Beauty and the Beasts

Winston’s body tensed as he stiffly bent over.

“Wasn’t it said that the water in the lake had dried up? Get them to dig a hole in the center of the river, the deeper the better.”

“Mm?” Winston cocked his head sideways and glanced at Bai Qingqing with a perplexed look.

Bai Qingqing explained softly, “The mud in the bottom of the river has water content. Once the hole is dug deep enough, water will surely seep in.”

Winston’s eyes spun quickly in their sockets for a bit. The more he thought about it, the more feasible he felt the idea was. He gazed at Bai Qingqing agitatedly, a scorching hot glint in his eyes.

Embarrassed from being stared at, Bai Qingqing retreated a step.

He’s making it seem like I’m very smart or something. Actually… it’s just that you beastmen are too unintelligent! We humans dig wells everywhere, and there has never been a deliberate need to publicize this method.

“Also, you guys can try somewhere where the terrain is low, and not necessarily have to do it at the bottom of the river.”

“I will,” Winston said in his deep voice.

Although Bai Qingqing spoke softly, the surrounding beastmen heard her perfectly well due to their keen sense of hearing. Someone asked with uncertainty, “Will there really be water?”

“Try it and we’ll know.” Winston didn’t give any excessive explanation, simply leading them and leaving.

Bai Qingqing, too, felt curious. She ran back to her bedroom and covered herself with an animal skin before getting Parker to carry her to the clear lake in the Camel Hump Valley.

With the beastmen’s immense strength, the progress of digging the well was very fast. Shortly after, there was a small mountain piled up by the side. In less than five minutes, the beastmen digging the well let out a gasp from inside.

“There’s water!”

Someone raised a basin of murky water up. Standing under the shade of a tree, Bai Qingqing was stunned.

So fast? There’s indeed a lot of water at the bottom of the lake!

Bai Qingqing indicated for Winston to continue digging—the deeper the better. News of them digging up water quickly spread throughout the entire city, astounding even the ape king.

The ape king walked to Bai Qingqing and Parker’s side, entirely absorbed in watching the beastmen putting in their utmost effort to dig the well in the riverbed. With a sneer, he said, “You think just by digging out the water you can rescue the City of Beastmen? Without any drinking water, the animals will move away. This is something you’re unable to change.”

Bai Qingqing conveniently plucked a willow leaf and realized that the tree leaves here had more sufficient moisture content than those found by the rivers of the City of the Beastmen.

As she gently took in the botanical fragrance of the tree leaf, Bai Qingqing said calmly, “Man proposes, heaven disposes. If it ultimately doesn’t rain, there’s nothing we can do to interfere with heaven’s decision.”

The ape king sputtered in laughter and said with contempt, “Just wait and see.”

With that, he turned around and left with the wolf king.

“What does he want?” Bai Qingqing said as she stared at the back views of the ape king and his entourage of beastmen.

Excited and worried at the same time, Parker’s tone sounded more urgent than usual. “He must be planning to beg the deities to bestow rain upon us.”

“Ah!” Bai Qingqing stared at the skies with a confused look. There isn’t even a single cloud in the blue skies—how is he going to get it to rain?

After sending Bai Qingqing back, Parker went out to hunt.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to find prey in the mountains. When he finally managed to find one after much effort, Parker rushed up to bite the prey’s neck in one swoop and did not leave excessive wounds on its body.

Then, he sucked all the blood from the prey. After eating his fill, he then dragged the remnants of the prey back with him.

He roasted the best chunk of meat for Bai Qingqing and left the rest for Winston.

“Time to eat.” Parker placed a bowl of charred-looking meat and salt powder on the floor in front of Bai Qingqing.

Though Bai Qingqing’s brows furrowed at the sight of the food, she didn’t complain. She skillfully picked up Curtis’s scale and started slicing the meat.

The outermost layer of this roast meat couldn’t be eaten, for it hadn’t been washed. As they were in shortage of water, the flour and rice at home couldn’t be eaten. As a result, Bai Qingqing had been eating roast meat dipped in salt powder for many consecutive days.

She felt like she had gone back to the pre-liberalization era!