When Xie Daiyu heard Ruan Chanchan call his length ugly, his expression turned solemn. He harumphed and then walked over to the shore where he had dumped his animal skin skirt and covered his important bits. "A fool like you can never admire something beautiful."
Ruan Chanchan snorted slightly when she heard the words of the mer, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she simply looked around and said, "Where is the bowl that I asked you to bring? Without that, I cannot cook anything for you." She had a pot in her space, but Ruan Chanchan was not going to bring it out just yet. After being caught once, she was not going to be foolish enough to leave any more evidence behind.
"It's here." Though Xie Daiyu was still unhappy with how Ruan Chanchan had insulted him, he still wanted to eat some of the delicious food that Ruan Chanchan had cooked the last time. Thus, even though his pride stung a bit, he marched to a thick, gnarled tree with roots poking out of the ground.
Ruan Chanchan watched as the mer calmly picked up the stone bowl that almost snapped her waist in half in one hand. Seeing the disparity in their strengths, Ruan Chanchan was simply speechless. She was half angry and half amused, but even if she was angry, what could she do? Who asked her to transmigrate into the body of a fool with a broken beast nucleus?
She could only close her eyes and accept it.
"Go and gather some firewood," said Ruan Chanchan as she started taking out the instant noodles from her space. When Xie Daiyu saw Ruan Chanchan bringing in the instant noodles from thin air, he was slightly surprised but not much, as he had already seen it happen the last time the woman was cooking.
Instead, he turned and asked, "What do you mean by firewood?"
Ruan Chanchan paused. She realised that the mer didn't know anything about burning fire; she could only sigh and explain, "Collect dry wood logs that don't hold the slightest bit of moisture… I mean water. They should not be wet, or else the fire won't start."
Xie Daiyu noted every detail in his heart and then walked toward the forest. Ruan Chanchan watched him leave and sighed. "What kind of trouble did I land myself in?"
Soon, Xie Daiyu returned with the dry logs of wood that Ruan Chanchan had asked for.
When Ruan Chanchan saw him return, she quickly took the dry logs from him and started stacking them. She didn't know how much time had passed, but if she didn't return quickly and Ruan Zeqiu woke up, then she would be in a lot of trouble.
Ruan Chanchan planned to use the old way to light the fire, but after wasting so much time, she didn't want to waste any more time. She took out a little burning oil from her space and poured it over the dried logs, and then lit the fire with the help of a lighter.
As the fire started, she placed the stone bowl on it and silently waited for it to heat up.
"How can you create the holy fire so easily?" Xie Daiyu asked as the two of them were silently waiting for the stone bowl to get hot enough for them to boil water.
"It's because I am blessed by the Beast Goddess." Ruan Chanchan rolled her eyes and made a random excuse. Since this mer was misunderstanding her as someone who was blessed by the Beast Goddess, Ruan Chanchan was planning on dragging this misunderstanding out a bit longer.
When Xie Daiyu heard her response, he blinked his eyes and nodded as if it made all the sense. "And what else can you do?"
"A lot of things," replied Ruan Chanchan vaguely as she poured the water that Xie Daiyu had earlier collected from the river into the bowl and started cooking the instant noodles. This time, she even added some frozen pork dumplings with eggs and corn. The last time, she was too nervous and couldn't eat anything; this time around, with Xie Daiyu sitting by her side, she knew that neither of them would be caught.
After she finished adding everything, she didn't forget to add anti-parasitic pills in the noodles. This body had eaten maggot-filled flesh in the past; who knows how many parasites this body was hoarding?
Xie Daiyu swallowed hard when he smelled the scent of the worms that were being cooked in the pot.
"When will it be prepared?" he asked as he tried to suppress the rumbling of his stomach.
"Soon," Ruan Chanchan replied. Anyway, this was frozen food, which meant that it didn't need much time to prepare. Soon the dumplings had turned soft, and the instant noodles had turned wriggly. Seeing this, Ruan Chanchan poured the sauces and spices that came with the noodles into the pot and handed Xie Daiyu a pair of chopsticks while she took one as well.
After watching Xie Daiyu eat the last time, she knew that this mer was really smart and could learn everything in a short time.
Sure enough, after watching Ruan Chanchan eat, the mer learned how to use the thin wooden sticks. Even though he was a bit rough around the edges, at least most of his food was going in his mouth instead of on the ground.
The two of them soon finished the bowl of noodles in no time.
Ruan Chanchan arched her arms over her head as she cleaned up the wrappings off the ground and turned to look at Xie Daiyu. "Same time, same place tomorrow."
Xie Daiyu, who had picked up the stone bowl, paused and then nodded before walking away, but as he walked away, he couldn't help but look forward to their next meeting. This feeling was so fleeting that even he didn't capture it.
Ruan Chanchan, however, had no idea of Xie Daiyu's tangled thoughts; she returned to the cave, as she needed her much-needed beauty sleep.
***
"WHAT THE HELL!?"