'Good grief, don't tell me he's one of those stoic but inwardly passionate types.'
The man's pointed wolf ears stood erect on his head. At first glance, he appeared tough and aloof, cold and ruthless, but who knew what sorts of schemes he was hatching inside.
One word popped into An Jin's head.
Husky.
By noon, An Jin had been busy for half the day. She was drenched in sweat, her throat parched. The simple, thick-walled earthen and stone houses in the Beast World were also incredibly hot and dry inside—it was utterly unbearable.
Her empty stomach began to protest, and An Jin finally felt the pangs of hunger.
For the past two days in Ling Hong's house, she had been making do with boiled meat and some wild fruits.
The wild fruits here weren't cultivated, and their sweetness was mixed with an astringent, bitter flavor that made them hard to swallow. The boiled meat was just wild boar, crudely cooked in water. The meat was tough, with a gamey, foul odor. One bite was more than enough.
But watching Ling Hong chew with gusto, practically wolfing it down, she could only squat in the corner with her Stone bowl and question all of her life choices.
She was new to this place, and the body's original owner had been of low status with no voice of her own. That was why she hadn't raised any objections about the food for the past two days. But after two or three days of such abuse to her system, she really couldn't stand it any longer...
'If I have to keep eating like this, I'm going to cough up blood.'
"Ling Hong, do you have any other food stored here?"
An Jin knew that food was scarce in a primitive society, so she only listed a few basic items. "Like rice or white flour, or even just simple salt and seasonings?"
"What are seasonings?"
Ling Hong was taken aback, hearing the female in front of him talk about such strange things. A shadow flickered in his eyes. "And what are rice and white flour?"
"They're grains, like rice and wheat, that are planted, ground into powder, and then go through a series of processing..."
"Rice? Wheat?"
When Ling Hong's handsome brows furrowed, An Jin's heart sank.
'It's over. It's all over. From the looks of it, he doesn't even know what rice and wheat are!'
'I originally thought this world's level of civilization was low, but I never imagined it would be this ridiculously primitive?!'
The petite female's eyes filled with despair. She clutched her chest, resisting the urge to cough up blood. "Then... then what do we have to eat in our home?"
When An Jin subconsciously said the two words "our home," Ling Hong's eyes flickered. He seemed a little flustered, but he didn't deny it.
Seeing the man dazed, An Jin tilted her head and waved her small hand in front of him.
"It's nothing." He shook his head, raised his emerald eyes, and gestured toward the door. "We have stored food, just not the white flour you mentioned. Only some of the game I've hunted."
An Jin nodded. Game would be fine. Although the quality of the meat wasn't as good as in her world, its leanness was a definite plus, making it a decent choice.
The Beastmen's food was stored in a small thatched hut near the bedroom. Before An Jin could even walk up and open the door, a rotten, sour smell wafted out from inside.
Her steps faltered. She quickly covered her mouth and nose, enduring the discomfort from the foul stench as she peeked inside, only to be horrified by what she saw.
It was summer and the weather was dry, making food difficult to preserve. Without things like refrigerators, sealing these animal carcasses inside a hut would easily cause them to spoil and rot.
Many of the carcasses inside had already rotted.
A wave of nausea suddenly washed over her.
With trembling hands, An Jin fought back the dizzying wave of nausea and rummaged through the dead game. She found one or two pheasants that seemed to have been caught a couple of days ago, before he was injured. They were still in good condition and edible.
An Jin snatched up the pheasants and bolted for the exit.
She didn't stop until she was back at the main entrance, where the wind finally began to disperse the foul stench that clung to her, a smell so persistent it felt like it was stuck to her very bones.
An Jin suddenly felt a bit of pity for the people of this world. The average lifespan of these Beastmen was only forty to fifty years. She couldn't help but suspect that a major factor in their short lives was eating too much spoiled and rotten food.
The moment she got back inside, the small female ran over, panting heavily, and immediately asked, "Ling Hong, we should have salt here, right!"
"Yes."
Their tribe was relatively close to the sea and often traded with coastal tribes, so they weren't lacking in a precious commodity like coarse sea salt.
He was the tribe's number one warrior and led the Hunting Team. His contributions to the tribe were immense, so the portion of coarse salt he received each time was also very large.
An Jin finally felt a sliver of relief. She walked to the stone table, placed a wooden board on it, and, holding a sharp bone blade, began to clean the pheasants. "In the future, don't put hunted game directly into the storage room. We can salt it first, then wrap it up tightly. That way it won't spoil so easily."
"Really?"
Food spoilage had always been a major problem that plagued them, and in all these years, no one had been able to figure out a solution. Ling Hong couldn't help but be a little suspicious. "How do you know that?"
"I heard someone mention it when I was little."
An Jin casually brushed him off with an excuse, not noticing the way Ling Hong's gaze shifted behind her, becoming instantly sharp. "Heard someone mention it?"
His tone grew colder with each word, his deep voice sounding like an interrogation.
"Who was that someone?"
"I hit my head on a rock, so I can't remember a lot of things clearly. I think it was when I was a child, an elder from my old tribe taught us."
"..."
'Ling Hong didn't believe her.'
'The female's nonchalant act was clearly just to brush him off.'
'He had lived for nearly twenty years, and no one had ever told him that salting could preserve food. It wasn't just him; none of the other Beastmen around had ever heard of such a method.'
'So how could she have learned it from 'someone'?'
The man leaned against the wall, head bowed. His long, well-defined fingers idly brushed across his nearly healed wound, a pensive light sparking in his emerald eyes.
'Perhaps he had been underestimating this female all along.'