Lin Huahua blinked, and then because she was also panicking inside, she only gave a tiny awkward nod and scooted a little more.
Her pale face still pink as she tried not to think too much about the fact that she was now about to sleep beside an extrely handso beastman.
In her mind, all sorts of romance novel scenes had already begun shalessly floating about.
What if he suddenly leaned close? What if he kissed her? What if he looked at her with those gentle eyes and said sothing soft?
Then again, what was she even thinking? She would be leaving this world one day.
Her brothers would definitely keep trying to convince their father, and when the ti ca, she would return to her real life, so she really should not encourage anything too dangerous.
Still, just imagining it made her ears turn hot.
Mu Qingyi lowered himself onto the bedding beside her with deliberate care, keeping distance he clearly didn’t want to keep.
His size made the gesture almost futile, his broad shoulders, long limbs, gave him the kind of solid presence that filled the room whether he moved or not. The control in it sent a slow shiver through her.
He had a tall body and wide shoulders, yet he sohow tried to make himself as small and harmless as possible, like a giant deer who had accidentally been invited into a precious room and was terrified of touching the furniture.
Lin Huahua noticed that and almost laughed, but just then she rembered sothing else entirely.
Earlier, when Feng Yiren had carried her back after the argunt with Su Yanrong, she had seen those pretty animal markings on the bodies of the females in the tribe.
At that ti, she had thought they were so kind of special tattoos, and she had wanted one imdiately because they looked so beautiful and unique.
Since she had not gotten the chance to ask before, now that she was lying here in the dim room with Mu Qingyi beside her, curiosity suddenly rose again.
So she turned her head and looked at him. "Mu Qingyi."
Mu Qingyi imdiately turned too, because the way she softly called his na made his heart react before his mind could catch up. His little female was his world.
His eyes t hers steadily, unblinking, the kind of look that didn’t ask for permission, it simply held her there.
Lin Huahua hesitated, then asked curiously, "How do I get one of those tattoos?"
Mu Qingyi looked at her with confusion. "Tattoos?"
Lin Huahua nodded and lifted her hand as she tried to explain, "Those animal marks on the females’ bodies. I saw them when I went out with Feng Yiren earlier. A lot of them had pretty ones, and the males around them matched too. So had birds, so had lions, so had tigers."
The more she spoke, the more confused Mu Qingyi beca, until all at once he realized what she was talking about.
His eyes changed slightly.
Those were not tattoos.
Those were mating marks.
For a second he just stared at her, wondering why she would ask this now and why she sounded so innocent while describing them, because every female in this world knew what mating marks were.
Unless...
Mu Qingyi rembered how strangely she had been acting ever since she woke up, how many things she did not seem to rember, how lost she sotis looked in situations that should have been familiar to her, and his heart softened with helplessness. Perhaps whatever had happened in the forest really had affected her mind.
So he spoke gently, his voice as soft as usual. "Those are not tattoos. They are mating marks."
Lin Huahua blinked. "Mating marks?"
Mu Qingyi nodded. "Every female gets one after mating, if she accepts the male. The beast form of that male appears sowhere on her body."
His voice dropped lower, it was calm but edged with sothing heavier. He shifted slightly on the bedding.
The way his shoulders squared reminded her how much bigger he was, compared to her. The movent was deliberate, possessive in its restraint.
Lin Huahua’s brows moved, and then very quickly she thought of sothing that made her sit up a little straighter. She turned to him and asked, "But we mated."
Mu Qingyi’s whole expression dimd.
"Yes," he said quietly.
He didn’t flinch or look away this ti. His gaze slid back to her, steady and unyielding, like he was asuring every inch of her reaction.
One hand rested flat on the furs between them without touching her, but close enough that she felt the heat off his palm.
Lin Huahua imdiately looked down at herself as if expecting a mark to suddenly appear from sha. Then she looked up again and asked in confusion, "But I do not have any mating mark."
Mu Qingyi looked away for a mont and answered softly, "Yes."
That one word made the room feel quieter.
Lin Huahua stared at him.
Mu Qingyi kept his eyes lowered, because the mory of that night had never really left him. He rembered it too well.
He rembered how after they mated, she ran away because her heart had still been elsewhere, and because she never truly accepted him, his mark never appeared on her body.
To him, that mory had always been painful, so now that she was bringing it up again, he thought perhaps she was only reminding him that she had never loved him.
He exhaled once, slow and controlled, the sound low in his chest. His fingers flexed briefly against the furs, like he was holding back from reaching over and pulling her against him to stop whatever was coming next. Then he waited. Silent. Watching her like nothing else in the room existed.
That thought had barely ford fully when he suddenly heard sothing that made him freeze.
Soft sobs.
Mu Qingyi turned his head at once.
Lin Huahua was crying.
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