". . ."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu remembered saying that she wasn't ready yet and she felt guilty, scrambling to hide from sight.
Ryan looked askance at her who looked back at him and said, "The clansmen say you went to the swamp?"
The swampland was the border with the wolf race.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu nodded honestly.
"What did you go to do?" Ryan walked over to Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu and leaned over to look at the soft little face she had just washed.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu hesitated. She didn't know whether to tell him that she had met Holden or not. She thoguht for a while and said nothing, "I. . . I went to test the new gunpowder. The swamp there is suitable for observing the gunpowder's power."
Ryan was silent for a moment then asked, "What else?"
There was. . .
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu pursed her lips and shook her head firmly, "No."
Ryan's blue eyes were dark, and he drew closer to Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's neck. The tip of his nose brushed her neck and he reminded her, "Next time you lie to me, wash off the scent of other men on you."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's face was pale white and her eyes big.
She that his nose was sensitive, but she hadn't expected it to be this sensitive. She had washed it several times, how could he still smell it?
"I'm sorry, Ryan. . ." Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu saw his face looked bad and anxiously reached out to grab his hand, "I didn't mean to lie to you."
She had subconsciously thought that he might be even more unhappy if she told the truth.
"Holden didn't do anything to me. He wanted to bring me back to the wolves, but I used the explosives to scare him off," Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu replied.
Ryan frowned slightly, "Explosive?"
Speaking of that, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's eyes were bright, "Yes, I developed a powerful explosive that can crush a large stone. . . You know, where I'm from, dynamite is a very powerful weapon and used in the military. It can even destroy a city or nation. . ."
"Don't use this kind of thing in front of others," Ryan interrupted Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's words and, after a while, added, "Unless I am not with you."
Compared to bows, spears and stone axes, explosives were indeed a mighty weapon, but they were not something that belonged in this era.
If the other races discovered the power of this weapon, it wouldn't be a good thing for Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu also knew that was true. Her initial purpose was just to defend herself, so she obediently nodded.
*
She thought this incident had come to an end. She didn't expect that three days later, the wolves would visit the leopards.
Not for offense, but it appeared to be showing off.
That was rare. Who didn't know that the wolf leader coveted the leopard territory? That he thought about capturing the leopards every day.
The weasel and the chicken at new years?*
*An idiom meaning: beware of suspicious folk bearing gifts, they are sure to bear ill-intentions.
Were up to no good, right?
Despite this, Elder Berson still looked into it and saw what it was all about.
——The wolves hadn't come for the territory this time, but for their chief's female.
They wanted to exchange Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu with twenty females.
Elder Berson stared deeply at the leopard chief and said, "I need to speak with the Chief first."
Even if the leopards lacked females, they didn't dare hand over their females. After changing the family laws last time, no race didn't know how important that female was to the chief.
After E
lder Berson conveyed this matter to Ryan, Ryan raised his eyelids and sent back a blank expression:
"Tell them to get out at once."
Elder Berson looked to the side at Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu, hesitated, then added, "The wolves say if you don't agree, they can increase twenty to fifty females."
Fifty females, that wasn't a small number, enough to solve many of the males without spouses!
To exchange a female with fifty, he had to admit it was really awkward and the conditions were too tempting.
Ryan looked at Elder Berson and folded his long legs, "So?"
Berson looked Ryan in the eyes, "So I think we could talk to the wolf race. . ."
"What do you want to discuss?" Ryan narrowed his eyes, "Even if we can bring in those fifty female wolves, can the elders rest assured that they can nurture our offspring? The struggle between the leopards and wolves cannot be solved so easily with these females."
Elder Berson patted his forehead, sobering himself. Why hadn't he thought of that!
Wouldn't accepting those fifty females be a threat to their race? Who knew if those females would suddenly bite the leopards one day?
Elder Berson said, "Chief is right. I will lead the tribe to drive them back."
After Elder Berson left, Ryan looked down at the little one that had buried her head in the corner, trying to diminish her sense of presence.
"Come here," Ryan lowered his voice.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu shrank her shoulders and pretended not to hear it.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had no idea that Holden still had such a hand. He wanted to exchange her with the wolf females? What was he thinking?
She clearly rejected him that day!
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu didn't move, so Ryan simply picked her up and set her face-to-face on his leg, raising her chin. "It seems my female is very popular. Everyone wants to steal her from me."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu felt it was wrong and could not utter a reply.
"Tell me, what relationship do you have with Holden?" asked Ryan, his tone seemingly casual, but his eyes looked at her with little ease.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu shook her head under Ryan's dangerous eyes and said righteously, "I have nothing to do with him."
Ryan raised his eyes eyebrows slightly, "Isn't there? There was no relationship, but he was willing to use fifty females to exchange for you."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's waist was held in Ryan's palm and he tightened it a little. She frowned, "Really. . . I'm not lying to you. I'm not familiar with him, and I don't know why he wants to bring me back with him."
Here, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu suddenly remembered that she was experimenting with gunpowder in front of Holden. At the time, he'd expressed clear interest and asked her how to make it.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu told Ryan what she thought, ". . . He probably wanted me to teach their race how to make explosives."
Ryan loosened his hand on her and put a cynical smile on his lips, "To want to use my female for the benefit of his race, that Holden is something else."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu grabbed RYan's arm and raised watery eyes, "Ryan, will you give me to the wolves?"
There was no sense of security at all.
Even if Ryan expressed it both physically and linguistically, but she was a female and Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was very clear about the temptation that fifty females were to the leopards. After all, even Elder Berson was shaken.
Ryan lifted her little face and covered her pink lips, deliberately scaring her, "Maybe if you refuse to accept me, I'll also be disheartened."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu: ". . ."
As he said it, Ryan shifted downward with his claws and pressed her through the cloth, "Are you ready?"
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu fluttered, softening, and fell into his arms. Unexpectedly, her face was blushing, "Yeah. . ."
The sound was soft and tender, like a layer of honey, sweat but waxy.
Ryan's eyes were dark and the fingers at her abdomen couldn't help but use a little force, feeling her trembling even more.
Realizing that she wasn't unresponsive to him, he lifted her by the waist and shifted to the bed.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu hurriedly stopped him, "No, wait, Ryan. I'm not ready."
Ryan kept carrying her to the bed.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu stretched out her feet to push at his belly, "You forget what you promised me that day? You promised not to touch me until I was prepared."
"You just reacted," Ryan said.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's face quickly flushed red with blood, "That's not the same. . ."
How could physiological response and psychological preparation compare?
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu spent a great deal of effort to clearly explain the difference between the two and discourage Ryan's actions.
Ryan bit Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's lips and squeezed out a dissatisfied voice from his throat, "No more than three times. This sentence was passed down by you humans."
"I don't want this to happen a third time," Ryan said.
*
Since the wolf's request to exchange for females was rejected by the leopards, there was no movement for a few days.
Then, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was cleaning up and found the stone that Winter had brought back from Pat's grandson. At the time, she hadn't understand what the meaning of it meant. After a few days, she couldn't find where it was.
Then she thought for a moment. Since it was Pat's relic, it was useless to her and more significant to Pat's grandson.
To find it after all this time, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu couldn't find anywhere else to place it so she put it on the third shelf of the cabinet in the bedroom.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu just set it down when the door was slammed open and a leopard came in, "Chief!"
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu walked to the door and tried to communicate using the leopard language, "Ryan went to the back of the mountains."
The male saw only Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu at home and bowed, turning to leave, "Then I'll go look for the Chief."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu saw he looked worried and suddenly asked, "What's the matter for you to look for Ryan?"
The male didn't try to deceive Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu, "Laurence came back and threatened to challenge the Chief's position. He's looking for the Chief everywhere!"
What?!
Hearing the name "Laurence", Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu froze.
That name had left her with too deep a shadow, probably one unable to forget in this lifetime.
Black panther with amber eyes, cold as ice and snow, and the sharp claws that pierced her skin.
Wasn't he dead already??