Chapter 02
The little girl in a one-shoulder animal-skin dress skipped happily over to Ling Cheng’en. Holding a bright red fruit in both hands, she took a bite and tilted her head.
“Big Sis, your roasted fish tastes awful. Can’t we just eat it raw?”
“No. I’m roasting it.”
Ling Cheng’en sat cross-legged beside the fire, gripping a stick and carefully controlling the heat so the two fat fish wouldn’t get burned black by the flames.
“Then I’m not eating later, okay? You can’t force me to chew that black stuff.” Xiaoxi sat beside her. Before long, the heat from the fire made her sweat, but she still refused to leave Ling Cheng’en’s side.
“Do we have salt?” Ling Cheng’en asked, turning her head.
Xiaoxi swallowed the last few bites of fruit and nodded. “We have salt rocks at home! I’ll go get some.”
She ran off quickly and soon came back carrying a chunk of salt rock as big as her head, dropping it onto the ground with a thud.
Ling Cheng’en stared silently at the pale yellow rock salt on the ground.
How exactly did beastfolk in this world consume salt?
Xiaoxi licked the salty residue from her fingers and looked at her absent-minded older sister.
“I brought the salt rock. What else do you need, Big Sis?”
“Do we have a pot?”
Ling Cheng’en had already given up hope of finding refined salt in this household. She’d just make it herself.
Purifying salt was easy enough.
“What’s a pot?” Xiaoxi asked curiously.
Ling Cheng’en replied expressionlessly, “Forget I asked. Move the salt rock back first. I’ll deal with it myself after I come back at noon.”
This time, Xiaoxi refused to run errands. She turned toward the riverbank instead.
“Nope. You can carry it back to the cave later. I’m gonna wash my hands~”
Grinding her teeth, Ling Cheng’en snapped, “Then don’t eat any fish after I roast it!”
“Fine! I don’t want to eat it anyway. Your roasted fish looks ugly and tastes bad!”
Ling Cheng’en looked at the fish skin curling up over the fire.
Very good. The kid had backbone.
She’d make this little brat drool later.
Once the aroma of roasted fish began to spread through the air, Ling Cheng’en nodded in satisfaction. She rubbed her growling stomach, then got up and pulled several broad leaves from the nearby woods. After washing them clean by the river, she returned to the fire.
By the fire sat two figures—one big, one small—squatting on the rocky shore and staring eagerly at the fragrant fish on the sticks. Hearing footsteps, they immediately looked up at Ling Cheng’en with longing eyes.
“En’en, the fish smells amazing~” her tiger father, Ling Xiao, said with a grin, pointing at the larger fish. “Can your father have one?”
Xiaoxi leapt to her feet and hugged Ling Cheng’en’s leg pitifully.
“Big Sis, I was wrong! I already moved the salt rock back. Can I have some too?”
Ling Cheng’en laid the clean leaves on the stones and held out a hand to Ling Xiao.
“Father, let me borrow your bone knife.”
Seeing she wasn’t being refused, Xiaoxi instantly brightened and jumped around excitedly.
“Big Sis, you’re the best!”
Ling Cheng’en cut off a boneless piece of fish and held the leaf with the meat in one hand. Looking at Xiaoxi, whose eyes were practically glued to the fish, she raised an eyebrow smugly.
“If you want fish, keep praising me. Once I’m satisfied, I’ll give it to you.”
The smile vanished from Xiaoxi’s face as she stared blankly at Ling Cheng’en’s wicked grin.
“Big Sis… I want fish! You’re the best! The absolute best!”
Ling Xiao pointed at the remaining two fish on the leaf.
“This one’s mine?”
“Mm. Go ahead and eat first, Father.”
Ling Cheng’en had absolutely no complaints about her father in this world. In fact, she liked him quite a bit.
Ling Xiao was genuinely a good father. After his only mate died from illness, he moved out with his two daughters and lived on his own.
As a single beastman parent, he had to be both father and mother—hunting for food, storing supplies, and protecting the children. He worked nonstop like a spinning top.
Aside from not being especially good at raising cubs, he was practically the perfect male beastman.
After teasing the child enough, Ling Cheng’en finally handed the fish meat to the skinny little cat-eared girl.
She herself squatted beside the fire and quickly devoured the completely unsalted fish.
Thankfully, it was river fish—fat and fresh, with incredibly tender meat.
That at least made up for the lack of seasoning.
Ling Xiao quickly finished an entire fish, leaving not even the bones behind. Patting his stomach, he looked at the dying fire.
“Can we have roasted fish again tonight?”
“One fish fills you up?” Ling Cheng’en asked.
Ling Xiao shook his head. One fish definitely wasn’t enough.
But it was delicious.
“Can you roast more tonight?”
Looking at his eldest daughter, who had finally regained her energy, relief appeared in his eyes.
Before this, En’en had constantly made a fool of herself over the most handsome male beastman in the Hanshan Tribe. She’d tried every possible way to get his attention, yet never even managed to hold his hand. Then she’d fallen from a mountain path, and after the shaman treated her injuries, she remained unconscious for several days before finally waking up.
Ling Xiao had been worried that once this silly girl woke up, she’d immediately run back to the Hanshan Tribe again. So while the tribe was celebrating a major victory, he simply selected several of the finest and best-looking male beastmen from the defeated tribes and brought them back to become her husbands.
He was the chief of the Stone Forest Tribe, and En’en was his eldest daughter.
Didn’t she just like handsome men?
Then she could have as many as she wanted.
Naturally, Ling Cheng’en had no objections.
She hadn’t eaten enough either.
The two fish they’d caught definitely weighed over ten pounds each, but perhaps because she had become a tiger beastwoman, her appetite had grown much larger too.
Ling Xiao took several bright red fruits from the animal-skin bundle at his side and handed them to her.
“Eat these first to fill your stomach a little. Your father’s going hunting soon, and tonight we’ll have a big meal.”
“And remember to go to the neighboring tribes later and bring your husbands home! Our family didn’t ask for prey—we specifically requested those beastmen. We can’t let them run away.”
Ling Xiao felt absolutely no guilt about forcibly taking male beastmen from other tribes. If anything, he sounded rather proud of himself.
This time, Ling Cheng’en seriously began thinking about the matter of beast husbands.
Rubbing her chin, she turned and asked, “Do I really have to bring them back? What can they do? Don’t tell me they can’t even hunt and will end up making Father support the whole family alone.”
Ling Xiao puffed out his chest proudly.
“Do you think your father has bad taste? Of course I picked the best ones. You’ll know once you see them. You’re grown up now—it’s time you had a few husbands. In a few years, you’ll have some cubs too, and our family’s life will only get better and better.”
Ling Cheng’en looked at the tiger father enthusiastically dreaming about the future.
“…”
Where exactly did this old man get all that confidence from?
Dating men… well, she currently had no interest.
But building a team of subordinates?
That, she could do.
Weren’t they just beast husbands? Train them properly, and they’d become a squad of soldiers.
Ling Cheng’en suddenly sprang to her feet and grabbed Xiaoxi, who was still squatting nearby.
“Come on. Let’s go collect our spoils of war!”
Xiaoxi struggled in protest.
“But I still need to catch fish later, and pick fruit too…”
“We can gather fruit on the way back. The fish can wait.”
After all, she didn’t know the roads. Without Xiaoxi leading the way, once she left this forest she wouldn’t even know which tribe was where.
Ling Cheng’en washed her hands with Xiaoxi, then quickly ran out of the woods.
The mountain wind roared past her ears, her long hair flying high behind her.
At this moment, she felt incomparably free and exhilarated.
