Beauty and the Beasts

Bai Qingqing couldn’t help but grab onto Parker’s fur as she looked at Winston with fear and suspicion.

Winston quickly reassured her, saying, “I don’t know why you’re hiding your identity, but I won’t tell anyone. The ape tribe’s capabilities are different from those of other tribes. Their level isn’t related to their armed strength. It’s related to this.”

Winston pointed at his head.

“The higher their level, the smarter they are?” Bai Qingqing then coughed, feeling that she sounded like a country bumpkin who lived deep in the mountains.

Winston didn’t detect anything unusual and didn’t seem to find Bai Qingqing strange. He explained, “It’s somewhat related, but what’s more important are their mental powers. They can use them to do many things.”

“Such as…?”

“Communicating with the gods.” Winston’s facial expression changed to one of fear as he said this.

Bai Qingqing was shocked. If she wasn’t already sitting down, she would be scared into sitting down.

“That’s why the ape king has a higher status than the other three beast kings?” Bai Qingqing averted her eyes and mumbled. “He’s a swindler.”

The ape tribe was so smart. It was completely possible that they lied about their connection with the gods to gain the trust of the beastmen—just as humans in primitive societies did. If the ape king could truly communicate with the gods, why hadn’t he noticed her origins after all this time?

As for their mental powers, Bai Qingqing knew nothing about them.

“What’s a swindler?” Winston had a curious look on his face—something Bai Qingqing rarely saw. “Is it something that swings in the wind?”

“Pft!” She covered her mouth and laughed. “No. I’m just spouting nonsense.”

Bai Qingqing realized that there were still so many things about this world that she didn’t understand. Not wanting to attack the religious beliefs of this world, she changed the subject. “What are you planning to do? Can’t you become the tiger king?”

Bai Qingqing thought nothing of her question, but Winston took her seriously. His gaze turned solemn and he asked her seriously, “Do you want me to become the tiger king?”

It was clear from the tone of his voice that he would do it if Bai Qingqing wanted him to.

Winston’s attitude caused Bai Qingqing to feel overwhelmingly flattered—no, she was startled. She hastily shook her head and replied, “No, no, no. I’m just asking. Don’t listen to me. You should make that decision yourself.”

The light quickly faded from Winston’s eyes. He said, “I don’t want to. If I don’t kill Rosa’s father, the ape king will definitely instigate him to form an alliance with the wolf king and kill me…”

So, if he wanted to ascend the throne, he had to kill the current tiger king.

Knowing that Winston and the tiger king were brothers and had the same mother, Bai Qingqing became silent upon hearing Winston’s reply.

Curtis quickly returned from hunting, stepping through the door immediately after Harvey came back with the medicine. Harvey wanted to talk to Bai Qingqing, but he hastily left upon seeing that Curtis had returned.

“Hey, Harvey!” Bai Qingqing recalled that she hadn’t paid for the medical fees. When she looked up, Harvey was no longer in the house. She said to Curtis, “If you’re free, go give a prey to Harvey. I remember that things work that way there.”

“Got it.” Curtis glanced sideways at Winston, who consciously walked out of the bedroom and crouched down in a clean corner of the main room.

The medicine Harvey gave Bai Qingqing was already crushed. Bai Qingqing asked Curtis to bring her a basin of clean water. She then cleaned Parker’s wound and applied the medicine on it. The leopard was completely still throughout the whole process. If not for the rising and falling of his chest, Bai Qingqing would’ve assumed that he was dead.

“Quickly wake up.”

Bai Qingqing weakly lay on Parker’s body and inhaled his familiar scent. She recalled how the leopard was like when she first arrived in the beast world—his menacing posture as he killed the wild wolves, the expression on his face when he behaved like a pervert, and the way he would switch between his beast and human forms and run about like a madman…