"Why are you yelling at someone’s house so early in the morning?" Priestess Yuan was sleeping peacefully in her bed when she was awakened by the loud yell of Ruan Zeqiu. This mer was really going to be the death of her old bones; the entire tribe didn’t visit her as much as they did in just a week.
She climbed down from her comfortable bed, which was made from the skins and fur of beasts, before hobbling towards the entrance of the cave.
"What is it? What happened to your sister now?" She asked angrily.
"Priestess, look at my sister. I don’t know what happened; she suddenly said that she was going to die!" Ruan Zeqiu told the old woman what Ruan Chanchan said in a worried voice.
Ruan Chanchan, who was being held by Ruan Zeqiu, was so embarrassed that she was burying her face in the little mer’s back. She only made a careless remark, but this little mer took it seriously. Damn it, so embarrassing.
"What? She said that?" Priestess Yuan was stunned; she then ushered Ruan Zeqiu inside the cave and asked him to lay Ruan Chanchan down on the floor.
Once Ruan Chanchan was lying on the floor, the priestess crouched down and started studying her carefully. Of course, she only opened Ruan Chanchan’s eyes wide and made her pull her tongue out. Other than that, the priestess didn’t know anything else. She hummed and said,
"Zeqiu, I think you should really consider taking your sister to the Beast Utopia," said Priestess Yuan. "My skills are, after all limited, and I cannot see what is wrong with your sister; I only know that she is severely malnourished and her stomach is not good. It has caused quite a lot of problems for her and you."
"I also want her to eat, priestess Yuan," sighed Ruan Zeqiu. "But you know my sister sometimes gets really picky; she is not willing to eat the meat. What can I do?"
Ruan Chanchan would sometimes eat anything, and sometimes her mood would be so surly that she would eat nothing. This was why Ruan Zeqiu was not surprised when she refused to eat beast meat last night; it was because he was used to her acting picky at times.
When Priestess Yuan heard this, she shook her head and muttered, "At this point, only the beast goddess can help your sister; I don’t know what happened to her that she said such words."
She sighed. "With your sister, it could be as light as holding her fart in or something serious as having a headache. We can never know."
Ruan Chanchan, who was lying on the floor, could no longer listen. She jumped on her feet and announced, "I am fine!"
....?
Priestess Yuan looked at Ruan Chanchan, who was speaking clearly and asked Ruan Zeqiu excitedly, "Zeqiu, since when did your sister start speaking so clearly?"
"I think she spoke for the first time last night," replied Ruan Zeqiu. "Why is everything alright?" he asked nervously.
"No, I think this is a good sign." Priestess Yuan shook her head and looked at Ruan Chanchan carefully. "Since her speech is getting cleared, I believe your sister will get better sooner or later."
Ruan Zeqiu cheered up when he heard the words of the priestess, and Ruan Chanchan also heaved a sigh of relief. She knew that this woman had some position in the tribe; since she had spoken that she would get better, then Ruan Chanchan was not worried about suddenly ’turning normal’ anymore.
At least in the words of the priestess, she was showing some signs of recovery!
Ruan Zeqiu was the happiest when he heard that his sister was getting better. How could he not? She was the only family member of his family left. Thus, he wanted her to get better and live a good life. At least, if someday something happened to him, his sister could hunt and fill her belly without worrying about him.
That much was enough for him.
Because he was grateful, he handed a large chunk of meat to the priestess and then took his sister away.
Once the two of them left, Yuan Ni, who had gone out to collect herbs, returned. He looked at his grandmother, who was looking at the stones she had aligned years ago and was shocked when he finally saw his grandmother move the red stone away from the blue one.
"Grandmother, what happened?" He asked with a nervous look in his eyes.
He still remembered how his grandmother woke up in the middle of the night when he was six and then arranged these pebbles in a certain alignment. She also kept chanting about how it was the end.
Back then he tried to change this alignment but was beaten until his bottom bloomed like the flaming flower and he no longer touched it any more. Now his grandmother suddenly changed the alignment of the stones on her own? What was going on?
Priestess Yuan turned to look at her foolish grandson and said to him, "What do you know? The heavens had finally paved the way for our survival."
Yuan Ni looked at his grandmother with an even more confused look, causing the old woman to sneer, "You keep paying attention to that woman, Shao Xia; maybe if you use half of your wits in understanding what I am saying, instead of chasing after that woman, maybe you will be able to understand what I am trying to explain."
Yuan Ni blushed furiously and hurried inside the cave. He was worried that his grandmother would scold him even more; thus, he decided to act as if he couldn’t hear anything.
Priestess Yuan saw her mer grandson acting like a burrowing thescelosaurus and snorted. She wished that he were much more courageous, but this was what she was stuck with.
Yuan Ni was not the only one who was acting like a thescelosaurus; there was someone else, and it was none other than Ruan Chanchan, who was looking at Xie Daiyu as if she wished the ground to split up and swallow her whole.