Beauty and the Beasts

Chapter 208: Sap from a Rotten Tree

“They do pretty much the same things as a female’s mate. However, they can’t enter the place where the female sleeps as they please, and they also can’t have children with the females.” Parker did feel some sympathy towards those males, but that didn’t mean he could graciously accept this potential rival in love.

Bai Qingqing covered her face, on the brink of tears. She really didn’t want to take advantage of Winston and let him be her free manual laborer. She thought she should probably just squeeze into Curtis’s hibernation hole and wait for Parker to return.

But if she did this, firstly, she would be disturbing Curtis, and secondly, Winston was already here, so it didn’t seem very nice to ask him to go away. Bai Qingqing could only dismiss this idea.

Parker skinned the rabbit in no time. He also brought back a tree branch with thick tree leaves grown on it. He casually tore off a bunch of tree leaves and placed them into the animal skin, then wrapped up the animal skin and began rubbing it vigorously, as though he was washing clothes.

“You must be hungry. After I’m done handling these two prey I’ll go and cook for you,” Parker said as he rubbed the rabbit skin. Bloody bubbles kept coming out from the animal skin as he rubbed it. “This skin needs to be tanned while it’s still fresh, else the clothes made from it won’t be soft.”

“I’ve just eaten.” Bai Qingqing watched curiously. She saw that Parker would add tree leaves into the animal skin from time to time, so she reached out and plucked off a tree leaf, placed it under her nose to sniff, and smelled a pungent sour taste.

“Oooh—” Bai Qingqing wrinkled her nose. “What’s this? Smells awful.”

“Don’t touch, it’ll hurt.” Parker instantly freed one hand to take away the leaf in Bai Qingqing’s hand. Yet, he was still too late. As he retracted the leaf from her, the white sap at the part where the leaf was snapped off still touched Bai Qingqing’s finger.

“Ah!” Bai Qingqing shrieked, feeling a burning and painful sensation coming from her skin.

F*ck, is this sulfuric acid?

Bai Qingqing hurriedly washed her hands with water. With her hands soaked in water, the pain eased a little. She gazed at the tree leaves with lingering fear, then looked towards Parker. “Why are you unaffected by this?”

Parker’s heart ached to see her get injured. He washed his hands thoroughly, before picking up Bai Qingqing’s hands to take a look.

“I’m a male, and my skin is thick, so I’m naturally fine.” Upon seeing the bright red burnt wound on Bai Qingqing’s fair finger, his heart ached so much for her that he drew a gasp and repeatedly blew upon her finger. “It’s red. Does it hurt?”

Of course it does. Bai Qingqing felt so much pain, it was like the skin on her finger was dropping off.

Bai Qingqing was surprised that there was such a great difference between a male and a female—Parker’s hands were full of the sap, yet he was perfectly fine.

“Don’t bother about me and carry on with what you’re doing.” Bai Qingqing retracted her hand, then poked her finger back into the water.

Parker gazed at Bai Qingqing’s soaked finger for a while, before continuing to rub the animal skin. “Stay farther away from me, lest the sap gets into your eyes.”

Recalling the sharp pain she felt upon touching the white sap, the lingering fear caused her to shift to the side.

The sap from a rotten tree was corrosive, so no animals would consume it. Beastmen would use the tree leaves to tan animal skin.

Parker rubbed for about half an hour, before the fat under the fresh animal skin completely dissolved. The leather was now thin and clean, and the wet fur on the back was thick, heavy and did not come off at all.

He washed the white fur, before hanging the animal skin on a tree branch for it to dry.

“Done. When the skin dries, it can be used to make clothes.” Parker let out an exhale. The tanning of this animal skin was a success, so the clothes made from it would surely be very cozy.

“Mm.” Bai Qingqing nodded her head in anticipation. A gust of wind blew at her, making her so cold that she shrunk her neck. “How are you going to handle the food? Are you going to eat it?”

“Dry it, then save it for exchanging salt,” Parker said, then crouched down to handle the second wolf.