CHAPTER 173: EATING THE POISONOUS MUSHROOMS

"What can I talk to her about?" Yuan Ni turned and looked at Shao Xia with a frown on his face. He was waiting for Shao Xia to say some kind and warm words to him, but instead of saying anything nice, she was actually looking at him with suspicion in her eyes. Seeing the suspicion in her eyes, his warm heart suddenly cooled down.

The calm happiness that he felt when he was with Ruan Chanchan washed away right away, and his lungs slowly filled with nothing but a chilling coldness that made him suck in a heavy breath.

Shao Xia was still suspicious, as she didn’t know what Yuan Ni and Ruan Chanchan talked about when Yuan Ni went to the cave. Though her heart was filled with doubts, she still smiled at the mer and softly cooed at him. "Alright, why are you getting angry? Isn’t it because I was worried about you? I thought Ruan Chanchan made things difficult for you; you know how she is. The last time she made such a ruckus was because she wanted to suppress the chief with her antics. Look, didn’t she succeed? I was worried that you would fall in the same trap."

Though Shao Xia was disgusted, she knew that if she wanted to achieve her end goal, she had to play along with this mer.

"Shao Xia, you should live a good life and take care of my grandmother. I am doing this for you; this is the least you can do for me," said Yuan Ni. He was still unwilling to give up and hoped that Shao Xia would care for him like she did for Xie Daiyu. Even though he was not as strong and popular as Xie Daiyu, he still wished to be loved and cared for after sacrificing his life.

"Don’t worry, since I have promised you that I will take care of your grandmother, I will certainly do that for you," said Shao Xia, her tone filled with impatience as she waved her hand. "Just hurry up and stew the poisonous mushrooms that you brought and eat them. Make sure that you eat them in front of the entire tribe, or else Ruan Chanchan would escape. She always has been a slimy little sneaky thing."

Shao Xia wanted to trap Ruan Chanchan and make sure that she wouldn’t be able to escape from this scheme that she had dug for her.

Yuan Ni wanted to say a few more things, but when he heard the impatience in Shao Xia’s tone, he could only lower his head and swallow the words of concern that he wanted to say. Something felt amiss, but he just couldn’t understand what it was. Maybe he did know the truth in his heart, but he just didn’t want to reach out and see it clearly.

Yuan Ni pulled out the mushrooms that he had brought with him and went to the square where the tribe’s people cooked their meals. His heart felt cold, and his mind kept telling him that he was making a mistake, but at the same time, he couldn’t pull his leg back.

All his life, ever since he was young, he had liked and cared for Shao Xia. And now that he finally had her beside him, he just couldn’t accept that the woman he liked was this rotten and cruel. He still hoped that maybe when he was lying on his deathbed, Shao Xia would be filled with regret. Maybe she would be hurt—maybe she would be in pain.

Yuan Ni put the poisonous mushrooms in the pot in which he was making the soup and started to stew them together with the bones. He heard Ruan Chanchan say that these things tasted really good. Since he was going to die anyway, he might as well die after eating something delicious.

Priestess Yuan was watching all of this coldly. While Yuan Ni thought that no one was paying attention to him, his grandmother was looking at him all this time. She saw how the mer stupidly listened to Shao Xia and even placed his life at high risk for her. She was part disgusted and part sorry for her grandson. Maybe she was the one at fault. She should have given more time to her grandson; then maybe he wouldn’t have latched on to Shao Xia’s fake kindness.

However, even though she knew what was happening, Priestess Yuan didn’t stop it. She knew that even if she stopped her grandson, with the influence that Shao Xia had on him, he would certainly not listen to her. And even if she stopped him today, who knows what he might do in the future? At least this time around, he still had some chances to survive.

As for whether those chances would work in his favour or not, Priestess Yuan didn’t have the slightest bit of an idea. At present, she could only hope that things would work out in favour of her grandson. Even though what she was doing was harsh and cold, Priestess Yuan knew that this was the only way for her to teach her unruly grandson a lesson.

To think he would put his precious life at risk for a woman like Shao Xia, he deserved this punishment.

As for the rest, she would leave it in the hands of Ruan Chanchan.

Yuan Ni stirred the bone broth with the poisonous mushrooms, unbeknownst to what was happening around him. While his attention was fixed on the soup, his good friend, Su Mo, walked over. He looked at the soup that was bubbling on the common fire that the chief started a few days ago, after borrowing the burning flame from Ruan Chanchan and threw his arm over Yuan Ni’s shoulder.

"Yum. It looks really good. Can you share some with me?" Su Mo asked while eyeing the soup inside the pot, as the poisonous mushrooms had been cooked, he had no idea what Yuan Ni had done.

Yuan Ni: !!