ABFMV Chapter 1 Part 2

Remembering that plot, Xu Linlang shivered. This was a critical moment.

If she couldn’t protect that beastman today, then death was truly written in her fate.

But she didn’t even know what that beastman looked like. The game hadn’t provided any description—just the vague term “little beastman.”

Xu Linlang looked around, but no one brought her any tea.

The butler hurried forward and asked attentively, “Young Miss, is there anything you need?”

Xu Linlang: “Do you have black tea? I’d like some.”

Since she couldn’t wait for the beastman to appear, she would take the initiative.

When the beastman came to serve her tea, she planned to keep him by her side and treat him well.

This beastman had once shown kindness to Qi Ye. If she was good to him, then when it came to breaking off the engagement, maybe Qi Ye wouldn’t kill her?

But very quickly, Xu Linlang realized she was wrong.

Especially when the table before her was suddenly piled high with every variety of black tea in the galaxy.

She looked at the nobles, all eager for praise, and was left speechless.

After a long pause, she finally said, “Actually… just call over an ordinary beastman servant.”

The nobles all shook their heads furiously, like rattles. “Impossible! With your noble status, how could a lowly beastman be allowed near you?”

The butler agreed immediately: “Exactly, exactly! Those beastmen are clumsy and rough-handed—they don’t know how to serve properly.”

Xu Linlang: “……”

If that was true, then how had the beastman in the game managed to serve tea to the original Xu Linlang?

Could it be that it wasn’t about tea at all? Had she misunderstood the entire scenario?!

As she wrestled with her thoughts, the butler’s amplified voice rang out over the round arena floor.

“Before the gladiators begin their real fight, why don’t we start with a little appetizer? A mighty lion versus a weak cat—some blood to stir our senses, shall we?”

The crowd roared with excitement, their emotions whipped into a frenzy, their shouting almost deafening.

The butler was pleased with their reaction and signaled for the cages to be opened.

“The hunt begins!”

A lion stepped out of its cage, mane bristling, pacing with irritation.

For maximum effect, it had been starved for two whole days.

Its eyes scanned the arena and quickly locked onto a small white kitten placed in the center.

The kitten was emaciated, filthy, but its pale golden eyes were strikingly beautiful.

So tiny, it was no match for the lion.

The lion roared and pounced. The kitten barely dodged, avoiding a fatal blow, but its belly was ripped open in the process.

Blood poured across the sand as the little white bundle collapsed, trembling.

It turned its head away from the lion, neither begging for mercy nor fleeing.

It looked ready to die with its last shred of dignity.

Strange.

Cats had no expressions, yet Xu Linlang clearly read emotions in its pale golden eyes.

Numbness. Coldness. Hopelessness.

No anger, no struggle. As if all feeling had long been extinguished.

Those warm-colored eyes were icy, devoid of life.

It seemed as if it wanted nothing more than to die.

A death-seeking cat?

Xu Linlang was stunned.

The audience, however, grew even more excited, reveling in the cruelty.

“Tear it apart already!”

“Eat it! Weaklings don’t deserve to live!”

“Do it!!!”

Surrounded by jeers, even the lion lost interest in playing with the motionless kitten.

It pressed its claws like iron nails into the kitten’s wrist, ready to bite through its throat—

Xu Linlang shot to her feet. “Stop!”

Perhaps it was her bleeding-heart nature, but she couldn’t bear to watch such cruelty.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized how foolish she sounded.

What good was shouting? She couldn’t snatch a kitten from a lion’s jaws.

She clapped her hands over her eyes, bracing for blood.

But what happened next made her realize her outburst had worked.

A protective barrier shimmered to life over the kitten, a blue arc shielding it from harm.

At the butler’s command, beastman guards swarmed into the arena, surrounding the lion.

The starving beast tried to fight back, but overwhelmed by numbers, it was muzzled and shoved back into its cage, bewildered.

The bloodthirsty shouts froze midair, then slowly shifted:

“That lion was awful! How could it bully such a tiny kitten?”

Xu Linlang: ……

So this was the power of money.

The butler beamed, eager for credit. “Young Miss, see? The kitten is safe, all thanks to my quick thinking.”

But a young noble behind her muttered angrily, “Bullshit. I was the one who threw the barrier to protect it!”

The butler bristled. “If I hadn’t contained the lion, how long would your flimsy barrier have lasted?!”

The noble scoffed. “Mine’s advanced tech. Yours is just primitive brute force!”

Xu Linlang: “…?”

They were… fighting over this?

She gave them both polite smiles, one each, perfectly balanced. “Either way, thank you both.”

Both men: !

Did they hear that right?! The arrogant Miss Xu actually said thank you?

The young lady who never spared anyone a glance?

Overwhelmed with joy, they both fell silent, grinning like fools.

Meanwhile, Xu Linlang looked back at the sand—and caught the kitten secretly watching her.

Only for it to quickly turn its gaze away.

Author’s Note:

Recommending my good friend 【He Zheng】’s novel Good Night, Mr. Wen.

When Wen Zheng was young, he once met someone he truly liked—a girl from the neighboring school, short-haired, someone he bumped into daily outside the gates until affection bloomed.

He never learned her grade, nor her name. After the college entrance exams, he followed her for two streets, but a bus cut them off, and his first love ended before it began.

Years later, he was forced to marry the woman his family chose—ordinary, indistinct, bland as a houseplant. Their divorce, when it came, felt like nothing more than losing a piece of furniture.

Until that same day, fate brought them both to the same bar.

Across the table, she cradled a small glass of sake, smiling with a hint of regret and release.

“In high school,” she said softly, “I liked you.”

“You once followed me down two streets.”

Among all the stories I’ve heard, longed for, dreamed of, or obsessed over—this one remained.