Beauty and the Beasts

Cortis’s upper body transformed into its human form. His magnificent red hair fell over his shoulders and felt cool to the touch as it casually brushed against Bai Qingqing’s arm.

Bai Qingqing couldn’t help but glance at him. Her heart thumped erratically.

“What are you doing?” Cortis asked as he glanced at the odd-looking stones.

These stones looked different from the stones they made to extract oil. The two stones were round and had countless narrow grooves that looked like they were carved out by hand.

Bai Qingqing walked over to the stones and exclaimed in surprise, “Parker finished carving the stones so quickly. They seem like they can be used already.”

Cortis tilted his head. There was confusion in his clear, red eyes.

Bai Qingqing unexpectedly met Cortis’s eyes and was instantly stunned. She then awkwardly averted her eyes. “These are grinding stones. I want to use them to grind the rice into a powder so that I can make more delicious food.”

Bai Qingqing only did this because she was bored out of her mind while being cooped up at home. It took her a long time to figure out how to create the grooves in the grinding stones, and she asked Parker to start work when she had figured out a way to do so that day.

“Mm.” Cortis nodded.

Now that the two of them were on speaking terms, their cold war came to nothing.

When Parker returned with half a basin of fish and prawns, Cortis had already started a fire. Parker let out a disgruntled scoff before steaming the fish and prawns.

Bai Qingqing tried to lift a rock with all her might, but it refused to budge. She said with much difficulty, “Cortis, help me move this.”

Cortis walked over and lifted the rock with ease. “Where do I put it?”

“Put it on this rock, and make sure that the hole in the middle lines up with the protruding part of the rock below.”

Cortis did as Bai Qingqing said.

Now that the stone mill was assembled, Bai Qingqing inserted the handle in a hole on the side of the rock on top. She then hammered it down with a rock to secure it in place. The stone mill was complete, and it looked somewhat like the real deal.

At the bottom of the stone mill was a “track”. The rice pulp would slowly flow between the grinding stones onto the “track” and out through the only exit.

Bai Qingqing gripped onto the handle and used all her strength to push it forward. However, the grinding stone only moved slightly as it was too blunt.

She gritted her teeth and continued to push the handle. Just as she felt a huge burst of energy, she felt her hand suddenly grabbed by Cortis.

Cortis glanced at Bai Qingqing and asked her coldly, “Have you forgotten what I told you?”

Bai Qingqing was scared of Cortis whenever he got angry. She kept her mouth shut, not daring to make a sound. The moment he exerted strength on the handle with his hand placed over hers, the grinding stone rotated quickly, making grinding sounds in the process.

Bai Qingqing’s hand was pressed against Cortis’s hand so tightly that it hurt. She tried to pull her hand away, but it was to no avail. She stuck out her tongue and obediently admitted that she was in the wrong. “I know.”

A hint of a smile flashed in Cortis’s eyes. He didn’t let go of Bai Qingqing’s hand and instead, raised his palm and exerted strength on his fingers so that his hand wouldn’t be pressed as tightly against hers.

With his torso against her back, their bodies were intimately pressed against each other as they turned the handle.

Parker kept looking in their direction as he made a fire, a similar fire burning in his heart. He continuously added firewood to the fire to the point that the stone pot was engulfed in flames.

Hmph! I’m going to steam this longer so that it’ll taste so awful that the snake beastman can’t stand it!

The grinding stone rotated more smoothly as time passed. Afraid that they would ruin the grinding stones, Bai Qingqing nudged Cortis to tell him to stop.

“It should be usable now. Rinse the stone mill so that we can grind the rice,” Bai Qingqing said.

Cortis did as Bai Qingqing said and rinsed the stone mill. He then rinsed clean a bamboo pole full of rice before the two of them began to grind the rice.

Parker was still adding firewood to the fire like his life depended on it.

Bai Qingqing was in charge of feeding the rice into the stone mill, while Cortis was in charge of grinding the rice. She poured a few handfuls of rice into the entrance of the stone mill, then added a small amount of water. After the grinding stone rotated a few times, white rice pulp flowed from between the grinding stones.