My Face Is Dark, So I Have to Take the Blame?

[System: Those primitives don't have brains in their heads. They have to bounce off a wall just to turn a corner. Watch out, or you'll come off worse in a moment.]

Bai Zhenzhen: They look pretty handsome, and their muscles have some bounce to them. Who knew their heads were made of rulers?

Feng Rumeng's almond eyes tilted up slightly. "If she says it, I have to accept it? Then if she says you're my cub, do you have to start calling me mother too?"

The tiger beastman nearly poked Feng Rumeng in the face. "You... you have no shame."

Feng Rumeng gave a contemptuous smile. "Whether I have any shame is my business. Why are you in such a hurry? Could it be you're so eager because you want to get me another face?"

The tiger beastman hurled abuse at her. "An ugly female who wraps herself up so tightly every day, and no one even knows where she came from. What good could she be?"

Feng Rumeng folded her arms. "No matter how ugly I am, you... I still wouldn't look twice at you."

With that, she stopped looking at the male's snarling face and turned to the chief. "There's no substantial evidence, just her word. Chief, aren't you being a little too hasty?"

"Female Rumeng, both parties must consent to becoming mates. If one party forces the other, they must be driven out of the tribe," Chief Hu Zhi said gravely.

"From what you're saying, Chief, you've already decided I did it?" Feng Rumeng swept her gaze over every face in the cave. "On what grounds? Because Female Bai Zhenzhen is fair-skinned?"

"You made such a grand show of this today, Chief, and called me here just because my face is dark, so I have to take the blame?"

Bai Zhenzhen glanced sideways at Feng Rumeng. Feng Rumeng met her gaze, and Bai Zhenzhen turned her head away, feigning fright.

Hu Yun felt the person in his arms tremble slightly. The killing intent in his blue eyes became almost tangible, and his clenched fists creaked.

The first elder shouted, "Hu Yun, don't be rash."

Everyone's disgust for Feng Rumeng deepened. Even in front of the chief and elders, she dared glare at Female Zhenzhen.

Feng Rumeng met one pair of venomous blue eyes after another. She shook her head and said slowly, "Someone drugged Hu Yun, and then he and Bai Zhenzhen became mates."

"They became mates and had their fun, and now they've come to complain. What's the point?"

"You drugged him, and that's that. How dare you try to argue your way out of it? Chief, drive her out of the tribe!" The male started making trouble again.

Feng Rumeng's gaze sharpened. "Bai Zhenzhen had no choice but to become mates with Hu Yun because he was drugged and went into heat? If she didn't like him, couldn't she run? Couldn't she shout?"

"You heard how enthusiastically she was crying out last night, didn't you?" Feng Rumeng looked at the male with an amused glint in her eyes. "It didn't sound like she disliked it, did it? Hu Yun seemed to be enjoying himself for quite a while too!"

"Witch Doctor Aima, as I recall, the effects of passion flower juice wear off a quarter of an hour after mating begins. Warrior Hu Yun seemed to keep at it for a long time, didn't he?"

"I really don't understand what all this pageantry today is supposed to tell everyone. I drugged them, those two had their fun, and then they came to complain about me. Is it to let everyone know these two got the benefit and still played the victim?"

Hu Yun rolled his neck impatiently.

Feng Rumeng's delicate brows lifted. "This really is enough to make a person overwhelmed by the favor."

Aima cut in. "Chief, the effects of passion flower juice do indeed begin to fade gradually the moment mating begins, and the person gradually regains their senses. And after Female Bai Feifei was driven out of the tribe, all the passion flowers in the herb valley were uprooted."

Feng Rumeng readily gave Aima a thumbs-up, then turned to Hu Zhi. "Chief, if you want to drive me away, I can accept this false accusation."

"Now, since Female Bai Zhenzhen didn't consent, I recall the tribe has a rule: no matter the reason, any male who forces a female will be executed."

When her words fell, the cave grew so quiet it was as if no one were there.

In an instant, Hu Yun's killing intent filled the cave once more. Apart from the fifth-rank beastmen, everyone went rigid with fright. Even Bai Zhenzhen, in his arms, broke out in a cold sweat.

Bai Zhenzhen's phoenix eyes turned vicious. She had only thought that beastmen were simple-minded, and that with a little scheme she could get Hu Zhi to drive this eyesore of a female out of the tribe. She hadn't expected the dark-skinned female to strike right at their vital spot.

Feng Rumeng felt nothing much from the oppressive pressure. Her almond eyes curved slightly. "Would you all like to know why Hu Yun and Bai Zhenzhen are really trying to smear me?"

Aima looked at Hu Yun, pity welling up in her heart. She said to Feng Rumeng, "Female Rumeng, do you know what losing his male parts would mean to Hu Yun?"

"You really are a vicious female," a male who wanted to court Bai Zhenzhen said fiercely.

Feng Rumeng ignored him. "Doctor Aima, I don't like stirring up trouble, but I'm not afraid of it either. I neither fought nor competed, yet someone deliberately slandered me. The chief didn't investigate or ask why, and simply decided to drive me out of the tribe."

"I keep to myself, but I'm not stupid. What does it mean for a female to be driven out of the tribe? To be torn apart and swallowed by ferocious beasts. Since they won't even leave me a way to live, why should I be polite?"

The chief remained silent, weighing the matter in her mind. She wanted to keep Bai Zhenzhen because she was beautiful and could bring more powerful females to the tribe.

If she drove Feng Rumeng away, Ling's mother, Qian, had once saved her, and she feared Ling and the other tribes would say she was ungrateful.

The elders and the high priest were all playing blind and deaf. None of them wanted to offend either side.

Jianyue rolled her eyes. She could see it clearly now: apart from her and Feng Rumeng, there wasn't a single decent person in this cave. Even Hu Feng wouldn't come in and speak up for her. They just saw Rumeng as easy to bully.

She looked at Bai Zhenzhen, disdain in her orange eyes. "Some people may look fair and clean, but their hearts are blacker than a Fanged Beast's."

Hu Yun looked at Jianyue with displeasure in his blue eyes. Jianyue met her gaze. "For them to get together, their hearts really must be the same color."

Bai Zhenzhen's eyes shimmered with tears. "Sister Jianyue, it's all my fault. Please don't talk about Brother Hu Yun like that. If you're angry, take it all out on me."

"Fine," Jianyue said bluntly. "You all heard her, didn't you? Bai Zhenzhen said it was her fault. Since you know you were wrong, why aren't you apologizing to Rumeng? Why are you acting like a cub here?"

Bai Zhenzhen looked so pitiful that the hearts of all the males in the room clenched.

"Sister Jianyue, I just didn't want Brother Hu Yun to be mocked by you all because of me. I shouldn't have come here at all. I just wanted to say, I just wanted to say..." Bai Zhenzhen began to cry again.

Feng Rumeng clicked her tongue and took over. "Chief, Bai Zhenzhen drank the purple fruit juice of her own accord yesterday, and she was the one who handed Hu Yun his cup. Don't you suspect that Bai Zhenzhen was the one who drugged it?"

She spoke before anyone else could. "And there's Female Bai Feifei. She's so fat, and her beast husbands live so high up. Could she have climbed up there to poison them?"

She pulled the piece of beast hide from her trouser pocket, picked up a firewood stick, and added a few strokes before tossing it to Hu Zhi. "Chief, the number of crystals I'm claiming as compensation is written there. I want them delivered to my cave before the round sun sets."

"That's all I have to say." She turned her gaze to Hu Yun. "Hu Yun, yesterday Ling and I were still congratulating you on getting a female. But now? To tell the truth, I look down on you. You don't deserve to be Ling's friend."

Having said that, she turned around under everyone's gazes. After taking two steps, she turned her head slightly, the corners of her mouth curling up.

"Though I'm dark-skinned, not just any male can enter my cave. You can all rest easy. I don't fancy a single one of you."

After walking back to her cave, Feng Rumeng sat outside and continued crocheting underwear.

When the sun was high in the sky, Feng Rumeng bit through the cotton thread and ran her hand over it with satisfaction. Though it lacked the refinement of modern ones, it was light, thin, and breathable. Ling's extra appendage would finally no longer swing back and forth like a pendulum.

She was grinning foolishly at her work when a large, well-defined hand suddenly reached out from behind her and snatched it away.

Feng Rumeng immediately turned around but saw no one. She stood up and looked left and right, but still saw no one.

The person stood behind her, looking at the top of her head, and chuckled softly.