Chapter 8: He Must Have Gone Mad

Su Xiyue sighed, deciding it was best to wash up and get some sleep; the strategy would have to be tackled slowly. She was about to climb onto the stone bed to rest when suddenly, a system voice echoed in her mind: “Ding, host, there’s been a change in the favorability rating of key individuals. Would you like to check now?”

Startled for a moment by the system’s voice, she quickly responded, “Check.” She was curious about what had changed. A virtual panel appeared before her eyes:

Host: Su Xiyue
Age: 16
Charm: 10 (initial 0, max 100)
Appearance: 20 (initial 10, max 100 — some improvement, but still quite ugly)
Health: 60 (max 100)
Weight: Severely overweight, affecting movement
Skill: Wood elemental ability (Level 1)
Targets and favorability:
Ye Ling: -90 (disgust)
Mo Lin: -80 (disgust)
Qing Zhu: -85 (disgust)
Bai Qi: -75 (disgust)
Xuan Ming: -80 (disgust)

Su Xiyue’s eyes lit up at the numbers. She remembered her charm was originally zero; now it had risen to ten. Ten was still poor, but at least it wasn’t zero anymore. The increase likely related to her recent behavior. Her appearance score had also risen by ten points, from ten to twenty, probably thanks to her detox bath. The favorability scores of the five beast men had all changed too. Ye Ling’s had risen from a maxed-out -100 disgust to -90. Su Xiyue was puzzled—after all the love fruit and kicking, his favorability still improved? Could it be that Ye Ling had a masochistic streak?

Xuan Ming’s favorability had increased from -90 to -80 despite her running away. She shook her head, thinking men were truly hard to understand. Mo Lin’s and Bai Qi’s favorability had both risen by ten points, while Qing Zhu’s had increased by only five, but it was still an improvement. She didn’t know exactly how the favorability increased but was sure it related to her actions. Although still in the negative range, it was a good start.

After glancing at the panel once more, she closed it. She lay back down on the hard stone bed, feeling uncomfortable and cold without a blanket, shivering and unable to fall asleep.

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Eventually, she gave up and sat by the fire, leaning against the stone wall to rest. She planned to make do for one night and find some dry grass the next day to make a proper bed. The night was quiet, but the tribe was growing livelier, filled with repeated “hey-hu” calls, almost like singing. The noise was so loud it was hard to ignore.

Su Xiyue twitched her lips, silently remarking that the nights in this beast world were truly passionate and uninhibited, with such sounds heard anytime, anywhere. It was almost overwhelming for someone from a post-apocalyptic world like herself. After an unknown length of time, she drifted into a restless sleep.

Meanwhile, Xuan Ming was on his way back to his cave when he spotted flickering firelight inside Su Xiyue’s cave. For some reason, he changed his path and headed over. At the entrance, he saw a large pile of animal pelts — dirty, smelly, and some even moldy, clearly never cleaned or dried. These were pelts that the five of them had painstakingly hunted, now wasted by Su Xiyue. He frowned deeply, anger flashing in his eyes, and stepped inside, clearly intending to reprimand her.

But the scene inside caught him off guard. The cave was empty except for a few pieces of meat wrapped in broad leaves, some roasted fish, and eight bird eggs. The rest of the space was clean and tidy, no longer the messy dump it had been. A fire burned brightly in the center.

Su Xiyue was curled up by the fire, hugging her knees and resting her head against the stone wall, fast asleep and looking somewhat pitiful.

Xuan Ming sneered inwardly: “Pitiful? Serves her right. A good pile of pelts wasted like that—let her freeze to death.” He was about to turn and leave but stopped when his gaze fell on her ugly face. Somehow, he felt she looked different. He couldn’t pinpoint what had changed, but there was a strange impression that her face wasn’t quite as hideous anymore. The thought startled him; was he going mad to think this ugly girl was less unattractive? He decided he must be crazy. However, she did look cleaner and fresher. Usually lazy and gluttonous, she rarely took care of herself, but now she seemed to have made an effort—it was as if the sun had risen in the west.

His eyes then fell on the meat wrapped in leaves. One piece was cooked, the other three were raw. The cooked meat was a gift from Bai Qi; the other three had been left by him, Mo Lin, and Qing Zhu. He had assumed Su Xiyue had already eaten them.

He hadn’t expected her to leave them untouched. “Is she really trying to lose weight? Can she hold out?” he wondered with a raised brow, doubting she could last long. Most likely, she’d eat the meat by morning.

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Half-awake, Su Xiyue faintly sensed someone in front of her. When she opened her eyes, she saw Xuan Ming standing inside the cave, curiously staring at her. The flickering firelight danced across his handsome, extraordinary face. His deep eyes glimmered faintly with a probing look, as if pondering something.

Startled, she feared he had come to punish her and immediately lost all desire to sleep. She sat up straight and scooted back, creating some distance between them. Her gaze fixed on his face as she forced a nervous laugh and explained, “I—I really didn’t mean to spy on you while you bathed. I just happened to be washing my face by the river and didn’t know you were bathing there…”

Though her words were true, even she didn’t believe the excuse herself. The original version of herself had done far worse. As Xuan Ming’s expression darkened, her voice grew quieter until it vanished altogether.

He gave her a long, inscrutable look, seemingly uncertain if he believed her. Fortunately, he didn’t lash out but merely said with a grim face, “It better be so.” Then he turned and left the cave.

Watching his retreating figure, Su Xiyue let out a quiet sigh of relief and muttered under her breath, “Stinky man.” She withdrew her gaze, yawned, and leaned back against the wall, ready to try sleeping again.

This time, however, sleep eluded her. Her mind was a jumble of images—moments of the apocalypse where she was blown up, scenes from the original story where the original character met various tragic ends. The two sets of images flickered like a movie, haunting her thoughts relentlessly.

She spent a restless night, unable to find peace. The tribe’s lively and unrestrained “hey-hu” calls continued one after another, unceasing and loud, keeping her awake. Especially in the latter half of the night, the noises grew even louder, accompanied by strange sounds that made her blush with embarrassment as she tossed and turned by the fire.

She deeply admired these beast men for their seemingly endless energy and wondered if they ever needed sleep at all.

Before her transmigration, surviving the apocalypse meant constantly running, fighting zombies, and scavenging for supplies, leaving no time for such things. Nighttime was for rest and recovery.

Unlike these beast men, who spent their days brimming with vigor, hunting and mating without pause.