447: Chapter 447 Holding her in his arms

On the third day, the rain finally eased significantly; it was no longer a dense drizzle but had turned into sporadic raindrops.

The gray of the sky seemed to thin a bit, revealing a faint, pale light.

Just like the previous two days, Bai Wanwan kept watch at the door early on, wrapped in thick beast skin, her gaze fixed stubbornly on the distance.

She had been standing for so long that her legs felt a bit numb.

Suddenly!

Deep within the curtain of rain, at the edge of the forest blurred by water vapor, several hazy dark figures appeared.

They moved very slowly, staggering along, though one among them was tall and upright, his pace steady.

Even through the rain, mist, and distance, Bai Wanwan recognized him at a glance.

It was Jiao Yin!

A dazzling, radiant smile suddenly bloomed on her pale face, and the gloom of the past few days was swept away. She instinctively wanted to rush out to meet him.

“Jiao Yin!”

She had just stumbled forward a few steps when that tall figure rushed over even faster than her, bringing with him the heavy scent of mud, blood, and the characteristic decay of the Swamp, arriving before her in an instant.

“Don't come out! The ground is covered in mud!” Jiao Yin's voice was terribly hoarse, carrying the exhaustion and urgency of a long journey.

He reached out a large, mud-stained hand—not to embrace her, but in a protective gesture, steadily supporting her shoulders and gently pushing her back into the dry entrance of the Stone House.

His movement seemed like a rejection, but the force he used was extremely gentle, for fear of hurting her.

It was only then that Bai Wanwan saw his appearance clearly.

Jiao Yin was soaked through, his merman silk covered in mud and dried blood. There were several fresh, bone-deep claw marks on his exposed arms and calves; though they had been simply bandaged with rough grass leaves, they were still oozing blood.

His face was pale and his lips were chapped, but those azure pupils shone with an incredible brightness, filled with joy.

In his other hand, he tightly gripped a beast skin bag, also covered in mud, with the tips of a few leaves shimmering with a faint silver light peeking out from the opening.

Almost instinctively, he lifted the relatively cleaner back of his hand and carefully reached toward Bai Wanwan's forehead.

His fingertips were ice-cold, carrying the dampness of the Swamp and the smell of earth, yet they gave Bai Wanwan a sense of immense peace and warmth.

“The fever... is it gone?” His voice was raspy, and he seemed to let out a huge sigh of relief.

Hearing the noise, Hua Han also stepped quickly out of the house. Seeing that Jiao Yin was back alive, though in a wretched state, a smile appeared on his face: “It broke early the second morning! But these past few days, Wan Wan was so worried about you that she stayed nailed to the door like a stone pillar. No matter how I tried to persuade her, she wouldn't come inside to rest properly. I was really afraid that if a cold wind blew, her newly recovered body wouldn't be able to take it!”

Hua Han's tone carried a hint of reproach, but it was mostly heartache.

Hearing this, a warm current surged through Jiao Yin's entire body.

The gaze he turned on Bai Wanwan became incredibly soft, swirling with deep emotion, and his voice dropped even lower. “You’ve just recovered; you can't push yourself like this.”

“I know my own condition, it's fine.” She smiled at him.

When she was conscious, she could control the system and wasn't afraid of getting sick again at all.

Watching the undisguised intimacy, reliance, and the joy of a lost treasure being found in Bai Wanwan's eyes as she looked at Jiao Yin, Hua Han felt a slight pang in his heart, a trace of sourness that was hard to ignore.

But he quickly suppressed this emotion.

Jiao Yin was his ally, and more importantly, he had taken the risk specifically to save Wan Wan.

He silently glanced at the two of them and, very tactfully, did not disturb them. He turned and quietly retreated into the house to look after the Cubs, who were getting restless from the noise, leaving this small space at the doorway to them.

Jiao Yin carefully shielded Bai Wanwan as they walked toward the warmth of the Stone House.

“I was supposed to... be back with the Silverleaf Herb last night,” his voice was low and weary, “but I ran into some trouble on the way back. At the edge of the Swamp, I found several Outsider Beastmen trapped in the mire.”

Bai Wanwan tilted her head to look and only then noticed that a few steps behind Jiao Yin, three more Male beastmen followed, equally muddy and in a wretched state.

They had clearly undergone significant hardships; they were injured, their breathing was unstable, and the looks they gave Jiao Yin were full of gratitude and awe.

Seeing Bai Wanwan's gaze sweep over them, the three Male beastmen immediately supported each other and stepped forward quickly.

The leader, a sturdily built beastman with a hideous scar on his face, immediately bowed deeply to Bai Wanwan, his attitude exceptionally respectful:

“Noble Female! Thank the guidance of the beast god! It is thanks to your Beast Husband's intervention that we three brothers were not buried in that man-eating Swamp today!” His tone was agitated, filled with sincere gratitude.

The other two also hurriedly followed suit, bowing and saying in unison, “Thank you for your Beast Husband's life-saving grace!”

As he spoke, the Scarred Beastman fumbled through his soaked beast skin bundle and produced something carefully wrapped in oilcloth that emitted a faint, strange fragrance. Holding it in both hands, he respectfully offered it to Bai Wanwan: “This is a small token of our gratitude, please accept it, Female!”

They had just seen the Female's concern for the Male and directly assumed Bai Wanwan was Jiao Yin's 'Consort'.

Hearing the title 'your Beast Husband', the tips of Jiao Yin's ears instantly turned uncontrollably red, the flush spreading all the way down to his neck.

His heart pounded like a drum, and a secret joy coiled around his heart like a vine.

He instinctively glanced at Bai Wanwan and saw that she seemed a bit dazed by the surprise and this sudden title, not immediately speaking up to refute or clarify it.

Jiao Yin's heart couldn't help but skip a beat, and a sense of satisfaction he had never felt before filled his heart.

He even forgot the pain of his injuries, only feeling a burning warmth in his chest.

However, in this subtle moment tinged with a hint of romance, the Scarred Beastman leader's expression of gratitude and respect suddenly froze the instant he stepped closer and saw Bai Wanwan's face clearly!

His pupils constricted violently, as if he had seen something utterly incredible, or even extremely terrifying!

The hand holding the gift trembled almost imperceptibly.

His two companions also instinctively looked up the moment the Scarred Beastman lost his composure, their gazes falling on Bai Wanwan's face.

In an instant, the same shock and disbelief spread across their faces like a plague!

The three of them quickly exchanged a look, one filled with horror, astonishment, and a trace of... a complex emotion bordering on fear that Bai Wanwan couldn't understand!

Standing to the side, Jiao Yin was still immersed in the secret joy of 'being mistaken for a Beast Husband' until he finally sensed the abrupt shift in the atmosphere.

He followed the three beastmen's suspicious and uncertain gazes back to Bai Wanwan's face.

Then he looked at the three Males whose expressions had changed so drastically, as if they had seen a ghost, a flash of vigilance crossing his azure eyes.

He instinctively took Bai Wanwan into his arms and looked at them. “What's wrong?”