Chapter 72: Naked Lion
Warning: brief nudity and... unexpected visuals ahead. Read at your own risk.
"I have to use this to fish?" Lin Huahua looked at the sharpened spear in her hands and then back at her males, who were all looking at her with the same confused expression on their faces, because first of all, Lin Huahua had practically begggggged them to let her fish, giving them all sorts of reasons and excuses about why females should also be allowed to take part in hard labor like this.
FEW HOURS AGO, when they finally arrived at the river, Hu Baiyu had lowered his giant lion body first so that Lin Huahua could get down safely, and before she could even begin thinking about how she was supposed to climb down from something that huge, Mu Qingyi had already stepped forward and lifted her off Hu Baiyu’s broad back with both arms as if she weighed nothing at all.
That was the kind of beastmen they were.
Even when they were doing something as simple as helping her down, they still did it in a way that made her feel like some fragile little treasure that would shatter if her feet touched the ground too hard.
Mu Qingyi’s broad bare chest was warm when she accidentally brushed against it, his strong arms were steady, and the muscles in them flexed so naturally that Lin Huahua really did not know whether she should be grateful or angry that all the males in this primitive world insisted on making simple things look so scandalous.
The river area itself was far different from the cave. The moment Lin Huahua was put down on a flat stone near the bank, she looked up and the primitive scenery immediately rushed into her eyes.
The river was wide and bright, its clear water moving around smooth gray stones and little patches of reeds that bent softly under the morning breeze.
The sun had climbed higher now, and its light scattered over the water in broken shining pieces, making the whole place glitter as if someone had thrown silver dust across the surface. On the far side of the river stood thick green trees with tangled roots and hanging vines, and some of them leaned so close to the water that their leaves brushed the moving current. There were also bird cries coming from the deeper forest, the sound of insects hidden in the grass, and the clean wet smell of river water mixed with stone, tree bark, and sun heated earth.
It looked wild.
Very wild.
Very beautiful too.
And because Lin Huahua had grown up in the sci-fi world, where everything was clean and controlled and adjusted by machines, this kind of raw natural beauty really did feel like she had stepped straight into the middle of one of those ancient survival shows people only watched for entertainment.
For one brief second, she almost forgot all her suffering and just looked around with bright curious eyes.
Then she turned back.
And the next thing she saw nearly made her soul fly out of her body.
Hu Baiyu had transformed back into his human form.
That was not the problem.
The problem was that he had transformed back into his human form completely naked.
Lin Huahua’s eyes widened so much that they almost looked ready to fall out of her head and bounce into the river.
Because when Hu Baiyu had transformed into his giant lion form earlier, he had not exactly been carrying clothes in his mouth. So now he was standing there in broad daylight, all tall muscular limbs and broad powerful chest and a body that looked as if the heavens had sculpted it while feeling especially unfair to women.
And that was still not the worst part.
The worst part was lower.
Much lower.
Lin Huahua froze.
Her little white rat ears stood stiff.
Her tail, which had been swishing curiously earlier, stopped so suddenly it looked as if someone had cast a spell on it.
She stared.
Then kept staring.
The more she stared, the less her brain seemed able to work, because no matter how much romance nonsense she had read in her old world, no matter how many pretty men she had seen on screens, it still did not prepare her for the sight in front of her.
Too huge.
Too, too huge.
That was not normal.
That should not be legal.
Lin Huahua could not look away even though her brain screamed at her to stop, because the sight of Hu Baiyu standing there completely naked in the bright morning sun made her face burn hotter than the river water itself, her little white rat ears standing straight up in shock while her fluffy tail froze mid-swish, and the sheer size of him.
He was thick, heavy, and hanging there so shamelessly between those powerful thighs, made her weak heart stutter and her mouth go dry because nothing in her old world had ever prepared her for a beastman who looked like that.
For one second Lin Huahua truly felt that her innocence, whatever was left of it, had been punched straight out of her body and thrown into the river.
Feng Yiren noticed first.
Of course he did.
The fox beastman had been leaning lazily against a tree with his arms folded, looking as though he did not even know why he had forced himself to come, and yet the moment his red eyes followed Lin Huahua’s horrified stare, he immediately understood everything.
His fox ears shot up.
Then his eyes narrowed.
Then jealousy, hot and unreasonable and shameless, rose inside him like fire.
Because in Feng Yiren’s mind, Hu Baiyu was clearly showing off.
What else could this be?
Why could this lion not bring a hide beast skirt first?
Why stand there like that in front of their female?
What kind of despicable lion trick was this?
At this point, even the heavens probably did not know what exactly was wrong with Feng Yiren, because one moment he acted like he hated Lin Huahua, another moment he was offended if she ignored him, and now he was furious because another male had accidentally shown too much of himself in front of her.
Mu Qingyi had noticed too.
The moment he saw Lin Huahua standing there in a complete daze, he immediately stepped toward her and touched her shoulder.
That one touch was enough to snap Lin Huahua out of her terrible riverbank suffering.
The next second she made the tiniest strangled sound, then turned and buried her burning face straight into Mu Qingyi’s bare chest.
"No, no, no," she muttered in a panicked little voice. "What is that? What was that? Why is it like that? I did not see anything. I definitely did not see anything."