"That. . ." Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had her hands behind her back and she hesitated for a long time, then she spoke slowly, "Ryan, I have something to discuss with you."
Ryan raised his eyebrows and simply said, "Speak."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu shrunk her shoulders and lowered her voice, "Can I leave for a few days. . ."
Ryan frowned, "Where to go?"
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu felt guilty, "I have some important things to do that haven't been resolved. Tomorrow, I have to return to my race. . ."
. . .
The pressure around her dropped.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu didn't receive a response and she quietly raised her eyes to see his face was expressionless and his eyes were deep, silently staring at her.
Her heart jumped and hurriedly explained, "I won't leave for a long time, and once I've finished resolving things, I'll be back. . . at the most, two months."
The sophomore course was quite a lot, but she had taken some lessons in advance and was relatively relaxed about it.
If she finished all her lab courses ahead of time, she could be back earlier.
Ryan's expression didn't change and his claws took hold of her chin. He leaned forward and bared his teeth, asking in a whisper, "What did you promise as my spouse?"
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was stunned then she responded with what she had said back in Wilnor Valley.
She said, "Since I promised to be your spouse, I won't leave you."
When she had thought of only coaxing him then, she had said so.
What's more, she didn't intend to leave him anymore. She would return home for a few days, should it be more being "away?"
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu raised a finger and changed her mind, "One month? It will pass quickly. . ."
Ryan looked at her with a little anger in his face and left no room for discussion, "Not a single day."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu: ". . ."
It couldn't be blamed that she was so anxious.
The day after tomorrow was the day she started school. If she didn't go in on time, the school would automatically expel her.
Coupled with her not having contacted her parents for a month, even if she went to teach in a remote area, this time of being "missing" was too long.
She could almost imagine the trouble that she would face when she came back.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was helpless and stared at Ryan in discouragement. Her head was messy and suddenly a thought flashed, as if suddenly thinking of something, and her eyes were suddenly bright.
She stretched out her hand to Ryan's fingers and looked up with her small face, uncertainly and cautiously saying, "Ryan, would you. . . come back to my race with me?"
*
After the hung was over, there was no large events in the clan.
The food was more than enough to keep the whole race alive for the winter.
Coupled that most of the animals hibernated during winter, and no two races wouldn't choose to engage each other during winter.
So. . . could Ryan go home with her and come back after a month?
Ryan calmly interrupted Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's fantasy, "In addition to hunting, there are many accidents in Camuda Valley."
The implication was that he couldn't leave.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu didn't give up and wrapped a hand around Ryan's arm, "Can't they be handled by Winter? Or Dole, or Corey. . . they are all loyal to you."
Ryan held her face and brutally reminded, "The leopards have no such thing as 'loyalty'. Only the absolute truth of strong and weak."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was lost in his eyes and she felt like a frustrated, little, white cat, completely overwhelmed.
"However," Ryan's blue gaze held her, and he slowly said, "If it's shortened to ten days, it won't become a mess."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's eyes lit up again, like fireworks bursting into the night sky, and she rushed up to hug him, promising, "I will finish as soon as possible."
. . .
. . .
The next day, Ryan arranged the affairs of the race and handed the important things to Winter and Elder Berson, then they quietly left the race.
Ryan told them they were going back to the cave with Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu for ten days. No one would disturb them.
If there was something important, then it could wait until he came back.
Winter stood in the back and stared at them, thinking that their chief's physique was really strong.
The last time was five days, this time ten.
As far as this goes, it seemed soon they would have a little chief.
Now, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was riding on Ryan's back, two arms gently looped around his neck, and her face pressed close to his thick fur, as they shuttled through the jungle.
The leopard's speed was fast and what usually took Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu two or three hours to walk, Ryan ran in ten.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu slipped down from Ryan's back and walked over to a leafy tree. After Ryan shifted to his human form, her small hand held his and the other was pressed to the trunk bearing the numbers "1002" and closed her eyes.
The trunk was like a huge magnetic field, and it soon flooded around them, pulling their bodies to another space.
In the next moment, one person and one leopard appeared together under a certain cliff in the real world.
Ryan opened his dark eyes and looked up at the mountain in front of him, the towering cliff.
The mountain was full of the traces of human beings. There was plenty of shade and the branches and leaves were neat. Compared to the forest in the other world, it was less colorful and natural.
Ryan licked his teeth and thoughtfully looked at her from the corner of his eye.
"Was that how you came back?" His deep voice slowly sounded, not a question but a certainty.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu hesitated for a moment and nodded.
"Why did you lie to me about finding Pat?"
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu could tell he misunderstood her and quickly said, "I didn't lie to you. . . I always thought that I could only go home by finding Pat. I later discovered this by accident."
Ryan no longer spoke and looked back at the giant tree. The numbers on the tree were clear in the sunlight and quite glamorous.
Ryan narrowed his eyes and took a moment to slowly retract his gaze.
. . .
The car drove along a flat road and the scenery on both sides quickly shifted backward, like oil paintings turning page by page.
After Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu took the car out of her space*, he discovered that the car was running out of oil so she couldn't go pick up Gǔn Gǔn. She returned home directly with Ryan.
*It never mentioned that she did that before she went, but I suppose that makes sense?
The car was driven into an underground garage. The night was dark and there wasn't anyone nearby.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu untied Ryan's seat belt and opened the door on his side. She took him into the elevator and pressed the one on for her floor.
It wasn't until they got out that she finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
There was only one tenant on this floor and to protect the residents, there was no cameras in the stairwell so they didn't have to worry about being discovered.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu took out her key and opened the door.
At that time, her mother and father were still abroad and did not return.
She pushed the door and opened her arms, making a welcoming gesture. She bent her eyes to see Ryan still standing outside the door and she solemnly said, "Welcome to my world, Ryan."
Ryan raised an eyebrow and took a long stride inside.
There was unfamiliar furniture in the entrance and the atmosphere was strange.
Only the table in the middle of the living room was made of mahogany, which he was familiar with.
The entire house was locked in a square pattern with unspeakable repression.
Just like when he had arrived, the buildings he had seen were all divided into several squares by the humans.
Do humans like to live in such places?
"Ryan, try these shoes," Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu took out a pair of her father's slippers from the cupboard and set them by Ryan's feet.
They were considerably smaller than Ryan's feet.
"Forget it, you can come in directly," Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu pulled Ryan's hand and brought him into her home.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu eagerly took him on a tour of the house and walked alongside him, introducing, "This is the kitchen, this the living room, and this is my father's study. This is my mother's study. . ."
Soon, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu pushed open the last door, "This is my room."
Ryan's eyes finally opened.
Inside, the room was characteristically feminine. The curtains were rococo style, and there was a large, soft bed at to the side. There was a soft, round rug on the floor and a neat desk on the other side. Next to the desk, there was a bookcase full of books.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu walked into the room with Ryan and dragged a chair behind him, "Ryan, you sit down first. I'll go pour a glass of water. . ."
She hadn't had time to drink water from morning until now, and she had been very thirsty.
She hurriedly ran to the kitchen. Because no one had lived there for so long, the kettle and cups had to be cleaned again.
After Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu finished washing the cup and boiling the water, she poured two cups and brought them to her room. She saw Ryan's back was to her and he was standing in front of the bookcase.
The beastman's body was filled with strength and power, his shoulders wide and his back strong. He was entirely out of tune with the warm and soft room.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu put the cup on the desk and looked up, "Ryan, what are you looking at?"
She had just finished speaking but saw something in Ryan's hands and her eyes opened wide in surprise, "Hey, what did you find?"
In Ryan's hands, there was a thick photo album with all of Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's childhood photos. From the hundredth day from her birth until the award-winning photos at the beginning of the year.
Because it was very precious, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had hidden it on the top shelf of her bookcase and most people couldn't even see it.
Even she had to stop on a chair every time to get it down.
However, she forgot that Ryan was very tall, and the album she couldn't reach, he could easily reach out to grab it.
Ryan was looking at the photograph of when she was five years old. He stretched out his claw and pointed at the next one, "Why are you crying?"
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu went over and saw the girl in the album was standing on the side of the roar wearing jeans and holding her little hands to her eyes, crying heartily.
Attracting eyes eyes of many passers-by.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu pursed her mouth a bit embarrassed, "I wanted to eat some dim sims sold on the road and my mother wouldn't let me. I saw the other children had it and I didn't, so I couldn't help but cry. . ."
Ryan's eyebrows shifted and he pointed at the next one, "This?"
"That was my first day of elementary school, my mother said that I was too excited that day and fell. See, my nose was broken. . ." Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu pointed to the little girl's nose and where the skin had been broken.
Ryan eyes looked at the girl beside him. Her nose was straight and small. Well, it didn't seem to matter.
"This?" His pointed claw set down again.
"My first time going to the amusement park. I saw on the merry-go-round. . ."
"And this?"
"This one is. . ."
. . .
Where Ryan pointed, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu explained.
Speaking of which, Ryan eventually picked her up and sat down on the carpet, curling his long legs and setting her in his lap.
The album was spread out in front of them, from a tender white baby into a slim girl.
Ryan's fingertips stopped at the age of sixteen years old. The ones when she had come back from the other wold and was photographed with her parents.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was sleepy and leaned against Ryan's chest, muttering as she closed her eyes, "Ryan, I'm sleepy. . . we'll talk about it tomorrow."
Obviously, when she first came back, she had lots of things to do but she spent the night in his arms.
Ryan didn't reply and she didn't move. With his arms around her, he turned the pages of the three years one after the other.
Finally, he closed the album and lifted the little one in his arms to carry her over to the soft bed, pulling the quilt over her body.
Ryan shifted into his animal form and laid on the rug beside the bed, spending his first night in the human world.
*
The next day was Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's first day of school. To get back early, she got up early.
When she went out, Ryan leaned against the door frame, his long tail sweeping behind him in an arch as his eyes followed her.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu walked two steps then couldn't help but hug him. She looked up at his face, "Promise me, wait until I get back to go out?"
Ryan stretched out his tongue to lick her check, "There are nine days left."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's warmth was broken by his cold reminder and she flattened her mouth, wiping the saliva from her face as she got into the elevator.
There weren't many things to do that day.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu went to the school, she registered and paid, then went to meet with her professor and left the school.
The professor and Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's father were old classmates so they cared a lot about Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu. When the woman learned that she wanted to study the labs on her own, she thought for a moment then agreed to her request.
There were, however, two conditions. At the end of the semester, she must take the final exam and her studies had to achieve excellent results.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu immediately agreed with great gratitude.
There was a traffic jam on the way home and even though Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was quick to catch up, it was already five when she got back.
While waiting for the elevator, two women stood nearby and were talking eagerly about today's news.
The woman in a knitted sweater clutched her chest, a lingering fear still on her face, "Fortunately, it's been caught. . ."
Another nodded, "Yes, I don't know how many people it bit."
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu slightly lagged and turned to look.
The knitted sweater woman looked up at the elevator and said with emotion, "I don't know how people control it. How can we let such a dangerous animal run about? Fortunately, it didn't cause any damage. If more leopards get out, I won't even dare to go out."
. . .
What did the other woman say? Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had no intentions of listening.
When she couldn't wait for the elevator to arrive, she turned and rushed into the stairwell, running quickly up the stairs.
Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu's home was on the ninth floor and she rushed up in a single breath. She quickly took out the key to open the door.
"Ryan!"
No one in the room responded and her heart began to beat violently. Without changing her shoes, she went to her room.
It wasn't until she saw a leopard with dark spots on his back laying by the window, and his blue eyes shifted to look at her, the panic in her eyes slowly calmed down.
Ryan became humanoid and his long legs dropped to the floor. She opened her mouth and his arms closed around her.
She had a sweet, soft fragrance, and her body was slightly trembling.
End Chapter 73 of 77