Veterinarian

The wolf's terrifying maw and enormous fangs looked frightening, but the motion of flinging him onto its back was unexpectedly gentle.

Jian Mo endured his headache and lay on the giant wolf's back.

The giant wolf's fur was long and warm, with a faint scent of grass and trees.

These people didn't seem hostile toward him.

I'll go back with them and have a look first, Jian Mo thought.

Pain and discomfort completely sapped Jian Mo's willpower. Unable to hold on any longer, he closed his eyes and passed out.

Chapter 2: Veterinarian

After Wu Jiong brought Jian Mo home, Jian Mo fell ill. He spent his days in a daze, sometimes waking in daylight and sometimes at night.

Almost every time he woke up, Wu Jiong appeared before him, offered him various broths, and asked where he had come from.

Occasionally, others came to question him as well.

Jian Mo couldn't explain how he had come to this world, and he was sick besides. During several conversations, he could clearly tell that what he said and what Wu Jiong said were completely unrelated.

After a few such exchanges, the people simply took him for a wandering sub-beastman and stopped asking.

He remained ill for quite a while.

One day, Jian Mo woke to see golden sunlight pouring into every corner outside, warm and bright. He felt some strength clearly returning to his body.

He pushed himself up from the animal-skin mattress. Once he was sitting upright, his body still felt a little weak, and sweat broke out on the back of his neck.

But he was only weak; his body no longer felt heavy.

Jian Mo looked out the window. He was still alive. That was wonderful.

"Awake?" Wu Jiong's voice called out.

Jian Mo saw Wu Jiong appear at the top of the stairs. He nodded weakly and said slowly in the beastmen's language, "I'm feeling a little better."

Wu Jiong nodded. "Come downstairs and eat something."

Jian Mo slowly stood up.

The second floor was very empty. Apart from a few chests against the wall, there were only two mattresses, one on each side. Jian Mo had been sleeping on the small one on the left for the past few days.

He put on the socks and shoes beside the mattress, then turned and found all his personal belongings next to the pillow—his umbrella, phone, keys, earphones, a folded white tissue, and the empty can the kitten had left behind that day.

Wu Jiong had actually picked them all up for him.

He couldn't resist picking up his phone and holding down the power button.

The phone was completely out of battery. Its screen lit up and immediately went dark again.

Jian Mo stared at the phone, an indescribable disappointment in his heart. He was already weak, and now his limbs felt even weaker.

He put the phone in his pocket and slowly made his way to the stairs, descending one step at a time.

When Jian Mo reached the ground floor, he saw Wu Jiong standing under the eaves.

A good deal of meat hung under the eaves, and Wu Jiong seemed to be choosing a piece.

The meat gave when Wu Jiong pressed it. It looked soft, so it had probably been hung up within the past two days.

Jian Mo looked away, walked slowly over to the hearth, and sat down on a small wooden stool.

Judging by the buildings here, this world didn't seem all that different from his original one.

It was a rough but clean stone house, with a hearth in the middle of the ground floor and wooden planks laid on the second floor, where mattresses had been placed for sleeping.

Some people in his original world furnished their homes like this too.

While Jian Mo's thoughts wandered, Wu Jiong returned with the meat.

He set a large stone slab over the hearth, cooked the meat on it, and then cut it into small pieces.

Jian Mo noticed that the knife he used wasn't made of metal, but of shell. Its edge had been ground thin and sharp, and it cut without much effort.

However, judging by the grain on the cut surface, the meat had rather coarse fibers. It would probably be tough and hard to bite through.

Jian Mo's gaze followed Wu Jiong's movements the whole time.

With his long, slender fingers, Wu Jiong gently pushed the plate of meat in front of him. "It's ready to eat."

Jian Mo came back to himself. "Okay. Thank you."

Wu Jiong gave a slight nod. "Try it."

Jian Mo looked at the meat before him and hesitated, unsure whether he should pick it up and eat it with his hands.

It still looked quite hot.

Wu Jiong had already picked up his plate and was eating the strips of meat with his fingers.

Jian Mo sighed inwardly and followed his example, picking up a strip of meat and taking a bite.

But he couldn't bite through it.

Jian Mo held the meat up to inspect it. It was full of fascia and thick muscle fibers. No wonder he couldn't bite through it.

Just as Jian Mo was wondering what to do, Wu Jiong picked up his plate from across the hearth. "I'll cut it into smaller pieces for you."

Jian Mo felt a little embarrassed. "Thank you."

Wu Jiong motioned for him to put the meat back on the plate, then cut it into thumb-sized pieces for him. "It hung overnight, but it might not be tender enough yet. Another two days should make it better."

Jian Mo turned to look at the meat hanging under the eaves. He knew that leaving fresh meat to rest for a while could allow it to age and tenderize, but he hadn't expected them to already have that technique here.

Jian Mo asked, "What kind of meat is this?"

Wu Jiong said, "Fork-Horned Beast. This one was rather big, so the meat is tough. I'll see if I can hunt something smaller today."

As Wu Jiong spoke, he quickly finished the meat on his plate. Apparently, meat this tough posed no problem for a beastman.

He cleared away the dishes and said to Jian Mo, "I'm going hunting in a bit. Stay home or take a walk around the tribe. It's best not to go outside the tribe; it's dangerous."

Jian Mo nodded very seriously.

Wu Jiong gave Jian Mo another look. "If you need anything, you can also ask the beastmen patrolling outside. If you can't find them, ask any adult beastman or sub-beastman."

Jian Mo continued nodding. After a pause, he said softly to Wu Jiong, "Thank you."

Having said everything he needed to say, Wu Jiong tidied up a little, tucked a knife into his waistband, took a coil of rope, and went out.

Jian Mo stood in the doorway to see him off and watched him join a group of beastmen chatting in the distance.

The beastmen gathered around him, shifted back into their beast forms, and ran out of the tribe, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Jian Mo stood in the doorway and looked over the whole tribe.

This was probably a tribe on the plain at the foot of the snow-capped mountains.