Beast World: From Villainess to Cub-Raising Chef

Lu Tingyan closed his eyes, forcing himself to believe he had come to see Bai Su tonight because of business, and for no other reason.

He walked straight into the dining room. "I have something to ask you. And I’ll eat while I’m here."

Behind his back, Bai Su made a show of baring her teeth and claws, wanting to smash him on the back of the head.

But she still resigned herself to her fate and went to the kitchen to cook.

She took out five or six pounds of high-quality fresh beef she had bought that afternoon from the refrigerator, planning to make him a beef stew.

Lu Tingyan suddenly asked, "I heard you awakened a Healing Ability? When did that happen?"

Without turning her head, Bai Su replied, "A little while ago, I guess. I suddenly realized the food I make is pretty delicious, and after eating it, my minor cuts and scrapes all healed."

She had prepared her story long ago.

Lu Tingyan asked again, "How did Bai Xiaolang end up at your orphanage?"

Bai Su froze for a second. "What?"

Lu Tingyan repeated himself. "I want to know how he came to the orphanage. When you took him in, did he have anything on him that could prove his identity? Or did someone bring him to you?"

He’d hit the nail on the head.

Bai Su was missing exactly one year of her memory; she knew nothing about Bai Xiaolang’s origins.

She felt a pang of guilt, afraid Lu Tingyan would uncover the truth.

Bai Su quickly asked the system in her mind, ’Can the Federation’s technology scan my brainwaves? Will they find out I’m not the original owner of this body?’

System: ’Rest assured, Host. With this world’s current level of technology, there is absolutely no way they will discover your otherworldly identity.’

Only then did Bai Su secretly breathe a sigh of relief. She decided to come clean with him. "I don’t know. Actually, I’ve lost all my memories from the year I came to the orphanage."

Lu Tingyan’s fingers, which had been tapping on the table, paused. He hadn’t expected this answer.

He impassively observed her expression in the reflection from the stovetop. "Is that so? You have no memory of the year you came to the orphanage? The entire year you were eighteen?"

Bai Su nodded. "That’s right. My memory cuts off the day before my eighteenth birthday. The next thing I remember is my birthday a year later, at the orphanage."

Lu Tingyan leaned back slightly, his brow furrowed. "Such a neat and tidy memory loss?"

Bai Su nodded. "That’s why I’m so curious. Why do you hate me so much? What did I do back then to make you despise me like this?"

Lu Tingyan stared intently at her face. His tense back and drooping wolf tail revealed his dangerous mood.

Obviously, he didn’t believe her.

Lu Tingyan said, "I don’t think the Federation’s current technology is advanced enough to precisely delete a specific period of a Beastman’s memory, as if deleting a file. Nor would any organization dare to do such a thing to a female of the Bai family within the Federation’s jurisdiction."

With fluid motions, Bai Su placed the prepared beef into the stew pot and turned to look at Lu Tingyan.

After a long silence, Lu Tingyan still hadn’t gotten a response from her. "?"

Bai Su walked over and unceremoniously smacked him on the back of the head. "If you’re not going to believe me, then don’t ask! What’s the point of being all paranoid and suspicious after I give you an answer? Why come over here in the middle of the night to be a pain in my ass? Are you sick in the head?"

Lu Tingyan clutched the back of his head in disbelief.

Bai Su rolled her eyes. "Are you about to say, ’Woman, how dare you lay a hand on me?’"

Lu Tingyan: "..."

Bai Su raised her hand again, posturing as if she were about to slap him.

Lu Tingyan actually forgot to fight back, instinctively turning his face away to dodge.

But the anticipated slap never came.

Bai Su was already back at the stove, preparing other ingredients.

Without looking back, she said, "If you’re so bored you don’t know what to do with yourself, go find me some fresh ingredients. I’d be ever so grateful."

Lu Tingyan couldn’t quite describe his current mood.

Before tonight, he had almost changed his opinion of this woman.

Even though his rational mind told him she was a woman who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals and that he couldn’t trust her easily.

But his emotions, carrying his feelings along with them, were uncontrollably skewed in her favor.

The food she made seemed to possess a captivating magic. Eating it filled one with an endless sense of warmth and security, as if enveloped in the comfort of family, causing both mind and body to relax completely.

When he had asked about Bai Xiaolang tonight, he had deliberately avoided the events of that year, wanting only to know about the Little Wolf’s origins.

If he didn’t know that Bai Su was infertile, he would have almost believed Bai Xiaolang was the cub she had borne for him. From certain angles, Bai Xiaolang’s eyes and brows really resembled Bai Su’s.

The more he looked, the more he saw the resemblance.

And back then...

He just hadn’t expected her to deny everything from that year, and with such a flimsy excuse.

It was impossible not to be furious.

’Does she take me for a fool?’

She remembered everything else but conveniently lost her memory of the year she turned eighteen, and of all times, it started on the critical date right before her birthday.

It was utterly ridiculous.

For a moment, he even wanted to strangle this woman, to make her pay in blood for her despicable actions back then.

But after Bai Su’s unceremonious scolding, the emotions swirling in his head instantly fell apart like loose sand, and he calmed down instead.

The beef stew simmered on the stove, making a low GURGLING sound. A rich, meaty aroma filled the entire kitchen along with the noise.

This was the smell.

It was an aroma that whetted the appetite and relaxed the body and soul, as if one had returned to early childhood, safe and sound beside one’s parents, feeling the warmth of home.

While Lu Tingyan was lost in thought, Bai Su finished cooking the meat and placed it on the table for him.

He had a large appetite, and his injuries created a great demand for her food.

"Thanks." Lu Tingyan picked up a spoon and a bowl, scooped himself a heaping bowl of rice, and began to enjoy his dinner.

The beef stew was rich and fragrant, with a thick gravy. Every perfectly cubed piece of beef was tender and succulent. Biting into it squeezed out more of the thick sauce, which exploded with flavor between his lips and teeth.

It was perfect with a bowl of fluffy, plump white rice.

Lu Tingyan hadn’t eaten lunch or dinner and was actually very hungry. But with Bai Su watching, and with years of ingrained etiquette, he could only eat elegantly. His table manners were clean and crisp, but his eating speed was by no means slow.

Bai Su propped her chin on her hand, admiring him from the side.

’Lu Tingyan is actually incredibly handsome.’

’After all, he’s one of the male leads in the novel. The men who make it into the heroine’s harem are no ordinary men.’

’Good looks are just the bare minimum.’

Lu Tingyan was once the leader of the Wolf Clan and a colonel in the military. He had commanded hundreds of battles, large and small. His years in the army had forged his body to have incredible, practical explosive power.

’In the novel’s plot, Lu Tingyan isn’t the most romantic when it comes to *that sort of thing*, but he’s a man of action.’

’A man of action in the most literal sense.’

’Relentlessly intense. The kind who could pound you into a froth.’

The thought that this man, whom she was working so hard to nourish with all this delicious food, would one day be handed over to the female lead made her sick to her stomach. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Lu Tingyan suddenly said, "I thought Bai Xiaolang was your child. His age would be a perfect match for that time."