Transmigrating to the BeastWorld,I Picked Up an Adorable BeastHusband!-Chapter 65

He hoisted the fur-wrapped bundle of Ningning’s body onto his back, gritting his teeth as he stepped back out into the freezing deluge.

Every step toward the main settlement was a battle. The rain had turned the path into a river of debris, but the adrenaline pumping through Weijie’s veins made him move like a man possessed.

He reached the Leader’s cave in record time. Inside, the air was thick with the smell of old smoke and dried herbs. Numa was sitting by his own fire, sharpening a bone spearhead, but he dropped it the second he saw the state of his son.

"Numa! She’s frozen. Her leg is broken," Weijie panted, carefully laying Ningning down on the smooth stone floor near the heat.

Numa didn’t waste a second.

He was the one who held the tribe’s knowledge of the body. He knelt beside her, his large, calloused hands moving with surprising gentleness.

He felt the coldness of her skin and the distorted shape of her ankle.

"Get the bitter-root and the willow bark," Numa commanded Weijie, who scrambled to find the supplies.

For the next hour, the cave was silent except for the crackle of the fire and Numa’s steady movements. He set the bone with a sharp, expert pull—a sound that made Weijie wince and bound it tightly with wooden slats and strips of cured hide.

He forced a warm, herbal liquid down her throat, watching until her shivering slowed and a faint, healthy pink began to touch her cheeks.

Finally, Numa sat back, wiping his hands on a scrap of leather. He looked at his son, his eyes hard and questioning.

"She will live," Numa said. "But tell me, Weijie. Where did you find her? What happened?"

Weijie leaned against the cave wall, finally letting his exhaustion hit him. "I found her down by the creek bed. The bank had collapsed right on top of her. I had to dig her out of the silt with my bare hands."

Numa’s brow furrowed. "The creek? In this weather? Why was she there?"

"The salt-mud," Weijie said, glancing at Ningning. "She’s been talking about nothing else for days. When I saw she was gone, I followed the trail. The scent was thick, that sharp, mineral tang of the salt she’s been hoarding. I knew she’d gone back for more mud for that kiln she’s planning to build."

Numa looked at the unconscious woman and shook his head. "She nearly died for a pile of wet earth. She has foreign ideas, Weijie, but the mountain doesn’t care about ideas. It only cares about strength."

Ningning’s eyes cracked open. The first thing she felt was the throbbing in her ankle—a rhythmic, hot pulse that made her stomach churn.

The second thing she felt was the scent of the bitter-root tea Numa had forced down her throat.

"She is awake," Numa said. He was sitting across from her, his face shadowed by the firelight. "The ’foreign’ wisdom you carry nearly buried you today, girl. Weijie says you went for the salt-earth. You went for the mud in a landslide."

Ningning tried to sit up, but the weight of the heavy furs and the sharp spike of pain in her leg pinned her down. "The kiln... the fire-room needs the salt," she rasped, her voice sounding like it had been dragged over gravel.

"Without the salt-mud, the walls will crack when the deep cold hits. We need the heat to dry the wood."

Numa looked at Weijie. "She speaks of things she brought from the south, from people who live in stone houses. But here, the mountain owns the stone. You cannot bend the earth to your will when the sky is falling."

Weijie knelt beside her, his hand heavy on her shoulder. "You almost died, Ningning. I found your arm sticking out of the sludge. Another few minutes and the creek would have taken you."

Ningning looked from Weijie to Numa. She could see the disapproval in the old man’s eyes—the look of a leader who saw her "foreign" methods as a dangerous distraction. But she also saw the mud still under Weijie’s fingernails.

"I have the mud," she whispered, looking at Weijie. "The pots... are they in the cave?"

Weijie shook his head. "One is broken. The other two are still at the creek, likely buried by now. I only brought you back."

The news hit her harder than the pain. All that work, the risk, the broken bone—and she was back to nothing. But she wasn’t finished. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Weijie," she said, grabbing his forearm. "The one pot I dropped... the mud is still there. If we don’t mix it with the lime before it freezes solid, the whole winter is lost. You have to go back. Not now—but when the rain thins."

Numa stood up, his shadow looming large. "He will go nowhere near that creek. Neither will you."

Ningning felt a heavy sigh rattle in her chest, though she kept it silent. She understood their fear—it was the fear of people who lived and died by the mountain’s whims.

But they didn’t understand. If she couldn’t get the kiln running, if she couldn’t keep them warm when the air turned to ice, she would die anyway. She’d die like a fish out of water, gasping for a heat that wasn’t there.

[Doudou also sighed in the back of her mind. We’re in a real pickle, Ningning. Your mobility is zero, and the local labor force—bless their hearts—lacks the technical orientation to execute the salt-mud chemistry without your direct supervision.]

"Father," Weijie began, his voice caught between his duty to the leader and his worry for his wife. "The creek will settle by morning. If the mud is that important—"

"No," Numa cut him off, his voice like grinding stones. "The mountain has spoken. It tried to swallow her. We do not go back to a place that has already tasted our blood."

He turned and walked toward the cave entrance, his silhouette blocking out the grey, rainy light. "You will stay here. Weijie, see that she drinks the rest of the bark-brew. I must check the lower caves; the rain is flooding the storage pits."

As soon as Numa’s heavy footsteps faded into the sound of the downpour, Ningning looked at Weijie.

He looked exhausted, his hair matted with grit, his eyes red from the smoke and the panic.

"I can’t go back, Ningning," he whispered before she could even speak. "He’s the Leader. And he’s right—the bank is too loose."

"I don’t need you to go to the creek," Ningning lied, her mind racing. She needed a way to bridge the gap between Numa’s "strength" and her "logic." "But the mud I hauled before I fell... the first pot. It’s sitting by the fire in our cave. It’s already drying out. If the salt isn’t worked into it while it’s still damp, it’s useless."

She winced as a fresh wave of pain shot up her leg. "Weijie, if I can’t walk, I can’t mix. But I can tell you how to do it. If you bring the supplies here, under Numa’s nose, he’ll just see it as you helping your injured wife pass the time. But really... we’ll be building the heart of the kiln right here."

Weijie looked torn. He hated seeing her like this—broken and pale—but he also knew that once Ningning set her mind on a "foreign" idea, she wouldn’t let go until it was done or she was dead.

"You want me to bring the lime-stone and the salt into the Leader’s cave?" Weijie asked, a hint of a smile touching his tired face. "He’ll say the smell ruins his meat."

"Tell him it’s a healing ritual from my people," she rasped, a touch of wit returning to her eyes. "Tell him the salt draws the ’angry spirits’ out of my ankle."

Weijie looked at her, his resistance crumbling under the weight of her gaze. He knew that look; it was the same one she had when she’d convinced him to move their sleeping quarters to the higher ledge before winter.

She was right—she’d die like a fish out of water if she couldn’t keep her world moving forward.

"Fine," he whispered, his voice low so the sound wouldn’t carry to the entrance.

"But we are not doing this here. Numa’s cave is for the tribe’s business. If he catches us turning his floor into a mud-pit, he’ll throw your ’foreign’ salt back into the creek himself."

He stood up, looking toward the cave mouth where the rain was still a gray wall. "We have to go back to our cave. Now, before he returns from the lower storage pits. If he sees me moving you again, he’ll order me to stay put."

[Doudou hummed with a digital sigh of relief. Logistics are back on the table. Though, I must remind you, Ningning, your heart rate is still elevated. Try not to pass out while he’s hauling you through the rain.]

"Go," Ningning breathed, the pain in her ankle flaring as she tried to shift. "Get the hide. Be fast."

Weijie didn’t need to be told twice. He grabbed the large bison hide he had used earlier, wrapping her back into the cocoon.

He moved with a sense of urgency that bordered on panic, his massive muscles tensing as he hoisted her onto his back.