Living with the Dangerous Beast-Chapter 117: Not a Dream

“Here I am.”

Dohwi clapped his hands or made noises to reveal his location.

“Got you!”

Sohwa spun quickly, only to miss him again.

She always ended up grasping at empty air.

Frustrated, she shouted.

“I don’t want to be ‘it’ anymore!”

She was about to rip off the blindfold when Dohwi suddenly hugged her from behind.

“Should I be ‘it’ now?”

“Ugh, that would be even more annoying!”

Even blindfolded, Dohwi could always catch Sohwa.

No matter how far she ran or how cleverly she hid, even if she climbed into the jar storage, he always found her with uncanny precision.

“Let’s stop playing tag. It’s getting boring.”

“Then what should we do?”

“Hmm....”

“Shall we go to the bedroom?”

Sohwa’s eyes immediately narrowed.

How could this shameless tiger have no sense of propriety?

“It’s still broad daylight, Dohwi.”

“I know you like it deep down.”

As his lips drew closer, Sohwa tilted her neck back like a turtle to avoid him.

“Ma’am, Master!”

“Woongsik!”

A perfect excuse to escape.

Sohwa quickly slipped out of Dohwi’s embrace.

“A letter has arrived from Geum River!”

Woongsik entered the yard, waving a letter with excitement.

* * *

The letter from Geum River was from Beomhee.

Along with it came a lacquered box, delivered by a courier.

“What is all this?”

“The lady said it’s a token of appreciation.”

“A token? Hmm... sniff, sniff.”

It smelled sweet.

Sohwa’s hands quickly untied the blue silk wrapping.

When she opened the lid, an array of colorful rice cakes appeared.

“My goodness, how beautiful!”

She picked up a piece of yellow pumpkin rice cake and popped it into her mouth, then offered one to Dohwi as well.

Inside the box were nut-filled steamed rice, sesame cloud rice cakes, black sesame rice cakes covered in powdered dried beans and honey.

“Mm-hmm! Honey, you’re in here too.”

Humming to herself, she popped one of the black sesame rice cakes into her mouth. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

The sweet, nutty flavor was beyond words.

“Is it all rice cakes?”

The box had three compartments.

Chewing on a piece of rice cake, she asked the courier, who replied politely.

“Please open the rest.”

“Hmm.”

The top compartment held rice cakes, the middle contained a fist-sized orb, and the bottom had three roots.

“Woongsik, are these some kind of wild roots?”

Sohwa had no idea how to tell roots apart.

To her, the long ones looked like something medicinal, the dirty ones seemed sacred, and the fat ones just looked edible.

Woongsik, however, was a master when it came to anything that grew in the mountains.

“Ma’am, these look like the ‘real’ wild ginseng to me. The scent is extraordinary... I’ve never seen such large ones before.”

“Wild... ginseng?”

Sohwa rubbed her eyes.

Upon closer inspection, the roots, wrapped in a blanket of moss, looked sacred.

“They must really be wild ginseng.”

Of course, the White Tiger of the Four Divine Beasts wouldn’t send any tree root.

Considering she had given Beomhee her precious elixir and wild ginseng, this was likely a reciprocal gesture.

“But what is this orb?”

Tilting her head, Sohwa unfolded Beomhee’s letter.

The first thing that caught her eye was the bold, confident handwriting that resembled Beomhee herself.

[如渡得般 (Like crossing the waters and finding a boat)]

But that was all the letter said.

Sohwa checked the front and back of the paper and even shook it to see if anything else would fall out, but there was nothing else inside the envelope besides the letter itself.

“What is this? Is this it?”

Annoyed, she asked the courier, who bowed politely and explained the items in the box.

“This orb is a Mani orb(摩尼寶珠). It once belonged to the Golden Dragon of the West Sea, who is now asleep. My lady was keeping it for safekeeping.”

“Good heavens!”

“And this is a 500-year-old celestial wild ginseng. You should eat it on an empty stomach, root to leaf.”

“My word....”

Sohwa’s jaw dropped in astonishment.

Then a thought occurred to her.

“Did Lady Beomhee say anything else? How is Honey?”

“Honey is doing very well with the lady. He’s grown fat on a diet of beef and refuses to leave her side, sticking to her like glue.”

That was a relief.

It seemed Honey was fulfilling his role perfectly.

“I wonder why would she send me something so precious...?”

Although she had given herbs, this felt excessive as a gift to show her gratitude for sending a pup by her side—especially the Mani orb, said to have belonged to a ddragon, not an imugi.

Sensing her concern, the courier folded his hands together.

“My lady instructed me to relay this message to the mountain lord’s wife.”

“What is it?”

Suddenly, he knelt and lowered his forehead to the ground.

“W-what are you...!”

“‘Please have another son, and please send him to me and grant me the privilege to become your daughter-in-law.”

“....”

The White Tiger of the Four Divine Beasts had bowed to her.

Was this really happening? Dazed, Sohwa pinched her cheek.

‘It’s not a dream.’

It was more wealth and honor than she had ever dreamed of—more than even nine tails could bring.