Chapter 312 - 276: Did He Lie to You?
Chapter 312: Chapter 276: Did He Lie to You?
Gu Ning met Vine’s stern gaze, her heart pounding in her chest.
She was most afraid of this intimidating air of his; it felt like he could string her up and beat her at any moment.
Thinking about Vine’s strange behavior and his change in attitude toward her over the past two days, she finally understood the reason.
She cursed herself internally. ’Why didn’t I read the document carefully before signing? This is a huge misunderstanding now.’
"Did he trick you?" Leo asked.
Hearing Leo’s words, Gu Ning realized everyone was directing their anger more at Vine. The explanation she was about to give died on her lips.
"Captain Vine didn’t trick me," she said.
"Then why was he so smug when he said he was your mate?" Leo’s mind was surprisingly sharp at such a critical moment. "Did he trick you into giving him a verbal promise?"
Gu Ning wanted to deny it, but she had signed her name on Vine’s mate application. A flat-out denial would embarrass Vine, but admitting it was absolutely out of the question.
Looking at the room full of beastmen all waiting for her explanation, Gu Ning’s head began to throb.
"It wasn’t a trick... it was a misunderstanding in communication."
Gu Ning tried to phrase it as tactfully as possible, which was a semi-admission of a verbal agreement. It was better than them finding out she had signed the mate application. Forget about whether *they* would cause a scene; she was afraid *Vine* would.
Right now, she just wanted to clear things up with Vine in private. The misunderstanding between them was the most important thing.
Gu Ning gave a soft cough and shot Vine a look, hoping he would understand what she meant.
Vine didn’t speak. His tightly furrowed brow made Gu Ning’s heart race with panic, terrified he would explode on the spot.
Alex’s gaze shifted between Gu Ning and Vine. After a moment of thought, he put an arm around Gu Ning’s shoulder. "Let’s eat first."
Before Gu Ning could breathe a sigh of relief, Philinos suddenly spoke up. "Did you sign something with him?"
Gu Ning: "..." ’Just what I was afraid of.’
Hearing this, the beastmen in the room instantly grew agitated.
Signed something? If it wasn’t a mate application, it had to be a household registration application. They couldn’t think of anything else it could be.
Vine had just so righteously declared himself the female’s mate. They knew his personality and how he operated well enough to know he would only call himself Gu Ning’s mate if the application was approved in black and white.
Gu Ning felt the beastmen’s gazes on her grow even more intense.
Now, she was cornered. She couldn’t deny it, but she couldn’t not deny it either. She was even more worried that Vine would just pull out the application and force her to admit it, making any explanation useless.
Gu Ning shot Philinos a resentful look.
Philinos caught her glance and said, "Don’t worry. If he tricked you into signing any document, it’s not legally binding."
Alex’s expression darkened. ’It seems Vine is even more impatient than I thought.’
Barto ground his back teeth, looking at Gu Ning before turning his hateful glare toward Vine.
Cook didn’t know what was happening, but he could sense the tense atmosphere. He squeezed in front of Gu Ning to protect her, baring his teeth and letting out a low growl at the beastmen in the room who were making Ningning uneasy.
"Cook, it’s okay." Gu Ning soothed the little pup Cook, stroking his fur while sneaking a peek at Vine’s expression.
She recalled her abruptly ended conversation with Andrew from the previous night and realized the application probably still had to go through him. She wasn’t too worried about it having any legal effect.
Previously, in order to apply to Andrew for protected female household status for Barto and the others, she had pored over a large amount of Beast Alliance legal documents. She had read through basically all the laws concerning females. This world didn’t have a marriage system; a mate application was probably equivalent to an application to court a female.
Females were rare in this world. Many males were lucky to even see a female, let alone court one. The application form served as a sort of resume for the female to choose from.
Gu Ning didn’t know the process for a mate application and hadn’t seen it in the Beast Alliance laws. She had only overheard other beastmen talking about it while surfing the web on her terminal, so she had a vague idea that such a thing existed.
She never expected Vine to submit a mate application to her. Even Alex had never mentioned it.
She hadn’t known Vine for very long. Although they’d had intimate contact before, he himself had stated very seriously that it was for the mission.
Who would have thought he would write up a mate application for her?
Gu Ning pictured a scene of herself dating Vine and shuddered violently, quickly forcing herself to stop thinking about it.
"Alright, you bastard! So you took advantage of her being illiterate to trick her..."
Leo rolled up his sleeves and moved forward, ready to fight Vine.
"Vine didn’t trick me." Seeing the atmosphere grow scorching hot, Gu Ning stepped between Leo and Vine. "I was will—" she said helplessly.
Before she could finish, Vine, who had been silent the whole time, cut her off. "She didn’t sign anything with me."
Gu Ning looked up at Vine, stunned.
"I misheard. It was a misunderstanding," Vine said, his expression turning cold.
Alex noticed Gu Ning’s tense back relax. His gaze fell on Vine’s right hand, which had been in his pocket the entire time.
Vine met his gaze. His fingertips rubbed against the paper in his pocket—a document that held no small amount of weight for him. After a long moment, he dropped his hand and, without another word, turned and strode out of the house.
*
After a quiet meal, Gu Ning was pulled into the bedroom by Barto.
"Alright, spill it. What really happened?"
Barto closed the door, pushed Gu Ning down to sit on the edge of the bed, and shoved a pen and paper into her hands.
Gu Ning wrote out the entire story of what happened with Vine on the paper, from beginning to end.
After reading what she wrote, Barto saw that this had only happened yesterday. His expression softened a bit. "So, he really did write you a mate application, and you agreed to it."
Vine’s words might have fooled a blockhead like Leo, but they couldn’t fool him.
Gu Ning nodded and wrote on the paper: *It was a misunderstanding. Don’t go looking for trouble with Vine. I’ll go clear things up with him.*
Barto said, "If it’s a misunderstanding, why would I go looking for trouble with him?"
It was normal for a male beastman to apply to be a mate. He had been worried that Vine tricked her into agreeing to the application, but now it seemed like both sides were just confused.
With that, he flicked her on the forehead. "Next time, even if I’m the one giving you something to sign, you have to read every single word carefully. If you don’t understand it, ask someone. Don’t just carelessly sign your name."
Gu Ning rubbed her forehead. "Ow."
"If it doesn’t hurt, you won’t learn your lesson." Barto paused, then took her hand away and rubbed her forehead for her. "It’s a good thing it was just a mate application. If you had agreed to a household registration application, that would have been real trouble."
Gu Ning asked, "A mate application... isn’t important?"
Barto: "It’s just a mate application..."
Seeing her confused expression, he remembered she hadn’t grown up in the Beast Alliance and didn’t understand many things here. He asked tentatively, "You don’t like Vine? You’ve never considered him?"
Gu Ning shook her head decisively.
Barto: "Then who do you want? That... Leo, or Philinos?"
Gu Ning asked, mystified, "Why would I... want them?"
After saying this, her mind connected her "heat" with the customs of the beastmen. This was probably the reason for the misunderstanding with Vine, and even Barto.
’They probably think that because I’m in heat, I need to... mate.’
Once this idea popped into her head, Gu Ning couldn’t help but re-evaluate the beastmen around her.
’They’re beastmen. Their way of thinking is completely different from humans.’
"If not them, then who do you want?" Barto said. "Cook has already degenerated this much. You don’t still want him, do you...?"
Gu Ning snapped back to her senses and nudged the little fox with her elbow, glaring at him. "Who said I want... Cook."
Aside from his size, Cook was basically no different from a small dog now.
Barto, however, studied her seriously. He hesitated for a moment before asking the question he had always wanted to ask, "Aren’t you... uncomfortable?"