Chapter 200: Extra Chapter
The time when Su Ran’s belly had a baby was at the end of summer.
The timing of the baby’s arrival was just right.
Before Su Ran’s belly got big, the weather had already gradually cooled down. The hot high temperature faded, and the autumn weather was clear and refreshing, sparing Su Ran from having a big belly while sweating profusely in the sweltering heat.
After Su Ran confirmed she was really pregnant with a baby, her body seemed to subconsciously accept this fact.
The restlessness, unstable emotions, and poor appetite she had experienced recently were all due to the pregnancy.
Once she knew she was pregnant, all these reactions suddenly disappeared completely!
After Gray noticed Su Ran was pregnant with a baby, he stopped letting her do heavy labor requiring big actions.
But at that time, he thought Su Ran still wanted to move around a bit, so he didn’t completely stop her from doing housework.
As a result, he didn’t expect that Su Ran really had no idea she was pregnant with a baby, which made Gray doubt her self-care ability!
The most direct result of this doubt was—
He started not allowing Su Ran to touch any housework at home!
Even cooking was completely taken over by him, allowing her at most to help add firewood nearby.
In the end, when Su Ran was stuffing firewood into the stove hole, looking at the werewolf bustling around by the stove with the stone pot, she actually felt like their roles had reversed.
It wasn’t even a role reversal; Gray was taking on both of their roles by himself!
He completely took over all the work Su Ran used to do at home.
Even when preparing for winter storage, he had no intention of letting Su Ran help. She wasn’t even allowed to sit by the seaside and shell the collected seafood.
At first, Su Ran quite enjoyed this. After all, eating then sleeping, sleeping then playing, playing then eating again—who wouldn’t be happy!
But this happiness didn’t last long.
Soon she started feeling bored!
In a world without phones, internet, or TV, constantly eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating would soon make her feel restless from idleness!
Su Ran started wanting to find something to do.
Most importantly, seeing Gray busy inside the house then outside, busy in the vegetable garden, busy drying goods on the long table, and going out hunting and collecting other food without a moment’s rest lately made Su Ran feel heartbroken.
In the end, after her repeated protests, she finally got back the tasks of feeding the small animals and cooking.
Oh, and shelling the white bean fruits that were dug up.
Now Su Ran’s pregnancy was over three months along, autumn had entered its second month, and the weather hadn’t turned cold yet, just a bit cooler in the mornings and evenings.
When Su Ran first learned she was pregnant, she took advantage of her belly not being big yet to make herself several sets of maternity clothes of varying thicknesses.
The clothes she made were mostly button-up styles for convenience.
Today, Su Ran was wearing a button-up long-sleeved animal hide clothing that went past her butt, with a pair of trousers underneath that weren’t particularly loose.
She sat under the rain shelter, with a thick animal hide mat under her, legs crossed, and a soft red-skinned pig hide blanket over her legs. In front of her was a big pile of white bean fruit plants with white bean fruits, and she was preparing to pick them all off.
These white bean fruit plants were all dug up by Gray from the nearby woods.
From discovering white bean fruit as food until now, Su Ran had never planned to plant them, because just like when she first found them, there were too many!
They were almost everywhere in every corner of the entire forest!
Even near the forest where the settlement lived, in recent years, every autumn the beastmen had started collecting and storing large amounts of white bean fruits.
Every place the beastmen dug up white bean fruits left behind soil that was turned over clean. But no matter how cleanly the forest ground was turned, these white bean fruits could come back in large patches the next year.
Su Ran even suspected whether the root systems of these white bean fruits were like bamboo, spreading underground, or like mushrooms, actually a fungus throughout the soil that could grow as long as the temperature was right!
At this moment, Gray wasn’t home.
He had gone to the seaside to collect seafood.
The collected seafood needed to be dried now while the sunlight was still abundant.
Then some would be stored for eating in winter, and some ground into powder with dried kelp to use as a flavoring when cooking.
It was now a little past two in the afternoon, with perfect sunlight.
The leaves of the purple berry fruit bushes next to the rain shelter had turned light red, with a few clusters of vibrant deep pink wildflowers blooming in the middle of the purple berry fruit bushes.
These wildflowers had very large blooms with a strong floral scent.
The petals were layered, a bit like peony flowers. But the blooms were two sizes larger than the largest peony flower Su Ran had ever seen.
Once they bloomed, it was like flipping a switch; the strong floral scent would multiply repeatedly.
It was so fragrant that just passing by the flower cluster would leave the scent on one’s clothes.
It was even better than perfume at lingering.
Transplanting this flower back was because after Gray found it, he thought Su Ran would like its scent, so he brought it back.
But after he transplanted it, Su Ran soon discovered another use for it.
The petals of this flower had a faint natural sweetness and were edible.
Because the petals had a certain thickness, biting into them gave a good texture with plenty of moisture.
Besides the sweetness, the petals also had a strong floral scent.
Su Ran liked to mix the petals with finger onions and seafood in a cold salad, adding some vinegar fruit for a sour and spicy taste.
But lately with the cooler weather and cold seafood, she didn’t dare eat it that way much, instead coating the petals in egg liquid and frying them directly.
After frying, the petals were wrapped in golden crispy egg liquid, which even Gray loved.
Because of this flower’s special scent, Su Ran later named it Thousand Mile Fragrance.
At this moment, she was surrounded by the floral scent of Thousand Mile Fragrance.
In a small willow branch basket beside her was a basket of fried golden egg-coated petals, which Su Ran now ate directly as a potato chip substitute.
Especially after sprinkling some salt powder and chili powder on top, the flavor was even better!
Su Ran popped a fried petal into her mouth; the petal’s fragrance burst in her mouth, and her nostrils were filled with the strong floral scent. She swayed her body happily.
Then she stretched out her crossed legs, stretched a big lazy stretch, and looked toward the distant river.
The river water flowed quietly, just as it was when she first saw it.
She put her hand on the ground and slowly stood up.
The white bean fruits Gray had brought over before hugging her were almost all picked; the particularly small ones she didn’t plan to take, leaving them as extra snacks for the small animals.
After picking the white bean fruits, Su Ran didn’t move the white bean fruit plants.
That big pile of plants would wait for Gray to carry to the small animal room.
Gray didn’t allow Su Ran to do these carrying tasks, but actually she didn’t dare do them herself either.
Now her belly was slightly bulging; these squatting, standing, bending, and reaching actions could easily strain her.
There were no doctors here, and she didn’t want any complications at this special time.
But she needed to get some new white bean fruit plants to continue picking white bean fruits.
The newly dug white bean fruits were piled on the right side of the house, the open space where small animal feed was originally stored.
The location wasn’t far from the rain shelter, so carrying two loads of already dried white bean fruit plants to the rain shelter was manageable exercise for Su Ran.
Su Ran used a backpack, loaded three tightly packed backpacks of white bean fruit plants, and carried them one by one to the rain shelter, then sat down to continue picking fruits.
After picking these three backpacks of white bean fruits, another hour had passed.
Past three in the afternoon, the sunlight weakened, and the temperature cooled slightly.
Su Ran stood up again, patted the dust and grass bits off her body, and just then Gray flew back with four large animal hide bags.
His first glance upon landing was at Su Ran.
Then he set down the animal hide bags and strode toward Su Ran.
He reached her, wrapped his arm around her waist, but looked toward the rain shelter behind her.
Seeing the extra pile that clearly wasn’t the white bean fruit plants he brought, he frowned slightly, flicked his tail, and looked down at Su Ran: “Ran Ran, tired?”
“No…”
Su Ran shook her head, reached up to pick a leaf off his head, and instead asked him: “Hungry? There’s fried Thousand Mile Fragrance, want some?”
“Yes! Want some!”
Gray nodded, grinning to show two little fangs, looking at Su Ran and waiting for her to feed him.
Su Ran laughed at his coquettish expression, turned to pick up the small basket from the ground in the rain shelter.
Gray had already walked to the edge of the rain shelter, his gaze following Su Ran’s movements.
Su Ran took a fried Thousand Mile Fragrance petal from the basket and held it to Gray’s mouth; he bit it with a “crunch.”
After chewing twice, his eyes lit up: “Tasty~ Spicy!”
After over four years of Su Ran’s spicy food influence, Gray’s tolerance for spice had improved greatly.
As he spoke, he reached into the basket himself, took another fried petal and put it in his mouth, then turned and said to Su Ran: “I’ll go pour out the seafood.”
With that, he was already at the long table for drying goods.
These three long tables had been made for three or four years, and after years of wind and rain, they showed signs of erosion.
Gray picked up the bags of seafood he had set on the ground beside him one by one and poured the seafood onto the long table.
He had already washed these seafood with seawater before bringing them back, so now they could be directly laid out to dry without river water rinsing.
After pouring out the seafood, Gray took a small wooden shovel and spread out the seafood filling two long tables bit by bit.
After finishing, he walked back to Su Ran standing in front of the rain shelter, grabbed fried petals from the basket in her hand one by one, and then picked her up.
“Gray?”
He directly carried Su Ran back into the house and placed her on the heated brick bed, then said to her: “Wait a bit.”
With that, he picked up his shoes and turned to leave the house.
Su Ran knew Gray was taking the shoes to wash his feet by the river.
Because he still went everywhere barefoot every day, only washing his feet when he was about to sit on the heated brick bed.
And after washing, to keep them clean, he had to put on shoes.
As for the reason, it was still that same phrase,
“Otherwise, Su Ran wouldn’t let him on the bed…”
Gray soon returned from outside wearing shoes and plopped down on the heated brick bed.
Then he pulled Su Ran to lie down against the quilt that was just folded up and not put in the closet.
Su Ran shifted her body to a more comfortable position, then reached out to touch Gray’s cheek.
Lately, with only him handling winter storage, even if robust, he had slimmed down a bit.
Even his already angular cheeks now looked much more gaunt.
“Tired?”
Su Ran asked Gray softly.
Gray nodded, then quickly shook his head: “No~ Still early, lie down a bit, then cook.”
Su Ran smiled at his words.
She had long noticed that Gray could lie now, even act pitiful to gain her sympathy.
Even more, this guy sometimes had a bit of a sly side.
But she didn’t mind these little thoughts of his; they were flavoring for their ordinary life, even making Gray cuter.
And it made the “human” traits in Gray feel more vivid!
“Okay, then Gray doesn’t hunt today; let’s eat fish! And that little four-eared ox, kill and eat it today!”
Su Ran shifted her body down to lie flat.
This was more comfortable for her.
The little four-eared ox Su Ran mentioned was the calf born half a year ago from a four-eared ox at home.
But probably underdeveloped in the cow’s belly, this little four-eared ox was born lame.
Su Ran originally thought even if lame, since it was for meat anyway, as long as the other parts were normal it was fine.
But up until three months ago, this little four-eared ox had stopped growing.
After Su Ran noticed this and observed the calf for another month confirming it really wasn’t growing, she planned for when Gray didn’t want to hunt, to have him deal with it.
Today was perfect.
“Yes~ Gray wants beef noodles~”
“Sure, we’ll make noodles later.”
After Su Ran spoke, Gray shifted his body too.
He took the pillow pressed on the quilt, put it under his head, then supported Su Ran’s head on his arm, and pulled her waist closer to him.
Then Gray’s warm palm rested on Su Ran’s slightly bulging belly and gently rubbed up and down twice.
Because Su Ran remembered reading somewhere before that you shouldn’t rub a pregnant woman’s belly, as the fetus could get the umbilical cord around its neck.
So the first time Gray did this, she quickly stopped him.
And Gray still remembered this to this day.
“Ran Ran, baby comes out in four more months~”
“Mm.” Su Ran looked down at Gray’s large hand on her belly and smiled.
She shifted her waist closer into Gray’s embrace, looked up at him, her breath falling right on his sexy smooth Adam’s apple.
Then she asked Gray a very cliché question:
“Does Gray want a baby boy or a baby girl?”
“Eh?”
Gray looked down at her, ears twitching, and said: “Either’s fine~ But this one…”
His large hand moved on Su Ran’s belly: “Is a baby boy~”
“Eh?”
Su Ran looked at him in surprise: “How do you know? Smelled it too?”
“Yes~ Can smell the baby boy scent!”
Gray nodded, his gaze on Su Ran soft.
Seeing Su Ran’s full-eyed surprise, he suddenly laughed.
He lowered his head, gently licked Su Ran’s cheek and nose bridge, looking at her with pale green eyes soft as if to draw her in:
“But Gray likes Ran Ran most~ Even more than liking baby~”
There’s an extra chapter tomorrow,
Also last two days of the month, seeking votes, seeking comments!
