Ruan Chanchan waited for Ruan Zique to return home. After learning her lesson, she did not dare to go outside the cave without Ruan Zeqiu returning. She was afraid that if she went out, the mer would come looking for her.
If he caught her in the act, what was she going to do?
She did not dare to take the risk, as for her identity as an idiot, Ruan Chanchan wanted to drag this matter out for a bit longer.
According to Ruan Chanchan, it was better to live like this for a while. At the moment, she did not have a very good idea about this world, and she still needed to learn how to function and work in this tribe.
So she wanted to stay quiet and then deal with this matter carefully.
Once she was sure that she could handle everything, Ruan Chanchan would come up with some tactics to 'get better'.
What's more, if she were to get caught while using the space, she could simply act like an idiot who did not know anything and escape. What could these people do to an idiot?
The more Ruan Chanchan thought, the more she felt that she was on the right track. Now she was only waiting for Ruan Zique to return so that she could head out and have a hearty meal.
It took the mer the entire evening to come back to the cave; by the time he returned, the moon was already shining in the sky, and Ruan Chanchan's stomach was about to become one with her back.
However, Ruan Zique seemed more than upset with something; thus, Ruan Chanchan didn't say anything and kept her complaints to herself. He turned to look at Ruan Chanchan as soon as he stepped inside the cave and muttered, "Things will be troublesome from now on, sister. The team that went to bring salt hasn't returned; we don't know how the tribe will make do without salt."
Ruan Chanchan didn't say anything. After all, this body was an idiot who couldn't understand anything and liked to stay quiet unless she was bothered by someone. Ruan Zique just liked to speak with his sister, as he believed that one day his sister would slowly get better.
What was more, Ruan Chanchan was his only family member. As a young mer, Ruan Zique wanted to have the same warmth as other mers around his age, where he could relay what was bothering him and have someone to back him up.
He crouched down in front of Ruan Chanchan with his arms resting on his knees and muttered, "I don't know what happened to the team, but despite the fact that they were supposed to return tonight, neither of them returned. No one knows where they are or what they are doing. Tribe leader Xie wanted to send someone to look for the team, but the elders refused."
"They believe that the team were most probably attacked and they have lost their lives. No one wants to look for the team," he sighed and rubbed his head with his free hand. "Almost all our salt was taken away by Daddy Zhou; he refuses to return even a dime of it now that the team has gone missing."
Ruan Chanchan frowned when she heard the mention of Daddy Zhou; it was only after a rather deep search that she found out who this character was. Daddy Zhou was the second mate of Mother Ruan, but after Mother Ruan passed away, Daddy Zhou left her and Ruan Zeqiu alone and mated with another strong warrior-type woman.
Though he was already mated to another woman, Daddy Zhou still loved to flaunt his seniority and take advantage of Ruan Chanchan and Ruan Zeqiu.
After all, Ruan Zeqiu did not stay at home all day long, and Ruan Chanchan was just a fool who did not know how to perceive danger. Daddy Zhou would coax her with some sweet nuts and then take away the salt at home. Now they only had a little amount of salt left in their cave.
Even though Ruan Zeqiu fought with Daddy Zhou, that mer was shameless. He refused to return the salt and always said that he was just borrowing, but he had never returned anything.
As his mate was a strong woman, no one offended Daddy Zhou.
Ruan Chanchan felt a burst of anger. However, she couldn't give herself away. Anyway, she had enough salt in her space that could be used; there was no need for her to rush.
She then turned to look at Ruan Zeqiu, who was still looking worried and raised her hand before ruffling his hair.
Ruan Zeqiu, who had never expected his sister to understand that he was troubled, was stunned. He raised his head and looked at Ruan Chanchan, who praised in a soft voice, "Good boy."
As soon as Ruan Zeqiu heard Ruan Chanchan's voice, his eyes turned red and his nose felt sore. Other than the screams of his sister, he had never heard her say another word. Even when he was crying, she was looking stupidly at the wall as if she had no idea what was going on.
Even when their daddy died, his sister stayed foolish. He cried until he was out of breath, but she did not even realize that their daddy was gone.
Sometimes Ruan Zeqiu felt frustrated taking care of such a foolish sister; however, at the same time, his sister was the only family member left in this world, and Ruan Zeqiu didn't want to lose her.
What was more, his sister would turn around every now and then and give him the warmth that he had been looking for every second of his life.
"haha… Am I good? Of course, look at who my sister is," Ruan Zeqiu remarked as he looked at Ruan Chanchan with a dewy smile. He leaned down and hugged Ruan Chanchan before saying, "I wish you were normal, sister... If you were, then I wouldn't have to be so strong all the time. I am so scared wuwuwu—what are we going to do? Without the salt, our meat will be ruined in this weather. I am scared to go on a hunt every day."
He sobbed wretchedly. He wasn't scared of the beasts, but what he was worried about was that if one day something unexpected happened and he died, then his foolish sister wouldn't even know what went wrong. She would wait in the cave for him to bring back food like a fool.
The sight alone was enough to make Ruan Zeqiu's heart clench with worry and sadness.