Strangeness came from the fact that this wasn’t where Xia Yu had previously left the brown bear, but familiarity came from the resemblance to the cave where the bear had originally been.
Stepping out of the cave, Xia Yu surveyed the surroundings and confirmed this was indeed the location where the bear had initially been. He had run so far to take the bear away from the village, only for the bear to return on its own.
Should he run again? Xia Yu considered the idea but soon gave it up.
If the bear could come back once, it could do so a second or third time. As long as the bear wanted to return, no matter how far Xia Yu took it, he would still end up seeing this familiar cave again.
Only by making the bear willing could it truly leave.
So why, after leaving, did the bear still come back here?
The only possibility Xia Yu could think of was that masked girl.
Had this bear actually developed feelings for that girl?
Humans and bears are different, and besides, they were even the same gender!
Internally grumbling, Xia Yu lay at the mouth of the cave, letting the breeze blow over him.
Knowing the bear’s reason for not leaving, Xia Yu still couldn’t resolve it. He couldn’t do anything to the girl anyway.
Forget it, he would just stay here.
He gave up resisting.
These days, he would work hard to level his skills up to LV3 or LV4, and that would be enough. Then the bear would no longer be useful and wouldn’t need to be kept around anymore.
Thinking this, he turned over and started running around the area.
He applied twenty experience cards to himself.
Running like this until noon, his stamina had reached LV3, and his strength had reached LV1. While running, his strength also received a bit of training, so its level had improved as well.
Dragging his tired and hungry bear body, Xia Yu came to a nearby stream and drank water greedily first.
After drinking, he began catching fish.
With his dexterity at LV4, no fish could escape his palms.
He dug another small pit, connected it to the stream, and placed the caught fish inside, then began thinking about how to eat them.
Previously, when he used the bear’s body, he hadn’t felt hunger because the bear had already eaten its fill beforehand. This time, the bear had probably rushed back without eating, causing the body to feel hungry.
He looked at the fish in the pit and frowned.
Should he eat them raw?
Or should he make a fire by drilling wood?
He gathered some branches from the nearby woods and made his first attempt, which ended in failure.
What he knew about drilling wood for fire was still from cartoons that You Xue had watched; he had never actually seen anyone do it for real.
Maybe he should try drier wood?
He went back into the forest and collected an armful of branches to bring back to the stream.
At the stream, he encountered the masked girl again.
The masked girl was looking at the fish in the pit, puzzled about how the fish had gotten there on their own.
Seeing Xia Yu, she eagerly came to stand in front of him. Noticing the branches in his hands, she didn’t touch him as she usually did but instead stood aside, puzzled.
Carrying the branches, Xia Yu came to the edge of the pit. He placed a large piece of bark on the ground, pressed it down with his hind paw, added some dry grass, and then held a branch with his two front paws, vigorously rubbing it.
The branch rubbed against the smooth bark—once, twice, rubbing again and again, like devilish steps rubbing on this smooth bark.
However, Xia Yu didn’t even see a spark, let alone fire.
He tried another branch and changed his posture, attempting again, but still couldn’t make fire.
After an hour of this, he stood up, threw the branch on the ground, and kicked the bark into the water.
He sat down to one side, trying to use his aura to suppress his hunger.
At this time, the masked girl, who had sat on a rock for an hour watching, finally moved.
She picked up the branches Xia Yu had thrown away, gathered them into a pile, and placed some dry grass in the middle.
From the small bag on her back, she took out a box of matches and lit the dry grass.
Fire quickly ignited.
Turning her head, the girl looked at Xia Yu.
Xia Yu didn’t know what expression he should have now.
You had matches all along? Why didn’t you take them out earlier? You just watched me for an hour like this?
Luckily, the bear’s face made it hard to detect any expression changes.
Coming to the edge of the pit, Xia Yu skewered the fish with branches and placed them beside the fire.
He didn’t know how to grill fish, but he assumed it would be better than eating them raw.
After skewering all the fish, the masked girl took them all out again, took a knife from her small bag, processed the fish, and skewered them again.
Xia Yu clenched his fists. If it weren’t for the fact that she was a girl, he would have let her taste a bear’s punch.
After grilling for a while, the girl turned the fish.
Repeating this several times, the simple grilled fish was done.
Xia Yu picked up a skewer and took a bite.
This grilled fish without any seasoning normally wouldn’t taste good, but Xia Yu was now using the bear’s body, and a bear’s sense of taste was different from a human’s.
At least the bear thought it was okay.
After eating a round of fish and picking up the last one, Xia Yu hesitated, then handed it to the girl as payment. The remaining few fish in the pit were also given to the girl.
Understanding his meaning from his gestures, the girl first accepted the grilled fish and took off her mask.
Xia Yu’s gaze froze for a moment.
Under the mask, as he had expected, was a beautiful face, but the beauty was somewhat excessive.
Unlike An Siyao’s ethereal elegance or Xu Youxiang’s petite cuteness, the girl had an enchanting face.
Those hazy peach-blossom eyes and that red, glistening lip stirred some undesirable thoughts in Xia Yu’s heart.
Unaware of the danger, the girl opened her mouth and bit into the grilled fish, and this action made her even more seductive.
With great willpower, Xia Yu controlled himself. Now he understood why the girl always wore a mask.
Sneaking glances at the girl for a while, Xia Yu suddenly felt that the bear returning wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. If the bear hadn’t come back, he wouldn’t have seen the girl’s true face.
No, with such an elf-like face, calling her a girl might not be appropriate.
Come to think of it, if her face was exceptional, what about her figure?
Xia Yu began scrutinizing the girl’s ordinary clothes.
Without continuing to practice endurance, Xia Yu spent some time playing with the girl before returning to his own body.
Sitting on the bed, he was still recalling the girl’s appearance.
This was just a normal recollection of seeing something beautiful. Xia Yu wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to get every beautiful girl he saw.
Otherwise, he would have already tricked Yan Wei into his arms long ago.
Just as he thought of Yan Wei, Xia Yu received a call from her.
Pressing the answer button, Xia Yu was puzzled about why Yan Wei would call him after already meeting An Siyao.
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