Young Mr. Gray Wolf carried Ruan Qiuqiu on his back and walked along the somewhat steep cliff. When they were about to arrive at their destination, he let out a not-too-loud “aowu” to remind her to lower her head as there was rock protruding out in front of them.

Ruan Qiuqiu acknowledged him and lowered her head. She had almost come into contact with his wolf skin.

As Xiao Yuan Jue moved forward, Ruan Qiuqiu noticed that where they were had become dimmer and dimmer. When she saw light again, they had already arrived next to young Mr. Gray Wolf’s cave.

“Aowu. (We are here),” said young Mr. Gray Wolf. Ruan Qiuqiu quickly climbed down from his back.

Ruan Qiuqiu tugged at his sleeve and tried very hard to make herself sound relaxed. She said each word and each sentence seriously, “They didn’t know what they were talking about. You are not a mute. You just haven’t learned how to speak human language yet.”

Even though she knew that any expression of hers would be covered up by the mask, Ruan Qiuqiu still smiled at him. “I’ll teach you.”

He understood what she was saying. He just couldn’t speak her language yet.

It was just that there was no humans or demons who were willing to teach him. There probably weren’t a lot of humans or demons who were willing to talk to him, which caused little Mr. Gray Wolf to talk less and less.

Ruan Qiuqiu felt that she must not look very happy right now. Luckily, she had on a goofy mask and that little Mr. Gray Wolf would not be able to see her expression.

Ruan Qiuqiu took a deep breath, shook her head, and tried to cheer herself up. She pointed at the little leather pouch that little Mr. Gray Wolf was carrying with the herbs inside, her eyes tingling, and reminded him, “… your leg is hurt.”

Even though she was just a body of consciousness, big Mr. Gray Wolf still given her a leather outfit in this frigid winter.

For some odd reasons, in the wolf’s mind, she was wearing mid-length sleeve leather dress.

Ruan Qiuqiu looked up at Mr. Gray Wolf and said disgruntledly, her voice breaking a little, “How are you… in your bare feet?”

He looked at the little human in front of his with the mask on with what he thought was the safest look and let out an “aowu” impatiently. He wanted to confirm where this “human” came from and whether she was merely a figment of his imagination.

His inquiring “aowu” asking Ruan Qiuqiu about her identity was filled with more anticipation and cautiousness that she had ever heard before.

Little Mr. Gray Wolf was probably fairly nervous. He had all the tell-tale signs that big Mr. Gray Wolf had when he was nervous, if not to a larger extent. His ears and tail were showing already and the tips were almost turning pink. His cracked lips shut tightly but his eyes stared at her intensely.

Little Mr. Gray Wolf went silent for a couple of seconds before he pulled out a small pouch made out of animal hide from his wolf skin that he had been protecting –

It was made out of clean, snowy white rabbit fur. It had a little bit of his blood on it now.

“Aowu. (herbs).” Little Mr. Gray Wolf looked calmly at the little female pig demon. He then bent down and placed the little leather pouch on the ground.

He wasn’t there to steal; nor did he steal any food.

He just learned that a nice demon who had once helped him out was sick and wanted to bring over some herbs.

He did not want to rob Zhuzhu of her father.

Little Mr. Gray Wolf’s pupils shuddered a little and he reflexively shook loose Ruan Qiuqiu’s hand that was holding onto his.

Where she had touched him had a tingling sensation. It was more unbearable than the pain when he was struck by a rock.

Yuan Jue’s two black brows twisted together and he jumped off to one side. Both of his eyes stayed intensely on Ruan Qiuqiu for some reasons and his bluish-gray irises were glowing.

This was the first time Ruan Qiuqiu was denied by Yuan Jue in such a decisive manner. Ruan Qiuqiu was a little baffled.

She lifted her short, little hand frailly and reached it toward Little Mr. Gray Wolf in an attempt to call the little wolf back.

The girl's voice wasn't particularly soft and was amplified by the howling wind. The hostility in her voice couldn't be ignored, and there was even a bit of hatred in it. Her words spread clearly through the small valley.

The shifting of the snow on the slopes and rustling sounds from vegetation created a sound like whispering mockery.

It was silent for a while. Soon after, there were intermittent sobbing and comforting sounds.

Supporting herself with the tree trunk, Ruan Qiuqiu continued to watch Yuan Jue from a distance. His eyes were widened in a look of not knowing what to do. He unconsciously bared his fangs as he snarled out a reply in a low voice.

Ruan Qiuqiu tried to use spiritual energy to leave, but her body didn't have any spiritual energy in Mr. Gray Wolf's dream. She tried several times, but couldn't escape from this illusionary world.

She touched her face and discovered that she was wearing a furry mask that exposed her eyes, nose, and mouth. She tried tugging the mask off, but wasn't able to take it off.

Ruan Qiuqiu: "..." What exactly was the wolf's image of her? Did this mask exist because he couldn't see her? That actually made a lot of sense.

Ruan Qiuqiu shivered from the cold. She didn't know what was going on or where she was. She only knew that wearing a thin animal skin dress with short sleeves. Only her face felt warm.

Still, Yuan Jue wasn't that kind of guy. If he did, he could have easily done something to her when she was feverish.

Ruan Qiuqiu, who didn't know her first kiss had been stolen by a wolf, naively had complete faith in the wolf's character.

"... Husband?"

Ruan Qiuqiu didn't know why she was so nervous, but her speech was a bit unclear. She touched the translucent willow leaf in her pocket. It wouldn't get to the point where she had to crush the leaf to ask for Grandma Ruyi's help, right?

Ruan Qiuqiu noticed that the level 4 spiritual energy stone that she had stuffed into his hand was gone, and there were only powdered remains left on the bed. Yuan Jue must have absorbed all of the spiritual energy from that stone.

Fortunately, she was lucky today and found small spiritual energy stones inside that fat pigeon. Otherwise, there really wouldn't be enough.

Ruan Qiuqiu climbed onto the stone bed. She took out two small spiritual energy stones and stuffed them into the wolf's hand.

Before Qing Ruyi left, she pulled Ruan Qiuqiu to the entrance of the cave to talk. Touching the wooden door, she felt it was rather novel. "I didn't expect your wolf pup husband to have such craftsmanship."

Ruan Qiuqiu was amused by the words "wolf pup husband". She gently rubbed the blood stain on the edge of the wooden door. It reminded her of that night when she had a high fever that wouldn't go away.

Seeing Ruan Qiuqiu's expression, Qing Ruyi could tell Ruan Qiuqiu's attitude towards Yuan Jue. She hesitated before probingly asking, "Qiuqiu, how do you think that wolf pup treats you?"

Qing Ruyi touched her chin, coughed, and said, "If you guys can see through my plans, how can I still have the standing to be your Grandma?"

Ruan Qiuqiu: "..." For a while, she didn't know how to refute that.

Still, she knew that Grandma Ruyi had good intentions. Ruan Qiuqiu smiled. She slightly lowered her gaze and followed the light reflected on the snow to take a good look at her wolf.

He was still in a bad mood, and his furrowed dark brows looked like a knot that couldn't be untangled. Due to the flickering torch, the shadows cast by his long eyelashes were also shaky. His cheeks were still pale, and more black spots had spread over his face.

Yuan Jue thought he was speaking in an arrogant and indifferent tone, but in his half-conscious state, his words turned into soft "aowu" sounds. It wasn't a puppyish milky sound. On the contrary, it was a low-pitched, s*xy, mature, and masculine sound. Not only that, his voice sounded hoarse because most of his attention was focused on restraining the fiend energy. When all kinds of unsuitable qualities were layered together, it formed a sensual attractive rhythm.

While doing her best to support the wolf from falling down, Ruan Qiuqiu tried to extract spiritual energy from her dantian that hadn't recovered from being overdrawn earlier today to relieve Mr. Gray Wolf's pain.

When she sent the spiritual energy that she squeezed out with great difficulty to Mr. Gray Wolf, he seemed to wake up from that half-conscious state.

Ruan Qiuqiu had planned on telling Yuan Jue everything after she returned to the cave, including Grandma Ruyi and Grandpa Mo's relationship, Grandma Ruyi's master, and her plans to go to the Winter Bear Tribe with Grandma Ruyi's help.

She hadn't expected that Yuan Jue would suddenly appear here. She didn't know how to clarify everything in a short period of time, so she chose to give a high-level explanation.

By the time she was done explaining, her eyes had somewhat adapted to the darkness, and she could vaguely make out that Mr. Gray Wolf was unsteadily standing in front of her.

He seemed to have calmed down and was no longer growling. He slowly put down his blood-stained hand. He slightly turned his body and slowly turned his face towards her. His glowing red pupils were especially noticeable in the dark night and looked quite scary.

He had already lost his ability to clearly think and didn't even know that his condition was bad enough that he couldn't communicate to her. But, he was able to tell that she had been gone from the cave for a long time. She had never been this late in coming home. Even though he was in an unbearably painful period of fiend transformation, he came out looking for her, not knowing his mental state.

When he smelled the fiend energy on Qing Ruyi, he instinctively regarded her as a terrible enemy that had bullied his wife.

Qing Ruyi, who had witnessed Yuan Jue "kidnapping" Ruan Qiuqiu from her while almost being unable to maintain his half-shifted form, was utterly speechless at the ludicrous "hero saving beauty" scene.

A deep growl reverberated from Yuan Jue's throat. The stark menace and warning in that growl was colder than the night wind. Despite having reached level 5 in power, Qing Ruyi felt afraid.

The willow mat that Ruan Qiuqiu was sitting on was connected to willow branches she had control over. When that deep growl sounded, all of the willow branches broke off from the willow mat.

Qing Ruyi had good night vision. She noticed the red-robed Yuan Jue rushing over here like a ghost while Ruan Qiuqiu was still shocked.

That wolf was bare feet. There were scars on his face and wrists from the fiend energy rebellion. His scarlet eyes were half-closed, and his fully transformed fangs were bared. His black hair was hanging down, and blood was dripping down from his two big hands. It seemed as if he had completely lost his rationality.

Even Little Bohe figured out why Grandma Ruyi was unhappy, but the three males in the Mo family were clueless.

Grandpa Mo had an uneasy feeling only because of Grandma Ruyi's abnormality.

Since they had met yesterday, other than when she had gone out to hunt, Ruyi had been sticking close to him. Even at night, she insisted on squeezing into a small bed with him. For him, she had changed into an elderly appearance.

He didn't want to waste her time and refused to get too close to her. If her abnormality was because she had gotten over him, that wouldn't be a bad thing.

Not only did he think it was nothing to falsely accuse Mo Yu of stealing and to carve the thief's mark on his face, even if they drove Grandpa Mo's family into the forest to feed beasts, he didn't think doing that was a big deal.

The clan shaman and him judge them as a family of weak, old, and young people that were unable to contribute to the tribe.

Lin Xun didn't think it was worth his effort to continue talking to them. He saw Ruan Qiuqiu and Qing Ruyi rushing over here. Surprised crossed his eyes. "Who's that old lady?"

Qing Ruyi sneered. She narrowed her eyes and flung her sleeve at the two demons.

Grandma Ruyi supported Ruan Qiuqiu with a willow branch. Seeing her pale face, she eased her tone, "Grandma knows of a place. It's far from here and close to the Winter Bear Tribe."

Grandma Ruyi smiled. "We can talk about this later. You overdrafted on your spiritual energy. Grandma will bring you back to her home. Once you rested and feel better, Grandma will take you home."

"I…" Ruan Qiuqiu instinctively wanted to refuse Grandma Ruyi's offer. Although she hadn't been out for long, she had this nagging feeling that Mr. Gray Wolf was at a critical period and felt uneasy if she wasn't watching him.

Qing Ruyi tapped Ruan Qiuqiu's forehead. "A half-demon and half-fiend's vitality is very tenacious. You're weaker now.

Grandma Ruyi slightly raised her eyes to look at this child, who hadn't taken long to calm down, analyze, and come to a determination after finding out the truth. She appreciated her even more and didn't point out the little gaps in logic of Ruan Qiuqiu's analysis. "Take a gamble on what?"

Ruan Qiuqiu took a deep breath. "Take a gamble on Yuan Jue and my future."

Silence fell.

Grandma Ruyi looked at her with a serious expression. Should she cooperate by voicing her agreement or smile?

Grandma Ruyi squinted her eyes. "Oh? But Grandma doesn't think there's any future between you and him to speak of."