Gentle Beast

Gentle Beast Chapter 28

Her mind echoed with that familiar sentence——

“《The Book of Songs》, said the nobleman Táo Táo, was harmony and happiness. Additionally, Táo Táo means to speed up, isn’t Táo Táo quite a good name for you? Not all leopards run fast, the name suits you.”

. . .

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was lifeless for half the day, not feeling so well, then incredulously she said, her tone trembling a little, “You. . .”

She looked up and seriously considered the person in front of her.

Humanoid facial features, strong lines, and the bridge of the nose was a little longer than average. The lips were very thin and the skin slightly dark.

When looking at him, she she finally at his eyes. . . they were exactly the same as her Táo Táo.

But Táo Táo. . . was obviously a leopard cub!

Small body, short tail. So unlike this hulking body in front of her, blocking her entire sight.

She did not know whether it was the walking around just now, but her waist began to act up. She swallowed her saliva and asked:

“You, what are you talking about?”

Ryan did not answer her stupid question and looked at the hand she unconsciously wrapped around her middle. Bending down, one powerful arm crossed behind her legs and the other wound around her back. Without explanation, he carried her to bed.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s whole body soared into the air and she startled, reflexively clinging to his shoulders, “Hey. . .”

He hadn’t answered her question yet?

“When did you wake up?” Ryan asked directly.

From this angle, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was right in front of his face and her heart trembled. She hurried to shrink back but there were nowhere to go, “Just, just now. . .”

Ryan put her on the bed again and reached out to touch her forehead, as if he had done this a countless number of times.

. . . No fever.

Ryan’s expression relaxed a little.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was unconscious for ten days. Her body temperature had turned bad several times over those ten days, and early in the morning, it abruptly surged up in heat.

She had burned so hot, but hadn’t burned her brain.

Ryan’s hands hooked the edge of Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s clothes, ready to lift them up.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu grabbed his hand and stuttered, “What are you doing?”

Ryan: “Looking at the wound.”

“Answer my question first,” her black eyes stared at him, “Are you Táo Táo?”

“I am Ryan.” He said. Even now, he refused to acknowledge that stupid name of “Táo Táo”.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu: “. . .”

Then, not knowing what to think, her complextion changed.

Ryan. . . Ryan, she had heard this name many times.

It was no wonder Laurence inquired about the whereabouts of “Ryan” when they met; no wonder the two leopards caught her near the deer clan. . . the companion they were looking for had been by her side all along.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu silently shrank back, then after a long time, she made a noise: “Can you let me see your palm?”

Ryan looked at her, then extended his large hand and spread it before her.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu gingerly lifted her gaze.

The beastmen’s hands generally retained their race’s characteristics, often having long sharp claws making hunting easier for predators. Ryan was no different.

However, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s attention was not on any of this——

In the middle of his palm, there was a dark brown scar running across the entire hand.

The scar was ugly, long and deep.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu suddenly sobbed. When she first met the little leopard, she saw that long scar on his paw pad when she was dealing with his wound. . . and it was the exact same.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s eyes were panicked, and she was a little overwhelmed.

What to do, he really was Táo Táo?

How did he suddenly get bigger? And become humanoid?

He brought her here? How did they escape Laurence?

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s mind bubbled with question marks, wanting to speak. She saw Ryan get up and go to a  cupboard in the corner, taking out a small flat jar and walking back to the bedside.

Not giving her time to react, he pulled her sweater up.

She didn’t have the time to stop him and her belly touched cool air. She immediately wrenched her clothes back down again, “You. . .”

Ryan held the jar in one hand and clutched her clothes with the other, pausing to explain: “Don’t move. I’m applying medicine.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu shook her head repeatedly. Not to mention she still didn’t believe he was Táo Táo, but he was male, and she wasn’t going to let him look at her belly, ah.

“I’ll do it myself,” Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu said quickly.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu thought he would stop there, but who knew after a while he would actually say, “When I was injured, did you not wipe it?”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu: “. . .”

He didn’t say it badly but Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu remembered it all.

Now only did she give him medicine, but when he had a fever, she tried to measure his temperature through his anus. . .

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was still wondering why he reacted so badly.

Now that she thought about it though. . . Ah, ah, ah, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu would like to bury her head in the ground. How could she do such a thing!

The girl on the bed was even more embarrassed and she raised her hands to cover her cheeks.

Her red ears were still exposed and she shyly bent down.

Ryan gazed at her for a moment then, in a calm voice, continued to say words that would make her even more ashamed, “When you were asleep, I gave you medicine.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu: “. . .”

*

The following day, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu became aware of where this was.

Outside the house were multiple Panthera beastmen, leopards, cheetahs, panthers, snow leopards, etc. . . Without exception, they were all extremely tall, had long tails sweeping behind them, and had that peculiar aggressiveness natural to the carnivorous species.

Of course, there were also many different ways the beastmen traversed the road. One jumped high, their figure disappearing agilely, and the others faced it with calm expressions.

There were very few females here. The entire day, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had only seen a couple.

They were obviously different from the males, their height significantly shorter, but still much taller than Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu.

Even in human shape, they also had a pair of semicircular ears atop their heads.

For the most part, they had ample figures and upright backs.

Curiously enough, the females here were few but each seemed to be independent.

Were they not assigned to the male population?

Throughout the reindeer and elk villages, where there was a female, there was a male. . .

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu thought of the animal kingdoms from before. Leopards were solitary animals, only occasionally would the opposite sexes tolerate each other.

That was to say, the leopard had no 'spouse”?

No wonder Eric once said that in some races, a female had to bed with several males. . .

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu laid in the window crankily.

Her wound was still not healed and she could not stand very long, so she laid on the bed after a while.

There was a bear beastman treating Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s wounds.

Of the carnivorous type, it was a panda, also known as the Iron Beast.

Before humans went extinct, pandas were the closest species to humans so their medical standards were high.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s wound was stitched by a panda called Bethan.

He stretched out his pudgy arms and looked at the wound, coming to a conclusion, “The wound isn’t healing very well.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s body went stiff and rigid.

Then, Bethan asked, “Did you move around violently?”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu thought and recounted honestly. Yesterday, she almost fell and accidentally pulled at the wound.

“If you don’t want to die, just sit in bed obediently.” Bethan said, the dark circles under his eyes drooping, “The last of the medicine should be running out. I made some more. Apply it three times a day, once it’s finished, tell me.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu nodded very obediently.

Bethan looked at the wound and was ready to leave. Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had continued to endure and endure, but she still couldn’t help but ask, “That. . . do you know where this is?”

This question, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had always wanted to ask.

But when she looked at Ryan. . . it was hard to talk.

She felt uneasy at the thought of what she had done to him when he was still young.

Having the guts. . . that indescribable shame.

Bethan misunderstood what she meant: “Camuda Valley, Leopard Tribe.”

“No. . .” Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu hurriedly waved her hand, discretely searching for her words, “How far from the east of Bornia?”

Bethan looked her in the eye and slowly spit out a few words, “From heaven to earth.”

After her left, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu spent a long time sitting.

Heaven and earth?

In other words, one in the east and one in the west?

How could this be. . . She had hardly gotten halfway. She was close to reaching the east and finding her way home.

But now, she had wasted all her effort and gotten even further from her goal. Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu stared at the ground in a daze, her thoughts melancholy.

*

Ryan pushed in the door from outside and saw this scene.

The girl half lying on the bed, her eyes drooping and lips slightly pursed, her heavy expression, and he did not know what to think.

The wounds on the back of Ryan’s hands and his shoulders had increased, but he did not feel them. Sticking out his tongue, he licked away the blood and strode over to the bedside, his voice low, “Bethan came?”

The shadow crossed over the top of her head and Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu lifted to meet his eyes, and she nodded, “Ah.”

Ryan asked, “What did he say?”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu answered honestly, “He told me to rest well and not get down. He also sent more medicine and said to apply it three times a day. . .” Her voice became lower and lower as she spoke, reminiscing about yesterday’s scene, and her cheeks turned red. “Said that when it’s better, he’ll come take out the stitches.”

Ryan asked, “Have you put on today’s medicine?”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu: “. . . no.”

Ryan hadn’t needed her response and he walked to the cupboard to get the jar. Walking back to the bed, he was going to give her the medicine.

“Ry, Ryan,” When his hand touched her clothes, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu struggled to call out his name.

She stared at his fingers, not yet accepting that the little leopard had become a big leopard, and she was always cautious in front of him.

“Bethan said this was a leopard tribe, and that only they live here.” She had thought about this the entire afternoon and now summoned up the courage to say, “I am not your people. . .  I need to go back to mine. Once my injury is healed, can I leave?”

. . .

After Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu said this, she didn’t get a response.

She raised her eyes, “Ry. . .”

“No,” Ryan pinched the jar in his hands, and his dark eyes were narrowed, interrupting her with an unpleasant tone.

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