Chapter 30: Divergent Thoughts

Su Xiyue, hiding in the shadows, thought to herself, "..."
She had said her intuition was sharp; there was definitely something going on between those two. Was Mi Yao poaching her own sister's territory? She clicked her tongue twice, turned away, and slipped off silently. She couldn't be bothered with other people's business; as long as it didn't involve her, she had no interest in getting involved.

Returning to her cave, Su Xiyue was about to go to sleep when her gaze fell on the entrance, and she wondered when she could make a door to block it. Although the tribe was safe and no one would come by in the middle of the night, she wasn't used to it being so open. She soon lay down on the stone bed. The dry grass underneath was soft, but she had nothing to cover herself with, and she shivered from the cold. She simply took the animal skin from her basket to cover herself, though it was a bit small—it couldn't cover both her belly and her feet at the same time. She decided to light a fire in the center of the cave; as the flames burned, they illuminated the entire space and made it much warmer. Su Xiyue lay back down, one skin covering her belly and the other over her feet. She would make do for tonight, planning to find someone to borrow a bone needle and fish-intestine thread from tomorrow so she could stitch the skins together into a thin blanket. Perhaps because she was exhausted from the day and had just washed, she drifted off to sleep while mulling over trivial matters.

However, she was jolted awake in the middle of the night. The sounds of the tribe's beastmen and females mating were growing louder and louder, as if they were in a competition. They were exceptionally clear and jarringly loud in the silence of the night. Unable to sleep, she felt deeply irritated. She stared at the pitch-black darkness outside the cave, her brows furrowed. Every night it was like a singing performance, continuing until dawn, never stopping until the early hours. She truly admired the stamina of these beastmen—they hunted during the day and worked hard at night, yet they were all so energetic. Did they never need to rest?

Su Xiyue didn't know that the females in the tribe generally had several beast husbands; four or five was the standard. Since they took turns at night and a specific husband might only get his turn once every few days, they naturally made the most of it throughout the night. Since they could rest on other nights, they were as energized as if they’d been injected with stimulants on their turn. The females didn't have to work either, as they were supported by their husbands and only needed to be responsible for reproduction. They mated with the males at night and rested for the most part during the day, perhaps only washing animal skins in the morning or coming out to roast meat when hungry. Most of the rest of the time was spent lying down.

Su Xiyue turned over, thinking that this couldn't go on. She had to make a door panel tomorrow to at least block out some of the noise. She sighed, lay back down, and covered her ears with the animal skin, trying to shut out the noise.

Fortunately, the sounds gradually dissipated in the latter half of the night, and she drifted off into a hazy sleep.

Inside his spacious and deep cave, Xuan Ming lay on his stone bed. Moonlight streamed in from the entrance, casting a glow on his handsome face and highlighting a wild, untamed beauty. His muscles appeared even more powerful under the moonlight, as if containing endless strength and passion. He was accustomed to the sounds of mating echoing throughout the tribe, even to the point of numbness, but tonight, those sounds kept him tossing and turning. His mind involuntarily drifted back to when he had returned from hunting in the Tagar Forest that day, and Su Xiyue had been sitting on his back wearing a tattered grass skirt. The leaves behind her had rotted away, and she had just sat there on his back. At the time, he hadn't noticed; he had only felt a large lump of fat pressing against his ribs, warm and disgusting. Recalling that flesh pressing against him, Xuan Ming felt a shiver of revulsion.

Yet, immediately after, he thought of how she had been jostled back and forth while sitting on his back, never making a sound, not even daring to hold onto his neck. He also remembered her look of utter shame and embarrassment when she returned to the tribe and realized the leaves behind her had rotted. The corner of his mouth couldn't help but curl up. He suddenly realized that Su Xiyue didn't seem quite as annoying as before. At the very least, she had been quite interesting today, not as off-putting as she used to be. But then, thinking of her nearly 300-pound frame and those buck teeth, the smile on Xuan Ming's face stiffened instantly, and the flicker of goodwill he had just felt vanished completely. He realized he still couldn't accept her ugliness. She was truly ugly.

Then, he thought of her clean, swift move in slapping Mi Ya back after being hit at the tribal square, and her awakened wood-element healing ability. Perhaps she wasn't that bad after all—at least, much better than before. Xuan Ming found his feelings toward Su Xiyue becoming complicated; he didn't feel as much disgust as before, but he still couldn't bring himself to like her. He turned over, lay flat on his back with his hands behind his head, and stared at the rocks on the cave ceiling, his mind a whirlpool of thoughts. He didn't even know when he finally fell asleep.

Ye Ling's cave was located at the very top of the tribe's mountain peak, surrounded by dense trees, appearing quiet and mysterious. Lying on a spacious stone bed, silver moonlight spilled onto his chiseled profile, casting deep shadows. His silver eyes were as deep as the night sky, flickering with a cold, sharp light. Tonight, he too was irritated by the constant mating sounds in the tribe, which had stirred some inexplicable urge in him. He frowned, his face darkening, and he tossed over in frustration.

But then, Su Xiyue’s face involuntarily surfaced in his mind: fat and bloated, a flat, sunken nose, eyes so small they were barely visible, and a mouth full of buck teeth. Her figure was enormous, with layers of fat, especially around her waist where the flesh hung down below her buttocks, which were so large they could easily dwarf anyone else's. A wave of revulsion washed over him, and all desire vanished instantly. He sat up abruptly, his expression so grim it could have dripped water. This was hellish. How could he be thinking of that fat woman? And so clearly, even remembering the fat on her waist and her oversized buttocks. Ye Ling's face was ugly, his silver eyes flashing with violence. He must have been influenced by the sounds in the tribe and was craving a mate. He simply blocked his ears, lay back down, and closed his eyes to sleep. This time, Su Xiyue's face did not appear, and he fell asleep quickly.

Qing Zhu and Mo Lin were in similar states, each with their own complex thoughts. Bai Qi, however, slept soundly—not just soundly, but deeply, entirely from exhaustion. After giving Su Xiyue the coarse salt, he had gone straight to the nearby Moonlight Forest, chosen two sturdy trees, and broke them. He then figured out how to cut them into sections and, following Su Xiyue's instructions, hollowed out the centers while leaving the sides and bottom intact, then carefully polished them smooth. He had worked for nearly an hour to finish two wooden buckets and two basins. His poor fox paws were worn quite thin, and he worried whether it would affect his hunting. Naturally, he had no mood to think about such messy things and went straight to sleep after finishing.

...

The next day.

Just as the horizon began to glow with the pale light of dawn, Su Xiyue woke up. She had been woken by the cold; the fire in the cave had died out in the second half of the night, and because she had been sleeping so soundly, she hadn't gotten up to add wood, and the animal skin had slipped to the floor. She yawned, got up, picked up the skin, brushed off the dust, and tossed it back onto the stone bed. Seeing that it was already daylight, she decided not to go back to sleep and headed out of the cave to wash up. She brushed her teeth with the salt Bai Qi had given her the night before and washed her face, feeling much more refreshed.