Beauty and the Beasts

Back then, Cortis didn’t kill Bai Qingqing’s former admirers as he wasn’t completely sure if he wanted her to be his mate. He had planned to send her home if he didn’t like her, so there wasn’t a need to be ruthless.

But now, he was seized with regret. Because he didn’t get rid of this hidden danger, they had now attracted the attention of the eagle, putting Xiao Bai in danger.

What he couldn’t stand the most was that she liked that leopard.

Bai Qingqing’s heart was in her mouth as she listened to Cortis’s tone.

Parker was so reckless. For goodness’ sake, don’t risk your life by coming over and getting into a fight with Cortis.

However, Parker wasn’t as crude and reasonable as when he was in the village. Although he was seething with anger, he remained far away at a distance of a few hundred meters from them. He roared at Cortis, “The beast tide’s coming this way right now. I’m here to protect Qingqing. Let’s call a truce.”

The murderous look in Cortis’ eyes slowly faded. He didn’t respond to Parker and instead retreated back into the gap between the boulders while carrying Bai Qingqing, somewhat agreeing to Parker’s protection.

Bai Qingqing felt a huge sense of relief. Knowing that Parker was outside, she felt secretly happy.

Cortis’ expression darkened. He grabbed Bai Qingqing’s chin and forced her to look at him. “Your name is Qingqing?”

He was strong, so his rough grabbing caused her much pain. She murmured, “Yeah, my name’s Qingqing. But you can call me Xiao Bai too.”

Cortis’ face brightened slightly, and he gradually felt happy. “All of them call you Qingqing?”

“Yeah.” Bai Qingqing nodded honestly. She didn’t dare to provoke an angry Cortis.

“Then, I’ll still call you Xiao Bai, but I’m the only one who can call you that.”

Despite feeling slightly weirded out, Bai Qingqing nodded and replied, “Whatever you say.”

It was extremely quiet outside. All of a sudden, Cortis swung his tail outwards, flicked his tongue, and let out a threatening hiss.

Bai Qingqing looked outside as well. Then, she heard a roar come from the leopard’s throat. “Howl!”

Parker had secretly moved closer towards them.

Bai Qingqing quickly shouted, “Don’t fight! Parker, don’t come any closer!”

Otherwise, Cortis will explode!

“Howl~” Parker let out an aggrieved howl, then paced back and forth on the rocky mountain. He eventually lay down behind a rock large enough for him to take shelter.

It was silent outside for a long time. Bai Qingqing felt relieved.

Cortis curled up his snake tail into a tight circle, then carried Bai Qingqing and said to her in an unusually soft voice, “Sleep on my body.”

“…” Bai Qingqing was weirded out and thought that Cortis was publicly displaying his affection for her.

Wasn’t he afraid that Parker would get the wrong idea if he said that in such a doting way?

“Creak—”

A pair of leopard claws scratched against the rock, producing a sound that caused one to gnash their teeth. Parker glared in the direction of the gap, his teeth eager to sink into the snake’s body.

Qingqing’s mine! Mine!

Bai Qingqing didn’t dare to make a sound as she didn’t want Parker to further misunderstand them. She lay against Cortis’ soft snake body and gazed at the three moons in the night sky.

“Somehow, we’ve already been together for a month,” Cortis suddenly said while hugging her.

Bai Qingqing let out a surprised “hmm”, then asked, “You count the days too?”

Cortis pointed at the smallest golden moon and replied, “The golden moon was full on the day you came to me. And it’s full again today.”

Bai Qingqing recalled that that really seemed to be the case. So, a golden full moon happened once a month.

However, the silver and orange moons were always crescent moons. She had never seen them become full.

“What about the two other moons?”

Cortis replied, “The orange moon becomes full once every season, so that’s once every three months. The silver moon becomes full once a year, so that’s once every twelve months.”

Bai Qingqing’s mouth opened in surprise. She then exclaimed, “That’s so fascinating…”

It was a simple and crude way of calculating when the full moons would occur, but it was probably accurate.