I WAS WRONG.
I truly underestimated the level of Kruger's cooking skill, and his abilities to make tasteless cursed food!
How can he turn such a wonderful moa's meat into a nightmare?!
This meat was extremely overcooked outside and totally raw inside — like a dark vision of medium rare — in a contrary way.
What's worse?
It's even not a roast — I just asked him to put the meat in the boiling water!
Making my eyes contact with Kruger's, I saw an expectant face: his eyes were sparkling as if he thought this meal is not a disaster!
...
Thinking of him keeping busy for a long time cooking for me, it was so hard to let him down...
I tried my best to swallow a mouthful of meat and smiled weakly, "For a first-time cooker, it's not that bad, but you still have room for improvement."
"Yeah! LuLu can eat the food I cooked now!" Arms lifted, and Kruger celebrated with himself by running around me and speaking to me in a fruity voice after hearing my comment.
...
I think you might need to raise your expectations for yourself, Kruger.
We both deserve better...
Tore the meat into "meat-noodles" through its fibres with chopsticks, I picked out the burnt part and asked Kruger to put them back into the pot and stew them for a few more minutes:
"Wait till the water bubbles, and I'll put the seasoning myself."
So... In this way, I finished a relatively tough lunch.
After a nap, I finally found myself refreshed in the afternoon. So I decided to start to learn the beast language. And I set a goal for myself: be able to do some simple daily conversations with others next month.
Apart from social needs, my tampon storage is going to be in an emergency. I have to be able to talk with Kirra privately as soon as possible and ask her how they deal with this situation.
It turns out that the vocabulary of the beast language is simple and straightforward, and there is no complicated grammar in this language. More often than not, they just use expressions and body language as auxiliary languages to show their thoughts.
I went back to the car and found my notebook. And then with the company of Kruger, I began to take notes diligently. Surprisingly, Kruger is a good teacher, as I put my heart into studying this language just like the days I prepared for TOEFL. In this way, I believe my goal will be accomplished in a short time.
Feeling a bit tired, I was about to boil some water and make a cup of coffee, Kruger dashed to me and grabbed my kettle, "Let me do it for you!"
When I planned to clean the dishes up while waiting for the coffee to cool down, Kruger ran and took those tablewares again. Then he pushed me back to sit on the haystack and used his head to rub mine, "LuLu LuLu, hold on, please! Let me wash them, I know how to do it!"
After finishing the coffee, I found it was a bit too warm to wear a coat. As soon as I stood up, Kruger bounded to my side and put his hands on my shoulders, "Lulululululu! What are you going to do? Let me help you!"
Pushed his head aside, I took off my coat and felt speechless — he is acting like I am delicate china.
"Kruger, please be normal. It's is good for me to do some proper exercise, you don't need to be too nervous."
Kruger has been treating me like I am one of the self-neglect patients who can not take care of themselves since he knew my period came this morning: when I was going to look for the notebook in the parking place after lunch, he even tried to shift into the beast form and carry me in his pouch. Under my firm refusal, he so agreed to walk behind me with hesitation.
The uncomfortableness of my period only lasts for about one day in general, so I am back to life again the days after. And it is time to wash all the clothes that had been stained with blood for two days after this old friend finally said goodbye.
According to all of Kruger's behaviours so far, I am afraid that he might accidentally tear my clothes up, because he never washed the cotton products before and he has trouble controlling his strength, too. Last but not least, it is no reason for him to wash my underwear before I decide to mate with him.
Therefore, I refused his offer to help — but didn't reject him to help me take my clothes and soup to the lower reaches of the river.
The creek begins to freeze my hands at this time. Fortunately, I got a plastic collapsible bucket in my car, filled it with the creek water and poured some boiled hot water into the bucket to make a pail of warm water, and then I was good to go.
+++++
After the laundry, the dirty water was poured back onto the bank of the stream, and the foam with blood drifted away along the creek.
This blood — which bled from the most special part of Bai Lu, of course, contains the strongest sense of her hormones and pheromones, floated on the creek, flowed across the mountains and rivers, passed through the grasslands, and reached the place where Duncan lives thousands of miles away in a long run.
Duncan was taking a bath after a fight full of verve and vigour, he scooped up a handful of water as usual, and was about to pour it from his head to wash away all the sweat stains — a unique smell hit his nose all of a sudden. He crouched down and plunged into the stream in a rush, heartfully feeling this fragrance that made him yearn.
This faint sweet scent with some bloody smell vaguely lingered around Duncan, bypassing his nose, slipping through his ears, and gradually disappearing in the water.
...
"This smell came from that direction!" Duncan felt more worried rather than happy or excited when he detected this scent.
What makes him cheerful is that he finally found the trace of his destined mate. Meanwhile, what makes him anxious is that the information from the smell suggested that this female was probably injured.
"I have to run to her side as soon as possible." Duncan made up his mind.