The Sickly Beauty and Her Guide Leopard - Chapter 30

Jian Li watched the fallen fur with heartache. It was all Zhang Yuan’s fault for yanking at her so violently; she wouldn’t have had to resort to spinning like a top to escape. Poor Fur.

After Zhang Yuan ate Jian Li’s Red Fruit, that incident happened. She was seething with frustration, unsure who to blame, and forced to swallow her anger.

Muttering, she headed toward the dungeon. “You’re going to spend the afternoon with that clumsy bear.”

Jian Li, her fur disheveled, typed: Is that all?

Zhang Yuan: Yes. If she resists, there’s a mechanism at the chain’s joint. Press it, and she’ll get an electric shock until she submits.

Jian Li found this method far too violent. How could anyone treat a Little Raccoon with such inhumanity?

Okay, will you be watching nearby?

Zhang Yuan stood at the top of the dungeon stairs, showing no intention of descending. She transferred the Spirit Stones directly to Jian Li, awkwardly tucking her right arm behind her back. “I don’t want to see any of it. I’m leaving.”

Ding! 300 Spirit Stones received.

Jian Li was still confused, but the payment was in place, so her service would be too.

She typed: Mission guaranteed to be completed.

Zhang Yuan hummed in acknowledgment, took a few steps, then turned back to instruct,

“Remember to tell her that others will be taking over her care soon. Oh, and if you have time, you can come by more often starting tomorrow. The new caretaker won’t be back for three days, but you’ll be paid daily in Spirit Stones.”

Jian Li nodded and watched Zhang Yuan leave before hurrying down the stairs.

During her previous rushed visit to collect her payment, she had noticed that this path was the same one where she had first hidden from Zhang Yuan.

As she approached, she saw a faint red glow—likely the Little Raccoon’s eyes. But why were they red?

Perhaps her hurried footsteps had disturbed the creature, as it let out a raspy, guttural growl. Jian Li froze, a chill running down her spine.

The dungeon was already dim, and the deeper she went, the only light came from a flickering candle that threatened to extinguish at any moment.

A woman in gray robes came into view.

Her gray hair hung loose around her gaunt face as she sat on the ground, so thin that only a meager bit of flesh remained on her chest.

Her ankles were shackled by thick iron chains.

Jian Li couldn’t help but think of Yan Qingshuang’s pain and felt a pang of sympathy for the woman. “Are you the Little Raccoon?”

The woman bared her teeth at Jian Li, as if hearing animal language for the first time. “Little Raccoon?”

Maintaining a safe distance, Jian Li’s eyes scanned the chains and locks. “Sorry, Little Raccoon is just a nickname I gave you. So, are you a bear who transformed into a human? We met before.”

The woman frowned, deep in thought, then let out a sinister laugh, a raspy cackle characteristic of Little Raccoons.

Jian Li flinched, covering her ears. “Stop laughing! It’s creepy.”

The gray-haired woman ground her teeth. “Oh.”

Jian Li asked kindly, “What’s your name? I’m Jian Li.”

She pulled out her Spirit Mirror, wrote her name on it, and extended her paws to show it to the woman from a distance.

“Murong Zheng.”

She glanced behind Jian Li. “Where’s Dog Zhang?”

Jian Li, still wondering how to write “Zheng,” waded through the water to the chain mechanism before replying, “You mean Steward Zhang? She told me to watch over you—no, to keep you company this afternoon.”

Murong Zheng sneered. “The cowardly mutt.”

“Why are you calling her a mutt?” Jian Li asked.

Murong Zheng crooked a finger. “Come closer, and I’ll tell you.”

Jian Li wasn’t that naive, but curiosity got the better of her. She blurted out everything Zhang Yuan had told her.

Murong Zheng’s molars ground together with a grating screech, like a demonic sound piercing her ears. Jian Li recoiled. “Can you stop making those awful noises? They’re disgusting!”

Murong Zheng froze. Her brown eyes turned crimson, and the chains clanked as she dragged them. “Disgusting? You think my voice is disgusting?”

Murong Zheng unexpectedly continued to approach. Jian Li’s legs went weak, and she decisively pressed the mechanism.

The black chains, receiving the command, activated the Talisman runes, emitting purple lightning that pierced Murong Zheng’s flesh. The raccoon trembled violently, squawking as she endured the electric shock.

Unable to bear seeing her own kind tortured, Jian Li reluctantly released the mechanism. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I’m not used to communicating with humanoids.”

After the shock, Murong Zheng instantly reverted to her Little Raccoon form. “Are you out of your mind?” she snarled. “I was just taking a few steps to relax, and you electrocute me? What’s wrong with you?”

Jian Li pouted. “You got too close. I thought you were going to kill me.”

“What would I gain from killing you?” Murong Zheng retorted.

Jian Li considered this seriously, then shook her head. “Nothing.”

Murong Zheng pointed a claw at her. “Exactly! I just wanted to tell you about that bastard’s dirty deeds.”

A mission with pay and juicy gossip? Jian Li felt like she’d hit the jackpot. “Tell me, tell me!” she exclaimed excitedly. “I’ll keep it a secret, I promise!”

Murong Zheng wished Jian Li would shout it from the rooftops. That bastard had fed her fruit, then forced himself on her—and then he ran away!

At the thought, she ground her teeth, emitting an unsettling, grating squawk.

Jian Li, understanding that Murong Zheng was currently a dark-circled Little Raccoon about her height, didn’t mind the raccoon’s voice.

She lowered her guard, retrieved pastries from her Storage Pouch, and leaned slightly closer to Murong Zheng, holding her palm upward. “Here, have some.”

Murong Zheng scrutinized the white pastries suspiciously. “There’s nothing… extra in these, right?”

“Of course not!” Jian Li replied. “These are milk cakes made by Little Shuang. I wouldn’t share them with just anyone, but since you’re a bear, I’ll make an exception.”

Murong Zheng snatched the pastries and stuffed them into her mouth, swallowing them after barely a chew.

“Hey, slow down!” Jian Li urged anxiously. “Savor them properly! Good food should be savored.”

Murong Zheng’s expression twisted slightly as she patted the ground. “Savor what? Sit here. I’ll tell you about that bastard.”

“I’m never giving you any again,” Jian Li muttered, pulling out more pastries and settling on the ground to eat them in small bites. “You’re like a pig who can’t appreciate fine bran.”

Having been imprisoned for too long, Murong Zheng’s hearing was dulled. “What about killing pigs?”

“None of your business,” Jian Li replied. “Alright, I’m sitting up straight. Begin your performance?”

Murong Zheng cut straight to the point. “That bastard took me, then turned around and acted like he didn’t know me.”

“What?” Jian Li had just put a piece of pastry in her mouth and nearly choked before she could swallow it. She forced it down. “What ‘on’? I don’t understand.”

How is she still a cub? Not even an adult yet. But a cub is fine—they’re even less able to control their mouths.

Murong Zheng explained, “The other day, she abused me. You know, forcing me to wash this and that. It was awful! Come, look at my jade-like paws.”

Jian Li glanced down at the paw extended before her. The pitch-black pads and claws looked nothing like jade. Perhaps Little Raccoon’s standards of beauty differed from humans’.

She agreed, “Hmm, these pads aren’t as dark and shiny anymore. They’re quite rough.”

Murong Zheng, with her gray-streaked fur, curled her paw. “See? Half my claws have fallen off! Dog Zhang is inhuman! Pfft!”

Jian Li nodded. “Yeah, Dog Zhang is inhuman. Wait, explain more clearly—what do you mean by ‘put you on’?”

“Oh,” Murong Zheng replied, withdrawing her gaze with a resentful look. “That day, I was suffering terribly. I hadn’t eaten all day, not even a sip of water!”

As she spoke, Murong Zheng gritted her teeth, making a grinding sound. “And she had the nerve to sit there, watching me, eating delicious Red Fruit! I was starving, and it made me so hungry!”

“Dog Zhang dangled a carrot in front of me, promising a bite of food if I revealed the location of the Forbidden Texts. Of course, I couldn’t give her that!”

Jian Li listened intently, already having eaten two pastries.

Murong Zheng extended her paw. “Give me one too.”

“Oh, sure,” Jian Li said, handing her a pastry.

Murong Zheng nodded. “You agree, right? We can’t give her what she wants. If you were in my place, why would you bow to these sanctimonious hypocrites and betray your own kind?”

Jian Li declared firmly, “Yes, we will never be slaves!”

“Never be slaves—I like that phrase,” Murong Zheng, the Little Raccoon, said, pleased with Jian Li’s quick-wittedness. “Anyway, I finished the job, but you won’t believe what she did next. She tossed me the leftover fruit pits as payment!”

“Fine, I can swallow my pride. I ate them. At first, I felt okay, and my body even hurt less. I thought, ‘Not bad.’ But then things took a turn for the worse. My heat cycle started.”

The topic shifted so abruptly that Jian Li’s eyes widened. “H-heat cycle?”

Murong Zheng waved her paw dismissively. “You wouldn’t understand—you’re too young. In the past, I’d just endure my heat cycles alone, suppressing them with Spiritual Power. It was never a big deal.”

How could Jian Li not understand heat? All animals have heat cycles, including Little Snow Leopards. But Jian Li believed she was still too young, and her heat cycle was a distant, irrelevant matter.

Adopting a detached, gossipy attitude, she kindly offered Murong Zheng a piece of pastry. “That’s terrible,” she said. “And then what happened?”

Murong Zheng tossed the pastry into her mouth, leaped up, raised her claws to the sky, and let out an indignant gaaa cry. “It’s all that fruit’s fault! Dog Zhang saw me go into heat after eating it and took advantage of my vulnerability to drag me away!”

Jian Li gasped.

Murong Zheng pointed a finger at Jian Li.

“Ah, right! She dragged me right to where you’re sitting now!”

Jian Li glanced down and silently scooted away.

Murong Zheng continued to shout, “Dog Zhang stripped me bare! I was already wearing nothing but a tattered rag, and she tore that off too! Just like that, my innocence was gone!”

“This dogshit Sect! Every one of them is a wolf in sheep’s clothing! They torment my body and soul! When I get out of here, I’ll slaughter them all! And I’ll steal all the Forbidden Texts from the Scripture Repository!”

After hearing this, Jian Li’s jaw nearly dropped. She was too stunned to process Murong Zheng’s talk of “doing it” or her murderous threats.

Staring at the damp ground, Jian Li lost her appetite for the pastries. The fruit was the real issue.

Murong Zheng prompted, “You’ll help me kill them, right?”

Jian Li’s mind was a tangled mess of yarn. She mumbled, “Oh, okay.”

Murong Zheng nodded in satisfaction. Jian Li quickly pressed, “Just to confirm, you’re saying that eating the fruit causes… arousal? Let me describe it.”

As Jian Li described the fruit’s color and shape, Murong Zheng confirmed, “Yes! She even claimed it was traded for a Form Transformation Pill. Pfft! Excuses, all excuses! It’s just a fruit laced with aphrodisiacs!”

This is bad.

Jian Li felt a cold sweat break out on her back. Now it made sense why Zhang Yuan’s attitude toward her had suddenly flipped 180 degrees.

Chang Chi’s bizarre behavior—his daily bouts of arousal, his obsession with lewd dreams of a strange woman, and his willingness to spend 12,000 Spirit Stones on the fruit—it all clicked into place.

Jian Li racked her brain, nervously kneading her paw pads. This fruit had been given to Xiao He, and… and Yan Qingshuang had eaten it too.

Images of Yan Qingshuang half-naked flashed through her mind…

Her breathing suddenly quickened. Ahhh! I’m going crazy!