Chapter 155: Chapter 155: You did not eat much. I only picked a few. Do not make that face.

"I am a rat."

"A very small rat."

"I am in my animal form."

"A very small animal form."

"Feng Yiren, I swear when I become human again, I will throw you into the river."

Feng Yiren’s smile softened for one second at the word river, but he quickly hid it under another teasing look. Even while he mocked her, his thumb had quietly shifted to block the night breeze from hitting her tiny body too much.

He was afraid she might be cold. He was also afraid she might truly have seen something in the bushes. He just did not say it because saying serious things plainly was too hard for him. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Just then, footsteps came from the side path.

Mu Qingyi stepped out from the direction of the room, and the moment he saw Feng Yiren standing under the tree with several fruits on the ground and a tiny white rat in his hand, he stopped completely.

His brown eyes widened.

His deer ears lifted.

Hu Baiyu appeared behind him a breath later, and his reaction was even more obvious. His lion ears shot forward, his blue eyes went wide, and his whole face filled with such open wonder that Lin Huahua suddenly felt embarrassed despite being covered in fur.

To Hu Baiyu, this sight was too much.

He had already thought Lin Huahua was cute in her human form because she was small, soft, pale, and always full of funny little expressions she could not hide.

But now she was a tiny white rat in Feng Yiren’s hand, with fluffy fur, twitching ears, bright angry eyes, and a small tail that kept moving from embarrassment and anger.

She looked so fragile that Hu Baiyu’s first thought was that he wanted to cup her with both hands and hide her against his chest.

His second thought was that he wanted to kiss the top of her tiny head. His third thought was that if he did that, Feng Yiren would probably accuse him of being shameless again, but Hu Baiyu did not care much at that moment because Lin Huahua was truly too cute.

His fingers twitched.

Lin Huahua saw it.

She immediately became shy for some reason, because Hu Baiyu was looking at her with the kind of soft, glowing expression a male would use when staring at a precious cub or a rare treasure. She knew she was small right now, but was she really that small? Why were they all staring at her like she had turned into a white rice dumpling with ears?

Mu Qingyi’s gaze lowered to the fruits.

"Why are there so many fruits on the ground?" Mu Qingyi asked with confusion because when he walked passed here earlier there was barely any fruit on the ground.

Lin Huahua immediately lit up at his question, "I picked them"

Mu Qingyi stared at Lin Huahua in disbelief.

"Huahua," he said softly, and his voice sounded different, warmer and almost disbelieving. "You picked these?"

Lin Huahua’s tiny ears twitched. She suddenly felt shy, but she forced herself to act normal. "You did not eat much. I only picked a few. Do not make that face."

Mu Qingyi stared at her for a long moment.

In the past, Lin Huahua had never picked anything for him.

She had never noticed whether he ate or not.

She had never cared whether meat suited him.

She had never thought of climbing a tree in animal form just to get fruit for him.

To other people, these were just a few fruits fallen on the ground. To Mu Qingyi, it felt like something warm had been placed directly inside his chest.

His eyes softened so much that Lin Huahua almost could not look at him.

"You picked them for me?" he asked again, as if he needed to hear it twice to believe it.

Lin Huahua huffed. "I just said that."

Mu Qingyi slowly bent down and picked up one of the fruits from the ground. It still had a little dirt on it because it had fallen from the tree, and because Lin Huahua was from the sci-fi world where food was cleaned properly before entering her mouth, she thought he would at least wipe it properly or rinse it.

But Mu Qingyi only brushed off a bit of dust with his thumb, then brought the fruit to his lips and took a bite.

Lin Huahua’s tiny eyes widened.

"Wait!" she cried. "You did not wash it."

Mu Qingyi paused with the fruit still in his hand.

Feng Yiren immediately looked down at her with bright amusement. "Wash?"

Lin Huahua looked at Mu Qingyi like he had just eaten something from the floor, because technically he did. "It fell on the ground. There is dirt on it. Why would you eat it like that?"

Mu Qingyi looked at the fruit, then back at her, and his gentle expression became even softer. "Because you picked it for me."

Lin Huahua froze.

That answer was completely unreasonable.

Sweet, but unreasonable.

"No, that is not the point," she said, her tiny paws moving with anger. "Even if I picked it, you should still clean it. What if there are tiny things on it? What if the dirt has something bad? What if your stomach hurts?"

Mu Qingyi looked at her with a smile, then took another bite.

Lin Huahua nearly collapsed in Feng Yiren’s hand. "Mu Qingyi!"

The deer beastman chewed slowly, and for some reason, his face looked so peaceful and happy that anyone who saw him would think he was eating the rarest fruit in the whole beast world.

His deer tail swayed gently behind him, and his ears relaxed in pure contentment. He did not care that it had touched the ground. He did not care that she was scolding him.

He only knew that she had climbed a tree in her small animal form to pick this fruit because she noticed he did not eat much, and that made the fruit taste sweeter than anything he had ever eaten.

"It tastes very good," Mu Qingyi said softly.

Lin Huahua stared at him.

Feng Yiren looked at the fruit, then at Mu Qingyi, and his face twisted. "It is just fruit."

Mu Qingyi took another bite. "This one is different."