This time, Ayue deliberately flew to a farther place to hunt prey. Unsurprisingly, she caught a large, fat sheep.
On the way back, carrying the big sheep, she flew a long distance. When she returned near the Huanshan Tribe, her strength was nearly exhausted, and in her beast form, she couldn’t carry the sheep back to the cave.
So, she transformed into her human form, hoisted the big sheep onto her back, and strode homeward.
Along the way, the beastmen of the Huanshan Tribe saw Ayue carrying the fat sheep and said, “Ayue, is this the big fat sheep you caught?” Their tone was full of envy.
There were hardly any fat sheep near the tribe, and even if there were, they were extremely difficult prey to capture. The easy-to-catch prey had basically all been hunted away.
That sheep was clearly delicious just by looking at it.
Ayue was a female beastman, yet she caught so much prey every day. Someone envied her and said, “Ayue, since you bring back so much prey, Ashi must be living the good life at home.”
Ayue shot a glare at the person who was speaking nonsense and noticed he was a skinny male beastman. She sneered coldly, “If you’re envious, then find yourself a strong male beastman. Then you can enjoy the good life too.”
The man was so angry that his hands trembled, “I was just joking with you. Is it really necessary to scold me like that?”
“I was joking with you too. Why aren’t you laughing?” Ayue immediately turned the tables, leaving the beastman speechless. Ashamed, he fled hastily.
“Ayue, if you can’t finish eating this fat sheep, can I come by later and trade some meat?” Dahe walked over, holding several clay jars.
Seeing Dahe, Ayue remembered the poisoned jar and instinctively lowered her head to avoid showing the disgust on her face. She pressed down her emotions hard, silently repeating to herself, Don’t alarm the snake, don’t alarm the snake… This helped suppress her expression. Ayue coldly said, “Not for sale.”
With that, she strode forward.
Dahe was not discouraged and quickened his pace to walk beside Ayue.
Ayue looked at him and this time didn’t hide her displeasure, “Dahe, do you have any business following me?”
“Can’t you sell me just a little bit of that lamb meat?” Dahe smiled with great patience and asked.
“No, we need to keep it for ourselves!” Ayue refused without batting an eye.
Dahe took the initiative to show the clay jars in his hand and smiled, “These are our newly baked clay jars.
The quality is quite good. How about I trade with you at a lower price?” He glanced longingly at the fat sheep but still wasn’t ready to give up.
If it were other beastmen here, they might ask Dahe why, but Ayue was different. She was unwilling to let an enemy eat even a bit of the prey she had caught, even if it meant making money. She simply refused.
Ayue said nothing and quickened her pace homeward.
Partly, she wanted to shake off Dahe, and partly, she wanted to minimize their interaction to avoid accidentally exposing their knowledge of Dahe’s true nature.
Dahe followed Ayue with a sly grin, looking like he was pestering her relentlessly.
Ashi stood at the cave entrance, full of anticipation, looking at Ayue carrying the prey home. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly sensed something off.
There was a beastman beside Ayue who seemed to be speaking inappropriately to her. His face immediately darkened.
Standing at the entrance, he narrowed his eyes to confirm. Indeed, there was an ugly-looking beastman talking to Ayue.
As they got closer, Ashi recognized him as Dahe from the Fox Tribe—the same one who had previously delivered a poisoned clay jar to them.
Recently, Ashi had been trying to catch the one who had placed poisonous bugs in their cave. He had noticed the Fox Tribe had been behaving more quietly in pottery making and hadn’t paid much attention to the Fox Tribe beastmen.
That provocative fox hadn’t just come to seduce him; she had sent another provocative fox to seduce Ayue…
Ashi’s grip tightened on the water ladle in his hand. He was certain this was the Fox Tribe’s new scheme, mainly aiming to sow discord between them so they could be defeated one by one.
With a crack, Ashi snapped back to reality and looked down at the ladle.
A crack had appeared on it. He released it, lightly touching the crack, his expression unreadable.
From afar, Ayue called out happily, “Ashi, I’m back from hunting!”
Ayue quickened her pace and saw Ashi waiting by the cave entrance. She smiled brightly and quickly ran behind him, using him to block Dahe.
“What are you doing following her?” Ashi stepped forward, blocking Dahe’s way with dissatisfaction.
Dahe seemed to realize he had overstepped, scratching his head apologetically, “Sorry, actually, I wanted to buy some fresh lamb from Ayue. I didn’t pay attention for a moment.” He casually mentioned again the lowered price he had proposed to Ayue.
Ashi understood. Dahe wanted to use the pretense of buying meat to build a relationship with their family. Buying and selling repeatedly would naturally make them familiar with each other.
Later, it would be easier for them to spy on their family’s news. They were truly bad news.
Ashi knew that the clay jars they made could bring in quite a bit of money. Other beastmen from the Huanshan Tribe were happy to trade with them.
Ayue put down the sheep impatiently and said, “I already refused him. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He just keeps trying to buy our lamb.”
They effectively raised the selling price of meat. Their family benefited a little. Dahe’s trick might work on other beastmen, but Ayue and Ashi had already seen their true colors.
They refused Dahe.
Dahe’s smile nearly disappeared. He hadn’t expected these two to be so stubborn, unwilling to accept benefits even when handed to them.
Dahe took a step back and said resentfully, “I only wanted to buy some lamb from you. I’m not asking for it for free. If you’re unwilling like this, then I really misjudged you!” Normally, he would give a righteous lecture like this, and the other party, not wanting conflict with other beastmen, would naturally agree to sell the meat.
Ashi, knowing the key was “buying and selling lamb,” kept an eye on the surroundings and finally saw another beastman nearby also returning with a sheep.
He shouted, “Hey, brother, we have someone willing to pay a high price for lamb meat here. Please come over.”
That beastman immediately changed direction and came over. He asked briskly, “Who’s willing to pay a high price for lamb?”
“That one.” Ashi pointed at Dahe and then pulled Ayue back into the cave.
He left this mess to Dahe.
The cave entrance closed behind them.
Dahe not only failed to build a connection with their family but was also outbid by someone else.
A few other beastmen nearby overheard the entire conversation. Dahe had no choice but to buy a large piece of lamb at a high price.
The beastman left happily with the remaining lamb, grateful to Ashi.
Without Ashi’s loud call earlier, he wouldn’t have been able to sell the lamb at a high price.
After returning to the cave, Ayue and Ashi carefully observed the situation outside. Dahe’s expression looked like he had swallowed a live fly, which made them laugh inside.
Once the others left,
Ayue sighed, “That guy is just too terrifying. He kept buzzing in my ear nonstop. I was afraid I might lose control and slap him.” She then proudly dragged the prey in front of Ashi and happily said, “Today, I went hunting in a farther area.
This sheep is really fat. When I flew back and reached outside the tribe, I was too weak to carry the prey by flying. So I turned into my human form and carried it back.”
“On the way back, I was really worried that if I wasn’t careful, I might accidentally reveal that we already know their true colors.”
“Really, other beastmen in the Huanshan Tribe also caught sheep. Why didn’t he just buy lamb from them?”
She didn’t understand what tricks those foxes were playing. As long as they didn’t interact with them, whatever schemes they had wouldn’t work.
Ashi smiled and nodded, teasing, “Then why didn’t you quote a sky-high price so he’d give up?”
“No way! What if he still bought the lamb at that price?” Ayue shook her head fiercely, refusing firmly.
Ayue knew very well that she couldn’t outsmart the Fox Tribe beastmen, so she might as well cut off all contact. She didn’t believe they could scheme against her without any interaction!
“Let’s eat first, then rest a bit.” Ashi took out a small knife and carefully removed the sheep’s hide. It was a big piece of sheep skin with only a few large holes at the neck—scratched by Ayue’s claws, but it didn’t matter much.
Their home held many furs of various sizes, mostly small ones. Large furs weren’t many since they couldn’t catch big prey every time.
They did have a lot of rabbit furs. Even the smallest mosquito is still meat. When they caught rabbits, they also carefully prepared the skins. Fluffy and soft, they stitched them together into fine fur pieces.
They prepared in advance for the cubs.
The two worked together and quickly finished processing the prey. Meat that wasn’t needed immediately was hung up to dry.
A fluffy little head poked out. She stepped on a small doll they had made that resembled the three of them and climbed out of the bird’s nest.
She carefully landed on the ground with a joyful expression, tiptoed over to the side, and quietly circled around, picking up some small trash they didn’t want and putting it into her space.
“Rongrong, what are you hiding here for?” Just as she was putting away a small bone, someone suddenly called from behind, startling her. Soon, she understood and looked innocently at Ayue, “Mother, playing hide-and-seek.”
Da Mao shouted loudly, “I want to play too!”
Er Mao reminded, “Big brother, go down slowly.”
Ashi cut some pieces of meat and fed the cubs to fill their stomachs. He laughed, “Okay, the three of you find places to hide. Your mother and I will look for you.”
“Ah, hurry, hide, hide, hide!”
The cubs scattered in a rush and each found a suitable hiding spot.
The cave originally had little inside, so there were only a few places to hide.
Ayue and Ashi played along, sometimes deliberately failing to find them.
The cubs’ confidence quickly grew, and they were very happy too.