Inside the stone house, everyone's gaze was drawn to the bowl of white rice porridge on the table.
Amy also looked at her mother with expectant eyes. In the past, her mother had always saved the rice porridge for her. It would surely be the same this time.
"I'll go serve another bowl." Tyler was just about to move when a soft little hand rested on his shoulder.
"Don't. She doesn't deserve my porridge," Ophelia said coldly, glaring at Amy from the corner of her eye.
Did they really think she didn't know? In the past, every bowl of rice porridge she had saved by going hungry herself had been served to Miche by Amy, shared between them to show off their touching 'mother-daughter' bond. Now, this ungrateful little wretch could forget about getting even a single bite of food from her.
"Ophelia, you're going too far. Any other mother would save her rice porridge for her cub. Why are you so selfish? You even said Amy doesn't deserve it!" Miche pulled Amy into her arms protectively and rebuked her.
The veins on Loki's forehead bulged with anger. "You are so selfish! No wonder Amy doesn't like you as her mother and prefers Miche instead. She even wants to acknowledge her as her mother."
Words like these could no longer pierce Ophelia's heart. She remained expressionless, looking down on them with a dismissive gaze and a nonchalant tone. "Yes, yes, yes, you're absolutely right. Letting your little female cub stoop so low as to stare at the rice porridge in someone else's bowl just shows what a failure and how useless you are as a father!"
"You are her mother, not someone else."
"Hah! Did you bring this rice? Or did you cook this porridge? I seem to remember that even during my postpartum recovery, you didn't get me a single bite of rice porridge.
"You haven't even cared about my meals or drinks for the past five years. Tyler is the one who has been taking care of me. As a male, having another male take care of your mate makes you truly pathetic.
"It's not embarrassing to admit your own incompetence, Loki," she said, every word striking his face like a slap.
Loki's face flushed bright red, but he couldn't find a reason to refute her. It was true that he hadn't cared about Ophelia's food and drink for the past five years because he had given all his hunted prey to Miche. The amount of prey he received from each group hunt was limited, leaving him with no extra food for Ophelia. Since she hadn't starved to death, he had simply pretended not to know.
Amy stood beside them, utterly dumbfounded. She had always thought that the endless supply of meat and occasional fresh fruit at home had been brought by her father. She never expected that Tyler was the one who hunted them. Even though she was young, she knew that males were supposed to take on the responsibility of caring for their mates once they partnered with a female. She couldn't quite understand her father's behavior.
Stripped of his dignity in front of the woman he loved, Loki clenched his fists until his knuckles cracked.
A trace of impatience appeared on Ophelia's face. "Out with it. What do you want?"
Remembering her own face, Amy took a step forward, looking utterly pathetic. "Mother, Father has found the aloe vera, but we can't tell which type is non-toxic. We wanted to ask you to help us take a look."
"Ophelia, you are Amy's mother, after all. Surely you can't bear to see her suffer endlessly, right?" Miche smiled gently, looking like an innocent little angel, yet her words carried a heavy undertone of moral blackmail.
"I can't tell them apart either. I only know after testing them myself every time. Since you're so worried about her, why don't you test it on your own face? One of them is bound to be non-toxic, anyway. It just depends on your luck.
"Or you could do it, Loki. After all, you can't bear to see your daughter suffer, let alone allow your beloved to get hurt, right?" Ophelia blinked, then put on an expression of someone ready to enjoy a good show.
She scoffed inwardly. Two could play at the guilt-tripping game.
Loki furrowed his brows tightly, but he truly didn't have the face to force Ophelia to test the medicine now. The three of them had arrived in high spirits, but in the end, they left with their tails between their legs.
"I'll go heat the porridge for you," Tyler said.
Ophelia stopped him. "I need some beast skins. Tyler, do you have any left?" She touched her nose guiltily.
"I still have one wolf skin. Are... are you going to make a beast skin skirt for Loki?" He had originally intended to keep this wolf skin for himself for the winter. Sure enough, no matter how fiercely the Princess threw a tantrum, she still loved Loki deep down. He lowered his head, hiding his disappointment from her.
"How is that possible? Make a beast skin skirt for him? Have I gone mad? Don't worry, I have a use for it myself. I'll pay you back in a couple of days."
A single wolf skin could be exchanged for 200 points, which would give her enough points for the next wave of rice planting. Once she harvested all the rice, she could easily trade for beast skins at the trading market.
"Okay, I'll go get it in a bit," Tyler replied, his tone turning brisk and his eyes brightening significantly.
"Great," Ophelia smiled sweetly.
After dinner, she returned to the farm space to harvest the rice. By noon the next day, the 200 catties of rice were finally harvested. The farm space was truly reliable; the harvested rice was directly husked and transformed into plump, white grains of rice. Smelling the faint fragrance of the rice, she felt that everything had been worth it. She then exchanged the wolf skin for 200 points, racing against time to plant a hundred square meters of rice.
Before Tyler arrived to deliver lunch, she took out fifty catties of rice from the System Space, wrapped it in the only remaining beast skin blanket in her room, and placed it into a woven vine basket.
"Princess, this is..." As soon as Tyler entered the room, he sharply caught the fragrance of rice. He was astounded to see a whole basket filled with it.
"Shh, it's a secret." Ophelia placed a finger to her lips and winked at him. "Let's finish eating quickly. We're going to the trading market to exchange things later."
"You should keep this rice to eat yourself, Princess. If you want anything, I'll go hunt it for you."
Ophelia shook her head. "Listen to me. No arguments."
After lunch, Tyler led Ophelia to the Beast World trading market. Though called a trading market, it was actually just a clearing at the edge of the forest. People simply spread a beast skin on the ground, laid out the items they wanted to trade, and waited for someone in need to barter with them.
In the Beast World, grain was in high demand. Without needing to shout for customers, Ophelia merely displaying the rice was enough to attract the attention of all the 'merchants' and 'customers' present.
"It isn't even the season for rice to mature. Where did you get so much rice, little female?" an excited male with short black hair asked.
"It's a secret." Despite the male's excitement, Ophelia remained utterly nonchalant.
"My name is Gavin. My mate just gave birth and is in her postpartum recovery. Can I trade some Crystal Stones with you for some rice?"
Rice typically matured in the autumn, and it was still only summer. He had been waiting at the trading market for half a month without coming across any rice. Now that he finally encountered some, he was determined to trade for it no matter what.
"I'm even willing to pay double the price," Gavin added, the corners of his eyes turning red at the thought of his weak mate recovering at home.
"There's no need. A standard trade will do: ten prey animals or one Red Crystal Stone for a one-catty bag of rice. No limit on quantities." Ophelia quoted a fair trading price, refusing to hike it up just because there was a grain shortage in the summer.
As for the lack of a purchase limit, it was because she needed to recoup her funds quickly to exchange for points. Later on, she would impose limits to prevent malicious hoarding and price gouging.
"I... I have an Orange Crystal Stone right here. Can I really trade it for ten bags of rice?"
"Of course, but you'll need to bring your own Beast Skin Bags. I don't have any here." Beast skins could be exchanged for points, so she couldn't bear to craft them into Beast Skin Bags just to hold grain.