? That bread is about the size of a basin alright?!

Patrik put the last bit of bread in his mouth, "This flour is very good. We should pick more, but I don't know how long it can be kept."

Lin Mu has only eaten less than a quarter of his bread as he listened to Patrik's words. He said, "Back at my place, we could store flour for a long time, but it is quite different from this Flour Ball. Right now, I'm not sure which state has a longer storage period; taking out the powder from the ball or keeping the ball as a whole. But we still can pick some more for an experiment."

Patrik nodded. These flours are fulfilling, if it can be kept for a long time, they can consider it as extra winter food. After all, the prey that can be hunted in winter is still very limited.

Lin Mu stopped after eating only half of the flatbread. He is almost full, and he still wants to make something else, so he wants to leave some space in his stomach.

The flatbread was finished, and everyone almost ate two each. There weren't enough flatbreads to share around, so the main dish is still grilled meat, and of course, there will be steaks as well since they already got the stone slate out.

The thing that Lin Mu is going to make next is something he thought the beastman would not like to eat. He ate this when he was still a child – carrot flatbread. It is very simple to make, he just has to cut carrots into shreds, put it in the rolled dough, and then add seasoning. Lin Mu likes to eat spicily, so he added a lot of finely chopped chilli powder. Because the dough has been rolled many times, it fell softly on the slate. Lin Mu spreads it on the stone slab as evenly as possible. Because it is thin, the carrot flatbread was cooked in a short time.

Sasha approached when Lin Mu started making the carrot flatbread, "Lin Mu, what is this thing you are making?"

"Carrot flatbread, this is not as greasy as the meat version." He said as he tore a piece of newly done bread with chopsticks for tasting. He also shared some to those who came to watch, but because there were too many people, he could only give them small pieces. After that, Lin Mu handed over the work in his hand to Lais, to continue making the flatbread, while he is going to prepare some cold dishes.

Back to the cooking table, Lin Mu looked at the newly found ingredients. Cabbage and tomato have been used for cooking soup, and carrots were also used a lot. Then, Lin Mu decided to make a cold dish with cucumbers. He just needs to toss it with some vinegar and chilli; the spicy and sour taste will be able to get rid of the greasy feeling in the mouth. Of course, Lin Mu also mixed it with some liver and lung slices in two small tubs. These beastman likes to eat those too.

During dinner, Lin Mu sat down with Patrik as he ate some carrot flatbread, cucumbers, and then drank bird egg soup with tomatoes. In Lin Mu's opinion, this kind of life is really good. As Lin Mu has thought, the beastmen doesn't have much enthusiasm for carrot flatbread, but they had the flour soup, and they ate very well. Patrik didn't eat much of the carrot flatbread either but ate the grilled meat and drinking soup. Seeing Lin Mu expressed his satisfaction towards everyone's appetite, he is satisfied as well.

After dinner, everyone has a high opinion for flour – this thing is delicious.

Before going to bed, Lin Mu and Lais discussed what they will make for breakfast tomorrow. They kneaded some flour together and thought about making fried dumplings the next day. Looking at the kneaded flour, Lin Mu really wanted to eat some steamed buns. It seemed that he would need Patrik's to make a steamer soon. Lin Mu made two kinds of fried dumplings, one with meat stuffing and another with vegetable stuffing, which was unanimously liked by everyone. They prepared a lot of the dumplings, and everyone started to fry it together. It's alright even if they couldn't finish it in one meal. The hunting team can always bring some out with them, and for the remaining dumplings, Lin Mu felt that it would be finished by the beastman who didn't go out in the afternoon.

Lin Mu told Patrik about the steamer, but Patrik gave Matt the job of making the steamer. He needs to accompany Lin Mu as he busying around with the gifts for God Offering day. After all, God Offering day is only a few days away. They found flour, so naturally, they will have more types of food to make, but not all food can be offered to the beast god on the God Offering day. Any food that is not tasty when eating cold, Lin Mu won't choose it because this kind of celebration is a bit time-consuming. He can't serve the food and expect God to come right away. Recalling the food they offered to God back on Earth, it seems that some of it are like mochi made from flour and sugar. They have flour, so for sugar, Lin Mu thinks he should be able to make it. With sugar, he can also make some other pastry.

As for other food, Lin Mu felt that he could make some fish balls and whole oiled fish. Thinking back of the fried fish fillets he made previously, frying a whole fish shouldn't taste bad. He originally wanted to offer fried fish fillets. After all, it still tastes good when it's cold, but he doesn't think it's formal enough. He also wanted to make sweet and sour fish, but he was afraid that it would not taste good when the dish became cold, but on the other hand, he also felt that the dish would become quite flavorful when it's cold. Whether or not to make it, he would consider it later, as he needs to make the sugar first.

Patrik accompanied Lin Mu to take out all the Sweety fruits in the storage room, and the females came to help too. Lin Mu looked at the two big baskets of Sweety fruits and remembered that there are two beastman going out to pick more Sweety fruits today. This fruit has such a high sugar content, so even if they couldn't store enough winter food in the end, having sugar is a guarantee for survival.

Several people came together to wash the fruit, then peeled and cored it. The core of the Sweety fruit is very small, which is quite convenient. After all, if there is more flesh, there will be more sugar for them. After hearing that Lin Mu is going to make sugar with Sweety fruits, and the benefits of sugar, the group of people placed more concentration on their task. According to Lin Mu, more delicious food can be made with sugar. This reason is enough for them to concentrate on peeling and removing the fruit core.

The process of boiling sugar was smooth. Lin Mu originally was worried that the pulp would make the sugar impure, but he did not expect was that the pulp disappeared by itself during the boiling process. He didn't know if the pulp has evaporated or has turned into sugar. The Sweety fruit is worthy of being the sweetest fruit they have ever eaten because the sugar content is really high. Lin Mu was very happy to see the pot full of light yellow syrup. In Lin Mu's eyes, these syrup are equivalent to chunks of white sugar, although it is now pale yellow in colour.

When the syrup's consistency became as thick as honey, Lin Mu stops boiling his pot, while the rest of the pots continue boiling. He put the viscous sugar into a bamboo tube, and let them taste some. Of course, in the end, everyone said that they liked the taste of the sugar. It's even better to mix some with water to drink.

The sugar in the pots that continued to boil did not end up becoming the small white sugar cubes that Lin Mu had seen before but become a big piece of sugar. Lin Mu was quite satisfied with this result because they can use still it even if they break up the sugar. Of course, the most satisfied person was not Lin Mu, but Casso and the other small ones. The sugar cube is just like the crystal sugar on Earth, and it has the unique fragrance of the Sweety fruit. The children like it very much, and some sweet lovers like it too, such as Phil. As for Sasha, Lin Mu has not found anything that he doesn't like to eat.

---

Chapter 45 God Offering day

On God Offering day, everyone got up early and started to get busy. The beastmen were divided into two groups. One group stayed back to help Lin Mu prepare the food offerings, and the other team followed Patrik to hunt the prey for the beast god.

Lin Mu was in charge of the pastries and has started making them the first thing in the morning. He made several simple patterns, and each of them would taste slightly different. Although the pastries are mainly sweet in taste, there were some differences because of the different fruit juices added. In order to make these pastries more flavorful, Lin Mu and the others have experimented with a lot of fruits before they found some that are compatible with the flour's taste.

Now that the pastries were done, they shifted their focus to make crispy meat (酥肉), fish balls (鱼丸) and whole oiled fish. As for the sweet and sour fish (糖醋鱼), Lin Mu finally decided to make it. After all, it was an offering for the beast god, and Lin Mu has never made this dish for his tribe to eat before.

While Lin Mu is busy at his side, Patrik does not have it easy either. The reason why they gathered the best beastman in the tribe to go hunting every year on God Offering Day is because the beast they wanted to hunt is difficult to capture. After all, they can't casually hunt a random animal as their offering. The strength of their prey will show their respect for the beast god, and at the same time, showing the power of their tribe to the beast god. Hence, Patrik has discussed with Jason and the others that they are going to hunt for bone beasts.

The bone beast gets its name because of its prominent bones. Its skin is tough, and it also has this massive spike on its body. Other than that, the bone beast also has a long and thorny tail. Generally, if a beastman is swept by its tail, It will hurt a lot. The most challenging thing about the bone beast is its bones are as hard as iron, and its skin is impenetrable. In fact, no one would hunt the bone beast for its meat, and there is not much meat on bone beast either. But because the beast is very fierce and difficult to kill, they will become hunting targets on God Offering day. After all, the more difficult the preys are, the more capable they can show off as a tribe.

…

Sasha looked at the freshly cooked sweet and sour fish, drooling. Then he looked at the red sauce and smelled the sweet and sour taste. The fact that he can only see but not eat is simply torturing him. But he didn't have the guts to eat it since the beast god will be watching. He didn't want to be punished, so he could only stare and swallowed his saliva.

"It smelled so fragrant, Lin Mu~" Sasha's voice was so bitter.

Lin Mu could only respond with a condolence look in his eyes, and then he heard Sasha lamented, "I'm so hungry…"

No one would pay attention to him if he dragged the tone of his words. One of the reason was because everyone is very busy, and the other reason was everyone is also famished. But because today is God Offering day, they can't eat before their god. Although they ate a lot of food last night, worried that they would be hungry today, they still couldn't help but smell the scent that drifted through their nose. In fact, everyone feels the same as Sasha, this is really a torture.

The beastman team who stayed back to help has to help Lin Mu prepare the food and at the same time set up the altar that was just built last night. Of course, their altar is very simple, they just set up a platform on the front of the house. Right now, the beastmen are lifting the table where they will be placing the tribute on to the altar.

It was almost noon when Lin Mu finished preparing all the food offering. Seeing that Patrik and the others hadn't come back yet, he asked the beastman team to put the food on the altar first. After all, the offering ceremony will be held on time at noon.

Patrik arrived in time before noon. Lin Mu watched as they placed the huge and hideous bone beast in front of the altar. Hurrying to Patrik's side, he asked, "How are you? Are you injured?" He heard the others talking about the bone beast and its powerful strength before and was very worried. But Lin Mu has no way to stop them from hunting the bone beast; that is the dignity of a tribe.

Patrik shook his head at the nervous Lin Mu and said, "It's okay, our hunt went smoothly." Although everyone has some minor injuries, it doesn't matter.

Lin Mu's gaze scanned Patrik from top to bottom and was relieved that he didn't find any visible wounds on his body.

Lais and the others came to pull Lin Mu away, "The God Offering ceremony is about to begin, you have to change your clothes quickly."

Seeing Lin Mu being pulled away, Patrik breathed a sigh of relief. The bone beast is difficult to capture. He was also injured, but the injury was on his back, and he managed to cover it. Patrik didn't want Lin Mu to worry about him at this kind of time.

After being helped by several people to put on clothes made for the oracle, Sasha reached out to insert a feather of an unknown animal into the hairband tied to Lin Mu's head, making Lin Mu wondered, "Does the oracle usually dress like this?"

"No, it's just that I think it's better to add something. Look at how beautiful this feather is." The bright red feather was very eye-catching, but Lin Mu still couldn't help but complain about Sasha's sense of aesthetics.

When Lin Mu is ready, he got pushed up to the altar. He saw everyone down the alter looked at him seriously, and that caused him to become nervous suddenly. At this moment, he realized that he had forgotten all the speech he had memorized for the ceremony. In his heart, he shouted, "I'm doomed!" but on the outside, he was pretending to be calm. Lin Mu sprinkled some animal blood on the altar and looked at the solemn people under the platform. Everyone lowered their heads to show respect to the beast god. These beastmen stayed firm in their beliefs even though they have suffered and were rejected by other beastmen. They believed in their beast god. Lin Mu looked up to the sky, he suddenly knew what to say to the beast god.

"Oh great beast god, these are your people. Even when they were rejected, even when they have to bear the reputation of betraying your teaching, they still believe that you will not abandon them. I hope the beast god can give us a bright future."

After Lin Mu finished speaking, a thought popped in his mind. Autumn is also called the harvest season. Whether there is enough prey during autumn determines if their winter will go smoothly. Therefore, generally during the God Offering day, the oracle will pray to the beast god to give them a plentiful harvest. So Lin Mu added one more sentence to his prayer, "I hope the beast god will give us abundant food."

Although Lin Mu's prayer was a bit short and somewhat different from what they heard before, the beastmen thought it was more appropriate to them. Next, they will wait quietly, hoping that beast god will accept their offering.

When Lin Mu was praying to the sky, he had his back turned to everyone and the offering table. Hence, when he turned back to see everyone's reaction, he was stunned, "Huh?" Where did the tribute on the table disappear to? Lin Mu looked at the people who were still slightly bowing, he would have thought one of them has stolen the offering it wasn't he knew that they are very respectful to their god. If they didn't do it, that means…

Lin Mu yelled out happily, "The beast god has accepted our gift~ "

Everyone raised their heads upon hearing Lin Mu's words. They saw that the offering table is empty, even the plates were missing. Everyone was stunned, and then cheers broke out from the crowd.

"That's great! The beast god has accepted our gift…"

"Thank God! The beast god didn't abandon us…"

…

Looking at the excited crowd, Lin Mu stared at the distant sky and was relieved that the beast god has finally given them some hope.

Meanwhile, high up in the clouds…..

A vague figure surrounded by clouds and mist pleasantly spoke out, "Finally I get to eat some normal food. It has been so many years, that was not easy. It seems that my decision is correct."

If one is to look at that figure's posture, one would see someone gobbling up food.

A cloud of mist appeared beside the figure. The figure inside the mist was blurry, making it hard for anyone to see clearly. With a cold voice, that person said, "Master, you shouldn't eat so much."

"Long Ling, it's been a long time since I had eaten such delicious food, do you have the heart to stop me…" From the muffled tone, it seems that that person called Master did not stop eating.

"Overeating makes it easier to accumulate food (become fat)." The person named Long Ling sounded cold, even though he is saying some caring words.

The man seemed to be choked by his words, and then shouted loudly, "What accumulate food?! I am a god, alright?!"

Another cloud of mist flew up and said, "Master, have you forgotten the last time, last last time, last last last time that you accumulated too much food (become fat)? Moreover, this is offerings from the beastman world, naturally will enter Master's stomach when you are in human form." Even if one cannot see this person's appearance, one could still imagine him to be a seductive person from his voice.

The man went out of words, but if one listened carefully, one could hear the sound of chewing continued.

Seeing that his Master didn't intend to stop eating at all, that seductive voice said, "Wu, confiscate Master's food."

"Lian, how can you do this!" The man became angry when his food was taken away.

"Hehehe, don't be angry, Master. Those are still yours. Right now, Master should think about what blessing/gift to give to them. After all, eating other people's food would need to pay back."

"What more blessing to give them? Didn't I give them already before?"

Long Ling: "Master, that is your selfish act and not a blessing to drifter beastman."

Long Ling's words successfully made his master choke again.

"Damn it! I can't think of it now, wait until I think about it." After saying that, the man waved his sleeves and left.

Lian watched as the person walked away in anger, and turned to the silent person (Wu) and the ice cube (Long Ling), "Master is really getting cuter. Today seems to be my turn to serve Master, hehehe…"

That laughter caused the other two to tremble.

———————— Back to the altar ————————

Lin Mu stepped off the altar, the gift he prepared was accepted. It means that they will be blessed by the beast god, this is great news. Furthermore, It also indicates that God Offering day is a success. Of course, as the person who got pulled into the role of a temporary oracle, Lin Mu was relieved it went smoothly. Stopping by Patrik's side, he smiled at him and said, "See, you are right, the beast god did not abandon you. And we will also have a bright future."

Patrik nodded, "Yes, we will."

Having a good result on God Offering day, everyone is thrilled. A celebration is in order, and Lin Mu's food is indispensable obviously. They have been thinking about the offerings for a long time. It is a pity that Chef Lin went on strike today – sulking in his room. Why, you asked? Well, the entire tribe agreed that Lin Mu should be feeling distressed right now. Turned out when Lin Mu was talking to Patrik, he noticed something was wrong with him(P), and discovered the injury at his back – Patrik's back was a mess. Lin Mu looked very distressed, but also very angry; angry that Patrik didn't tell him about the injury.

Seeing Lin Mu is angry, Patrik wanted to coax him, but he needs to use the right coaxing method. He knew that Lin Mu was worried about him and his injury, but beastman always has a certain risk to bear when going out hunting. This world is like this, and they can only follow the laws of this world. All he has to do now is to appease his partner.

Patrik sat carefully next to Lin Mu, "Mu Mu, I did wrong."

Lin Mu didn't say a word.

"Mu Mu…" Patrik moved closer, "It's really my fault."

"Humph, then what did you do wrong?"

"I shouldn't let myself get hurt, and shouldn't let Mu Mu worry about me. I was wrong."

Lin Mu looked up at the beastman in front of him. This person is his only support in this world. He doesn't know whether he would have the courage to continue living without him. He has always thought that this person powerful, almost invincible. Never has he seen Patrik getting injured before, but today when he saw that bloody mess on his back, Lin Mu suddenly felt very scared; afraid of losing him. This person's powerful strength almost made him forget about the dangers of this world.

With a pair of red eyes, Lin Mu said, "Patrik, you have to be very careful when you go out hunting, don't get hurt again."

Patrik embraced Lin Mu, "I promise you." I won't let you worry, won't let you feel fearful.

"Let's all go out, everyone is still hungry."

When the two came out from their room, everyone noticed that they looked better but they didn't turn to stare at Lin Mu. Lin Mu felt a little embarrassed because everyone was busy with their task while he threw tantrums with Patrik. He ran to the cooking site where Lais and the others were making fish balls and reached out to help. By the way, he heard that Lloyd was also injured, so he asked, "Phil, is Lloyd alright?"

Phil smiled and said, "It's alright. He only has gotten some minor injuries at his arm. I already gave him some medicine."

"That's great." Lin Mu said with a smile. Then he turned to concentrate on his fish meat.

Sasha leaned over to him and said, "Lin Mu, make that sweet and sour fish."

Lin Mu was in a good mood, so he nodded in agreement, "Alright, let's make two then."

The two fish Lin Mu was referring to were two huge fish, which were caught and kept in the reservoir they dug. During the rainy season, Lin Mu asked them to dig a pool and mentioned the size. But Patrik later told him that the size he wanted was too small, so he let Patrik decide. When Lin Mu finally get to see the reservoir, he saw that it was bigger than he expected. As for when the beastman put the fish in it, he doesn't know.

On the other side, the beastmen were grilling meat not far away and were happily talking about their luck1. Patrik couldn't look away from Lin Mu's busy figure.

"It's charred." Jason's characteristic cold tone made Patrik return his gaze to the skewers in his hand. Casually stuffing the charred meat into his mouth, he said, "Jason, I will be doing the ceremony with Lin Mu soon."

Jason didn't respond.

"Lloyd and Locke said that they wanted to join me in the ceremony, so what about you?"

Jason still didn't speak but turned to look at a certain tall figure. After a long time, he said, "I don't know."

"Don't know if he will agree to your proposal?" Patrik turned to look at Lais as well. "He likes you a lot, otherwise how could a female agree to stay in the same room with you?"

Jason had a deep thought.

"What you are hesitating for?"

"Too short time."

If is it not because Patrik still wants to maintain his image as the tribe leader, he really wanted to roll his eyes like what Lin Mu usually do. How could there be a beastman who don't take the initiative, just because of a short time of interaction with the female?

"We also didn't stay together with our females for a long duration. Or you actually don't like him?"

Jason: "No, not that."

"Then why are you hesitating?"

Jason sometimes really makes people wonder what he is thinking. No beastman will miss the opportunity to pursue a female. Why is he hesitating? Could it be Jason cannot be smarter than someone like Locke?

"Wait a bit more."

Patrik looked at Jason with a little surprise. So Jason has a strong liking for Lais? But it's not quite right.

"You can figure it out by yourself, but don't miss such a good opportunity," Patrik said and flipped the skewers in his hand. Then he stood up and took the skewers to Lin Mu. Can't leave Mumu hungry.

Jason stared at Lais; no one knows what he is thinking.

…

Sasha got his wish and managed to ate the sweet and sour fish, and at the same time fell in love with the taste.

"It's delicious! Lin Mu, I want to learn to make it!" Sasha felt that he had to take advantage of the opportunity to learn more of his favourite food.

At the same time, Lin Mu felt that it's good if more people know how to cook the food, then he would have more free time. With Sasha taking the initiative to learn, Phil and the others naturally will not fall behind. Misha leaned forward and chipped in, "I want to learn too, so I can cook for my father."

Misha's words made Matt very happy.

Lin Mu smiled and agreed without pressure.

---

Chapter 46 Picking fruit

After God Offering day is the busy harvest season, generally beast tribes will start collecting food at this season. For tribes that have access to salt, they know to use salt to preserve meat, which of course, they just simply dry the marinated meat. As for the females, they will usually collect fruit to make dried fruits. It will be another food option for them because they can't eat just meat like the beastmen.

On the other hand, Patrik and the drifter beastman used to be constantly moving around during fall. They needed to find a place to live, and they didn't have salt. They couldn't store food even when their prey was most abundant. This is one of the reasons why they have to go hungry every winter. But now, their situation is much better. They have a place to live, a vast hunting area, and access to salt. Each of them believes that they will live well this winter. As for the females, Lais and the others will not forget their duty to collect fruits and will take Lin Mu along with them.

Lin Mu followed the females with a basket on his back and went up the mountain again. They have their 'bodyguards' with them, of course, which is Ryan and Lloyd. But this time their goal is apparent, that is – picking fruits. The females walked ahead together, with Ryan and Lloyd following behind. Each of the beastman carried 2 big baskets as well, there are many fruit trees on this mountain after all. But as they walked, Lin Mu noticed that Phil has stayed behind to walk with Lloyd. The others looked at them and smiled secretly, but they didn't say anything, thinking that the pair is going to be official soon. Ryan tactfully to walk a bit ahead, since as a single beastman, it is not a pleasure to see couples being lovey-dovey with each other.

Sasha followed Lin Mu, and they walked forward. It didn't take long for him(S) to dig out some food from his animal skin bag. It was the steamed bun Lin Mu made in the morning. It was so delicious that Sasha couldn't stop eating. As a result, he got bloated. But when they set out to pick fruits, Sasha still took 2 buns with him. Since the walk is quite dull, he is thinking about taking a bun out to eat.

Lin Mu looked at Sasha in amazement, "We just ate breakfast not long ago, right? You were complaining that you ate too full earlier, so how could you get hungry so quickly?" In Lin Mu's opinion, Sasha's stomach is pretty amazing.

Sasha took a bite of the bun. "I'm not really hungry, just that I felt like chewing something."

Lin Mu and Lais were speechless when they heard what he said.

"You are that typical kind of people whose brain is thinking of eating, but the stomach doesn't want to eat." Lin Mu scolded with a smile, "The bun has gone cold, don't eat it. It will hurt your stomach, and it's not good for your stomach if you keep it constantly full." Not to mention Sasha just did that in the morning. In order to meet the beastmen's tastebud, Lin Mu only mixed a few vegetables in the minced meat bun. It was quite meaty, so how can one still stomach the taste after the oil inside has cooled down and condensed?

Seeing Sasha looked like he couldn't bear to let the bun down, Lin Mu suggested, "How about keeping it for lunch? It would taste better after we reheat it a bit."

Sasha thought that it is a good idea, so he put the half of the bun into his animal skin bag.

Recently, Lin Mu has been making pastries. One of the reasons is because he wanted everyone to try it; the other reason is he really misses staple food too much. Before the steamer is made, Lin Mu will let them eat some dumplings and various flatbread. When the steamer is finally out, the first Lin Mu made was a basket of steamed buns. The moment the steamed buns came out of the basket, Lin Mu caught a whiff of the familiar flour smell and ate a big steamed bun without adding any side dishes. Of course, compared with steamed buns, those beastmen prefer stuffed buns, especially buns with meat filling. But the females like to add some vegetables instead, such as cabbage; they think it tastes better. Besides meat buns, Lin Mu also made veggie stuffed buns, using ingredients like shiitake mushroom, carrot and so on. In fact, the bun he wanted to make the most is chive and eggs stuffed bun, but it's not possible right now because he hasn't found chive yet.

Lin Mu has been asking the beastmen to collect sweety fruits these days. He would tell whoever going out, that as long as they saw the fruits, collect as much as they can; the more the better. As for the newly found flour balls, cabbage, and carrots, they naturally will pick new ones every day. Though right now is just the beginning of autumn, the season does not last long, only two and a half months, but there is still time. He planned to pick those cabbage and carrots in late autumn, after all, no one would fight for the vegetables with them. However, Lin Mu forgot about the animals in the mountains.

For Lin Mu, the tradition of going up the mountain to collect fruits during fall felt nice. But the way the fruits were preserved is too monotonous, just drying it. There are so many fruits on the mountain, and now that they have sugar and salt, Lin Mu thinks he should make some candied fruits, which are easy to preserve and taste delicious. With this in mind, Lin Mu went up the mountain to see what fruits are available to be harvested.

Because the beastmen already went to explore the mountains around in advance, they told the females that the western mountain has the most fruit trees, and the trees were quite densely grown. Walking up the route given by the beastmen, they soon saw the fruit trees. Lin Mu couldn't recognize most of the fruits grown densely on the branches, but he could guess. Some of them should be the fruits he thought of, at least they should have the same taste. In fact, among the brightly coloured fruits, Lin Mu first noticed a fruit that looked like a persimmon. The golden yellow fruit is much larger than the usual persimmon, but it is nothing strange considering that everything is huge in this world.

Each of the females took out a curved bone knife, and they scattered to pick a tree each. Before that, they picked a branch with suitable length and tied the bone knife to it, then they can start picking their favourite fruits. To be honest, the females don't have to go through all the troubles. They have 2 strong labourers with them after all, but they still prefer to pick the fruits by themselves. The results of their labour are significant, and they can also get some exercise through this task, so there is nothing wrong doing the job.

Lin Mu came under a tree and looked up at the drooping branches laden with fruits. The fruitful appearance made people feel satisfied. With a picking tool in his hand, it was quite awkward to use at first, and it took Lin Mu a lot of effort to pick a fruit. Then he looked at the 3 females who were skillfully working and felt envious. But Lin Mu knew that practice makes perfect. Staring the fruit in his hand, Lin Mu was not sure if it is really a persimmon or whether it could be eaten.

"Phil, come here a bit." Lin Mu was about to ask someone when he saw Phil, who was standing closest to him. Besides, Phil is familiar with plants and should be able to answer him.

When Phil heard Lin Mu calling him, he gave the knife in his hand to Lloyd, who was following him all the time, and ran to Lin Mu, "Lin Mu, what's the matter?"

After Lin Mu watched Phil's series of actions, he suddenly realized that Lloyd is actually standing next to Phil. Will he(LM) be kicked by a donkey1 because he has disturbed other people's love life? But he really didn't see Lloyd just now, it was not on purpose. Not sure if there is an animal like a donkey in this world. If there is, it would be nice provided the donkey won't kick him. Although Lin Mu felt terrible, but since Phil has come to his side, he must ask his question. Otherwise, he would have wasted this disturbance for nothing (this is Lin Mu's rightful reason; otherwise he would have suffered Lloyd's death stare in vain)2.

Lin Mu smiled and said to clueless Phil, "This is the fruit I just picked. I wonder if I can eat it? Is it poisonous?"

Phil: "This is not poisonous, but it's too tangy. Someone has eaten it before, and they said after taking a mouthful, one would feel very uncomfortable and then throws up, but it is indeed not poisonous."

"Tangy?"

"En, very tangy, the old people in our previous clan said so."

Lin Mu nodded. If it's tangy, then he is correct. It seems that this is really a persimmon of another world. Persimmons are delicious, and they can last a long time when they are made into dried persimmon.

Phil saw Lin Mu staring at the persimmon thoughtfully and advised, "This is really bad to eat. Let's pick the red fruits with me instead."

Lin Mu smiled and said, "No, I'm worried about being kicked by a donkey."

Lin Mu's words made Phil very puzzled, "What is a donkey? Why would you get kicked by the donkey when you pick fruit with me?"

That question is complicated to answer, Lin Mu can't really say that it is a curse towards meddlesome people who disturbed other people from dating. Then he will have to explain what is dating; too troublesome. So Lin Mu chose not to explain. He just raised his chin and gestured to Lloyd who was picking the fruit over there. Phil quickly understood what Lin Mu meant. This is called things that don't need to be said in words. Anyway, in the end, Lin Mu picked the persimmons by himself, while Phil blushed and went back to pick the fruit with Lloyd.

Ryan helped to collect the persimmons that Lin Mu picked. It can be said that he collected everyone's fruits except for Phil's. This made Lin Mu feel that Patrik's arrangement to assign 2 people to them is really reasonable. (Actually, Patrik only arranged 2 beastmen to better protect the females, and he never thought to make them go to work as labour)3 Of course, Lloyd didn't only care for Phil, he also helped Lin Mu pick a lot of persimmons. The 4 big back baskets were filled with many kinds of fruits.

Lin Mu walked in the woods and found lemons and grapefruits. Of course, according to Lais and the others, these things cannot be eaten. The lemon is too sour, and the grapefruit left a bitter impression to them, probably because they gnawed directly on the fruit instead of the flesh. Thinking about it, it's regrettable because they were only a rind away from the edible pulp. What Lin Mu felt strange was, how can these fruits grow together in an area. This is a question worthy for discussion, but he can't understand how things work in this world. It's ever so mysterious. Hence, chaotic fruit seasons don't seem to be anything wrong. Anyway, he can't judge this world by the logic from Earth. He doesn't have to worry himself with the matter, so Lin Mu happily cut the grapefruit with a knife, and divided some grapefruit halves with the rest. Then he listened to them exclaiming that it is delicious, and was instantly satisfied.

At noon, all 4 baskets are full of fruits, and the females carried some extra fruits in their small back baskets. Lin Mu managed to come across some chestnuts. He immediately asked Ryan and Lloyd to pick a lot of them and put them in the basket. Sugar roasted chestnuts are delicious.

Lloyd went out hunting at noon, while Ryan stayed to protect them and start the fire for cooking, while Lin Mu and the females are in charge of collecting firewood. Lloyd captured a prey that looked like a sheep, about 4 or 5 times the size of a normal sheep, enough for them to eat. When he brought it back, he had already cleaned and cut the meat. The reason why Lin Mu could see the appearance of the beast was from the animal skin Lloyd hung on a tree branch. The main course at noon is grilled meat. The females brought some steamed buns when they went out. So, they just have to roast the buns a bit until they are browned and smelled like mantou, then they could sandwich some meat in between. This is their favourite way to eat barbecue now.

The group didn't use the initial route when they went back. Because of that, they were lucky to find some mushrooms and found a small spinach patch. This made Lin Mu very happy. After all, autumn spinach is delicious and suitable for making soup. He picked a lot of the vegetable because it's not every day that they can come to the mountain. In general, Lin Mu and the others have had a good harvest. They picked a lot of fruits and found various autumn food. Green vegetables are still a favourite for the females.

It was quite early when the group reached home, but it has been quite a tiring day (only for the females, this distance is really not a big deal for the males' physical fitness)4. So they simply washed their faces and went to take a nap in their rooms. When Lin Mu woke up, it has already dark outside, but the light in the room was very soft. Listening to the noise outside the room, Lin Mu guessed that the rest should have started cooking, or maybe they have started eating. In the past, the beastmen used to finish their meals very early before the day turned dark, but ever since they have the glowing stones, they were not so anxious to eat dinner. They often think that to be able to eat their meals in a bright room while the outside of the house is dark is a kind of enjoyment in their heart.

Lin Mu walked outside the door, and Sasha, the first person to notice him greeted with a wave. Then he saw Patrik's eyes on him, a soft gaze with warmth. Patrik looked like he was cutting and sorting the meat. When he saw Patrik slicing the meat thinly, he knew that those were prepared for him, since the beastmen eat their meat in large chunks.

Walking towards Patrik, Lin Mu sat down beside him. He didn't want to cook today, and just waited for others to cook for him. It's a pleasant thought. Patrik went to wash his hands and sat down next to Lin Mu. He placed the plate with the thinly sliced meat beside him so that he could grill it later.

"Enough sleep?" Patrik couldn't help stroking Lin Mu's short hair. It is longer than when they first met, but it is the same soft feeling.

Lin Mu has become accustomed to Patrik behaviour of stroking his hair whenever he feels like it. Habit is such a terrible thing. Lin Mu nodded to answer Patrik's question, he slept well today. Then he took a bite of the fruit that Patrik handed over to him, casually wondered it's alright to eat fruits before the meal?

"Do you still feel tired?"

To be honest, Patrik didn't want Lin Mu to work so hard to pick the fruits. In his opinion, it is easier for the beastmen to do the task. But thinking of Lin Mu's temperament, he couldn't say anything to stop Lin Mu. Moreover, the females in other tribes do in-charge of picking fruits and vegetables. After all, everyone wants to be valuable, and not all females like to rely on beastman. In their opinion, it is their job to collect fruits in autumn. So if they are deprived of that responsibility, the females would get angry, even if the males were only pitying them. Although Patrik knew that Lin Mu couldn't be idle and knew that having things to do would be good for Lin Mu's health, he still couldn't help but feel distressed and wanted to help finish everything on his(LM) behalf.

Lin Mu drank spinach egg drop soup and had steamed buns for dinner. It was a comfortable meal for him. Moreover, with the addition of chilli, the spiciness of the soup is moderate and suited Lin Mu's appetite even more. Hence, Lin Mu finished a bowl and a half of the soup in no time; the bowl was the large bowl Patrik used to eat.

Lin Mu ate till he is full at night, plus he slept through the afternoon, so he and Patrik didn't go back to the room to relax after the meal, but took a walk in front of their house for digestion purpose. Of course, the path they walked on was secluded, along with the trees. Patrik took Lin Mu's hand, and the two walked quietly, listening to the sounds of unknown insects in the woods. Neither of them spoke, as they quietly enjoyed the comfortable silence.

Lin Mu looked up at the man next to him, who was holding his hands under the bright moonlight. Truth to be told, he is very grateful to the person (God?) who sent him here in the beast world, which he is lucky enough to find his life partner. Having a partner to stay with each other for a lifetime, not many people can do so on Earth, but he can easily get it in this world. How lucky he is to be blessed with such a simple and happy life?

Looking at the handsome side profile of the man, Lin Mu admitted that he liked Patrik. He used to wonder why he could accept Patrik; accept a man. Although he has never been in a relationship before in his previous life, he only thought that girls are beautiful and has never felt any man to be attractive. And now he can accept Patrik, maybe because Patrik loves him. Lin Mu knows how much he yearns for others to love him, and with sincerity. Sometimes, he feels that he is indeed a very cowardly person, and will choose to escape if something happens. How can such a timid person shoulder a family on his shoulders, how can he give a woman a strong arm to lean onto? Thinking about it this way, perhaps finding a male partner may really be his best choice. After all, he does not have a strong arm for others to rely on, and he desires to lean on someone else instead. And now Patrik brings him peace of mind, happiness and satisfaction, which shows that his choice is correct.

"Patrik, you are the only person I can rely on in this world."

Patrik didn't know why would Lin Mu suddenly said this, but having his prospective partner saying that he is the only person he could rely on would definitely make him happy for a long time. Patrik held Lin Mu tightly in his arms and stated his claim overbearingly, "I will be the only support you ever need, and it is a must. You can only be mine, and only I can bring you happiness."

Lin Mu looked at Patrik's determined and serious eyes and nodded, "En."

"So, we have to hold the ceremony as soon as possible."

"Ah?"

"Something wrong?"

"No, not really. Just that… is this a marriage proposal?"

Patrik looked at Lin Mu and took out the beast tooth he had prepared earlier, "This is the tooth of a snow wolf, the prey I caught in my first hunt. If you accept it, it means you accepted my proposal."

Lin Mu stared at the yellowed beast tooth. The tooth should have been with Patrik for a long time. He picked it up from Patrik's palm. "I'm taking this." Then Lin Mu smiled at Patrik.

---

Chapter 47 Lais's thoughts

There's a human size bump on the wide bed, under a huge animal skin, and the twist and turn of the figure show that the person is awake. Wriggling like a caterpillar under the sheets for a while, this person seemed to be savoring his beauty sleep and refused to get up… After a while, a slender, pale arm stretched out from under the animal skin, and then a fluffy head was exposed. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned to show he is finally sober, and his eyes are as bright as before.

Lin Mu looked at the empty space beside him. Just as usual, Patrik had already gone out busying around when he(LM) woke up. When he sat up, the pendant he was wearing on his neck was exposed, and Lin Mu held up the swaying animal teeth. This was given to him by Patrik when he proposed to him yesterday. Although the teeth of the beast are a little yellow, Lin Mu likes it very much. Thinking of yesterday, Lin Mu smiled and put the animal tooth necklace back under his clothes. Such a meaningful item should be carried with him all the time.

After they returned to their room yesterday, they didn't do any passionate exercise. They just lie on the bed and chat about the day they first met and their future life. Both of them have the same hopeful vision for the future, and they also believe that they will make the tribe's tomorrow more beautiful. No longer have to worry about food and accommodation; they even have their own tribe now!

It was Patrik's wish to build his own tribe, but he didn't expect it to be realized so early. Moreover, their tribe is better than other tribes. No other tribe lives in a house like them, and they don't have delicious food like theirs. Patrik is very satisfied with his current life; it felt like a dream which he couldn't even dream of. Of course, this would be more complete if he can hold the ceremony with Lin Mu. Patrik really wants to marry Lin Mu as soon as possible, because then Lin Mu would truly belong to him forever. Of course, this will not happen immediately. According to Lin Mu, they can only proceed with the ceremony after their own house is built. Although living together with everyone is very lively, it is really inconvenient in other aspects.

In Lin Mu's opinion, he and Patrik had done everything that partners can do together, so the marriage ceremony was just a ceremony. He is very willing to hold the ceremony with Patrik,

but he is not in a hurry.

Patrik is in a hurry to marry, but Lin Mu is not so he can only wait. What to do otherwise? As a beastman, he would obey his female's wishes 10,000%. It's not like he can force it, he still wants the ceremony alright?! And so, every beastman is a wife(?)1 slave!

After getting dressed and ready to go out to wash, Phil suddenly pulled Lin Mu over, saying, "I have something to tell you." Phil spoke quietly and then pulled Lin Mu into his room.

Being dragged into the room, Lin Mu was quite puzzled and curious about Phil's behavior. He sat on the edge of the bed with Phil and motioned to him to speak with his eyes.

Phil saw that Lin Mu is very interested in what he wanted to say. He organized his thoughts and said solemnly, "It's about Lais."

Seeing Phil opened his eyes widely and acting serious, Lin Mu thought Phil is adorable, but when he heard him say it was about Lais, Lin Mu couldn't help but frown.

"Yesterday I saw Lais alone in the woods, looking very sad. I asked him what's wrong, but he didn't say anything. I thought he missed his family because he would be sad whenever he missed his family. That was usually when he felt wronged. Then I thought about when I was with Lloyd. Since we got together, I haven't thought of my father and dad2 for a long time, and even if I think about them now, I won't be sad. That's why I think if Lais has been wronged?"

When Lin Mu heard Phil's words, he recalled a detail that he had overlooked. That day when they discussed the ceremony, Phil and Sasha were happily talking about holding it together, but Lais did not say that he and Jason were going to do it. Now that he thought of it, Lais accidentally revealed a lost expression at that time. Though he saw it, he didn't give it another thought because he was focused on the ceremony at that time.

"Could it be because of Jason?"

"Although Jason is very cold, he treats Lais very well, we can all tell. Besides, Lais is a good female, how could Jason make Lais sad?" In Phil's opinion, although Jason looked cold all day and cannot be compared with Lloyd, he can tell that Jason cares about Lais.

"But, Lais didn't talk about holding the ceremony together." Lin Mu said, "Is there something wrong with them? Or Lais doesn't want to be partners with Jason? But that doesn't seem to be the case, Lais like Jason a lot, right?"

"Could it be Jason doesn't like Lais?" Phil was surprised by his own thought. "Lais is so good, why wouldn't Jason like him?!"

Seeing Phil looked incredulous, Lin Mu said, "Jason doesn't like Lais? Probably not, after all, don't they live together now? There must be something we don't know." He nodded to affirm his own guess.

Phil was a little worried and said, "Then what will happen to them? Lin Mu, we must help Lais and Jason."

"That is for sure, but first, we must figure out why Lais is sad. After all, we are only throwing guesses now."

"Then how do we know? Just ask Lais?"

Lin Mu shook his head, "We should attack the subject by the side, and then see Lais's reaction to judge whether we are right or not. Then only we take measures."

Phil: "I will follow your instructions."

Lin Mu: "Remember to cooperate with me well."

After Lin Mu discussed with Phil, both of them went out.

"I haven't wash yet!"

Lin Mu went out to help with cooking and suddenly realized that he hadn't washed his face and brush his teeth, so he ran to the stream. While he is running, it comes to him that going to the stream every day to wash is really troublesome! Hence, he decided to prepare a bucket of water tonight for tomorrow morning.

During breakfast

Lin Mu placed a piece of meat into Patrik's bowl and watched as he ate it with a smile (Although the angle of the mouth is really low, Lin Mu can see that he is delighted). Inadvertently, he saw that Lais and Jason didn't seem to interact much with each other, and thought to himself, "So this is how you two usually interact."

Then, he saw Phil sneaking glances at Lais while eating, and couldn't help palming his forehead. Phil, can't you see Lloyd looking at you suspiciously? Although Lais didn't give much response, you can't be so obvious. After that, Lin Mu glanced at Lais lowered his head to eat his breakfast, and muttered, "The problem is obvious."

"What?" Though Lin Mu said to himself in a low voice, but Patrik heard it.

Lin Mu smiled at him, "It's nothing." Then he transferred the meat in his bowl to Patrik. It's still uncomfortable to eat so much meat for breakfast.

Patrik didn't object to Lin Mu's actions, but added more meat on Lin Mu's bowl in response and said, "Eat more meat, you are too thin."

Though speechless by the meat that was returned back to him, Lin Mu could only compromise upon seeing the caring in Patrik's eyes.

After the meal, Lin Mu gave Phil a look and nodded, and then walked up to Lais while Sasha gave both a suspicious glance. Lin Mu said, "Lais, today we shall rest since we have been busy for the past few days."

Lais was about to carry the basket on his back when he heard that. He looked at Lin Mu suspiciously, "Didn't we say yesterday that we will continue to collect food separately today?"

"That…" Lin Mu chuckled, "I just think that we are quite tired these days. Although work is important, maintaining a balance is also very important." Seeing Lais's puzzled gaze, Lin Mu's eyes became even more sincere. He looked at Lais and said, "Really."

"Alright." Lais put down the basket in his hand, "Then how are we going to spend the time today?"

"That's easy." Lin Mu turned back, "Phil."

Phil walked over immediately, "We can eat snacks and chat."

Lin Mu thought of the board he made before, handmade by Patrik of course, and added, "We can also play games."

As soon as Sasha heard that, he supported the decision, "I like that."

Misha, Qiuqiu, and Casso also expressed that they want to join. But thinking of their goals, Lin Mu immediately refused, "Not this time."

"Why?" One person, one wolf, and one Qiuqiu simultaneously looked dissatisfiedly. Why can't they join?

Lin Mu looked at the three children (?), "Hey, you three are still underaged, be obedient. Today is a gathering for us adults, kids should go out and play."

Feeling dissatisfied…

The young ones' expression became worse, so Lin Mu added, "If you are obedient, I will make toys for you."

"Really?!" The three heard the word 'toy' before during Lin Mu's storytelling. They were very curious about what it is actually. All cubs like toys, and there seem to be many kinds of toys.

Finally, the three were coaxed away at the price of one toy per person. Meanwhile, Lais got pulled into his room by Phil, with Sasha following behind. Lin Mu placed the chessboard made of wooden boards in the middle of the bed and poured the chess pieces made of stones in a wooden bowl. Next, the snack tray is placed on the bed. Sasha looked at the long, horizontal, and vertical lines drawn on the wooden board. The lines were colored in a cyan color tree sap, so it was easy to distinguish.

"Lin Mu, how should we play with this chessboard?" As he said, Sasha held up the polished stone without edges and corners. "With this?"

Although Lais is not in a high mood, he curiously looked at the board and the stones as well. Lin Mu smiled and held the stones, "This is chess pieces, and this board is a chessboard. Back at my place, we play a game called 'Gobang'. Although it looked simple, It's actually quite fun." After all, it takes some brainstorming to win. After all, it takes some brainstorming to win.

Lin Mu prefers Chinese chess, but it is not suitable to play with them now. Chinese chess is not that simple to learn. There are more rules to remember, and one has to remember the meaning of the chess pieces – elephant (bishop), horse (knight), cannon (catapult), and other pieces. At the moment, only Patrik can play with him for a while, but he still has to work hard to explain the meaning of each piece to him(P). After a brief introduction on the rules of Gobang, Sasha is vying to be the first to play with Lin Mu while Lais and Phil observe them.

On the other hand, Lin Mu watched as Sasha hugged the wooden bowl that holds the chess pieces while playing with him. Sasha, actually those chess pieces are kind of heavy, and they are not food. There is no need to hold that way, right? But he didn't say anything when he saw him hugging the bowl with much feeling. Rookie Sasha naturally lost in a short time and hollered that he will beat Lin Mu in the next round, and… Ah yes, 'to take revenge and beat his opponent to the ground'3.

Lin Mu felt that he shouldn't have thought Sasha idioms, because now he(S) knows 'to beat him to the ground'. Of course, Sasha's next game was delayed because Phil leaned forward and swept Sasha's pawn into the bowl. Then he held the bowl and announced, "This time, I will play with Lin Mu." Then he hugged the bowl while playing. This behavior of hugging the bowl of chess pieces continued because the first person did that, so the rest thought they had to do the same. It was a beautiful misunderstanding. But Lin Mu was wickedly decided not to point it out. In his heart, he is wondering who could liberate these people from wasting their energy unnecessarily. After all, a game of chess is very time-consuming and laborious. But then this is something for consideration later, as Lin Mu is focusing on playing against Phil right now.

Things like Gobang, even if the opponent is not very good at playing, are very time-consuming, not to mention that Phil seems to understand some tricks to play. At least he didn't hand the game to him like Sasha. Of course, the winner is Lin Mu. Otherwise, losing to someone who played chess for the first time, Lin Mu would kill himself but 'hitting his head against a piece of tofu'4, although there is no such thing as tofu yet.

In the next game, Lin Mu had to put full concentration when playing with Lais, and in the end, it was just a barely win. Wiping his forehead from nonexistent sweat, Lin Mu announced, "After this, Sasha will play with Phil."

Lin Mu stretched his arms comfortably against the stack of animal skins and saw Lais lying down beside him and handing him the fruit in his hand. He took the fruit, but they didn't start eating it. They were watching the two other people playing chess, when Lin Mu suddenly asked, "What happened to you with Jason?"

Still playing chess, Phil heard Lin Mu's question and turned his head to give him a puzzled look, as if saying 'Didn't you want to attack the subject by the side? Why are you being so direct now?'

Lin Mu raised an eyebrow at him to express his answer 'we don't have to do that anymore as it must be related to Jason for sure.'

Lais didn't notice the eyebrows communication between Lin Mu and Phil. When Lin Mu asked that question, Lais bit the fruit and replied after a pause, "It's nothing."

Lin Mu didn't look at him and added, "I don't think it's nothing." He turned to look at Lais, "We can see that you are unhappy. Of course, it is the male's fault if the female is unhappy, so it is definitely Jason's fault. (This is what every male thinks)"

"…"

Lais didn't know what was going on between him and Jason. He could feel that Jason cared about him, but why didn't he propose to him like Patrik did to Lin Mu? This sometimes caused Lais to think, does Jason dislike him?

Seeing Lais hesitating, Lin Mu coaxed, "Tell me, the more we know, the better we can help you to figure out a solution, right?"

Sasha and Phil couldn't play chess with peace of mind with the two talking, so they sat together, "Yeah, yeah. Tell us about it, we can help you think of ideas."

Lais hesitated to express his thoughts.

Sasha: "Lais, don't worry. You're a very good person, Jason definitely likes you."

Phil also nodded, "We can all tell that Jason likes you. Lais, don't worry. Maybe Jason will propose to you soon." Phil quickly helped to comfort Lais.

Lin Mu raised his chin in a moment of thought. He also wondered why Jason didn't propose to Lais. Jason doesn't like Lais? Lin Mu won't believe that. Didn't Jason give Lais flowers not long ago? Although the flower is a sunflower. Could it be that Jason is shy? Lin Mu got scared by his own thoughts. But he won't rule out the possibility that Jason is 'mensao' (闷骚), someone who is outwardly cold or retiring but deep and passionate inside. Maybe he can ask Patrik to help find out what Jason is thinking.

---

Chapter 48 Lin Mu's opinion

At night

Lin Mu sprawled on the bed while looking at his notebook, which is densely filled with words. This notebook was originally placed in a small compartment in his backpack. He didn't notice it before and only realize it when he was tidying his backpack one day. Lin Mu suddenly felt that he is getting further away from words and civilization. Looking at the notebook that has around 50 pages, he has a sudden urge to write down his own experiences, hoping his memories will be preserved. Then he can reread it when he gets old, it is a good way to pass the time. Just as he finished writing down what happened for today, Lin Mu sensed someone opened the curtain and came in. He raised his head and smiled at the person who came in. Patrik's hair is wet, it seemed that he had already taken a shower.

As soon as Patrik walked into the room, this is what he saw – a slender person lying on the bed under the soft light, his raised feet revealing a portion of pale skin, and a faint smile on that handsome face. Patrik's heart was warmed to see Lin Mu smiling at him. This is his female ah, his most precious treasure! Placing the wooden tub on the floor next to the bed, Patrik said, "Mu Mu, come and wash your feet." He hugged the person in his arms as he said, "May I help you?"

Lin Mu smiled, "Hehe, don't want. Let me down, I'll do it myself." But Patrik didn't seem like he will let him go, so Lin Mu raised his head and kissed him, "How about now?"

Patrik happily released his hold.

Because the bed is relatively high, Lin Mu can't sit on the bed to wash his feet. He had to stand in the tub and step around in the water. Supporting his hand on the bed and resting his chin, Lin Mu smiled while watching Patrik make the bed. This man is simply outstanding like that, and he looks good no matter how one look at him.

Patrik made the bed and tidied up the things on the bed. Then he saw Lin Mu looking back at him with a smile. Seeing that he is almost done washing, Patrik picked him up with a smile and helped him dry his feet. He kissed Lin Mu on the forehead and said, "You lie down first, I will pour the water out."

Lin Mu watched as Patrik went out with the tub, and it didn't take long before he returns with a new tub of water for washing tomorrow. This person always cares about him so meticulously. With a warmed heart, Lin Mu feels that it is his greatest fortune to be living in this world.

After everything is done, Patrik gathered all glowing stones on the bedside table to make the space on the bed brighter. Lin Mu snuggled in his arms and whispered, "You are the best." Patrik held the person in his arms and watched as Lin Mu snuggled in his arms like a small animal. Then he heard him muttering something, and smiled as he stroked his back. To have his female saying that he is the best is the greatest compliment for him.

"Mu Mu, our house is almost finished. Are we going to build a courtyard wall?" Although Patrik heard Lin Mu talking about how their house should be built before, he didn't mention about the wall.

"It's going to finish soon? That was fast?" He couldn't help but sigh, "Beastman's efficiency is high!" After thinking, Lin Mu said, "Let's build the courtyard wall. Although having a fence where we can see our neighbours and their activities in the yard are very interesting, but thinking that this is our home, I still like to have a space of our own; an independent space that belongs to us both only. We can plant fruit trees in the front yard, and flowers that we like. We can also plant some vegetables in the backyard. It makes me very happy just from thinking about it."

Lin Mu looked hopeful, and yearning while talking and Patrik liked it. It is their own home. Seeing his partner happily talking about their home and how to construct it, Patrik said, "Mu Mu, I am very happy. Very happy that you can stay beside me."

"I'm also delighted that you can stay beside me." Lin Mu kissed Patrik. "I'm afraid of being alone. You have to stay with me forever, you know?"

"En, forever…"

Patrik: "Ah, I really want to have the ceremony soon."

"Don't worry yo, we'll get married once the house is built, hehe." It's funny to see Patrik's impatient look. "Beastman works fast, so you won't wait long." Lin Mu smiled. He held Patrik's face with a smile, and wonder why he thought he(P) has facial paralysis at first.

Thinking of the ceremony, Lin Mu asked, "Patrik, do you think there is something wrong with Jason and Lais?"

Patrik thinks about Jason's emotions lately. "I don't know about Lais, but Jason is a little irritable these days."

"Irritable huh…" Lin Mu thought for a moment, "Patrik, Jason didn't propose to Lais, do you know? But, both Lloyd and Locke have proposed marriage, and they will hold their ceremony together with us. So, Lais felt that Jason may not like him."

That surprised Patrik. That stupid big guy Locke had his own female, and yet Jason still hadn't succeeded. Thinking about it makes him feel disappointed (towards Jason). Females are precious treasures for any tribe, and even more so for the drifter beastman tribe. There are only 5 females in their tribe, and one of them is still immature. Now there is an outstanding female in Jason's room. With such an enviable and hateful advantage, he didn't even propose to Lais and caused the female to think that he(J) did not like him(L). Jason, can you fail any lower?!

When Patrik gets furious, Lin Mu patted him, "Patrik, does Jason likes Lais?"

"No doubt about this."

Lin Mu wondered, why he is so sure? He himself also thinks that Jason likes Lais, but who knows what the other party is thinking.

"If he doesn't like Lais, Jason won't agree to live with Lais."

"Then, why hasn't he acted yet? After all, everyone else has proposed marriage, and he knows it too. If he doesn't take action, it will inevitably make Lais overthink."

"Who knows which of his animal nerve went wrong?!" What a failure!

"Patrik, go and talk to Jason tomorrow. Lais is not happy these days, it's not good."

"To make his female unhappy, Jason failed too much," Patrik said very solemnly. "Tomorrow I will interrogate him. Jason is not the only beastman pursuing Lais."

"Interrogate? You won't get into a fight with Jason, right?"

Patrik seriously replied, "I won't fight with beastman for other females. This should be done by Lais's suitors."

There is something like this huh?

"You just need to know why Jason didn't act and let him take the initiative."

…

After a night of good sleep

Patrik followed Lin Mu's instructions the next day and found a time to talk to Jason. After talking, Jason and Patrik both returned to their rooms with a deep expression.

Lin Mu was tidying things in the room when he saw Patrik looking worried. Putting down the animal skin in his hand, he asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Patrik hugged Lin Mu, "Mu Mu, are you staying with me out of gratefulness?"

"What?" Lin Mu was surprised and puzzled by Patrik's words. What does he mean?

"Mu Mu, you are staying with me because I saved you? Because you were grateful to me?"

Lin Mu understands what happened now, but why does Patrik think like this? He asked, "Why do you think like this?"

Patrik looked at Lin Mu and said, "Beastman generally needs to pursue their female for a long time."

Lin Mu angrily poked Patrik's head, "What's in your mind?! Who would let you 'do this and that'1 out of gratitude?!" He couldn't help but blush as he said, "Say it ba, how did you get into such thinking all of a sudden today?" In his opinion, Patrik is not someone who would trouble himself with these questions.

Lin Mu's words let Patrik understand that his Mu Mu is staying with him because he likes him, so he can rest assured. Then he told Lin Mu what caused the question.

After listening to Patrik, Lin Mu said, "You mean, Jason didn't propose because he felt that Lais doesn't have any choices and had to be with him?"

Patrik: "He felt that Lais is staying with him because he(L) had no choice but to choose him(J). After all, he saved Lais and Lais is now in a drifter beastman tribe. Females generally have a deep fear of drifter beastman. Moreover, Lais only knows him out of everyone here. Hence, Jason feels that if he proposes, Lais will have no choice but agree. After all, females need males. However, the union will only be happy when both parties like each other."

Lin Mu: "What he means is we only have drifter beastman here, with very little choice to choose from. Plus he saved Lais. So, Lais chose him not because he(L) likes him(J) but because there's no other way?"

Patrik nodded.

Lin Mu couldn't help having black line on his face2, "Jason thinks too much. Why would Lais choose him if he doesn't like him? Even though we have very few options here, but if Lais doesn't like it, he can leave the drifter beastman tribe anytime. Females are precious everywhere, so he doesn't have to wrong himself by staying."

To be honest, if he thinks about it, the reason why Jason thinks that way is because of his identity as a drifter beastman. It turns out that even the proud beastman will feel inferior because of this identity.

"I have to help them." His mind turned, "Hehe, I got it."

Patrik looked at Lin Mu's weird smile, wondering what kind of bizarre thing he had in mind again. He pamperingly embraced Lin Mu in his arms and stared at him. It's fine as long as Lin Mu likes him.

---

Chapter 49 Fixing Lais's problem

"Now that we know the crux of the matter, this matter can be easily solved. Hehe, wait for my good news." Lin Mu said and went out with a smirk; not sure what he had in mind.

Patrik pamperingly watched as Lin Mu left the room happily and shook his head. But then thinking about his evil smile, Patrik wondered what kind of shocking thing Mu Mu would do.

Lin Mu went out to find Lais and the rest, generously letting 'three little tails' follow him up the mountain together. Although Lais's matter is really important, his plan must be carried out step by step. After all, it's the harvest season right now, and winter is a difficult time to endure, so storing more food is the first priority.

Everyone carried their own baskets. Even Casso and Qiuqiu carried a bag Lin Mu specially prepared for them, the young ones liked to store food as well. Especially Qiuqiu, it hid a lot of food like nuts, which made Lin Mu wonder if it has a hamster's temperament.

Every time they went up the mountain, Lin Mu and the females strived to find new food. If they did found one, they will make a mark on the food and let the beastman who will be following behind to pick it up, since their abilities are limited and they can't carry so many things. Thinking about the food they are storing now, it's safe to say that they don't have to worry about food this winter.

At the moment, Lin Mu is squatting among a bunch of flowers; picking flowers. It is a bunch of wild chrysanthemums, and Lin Mu decided to gather more so that they can make chrysanthemum tea in the future. It's easy to get heaty from eating fried foods frequently, and drinking some chrysanthemum tea will help cooling them down. After a moment of thoughts, Lin Mu went to explain the benefit of chrysanthemum to the females. Upon hearing Lin Mu's introduction to chrysanthemum tea and its benefits, the rest of the group started to pick chrysanthemum flowers. Of course, not counting the three small ones who were playing around.

While picking the flowers, Phil squatted down next to Lin Mu and whispered to him, "Lin Mu, I am very worried to see Lais being despaired ah. What did you found out about his situation?"

Lin Mu turned to glance at Lais, who was picking flowers not far from them. Although Lais didn't look as serious as Phil said, he is obviously out of shape and can be seen he has something in his heart.

"Don't worry, I have already thought of a way, and the problem will be solved soon."

"What way?" Phil asked in a low voice curiously, "I still don't know why they have that problem."

"Hehe, I'm keeping it secret for now." Lin Mu winked at Phil and spoke in a teasing tone.

"What are you two sneakily talking about?" No one knows when Sasha came over, but he looked extremely curious seeing the two muttering to themselves.

Lin Mu couldn't help rolling his eyes. "Sasha, our behaviour can only be considered mysterious at best. Not sneaky, alright? You still haven't improved with your choice of words."

Seeing Sasha being teased by Lin Mu, Phil covered his mouth and chuckled. Sasha felt dissatisfied and rebutted, "I'm progressing. Also, don't change the subject. What secret you two were discussing just now that you don't want me to know?"

"Secret?" Lin Mu gave Phil a smile, "Actually, I was betting with Phil just now when Locke will eat you. My bet is before the ceremony."

"I bet after the ceremony." Phil cooperatively teased Sasha.

Sure enough, Sasha blushed after hearing what they said, "You guys… You two are so wicked." After saying that, he quickly distanced himself from the two.

Looking at Sasha's embarrassed little gesture, Lin Mu and Phil both laughed presumptuously. Sasha couldn't help lamenting in his heart, 'Wuwuwuwu… you are all bad people!'

Noticing the excitement on their side, Lais smiled too as if being infected by their joy, and is in a better mood.

Amid the talk and laughter, the females managed to pick a lot of food in a short time. Then, they moved on to another area and luckily encountered an area of honeysuckle flowers, which also has the effect of clearing away heat. It can also be used to make tea, so the group grabbed some as well.

Lin Mu looked at his almost full basket. Although it was not heavy, it took up space. Now, even if he managed to find other things, he doesn't know where to put it. He sighed for not arranging his back basket reasonably, but it didn't affect much of his mood. After all, they didn't go up the mountain is to blindly look for food, but to relax. It is not good for them to always cooped up in the room.

The females continued to walk and paid attention to their surrounding. Phil hopes to find useful medicinal materials and collect more to store while Sasha hopes to find delicious fruits. Lais paid more attention to find edible foods, and Lin Mu focused on finding new usable things, whether it's food or something else.

Suddenly, Lin Mu came across an extraordinary tree. The tree was not very high and didn't have many branches. The reason why Lin Mu became curious was the transparent sap on the trunk. Long-term secretion caused a cone-shaped translucent condensed sap to accumulate more than 10 cm on the ground, near the tree trunk. Curious about what those transparent juices were, Lin Mu wanted to reach out to touch them but was caught by Lais.

"Lin Mu, you can't touch that."

"Why? Is it poisonous?"

Lais shook his head, "Not poisonous, but very sticky."

"En, those juices are very sticky. I once touched it out of curiosity and got two fingers stuck together. In the end, I have to cut off a bit of my skin with a knife."

The pain left a lingering trauma in Sasha's heart. Since then, he would make sure to stay away from this kind of tree.

Hearing their words, Lin Mu wondered, "Is it gum? The effect seems to be very good." Thinking about it makes his eyes lit up, "We found a good thing." Under their doubtful eyes, Lin Mu took out a bamboo tube to collect the sap.

Sasha: "What's the use of this?"

In their opinion, as long as Lin Mu says something is good, then it must be useful.

"It's handy for carpentry. With glue, you can do a lot of things." Lin Mu replied while holding the bamboo tube to collect the gum.

The others also helped out. They managed to fill two bamboo tubes. Lin Mu decided to try these first, and if it works, it's not too late for them to collect more later.

Lin Mu has just carefully placed the gum in his back basket when he saw Qiuqiu running towards him. It pulled at the hem of his trousers as if to take him somewhere.

"Qiuqiu, what did you find again?"

Seeing that Qiuqiu didn't mean to answer him, Lin Mu followed behind Qiuqiu.

Sasha: "Qiuqiu is so smart, I wonder what else it found." Qiuqiu helped them find the flour ball and potatoes after all, and it helped them a lot.

"Qiuqiu always finds edible things. It seems that Lin Mu is right. Qiuqiu is really a foodie. Hahaha…"

The rest followed behind Lin Mu to see what they found.

When they reached their destination, they found Misha holding a football-sized object and gnawing at it. A little wolf was also gnawing it next to him, while Rod (a member of the drifter beastman, responsible for the safety of the females who went up the mountain this time) stood by and guarded them.

Seeing them coming, Misha waved his hand and said, "Come over, this thing is delicious."

Lin Mu's eyes lit up, "Sweet potato?"

Lin Mu hurried over and picked up a piece on the ground. Slicing it with a knife, Lin Mu took a bite, and a familiar taste filled his mouth, "It's really sweet potato."

Sasha, who concerned about eating the most, saw them eating something and followed suit.

Sasha: "It's sweet, crunchy, and very delicious. This kind of fruit is strange, it's grown in the soil. "

"This is not a fruit." Lin Mu said as he cut two pieces for Lais and Phil for them to taste. "This is called a sweet potato. It can be eaten as a staple food and can be kept for a long time if it is preserved properly. Other than that, there are many ways to eat it. Let's dig some back, and I will make some for you to taste." Looking at the big piece of land, their harvest this time is not small.

No one can resist food. Hearing Lin Mu's words, they all started to dig up the sweet potatoes.

On the other hand, Lin Mu stared at the sweet potato leaves, and he started picking some. He thought of sweet potato leaf wotou1, a type of food he missed a lot and felt that he is salivating. The others saw Lin Mu picking the leaves, and helped to pick some as well, thinking it should be a kind of vegetable.

Wotou / Cornbread?

Looking at the harvest in their hands, Lin Mu happily declared, "We will eat something good today."

It was lunchtime when they returned to their house. After the group finished their meal, they washed up and went back to their rooms to rest. As for the newly discovered sweet potatoes, Lin Mu felt a little tired, so he planned to eat them later.

Although everyone is busy building houses now, the beastman still will take an afternoon nap. Just like Lin Mu said, a combination of work and rest is the best. On the other side, Lin Mu is currently held in Patrik's arms, and both of them slept soundly. When Lin Mu woke up, Patrik had already gone to work. After washing his face, Lin Mu walked out of the room and saw Phil.

"Phil, let's go and clean the sweet potatoes."

Phil nodded. After all, it was dug out of the soil and was stained with a lot of mud.

Lin Mu asked Lais who came out to help to start the fire. Then he selected some small, slender sweet potatoes out and put them in the pot to cook. After that, he put a few small sweet potatoes under the stove; baked sweet potatoes are very delicious. For dinner, Lin Mu made sweet potato porridge, boiled sweet potatoes, candied sweet potato and sweet potato wotou. Wotou is very popular since everyone can only eat one each. And the candied sweet potatoes are very much appreciated by the small ones and Sasha. It can be said that for sweet potatoes, everyone has expressed their liking, and they now have another kind of food for their winter ration.

Lin Mu also plans to make some dried sweet potatoes for snacks tomorrow. Of course, he didn't say it, worried that Sasha the foodie will ask him to do it immediately. Cooking food for so many people is very tiring.

After dinner, everyone sat in front of the house and chatted while waiting for their food to be digested; enjoying this wonderful life. On the other hand, Lin Mu quietly pulled Lais away to his room.

"What's the matter, Lin Mu?" Lais was puzzled to see Lin Mu acting mysteriously.

"I'm here to relieve your worries. Aren't you worried whether Jason likes you or not?" Then he briefly explained what Jason was feeling complicated at.

Lais was furious. "He really thinks so?!"

Lin Mu nodded, Lais looked terrifying when he is angry.

"Jason is really… how can he think that? I didn't express my intention enough for him?! I am grateful to him, but who would marry him out of gratitude!"

"Lais, don't be angry, 'calm down'2! Calm down!"

Lais calmed down and sat on the edge of the bed, "Lin Mu, what do you think I should do?"

"Jason is a stubborn head and has determined that you accepted him out of gratitude. He didn't listen no matter what Patrik said, instead Patrik almost accepted his point of view. However, there is a way." He whispered something in Lais's ear.

Lais blushed. "Does it have to be that way?"

Lin Mu nodded seriously, "This is the most direct way and has the best effect."

"But I don't know…" Lais blushed so much that he can drip blood, and his voice is as small as mosquitoes.

Lin Mu thought for a while and realized something. Oh yeah, females are pure, and for a pure child like Lais, he doesn't know how to take the initiative. But actually thinking about it, beastman is a beast, right? Even if Lais doesn't know how to seduce Jason, as long as he took the initiative a little bit, Lin Mu felt that the beastman would be defeated in a flash. So he whispered in Lais's ear again.

"Really?"

"Indeed!"

"Does it have to be this way?" Lais still felt embarrassed.

"This is the most direct way."

Finally decided on a resolution, Lais said, "Alright then."

Lin Mu made a 'V sign in his heart; he finally succeeded in persuading Lais.

Actually, Lin Mu's idea is for Lais to take the initiative to let Jason 'eat' him. Lin Mu doesn't know if it is the best way, but it is definitely the fastest way. Moreover, after Lais is 'eaten', he will no longer be the only female who got eaten before getting married; how nice.

(Author: This is Mu Mu's main purpose ah, so that he is not the only person who was eaten.

Lin Mu: Says who? That is only a bonus from settling their problem (guilty conscience)

Author: Say no more, really now, you thought I don't understand you?)

When Patrik came in, he came across Lais going out of the room with a blush.

"Mu Mu, what happened to Lais? His face was so red."

"Hehehe…" Lin Mu smirked.

"What makes you so happy?" Seeing his smug look, Patrik couldn't help reaching out to scratch the tip of his nose.

"I'll tell you after my plan succeeds, so I won't tell you yet." Lin Mu raised his chin and said triumphantly.

"Don't tell if you don't want to. Do you want to take a bath? Then I will help you boil the water now."

"Yes, please. Patrik, you are the best."

"Now you know," Patrik said as he went out to boil the water while Lin Mu happily rolled around on the bed.

The next day, Lin Mu ran out to inquire about Lais' situation as soon as he woke up.

"Phil, has Lais get up yet?"

"Huh?" Phil wondered, "I haven't seen him yet, what's the matter?"

"No. I'm going to wash my face then." He ran away. "If I knew earlier, I would wake up later."

Phil looked at Lin Mu's back in confusion, "What happened?"

As expected, Lais didn't come out from his room the entire morning, and the curtains of his room had been dropped down (curtains down means they are not receiving visitors). Moreover, Jason brought Lais's breakfast into their room. Therefore, Lin Mu felt that his suggestion to 'cook rice into porridge'3 is correct.

After he explained to the puzzled Phil and Sasha, Lin Mu went back to his room while the two is still surprised. He decided to lie down in his bed for a while.

---

Chapter 50 Lais's Extra

Lais's tribe is not big or small, just ordinary. Females are inherently scarce, so with Lais's personality that is not as willful and arrogant as other spoiled females, plus his slender figure, Lais is very popular with his tribe beastmen. Many people tried to pursue Lais.

Lais has lived in his tribe since he was a child, being pampered by his parents and his suitors with no limits. Originally he thought he would find a beastman warrior who is brave as his father, and care for him like his father to his dad1, to spend this ordinary life together until old. But it didn't happen.

Lais has never understood how someone like drifter beastman exists in this world. Both his parents told him about the bad things that drifter beastman did, and that makes him feel terrified. He couldn't understand why drifter beastman do bad things to females that all beastman regarded as their most precious treasures. How could drifter beastman force themselves on a female?

On the other hand, even though drifter beastmen are scary, they are far away from him, in Lais's opinion. Their tribe has never been invaded by any drifter beastman before. There are many mighty beastman warriors in their tribe, so even if they did come, the tribe warriors would protect them and their tribe. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Watching the beastman in his tribe being killed and wounded, watching the injured beastman being enslaved by the drifter beastman to protect his own family, and seeing his friends being humiliated, Lais has never been so scared as he is now.

That moment when he was dragged away by a few drifter beastman, Lais knew what his fate would be, which made him tremble with fear and anger at the same time. How can they do this, how can they humiliate females?! They are not worthy of being the subjects of their beast god, they are simply beasts! They don't deserve to be called beastman! Lais finally understood why people said drifter beastmen are abandoned by the beast god, and why they would be expelled by their tribe. But, who can save him from these demons now? Who can save him?! He did not want to be insulted by these drifter beastmen, even if he died!

When Lais was desperately thinking of ending himself, Jason's appearance made him see the hope of life. He will never forget the scene where Jason appeared. A huge snake with blood-red eyes caused people to get a chill down their back. But at this moment, Lais felt like a saviour has descended to the world. He watched the huge snake body swung away several drifter beastman, and even though they quickly transformed to their beast form, they were not the opponent of the big snake.

Lais watched as trees went flying in front of him, and how several drifter beastman being injured by the snake before fleeing. He watched the snake become a handsome man in front of him, who looked at him with indifference. All of a sudden, Lais felt that his heart is beating abnormally. This person is so scary, but why he didn't feel afraid of him?

Lais stared as the man stood in front of him, and with an indifferent expression in his cold voice, the man said, "Follow me." Next, the man carried Lais in his arms without asking if he agreed, and left the place.

The forest at night always gave people a feeling that something creepy is calling out. It was the first time for Lais to spend the night in the forest. With a self-protective stance, Lais positioned himself closer to the fire, which made him less afraid. He looked up at the expressionless man sitting opposite him. This person hasn't spoken to him since he said to follow him. Lais had never encountered a beastman who treated him with such an attitude before, so he didn't know how to talk with this icy person.

Upon seeing the man getting up, Lais instantly panicked. What if he left himself here?! Lais stood up immediately, and asked with pleading in his eyes, "Where are you going?"

Jason paused and glanced at the female, "Wait." After speaking, he turned into his beast form and entered the dense forest.

Lais looked at the beastman's leaving figure and looked at the dark surroundings as if it is about to swallow him. Thinking of his tribe and his home, Lais clasped his arms around himself; he felt so cold at the moment. Sad tears couldn't help streaming down, "Father, Dad…" He knew that his dead parents could not hear his call. He knows…

Immersed in grief, Lais suddenly heard a familiar indifferent voice asking, "What's wrong?"

The female was so deep in grief that Jason couldn't bear it and voiced out.

Looking up, Lais saw that the man came back. He(J) didn't abandon him. He raised his head happily and said with a smile, "I'm fine." He wiped away the tears from his face hurriedly, "What did you do outside?"

Jason stopped trying to ask the female when he saw that he is not sad anymore. He gestured at the meat he had already cleaned up and said, "Food."

Due to him feeling shocked earlier plus they were hurrying away from the village, Lais didn't have the time to feel hungry. Only when he saw the meat taken out by the beastman that he suddenly felt starving. Lais happily mumbled to himself, "So he went looking for food."

Jason gave the female a fruit to pad his stomach while he prepares to cook the meat. When he was out earlier, he made a small stone pot on the spot according to Lin Mu's specifications, which he thought was really tiny. Placing the pot on the fire, he poured in some water from a bamboo tube.

At the side, Lais curiously looked at the stone pot, and saw the beastman pouring water into the pot on the fire, he should be boiling water. In his opinion, this beastman is really smart to have thought of using this method to boil water. In the past, the people in Lais's tribe only boiled hot water in winter, and they all use bamboo tubes to do so. The bamboo tubes were easy to burn, so they could only boil the water to warm temperature; it can barely be used.

Lais was eating the grilled meat the beastman cooked for him while watching him engraving something with a piece of wood and a knife. This cold beastman is really strange. Then the man served him something to drink in a peculiar shape (actually it's just a common and rough-looking bowl)2 tool, Lais asked, "What is this?"

"Wooden bowl and spoon." Jason still cherishes his words like gold3, as always.

Following the method the beastman showed him, Lais managed to drink the fruit soup with a spoon. "It's really convenient, and the soup is delicious. Thank you! You are so smart!"

"Taught by Lin Mu." After Jason finished speaking, he began to eat silently.

Although Lais doesn't know who Lin Mu is, but he is really an amazing person to be able to make these things. Lais ate 5 or 6 more skewers of grilled meat, drank 2 bowls of fruit soup, and rubbed his stomach comfortably. Although the meat has no taste, this meal was comfortable for him. After they finished eating, perhaps because they had a meal together, Lais felt that they have gotten slightly closer(one-sidedly).

"My name is Lais, can you tell me what your name is?" Lais asked with a smile looking at the expressionless person opposite him. Lais's gentle personality has always been one of the main reasons why many beastman like him.

"Jason."

Knowing Jason's name, Lais considered that they are now acquaintance and said, "Jason, thank you for saving me today."

Although he didn't get any reaction from Jason, this didn't prevent Lais from deciding to communicate with him.

"Jason, which tribe are you from?"

"……" Silence.

"How many people are there in your tribe?"

Still silence.

"Can I go to your tribe?"

No response yet.

Though the other party didn't say anything, Lais was not discouraged. Then, seeing him(J) handing him an animal skin blanket, Lais took it as it's not good to reject people's goodwill. He spread the blanket on the ground and prepare to sleep; it was really a tiring today.

Jason looked in the direction where Lais was sleeping, considering whether to send him to another tribe or let him follow him first. He still has a mission to find a place suitable for everyone to live as soon as possible. The nearby tribes are quite far away from here, and they are in the opposite direction from where he is going.

"I'd better find a suitable place first, then send him away." After thinking about it in his heart, Jason closed his eyes and fell asleep. He needs to rest as well.

In the morning, Lais was woken by the smell of grilled meat. Seeing that Jason has already started to prepare food and he barely woken up, Lais smiled embarrassedly at Jason. Taking the bamboo tube filled with water, he rinsed briefly and started eating. In his mind, he thought with some regret, "Jason's barbecue skills are excellent, it will be nice if he could add more salt. Why doesn't he have any salt? Could it be he has finished eating his salt already?"

Jason also boiled some fruit soup for Lais and packed the remainder in a bamboo tube as he remembered Lin Mu saying that drinking boiled water is better for females.

They started to move the next day, and Lais saw that the other party didn't look like he will abandon him. On the other hand, although Jason looked cold, he still took good care of him, so naturally, Lais followed Jason with confidence. One thing he couldn't understand was why Jason keep heading to some obscure places. Could it be because their tribe is located in a more hidden place? However, though Jason has been walking towards a direction, Lais has a feeling that Jason is somewhat uncertain with their destination. He also couldn't understand why they are not returning to his(J) tribe despite the fact that rainy season is coming

….

Lais stared at the beastman in front of him. He couldn't believe that the man who had been taking care of him for a long time is a drifter beastman! He admitted that he was frightened as his gaze met with the person who is looking at him with no expression. But thinking of the care he gave him these days, Lais forgot to be afraid, suddenly felt very angry and wronged.

"Why are you telling me this? Are you going to leave me behind?!"

Lais's questioning tone didn't change Jason's expression.

Lais didn't know what Jason was thinking or whether he really wanted to leave him behind, but that thought made him feel scared.

Jason shook his head. He has not found a suitable place yet, but he needs to rush back to meet Patrik and the others. Hence, he can no longer bring Lais with him. "I will send you to other tribes."

"I'm not going!"

Lais didn't understand why he felt so angry. He knew that Jason was doing it for his own good. After all, the other party is a drifter beastman, but he still felt abandoned.

Jason didn't speak because he knew that Lais is feeling irrational now, and beastman wouldn't argue with females. Moreover, Jason doesn't experience such intense emotions generally, so he waited for Lais to calm down.

Looking at the silent beastman, Lais sat on the ground feebly, trying to calm himself down.

"You are different from those bad drifter beastmen."

"…"

"Are you going back to find your companions or… are you just alone?"

"Go back to my companions."

"Your companions are the same as you… they don't hurt females?" Feeling that his words might hurt the beastman, Lais added, "En, I mean you are different from those bad drifter beastmen. You didn't hurt me. I heard my father say that drifter beastmen will hurt females, so I want to ask…"

Before Lais could finish his words, he heard Jason said, "My companions have never done it."

"Won't snatch other people's tribes and bully females like those beastman?"

"No."

Lais stopped asking, he feels that he needs to consider some things. Then he looked at the beastman sitting opposite him. This person feels so cold. He doesn't like to talk and always expressionless, except when he talks about a person.

"Who is Lin Mu? What kind of person is he?" In Lais's opinion, Lin Mu should be a drifter beastman, just like Jason.

"He is a female, we met by chance."

"Female?! He is a female? You mean there are females in your group?!"

Jason nodded, "He took the initiative to stay in our tribe. He is a very smart person."

Seeing Jason's ice cube's face slightly relaxed, Lais praised, "Such an amazing female! Do you like him?" Jason probably liked him, after all, that female sounded pretty good. Not sure why, Lais feel kind of lost.

"He will become Patrik's female."

Although the other party did not answer his question directly, Lais still felt happy.

"I'll go back with you."

Since those people will not hurt him, they should be very good to females too, judging on Jason's attitude. Going to a new tribe is no different from following Jason to new places, plus he already has someone he knows if he followed Jason. Lais deliberately ignored the fact that a tribe would give him a better living environment, and that the rainy season is about to come.

Jason frowned when he heard what Lais said. Even if he doesn't want to send Lais away, he can't help but admit that it is better for females to live in a tribe.

Seeing Jason frowned, Lais got worried that he will be rejected, so he quickly stated, "I have already decided." How can one refuse a female's request!

Thus, Lais followed Jason and met his companions. He was surprised that there were cubs in their group. Of course, he also saw Lin Mu, whom he had always heard about, and Lin Mu is indeed a very attractive female.

The life he experienced next was so beautiful that Lais couldn't believe it; delicious food and bright house. These were things he had never seen before. In the past, the tribe would stay in a cave during the rainy season and winter. It has always been like this, dark and damp. However, being accustomed to the condition and accepting doesn't mean he likes it.

He had no objection to sharing a room with Jason, he knew that they have been regarded as a pair, even though they were only sleeping separately; each to one side of the bed. But Lais was pleased about this. He thinks that it's good for their relationship to develop at a steady rate, although they were not as clingy as the other pairs. After all, Lais could see that he is different in Jason's eyes, and it is very difficult for ice block like him(J) to do those cheesy things. All these were fine in Lais's opinion. Because generally, beastman and their female only get together after a long time and Lais didn't know Jason for long. But when the other pairs start talking about holding their ceremony the same time with Lin Mu, Lais suddenly felt a little worried. Why didn't Jason propose to him? Doesn't Jason like himself? Lais became less sure of that all of a sudden. He knew that Jason realized something is wrong, but he(J) didn't say anything (because Jason didn't know how to say, he is not good at expressing himself). And that made Lais's heart felt troubled even more. Lais knows that he is a little out of it these days and was always in a daze, but he didn't expect Lin Mu to guess his thoughts.

That day when he went up the mountain with Lin Mu, they found new food. Lin Mu said that it is called sweet potatoes – a very delicious food. Lais knew that whenever they found new food, Lin Mu would cook it for them immediately. Lin Mu was said it is called testers. Therefore, it was no surprise to find a variety of sweet potatoes for dinner at night.

Lais ate his food silently and missed the worried gaze Jason cast at him. After the meal, Lais was quietly pulled away by Lin Mu. When he heard Lin Mu explained why Jason didn't express his feelings to him, he was delighted at that moment because Jason liked him too! But he was furious at the same time. As a female, isn't it obvious enough for everything he did for Jason?! Hence, Lin Mu gave him an idea and taught him to seduce Jason. Moreover, he said not to 'do it to the end' with Jason. Hearing Lin Mu whispering how to seduce someone, Lais felt his face burn. But it makes him happy when Lin Mu said that he could actually punish Jason in this way; like Jason can only see but cannot eat; making Jason feel unsettled.

Of course, Lais couldn't hear what Lin Mu really thought in his own mind – beastman is also a beast, who can control the beast when the 'urge' comes up? And mister, you are the one seducing the beast, how can the beastman let you go? So please forgive my treacherousness, hahaha…

So, Lais ended up in 'misery'. However, there is still a difference with what Lin Mu thinks. Jason actually held onto his urge until his eyes became red, and it was Lais who can't bear to make him feel uncomfortable. The result was he can't get up the next day, and Jason looked refreshed.

Lying on the bed and being fed by Jason in his arms, Lais felt relieved although he was not feeling well. Living in a very good tribe and having a beastman partner that he likes, Lais thinks that his current mood can be described as what Lin Mu often said – My life is complete.

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