Beauty and the Beasts

Under the intense sunlight, the white tiger’s silver pupils shrunk to narrow slits that could barely be seen. However, strong feelings of love unreservedly radiated from his eyes.

Parker placed the animal skin on the ground, then helped Bai Qingqing to sit down on it. “Sit here and pay attention to the river. If you see any animals come close, let me know.”

Bai Qingqing looked towards the river. The jungle was dense with foliage, preventing one from seeing what was inside and giving one a sense of crisis.

Bai Qingqing nodded cautiously. “Okay.”

Parker picked up his stone blade, then walked to the wheat field and started harvesting.

Winston held back the emotions in his eyes and transformed into a human. He was about to pluck out the wheat with his hands when Parker threw an animal skin skirt in his direction.

“Just carry the wheat I’ve cut to where Qingqing is and protect her.” Parker then bent down and cut another large handful of wheat. “Leave all this to me.”

Winston wordlessly put on the skirt, then picked up an armful of wheat and walked towards Bai Qingqing.

Upon seeing Winston walk towards her, Bai Qingqing dropped her guard, then pulled out an ear of wheat and asked happily, “How do we remove the grains? Do you need my help?”

“You just peel them,” Winston said in a deep voice. He remained serious in front of Bai Qingqing, but if her senses were more acute, she would realize that his breathing had changed ever so slightly.

“Ah?” Bai Qingqing’s face fell as she looked at the ear of wheat in her hand, then at the large wheat field. “That can’t be! There’s so much—who knows how long it’ll take to peel all of them? And there’s rice. You don’t just peel off every single grain of rice, right?”

Winston couldn’t help but laugh. Did Qingqing think grains fell off by themselves?

The stiff corners of his lips curved up, then they were forced back down. “We can carry them back and slowly peel them. Peeling the rice is more troublesome because you still have to peel off the skin.”

Bai Qingqing lay on the pile of wheat, feeling like she had nothing to live for. Upon thinking about the large bag of rice—no, countless grains of rice—at home that was about to be finished, she wanted to scold herself. What the hell! I’ve been too wasteful!

Every mouthful of rice is filled with the hardships faced by a beastman! How could I bear to eat rice now?

Winston laid out the animal skin that Parker had brought on the ground, then grabbed a handful of wheat by their stalks and stripped them of their grains, which fell to the ground in a flurry.

The gentle wind in the air caused the thin wheat skin to land on Bai Qingqing.

Bai Qingqing haphazardly wiped at her face and rejoiced. “Thank goodness. It seems quite fast.”

She imitated Winston’s movements and used her hand to strip the wheat of its grains. The rough grains hurt her hand as they rubbed against her skin. She rubbed her palm before grabbing another small handful of wheat to strip it of its grains. However, the grains refused to come off.

Winston took the wheat in Bai Qingqing’s hand and said, “If you’re bored, you can clean the grains that I’ve stripped. There’s still many of them that are clumped together.”

“Oh, okay. I know how to do this.” Bai Qingqing knelt beside the grains and earnestly rubbed them with her hands.

Now that there weren’t any beastmen chasing out birds in the wheat field, the birds began to furiously peck at the food. Seeing this, Parker could only harvest the wheat at a faster pace.

In the dark forest, a black eagle ground its claws against a tree branch before suddenly flying out and heading straight for the small birds in the wheat field.

The group of birds immediately dispersed in an uproar.

Parker instantly looked up and raised an eyebrow. He was cutting wheat so quickly that only afterimages could be seen.

This eagle beastman’s still keeping an eye on Qingqing. Thank goodness he and the snake beastman are sworn enemies. He probably won’t get a chance to mate with her.

The birds chased away by the beastmen on the ground would only fly a short distance, then try their luck again once they landed on the ground. However, this time, they flew into the jungle as if they were facing a formidable enemy and didn’t strike again for a long time.

The black eagle circled in the sky for a moment before flying back into the jungle.