"Brother, I'm not eating tonight."
Su Xiyue whispered softly to Su Mu.
After saying that, she bent down to pick up the three pieces of meat on the ground, planning to save them for breakfast the next morning.
Su Mu frowned as he watched her actions, feeling embarrassed. He ordered, "If you want to lose weight, then throw the meat away."
She looked at him strangely. "Brother, food is precious. There are so many beast men who don't have enough to eat. How can I just throw it away? Isn't that wasteful?"
Su Mu stared at her in disbelief. This lazy, gluttonous, and uncouth little sister of his could actually say something like that?
But considering her usual behavior, he suspected she was just saying that on purpose.
She was probably going to sneakily eat the meat later anyway.
"Since you know food is precious, then eat less. Just look at how fat you've gotten."
Su Mu looked at her round figure with disdain.
After saying this, he turned and walked away.
Su Xiyue: "..."
She glanced down at the fat on her body. Honestly, even she found it annoying.
She had to lose weight.
She'd slim down to a lightning bolt, blinding their dog eyes—or rather, wolf eyes.
Ignoring the mocking and disdainful looks around her, she took the meat and left.
Su Xiyue hadn't gone far when she suddenly felt a chill. Turning her head, she met Mo Lin's extremely cold snake-like eyes and was startled.
Did this man walk so silently? He had somehow slipped in front of her without her noticing.
"Is… is there something you need?"
She stopped walking and looked at him cautiously.
Mo Lin stared at her deeply. His dark pupils shimmered with an icy cold light in the night. His voice was chilling as he said, "What did you mean by what you said by the river today?"
Su Xiyue blinked, confused. She had said a lot by the river— which sentence was he referring to?
"What words? I don't remember."
She wasn't pretending to be dumb; she really wasn't sure.
Mo Lin looked at her silently, his eyes narrowing slightly. Then he said, "You said, 'Is this river your home? You can come, but I can't?'"
Su Xiyue: "..."
She hadn't expected him to mean that sentence.
At the time, she had just said it casually, trying to counter his words.
That man had a terrible attitude and had told her to scram, so she instinctively snapped back.
"That… I just said it casually, no other meaning. Please don't take it to heart."
She forced out a weak laugh and quietly explained.
Mo Lin looked at her deeply, though it was unclear if he believed her.
After a moment, he suddenly said, "Don't ever seduce me like you did today."
He dropped those cold words and turned to leave.
Su Xiyue: "."
Seducing him?
When had she ever seduced him?
She was clearly just taking a bath when he suddenly barged in!
She secretly curled her lips and muttered quietly, "Delusional, arrogant jerk."
But maybe it was for the best—at least she didn't have to figure out how to win him over.
With that thought, she lifted her foot and left, heading back to the cave.
Night Ling happened to be passing by and overheard her last words: "Delusional, arrogant jerk."
He paused mid-step, his silver eyes looking deeply at Su Xiyue, his expression unreadable.
Su Xiyue felt the intense gaze from behind—too strong to ignore.
She turned to meet his inscrutable silver eyes and was startled.
She wondered how long he had been standing there and how much he had overheard.
But since she was cursing Mo Lin, not him, she felt a bit relieved.
Night Ling glanced at her deeply, his thoughts unknown.
Soon, he withdrew his gaze and walked away.
Su Xiyue watched his retreating figure and secretly sighed in relief.
That man's aura was too overwhelming; she could hardly handle it.
Thinking about what had just happened, she frowned deeply, feeling frustrated.
Five beast men—each one harder to win over than the last, and all of them hated her. It was too difficult.
Qing Zhu and Xuan Ming were even worse, treating her like air—too disdainful to even glance her way.
She felt like giving up.
But then she thought about the three bathing items in the cave and the rewards the system promised, which gave her new energy.
Although she now had supernatural powers, she was still too weak in this dangerous beast world.
If she could get the system's rewards, not only would her life improve, but she could become stronger—and live better.
With this motivation, she felt determined.
Winning over men? She could do that.
At worst, she'd just throw away her pride.
Carrying the meat, she walked back to the original owner's cave.
The original owner lived alone and did not share the cave with the five beast men.
They each had their own caves.
To avoid bothering the original owner, they had deliberately dug their caves far away from hers.
The original owner lived at the foot of the mountain.
Night Ling, however, lived at the summit—his reasoning being that the original owner was too fat, so climbing the mountain would be difficult for her and she wouldn't easily come up.
Mo Lin was even more cunning; his cave was built on the cliff face at the back of the mountain.
Snakes liked shade, and that spot was not only dangerous but inaccessible to most people.
Qing Zhu, Xuan Ming, and Bai Qi's caves weren't quite so extreme, but they still lived halfway up the mountain, far from the original owner's cave.
Normally, when a female in the tribe had a partner, she would move to live with her beast husband.
The original owner wanted to, but that depended on whether the men were willing.
Su Xiyue actually thought this arrangement was fine. If she had to live together with those five beast men right away, it wouldn't just be that they despised her—she herself wouldn't be used to it either.
There needed to be a period of adjustment.
She quickly returned to the original owner's cave. The cave was pitch dark, with only a few streaks of moonlight filtering through the entrance, but it was enough to see inside.
Her eyes scanned the place: gnawed bones and meat scraps, rotten flesh, leftover food residues, unwashed stone bowls, and piles of moldy beast hides—just a chaotic mess.
She hadn't paid much attention during her rushed visits in the daytime.
But looking closely now, this was no place for a person to live—it was more like a garbage dump.
The air was filled with a disgusting mix of mold, rot, and various strange odors, all combined into a nauseating stench.
The only relatively clean spot was the stone bed—but it wasn't much better, pitch black, dirty, and smelling terrible, with a hole torn right through it.
She was at a loss for words about everything related to the original owner.
At the cave entrance, she picked some clean broad leaves, washed them in the nearby stream, then wrapped the meat with the leaves and set it aside.
She planned to grill it tomorrow but wasn't sure if leaving it overnight would spoil it.
Luckily, the nighttime temperature was low.
The three pieces of raw meat were placed alongside the grilled fish. She hadn't eaten the grilled meat Bai Qi had given her and had also wrapped it in clean broad leaves and put it with the rest.
She planned to find some vines later to weave a basket—otherwise, she had nowhere to put her things.
Then, resigned, she began tidying up the cave.
What could be thrown away, she threw out. Everything that needed washing was piled up at the cave entrance, ready to be taken to the river for cleaning tomorrow morning.
The filthy, smelly beast hide on the stone bed was pulled off and thrown out at the entrance too.
She couldn't sleep on something so dirty without washing it first.
As for the moldy beast hides, she looked at them regretfully. They were actually quite good hides, just never properly dried or aired out. Piled together for who knew how long, damp and wet, they had gone moldy.
But after some cleaning and sun-drying, they should still be usable.
After all the work, she had thrown out a lot of trash, and the cave had become spacious.
Besides the stone bed, there were just two stone bowls and a bone knife in the corner—nothing else.
All the hides were stacked outside the cave entrance—none of them in good condition.
Although the cave was now clean and tidy, an unpleasant odor still lingered in the air.
Su Xiyue planned to gather some fruits and fresh flowers tomorrow to use as incense and freshen the place.