Transmigrating to the BeastWorld,I Picked Up an Adorable BeastHusband!-Chapter 66

The cave was dim, the air smelling of wet earth and the sharp, medicinal tang of the brew Numa had forced on her.

Ningning looked at the mud pot again and felt a wave of pure exhaustion. "It’s trash," she muttered.

The texture was all wrong now, gritty and separated. "All that for nothing. I lost the pots, I broke my leg, and I’m still going to be freezing in a month." She thought to herself.

Weijie sat her down, motionless against the damp stone wall of the cave, her eyes tightly shut.

The thick bison fur she was wrapped in felt heavy, like a shroud. Her breath was shallow, and the sharp, rhythmic throb in her ankle pulsed in time with the flickering embers of the dying fire.

Standing at her feet was Weijie. His massive chest heaved, his bronze skin slick with rain, and his jaw set so tight it looked like stone.

He stared at her splinted ankle, his eyes dark with a mix of fury and helplessness.

[Look, Ningning, let’s be real,] Doudou’s voice rang in her head, crisp and bored.

[The mud is a total loss. You wasted two pots, lost one, and managed to snap your leg. You should have just stayed home. My advice? You need to migrate. Go south to somewhere warmer. Weijie’s a Python, his body can handle the cold. But you’re just a regular human. No amount of prep is going to keep you from dying like a fish out of water once the temperature drops.]

Ningning knew Doudou was right. She’d grown attached to Weijie, to his warmth and the way he looked out for her but she couldn’t ignore the biological facts.

She opened her eyes and saw Weijie staring at her. He looked like he was beating himself up, blaming his own strength for not protecting her better.

"It’s not your fault," she sighed, her voice thin. "I was the one who was reckless."

She held his gaze. It was time to face reality.

They had been married for such a short time, and now they were looking at a separation.

"I’m human, Weijie. I’m ordinary." she said, her voice flat. "I can’t adapt to the cold like you can. There’s no way I can stay here with you through the winter."

She saw his hand twitch. Weijie, Numa, and the rest of the Snake Tribe were Pythons.

They didn’t need to leave; they had spent generations adapting their bodies to the mountain’s ice.

To them, the cave was safe.

To her, it was a tomb.

"I have to go somewhere warmer," she said, trying to ease the words in.

Weijie’s expression turned hard.

He looked at her as if she had just told him the sun wasn’t going to rise.

"You’re going to leave?" he asked, his voice a low, dangerous vibration.

[He’s not liking the ’Long Distance’ plan, Ningning,] Doudou added dryly. [But if you don’t go, you’re not making it to Spring. Either you convince him or start preparing for an early grave.]

-_-

Weijie didn’t look like he just had his heart broken; instead, his expression softened with a heavy, aching tenderness.

He reached out, taking her small, pale hands into his massive, mud-stained ones, holding them as if they were made of the finest, most fragile glass.

"I am the one who should apologize." he whispered, his voice thick with a raw, jagged guilt. He looked down at their joined hands. "I failed you. I was too slow to see that your body is not like mine. I watched you struggle with the cold and did nothing but give you more furs, when I should have known the mountain itself was your enemy."

His grip tightened slightly, and for a moment, a flash of hurt crossed his eyes, not because she wanted to leave, but because of what she hadn’t asked.

"You speak of separation as if it is the only way," he said, his gaze locking onto hers.

"It breaks my heart that you would leave me behind when you could have simply asked me to go with you. Do you think this cave is my home without you in it?"

Ningning stared at him, her lips parted in shock.

"Wherever you go, that is where I want to be," Weijie continued, his voice regaining its steady, foundational strength. "My people do not need to migrate. We have no reason to flee the snow. But I have my own reason to leave now. You are my reason."

He leaned in, his forehead resting gently against hers. "I will leave with you. We will find the sun together, and we shall return when the flowers bloom in Spring."

Ningning felt a wave of complex emotions wash over her.

She looked at the clotted, ruined mud in the pot, then back at her splinted leg.

A dry, helpless laugh almost bubbled up in her throat. If they were leaving anyway, all that risk, the lost pots, and the agonizing pain of her shattered ankle had been for absolutely nothing.

She had nearly died for a kiln she wouldn’t even be around to use.

-_-

"You would leave Numa? The tribe?" Ningning asked, her voice trembling.

Weijie nodded "My father will understand. A male’s place is with his mate. He would not want us to separate as well."

Ningning felt a sudden, unexpected wave of warmth bloom in her chest. It was a strange, heady feeling that had nothing to do with the flickering embers of the fire or the heavy bison furs wrapped around her. She looked up at Weijie, her lips curving into a bright, genuine smile.

For the first time since she had arrived in this brutal, primitive world, she found herself actually enjoying the turn her life had taken.

She watched him—the way his large, rough thumbs traced light, protective circles over her knuckles.

The curiosity that had been bubbling inside her finally spilled over. She didn’t want to just wonder anymore; she needed to hear it.

"Weijie," she whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "Why would you do this? Why leave your home, your father, and your tribe for someone like me?"

Weijie paused, his eyes searching hers, but Ningning didn’t let him answer yet. She needed to be direct. "Do you love me? Is that why you’re going to such lengths? I’ve been trying to understand what your goal is with me. You’ve been so nice since the day we met, but I don’t know the motive behind it."

Weijie’s hands stiffened.

He looked at her with a depth of emotion that made her breath hitch. He didn’t seem offended by the question; if anything, he looked surprised that she even had to ask.

"I do not know this word ’Love’ as you say it," he began, his voice dropping into a low, vibrating rumble that resonated in her very bones.

He leaned in closer, his forehead coming to rest gently against hers, his breath warm against her skin. "But if it means that my chest aches when you are in pain... if it means that the sun feels cold when you are not smiling... then yes. If this feeling of wanting to tear the mountain apart just to keep you breathing is what love is, then I love you very much."

He squeezed her hands, his gaze burning with a raw, honest heat. "My goal is not to have a mate who serves me. My goal is to be the ground beneath your feet and the wall against the wind. I do not stay because I must; I stay because I am lost without you."

Ningning’s smile widened, even as a pang of irony hit her. She looked at the clay pot of clotted, ruined mud sitting near the fire. She thought about the landslide, the suffocating silt, and the agonizing crack of her bone.

"So I broke my ankle in vain?" she muttered, a helpless, dry laugh bubbling up. "I nearly died for a kiln and a pile of salt-mud, and we’re just... leaving it all behind?"

She shook her head helplessly. "Go and wash you hands and feet. So we can lay down."

Weijie nodded and hurriedly went to do as she had asked. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

He quickly washed his hands, feet and face.

Before getting into the bed.

Ningning traced his face gently.

"How handsome..."

Call her crazy.

But in her eyes, no man was more handsome than Weijie.

Everything about him for perfect.

"Do you like my face? I’ve never seen you stare at it so intently before." Weijie asked, gently cupping her hand.

"Yes. Everything about you is perfect Weijie.."