Chapter 211 - 213: Nantu’s Heart Knot

Chapter 211: Chapter 213: Nantu’s Heart Knot

’Wait, did I see that right? I can’t believe Nantu has two of them.’

Su Luoluo instantly thought, ’you can’t judge a book by its cover.’ She had truly underestimated him.

The last time it was his turn to spend the night with her, he had just sung for Luoluo. This time, he wasn’t going to let her off so easily.

And besides, Luoluo had said she liked the Water Curtain.

Nantu couldn’t help but recall his childhood. He would slip into the Water Curtain to find his Mother, and her expression was always so sorrowful.

Back then, he had asked his Father, "Why is Mother always so unhappy?"

His Father had patted his head and said, "Your Mother is missing her homeland."

"Homeland? The sea is all water, where could there be any land?" his younger self had asked, not understanding.

His Father fell silent at his words. Not far away, his Mother stared vacantly outward and said, "Beyond the sea, it’s all land."

At the time, he had no idea what "land" even was.

The next day, he went to the Water Curtain to ask his Mother for an explanation, only to find she had vanished.

He had cried out for his Mother in a panic.

When his Father rushed over, he simply patted his head. "Nantu, your Mother has gone to find her homeland."

’Is one’s homeland really that important?’

As a child, Nantu had wondered more than once why his Mother would heartlessly abandon him for this "homeland."

After growing up, he trained relentlessly until he could finally reach the surface. But when he saw the land his Mother had yearned for, he was utterly disappointed.

’What’s so great about this land?’

’Walking on it just gets your feet black and dirty. How can it compare to the soft, comforting water of the sea?’

And when it rained, the soil turned to a disgusting, murky sludge.

Confused, he turned to leave, but then he heard someone say that one’s homeland is a deep-seated emotional bond.

Only by living in a place and then leaving it can you truly understand the sentiment of a homeland.

’Could that be why Mother abandoned me?’

Nantu didn’t understand, but for this reason, he stayed and lived on the land for a while.

Even after living on land for some time, he still felt no deep connection to it. Instead, he found himself unconsciously starting to miss the sea.

But every time he saw Luoluo by his side, he pushed that longing down.

’Perhaps Mother felt the same way back then,’ he thought.

The difference was, he wasn’t trapped inside a square Water Curtain like his Mother had been. He could roam the land freely.

If his Mother had been able to move freely through the sea as he could, would she have been so perpetually forlorn?

Nantu wondered if, had things been different, his Mother would have never left him.

His Father had also said it was his own fault, that he never should have gotten together with his Mother. That way, she wouldn’t have suffered inside the Water Curtain.

From the moment he first left the sea, his Father had warned him not to get involved with Land Females. They disliked the water, his Father said, and a relationship with one would never work out.

He had always believed it to be true. But today, Luoluo told him she liked the water.

At that moment, it was as if Nantu’s long-suppressed heart had finally found an outlet.

His fishtail swished, wrapping tightly around Su Luoluo’s legs. He held her in his arms, cherished and thrilled, and swam through the water with her.

Knowing that Su Luoluo liked the water, he used the Water Avoidance Technique to form a bubble. They stayed inside it together, bobbing with the current.

In the water, Su Luoluo felt she had never been so pliant; her body could bend and fold into any position.

Her body was growing tired, but when she saw Nantu’s beautiful face, as if freshly washed by the stream itself, she felt her weariness instantly melt away.

After a while, even the swaying seaweed made her feel dizzy, and she finally drifted off to sleep.

What she didn’t know was that the water bubble was constantly rolling on the surface of the stream, making quite a bit of noise.

The few men standing on the bank watched as the splashes grew larger and larger, their eyes red with jealousy.

Finally unable to bear it any longer, they each scattered to find a place to sleep.

But the splashing was loud, and even as they forced themselves to try and sleep, they remained awake all night.

When Su Luoluo woke up the next day, she found she was already back on the shore.

She didn’t know when Nantu had brought her up, but she was lying on her own animal-pelt blanket.

Perhaps because they had been in the water, her body didn’t feel sore or strange at all.

Remembering the pottery they had made yesterday, she stretched lazily and walked over to the fire pit.

She picked up a stick and poked away some of the ash and earth, a smile spreading across her face.

’These Ring-tailed Lemurs are really fast learners.’ The pottery was a success. There were almost no cracks, and the quality was excellent. It looked like they wouldn’t need to redo any of it.

As she took out the few clay pots she had made herself, her Beastmen came over to help.

The sounds of activity woke the Ring-tailed Lemur Beastmen, who got up and started looking for the pottery they had made the day before.

As Su Luoluo directed people to move the pottery, two Black Pig People spied on them from a nearby hillside.

Hei Mao stared at the exquisite pottery. "She knows how to make pottery, too? It looks about the same as what the Leader’s Wife makes."

Huang Mao, who was beside him, smacked Hei Mao on the head. "Even if it’s the same, it can’t possibly be better than the Leader’s Wife’s. Look, they’re using red clay. The black clay our Leader’s Wife uses is much better than this."

"But none of their pottery is cracked. A lot of ours cracked when we took them out," Hei Mao continued, gazing at the distant pottery.

"What do you know? It’s just because they’re made of red clay that you can’t see the cracks."

"Hey, why are you talking so much? The Leader’s Wife told us to check on the salt, not this clay!" Huang Mao, the Black Pig Beastman, glared at his companion.

"But they aren’t heading toward the Salt Well. What should we do?"

"Let’s head back and report to the Leader’s Wife first," said Huang Mao.

Hei Mao nodded, and the two of them departed.

On the way back, Su Luoluo was still riding on Si Cheng’s back.

This time, however, her other Beastmen didn’t say a word. Their eyes, however, would occasionally dart toward Nantu. When he happened to look back, both Mo Xuan and Fu Feng would let out a derisive snort.

This left Nantu feeling utterly baffled.

Xiao Ye, seeing that Su Luoluo was still clean, felt a bit better and didn’t think much of it.

While riding on Si Cheng’s back, Su Luoluo considered the Ring-tailed Lemurs’ current living situation.

’Now that the pottery is done, they finally have some lightweight cookware.’

’The next problem to solve is their food supply.’

’We’ve collected a good amount of rice. If I distribute it here, I can’t forget about the Wolf Clan Tribe, or I’ll be helping one at the expense of the other.’

’But how to divide it is the question. I’ll have to ask Su Yang about it.’

’Then there’s that whole "romance-novel-brained" debuff the system mentioned. It said someone was already showing signs, but I haven’t noticed anyone with that tendency.’

’I’ll have to keep a closer eye on them.’

Meanwhile, after their trip to the Red Land, the two Black Pig Beastmen, Hei Mao and Huang Mao, returned to the Black Pig Tribe and gave Su Nuannuan a detailed report of everything they had seen.