It became hotter and hotter each day. Exposed under the blazing sun, the City of Beastmen was as hot as a city of fire—even the air was dry from the heat. In some spots where it was really hot, one could indistinctly see the air moving.
Bai Qingqing even managed to use a black rock that had turned scalding hot under the sun to fry a bird’s egg; it turned out to have a distinctive flavor.
However, it was still rather cooling inside the house. The thick-walled stone house was very effective at keeping the heat out. Especially within this towering castle, it was cool as autumn. Bai Qingqing had been staying indoors and didn’t dare to go out. She recalled that it wasn’t quite as hot last year; perhaps when she arrived at the City of Beastmen last year, the temperature had already lowered.
Parker, who went out early in the morning, returned with two green, black-striped melons the size of a basketball.
“Qingqing, I’ve brought you food. Have you ever seen this type of aquamelon before?”
Watermelon!
Bai Qingqing’s mouth watered instantly, as she recalled the chilled watermelon she frequently ate in the modern world. A coolness spread throughout her body. There were many plants in common between this world and Earth. Hopefully, there’d be grapes.
“You call this aquamelon? My hometown calls it watermelon.” Bai Qingqing licked the corners of her lips as she raised a watermelon and sniffed at it. She could almost smell a cooling sensation from the smell of the green skin.
“Why is it that you have seen everything before?” Parker, planning to give Bai Qingqing a surprise, murmured. All females loved to eat aquamelon because it was cooling. Even bachelor males would specifically look for these to eat.
Curtis curled the melon in Bai Qingqing’s hands to himself using his snake’s tail and gestured a circle on the skin with his fingernails. With a pry, he dug out a goop of mushy watermelon pulp.
“Go ahead and eat it.” Curtis handed the melon to Bai Qingqing.
Bai Qingqing quickly took it from him and started chomping on it. As she ate, she said incoherently, “You guys should eat it too. Don’t just stand there and watch me eat.”
Parker’s heart welled up with satisfaction seeing that Bai Qingqing really enjoyed it. He said, “It’s not easy to find this melon. You can have it all.”
“I can’t finish the entire melon by myself. This melon can’t be left outside for too long, it’s going to spoil in no time. Hurry up and eat, don’t waste it.” Bai Qingqing urged them to join her.
After a moment’s hesitation, Parker pried off a chunk of watermelon with his bare hands. Curtis sniffed the watermelon for a bit, before also cutting a slice for himself. He was surprised to find that it tasted quite alright.
Bai Qingqing knew that they had huge appetites and could definitely finish the entire thing. Hence, she said, “Where’s Winston? Leave some for him.”
“He should be in the fields. I’ll bring it over to him later,” Parker said.
Bai Qingqing nodded. As this watermelon had quite a lot of seeds, with each mouthful she ate she had to chew for a while, before spitting out seven to eight watermelon seeds. When she saw Parker and Curtis swallowing the watermelon flesh together with the seeds, she hurriedly said, “Don’t eat the seeds, let’s keep them for planting.”
Parker smiled and said, “They can’t be grown. If it could be done, we would long have done it. The melon buds are the size of a fist, and the heavy rainy season is about to come.”
“Then let’s keep the seeds and plant them next year,” Bai Qingqing said. Since they could grow in the wilderness, it was possible that they could be manually cultivated.
“Okay,” Parker said.
They finished all but one-quarter of the melon, which Parker wrapped using animal skin. He was prepared to go downstairs when Bai Qingqing followed him.
“I want to come along too.”
Parker stroked Bai Qingqing’s head helplessly. “Aren’t you afraid of the sun?”
Despite his words, Parker didn’t refuse her. He picked up the animal skin lying by the wall to cover Bai Qingqing as the two of them went down the stairs together. Curtis gazed at the glaring sun outside, before shrinking back into the bedroom.
It had not rained for several days, and thin cracks were beginning to appear in the ground. The water level in the river had fallen drastically, revealing a round of mud-colored riverbed.
The owners of every plot of land had come to their lands to irrigate their fields with the river water. The rice paddies were growing very well and were nearly ready for harvest.
Winston was checking on the ripening of the crops when Bai Qingqing shouted out to him, “Winston, we’ve brought you food.”
