Beauty and the Beasts

1

The grape wine finished fermenting in five days. Using the cotton T-shirt she wore when she transmigrated from the modern ages, Bai Qingqing filtered the wine. At that point, the wine was still rather murky.

After sealing it with the lid for another month and going through the second round of fermentation, it tasted pretty much like the wine sold in supermarkets.

Bai Qingqing arranged the stone bowls in a row and asked Parker to fill them up.

However, Parker merely filled a bowl, before setting down the stone bucket. He raised the bowl and took a sip from it.

“Hey!” Bai Qingqing glared at him with a smile. “Do you have to do that? Hurry, pour us a bowl.”

Smacking his lips, Parker’s eyes widened into round circles in a funny manner.

“So fruit syrup tastes like this. I’m merely testing it, to make sure it’s fine and won’t cause any harm to your body.”

Parker savored the taste, then said, “It indeed makes one feel warm and energized after drinking it. Should be pretty similar to the one fermented by the ape king. Let’s keep this good stuff and let you finish it yourself. If you can’t finish it, we can distribute it to other females during the cold season.”

Curtis also lifted the stone bucket and poured out a bowl, downing it in one gulp. His expression looked funny for a moment just like Parker, and he even flicked out his tongue involuntarily.

His overly-pale face speedily flushed.

Bai Qingqing felt touched. However, she didn’t want to keep the good stuff for herself. “What’s the point of me drinking by myself? Let’s all drink together. If you guys won’t join me, I’ll give it all away to others.”

Parker hesitated a moment, before relenting. “Then alright, I’ll just drink it tonight.”

With that, he filled another bowl. Under Bai Qingqing’s supervision, he had no choice but to pour a bowl for Winston as well.

Bai Qingqing continued staring at Parker, casting a meaningful glance at the other end of the large and long stone table.

The little snakes were laying on the edge of the table, and every one of them had their heads stuck up vertically, their red eyes staring eagerly at the stone bucket in Parker’s hands.

“Ssss~”

With a frown, Parker reluctantly poured for them as well.

There was now a purplish-red bowl of grape wine in front of each little snake. With their heads lowered, the little snakes started guzzling the wine.

Perhaps they were extremely thirsty. From the way they were slurping up the liquid, it wasn’t clear if they actually managed to taste anything.

The wine in the bowls was disappearing at a visible rate. The little snakes’ necks were also becoming more and more exposed and twisted.

“Pff.” Bai Qingqing sputtered in laughter. Were her little snakes drunk?

Bai Qingqing glanced around casually and felt a little disappointed not seeing that smudge of black around. The drought incident was only resolved due to Muir’s help. If it were possible, she wanted to give him a bottle of grape wine to thank him.

She felt that wine was more appropriate for males than females.

Since it was a happy occasion, the males—who were hearty eaters—finished the bucket of wine. On the other hand, Bai Qingqing merely drank a small bowl, to get a taste of it.

While Parker and the other adult males didn’t appear intoxicated at all, the little snakes started swaying left and right after downing one bowl each, before tumbling off the table and collapsing into a pile on the ground.

“Howl—”

The loud and clear howl of an ape rang from outside. Curtis got to his feet in an instant. “He finally came out. I’ll go and kill him.”

The smile faded from Bai Qingqing’s face. Although she felt vehement hatred towards the ape king, she couldn’t face the situation with a smile when it came to killing someone. She felt suppressed.

Seeing that Bai Qingqing didn’t look quite well, Curtis said, “I’ll be back soon.”

“Mm.”

Bai Qingqing adjusted her breathing and followed Curtis out. Parker and Winston followed closely behind.

The ape king’s appeal didn’t just get them to come out—about ten thousand other beastmen had come out as well. Standing on the stone platform in the center of the four castles, there were now three animal stripes on the ape king’s face, and his aura was markedly different from before.