Ch 33: My Wolf Husband

The sky was dark, with only the serene, jade-like moonlight outside. Its soft glow gently illuminated the surroundings without disturbing the world.

Gently pushing the door open, Lin Shuishi saw Fuli silently return to lie down beside him. Fuli, still carrying his injuries and the lingering poison in his body, had bid farewell to his mother under the falling snow at dusk. Now, exhausted from the effort of living as a human, struggling to maintain this facade, he had no energy left. A weary giant beast, shackled and burdened, curled up beside a person and fell into a deep sleep.

As the night wore on, the small room grew colder. Lin Shuishi lay awake under the covers, his eyes tracing the heavy figure of the man lying on his stomach, illuminated by the moonlight. He thought for half the night but couldn’t quite grasp what he was thinking about.

Fuli slept simply, whether in a tree or on a cliff, always bare-chested. Would he be cold?

Finally, as the cold frost settled outside, Lin Shuishi cautiously moved closer to Fuli, sharing a corner of his blanket with him, draping it gently over Fuli’s broad arm.

Fuli didn’t wake up; he was too deeply asleep.

In the early morning, Lin Shuishi was awakened by the wet licks of the little white wolf. The sturdy figure that had been under the blanket was replaced by this noisy, affectionate little cub. Seeing the cub’s fur standing on end due to static electricity, Lin Shuishi tried to smooth it down, but as soon as he lifted his hand, the fur popped right back up, clinging to his palm.

With a sigh, Lin Shuishi got up to fetch some water to smooth the cub’s fur. But more importantly, he wanted to find out where Fuli was—if he was still here in this small, confined world that Lin Shuishi had come to know.

Opening the door, a blast of cold air greeted him, forming mist on his face. Looking out, he saw that Fuli was still there, sitting alone in the courtyard with his bare shoulders, his back to the red morning sun, a pile of firewood at his feet.

Down the slope, the sons of the Zheng family were swinging axes to split wood. The dry tree roots were so thick that it took considerable effort. Dongsheng worked up a sweat, vigorously chopping away.

Fuli had observed this scene from the slope for a long time. Now, he was “splitting wood” as well, but not with human tools like an axe. Instead, he simply grasped the ends of the logs, pulling them apart with his bare hands. The muscles in his arms tensed, and the thick wood snapped in half with a “crack.”

He continued this action rapidly, and in just a short morning, a considerable pile of split wood had formed on the ground.

Lin Shuishi was startled when he saw what Fuli was doing. He had already witnessed Fuli’s extraordinary strength, but Fuli was still injured! Splitting wood required significant use of arm muscles, and the strain could easily cause his back wound to reopen.

Unable to hold back, Lin Shuishi called out to him, “Fuli, stop doing that! Your wound might reopen!”

Fuli stood in the pile of firewood, holding a piece of wood in both hands. Just as Lin Shuishi finished speaking, Fuli exerted his strength again, and with a series of cracking sounds, he split several more pieces of wood.

The two of them stood at an impasse for a moment, and when Lin Shuishi’s nose started to redden, Fuli finally brushed off the wood chips from his body and silently walked over to him.

From the initially taciturn person he had been, Fuli had now progressed to being able to speak a few sentences. Even though he only said a few words, his pronunciation was incredibly precise, and he spoke clearly. If he wasn’t confident in his speech, he would remain silent.

Fuli had grown up in a wolf pack, far from any human influence. There was no one to serve as his reference or guide, a trait that was intrinsic to his nature and carried the pride that flowed through his bloodline.

Lowering his head, Fuli looked at the small human before him and asked in a deep voice, “You don’t want me to do this?”

Lin Shuishi gazed up at the tall, strong figure in front of him, and he instantly understood Fuli’s meaning. Fuli was asking if Lin Shuishi didn’t need him to do this task, if he wanted to find someone else to do it—like the men down the slope who were chopping wood together?

After thinking for a while, Lin Shuishi awkwardly replied, “No, it’s just that we have enough wood for now. You should come inside so I can check your wound!” He then bit his lip, not daring to look at Fuli, and quickly turned to go inside.

Fuli was always attentive to the small, weak human in front of him, trying to decipher what he wanted, what he was trying to express, and what he was refusing. This was his challenge.

In the wolf pack, they could understand each other’s emotions through scent and howls, confirming their bond through close physical contact and grooming. But clearly, humans were not like that. Humans were more complex, more unpredictable.

Lin Shuishi tilted his head to examine the wound on Fuli’s shoulder and back. It was slightly reddened, though he couldn’t tell if it was from the strain earlier or because Fuli hadn’t been consuming enough nutrients recently to support his fast metabolism and rapid healing.

The once fiery body was now covered in a light morning mist and frost, with a faint chill. Lin Shuishi noticed this and softly instructed Fuli not to move. He then climbed into the bed and reached into a small, tidy cabinet next to it. From the cleanest and most organized drawer, he pulled out a garment that he had finished weaving a long time ago.

The sweater made from wolf wool was thick yet soft to the touch. Lin Shuishi had also knitted one for himself, but because he was smaller and required less material, it took him less than half the time it took to make this larger sweater to finish his own, which just needed the edges to be sealed.

Holding the large sweater, Lin Shuishi hesitated as he sat beside Fuli. After all, he had only ever knitted sweaters for his parents, the people he was closest to in the world.

And now, he was about to give one to this “beast” from another world.

Fuli didn’t quite understand what this thing was. Why was he being asked to wear the fur of other wolves from the pack? Scent was a very sensitive thing.

But Lin Shuishi didn’t concern himself with Fuli’s animal instincts; he was only focused on getting Fuli to put it on. Staying warm was what mattered most.

So, after much fussing back and forth, he finally managed to get Fuli to put the sweater on.

Fuli shifted uncomfortably, but he felt the warmth and started to understand. He looked at Lin Shuishi, who wasn’t wearing one, and asked, “What about you?”

But Lin Shuishi was in a daze.

He stared at Fuli, now dressed in a white sweater that covered his bulging muscles and fierce physique, making him appear somewhat calmer. With his hair tied in a modern style by Lin Shuishi, Fuli’s handsome and steady features made Lin Shuishi feel as if he had been transported back to his own time.

It was as if he hadn’t gone through a bizarre transmigration or struggled to survive in the depths of Dongshan. It felt like he had just taken a nap, and upon waking, he had encountered someone—a unique individual from a species he had never seen in his twenty years of life. And now, it seemed like he should greet this person and say, “Hi! Hello.”

Fuli’s voice brought him back to reality, and Lin Shuishi quickly responded with a simple excuse before blushing and hurriedly running off to the side room to cook, leaving Fuli sitting there, still trying to figure out what had just happened.

At lunch, there were a few potatoes and some meat soup on the table, but most of the food was placed in front of Lin Shuishi. Fuli had a separate dish in front of him—freshly sliced raw beef, seasoned lightly with salt to make up for the fact that Fuli didn’t have access to animal blood.

Fuli, slightly confused, reached for the potatoes in front of Lin Shuishi, but was stopped by him. “That’s cold beef strips; it’s how we eat it,” Lin Shuishi said, taking a small bite to show him.

“With the New Year approaching, a yellow cow in the village died of old age, so the village chief butchered it and distributed the meat to all the households. I received a portion, which Uncle Zheng helped deliver.”

Fuli chewed the beef slowly and replied with a simple “Mm.” The meat was a bit tough, but he ate it all carefully.

After the meal, Lin Shuishi was wiping down the plates, relieved to see that the beef had been eaten clean. Just then, he heard someone softly calling from the doorway, “Shuishi! Shuishi, are you there?” It was Zheng Cheng’an’s voice—among his family, he was the only one who spoke so softly and gently.

When Lin Shuishi opened the door, Zheng Cheng’an didn’t enter the house. Instead, he stood outside, clasped his hands together in a polite gesture, and glanced over Lin Shuishi’s shoulder to make sure no one else was around. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief. “Shuishi, I’ve hired the ox cart. We’ll be leaving soon. Didn’t you say you wanted to go to town to buy some things for the New Year? Get ready, and we’ll head out!” After saying that, he dashed down the slope as if he were afraid someone might chase after him.

Lin Shuishi watched Cheng’an’s hurried departure and sighed slightly. But when he returned to the house, he noticed that Fuli, who had just been sitting inside, was gone. Panic set in, and he searched everywhere, only calming down a bit when he saw that the little white wolf was still sleeping soundly on the kang.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Shuishi decided to tuck the drowsy little cub into the basket he carried on his back. He also made sure to add food and water for the small horse before heading down the slope.

When Cheng’an saw Lin Shuishi coming down, he finally instructed the cart driver to start. However, the ox pulling the cart seemed nervous, frequently disobeying the driver’s commands and even backing up instead of moving forward. It wasn’t until they had struggled out of the village that things improved.

Sitting on the cart, Lin Shuishi watched as the Rehe Village gradually disappeared in the distance. He placed the basket on his chest and covered the still-sleeping little cub with a small blanket.

Having come to this place, Lin Shuishi thought he might as well explore the customs and culture of the area, so it wouldn’t be a wasted trip.

However, what he didn’t notice was that the little white wolf in the basket twitched its ears, cautiously opened its blue eyes, and looked back at the forest behind them several times. After sniffing the air and feeling reassured, the cub stretched, let out a small whimper, and curled up to continue its nap.