Favorite of the Beast-world: I Got Rich Through Farming-Chapter 14: Ruined Image

’No, it wasn’t that he looked down on her. Rather, he and the other Beastmen in the tribe had completely misunderstood this female from the very beginning.’

’In the past, all the Beastmen in the tribe thought this female was frail, withdrawn, and simple-minded.’

’Ling Hong had never paid her much attention, so he had taken the rumors as fact.’

’But after spending this time with her, his deeply ingrained impression of her had been turned completely upside down.’

Ling Hong suddenly stood up and walked over to her. "My wound is almost healed."

An Jin, who was standing nearby, was sizing up the pheasant’s carcass with a stone blade. Without looking back, she gave a soft hum of acknowledgment.

A large, smooth slab of marble stood in the middle of the room. An Jin placed the pheasant on it and determined the best place to make an incision. Just as she was about to start, a long, slender hand appeared before her eyes.

The stone blade was snatched from her hand.

"My wound is healed. You don’t need to gather herbs anymore, and you can leave this rough work to me."

Without giving her a chance to argue, the man lifted the small female aside. Taking control, he sat cross-legged by the marble slab. With a swift, practiced movement of the blade, he skillfully disemboweled the pheasant, emptying its innards and clotted blood.

The entire process was smooth and efficient, his knife skills expert.

An Jin watched quietly from the side for a moment, her expression initially worried. Only after confirming that his wound had truly healed did she relax. She couldn’t help but mentally applaud his exquisite knife work.

But she had nothing else to do. After watching for a bit, An Jin couldn’t resist getting up and starting to haul several stones in from outside, piling them in a corner.

Ling Hong was distracted. He glanced over at her, a look of confusion in his jade-green eyes. "?" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

’What is she doing, moving all those stones?’

But seeing the female’s serious expression, it was clear she wasn’t just playing around. He turned his attention back to his task and stopped minding her.

While plucking the pheasant’s feathers, Ling Hong couldn’t help but glance over at her every minute.

The stones were big and heavy, and the female was small and weak. He was afraid she would accidentally fall and hurt herself.

He watched as the little female, panting for breath, carried in four or five medium-sized marble stones from outside. She piled them in the corner, leaving a large gap in the middle.

She wiped the sweat from her face, but her smile was bright. "Ling Hong, do we have any firewood at home?"

"Yes."

At the sound of his name, Ling Hong’s wolf ears perked up. He answered immediately, "There’s still some resinous pinewood I chopped a few days ago in the storeroom."

At first, Ling Hong found An Jin’s actions completely bizarre. But as he watched her place the pinewood in the gap between the stones and light a fire, he slowly realized she intended to cook.

’But why build a stove just to eat chicken?’

’Is she going to boil it?’

’Does chicken need to be boiled?’

In his tribe, only tough meats that were hard to chew, like wild boar and beef, were boiled to make them easier to eat.

Pheasant meat, on the other hand, was tender and had always been roasted. Though roasting made it dry, tough, and bland, it was still edible. Someone in the tribe had once tried boiling chicken, but they couldn’t control the heat or the timing, and the meat just fell apart into a mush. They had to throw it away, which was a shame.

Food was precious in the tribe, so a method like boiling chicken—which wasted energy, produced poor results, and squandered food—had been abandoned.

Ling Hong thought she might not know this, so he decided to give her a heads-up.

But the little female just blinked her dark eyes, flashed a brilliant grin, and patted her chest reassuringly. "Trust me. I guarantee you’ll be satisfied with the chicken soup I make."

Her words were earnest and sincere.

Ling Hong was speechless. ’Oh well,’ he thought. ’If it gets wasted, it gets wasted. It’s just one pheasant, after all.’

’Besides, my wound is healed. I can go out hunting tomorrow.’

An Jin didn’t know what he was thinking. Seeing him fall silent, she assumed he trusted her abilities. Her face lit up with a happy smile, and her motivation soared.

Her small frame swayed as she filled the basin-sized stone bowl with water and lifted it onto the stone stove.

"BUBBLE BUBBLE~"

The water came to a boil, splashing and sputtering.

An Jin took the prepared pheasant from Ling Hong, but surprisingly, she didn’t toss it directly into the pot.

First, she rinsed the chicken again with clean water. Once she was sure it was clean, she placed it on the smooth marble slab, letting the water drain from both ends. She then managed to chop it into chunks with the stone blade and blanched them to remove the blood.

Afterward, she dropped some finger-sized fruits into the boiling pot.

Ling Hong recognized the small red fruits. They were common in the forest, but rumor had it they were poisonous. Before he could stop her, An Jin had already tossed them into the pot.

"Those are poisonous! You can’t eat them."

Ling Hong’s heart leaped in alarm. He strode over in a few long steps and grabbed the stone bowl, intending to dump the soup out.

An Jin quickly stopped him. "These are red dates. Why can’t we eat them?"

"Red dates?"

Ling Hong froze, his fluffy wolf ears standing straight up with a trace of caution, but his eyes revealed a conflicting sense of confusion. "What are red dates?"

"Er... it’s this red fruit. I’ve eaten it before. It’s delicious and not poisonous. I just gave it a name on the fly. Since it’s red, I called it a red date."

Ling Hong was skeptical and wasn’t sure if he should stop her. But seeing her confident expression, he thought, ’Maybe... it really is okay?’

In truth, there was no real basis for the rumor that these red dates were poisonous; no one knew where it had come from.

It was just that there were indeed many poisonous things in the Beast World, so everyone was cautious. No one was willing to try eating such a brightly colored fruit.

After putting the red dates in the stone bowl, An Jin added the chopped chicken, more water, and covered it with a few large, thick leaves that resembled those of a plantain tree.

"CRACKLE—POP—"

The resinous pinewood was rich in oil and caught fire easily. The flames quickly spread to cover the bottom of the stone bowl.

About an hour later, the little female ran out again and found a few clean, thin twigs. Pushing aside the leaves, she poked one into the chicken, which had been stewed until it was tender, soft, and golden-yellow.

Ling Hong lay nearby, craning his neck to watch. His wolf ears were pricked high, and his usually indifferent eyes shone with an incredible light.

In fact, the moment An Jin lifted the leaves, the aroma of the meat filled the entire stone house, instantly awakening his carnivorous instincts.

His voice was impatient. "Is it ready?"

Ling Hong lay poised and proper beside the stone bowl, his back as straight as a bamboo stalk. But his eyes were gleaming, and he couldn’t stop himself from eagerly leaning in for a sniff every few seconds.

’So much for that,’ An Jin thought. ’His cool Brother Wolf image has been blasted into outer space. The more I look at him, the more he reminds me of a goofy husky.’

An Jin stole a glance at the man’s wolf tail wagging back and forth. He didn’t seem to realize it himself, diligently wagging his tail while maintaining an aloof, ascetic, and mercilessly cool expression...

’Yup.’

’Hilarious.’