Chapter 54: I want your mating mark on me now!
Lin Huahua was crying.
Actual tears were gathering in her big brown eyes and spilling down her pale cheeks, and because she was already so small and soft looking, the sight of her silently crying on the bedding made Mu Qingyi panic immediately.
What happened?
Why was she crying?
Had he said something wrong?
Had he hurt her?
Mu Qingyi had never been more confused in his life. He wanted to comfort her, but for a second he was too scared to touch her, because the old Lin Huahua would have hated it. Yet the sight of her crying was too much for him to bear, so after only one moment of hesitation, he reached out and gently wiped at her tears with his fingers.
"Why are you crying?" he asked softly, his voice already full of concern.
Lin Huahua looked at him with watery eyes and sniffled in such a wronged way that even the heavens might have softened. "If we mated, then why do I not have any?"
Mu Qingyi stared.
His mind stopped for one second.
Then for another.
He had expected many things.
He had not expected this.
She was crying because she wanted his mating mark?
Mu Qingyi was so shocked that he nearly forgot how to breathe. He had spent all this time believing she never wanted him, never accepted him, and perhaps never would, yet now this little female was sitting in front of him with tearful eyes asking why she did not have his mark like the other females.
Lin Huahua, however, did not know what storm she had thrown into his heart.
In her own mind, everything was much simpler and much sillier.
Every other female had one.
They looked pretty.
They matched the males around them.
And she did not have one.
So what was this supposed to mean?
Was it because Mu Qingyi did not like her?
Was it because he did not want her?
Was that why she was the only one walking around without a beautiful little beast mark to show off?
The more she thought about it, the more wronged she felt.
Mu Qingyi finally managed to ask, still looking as if he had lost his soul somewhere, "Do you want one?"
Lin Huahua looked at him with wet eyes and pouted so sadly that she looked like a tiny white rat who had been denied a sweet cake at a festival. "Yes, I want one," she said, then her lower lip pushed out even more as she added in a small aggrieved voice, "But you do not want me, so why are you asking?"
Mu Qingyi’s mind truly stopped working now.
Did not want her?
What kind of shocking words were these?
He would die for her.
He would protect her even if it cost him everything.
He had never once been the one to reject her.
She was the one who had never accepted him.
Yet now she was looking at him as if he had done something terribly unfair.
For a moment Mu Qingyi did not know whether to laugh, cry, or ask the moon for guidance.
Then Lin Huahua added, even more pitifully, "I want one too, like the other females. I do not like not having one."
That did it.
Mu Qingyi really could not hold back anymore.
A helpless little smile appeared on his face, and before he thought too much, he reached out and lightly tapped her on the head with his fingers.
Lin Huahua rubbed her head at once and glared at him in disbelief. "Why did you do that?"
Mu Qingyi’s eyes softened so much that he almost looked as if he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. "No, silly," he said gently, and then he began to explain what had happened that night, how they had mated, how the mark should have appeared if she accepted him, and how she ran away afterward because her heart had still been fixed on another male.
Lin Huahua listened, and as he explained it, little broken fragments of memory began floating back into her mind.
At first they were blurry.
Then they became clearer.
And finally she remembered enough to understand why there had been no mark.
"Oh," she said.
Mu Qingyi looked at her carefully, because he could not tell what she would say next.
Then, to his complete shock, Lin Huahua’s whole face brightened with sudden excitement, and she leaned toward him as if she had just found the easiest solution in the world.
"Then give me one now," she said.
Mu Qingyi went completely still.
Every part of him froze.
His ears twitched once, his throat moved, and his face turned red so quickly that it was honestly unfair to him.
Because the problem was that Lin Huahua sounded far too innocent when she said it, almost as if she were asking him to hand her a fruit from a basket, while Mu Qingyi knew very clearly what that actually meant.
And at that exact moment, the poor deer beastman’s thoughts, which had been calm and sweet just a moment ago, suddenly went in a direction that made his whole body heat up.
Mu Qingyi went completely still.
Every part of him froze right there on the soft bedding inside the quiet cave room.
His large antlers seemed to cast even longer shadows in the low firelight, and his brown deer eyes were wide with a heat he had never let show before.
Lin Huahua was still staring up at him with that bright, innocent excitement sparkling in her big brown eyes, her little white rat ears perked forward like she had just asked for another piece of sweet fruit instead of something that made his whole body burn.
She tilted her head a little, her fluffy white rat tail swishing once behind her in happy little curls, completely unaware of the storm she had just dropped into his chest.
Mu Qingyi felt his throat go dry.
He could not find the words to explain it to her.