In contrast, Auretin looked much more calm. Or perhaps his pokerface was too perfect. Any emotion he might be feeling would be so well hidden that no one could tell whether he was feeling joy or sadness. He just cleared his throat before saying, “Have you had your dinner?”
Gu Mengmeng shook her head. “I knew you were waiting for us, so we wanted to come back to eat with you.”
Auretin was obviously stunned. With an imperceptible frown, he said. “I have already prepped the hunted game for you. Today… I won’t be eating, but will help you carve the meat, raise the fire and wash the utensils.”
Auretin was not eating? Not only that, he would be standing by the side to watch?
This… was he torturing himself?
Seeing that Gu Mengmeng was keeping silent, Auretin clenched his fists. “I am not eating tomorrow either.”
Gu Mengmeng was confused. A greedy chowhound had suddenly changed his personality?
Gu Mengmeng maintained her silence, causing Auretin to frown even more deeply. Clenching his fists tighter as if he was enduring an intense pain, he hollered. “I won’t be eating the day after also! Three days is my maximum, I cannot bear any longer than that! If you are still unappeased… just let your partners fight me.”
Gu Mengmeng, “…”
She had said right from the start that they had specially waited to eat dinner with him.
Did she look very angry?
How cruel was it to take away a greedy chowhound’s right to eat? Gu Mengmeng was so kind and gentle that she would never do something like that?Right?!
Gu Mengmeng covered her mouth as she chuckled. “Are you trying to make amends for leaving Sauder without a word?”
Auretin kept quiet but he gazed sheepishly to the side. He then nodded almost imperceptibly.
Gu Mengmeng tilted her head to look at Barete. “What about you? How do you intend to make amends?”
Barete pressed his lips into a straight line. He lowered his head. “I betrayed you and present myself at the Platform of the Deity’s Punishment.”
Gu Mengmeng didn’t express any opinions and just told Elvis. “I am hungry. Let’s go home and eat first. We will talk about this after.”
Elvis completely disregarded those four males and just bypassed them. He then returned to their cave and set Gu Mengmeng down in front of the entrance.
It was their habit that every time they returned home, he would set Gu Mengmeng down, and let her link arms with the two of them, before walking into their cave together.
The cave was covered in a thick layer dust after being uninhabited for so long.
Elvis laid a piece beast skin on the ground before placing Gu Mengmeng on it. He kissed her forehead and then headed back into the cave to tidy up.
Lea raised a fire in front of Gu Mengmeng and put a stone pot over it. He helped himself unabashedly to the meat prepped by Auretin, slicing and marinating it before throwing it into the pot to stew.
From the moment the fire was raised, Auretin’s eye never left that pot…
Barete sat down beside Gu Mengmeng. He did not dare to look at her but just quietly sat there. After a long time, he finally spoke up. “This time, I will not come down with my life.”
Gu Mengmeng turned to look at Barete. “Is this your way of making up to me?”
Barete nodded. “Apart from my life, I have nothing else. So, I can only offer this life to the Beast Deity to atone for my sins.”
Gu Mengmeng chuckled. “I was the one you wronged, so shouldn’t you be offering your compensation to me? Why are you giving it to my father?”
Barete glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, unsure of Gu Mengmeng’s meaning.
Gu Mengmeng asked, “You don’t want your life anymore, right?”
Barete was taken aback. His eyes dimmed before nodding.