Gentle Beast 60
The door slammed open, hitting the wall with a loud bang.
. . .
The other side was empty and quiet.
Looking around at the houses across the street, the doors were all closed, like no one had come back at all.
Ryan's brow stretched, then he turned to Winter and eyes glinted coldly, "If you day saw those words again, you won't live long."
Winter touched the top of his head, "Your female is at the back of the mountain and won't hear it anyway. . ."
Ryan looked at him and his dark blue eyes seemed to carry a stormy sea.
Winter immediately shut up and respectfully said, "Yes, Chief."
*
On the other side, beyond the hill.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was "thrown" out of her space and dropped onto her knees, palms pressed against the rough grass. Her thoughts were in disordered.
All she could think about was Winter's words.
They were deceiving her?
What did they mean, Pat wasn't dead?
Why did Ryan do this? Didn't he promise to help her find Pat. . . were they fake?
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu tightened his fingers and raised his eyes to find that she had reappeared at the back of the mountain.
Just as Ryan pushed the door, she hid in her space reflexively.
——Now that she had been "moved" by the space?
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu remembered the last time she had used the space's teleportation that she had almost been killed by Laurence.
Why did she do it this time? Every time her mind began to fluctuate wildly and wanted to escape something, her space would make the decision for her?
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was utterly confused.
"Hey, why are you still here?" a voice called out to Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu from overhead, suddenly interrupting her thoughts.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu looked up and saw Suzanna standing in front of her carrying a bamboo basket. There were two grey hares inside, and in her other hand, she dragged a few palm leaves. She looked in a rush to get home.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu hesitated, ". . . what's wrong?"
Suzanna pointed to the sky. Heavy dark clouds hung over the valley, looking as though rain could fall any moment. "Rainy season is coming. There will be torrential rain over the next few days. The terrain is low here. If you don't hurry back, then heavy rain will come and you'll drown."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu stood up, "But I haven't spoken to Walker yet. . ."
"They've already gone home long ago!" Suzanna said the truth. Once the sky darkened, Walker, Joel and Selwyn left. "Who else do you see here? You're staggering on the floor. . . by the way, why are you lying here?"
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu tacitly didn't tell the truth, "I went home to get a few things, accidentally fell over."
Suzanna's mouth curled, undisguised disgust, "You really are useless, can't even walk without falling." She said so while reaching out a hand to lift her off the ground, "The rain hasn't started yet, you'd better
hurry and go back with me."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu slightly stalled. Going back meant facing Ryan, and she wasn't ready to face him yet. . .
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu looked up at the distant peaks and the black clouds rolling over, the hazy fog a sign of the oncoming rainstorm.
Suzanna urged her, "Hey, can you walk?"
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu have her hand to Suzanna and nodded, "En."
Suzanna walked quickly home, and Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu hurried to catch up with her, soon reaching her doorstep.
Rain was already beginning to fall, and they hit the ground, like ink from above.
Ryan's house was at the end of the road and Suzanna told Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu goodbye, planning to go on home.
"Wait a minute, Suzanna," Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu suddenly stopped her, her dark eyes full of sincerity, "I have a question for you."
Suzanna raised the palm leaf over her head. Her kitchen roof was leaking and she wanted to use it for repairs. "What's the problem."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu weighed carefully, "If. . . i mean, if Winter deceived you, would you be angry with him?"
Suzanna immediately said, annoyed, "What? Did he deceive me of something?"
"No, no. I mean, if." Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu hurriedly waved her hand, fearing that Suzanna misunderstood, "He isn't lying to you. It's just an analogy."
Suzanna calmed down, the raindrops hitting the palm leaves over her head giving a crisp sound.
"It depends on his reasons. If it's for my sake, I won't dispute about it. If he's guilty and wanted to hide something, I'd certainly be angry."
"If he deliberately concealed news of your family? Like Scarlet. . ."
"He dared to do that, and I'd immediately be looking for another spouse!"
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu: ". . ."
. . .
Saying farewell to Suzanna, she stood at the gate in front of Ryan's house. The rain was getting heavier and heavier.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu raised her hand to knock on the door and it was soon opened from inside.
Ryan stood at the doorway, a thick circle of mud on the edge of his boots, as if he had been looking for her.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu raised her face but, before she could speak, she shivered and sneezed.
"Where have you been?" Ryan immediately took her into his arms and covered her head with his hands, striding into the house.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu rubbed his nose and dropped his eyelashes, "I went to the hill to teach Walker and the others about gunpowder. . . "
"I went down to the hill and Walker said you were coming back for something," Ryan said.
When he said that, Ryan stared at Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu to see all of her expressions.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu restrained her emotions and clamped her fingers on Ryan's shoulders, "I met Suzanna on the way. Suzanna said the rainy season was coming soon. I didn't come back to get something, instead walking with her. Her roof is leaking and she needed to pick up some palm leaves to fix it."
Those were what Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu guessed after seeing the leaves in her hands. She hadn't actually told her those details.
Ryan's face eased slightly and walked into the house, taking Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's blanket from the side cabinet and wrapped her in it. "As Suzanna said. It's going to rain for the next few days. Don't teach them for the time being. It's best to stay at home."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu looked at him, "What about you?"
Ryan: "I'm going to lead the tribe on a hunt tomorrow."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's hands under the blanket were cold and she couldn't find the words, "You aren't afraid of the rain?"
"The rainy season has little effect on animals."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu nodded and stopped talking.
Ryan stretched out his hands to rub the rain off her lashes and found her face was cold. He went to rekindle the fire and took her into his arms, sitting in front of the fire. He wrapped up her little hands. "Cold?" Her body trembled slightly.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu buried her head and she subconsciously moved closer to him, nasally voicing, "En."
Ryan heard that and simply turned into his animal form, wrapping up her entire body.
The body temperature of leopards were high, running even forty degrees or higher.
Soon afterwards, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu forced her head up from under him, "Enough Ryan. . . I'm getting hot."
Ran touched her hands and it wasn't as cold, so he let her go.
Switching back to his humanoid shape, Ryan asked her, "What do you want to eat tonight."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu sat up and thought hard, "Braised eel."
She had watched her mother cooking and it left a bit of an impression. She told Ryan how to do it and finally, asked expectantly, "Will you?"
The words in Ryan's mouth "won't" were quickly taken back and he said instead, "I'll try." Then he added, "No eel, catfish will do?"
Eel only lived in eastern Bornia, thousands of miles from here.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu paused and said with regret, "Okay."
Ryan turned and walked out the door.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu sat cross-legged next to the fireplace and soon heard the sounds of cooking in the kitchen.
Ryan had no experience with human food and was very unskilled. The only thing he could cook was the stewed catfish soup from when Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was sick.
. . .
Sure enough, she soon saw the kitchen chimney billowing out smoke.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu did not go back to help and went to the bedside cabinet, taking out the stone Winter had brought back.
The stone was still engraved with lines that Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu couldn't understand. At the beginning, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had been thinking hard about it for a long time. What did it mean? Now that she knew, perhaps there was no "meaning."
——This was just the cover they used to lie to her.
*
Ryan came out of the kitchen and walked into the bedroom to see her standing in front of the cabinet, motionless.