Favorite of the Beast-world: I Got Rich Through Farming-Chapter 26: The Touch of Smooth Skin

An Jin composed herself and returned to her dwelling with the food. She was getting hungry, so she started a fire to cook.

In the Beast World, the tool for starting a fire was a special kind of Energy Baryte called a Fire Source Stone.

By striking two translucent Flame Stones together, sparks would fly. They landed on the dry, oil-soaked kindling, which started to smoke and quickly caught fire.

Over a low flame, the stone pot slowly warmed up. An Jin coated the inside with a layer of fruit oil. Soon, the fragrant aroma of the oil, mingled with the scent of fruit, filled the air.

The oil at the bottom of the pot sizzled.

An Jin took the knife herself. After cleaning a portion of the wild boar meat she had selected, she sliced it into pieces of moderate thickness and arranged them neatly on a leaf.

Next, she took out some ingredients she had dug up over the past two days from her Beast Skin Bag, mixed them, and sprinkled them into the pot.

Among them were familiar Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, garlic, and scallions.

For now, An Jin had only found these few familiar ingredients. Her Beast Skin Bag also contained some she couldn’t name, which the system had identified as non-toxic and classified as undiscovered collectible resources.

[Exploration Coefficient +3]

The fruit oil sizzled and popped at the bottom of the pot, stir-frying the Sichuan peppercorns and other spices. It looked like it was about to splatter into her face at any second.

An Jin quickly backed away. She chopped up the garlic and scallions and tossed them into the pot. After a burst of fragrance filled the air with a WOOOSH, she hurriedly took a wooden spatula and prodded the bottom of the pot a few times.

Once the aroma of the scallions bloomed, she placed the pre-sliced meat into the stone pot.

The moderately thick slices of meat were seared on both sides in the oily pot. After they were fried to a golden brown, she sprinkled them with coarse salt. Sniffing carefully, she could smell the fragrance of garlic and scallions.

After busying herself for a while and frying all ten or so slices of meat, An Jin only ate two or three pieces.

It was simple pan-fried meat, but one bite sent an explosion of savory, fatty flavor through her mouth. The satisfaction was enough to make her moan.

She also gnawed on a piece of fruit. An Jin rubbed her full belly; she was starting to feel satisfied. Eating any more would be too rich.

Following the principle of not wasting food, An Jin placed the remaining slices of fried meat into two other stone bowls, sprinkled salt over them to cure them, which would extend their shelf life considerably.

The table was too low to hide anything under.

Coincidentally, there was a protrusion on the uneven wall of the stone house. An Jin moved a stone stool over, stepped on it, and placed one of the stone bowls on the jutting rock high up on the wall.

This was to prevent any mischievous little beasts, drawn by the scent, from sneaking in and stealing it.

’I’ll take the other stone bowl to Little Mermaid Xi this afternoon when I have time,’ she thought. ’After all, I’ve eaten several of his fish for free.’

After eating and drinking her fill, An Jin had planned to rest for a bit. But a breeze drifted in from the window, and she was hit by the sour stench coming from her own body. It was as terrifying as a biological weapon.

In the few days since she’d arrived in the Beast World, she had been so terribly busy with various things that she hadn’t had a chance to take a proper bath.

Without a second thought, An Jin immediately rolled up her sleeves and went to boil several pots of water. She didn’t know if Ling Hong had a bathtub here. After all, the Beastmen of this world seemed quite open-minded, content to just rinse off in the river.

Hoping for the best, she searched both inside and outside the house.

Fortune smiled upon her! She actually found a large wooden tub, perfect for a bath.

Lying in the wooden tub filled with warm water, she added some soapbeans for cleaning. The hot steam enveloped her weary body, and as time passed, An Jin’s consciousness began to fade.

Before long, she had fallen fast asleep.

Time trickled by like sand in an hourglass. The sun in the center of the azure sky began to set in the west. The sky darkened as the scorching sunlight quietly faded, and the entire expanse was stained with the yellow halo of the afterglow...

An Jin’s body, which had been leaning against the side of the tub, began to slide uncontrollably into the water, little by little.

Just as only her eyes were left above the surface and her nose was about to sink, she was jolted awake by a sudden mouthful of water.

"ACHOO—"

The water she’d inhaled was violently forced out of her nose and mouth. An Jin’s eyes began to water uncontrollably as she gasped for air, coughing several times.

She pulled herself up out of the tub and looked back.

Good heavens.

She was completely dumbfounded.

A layer of scorched-black, semi-gelatinous "black mud" was floating on the surface of the water in the tub. Some of it was even stuck to the sides of the tub, looking utterly disgusting...

’This... this couldn’t have come from me, could it?!’

’Oh, for crying out loud.’

’This is so embarrassing. I have to get rid of it, fast.’

No sooner said than done. An Jin quickly dried herself with a dry beast skin. Then, with great effort, she dumped the water from the tub into the nearby bushes and went to the river to scrub the tub clean. She only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming there was no evidence of her "crime."

By chance, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the river—the busy little female scrubbing the tub. Her skin had been washed to a healthy, wheat-colored tan.

Her cheeks had a faint, healthy blush, and her skin was much finer and smoother than before.

Although the female’s features were still plain and unremarkable, and her figure was so thin and small it was pitiable, she was now clean after her bath. A sense of freshness wafted from her hair, and she was much easier on the eyes than before.

An Jin nodded at her reflection, indicating her satisfaction. She knew full well that a single bath couldn’t have such a dramatic effect; it must have been the Shark Pearl inside her body at work.

After all, Xi had said the Shark Pearl had the effect of enhancing one’s charm.

’I just didn’t expect the results to be so remarkable after only a few days,’ she thought.

She rushed back to the house, grabbed the stone bowl of fried meat, and ran toward the river in the jungle, intending to thank him properly.

The sky was as blue as if it had been washed clean. In the Primitive Jungle, with its lush branches and dense leaves, vast seas of green swayed in the wind. The melodious chirping of birds and the rising and falling roars of beasts were endless.

A great, winding river flowed through the center of the jungle.

The water flowed slowly over the rocks, so clear you could see the bottom. Lush waterweeds and stones carpeted the riverbed, and countless small fish and shrimp darted and weaved through the vegetation.

Suddenly, the schools of fish seemed to go mad, swarming frantically toward a single point. The waiting Merfolk was like the most perfect predator. His slender fingertips suddenly elongated, and in an instant, he silently disemboweled the passing fish. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Scarlet blood and ruptured organs dispersed in the river’s current.

It was bloody and brutal.

The Merfolk’s clear, harmless-looking blue eyes easily concealed the fleeting glint of bloodlust. In a rather good mood, Xi shook his fishtail, casually scooping several large, plump, and delicious-looking fish from the river.

His sharp canines were revealed at the corners of his lips as he took a reserved, elegant bite of the fish’s belly. In less than a minute, Xi had torn it apart and devoured it, leaving only a bloody skeleton and the fish’s head.

One wasn’t enough, so he ate another.

The taste of blood exploded in his mouth, stirring the hidden bloodlust in the Merfolk’s heart. But just as quickly, Xi lost interest. He listlessly tossed the plump fish back into the river and flopped onto the riverbank with a sigh.

’It must be because I’m used to Ah Jin’s cooking,’ he thought. ’Eating this crude, raw meat just isn’t as wonderful anymore.’

Xi thought with some regret, his tongue unconsciously darting out to lick the lingering blood from his lips.

’I miss Ah Jin so much.’

’Why hasn’t she come to see me yet?’