Married by Paper, Loved by Fate 29

Chapter 29: Rescuing Lu Xiao

Shi Yin was furious, “You knew it was dangerous there, why didn’t you stop us? You let us walk right into a trap, you did it on purpose!”

Shen Tang sneered, “Don’t you dare accuse me. Who here didn’t hear me? I warned you that the crystal mine was a trap. You insisted on going, and now you’re blaming me? What kind of logic is that? Do you really think everyone else is as deaf, blind, and brainless as you are?!”

Shi Yin hadn’t expected this ugly creature to become so sharp-tongued. She was even more enraged, wishing she could pounce on Shen Tang and tear her mouth apart.

Shen Li’s eyes flashed with coldness. His tall, sturdy figure shielded Shen Tang behind him. His voice was gentle but carried an indisputable authority, “Miss Shi Yin, please calm down. This is not the time for infighting.”

Seeing Shen Li still protecting this ugly creature, Shi Yin became consumed with jealousy, grinding her teeth, her eyes red, her fingertips digging fiercely into her palms.

When one person falls, everyone pushes. Those who had trusted her now stepped forward to condemn her.

“It’s all Shi Yin’s fault for misreporting the intelligence. Otherwise, how would we have followed you there?”

“With her B-grade spiritual power, she couldn’t even detect the lurking corrupted creatures? And we trusted her so much!”

“If she hadn’t insisted on leading us to the purification crystal mine, my brother wouldn’t have died there!”

“My beast husband Ba Heng also died. This is all Shi Yin’s fault!”

“You ungrateful wretches! How dare you blame me? You wanted a share of the spoils and insisted on following me. People died, what does it have to do with me? Why are you all putting the blame on me!” Shi Yin’s face contorted with rage, almost causing her to faint.

In the end, she became the laughingstock, pointed at by everyone, her face completely lost! Tsk tsk, even Shen Tang couldn’t help but pity Shi Yin. But human nature is like this. When you’re useful, they praise you highly. When you’re no longer useful, they can throw you into the mud, stomp on you, and curse you worse than anyone.

She could only blame herself.

“Enough! All of you, shut up!” the City Lord reprimanded sternly.

His tall, burly figure emerged from the crowd, and the powerful pressure of an eighth-tier beastman washed over them, exuding an intimidating presence!

No one dared to speak further, but their anger remained unresolved, and their trust in the City Lord and his daughter greatly diminished.

“It smells so good. What are you all eating here?” Suddenly, a beastman sniffed the air, his mouth watering.

The newly arrived beastmen, exhausted from their escape, were starving and physically and mentally drained. They all smelled the rich aroma of roasted meat, which soothed their spirits.

Shi Yin couldn’t help but swallow. She looked towards the bonfire.

“You’ve returned at just the right time. We’re roasting meat,” Shen Tang explained with a light smile.

With three to four hundred people returned, the remaining meat wouldn’t be enough. When Xiao Jin and the others processed the beast meat, they set aside the internal organs, which the beastmen considered worthless. True gourmets knew that internal organs were the essence of deliciousness!

Shen Tang licked her lips and suggested, “Those internal organs can also be eaten after processing, and they taste very good.”

Shi Yin scoffed dismissively, sneering, “I thought you were so kind, offering us those dirty organs to eat! You’re trying to humiliate us, aren’t you!”

Shen Tang retorted without politeness, “If you don’t want to eat the organs, then have your own beast husband go catch a wild beast to eat. I’m just suggesting this because everyone is exhausted. Everyone is treated the same. If you dislike the organs, you can roast your own beast meat. All this food was caught through our hard work. There’s no such thing as getting something for free.”

Shi Yin was speechless, unable to retort. She could only glare fiercely at Shen Tang, “Only beasts eat internal organs. Whoever wants to eat them can. I won’t!” With that, she turned and left angrily.

Everyone present had mixed expressions. Internal organs were notoriously smelly and had never been eaten by beastmen; they were usually discarded as garbage. Could those organs really be eaten?

“The fishy smell of the internal organs is indeed strong, but with seasonings, they’ll be delicious when grilled. I’ll make some for you to try if you don’t believe me.” The beastmen in the camp had long been won over by Shen Tang’s cooking. Several beastmen came forward to help, washing all the necessary internal organs clean. They even kept the bones and hides according to her instructions. The entire wild beast was completely dismantled, leaving no waste.

Shen Tang placed the prepared ingredients on large leaves and called over a few nimble beastmen to help roast them. Soon, the ravenous beastmen were salivating at the pervasive aroma of roasted meat. Seeing her savor a skewer of roasted pork liver, they completely abandoned their disdain for internal organs and eagerly joined in.

But only after tasting them did they realize how delicious the things they had previously considered worthless truly were! The heart meat was firm and springy. The liver meat was thick and tender. The roasted hide was crispy and fragrant. Breaking open the roasted bones and sucking out the marrow was like jelly, even more flavorful than the roasted meat!

“It’s so delicious. I’ve never eaten anything so good in my life.”

“This is much better than nutrient paste!”

“Thinking about all the internal organs and bones I used to throw away when hunting makes me heartbroken. If I had known they were so delicious, I would have kept them for myself.”

“Shen Tang, this fat… isn’t she lazy and gluttonous? When did her cooking skills become so good? I truly underestimated her before.”

“Yes, it’s too delicious. Chew, chew, truly, you can’t judge a book by its cover! Shen Tang, this female might be a bit ugly and fat, but her cooking is so good, and she’s actively making roasted meat for us. She has a kind heart. It seems we’ve misunderstood her in the past.”

Shi Yin, smelling the tempting aroma of the meat, felt her stomach ache with hunger. She was filled with jealousy and hatred. How had this ugly creature changed so much in recent days? Not only was she less ugly, but she had also become so popular, stealing the spotlight that rightfully belonged to her!

“Don’t be angry, Yin’er. That Shen Tang is just having her moment of undeserved success. She’s far from your level!” A tall, gentle man walked over and softly comforted her. It was her beast husband, Bai Xi.

Shi Yin’s expression improved slightly upon seeing him. She snorted unhappily, “It’s just roasted meat. Who can’t do it? Go out and catch a wild beast for me right now!”

Bai Xi’s face stiffened. It was late at night, with poisonous smoke filling the air, making it impossible to see the path ahead. Who knew how many corrupted creatures were lurking outside? Her asking him to go out for food now was no different from sending him to his death.

“What? Even you want to defy me?” Shi Yin was in a bad mood and found everyone annoying, even her usually doting Bai Xi received no pleasant treatment.

Bai Xi gently appeased her, “I’ll go catch a beast for you tomorrow. It’s too late tonight, and it’s dangerous outside.”

Shi Yin thought about it and didn’t say any more. However, her stomach growled with hunger. Hu Shuo cast a fleeting glance at her, then stood up and gruffly said, “I’ll go ask Shen Tang for some meat.”

“You get back here!” Shi Yin’s eyes widened, and she reprimanded him sharply. Her beast husband going to ask that ugly creature for food would be a direct slap in her face. “None of you are allowed to go ask that ugly creature for roasted meat. If anyone dares to go, I will dissolve our mating relationship!”

As soon as she said this, Shi Yin’s beast husbands’ expressions soured. This shrew wanted to starve herself and drag them down with her! But she was the City Lord’s daughter, a precious B-grade spiritual power female. Although her appearance was average, she was someone they had pursued for a long time. They naturally couldn’t break their relationship with her over a meal, so they grudgingly complied.

Meanwhile, An Ya’s situation was not much better. Three of her five beast husbands had died, and the remaining two were seriously injured, losing the ability to hunt. An Ya stared intently at Shen Tang in the crowd, her expression sinister and resentful. Her fingernails dug deeply into her palms, and jealousy welled up uncontrollably from the depths of her heart. She was also starving, had no nutrient paste, and was too proud to beg Shen Tang for food. Fortunately, she had many doting admirers. An Ya casually ordered a monkey tribe beastman to get food for her and to observe how Shen Tang taught people to roast meat.

Shen Tang was sitting by the bonfire, helping people roast meat, when she noticed a thin monkey tribe beastman approaching to ask for food. The System secretly told her that this person was there to get food for An Ya. Shen Tang’s mind raced, and a mischievous smile appeared on her lips. She handed him a large plate of barbecue.

An Ya sat on the steps of the carriage, waiting anxiously. Soon, she saw the monkey beastman running over with a plate of roasted meat. The meat looked wrinkled, like hide, and she didn’t know which part it was, but it smelled exceptionally fragrant. An Ya didn’t care anymore. She was so hungry that she abandoned all pretense of elegance and grabbed a mouthful, stuffing it into her mouth. The monkey beastman’s mouth twitched at her uninhibited eating style, but An Ya was the most beautiful female in the city, and she looked pleasing to the eye no matter how she ate! The beastman, full of adoration, squatted in front of An Ya and asked obsequiously, “A Ya, are you full? Shall I go ask for more for you?”

After An Ya finished eating, she wiped her mouth and nodded proudly. Suddenly, she remembered something and called him back, “By the way, what was I just eating?” The monkey beastman scratched his head and said with some difficulty, “Uh… you were eating pork intestines. Shen Tang said only this was left and no one else wanted it.”

An Ya’s face suddenly turned ashen. She suddenly retched, clutching her stomach, and went to vomit violently under a tree. She felt as if she had eaten feces, frantically gagging and retching, saliva streaming down her face. “Shen Tang! May you die a horrible death!” she screamed in rage, her voice sharp. That fat woman was definitely doing it on purpose! Just wait, she would get revenge sooner or later!

Shen Tang had been having the System monitor An Ya’s situation. Hearing that she had vomited herself into a weak and exhausted state, Shen Tang smirked, considering it a form of revenge. She was not a pushover to be manipulated. If people wanted to target her, they had to be prepared to be targeted by her.

The beastmen had a feast that night and were full and satisfied. In their hearts, they no longer dared to underestimate Shen Tang. However, what made everyone even more curious was how Shen Tang knew the purified crystal mine was a trap. Was it really such accurate intuition? Some beastmen specifically came to ask her, but Shen Tang merely said she had guessed it randomly. They couldn’t get a clear answer, which only made them more curious and admiring.

[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for completing the hidden task: Winning Hearts (1). Reward: 100 boxes of high-energy compressed biscuits. The reward has been automatically issued to the System backpack. Please check it yourself!]

There was a hidden task? Shen Tang was surprised. She checked her System backpack and indeed, there were 100 boxes of compressed biscuits. Water and food were now secured. How afraid was this System that she would be stranded in the wilderness?

As Shen Tang was muttering to herself, the System’s prompt sounded in her mind again.

[Ding! A new side quest is now issued to the Host: Help the male protagonist Lu Xiao escape danger. Reward: One facial feature repair. Quest duration: Three days. Please complete the quest quickly!]

Dylan