Beauty and the Beasts

Parker took down the wooden doors of some empty rooms, poured the pulp on them, then rolled them flat with a rolling pin.

As the space was big, the pulp wasn’t as thick as when Bai Qingqing fried it like a pancake. It looked more like paper-making now.

If some parts were still flat, they’d just press down softly using the family portrait tray. After ensuring that everything was flat and perfect, two of them carried them into empty rooms to be left to dry.

After this basin of wood pulp was laid out, they had taken off 20 doors in the stone castle. Thankfully, they had only made one basin today. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be enough doors to use.

However, the doors were still doors, after all, so they had to be installed back. If the paper-making was a success, Parker planned on secretly making a big wooden board to give Bai Qingqing a surprise.

After they were done with the work, they saw that the sky had turned dark.

Bai Qingqing couldn’t calm down at the thought of white paper and happily stayed in the kitchen to tend to the fire. When she saw better firewood material, she would place them into a stone jar when they were burned midway. She then sealed up the jar to make charcoal.

It wasn’t easy for the entire family to be present, so the meal would have to be sumptuous.

The center of the dining room wasn’t the dining table but a big pile of firewood, roasting a chunk of behemoth leg. The firelight lit up the faces of everyone around it, casting huge shadows behind them.

“Qingqing, quick, this firewood is good.” Parker drew out a greenish circular piece of wood the thickness of a baby’s arm from the pile. Half of it was still burning.

Bai Qingqing took a look. It was really good firewood. She quickly opened the jar and, right after Parker put the firewood in, she rapidly closed the lid. The jar was filled with half-extinguished black charcoal.

“I saw one that’s good too.”

Curtis’s voice suddenly rang out, and Bai Qingqing turned her head excitedly. However, what she saw was a fragrant dumpling. It had already touched her lips, and the steam was darting into her nose as if it would touch it at any moment.

Bai Qingqing instinctively opened her mouth and ate the dumpling, avoiding getting soup on her nose. As she chewed, she said in a muffled voice, “You lied to me!”

Curtis threw a cold glance at the stone jar, then at her stomach. For some reason, Bai Qingqing suddenly felt that it was dangerous and moved the charcoal to her side.

“I called you three times but you didn’t respond. I only mentioned wood and you became excited. Are charcoal more important or are the children more important?” Curtis finally said outright.

1

Bai Qingqing swallowed the dumpling with one gulp, then held onto her stomach, saying solemnly, “The children are important!”

In order to show that she meant it, Bai Qingqing pushed the charcoal over to Parker next to her. She then said softly to him, “Help me fill it up.”

“Alright.” Parker and Bai Qingqing were of similar age and got along the best when it came to playing. He was also very excited about making paper and drawing.

Parker also wanted to draw the design of the armor. It was too easy to lose drawings that were drawn on the floor, and it took too much time to carve them on rocks. He had tried using charcoal to draw on rocks as well and was the most satisfied with this method. If paper-making was a success, it’d be even more convenient in the future.

Bai Qingqing smiled sheepishly at Curtis, then looked around. “Where’s my bowl? I’ll eat by myself.”

Bai Qingqing was really defeated by her absent-mindedness when she realized that she didn’t even know where her bowl was.

After looking around, she saw that Winston was carrying An’an and feeding her dumplings. He would scoop a spoonful, blow it, then feed it to An’an.

2

Her own bowl seemed to be Muir’s hands, who was next to Curtis. He was also blowing at the dumplings in the spoon. After seeing Bai Qingqing looking over, he handed the spoon to Curtis. Curtis took the spoon from him, and as Bai Qingqing expected, fed the dumpling to her mouth.