Chapter 284 - 254
Chapter 284: Chapter 254
Gu Ning heard Philinos’s voice and looked up at him. Seeing his silent expression, she looked away, having no intention of pressing him for details.
She had certainly learned her lesson about his sharp tongue.
If Vine’s occasional comments were shockingly blunt, then Philinos’s words were as sharp as a knife. Whenever he looked like he was about to speak, she couldn’t help but worry.
Dealing with all of them was already giving her a headache, and her stomach was in even more pain. She didn’t want to handle any more problems for the time being.
"Feeling really sick? Does your stomach hurt?" Vine asked with a worried frown, noticing the little female clutching her abdomen.
Leo said, "Of course it’s uncomfortable. Losing that much blood has to be uncomfortable, and it’s not normal..."
Philinos said, "I’ll go get you some medicine."
"Don’t." Gu Ning, wary of the Beastmen’s medicine, called out to stop Philinos as he strode toward the door. "A cup of hot water will be fine."
As soon as she said that, Vine immediately got up to get her a cup of hot water.
"What else do you need?" Vine placed the cup in Gu Ning’s hands. When he felt that her hands were even colder than usual, he took them in his own to warm them up. "We need to find you a doctor," he said in a low voice.
Barto watched Vine so naturally take Gu Ning’s hands and pursed his lips.
Leo’s expression also grew serious as he looked at the little female’s pale face. "I’ll go find one."
Gu Ning drank about half the cup of hot water, feeling the cramping pain in her stomach ease a little. "No, really," she said. "I just need to lie down for a bit."
Zone 15 had only recently been promoted to a Central District. She’d already learned that no females had settled here, and it was likely to stay that way for a long time. Bringing a doctor in would risk exposing her identity.
They’d been running into one problem after another since entering Zone 15; she didn’t want to add to their troubles.
Philinos stared at her face for a moment before leaving the room without a word.
"We need to strengthen the scent concealment," Barto, who had been silent for a long time, said to the two remaining captains. "And don’t let any of your squad members get too close."
"Also," Barto added, "set up a risk alert."
Both captains understood what Barto’s "risk alert" meant. Vine glanced at Barto, gave Gu Ning’s hand a gentle squeeze, and then let go. "I’ll be back soon."
Gu Ning nodded.
"Her scent is just too alluring. We need to cover it better," Leo said. "I’ll have my pups go mark the surrounding area to keep any clueless fools from sniffing their way over." He then bent down in front of Gu Ning, smiled, and ruffled her hair. "I’ll bring you back something good to eat. Eat up, get your energy back, and you’ll feel better."
Gu Ning’s lips twitched into a faint smile. She didn’t refuse the puppy’s kind offer. After all, with these guys around, no amount of extra food would ever go to waste.
Leo leaned in a little closer. "If your stomach still really hurts, I can teach you a way to distract yourself from the pain. It’s like how you were just biting..."
Before he could finish, Vine grabbed him by the back of the collar and dragged him away.
"What are you dragging me for? Get off, get off, get off! Keep your damn hands off me."
"..."
Once they had all left the room, Gu Ning’s expression finally relaxed. She flopped down on the sofa, staring at the ceiling, feeling both drowsy and worried.
Her period would last at least five days, which meant they might have to stay in Zone 15 for five days. It wasn’t that she couldn’t move, but the biggest problem was her scent. She could smell the faint odor of blood on herself, so it would be impossible for the Beastmen, with their sense of smell that was many times more sensitive, not to notice.
’I’ll talk it over with Vine and the others when they get back. If they think it’s feasible, we can just keep traveling.’
Just as she was thinking this, Barto’s head appeared above her.
Gu Ning blinked. ’Why does the little fox look so serious?’
"Why didn’t you tell me?" Barto asked, his face taut.
"What?" Gu Ning didn’t understand what he meant.
Barto cradled her head in his lap and pinched her cheek, saying unhappily, "Something as important as you having a heat cycle every month... even Alex knows, but I don’t. Do you trust him more than me? Or is it because I’m a Mixed Breed, and I can’t be your..."
He forced himself to swallow the words ’potential mate’.
"I’m your family," he said.
Gu Ning was taken aback by his words. "How did you know that I... every month..."
Barto just huffed.
Gu Ning sat up. "You guessed?"
Barto huffed again.
Gu Ning patted him. "Hmph, hmph, hmph. What’s with all the huffing? And I didn’t tell Alex."
She had thought Alex knew exactly what was going on because he had been so calm about her period, even helping her make pads and dispose of the used ones. That was why she’d never explicitly discussed it with him.
But judging by the captains’ reactions, Alex had probably thought the same thing they did: that she was in heat.
"I guessed." The moment Barto heard Alex didn’t actually know, the gloom on his brow vanished and his eyes lit up.
Seeing his proud, pouty expression, Gu Ning hid a smile. "You guessed, huh? A very good guess."
"Do you take me for one of those stupid dogs?" Barto paused, then added, "It wasn’t entirely a guess. I made an inference, and you just admitted it."
Gu Ning lay back down, rubbing her stomach. "I didn’t mean to hide it from you." ’It just never occurred to me to bring it up, and it’s so hard to explain.’
Then, she gave the little fox’s leg a light kick. "We’re family."
Barto’s gaze brightened completely.
The awkward tension between them, caused by the pants-pulling incident, dissipated in that moment.
"Awooo..." Cook let out a soft whine and nuzzled Gu Ning’s face. He rested his head on her lap, staring at her stomach and licking his lips.
He vaguely understood that when Ningning had this scent, she became weak. He knew he shouldn’t put pressure on her stomach, and that he should help cover her scent... but he had to wait until she was asleep, or she would say no...
Barto glimpsed Cook’s cautious movements and quickly deduced something. The time before last that Gu Ning had her "heat," Cook still had a relatively normal level of self-awareness. So, he must have used...
He remembered how Gu Ning had constantly smelled like this dog back then, and the few times he’d caught the mutt secretly lifting her clothes while she slept... Barto took a deep breath, grabbed Cook by the scruff of his neck, and dragged him away. "You’d better behave yourself, or I’ll give you a proper beating!"
Gu Ning hadn’t heard Barto threaten to beat Cook in a long time. She got up and grabbed Barto’s arm to stop him. "Cook’s a Mixed Breed, don’t hit him."
’Just when I got Vine and the others settled down, now the little fox and the little dog are fighting amongst themselves.’
Barto understood what Gu Ning meant. "So you indulge him just because he’s a Mixed Breed?" he said irritably. "Don’t tell me that the time before last, during your ’heat,’ you actually wanted to... with him..."
Seeing him cut himself off, Gu Ning asked, "With him what?"
Barto didn’t answer, just stared at her.
Gu Ning met the little fox’s gaze for a moment, then realized what he was implying. Her cheeks instantly flushed hot.
"N-no!" Gu Ning looked at the little fox, feeling she had to explain it to him properly. "This. Is. Not. Heat," she said, enunciating every word.
Barto believed her, but he was confused. "Not heat?" ’But her scent is radiating the unmistakable smell of a heat cycle, inside and out. It’s even stronger than a typical female’s. In fact, even when she’s not in ’heat,’ I’ve always thought her natural fragrance is similar to it.’
At first, he’d blamed it on Alex, thinking he’d induced a passive heat in her. But on second thought, he had lived with Gu Ning for a long time, and she always had that scent, yet most of the time she showed no desire to find a male to mate with.
Gu Ning nodded emphatically and grabbed a pen and paper, wanting to explain the concept of a menstrual period to him more accurately.
She wrote down what she wanted to say, copying the translation from her terminal for Barto to read.
Barto draped an arm over Gu Ning’s shoulder, his face close to hers as he looked down at what she’d written. He read it aloud softly, "Because conception did not occur, the uterine lining detaches and is expelled from the body. During this period, the female’s body is in a weakened state, and mating with a male is not recommended..."
’Wait a minute.’
Listening to him read, Gu Ning’s gaze fell back to the sentence on the paper, of which she only understood a few words. ’Did I write that last part?’ she wondered. ’Why did the translator add a sentence? Or is that just how it’s translated?’
What Barto read was different from what she thought she’d written, but the general meaning was close enough. It was just... missing something, yet also had something extra.
’Whatever,’ she thought. ’I’m not surprised the terminal’s built-in translator is inaccurate. As long as the meaning is close enough.’
"’Not recommended to mate with a male’... just *not recommended*..." Barto stared at the sentence, mulling it over, before reaching a conclusion. "So it *is* a heat cycle."
Gu Ning was speechless. ’Tsk... ugh, how did we end up back here again?’
She scratched her head, feeling her explanation still wasn’t getting through. She frowned, about to write more, but just as her pen touched the paper, Barto took them from her. "I get it now," he said. "Go to sleep."
Gu Ning asked, "You get it?"
Barto, whose arm was still around her shoulder, gently tapped her cheek with his fingers. "I’m just teasing you. I’m not an idiot. You’re trying to tell me your heat cycle comes *before* the bleeding? Or after?"
Gu Ning looked up at the ceiling. ’Hiss... I guess that’s not exactly wrong?’