Barto cursed under his breath as he shoved Cook toward the table. "Get to the table and eat. Even if you’re a dog, you’re eating at my table."
Seeing Barto swearing so energetically, Gu Ning let out a small sigh of relief.
"What time did you go to bed last night?" Barto asked Gu Ning, stifling a yawn.
Gu Ning held up her hand, showing him five fingers.
"Why so late?" Barto frowned. "From now on, if you don’t finish your work, just do it the next day. You’re not..." He paused, then said, "Your small frame can’t handle staying up like this. Go get some more sleep after breakfast."
Upon hearing this, Seth asked curiously, "Little Boss, what were you busy with?"
Gu Ning and Barto both glanced at the clear-eyed young wolf.
"None of your business," Barto said casually, tidying up his bedding before going to wash up.
Gu Ning’s gaze shifted from Barto to Seth, who had obediently fallen silent.
She noticed that it wasn’t just Cook; even Barto seemed to trust him more than the other wolves.
This young wolf possessed a kind of pure quality similar to Cook’s.
"Seth." Gu Ning stared at the obediently sitting young wolf for a moment, then pointed to herself. "Who... am I?"
"Huh?" Seth scratched his head. "You’re the Little Boss."
Hearing this, a suspicion in Gu Ning’s mind was halfway confirmed.
It was possible that Seth still didn’t know she was female.
Gu Ning looked at Seth as if he were some kind of rare creature.
’Other than not showing my face, I haven’t really tried to hide anything else from him, but the way Seth looks at me and interacts with me hasn’t changed much at all.’
’Looks like Alex didn’t tell him a thing.’
"Little Boss," Seth said, pushing a bowl of meat buns toward Gu Ning. "Did you have a fight with the Boss?"
Gu Ning froze.
Seth said, "The Boss has been too busy lately to look after you. Don’t be mad. We’ll hang out with you."
After speaking, he pulled a few Inhibitors from his pocket and placed them in front of Gu Ning. "Little Boss, these are ones I saved up myself. It’s okay if you’re mad at the Boss, just don’t be mad at me."
Gu Ning looked at the few High-level inhibitors, which were glowing with a faint blue light, and felt an urge to both laugh and cry.
’This young wolf really has no idea I’m a female? If I took off my head covering right now, would I scare him to death?’
Gu Ning thought, a hint of mischief in her mind.
Seth reached out and gently patted her on the shoulder. "Little Boss, you don’t have to be scared. The Boss definitely won’t abandon you. He’ll take you back to Zone 5 and won’t let anyone bully you again. He doesn’t discriminate against Mixed Breeds, and neither do I. I... okay, well, I’m actually a little scared of Mixed Breeds deep down."
Gu Ning looked at him.
Seth quickly waved his hands to explain. "I don’t mean it like that! Mixed Breeds are just too strong in a fight. I..."
He gritted his teeth and said, "When I was little, a Mixed Breed beat me to the ground. They nearly bit my ear off. I get spooked whenever I see a Mixed Breed, so I avoid them if I can."
Gu Ning thought about how, ever since she’d met Seth, he had never shown any signs of avoidance or disgust toward her. He’d always been friendly to Cook, too.
Despite being afraid, he still treated them with the utmost kindness.
She looked into Seth’s eyes, as clear and pure as Cook’s, and a soft, bittersweet feeling bloomed in her heart.
"I’m not mad at you," she wrote on a piece of paper.
’Alex and his pack of wolves aren’t bad Beastmen.’
’She was just afraid of being mistaken for a Mimic Mixed Species; if that happened, her life would be over.’
After being captured several times on suspicion of being a Mimic Mixed Species, it had become her greatest existential fear and a deep-seated trauma.
In Zone 19, even if she couldn’t make money shooting videos, she could still survive by scavenging. But if she were caught as a Mimic Mixed Species, her fate would be no better than being captured by Kuinan.
Not every Beastman was like Andrew, who could tell she was female at a glance and calmly declare that she wasn’t a Mimic Mixed Species.
But after this experience, the fear and trauma that had built up inside her felt like they were slowly being released, like air from a leaking balloon. Her heart had settled considerably, and the path forward seemed much clearer and more certain.
This was something she would have had to face sooner or later, and thankfully, the outcome wasn’t so bad.
If she ever encountered a similar situation in the future, she now knew how to handle it.
When Seth finished reading what Gu Ning had written, his face instantly broke into a wide smile.
’As long as the Little Boss isn’t mad at me, that’s all that matters,’ he thought. The atmosphere between the Little Boss and the Boss had felt really off these past few days. Even though he stood guard downstairs every day, the Boss wouldn’t let him, Kloer, or the others get close to the Little Boss.
’Thinking about everything that had happened recently, he wondered if the Little Boss was angry or disappointed with them because the Boss hadn’t been there to protect him. Most of the Mixed Breeds who ended up in a place like Zone 19 had been abandoned by their own kind and found it hard to trust anyone again.’