Beauty and the Beasts

“I was checking if you’re done with going into heat.” Cortis’s gaze swept over the cotton on the pile of grass—some bloodstains could be seen.

“Seeing that you’re not done, I wanted to help you change into a new piece of cotton.”

Bai Qingqing held her hand over her chest and let out an exhale. “Ah, I see.”

It was truly something that a beastman would do. Well, so long as he was not sneaking up to launch a sexual assault on her as she had imagined, it was alright.

Sprawled on the grass, Parker had transformed into a human and had his butt sticking up in the air, his thick and long tail hanging between his legs. “The air is getting moister and moister. It’s stifling.”

Cortis handed clean cotton to Bai Qingqing. Conscious that she was in the presence of the opposite sex, she didn’t even remove her underwear and simply placed the cotton into it by feel.

Since even Parker felt awful, it was even more so for Bai Qingqing. But what worried her more was the fact that her period had been going on for a long time now—eight or nine days. When was it going to end?

She felt that it was perhaps because she had caught a cold previously. She felt regretful. Really shouldn’t have done that.

The morning fog was even more intense this morning. Winged insects were flying low across the skies in flocks. The most eye-catching was the dragonflies, followed by flies. One would easily bump into those winged insects as they walked. The birds were also flying at a low altitude.

The vines binding the short-winged bird were long enough—it flapped its wings as it caught bugs to eat. It looked like it was used to being tyrannized over by beastmen now and didn’t seem that afraid of Cortis and Parker anymore.

Bai Qingqing washed up by the river. Seeing that Cortis was about to enter the river to collect the fish baskets, she quickly stopped him. “I wish to eat steamed eggs now. We also have some pork from yesterday. No need to take in the fishes. Let’s leave it for the next meal.”

“Okay.” Cortis agreed. He squatted down and started washing the rice.

Parker’s voice rang from inside the house. “Hmm, the meat didn’t go bad. Eh? It’s salty!”

“I said it wouldn’t go bad, right?” Bai Qingqing walked back barefooted, feeling a coldness underneath her feet. She wondered if the females here wore shoes during the winter. Never mind that. Even if they didn’t, she would wear them, even if it made her look queer.

Parker had started a fire in the house using the green firewood chopped yesterday. As the water content was heavy, the smoke was rather thick. White bubbles could be seen forming on top of the firewood.

Cortis placed the bamboo on the same old spot to barbecue, while Bai Qingqing asked Parker to cut the pork into thin slices, before placing them into the stone pot.

“Are we cooking pork steamboat?” Parker asked.

Bai Qingqing shook her head. “We’re not adding water, just stir-frying it a little.”

It had been a long while since she ate stir-fried food. Bai Qingqing was really craving for it. Too bad there weren’t green chilies, black fungus, and other ingredients. She wasn’t sure if simply frying the pork alone would taste good.

This was a new dish, so Bai Qingqing could only do it herself. After the pot was heated up, Parker brought her the oil contained in bamboo.

“It’s so convenient now,” Parker said with a sigh.

“Yeah.” Bai Qingqing smiled and took it from him. She added a few drops of oil into the stone pot, before pouring the pork belly slices into it.

Splattering sounds came from the pot, and very quickly, the fragrance of the stir-fried meat wafted through the air.

Because she was frying pork belly, with the two layers of fat, there was now more oil in the pot.

Parker gazed at the pot in astonishment and asked with a confused look, “I was just thinking that there was very little oil in the pot earlier. Why is there suddenly so much oil in the pot?”

Bai Qingqing said, “And you call me stupid. This meat is fatty, that’s why.”

“I know that. I just hadn’t expected it to contain so much oil.”

Bai Qingqing stir-fried a little, then sprinkled ginger, garlic, Sichuan pepper, and other condiments into the pot. Instantly, the fragrance became richer. Even though Parker had never tried it before, merely smelling it made his mouth water.

Without other ingredients, the 1kg of meat only came up to about one plateful after stir-frying it. It looked golden-brown on the outside and smelled very aromatic. It really whetted one’s appetite.

Seeing Parker staring eagerly at the plate, Bai Qingqing smiled and picked up a slice with her chopsticks. “Try it.”