Gentle Beast 34

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That passage was fairly long and Suzanna said it quickly. Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu could only understand the name “Holden”.

Holden??

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu definitely remembered who Holden was. When Táo Táo first broke onto the wolf tribe’s boat, she had to converse with the wolves to save him and on the condition of helping them through the reef, they let her and Táo Táo go.

And Holden was the patriarch of the wolves.

Was that the wolf territory back there?

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu subconsciously looked back and saw behind the ancient trees, blotting out the sun and emanating gloom.

She was startled to see two glowing eyes.

There was nothing there a moment ago, and she started to feel that she had seen this place before.

Suzanna saw that Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu did not speak and thought that she knew what she meant, so she sighed in relief and took her back to the tribe.

It was only when she returned to Ryan’s house that Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu remembered where that sense of familiarity came from.

The thick trees and dense leaves, the grotesque plants. . . they were the exact same as the ones she had first seen when she came to this continent.

She hurriedly took her backpack from her space and rummaged around for her cell phone, holding her finger to the power button and turning it on.

Since coming here, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had kept her phone off to preserve its battery so it still had power.

After a moment of its booting animation, she opened the album and brought up a few photos.

When she first came to this world, she engraved a thick trunk with four numbers “1002”. Whenever she lost her way in the forest, she would photograph each intersection and avoid taking the same path.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu now looked at them carefully. The trees in her photos were identical to the ones she saw today.

How could this be. . .

Did she get so turned around for so long she ended up back where she began?

Aware of this now, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu could not speak for a long time.

When Bethan said it was very far from the east of Bornia, she had a bad feeling.

At the time, however, she only thought the road would be a little further away and had not expected fact to be so much more brutal than she imagined.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s throat was blocked up by something, choking with discomfort.

——She was getting farther away from her home.

She never thought that the leopards and wolves were only a single mountain apart.

Táo Táo knew she wanted to go east, so why did he bring her back here?

On one hand, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu wanted to blame Ryan for her predicament, but on the other hand, she knew that if he had not rescued her and brought her back, she would have been long dead and buried in the thick snow god knows where.

. . .

However, although she could understand. . .

The fact was still a blow to her mind. . .

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu set down the bamboo basket in frustration. There was no hint of her excitement at finding olives or the other fruits.

She grabbed her phone in one hand and cut the page back to the home screen with her thumb.

An old,  yellowish picture appeared on the screen——

The photo of her when she was five. Photo technology wasn’t very good and the quality wasn’t too high either.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had just started primary school and was carrying a small schoolbag, wearing a pink floral skirt. She stood in the doorway of the school with red eyes and her short arms wide open.

A small smile hung on her face and she bowed her head, wiping away the tears on her lashes.

. . .

That photo was taken by her uncle.

That uncle told her that she refused to go to school, saying that a boy in the back seat always bullied her. Her mother spent a long time convincing her to step back and walk into school.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had forgotten about it. She originally only found the picture interesting and set it as her main screen. Now, she inadvertently realized that there was no reason to be so sad.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu looked at it for a long time then reluctantly shifted her eyes away and rubbed away her tears.

After a long time, she suddenly remembered something and took another look at the photos from just now. Picking up her spirits, she took out a pen and some paper and began to write down her memories of the road one by one.

It was no big deal, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu comforted herself, it was time go to again. It wasn’t a difficult road anyhow.

As long as she could go back, could see mom and dad again, then everything was worth it.

*

Over the next two days, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was busy drawing her map and went to explore the roads around the mountain, collecting fruit as she went.

To get to the east from here, it would definitely take a really long time. There was not enough food in her space to last so it was better to be prepared and pack in more food.

Additionally, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu managed to complete two quilts.

The quilt was two towels stuffed with cotton and made rubbed into lines with flexible bark. The only problem was the lack of a good needle.

Fortunately, the beastmen here also sewed skins so Suzanna had ready made bamboo needles at home. Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu borrowed a couple from her and when idle, would sit and sew the quilt.

Because she had never done anything like this before, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was very unfamiliar with her hands and her stitches were a mess. She tore them out several times, and while the final product wasn’t too pretty, it was still very warm.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu set it out in the sun during the day and could not wait to cover herself with it at night.

That night, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu did not feel frozen at all and felt particularly satisfied.

Early the next morning, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu put everything into her space, took her map, and walked out of the cabin.

She intended to go out and explore the road. If she succeeded in getting out of the valley, then she would never return.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu originally wanted to wait for Ryan to get back and saw a few words to him.

But, she did not know when he would be back and she felt that Ryan would not agree to let her go. . .

He hadn’t responded positively when she mentioned leaving the first time.

On second thought, Ryan already knew she was human and that she so many secrets. It was impossible to let her leave so easily.

. . .

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu put her backpack on her back and left the leopard tribe, walking into the forest that Suzanna had brought her to.

The snow had yet to disappear and Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu did not walk very fast.

The girl’s back was thin and the red backpack became the only dazzling color in the vast white scenery, resembling the bright cinnabar between the eyebrows*, becoming lighter and lighter.

*the cinnabar is that little red dot on the forehead the Chinese (kind of resembling the Indian tradition as well)

Until it finally disappeared.

. . .

. . .  . . .

Meanwhile, Suzanna stood outside Ryan’s courtyard and patted happily at the door, “Hey, herbivorous female, you know! Ryan came back today!”

After a while, there was still no response from inside.

Suzanna pushed at the door but it was locked from the outside and the key hung on the door.

Suzanna grabbed the key, “Did she really go out and not take the key? After all herbivore’s heads filled with grass?”

These days Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu often went out and spent most of her time in the mountains, so Suzanna didn’t feel strange to not find anyone there.

Suzanna hung the key on herself and originally wanted to look for Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu in the mountains, but thought that Ryan was coming back and her eyes shifted, deciding not to go out in the end. She would stay in the tribe and wait for Ryan.

*

The sun tilted in the sky and the light grew even weaker.

A group of leopards raced agilely through the forest, leaping and jumping, sprinting and leaving nothing but shadow behind.

The leopard in the middle was quick, vigorous and flexible, and he soon arrived at the tribe’s entrance.

Ryan shifted into his humanoid form. There was a new scar under his eye. From the temple to the cheekbone, it had been left behind when fighting the saber-toothed tigers. He had roughly stopped the blood but did not care about it.

“Ryan, you’re back so early!” Suzanna waited by the door with the others. When she saw Ryan return, her slender tail arched beautifully behind her in delight.

He turned slightly, and she saw the scar on Ryan’s face and fussed, “How did your face get hurt?”

Ryan shifted but did not see Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu in the midst of the tribe so he looked back at her and said, “She?”

“Who?” Suzanna pretended not to know.

Her voice had just fallen when Ryan’s eyes pressed her firmly. She frowned slightly and said frankly, “Rest assured, she’s fine. I only just saw her yesterday afternoon. . .”

Ryan looked slightly tense.

Suzanna saw him so nervous about Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu and her heart beat a little harder. As soon as he returned, she asked about her whereabouts but the girl hadn’t so much as mentioned his name these past few days.

Suzanna remembered the moment she went to Ryan’s house and the key was on the outside, “Right. . .”

She had not finished when the last of the hunting party entered the tribe.

Behind them, they also brought more than a dozen females.

These leopards had different markings. Some were snow leopards and some were panthers, others were cheetahs. Most of them had injuries and after landing, they shifted into their human forms.

Suzanna inhaled and stared at the strange females, “Who are they?”

Ryan did not answer and immediately went towards the captured prey.

This year’s harvest was twice the previous years. Ryan set aside the part for the panda race and it was sent to the neighbors, but the remainder was left to the storage rooms.

Due to the excess of prey and the need to carry it for such a long time, Ryan left the supervision work to Dole and was ready to leave.

“Chief, what should we do with these females?” Winter came up to him and pointed to the ones they had just brought back.

The tigers were fierce and violent and treated them completely as tools for liberation. These females had lived in fear all year round. Even if they came back to their race’s territory, they were all very timid.

Ryan looked back, “Find a few extra houses and let them stay there. Give the rest to Scarlet.”

The population of the race had always been managed by Elder Scarlet.

Winter immediately promised to go find Scarlet.

Ryan explained everything and took his long legs to walk into the tribe.

Ryan lived in the deepest part of the village, so he walked along the vertical main road to the end. Two steps further to the east was his house.

Ryan stopped at the door of the house and it was locked from the outside. He frowned.

Before he left, he taught Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu how to lock it from the inside.

Now it had been locked on the outside.

He lifted his paw and put it on the door. With a little force, he pushed against it until the door went down and the lock broke.

Ryan walked into the courtyard. It was clean and tidy, no different from when he left it.

It was even a little too quiet.

Ryan pushed open the door to the house and looked inside.

The fire had long been extinguished and the house was deserted. Everything was neatly arranged.

——Only the things belonging to Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had completely disappeared.