Chapter 65: The duck female
Yesterday she had noticed, but the shock of being in a new world was still there, so she did not think much of it at that time.
Lin Huahua let out a soft sigh.
This stone age world truly had no conscience.
Her poor little feet already wanted to complain, and she had only taken one proper step outside. Lin Huahua was just about to voice her suffering to Mu Qingyi when she heard movement nearby.
She turned her head.
And then she saw him.
Hu Baiyu.
The white lion was bent over near a pile of fruits, sorting them carefully one by one. His lion ears were visible above his silver-white hair, and his long tail moved slowly behind him in a calm way.
Like the others, he wore only a hide beast skirt, and because lion beastmen were naturally broad and powerful, his shirtless upper body looked unfairly impressive in the morning light.
His shoulders were wide, his chest was hard, and the muscles in his arms moved strongly as he worked, making him look like the kind of beastman one could trust to tear down a tree and then quietly bring the fruit from it back home.
Lin Huahua stared for half a breath.
He was really too fine.
And he was not alone.
There was a female beside him, helping sort the fruits. She had a blushing face and the kind of shy little smile that already said enough before she even opened her mouth. Lin Huahua was still looking at the scene in surprise when Hu Baiyu suddenly went still.
The lion had noticed her.
Immediately.
Before she or Mu Qingyi could even speak.
His lion ears perked up sharply, and his face flushed at once because her scent had reached him. It was impossible not to notice. Lin Huahua’s scent had become sweeter and softer than before, and to beastmen with sharp senses, that alone was enough to draw attention. The moment he recognized that she was here, his whole body reacted on instinct, and he turned around quickly.
Lin Huahua blinked.
How had he known they were there so fast?
Before she could say anything, the female beside Hu Baiyu finally noticed too.
The next second, that woman immediately clung to Hu Baiyu’s arm and said in a sweet cloying voice that made Lin Huahua’s ears twitch in irritation, "Hu Baiyu, you really did not have to pick these for me."
The moment Hu Baiyu heard that sweet voice beside him say that he did not have to pick those fruits for her, he was actually confused from the bottom of his heart.
Because to him, things had not happened in the strange and meaningful way they seemed to be happening in that duck woman’s mind at all.
Early that morning, Hu Baiyu had woken up far too early, and after lying there with his eyes open and his whole lion heart burning from everything that had happened the night before, he had finally given up on pretending he could rest.
So he had slipped out quietly, his silver white hair still a little messy from sleep, his lion ears and tail both alert, and because his thoughts had been full of Lin Huahua from the moment he opened his eyes, he had gone out with only one plan in mind.
He wanted to pick sweet fruits for his female.
That was all.
There was nothing shameless or complicated inside that thought, at least not on the surface.
The deeper thoughts, the ones that had followed him from the night before when he had hidden away and dealt with the sinful heat in his body while thinking about her small pale figure in the bath, those were a different matter entirely, and Hu Baiyu had been doing his best not to look directly at them.
He was already ashamed enough. So in the early morning, he had simply focused on something safe. Fruits. Sweet fruits. Soft ones, ripe ones, the kind females liked, the kind Lin Huahua might take one bite from and let her eyes brighten a little.
That was why he had come out.
That was why he had bent over a low woven basket and started sorting them one by one with his big hands.
Then this woman had appeared.
Hu Baiyu knew her. Everyone in the nearby area knew her. Her name was Ya Yun, and she was from the duck clan.
She was not ugly like the vulture woman from before.
No. Ya Yun was considered pretty enough. She had a small face, neat features, and the kind of timid smiling expression that made people lower their guard around her if they were not paying enough attention.
She had always acted kindly toward him, especially in the past when Lin Huahua was cruel and cold and the males around her lived half like mates and half like beasts waiting to be whipped for breathing too loudly.
So when Ya Yun had shown up with a basket of her own, bumped into him by the fruits, and dropped some on the ground, Hu Baiyu naturally bent down to help her pick them up.
That was all he thought it was.
Helping.
Simple helping.
He could not speak, so when someone was nice to him, or needed something small, or looked embarrassed, he usually responded with actions first. That had always been his way.
So he had picked up the fruits.
She had also crouched with him.
And now they were here.
Then Lin Huahua arrived.
The moment her scent reached him, everything inside Hu Baiyu shifted.
His lion ears perked up before he even consciously realized why, and his face heated immediately in a way that was both embarrassing and impossible to stop.
Her scent had changed. It was sweeter now, softer, and every time it drifted near him, it made the memory of her rise in his mind all over again.
He would remember her wet skin, her pale shoulders, the little sounds she made when she got startled, and then his body would tense in a way that made him feel ashamed and restless all over again.