Beauty and the Beasts

Chapter 19: A Meal a Day

1

Before long, Parker returned with his arms full of white, clean cotton flowers. They were still warm, soft, and fluffy from being in the sun.

Bai Qingqing removed the cotton seeds from a few cotton flowers. Then, with her back to Parker, she removed her stained underwear and placed some cotton on damp underwear she’d washed the night before with bathwater before putting it on.

“We should probably put these cotton flowers under the sun. We don’t know whether these are clean,” Bai Qingqing said worriedly. What if there were insects in them?

She was about to get up from the nest when Parker held her in place and said to her thoughtfully, “Stay here. I’ll go put them under the sun. You’re still bleeding and you need to rest.”

Bai Qingqing just got her period, but she was being cared for like a baby. While she wasn’t used to it, she somewhat envied the females here.

Of course, what she envied the most was the god-given gift of only getting their period once a year. She was envious and jealous of them to the point of frustration.

Seeing that Parker was about to carry the cotton flowers outside without first placing something on the ground, Bai Qingqing quickly stopped him and said, “You’re not just going to place them on the ground, right? I have to put them in that area. How dirty would they be if you just placed them on the ground? Please put something underneath.”

“Oh.” Although Parker thought otherwise, he still did as Bai Qingqing said as females in heat came first. He first spread out a piece of animal skin on the ground in a sunny area outside, before placing the cotton flowers on the animal skin.

When Parker was done, he turned around to see Bai Qingqing walking out of the house. He quickly carried her back to the grass nest.

“I told you to stay in the grass nest. You’re so disobedient!” Parker said, pretending to be angry.

Bai Qingqing smiled awkwardly and placed her hands behind her back.

“What are you hiding?” Parker eyed Bai Qingqing suspiciously.

“Nothing.” Bai Qingqing quickly shook her head.

Parker sniffed. The sweet and fragrant smell of blood was still there. He looked at the grass nest with a strange expression. “By the way, where’s that tiny piece of clothing of yours?”

Bai Qingqing’s face fell and she took out her hand. “It’s in my hand. I was going to wash it.”

Parker reached out his hand and took Bai Qingqing’s underwear from her.

“Hey!” Bai Qingqing panicked and quickly tried to take it back, but Parker was tall and his arms were long. The underwear was beyond her reach once he raised his arm. Seeing it stained red made her want to cry.

“Give it back!” Bai Qingqing wanted to cry but had no tears.

“I told you, you need to rest. I’ll go wash them.”

Parker then got up and left. Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to get her underwear back, Bai Qingqing didn’t chase after him and instead resignedly sat on the grass nest.

It was getting late, and Bai Qingqing’s stomach began to growl. After Parker hung her clean underwear on a tree branch, she asked him, “When are we going to eat? It’s almost noon.”

“It’s way too early. The sun hasn’t reached the center yet.” Seeing that Bai Qingqing seemed to be very hungry, he said, “I’ll pick some fruits for you to eat. In the afternoon, we’ll eat meat at an earlier time.”

For leopard beastmen, it was indeed too early to eat. Leopard beastmen were carnivorous, and they only had one meal every day. They usually ate in the afternoon when the temperature was lower. After comfortably filling their tummies, they’d let the food digest for a bit before sleeping. Females had a more varied diet. They would pick some wild fruits and grasses with thick leaves to eat, but those would just be snacks.

“Just one meal?” Bai Qingqing asked incredulously.

“Yeah.”

“Ah?” Bai Qingqing was dumbfounded. She’d been hungry for a while, but she was too embarrassed to speak up about it. Now, Parker wasn’t allowing her to get up and find her own food. Didn’t that mean she would have to starve till the afternoon?

She was still on her period. If she went without food for a week, her menstrual cycle would become irregular and her blood sugar levels would drop.