Rebirth with the Beast_5
Chapter 40 continued…
Dino had put on a good bit of weight lately—thanks to regular meals and no longer living in fear, he’d plumped up by two sizes. The skin-and-bones kid had turned into a rosy-cheeked little dumpling. Every time Su Yi looked at Dino’s chubby face, he couldn’t resist pinching his cheeks. The moment Little Eli saw, he’d compete for attention by sticking out his little tail for Su Yi to squeeze and play with.
Once the two kids were full, dusk had fallen. These days, Dino slept with Little Eli; having company kept the boredom away, and the two children were getting closer by the day. Su Yi told them a story for a while. When both started to nod off, he took away the lamp. After closing all the doors and windows, he went back to his own room. As soon as Su Yi entered, Xinuo shut the door behind him, pulled Su Yi into his arms, and pressed him down on the bed.
They’d been busy recently and hadn’t had a proper moment of intimacy; every time, Su Yi had just used his hands to help Xinuo. Su Yi knew what Xinuo wanted, so he lay back without resisting. Looking down from above, Xinuo watched Su Yi obediently help undress him, a lovely smile on that exquisite face. It made Xinuo want to take him hard until Su Yi was flushed and crying for mercy.
Xinor parted his lips obediently, his tongue slipping out to lick Su Yi’s fingers. As Su Yi was captivated by the allure before him, Xinor’s other hand parted Su Yi’s legs, then pressed against him with a teasing, sensual motion. Su Yi felt as if he’d been possessed by some primal force, his breath catching in his throat. Perhaps it was the instinct of a man, but when Xinor took the lead in provoking him, the beastly blood in Su Yi’s veins boiled over in an instant. He grabbed Xinor’s arm with sudden force, then roughly flipped him onto the bed. Su Yi wrapped his arms around Xinor’s neck and claimed his lips in a fierce kiss.
It wasn’t until Xinor thrust into him with force that Su Yi curled his toes in discomfort, a curse forming in his mind: Damn, that’s huge! Then all coherent thought was shattered by the relentless rhythm that followed. Su Yi clung desperately to the beast hide on the bed, his legs locking tightly around Xinor’s waist as his vision blurred with unshed tears. He felt like a pancake, flipped and seared over and over by Xinor, until he was crisp on the outside and tender within.
The next morning, as soon as the two woke up, they lay there for a moment, gazing at each other. Su Yi couldn’t help but start teasing again—though it wasn’t really his fault. Who could blame him? The moment he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of a breathtakingly beautiful man. Men, after all, are creatures of desire. The sight of Xinor’s face made Su Yi unable to resist provoking him. The consequence of his teasing was, of course, being flipped onto his back by Xinor once more. Just as Xinor was about to give Su Yi a thorough lesson, little Eli’s voice called out from the doorway, complaining of hunger. Reluctantly, Xinor let Su Yi off the hook. Ever the model of virtue, Xinor left Su Yi to rest in bed while he went to the kitchen to prepare a simple breakfast.
Later that morning, Su Yi found a piece of soft beast hide and decided to make matching outfits for himself and Xinor. Calling them “matching outfits” was a bit of a stretch—they were just simple vests and shorts. The vest design was inspired by the ones Su Yi had seen in movies, worn by orcs. The style was more like a sleeveless tunic, and it wasn’t difficult to put together. Su Yi didn’t take long to finish the two vests. The shorts were a bit more complicated: he cut four pieces of hide into the shape of shorts, then stitched them together into two pairs. Once the shorts were sewn, Su Yi turned them inside out, hiding the stitching inside and leaving the patterned side of the hide visible.
Su Yi called Xinor in and had him try on the clothes. The beast hide was a creamy white, a color that made the wearer look almost divine. Xinor wasn’t used to wearing shorts, but seeing Su Yi in the same outfit, he reluctantly put them on. When Su Yi explained that these were “couple outfits,” meant to be worn by partners, Xinor was overjoyed and spent a long time kissing Su Yi fiercely.
In the afternoon, Ian suddenly arrived to thank Su Yi for what had happened the day before. Truthfully, Su Yi hadn’t done much—it was actually Jares who had really helped Ian.
In the afternoon, Ian came by to thank Su Yi for what happened yesterday. To be honest, Su Yi hadn’t done much; the one who really helped was Jels.
Ian noticed the new outfits on Su Yi and Xinuo and couldn’t help saying, “The clothes you made look great.”
Su Yi pulled Ian onto a stone stool and checked the scrapes on his hands. They’d already scabbed over—just superficial abrasions. Although Ian couldn’t transform, he was still a beastman, so he healed well.
“Did you prepare enough food for the rainy season? You were all busy building,” Su Yi asked, the thought popping into his head.
Ian clearly hadn’t expected that. He thought for a moment. “Hunting’s harder in the rains, but it’s not like we’ll starve.”
Su Yi frowned, then suddenly remembered something. He went to the kitchen, filled a backpack with ingredients, and tugged Ian along to his place.
After this time together, Su Yi had realized Dilson’s group weren’t bad people. And without their help, his own house wouldn’t have gone up so smoothly. Since they’d be living together in future, he didn’t intend to hide knowledge about other foods. Besides, after eating at Su Yi’s place a few times, they already knew there were other things you could eat.
When they arrived, only Taylor was home; the others were out hunting. Su Yi actually found Taylor a little intimidating—the way a mischievous child feels when facing a strict father. But in five months it would be winter. When that came, no matter how strong they were, they wouldn’t be able to hunt.
Chapter 41
So Su Yi braced himself, marched over, and quickly laid out all the food from his pack.
“Uncle Taylor, I know beastmen love meat. But when winter comes, there won’t be enough game, and we could face a serious food shortage. These things can be stored. You can learn from me and Mino how to cook them.”
As mentioned before, Taylor didn’t look old at all—more like a handsome man in his thirties or forties. He hefted a potato in his hand. “Mm. I ate at your place before. It was delicious.”
High praise, coming from him.
Su Yi felt a little embarrassed. His cooking wasn’t amazing, just decent—mainly because people here didn’t use salt or other seasonings and usually just roasted meat. He introduced the ingredients one by one, highlighting several that stored well. His point: besides hunting, they should also gather these foods. He then gave them some salt and taught them how to cure meat and make jerky for longer storage. He couldn’t spare much salt—just enough for a while—but he told Taylor about the nearby salt lake; they’d have to collect the rest themselves.
When Dilson and the others came back, Taylor called them together and explained gathering and salt-collecting, so they could divvy up tasks. In the end, Jels volunteered to go for salt. Thanks to his species’ advantages, he could come and go freely even during the rains. In the rainy season, with less prey, the forest beasts grew irritable. Ordinary beastmen were wary of venturing deep alone: the downpour masked scents, making it dangerous. But Jels was different—if there was danger, it wasn’t to him; it was to the beasts.
Dilson and Mino were assigned to gather edible plants and herbs; the others continued hunting.
Jels left that very night. For him, day or night—or rain—were all the same. No one tried to stop him; they all knew how formidable he was.
On the third day after he left, Mino came back blushing and, after much hemming and hawing, Su Yi finally understood—Mino wanted to move in with Dilson. Su Yi felt complicated, like marrying off a son.
This time he didn’t tease Mino. He sweetly prepared a generous “dowry”: fruit, food, and several fine hides. Mino, whose life Su Yi had saved, absolutely refused to take them, but being honest and not great with words, he couldn’t out-argue Su Yi and ended up carrying a mountain of things anyway. When Dilson came to fetch him, he didn’t stand on ceremony at the sight of the bundles. Before leaving, though, he hauled Xinuo aside and whispered for a long time. After the couple departed, Su Yi pried the secret out of Xinuo with threats and bribes.
“Uh… Dilson asked me how to, uh, mate with a female.”
When the word “mate” came out of Xinuo’s mouth, Su Yi almost choked on his own spit. Dilson and Mino had been living together for days—who’d have thought nothing had happened yet? Su Yi didn’t know if he was too dirty-minded or if those two were too pure.
“He still hasn’t made a move on Mino? No—more like Mino hasn’t made a move on him? Didn’t Mino once reach his wicked paw toward your beast form?”
At that, Xinuo’s lips couldn’t help quirking. So long ago, and Su Yi was still keeping score—clearly, his mate really liked him. He pulled Su Yi into his arms and dropped a kiss on his forehead.
“How did you answer?” Su Yi pushed that handsome face away—broad daylight wasn’t the time to indulge him.
Those gemlike eyes held a smile. “I told him what we do.”
Su Yi blushed for no reason. “Hmph, I don’t want to hear it.”
Seeing him a little flustered, Xinuo’s breath hitched; he wanted to hug and kiss him. But just as he lowered his head to press his forehead to Su Yi’s, Dino and Little Eli walked in.
“Mother-father, the rain stopped—can we go play?” After days indoors, the kids were excited to get outside.
“Go on, you two,” Su Yi said. “We’ve got things to do after the rain.”
“Don’t go far—just out front, okay?” he added as they turned to run.
Little Eli wagged his tail. “Okay!”
Su Yi looped his arms around Xinuo’s neck and pecked his thin lips. “I’ll take a few things out of my space. Since we can’t go far during the rains, let’s copy them and make our own.”
He pulled several pieces of furniture from his space: a chair, a backpack-frame, a small cabinet, and a low table. They could make furniture from stone, but stone stools and tables were too heavy and hard to move. While the rainy season kept them indoors, Su Yi wanted to add some wooden pieces—especially small tables for the kids’ rooms. The whole room could be a bed, sure, but a little “lazy desk,” like in a college dorm, would be handy for water, fruit, and a small lamp.
Su Yi and Xinuo left the valley and cut plenty of timber in the nearby forest. The trees here were enormous; four or five were enough. Then they wandered, selecting saplings of fruit trees Su Yi liked to eat, to transplant to the courtyard. They also gathered seeds and starts of vegetables to plant. Strictly speaking, the rainy season wasn’t ideal for transplanting, but life here—animal and plant—was tougher than back in his world, so he wanted to try. He stored everything in his space. A little later he remembered the wild herbs that repelled insects, so they circled again to collect enough to plant both in the valley and at home. The plant had a light minty fragrance; when it grew thick, it could mask human scent. In the past, when Xinuo hunted, if he passed a patch of it, he couldn’t pick up prey scents nearby.
Author’s note:
A little angel asked me to change the cover, but I don’t know how. A reader made the current one—please bear with it for now, haha!
Chapter 42
Besides, Xinuo said, you could simply scatter the seeds around the perimeter; when winter came next year, they’d explode in growth and spread like dye in water. It was the rainy season now, and the insect-repellent grass had already gone to seed.
Sitting on Xinuo’s back, Su Yi flung the seeds in a circle around the valley. Then they went home and started on the yard.
As mentioned, their home had front and back courtyards. The back one abutted a rock wall; Su Yi planned to plant commonly used herbs and ornamentals there. In the front yard he picked a spot for two fruit trees.
Meanwhile, Jels—slipping through the forest like the wind—had gone several days without rest and was already close to the salt lake Su Yi had described.
He stretched his limbs and decided to find something to eat. His golden beast eyes caught a tusk-boar fleeing in a panic. He hadn’t planned on boar today, but to make good time he’d make do.
He angled to dive and smash the boar flat—when a strange scene made him pause: the boar, bleeding from multiple wounds, thundered forward, and behind it chased… a person? More precisely, a female?
A slight female, face smeared a dark green. Though the female carried a heavy, odd smell, Jels wasn’t like ordinary beastmen; with superior dragon blood, he could still catch that special sweetness that marked a female.
He was enormous, and the presence of a foreign apex predator made both the female and boar in the tall grass feel a crushing pressure.
The female’s sprint stuttered; she veered instantly and scampered into the trees like a monkey.
Jels landed and shifted to human mid-drop, pouncing like a leopard onto the boar and smashing a fist into its skull. The boar screamed and collapsed, twitching.
He didn’t bother with the fleeing female. He figured she’d realized he was an “unlucky” beastman and hid on reflex.
Compared with other beastmen—unlucky or not—Jels was an outlier. He wasn’t the type to rush up to a female like a fool the moment he saw one.
He did wonder why a female would be out here, and how a female could be chasing a boar, but curiosity was curiosity; he had no intention of following and asking.
He was an unlucky beastman. He didn’t care to see disgust in others’ eyes—nor would he degrade himself to fawn over a female clearly afraid of him.
Tang Yu pricked up his ears and listened a long time. Aside from the boar’s death scream, the forest had returned to silence.
It had been months since he’d been reborn into this world.
He remembered opening his eyes to a hideous beastman on top of him, tearing at his clothes. Tang Yu was gay to begin with; one look and he knew what filth the man intended. Fortunately, the attacker didn’t succeed. The moment Tang Yu woke, he flipped the beastman with practiced ease, pulled the bone knife from his belt, and slashed him.
Then followed more than ten days on the run, during which he pieced together what had happened.
He remembered dealing arms with his older brother when a squad of vice officers suddenly burst in. The man leading them was someone Tang Yu knew: Su Yi, formerly of the SWAT team’s operations unit. There was no time to think; chaos erupted. The brother who had always treated him like precious treasure shoved him out as a human shield at the critical moment.
He fell right next to Su Yi. To protect a policewoman, Su Yi was hit by multiple bullets—certain to die—yet still had the presence of mind to pick up a jade pendant from the ground. Maybe misery loves company: seeing Su Yi reaching for the pendant in a pool of blood, Tang Yu—oddly soft-hearted—reached out to help. Then, either his blood or Su Yi’s stained the jade a solid red…
…and Tang Yu was reborn—into the body of a “female” named Xiluo. In this world there were no women, only beastmen who could transform and females who could not, tasked with bearing children. He’d been depressed for a while upon learning that—but soon got over it.
In his mind, no one could force him to bear children if he didn’t want to.
Xiluo was a female of the winged-wolf tribe with a betrothed named Aike, an outstanding beastman whose snowy wolf form made him wildly popular with the tribe’s females. Aike was willing to be with Xiluo only because Xiluo was the chief’s darling son. Xiluo knew Aike didn’t truly like him, but still adored him for his valor.
Xiluo’s trouble began when he accidentally saw Aike being intimate with another female. Simple-minded, he confronted Aike on the spot for his infidelity. Enraged and embarrassed, Aike slapped him.
Coddled from birth, Xiluo ran from the tribe in tears—
—and was seized by wandering unlucky beastmen. Unwilling to be violated, he wrested free from one in midair and fell, luckily, into a tree, where he knocked his head and blacked out.
Then, somehow, Tang Yu took over Xiluo’s body, wounded the unlucky beastman, and escaped.
He headed toward the winged-wolf tribe in Xiluo’s memory, meeting many dangers along the way but surviving more than a month with makeshift weapons.
Later, he found there was a salt lake nearby and set up camp—memories said beastmen sometimes came to collect salt. Most didn’t need salt, but some did. Tang Yu hoped to meet one there and enlist help in returning to the tribe—much safer than trudging through the wilds alone.
Unluckily, by the time he arrived, the other tribes had already taken their salt. With the rains approaching, everyone was busy hunting; they collected salt early.
It had rained for days. Tang Yu hadn’t caught game and had been gnawing on slightly spoiled fruit. Today, finally, the rain stopped. He set traps and at last, after days, lured a meaty tusk-boar. But as he chased it after it sprang free of the trap, a mass like a thundercloud blotted out the sun overhead. He looked up—an honest-to-God dragon—and dove for cover in a panic.
Chapter 43
Thinking back, that scene belonged in movies and games: a Western-style dragon with no warning overhead, body so huge it blacked out the light; Tang Yu felt the sky press down like a weight.
He crouched hidden for a long time, hesitating. That sort of dragon was said to be a beastman too, just rare and quiet, seldom seen.
He’d waited so long—who’d have thought the one he’d meet would be a dragon?
Lost in the shock of it, he suddenly smelled roasting meat drifting from not far away. He hadn’t tasted meat in ages; he decided to go see if it was a beastman.
From Xiluo’s memories, beastmen liked females; even unfamiliar females would be treated with some care—beastman nature.
If not for that dragon’s sudden appearance, the boar would have been his. And hadn’t he stayed here specifically to meet a beastman who could help him back to the winged-wolf tribe? With that in mind, Tang Yu psyched himself up and marched toward the smell.
There, he found a long-haired, black-haired beastman turning a boar leg over the fire. The aroma made his mouth water. My roast meat—mine!
Maybe the grumbling was too loud—or the beastman sensed something—because he turned. When Tang Yu met those ink-black eyes, his heart skipped: below the right eye was a red totem, like a tattoo. Was he an unlucky beastman too? Rumor had it they were different from others—robbing females and seizing small tribes. But the look this beastman gave Tang Yu wasn’t greedy like the last unlucky beastman—it was cool, indifferent.
The man lifted the boar leg and crooked a finger. “Come here.”
The voice sounded nice to Tang Yu’s ears—and when he saw the meat, he shamefully shuffled over, still wary, watching every move. The beastman carved off a few tender pieces with a bone knife and handed them over. Tang Yu mumbled thanks and, eyes reddening from the heat, stuffed them into his mouth as fast as he could.
Jels stared at the little green-smeared face, then at the way the female wolfed down the food and thought: this one must not have eaten meat for days.
After swallowing, Tang Yu looked at Jels with red-rimmed eyes.
Jels didn’t know why, but the female reminded him of a little red-eye beast—pitiful and… kind of cute?
Cute?
He froze. How could he think that?
The female’s little face was smeared with grease and grime; with those green-with-envy eyes fixed on the meat and those reddened lids, the effect was almost horror-movie grotesque. And he’d thought it was cute? Jels decided there must be something wrong with his head.
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