Chapter 12: A Harvest

The Gu Luo tribal chief and his wife held significant prestige and influence in the local area.

It was said they had one son and one daughter; the son had married into a wealthy family within the city.

The daughter was young and physically frail.

She was also naturally timid and rarely ventured outside.

For some unknown reason, she had been bitten by a mutated beast this time.

Lin Qin wanted to say something, but felt it might be inappropriate for her to speak up.

She simply felt that Gu Ningning was so young and timid, and to be injured on top of that, was quite pitiful.

A very cute little girl flashed through Su Muyao's mind.

When her predecessor had scolded her before, the girl had been so frightened that she didn't dare speak, merely trembling before scurrying away.

Su Muyao's expression softened. Before they could say anything more, she spoke up: "Let's go. I'll go take a look."

Uh...

Hearing Su Muyao suddenly agree, both the chief and his wife were stunned.

They stared with wide eyes, unable to believe it.

Since when had Su Muyao become so easy to talk to?

When they had no choice but to come and beg for help, they had already prepared themselves to kneel before her.

They were ready to agree to any condition she imposed.

They hadn't expected her to be so accommodating.

Many of the words they had prepared went unsaid.

The chief's wife said excitedly, "Then we thank you so much, Miss Su."

"As long as Ningning's wound can be healed, Miss Su will be our benefactor from now on. We will certainly repay you properly."

Su Muyao knew that the tribal chief and his wife were people of their word.

Since they said it, they intended to do it.

If she gained the chief's gratitude, it would make her future life in the Gu Luo tribe much more convenient.

Other members of the tribe wouldn't dare cause trouble for her either.

Of course, even when the predecessor had been acting arrogantly, others had disliked her but hadn't dared to act out.

It was simply because her beast husband was extremely powerful.

Su Muyao said, "Let's look at the injury first and treat it before anything else!"

Upon arriving at the stone house where the chief's family lived, Su Muyao saw a little girl inside.

The girl looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old, with a round face and round eyes, looking quite adorable.

However, she looked far too thin, appearing malnourished and skin-and-bones.

At this moment, black blood was oozing from the wound on her leg, and she was weeping silently in pain.

The chief's wife stepped forward and said, "Ningning, don't be afraid. Miss Su has healing abilities; let her examine and treat you."

When the little girl named Gu Ningning saw Su Muyao, she instinctively shuddered.

Su Muyao stepped forward and said gently, "Don't worry, it will be fine."

For some reason, looking at the smile on Su Muyao's face, Gu Ningning felt a sense of warmth.

She also felt a gentle, soothing aura emanating from her, which caused her to daze for a moment.

Su Muyao performed a simple examination on Gu Ningning and then released her wood-element healing ability over the wound.

Soon, the festering wound stopped decaying, the black miasma was dispelled, and the blood in the wound turned red again.

The chief and his family watched this scene in utter astonishment.

Su Muyao said, "She is fine now. With a few days of proper rest, the wound will heal."

"The reason her wound became so severely infected was due to her naturally weak constitution."

The chief and his wife were extremely grateful to Su Muyao.

"To be honest with you, Miss Su, Ningning cannot keep food down; she vomits easily after eating, and she is even more prone to catching colds in the winter."

"If it weren't for the medicine prescribed by the shaman doctor, Ningning wouldn't have lasted this long."

As he spoke of this, the chief's eyes reddened.

When Su Muyao had taken Gu Ningning's pulse just now, she had also seen the cause of her weak constitution.

It was primarily because her spleen and stomach were too weak, making it difficult for her to digest meat.

Because her nutritional intake couldn't keep up, she became prone to illness.

Furthermore, because she stayed indoors all year round without going out, she wasn't getting enough sunlight.

Su Muyao said, "The reason she cannot eat is that meat is difficult to digest, especially if eaten raw; it is bad for the spleen and stomach."

"Therefore, it is best to cut meat into very fine pieces and cook it thoroughly in hot water. The same applies to drinking water..."

"Also, she cannot stay indoors all the time. When the sun is out, she needs to get more sunlight..."

Fearing that Gu Ningning would catch a cold or fever, the chief and his family had kept the house tightly sealed and dressed her in thick animal skins.

This had only made her even weaker.

As Su Muyao gave her instructions, the chief and his wife took mental notes, feeling immensely grateful to her.

The chief's wife directly took out a bag of crystal coins and handed them to Su Muyao.

"Thank you, Miss Su, for treating Ningning. These are one hundred copper crystal coins; I hope you won't disdain them."

Usually, the tribespeople did not have many crystal coins and relied on bartering.

Crystal coins were mostly used for convenience when attending the inter-city trade fairs.

The coins they had saved up were from previous exchanges of animal skins.

She thought that compared to food, Su Muyao might prefer crystal coins.

Seeing the coins, Su Muyao's expression shifted slightly.

Here, copper crystal coins were the most common currency, and there were also silver crystal coins.

One silver crystal coin was equivalent to one thousand copper crystal coins.

However, these one hundred copper coins could still buy many things.

Knowing this was her consultation fee, Su Muyao did not act coy and accepted them directly.

As she was leaving, the chief's wife gave her some meat and cornmeal as well.

Su Muyao hadn't originally wanted so much and only intended to take the cornmeal, but the chief's wife was so enthusiastic that Su Muyao accepted it.

From the predecessor's memories, Su Muyao knew that the current Beast World continent possessed a certain level of civilization, and some places were rich in corn.

In areas with fertile soil and good environments, some crops were grown.

However, the variety of crops was extremely limited.

Even where corn was grown, people usually just boiled it to eat. For dried corn, they would peel the kernels, grind them into flour, and simply mix it with water to drink; people found it irritating to the throat and were reluctant to eat it.

The tribespeople were still accustomed to meat as their primary food source.

Cornmeal was easy to store, so people only kept some to ensure they wouldn't go hungry during the winter.

But Su Muyao knew this was a good thing.

Tomorrow morning, she could make cornmeal soup.

She could even add some eggs and sweet potatoes to make a corn, egg, and sweet potato porridge.

Thinking of this, Su Muyao's eyes brightened; this trip had actually been quite productive.

After a moment's thought, Su Muyao said, "Madam, this cornmeal is actually quite good."

"Since Miss Gu has a weak spleen and stomach, you could boil some cornmeal soup for her tomorrow morning."

The chief's wife sighed and said, "I used to soak it in water for her to drink, but she didn't like it."

"When I boiled it in a pot, I don't know what happened, but it didn't taste good either."

"Ningning doesn't like eating it."

Listening to her, Su Muyao realized that the chief's wife likely didn't know how to cook, or at least wasn't skilled at it.

Perhaps she would cook some tomorrow morning and bring it over.

In any case, building a good relationship with the tribal chief would make her life in the tribe easier.

After severing ties with her beast husband in three months, she might continue to live in the tribe.

She couldn't afford to offend as many people as the predecessor had; it was necessary to build rapport in advance.

Wen Nanxi, Xiao Jihan, and Hua Linye were all waiting in the courtyard, also to protect Su Muyao.

Hearing her converse so effortlessly with the chief's wife, they were once again struck with wonder.

In the past, whenever she spoke, her words were sharp and biting.

When had she ever spoken so gently and softly?

By the time she finished talking to Su Muyao, the chief's wife had completely changed her perception of her, even holding her hands while speaking, looking as if she truly liked her.