Chapter 15
Chapter 15: She Was Lying
“Of course not.”
Su Yan handed Little Luo the salt jar.
He took it as carefully as if it were some sacred thing, then stared at the fine, snow-white grains inside. It looked nothing like the coarse salt rocks his father kept hidden away like treasure.
He touched a tiny pinch to his tongue. His eyes widened. “How did you make this? It’s not bitter at all.”
“I don’t know.”
Su Yan grabbed another handful and dusted the roasted deer leg. A few grains slid off the meat and fell into the fire.
Blue sparks flared up—brief, bright little starbursts in the flames.
Little Luo gaped. “Sister, that’s way too wasteful!”
“Enough. Carry it in.”
She set the deer leg on a wooden tray, a bone carving knife placed neatly beside it.
“I’ll do it, I’ll do it.” Little Luo hurried to take the tray. “It’s heavy.”
“Fine.” Su Yan let him. “Then I’ll go change.”
When she came back—washed, hair smoothed, clothes fresh—she didn’t look like someone who’d been living in the wild at all. She looked like she belonged under lamplight and silk.
Before coming, she’d spent five points at the system shop on cosmetics and painted her face in a clean, elegant style. Not loud, not gaudy—just enough to make the eyes linger.
If she wanted to charm a man, the first glance mattered most. Stunning someone at first sight was a weapon that never went dull.
“Father,” she said, lifting the wine with both hands, “your daughter brought the wine.”
Her voice was clear and gentle, soft enough to calm a room and sharp enough to be remembered.
Zulu looked up.
For a heartbeat, he didn’t breathe. It was as if lightning had struck the top of his head and gone straight through his chest, leaving his thoughts scattered like ash. Even his beast soul felt unsteady.
How could there be such a beautiful female in this world?
Lin Lang, beside him, went rigid as stone.
When Zulu had said Oro had a daughter, Lin Lang had wondered if it might be Su Yan.
But Zulu had added she was a Little Female, newly born.
Lin Lang had forgotten Su Yan’s beast form was unusually small—an albino mutation from the mouse clan that would never truly grow.
“Y-you…” Lin Lang’s throat worked. “You’re alive?”
Su Yan tilted her head slightly, brows drawing together. “Why are you asking that too?”
“Ashley said it,” Lin Lang forced out. “She said she saw you die—bitten in one gulp by a gray-wolf devil beast…”
Oro answered quietly, the words heavy in his mouth. That was exactly why he’d been so stunned when he first saw Su Yan again.
Everyone had assumed she was gone—eaten by a devil beast, bones and all.
“Then she was lying.” Su Yan turned in place, slow and deliberate, letting them see her from every angle. “Look. I’m alive and well.”
A flash of amazement—bright, unmistakable—flickered in Lin Lang’s eyes, then sank beneath something tangled and bitter.
He’d married Ashley. He no longer had the right to reach for Su Yan.
Zulu’s gaze moved between them, sharp as a blade edge. “What’s going on here?”
Su Yan’s smile stayed gentle, but there was steel under it. “On the day of my coming-of-age ceremony, Brother Lin Lang proposed to me. That same day, devil beasts attacked the mouse clan tribe in the Senyu Beast Forest. I wandered there for more than half a month before I found my way back to the mouse clan tribe.”
Lin Lang’s face drained of color. “You waited there the whole time?”
He had believed Ashley. He hadn’t even gone to look.
No matter what, he should have gone.
His hand rose as if pulled by a string, and he slapped himself hard across the face.
The crack rang through the room. The air went so quiet it felt like even the fire had paused to listen.
Su Yan set a leather pouch on the stone table in front of him. “This is for Brother Lin Lang.”
Inside were the crystal coins he’d once given her.
Lin Lang stared at it, jaw tight. “Keep them. If it can make up for some of my mistakes—”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” Su Yan’s tone stayed light, almost kind. “And congratulations, Brother Lin Lang, and Sister Ashley. Married, and expecting a child. When the baby is born, I’ll send a generous gift.”
The words were polite. The distance inside them was not.
Lin Lang couldn’t stay another moment. He stood so fast the stone stool scraped. “Uncle Oro, I have something to take care of. I’ll go first. Tomorrow, after the hunt, I’ll come again.”
“O-of course,” Oro said, flustered.
Zulu shifted too, ready to follow. But the roasted deer leg smelled too good, and hunger won out over manners. He flashed a crooked grin. “Uncle Oro, don’t bother with the remaining 4,000 red coins. This deer leg covers it.”
“What? No.” Oro waved his hands. “Take as much meat as you want, but the money is still money. If I don’t settle accounts, how can I accept your game in the future?”
He turned to fetch the red coins.
“No, no. It’s settled,” Zulu insisted, already lifting the deer leg and backing away. He hurried after Lin Lang as if Oro might chase him down with a money pouch.
Little Luo hovered at the doorway, looking left and right, unsure what to do with his hands or his face. In the end, he slapped his thigh and ran out to see them off.
Oro came back with the money pouch in hand and found the reception room empty except for Su Yan.
“They’re gone?”
“Yeah.”
Su Yan picked up the leather pouch again and offered it to him. “Please return this for me, Dad.”
Oro nodded, tucking it away. “I know what to do.”
He studied her for a moment, then said carefully, “Zulu seems very interested in you.”
Oro had noticed it too—how Zulu had called him Oro earlier, then deliberately lowered himself to Uncle Oro afterward. A man didn’t do that without a reason.
“But my fertility can’t be measured by the fertility stone,” Su Yan said. “He might not marry me.”
“Even if he doesn’t,” Oro said, steady as a mountain, “as long as I live, I’ll feed you. And when Little Luo marries, he must marry a wife who can support you too. Otherwise I won’t agree.”
Su Yan’s smile warmed. “I don’t like a sister-in-law with no room in her heart either.”
“Exactly.”
Oro drained his cup in one swallow.
Su Yan returned to her cave room and came back quickly with another leather bag. “Dad, this is the salt we used tonight. From now on, when we cook, add a little for flavor. Little Luo will grow stronger too.”
Oro peered inside. The refined salt looked like snow, and there was a lot of it—at least twenty pounds.
He tasted a pinch. His pupils trembled. “Yan Er… where did this come from?”
“A friend from the East District gave it to me.”
A friend from the East District… Oro exhaled softly, half awed. “No wonder. The West District doesn’t have things like this.”
He rubbed the fine grains between his fingers as if they might vanish. “With this alone, we could marry Little Luo to a rabbit clan female with high grade fertility.”
“Then arrange it,” Su Yan said, amused. “Find Little Luo a daughter-in-law.”
“Not yet.” Oro tied the bag up and stored it like treasure. “Little Luo has to like her.”
As if summoned, Little Luo walked back in, cheeks still pink from running. “Like who?”
Su Yan’s eyes sparkled. “Like the daughter-in-law we’re going to find you.”
Little Luo’s face went scarlet. “My talent is average. No female will want to marry me.”
“A rich man’s foolish son never lacks brides,” Su Yan teased. “If we show off the Mi Lu Te family’s wealth, some poor female with high grade fertility will come knocking. If the mouse clan doesn’t have one, then the rabbit clan will. Right, Dad?”
Oro nodded until his beard bobbed. “Right. Yan Er has it exactly. Tomorrow morning I’ll go speak with the rabbit clan’s tribal shaman. This salt will be useful.”
“Use as much as you need,” Su Yan said.
Little Luo opened his mouth, then shut it again, ears burning. “I—I can live alone.”
Neither Su Yan nor Oro bothered to answer.
…
The Greenwood Plains Beast Forest ranked fifth on the Beast World Continent.
Unlike the Senyu Beast Forest, which bordered the East District, Greenwood Plains belonged entirely to the West District.
Devil beasts lived there too, but fewer than in Senyu, and not as strong. Most were low-rank creatures.