Survival Guide After Accidentally Kissing a Demon - Chapter 269

Chapter 269

“I just don’t have an appetite…”

Beili came back to herself, shook her head, and changed the subject. “What about you? Did you find someone suitable to fill your stomach?”

Before running into Bertie Swan, Beili had been about to have the Morpho Butterflies check what Ashera was doing. But after being interrupted, she had forgotten again.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

The boy asked again.

“Mm… Actually-”

She found a random excuse.

“When the rice pudding and camel milk had just been set on the table, I accidentally saw someone leading a cow past here.”

“The cow was covered in red, blistering sores, so I lost my appetite.”

Losing her appetite because of a sick cow was a lie.

But seeing a cow covered in sores was true.

A new disaster had already descended.

Perhaps it was connected to the lice and flies from some time ago, but large numbers of poultry and livestock had caught a plague.

Blistering sores would erupt all over their bodies. No ointment could cure them. The sores would only spread more and more, and they would infect other poultry and livestock as well.

So as soon as people discovered sores beginning to grow on their animals, they would take them outside the Town and burn them.

On the way to the Town on a camel with Ashera, Beili had seen a pit blazing with a raging fire.

Beside the pit, quite a few people were leading cattle, sheep, and other livestock over, driving them into the flames.

…

On the other side.

Whether or not he believed her, the boy reached out and touched her cheek. He bent down, his voice soft as he said to her, “If you don’t w-want to eat now, you’ll have an a-appetite again later.”

He already knew her very well and had figured out her habit of getting cravings at irregular intervals.

Lifting his head to look at the sky where gray clouds were gathering, the boy said softly, “Let’s go buy s-some more from the shops to take back. It looks like it’s going to r-rain.”

It was the rainy season in Tilisha recently.

Rain fell every other day, and unfortunately, their mud hut had been flooded several times.

Beili nodded, hiding the heavy mood that had settled over her after her conversation with Bertie Swan. She followed the boy to buy some more food, then left the restaurant.

By the time they rode the camel back to the village, the sun on one side of the sky was already slanting toward the horizon, about to set, while the other side was thickly covered in dark clouds like a quilt pulled over it.

A rumble of thunder rolled overhead.

After returning the camel at the village entrance, Beili took Ashera’s hand and ran home.

The moment they stepped into the mud hut, the rain came pouring down behind them.

Bean-sized raindrops pelted the roof of the hut and the ground, pressing down the dust that had been flying through the air.

Beili had just set the food she had bought from the restaurant and shops on the table when she turned back and saw the boy standing in the doorway, watching the rain pour outside.

His thin lips parted slightly as he murmured something.

When Beili drew closer, she vaguely heard a few words. It sounded like “forgot.”

Beili stretched out her arms and gently hugged the boy from behind, pressing her face against the cold, wide collar-like necklace at the back of his shoulder and neck.

“What did you forget?”

The boy turned his face slightly to the side, lightly pursed the corners of his upturned lips, and said, “Nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing? You clearly said something just now.”

Beili let go, quickly walked around to stand in front of him, and widened her eyes, their dark ruby gleam edged with a luxurious shadow.

“It’s nothing. It’s just… I can’t t-tell you right now.”

As the boy said this, his golden eyes flickered faintly. Then he glanced to the side, not looking directly into her eyes.

Fine. Fine, fine.

“So you are hiding something from me.”

Beili deliberately used a warning tone as she said to him, “If you don’t tell me now and I find out later, you’re finished, Ashera.”

Her threat had no intimidating effect at all. The boy let out a muffled laugh, and there was actually a hint of anticipation in his voice as he asked, “What will happen? Will you p-punish me?”
Beili reached out and pinched his cheek, then said thoughtfully, “Your punishment is to close your eyes and sleep tonight. No moving around.”

“Okay. Then I won’t move. Only you can… can move.”

The boy spoke softly.

…?

Why did those words sound completely different coming out of his mouth?

“Neither of us is allowed to move.”

Beili enunciated every word.

Then she turned and went to sort out the food they’d bought.

He had been right. She hadn’t had any appetite earlier, but after hurrying all the way back and seeing the food in the basket, her appetite returned.

The boy followed behind her and helped put things away.

When they were done, Beili glanced at him.

She saw the silver-haired boy take out a clear glass jar from behind his back and pluck from it a butterfly-shaped hard candy wrapped in a translucent sugar shell.

Silently, he unwrapped a piece of candy. Silently, he put it into his mouth.

His black-feather lashes lowered, and that pale, gloomy face of his took on its usual pitiful expression.

“Fine. What do you want, then?” Beili asked.

…

Beneath the overcast sky, rain poured down like strings of pearls, shrouding the entire world in a misty white haze.

Inside the mud house, Beili looked at the boy and asked, “What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t want any… anything. I’ll do whatever you say,” the boy answered.

Only, after he finished speaking, he unwrapped another piece of candy and put it into his mouth, the grievance on his face not diminishing in the slightest.

Seeing him look so pathetically miserable, Beili almost wanted to laugh.

“Then give me one,” Beili said to him.

The boy’s fingertips paused. Then he took a candy from the glass jar.

“Not from inside there,” Beili added, her voice gentle.

The boy understood.

His raven-feather lashes curved slightly.

He caught her slender wrist and pulled her close, then lowered his cold lips over hers.

Their lips fitted together as he pried open her teeth.

The butterfly-shaped hard candy slowly melted between warmth and chill.

Outside, the rain kept pouring down.

After the two hard candies in their mouths were gone, Ashera seemed to suddenly remember something. He let go of her, absently told her to eat some of the food in the picnic basket, then picked up an umbrella and walked out.

By the time Beili reacted, his figure had already disappeared into the misty white downpour.

Beili opened the picnic basket and ate. Once she was full, she stood behind the door, watching the endless rain fall as she quietly waited for the boy to come back.

What is he doing?

Beili asked the Morpho Butterflies in her mind.

Searching for the poultry washed away by the rain, the Morpho Butterflies replied.

On the way back,

Beili had remembered the livestock she had seen in Town, all infected with pox.

She had planned to return to the mud house and check whether the small animals roaming free in the low shed were all right.

But after setting her things down, she felt there was actually no need to worry.

This was her dream.

If she didn’t want those animals to be harmed, all she had to do was tell the Morpho Butterflies in her heart, and the Morpho Butterflies could isolate them from every plague.

Only, doing that would be meaningless.

Beili decided to let nature take its course.

She reached out her hand. Rain fell into her palm, bringing a burst of cold, just like in reality.

After who knew how long,

a figure gradually appeared in her line of sight.

The boy held an umbrella. Several drenched chickens were tucked in the crook of his bent arm, and two more stood on his shoulders.

“They can’t… can’t swim. When I found them, only… only these few were alive,” the boy said to her from the rain.

Beili said, “Come in first.”

The boy entered the mud house. Beili took the food out of the basket and lined it with a piece of cotton cloth.

The boy crouched and placed the animals from his arms into the basket. With a light sweep of his fingertips, all the water clinging to their pale yellow feathers vanished.

“Don’t be mad at me,” Beili heard him say.