Chapter 38: Mu Qing Sneaks a Bite

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She drew her thoughts back and focused her attention on her teeth once more.

Though she could not see the changes, she could feel them gradually becoming straighter.

Unfortunately, it would take anywhere from seven days to half a month for them to adjust completely.

She did not waste any time, either. She turned all the offal she had prepared the night before into a variety of delicious dishes.

There were no chilies, but fortunately she had plenty of spices and wild vegetables, along with several flavorful wild fruits she had gathered in the Tagel Forest the previous day.

She stir-fried beef liver with firethorn berries, flash-fried pork heart with ginger and garlic, and stewed the beef tendon until it was soft, tender, and fragrant.

There was also lightly stir-fried pork lung and a nourishing kidney soup.

She had prepared generous portions of everything—enough for Mo Lin, Qing Zhu, and Xuan Ming to eat their fill.

She tasted a little of each dish herself and found that they were surprisingly good. They could not compare with the food she had eaten in her previous life, but they possessed a charm of their own.

Her gaze fell upon the two bones she had brought back in the basket the night before. Since it was still early, she took them out, washed them, and placed them in a scrubbed stone pot to stew.

She washed some shiitake mushrooms, tea tree mushrooms, bamboo fungus, and lion’s mane mushrooms, then added them to the pot.

After slicing in two pieces of ginger, she lit the fire and began simmering the soup slowly.

Stone pots heated slowly, and bone broth took the most time to prepare. Since it was only midafternoon, the soup would not be ready until evening at the earliest.

She had no idea when Mo Lin and the others would return.

Su Xiyue glanced at the bowl of nourishing pork-kidney soup and wondered whether she should take it to that vile man, Ye Ling…

But after the way she had treated him at noon, showing up now with a bowl of soup in her hands would be far too embarrassing.

She simply could not bring herself to do it.

Yet if she did not take it to him, the vile man already detested her as much as possible. If she did nothing to change his opinion, he might end up hating her forever.

Then this攻略 mission would never make any progress, to say nothing of receiving the system’s rewards…

She twisted her fingers indecisively, staring at the bowl of soup with an expression sour enough to suggest she had swallowed a lemon.

If she took it over now, that vile man would certainly ridicule her mercilessly.

Forget it. She would not take it. Why humiliate herself?

Su Xiyue gritted her teeth and decided that her dignity came first.

And so the entire bowl of pork-kidney soup ended up in her own stomach.

Oh no. After drinking such a large bowl of soup, all the weight she had lost would have been for nothing.

Regret filled her heart once more.

At that moment, Ye Ling was sulking in his own cave.

His dwelling was a spacious cavern at the summit of the mountain. It was his private territory, and beastmen and females seldom came there to disturb him.

The cave was furnished simply, yet its rough, rugged style was unmistakably that of a beastman.

Soft animal pelts covered the stone bed, while hunting tools and trophies were piled in one corner.

Ye Ling sat on the stone bed, his expression dark enough to freeze the air around him.

He toyed with a sharp bone spike in his hand, his silver eyes filled with savage fury. His face seemed to say, “No one had better provoke me.”

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“That dead fat woman is becoming more outrageous—and more detestable—by the day…”

His voice was cold as he cursed through clenched teeth.

Yet the image of Su Xiyue’s provocative face rose unbidden in his mind.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. The bone spike in his hand creaked under his tightening grip.

He abruptly stood and prepared to go hunting.

Although there was no shortage of food today, he still wanted to hunt.

Otherwise, all the fury burning through his body would have nowhere to go, and it would drive him mad.

He had just stepped out of the cave when a gentle breeze swept past, carrying with it the faint aroma of food from below the mountain.

Ye Ling stopped in his tracks. He drew in a deep breath, suspicion appearing in his silver eyes.

This scent… was clearly the aroma of some kind of food, and it smelled incredibly tempting.

It was just like the pork intestines Su Xiyue had prepared at noon.

They had smelled so good that they had made his mouth water.

How could Ye Ling fail to understand?

He realized instantly what was happening.

“That dead fat woman does nothing but eat all day long. Why doesn’t she eat herself to death?”

His expression grew even darker. He muttered the curse under his breath, then continued on his way.

Meanwhile, Mu Qing came to find Su Xiyue with a gloomy expression.

She had heard that Su Xiyue had used her supernatural ability to fling Mia away the previous day, causing Mia to lose face completely.

The moment Mu Qing heard the news, she flew into a rage.

Mia was the daughter born from her secret affair with Qing Yan. Not only was she beautiful, she was also obedient, sweet-tongued, and pleasing in every way.

Mu Qing adored that daughter more than anyone could imagine, and she had always felt guilty toward her.

After all, Mia could not openly call her Mother.

Mu Qing had wanted to come and confront Su Xiyue immediately, but other matters had delayed her.

Then, at noon, she heard that Su Xiyue had prepared pork intestines. That foul-smelling thing had somehow been transformed into something fragrant and delicious, completely overturning Mu Qing’s understanding of food.

Curious, Mu Qing could not resist coming to see what the daughter she had always despised was up to.

The moment she reached the entrance of the cave, she saw that a strange-looking platform had been erected there at some unknown time.

A stone pot sat in the center of the platform. Something was simmering inside it: two cleanly stripped bones, several kinds of mushrooms floating on the surface, and steam bubbling gently from the broth.

Mu Qing already knew that the mushrooms were not poisonous. The witch doctor’s word could never be wrong.

She glanced at the pot without much interest. What could possibly be delicious about two bare bones?

Then her gaze shifted to the side, where several dishes bursting with color, aroma, and flavor had been arranged on stone plates atop the cooking platform.

Mu Qing was instantly stunned.

What was this? Why did it smell so good?

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She had never seen food like this before, much less tasted it.

Food in the beast world consisted almost entirely of roasted meat. Where had anyone ever seen such delicate dishes?

Unable to resist, she reached out, grabbed a piece of pork heart fried with ginger and garlic, and popped it into her mouth.

It was a little hot, but unbelievably delicious.

She nearly swallowed her tongue along with it.

Her eyes widened, her face filled with disbelief.

Heavens! What kind of heavenly food was this? How could it taste so good?

It was far more delicious than roasted meat.

When had that wretched girl learned to prepare such wonderful food?

Could it be because she had awakened a wood-element supernatural ability?

But even a wood-element ability should not enable someone to make dishes like these.

Mu Qing was filled with confusion, yet she could not make sense of it.

She could not help taking another piece of beef liver stir-fried with firethorn berries, only to discover that it tasted even better.

Firethorn berries were so sour and astringent that, aside from females, hardly any beastman would eat them.

Yet that wretched girl had somehow made them delicious.

The lightly stir-fried pork lung was tender and fresh, utterly exquisite.

Mu Qing completely forgot why she had come. She forgot her dislike of Su Xiyue and did not even remember that she had intended to start a quarrel.

At that moment, her entire mind was occupied by the food on the table—and the bones stewing in the stone pot.

Although she did not know what could possibly be delicious about those two bones, anything that smelled this good had to taste wonderful as well.

With that thought, she began eating without the slightest hesitation.

After all, she was the wretched girl’s mother. Eating a little of her food was only right.

At that moment, Mu Qing had completely forgotten how she usually treated Su Xiyue. Her disdain and loathing were normally written plainly across her face.

“Mmm. This really is delicious.”

Mu Qing’s mouth was slick with oil, yet she still found time to offer her judgment.

Her hands were oily as well. She had simply picked everything up with her fingers.

She always ate roasted meat with her hands. The beast world did not have chopsticks, and no one there knew how to use them anyway.

“This wretched girl’s food is surprisingly good. I heard that Bai Qi was so engrossed in eating the pork intestines earlier that he could not even lift his head, and he took an entire full plate home with him. I did not believe it then, but now it seems to be true.”

Completely immersed in the food, she failed to notice the figure slowly approaching.