Beauty and the Beasts

“Cortis?” Yet to recover from the shock, Bai Qingqing’s chest was still heaving up and down violently. As a result, yet more fog entered her lungs, making her cough several times.

 Cortis hurriedly patted Bai Qingqing on the back and asked with a frown, “Are you still having a cold?”

 Parker also transformed into a human. He circled his long arm around Bai Qingqing’s waist and took her several steps away from him. “My body is warm, let me hug Qingqing.”

 Cortis lowered his head and looked at his hands.

 Parker’s statement about his body being warm affected him greatly. Cortis couldn’t help wishing his body was hot as well—that way, he would be able to hold Xiao Bai to sleep every night.

 It was still the hot season, and Xiao Bai already couldn’t tolerate his body temperature. When winter came, she likely wouldn’t even touch him, right?

 Bai Qingqing covered her mouth and coughed. “No, I just feel an itch in my lungs.”

 

Cortis felt more at ease upon hearing that.

 The minute the door was opened, the white fog flooded in together with the sunlight, fogging up the colors around them. It was as though the world had turned into a black and white ink wash painting.

Parker said, “Ah! The heavy rainy season is coming!”

 “What’s the heavy rainy season?” Bai Qingqing waved her hands before her and gazed up at the foggy skies.

 Cortis walked to Bai Qingqing’s side, his lips slightly curled. It was unknown from his expression what he was thinking. “The light rainy season is the peak period for females to go into heat, the season for breeding.”

 Parker had no idea why the snake was so happy. Qingqing had already gone into heat this year, so she wouldn’t be going into heat again during the heavy rainy season. What was there to be so happy about?

 “Err…” Bai Qingqing halted in her speech. Cortis must be thinking that she would go into heat during the heavy rainy season as well. That meant he would surely try to copulate with her during this heavy rainy season. F*ck, I’m doomed.

 Becoming mates was fine. But giving birth—and what’s more, giving birth to eggs—she really wasn’t prepared for it.

 Was her wonderful youth going to be wasted on her snake children from now on? Her figure would go out of shape, and freckles would appear all over her face… she couldn’t help thinking of the females she saw when she first went to that village—that big belly hanging at their waists, those breasts so saggy they reached their belly buttons. At the thought of how she might possibly look like that after giving birth, Bai Qingqing couldn’t help but quiver.

 After shaking her head to get those horrible thoughts out of her head, Bai Qingqing asked, “Heavy rainy season… that means there’s a light rainy season?”

 

Parker said, “Mm. The heavy rainy season happens between the hot season and the winter season. The light rainy season happens between the winter season and the hot season. Light rainy season, hot season, heavy rainy season, winter season—these four seasons make up a year.” Parker glanced at Bai Qingqing as he spoke. “Stupid! What kind of small village did you grow up in exactly? How come you don’t even know this?”

 Bai Qingqing glared at Parker fiercely and said as though it went without saying, “Plenty of people don’t know this. I’m a female, why do I need to know all this?”

 Parker scratched the back of his head. “That makes sense.”

 “I’ll go and wash up.” Bai Qingqing walked away from the two of them and went to the river with her toothpaste and toothbrush.

 Cortis followed her.

 Parker raised his head and gazed at the skies, a hint of worry clouding his face. “It’s the heavy rainy season, it’d be terrible if those people don’t manage to come back before it starts.”

 The river water felt super cold in the morning. After carefully washing her face, Bai Qingqing saw the indistinct fish baskets in the bottom of the river. But she didn’t dare to go down and retrieve them.

 Seems like she had to tie a string to them next time so that she wouldn’t have to enter the water when she collected the baskets.

 A fiery red reflection was seen on the water surface, and a few strands of soft and long hair grazed the top of Bai Qingqing’s head.

 “What are you looking at?” Cortis asked as he gazed at the depths of the river.

 Bai Qingqing raised her head towards Cortis. “You’re not afraid of the cold, are you?”