After his restraints were removed, Nuo Xiao shook out his wings and suddenly asked, seemingly out of nowhere, “Brother Wenye, do you have a mirror?”
Pei Wenye was caught off guard.
Why would a male snow owl need a mirror?
Still, he knew nothing about repairing starships and had to rely on Nuo Xiao to take the lead. A mirror was hardly a rare item, so Pei Wenye opened his space button and rummaged through it.
Nuo Xiao stared at the button-sized space device in his hand, his gaze growing deep and solemn.
There was a contamination detector, and now a space button too. This Pei Wenye really was the old chief of the Black Jiao tribe!
But he remembered that the old chief of the Black Jiao tribe had a female mate, and that mate was the sacred female of the Black Jiao tribe.
Pei Wenye was being unfaithful!
That beautiful female must have been deceived by him. But Nuo Xiao had only just met her, and if he exposed Pei Wenye now, the beautiful female would surely think he was trying to drive a wedge between them.
Fortunately, the Black Jiao tribe was close to the Snow Owl tribe. Once he repaired the starship and returned to his tribe, he would take the beautiful female with him and expose Pei Wenye’s true nature.
By then, he might even become the beautiful female’s only beast-husband.
Nuo Xiao secretly worked out his little scheme while Pei Wenye searched for quite some time before finally finding a compact folding mirror.
He handed it to Nuo Xiao.
Nuo Xiao immediately abandoned his train of thought and eagerly took the mirror, unfolding it.
In the brand-new, gleaming surface appeared a face so blackened that none of its features could be made out.
Nuo Xiao let out a strange cry. As though he had seen a ghost, he threw the folding mirror away, and with a loud thump, his entire body transformed into a completely charred snow owl.
Through the folding mirror lying on the ground, Nuo Xiao discovered that his beast form had been burned black as well.
“My feathers!”
Aside from his wings, not a single feather on his body remained intact. How long would it take for them to grow back?
Aah! The beautiful female must think he was hideous.
Nuo Xiao fell apart.
Pei Wenye: “…”
Was this snow owl insane?
Yunyang also felt that Nuo Xiao’s mental state might be somewhat unstable, so she silently took half a step back.
The beautiful female really did dislike him.
Nuo Xiao disliked himself too, but that only made the blow even harder to bear.
He turned around with his back to Yunyang and Pei Wenye, unwilling to face reality.
Yunyang and Pei Wenye assumed he had his own reasons and did not disturb him. Instead, they looked around for a new spot and set up the folding habitat pod.
That was the advantage of a folding habitat pod: it could be unfolded anywhere.
Neither she nor Pei Wenye had a permanent place to live, and this location was close to the crashed starship. Naturally, it was more convenient to stay here.
Hearing the commotion behind him, Nuo Xiao quietly turned his head and glanced back. He then discovered a house that had appeared out of thin air.
The little snow owl’s eyes went round.
What was this?
Nuo Xiao had never seen anything like it before and was stunned for a moment.
After setting up their habitat pod, Yunyang glanced at the charred little snow owl and took another folding habitat pod from her space button.
Folding habitat pods were not particularly expensive. Fuyuan had stuffed several of them into her space button before, so she did not feel the slightest bit of reluctance about giving one away.
“A-Ye, help him set it up.”
Yunyang guessed that Nuo Xiao probably did not know how to unfold a folding habitat pod.
Since she had given the order, Pei Wenye naturally would not refuse. He sent Yunyang into the habitat pod first, then set up Nuo Xiao’s a little farther away.
It had the same one-bedroom, one-living-room layout. Pei Wenye had no interest in the furniture at all. After informing Nuo Xiao, he entered the habitat pod to prepare a late-night snack for Yunyang.
There was still plenty of food prepared by Rong Jin in his space button, but now that they had time, Pei Wenye preferred to cook something fresh for Yunyang himself.
Seeing the satisfied expression on Yunyang’s face when she ate the food he had made was a pleasure in itself.
Outside the habitat pod, Nuo Xiao shook his charred feathers and walked inside the other pod with undisguised curiosity.
Although it lacked comfortable furniture such as a sofa, the space consequently appeared much larger. Unable to resist, Nuo Xiao stretched out his wings, expressing his delight.
The beautiful female was truly generous, willing to lend him something so precious.
He would definitely expose Pei Wenye’s true nature for the beautiful female’s sake, so she would not continue being deceived by him.
Nuo Xiao took small steps as he toured the entire habitat pod.
When he discovered that the master bedroom had its own bathroom, he immediately filled the bathtub and transformed into human form before plunging into the water and scrubbing himself thoroughly.
The water in the tub quickly turned pitch-black.
An hour later, Nuo Xiao stepped out of the bathtub.
After he had been injected with a specialized treatment serum, the burns on his skin had healed completely. Once the black soot had been washed away, he had returned to his original handsome appearance.
Nuo Xiao admired himself in the mirror for quite a while.
Although the feathers in his beast form would need some time to grow back, at least his human form had not been affected much.
He wondered what kind of miracle medicine Pei Wenye had used on him.
But still!
Even if Pei Wenye had saved his life, Nuo Xiao would not help him conceal the truth from the beautiful female.
He was a snow owl with principles!
After admiring his own beauty, Nuo Xiao discovered a very serious problem—
He had no clothes to change into!
His clothes had been on the starship, and after the crash, they were surely beyond saving. The clothes he had been wearing before had been burned to ashes as well.
Nuo Xiao fell silent. Nuo Xiao shut himself away. Nuo Xiao was forced to transform back into his beast form.
His current beast form was somewhat comical. The feathers on his head and wings were bright white and glossy, but there was not a single feather left on his body.
Nuo Xiao felt that he had no face with which to meet anyone.
He crept over to the habitat pod’s door and poked his fluffy head outside to look around.
Only after seeing that the door of the other habitat pod was tightly closed did Nuo Xiao relax his wings. Taking advantage of the cover of night, he flew toward the direction in which the starship had crashed.
Pei Wenye had doused it with water earlier, so the starship was no longer billowing black smoke. However, because the crash had been so severe, Nuo Xiao spent a long time searching before finally identifying the cockpit.
He shrank his beast form and squeezed inside, rummaging around for quite a while before finally finding a piece of clothing that was still wearable.
Nuo Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. He dragged the clothing out of the starship with his beak, enlarged his beast form, wrapped it around himself, and hurriedly flew back to the habitat pod.
In the other habitat pod, Yunyang and Pei Wenye had finished their late-night snack and were curled up together on the sofa, absorbing insect cores.
It was already quite late. Since they had lent out the other folding habitat pod, neither of them paid any attention to Nuo Xiao.
Besides, there was nothing dangerous on this abandoned planet. And even if there was, as a male, Nuo Xiao should have been capable of protecting himself.
They had spent far too long fooling around the previous night, so Pei Wenye did not bring up that sort of thing tonight. But as he helped Yunyang bathe, the atmosphere still gradually grew suggestive.
The shadows cast by the bathroom light began to sway once more.
Pei Wenye showed great restraint. He took the initiative to stop after only once, then held Yunyang in his arms as they fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Nuo Xiao stared at the ragged clothes he had managed to salvage, struggling inwardly for a long time.
Wearing this would seriously damage his image, wouldn’t it?
…
