Chapter 183: Chapter 170: Lest the Little Fox Gets Upset
Night was falling when Barto returned to their residence, carrying several large bags.
CLICK...
Hearing the sound of the lock turning, Gu Ning looked up from her notes toward the door. Cook wagged his tail and let out a soft yelp, "Ba..."
The word had barely left his mouth when Barto pushed the door open from the outside.
Gu Ning’s gaze swept over his tall, athletic figure. He had clearly left the building as a small, atavistic Mixed Breed fox, but now he was back in his human form.
Gu Ning put down her notes and pushed her still-sore body up. Wrapping a blanket tightly around herself, she climbed out of her warm nest of blankets and went with Cook to greet the little fox.
Barto entered with shopping bags in both hands, nudging the door shut with his arm. "The network is unstable. I tried to call you before I came back, but it wouldn’t go through."
’Hopefully, I didn’t make Gu Ning worry.’
After saying this, Barto looked over to see Gu Ning’s reaction.
Gu Ning pointed at the things in his hands. "What’s all this?"
She and Cook circled Barto. One curiously eyed the things he was carrying, wanting to help him with them, while the other sniffed at them nonstop.
Barto: "..."
He placed the items directly on the floor. First, he took a frozen roasted chicken from one of the bags and put it in the oven. He then patted the head of Cook, who was trotting happily at his heels, and chided with a laugh, "You and your dog’s nose."
Gu Ning crouched on the floor, rummaging through the things he had brought back. "The mall was open?" she asked in surprise.
The two bags were shopping bags from the mall, filled with either clothes or food, still with tags on them.
She took out an item of clothing and unfolded it—a pair of shorts.
She pulled out another. More shorts. If it wasn’t shorts, it was underwear.
Judging by the size, they had to be the smallest model for Beastmen.
The underwear and base layers she had been wearing recently were modified from roughly this size, so they looked very familiar.
’So many pairs of shorts?’
Gu Ning recalled that before Barto left, he’d said it was about their departure. ’Was this his way of preparing supplies?’
Before winter set in, Barto had already stockpiled a large amount of food for them, both meat and vegetables, though the vegetables were all root types. Besides food, they also had plenty of winter clothes, blankets, and other things—enough to get them through the winter.
Gu Ning looked through the food in the bags. There were many quick-frozen roasted chickens, canned fruit, and canned milk. They didn’t have much of these stored away, and since she loved canned fruit, they only had a few cans left in the house.
Seeing the food, she understood. Cook loved the quick-frozen roasted chickens, and the canned fruit was for her. As for the large bag of underwear, it must be for Barto himself. She had plenty of clothes; even if few of them fit well, she wasn’t lacking.
She turned her head to study Barto. He could now transform into his human form, possessing a normal Beastman’s build. He wasn’t a hulking brute built like a wall, but rather lean and well-muscled. He didn’t lack a single necessary muscle, and he was surprisingly tall.
"What are you looking at?"
Barto saw Gu Ning’s gaze wandering over him and looked down at himself, thinking something was wrong.
"Nothing." Gu Ning averted her gaze and went back to organizing the things in the bags.
Barto checked that his clothes were reasonably clean, then raised a hand to sniff himself. There was no strange smell.
’Right. Her sense of smell is very weak, so she wouldn’t be able to smell anything anyway.’
Barto hesitantly lowered his arm and walked over to crouch beside Gu Ning.
Seeing her press her hand to her neck every so often, he grabbed it to feel its temperature. It was ice-cold.
Barto frowned. "You’re so cold. Go stay in your nest. Don’t worry about cleaning up."
"You’re so warm."
Gu Ning sighed, feeling the warmth from his hand. ’Beastmen really are tough,’ she thought. ’He’s barely wearing anything and he’s still this warm. No wonder they can survive in a harsh place like Zone 19.’
Hearing this, Barto took her hand back and held it to warm it up.
Seeing this, Gu Ning’s eyes curved into a smile. She pressed her hand against his neck, where it was even warmer.
"..."
Barto saw Gu Ning’s smiling face close to his, averted his gaze, and then scooped her up. He carried her back to her nest in the middle of the living room. "If you’re cold, go hug your pot."
Gu Ning gave a soft "oh" and pulled her hand back from his neck, not wanting to annoy the little fox.
Barto tucked Gu Ning into her nest and stood behind her for a moment. He reached into his coat pocket, just about to pull something out, when a sharp DING! interrupted his thought.
The oven was done heating the roasted chicken.
"WOOF!" Cook excitedly opened the oven.
Worried he would get burned, Barto went over, pulled Cook away, and took the roasted chicken out. He placed it on the small table next to Gu Ning. "You two can have a bite to eat first..."
KNOCK KNOCK—
A slow, steady knock on the door cut him off.
All three of them—Gu Ning, Barto, and Cook—looked toward the door at the same time.
"Grr-woof!" Cook let out a low growl at the door. While not exactly fierce, the happy look was gone from his face.
"It’s me."
Alex’s voice came from behind the door.
Hearing his voice, Gu Ning’s heart skipped a beat, then began to race with anxiety.
Barto secretly glanced at Gu Ning’s expression. It wasn’t the happiness or anger he had expected; instead, it showed a tension and a kind of unease he couldn’t decipher.
"I brought you dinner." After a few moments of silence, Alex’s voice continued, "I’ll leave it at the door. Don’t forget to get it later."
Hearing that he was about to leave, Gu Ning threw off the blanket covering her and rushed to the door. Cook scrambled to follow.
Behind her, Barto’s raised hand hovered in the air for a moment before he silently lowered it.
Then, his gaze fell idly upon the notebook Gu Ning had left in her nest, and he reached out to pick it up.
He casually flipped through a few pages. Each one was covered in dense lines and notations. Barto’s expression gradually grew serious.
The notes detailed the locations, landmarks, sentry posts, and even supply stations for routes to several mid-sized Beastman cities.
From the creases on the paper and the handwriting, he could tell that Gu Ning had written this sporadically over time. The first few pages were worn from being flipped through so often.
’He had no idea when she had started keeping these notes.’
Barto flipped to the last page. At the top was a large number ’Five,’ but the guide was only half-finished on the page.
Gu Ning stood behind the door, took a deep breath, and felt for the note she had written in advance in her pocket. After rehearsing her words in her mind, she mustered her courage and opened the door—
Standing in the doorway was that familiar, tall figure.
Gu Ning slowly looked up, meeting a pair of cold, clear eyes. Her mind suddenly went blank, and she lowered her head again.
She wanted to question him, but at the same time, she worried about his condition. A surge of anger welled up inside her—anger at the fear and anxiety she had endured because of all this. Her rational mind urged her to be calm, yet she couldn’t ignore the fear she felt.
Alex looked down at her in silence. He didn’t need to ask to see from her faint resistance and tense posture that the misunderstanding with Kloer and the others had hurt her.
"Woof?"
Cook’s head poked out from behind the half-open door, his eyes fixed on Alex with hostility.
Alex snapped back to his senses and looked at Gu Ning. "How’s your wound? Does it still hurt?"
As he spoke, he reached a hand out toward Gu Ning.
Gu Ning instinctively took half a step back.
"Can we talk?"
Alex’s voice was gentle, as if he were afraid of startling her.
