Chapter 62: Why are you looking at me like that?
The moment Lin Huahua said that she wanted to eat fish that morning, the whole cave became so quiet that even the crackling fire seemed to hesitate for a second, as if it too had heard something unbelievable and was now trying to decide whether it had understood correctly.
Mu Qingyi looked at her calmly, but the surprise in his eyes was obvious because no matter how gentle and nurturing he was, even he could not pretend this was normal.
It was one thing that Lin Huahua had started eating meat without throwing a fit, because even though she had never liked it much, it was still something she could eat when she had no choice.
But fish was different. Fish had bones. Too many bones. Too much work. Too many chances to get annoyed halfway through a meal and throw the entire thing aside with a sour face.
Even for the males, fish was not something they liked very much. They could eat it if they needed to, but compared to fresh prey from the forest, fish was troublesome.
Feng Yiren hated it because of the bones and because he felt it got stuck in the throat in the most irritating way possible. Hu Baiyu also did not particularly care for it, although the lion was the type to silently eat anything put in front of him if he decided that was what needed to be done.
Mu Qingyi said nothing, but even he would not have chosen fish on an ordinary day. Deer beastmen were never fond of strong-tasting flesh, and although fish was lighter than roasted meat, it was still not something he cared for much.
But even then, fish was not something any of them would have guessed Lin Huahua would request with such confidence.
So of course they all looked at her.
Lin Huahua noticed at once and lifted her chin a little. Her white rat ears twitched once as if challenging them to say something, and her tail gave a small determined swish behind her, because in her own heart, she felt that this fish matter was very important. The point was not even the fish itself. The point was that she had said fish now, so fish it had to be.
Mu Qingyi was the first one to recover, because he was not the sort who liked making his female uncomfortable. His first instinct was to accept what she wanted, ask no unnecessary questions, and then figure out the safest and kindest way to give it to her.
"If you want fish, then we can eat fish," Mu Qingyi said softly, though his eyes still held some surprise.
Feng Yiren, however, was not Mu Qingyi.
The fox had already been in a bad mood before this, and now that he was standing there with his fox ears lifted and his red eyes narrowed on Lin Huahua’s face, the suspicious feeling in his chest only grew stronger and stronger.
Yesterday there had been too much happening.
Too much shock.
Too much confusion.
Too much strange behavior.
He had not had the time to sit down and properly examine all of it. But now that morning light was falling clearly on Lin Huahua’s face and she was just standing there talking about eating fish as if the world had not gone completely upside down, Feng Yiren suddenly felt that something was very wrong.
No.
Not wrong.
Very wrong.
His fox eyes slowly moved over her face, and the more he looked, the more his expression changed. Lin Huahua looked like Lin Huahua, yes. Her little white rat ears were still there. Her wide brown eyes were still there. Her small soft face was still familiar. But the details were different in a way he could not explain at first.
Her skin looked fairer.
Not sickly fair, no.
It looked soft, well cared for, like skin that had never been roughly treated by life.
Her lips looked softer too, and even her hair looked smoother and better kept than before. It was not just a matter of washing up properly. No. It was something deeper than that.
The female standing in front of him looked like someone who had grown up in ease and comfort, someone whose whole body had been pampered from head to toe, someone who had never once been forced to truly suffer under the sun and wind the way beast people in the primitive world always did.
And that was only her appearance.
Her mannerisms had changed too.
The old Lin Huahua would never have sat quietly and listened the way this one sometimes did. She would never have looked so confused over simple things.
She would never have cared whether they went out late to find food for her. She would never have asked about fish in that odd bright tone, or stared around like the world was full of wonders she had not seen before.
Feng Yiren’s tail slowly stopped moving.
His red eyes sharpened.
And then, all at once, a thought burst into his head so clearly that he nearly felt his heart stop.
This was not their female.
The thought was so shocking that he did not even hide it. He only stared at Lin Huahua harder, and because fox beastmen were naturally sharp and suspicious when something did not add up, the more he looked, the more convinced he became.
Lin Huahua noticed his stare and immediately frowned. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Feng Yiren did not answer at once.
Instead, he started walking toward her.
One step.
Then another.
Lin Huahua’s whole body tensed immediately because the way he was looking at her now was not normal at all. His fox ears were tilted sharply forward, his tail was straight behind him, and the look in his red eyes made him seem less like a handsome shameless fox and more like a hunter who had finally seen through a trick.
Instinctively, Lin Huahua took one small step back.
Mu Qingyi saw that and immediately called out, "Feng Yiren, what are you doing? Stop that."