She looked at the faces of her companions, each one filled with expectation, fear, and despair, and then gazed at the wisp of smoke in the distance, stubbornly drifting in the cold wind, a symbol of a glimmer of hope.
Finally, a resolute glint flashed in her once captivating eyes.
"Okay! I'll go!"
She leaned against the rock wall, struggling to her feet. Although her body was weak from prolonged hunger and cold, her voice was unusually firm: "Sisters, give me all the cleanest, most presentable, and... well, show some feminine charm you have on you. Also, does anyone have anything that can be used as a mirror?"
Upon hearing this, the women grasped at it as if it were their last lifeline and immediately sprang into action in a flurry of activity.
They contributed the few remaining pieces of cloth they had that could barely cover their bodies, and hurriedly helped Su Wanqing wrap herself in several more layers of clothing over her tattered clothes, trying to make her look less disheveled.
Tang Bao tore a relatively clean piece of fabric from her equally tattered Lolita dress and carefully wiped the dirt off Su Wanqing's cheeks.
Qian Xiaoxiao contributed a small fragment of a small makeup mirror that she had secretly hidden, which was inlaid with small diamonds.
Su Wanqing took the mirror and looked at her reflection—a sallow complexion, chapped lips, and tangled, straw-like hair—and gave a bitter smile.
In the past, she wouldn't have been able to stand looking at herself with this appearance, let alone "seduce" men.
But now, this is her and her companions' only gamble.
She took a deep breath and tried to rehearse in her mind the expressions and postures she had played in countless movies and TV dramas that most aroused men's protective and possessive instincts.
She believed that as long as she showed some of the gentle methods she usually disdained to use and put on a pitiful appearance, she could succeed.
Even if the man who built the wooden house was as hard-hearted as iron, he should still have some reaction when faced with such a "beauty" offering herself up.
At that time, let alone getting a share, even if we had to hand over this wooden house...
Well, this might be a bit far-fetched, but at least it's not impossible to give these poor women a place to stay.
"That's fine then." Su Wanqing returned the glasses to Qian Xiaoxiao and tried to straighten her back, which was hunched over from hunger.
She imitated the socialite character she had once played in a drama, swaying with what she considered the most captivating and man-pleasing gait, as she walked step by step toward Lin Feng's wooden house.
The cold wind blew her disheveled hair and tattered clothes, adding a touch of poignant beauty and brokenness to her appearance.
The other five women nervously hid behind rocks and trees in the distance, watching her back intently.
At this moment, Lin Feng had just finished processing a snowclaw lynx he had recently hunted, a forest predator with thick fur and exceptionally sharp claws and teeth.
This lynx is extremely fast and fierce. If he hadn't set up a clever lasso trap and fought hard, it would have been very difficult to capture it.
He was squatting on a flat, large rock in front of the wooden house, carefully scraping the fat and fascia from the inside of the lynx's skin with a sharp stone, preparing to tan this fine pelt using a traditional method he had figured out himself.
This thick fur coat can not only provide him with more warmth, but it can also be sewn into a more cold-resistant garment.
Suddenly, his hearing, which had become exceptionally sharp from living in the wilderness for so long, caught a rustling sound that did not belong to the normal activities of forest animals. The footsteps were very light, deliberately slowed down, yet somewhat weak and feeble.
He raised an eyebrow, his eyes instantly turning wary and cold.
He continued scraping the stone flake in his hand at a leisurely pace, but his other hand quietly picked up the heavy stone axe that had accompanied him through countless crises and been stained with the blood of many wild beasts. His gaze flashed like lightning towards the direction from which the sound came.
Soon, a figure appeared in his field of vision, slowly emerging from behind a sparse coniferous forest.
Even though Lin Feng had developed a deep-seated hatred for women due to his past experiences, to the point of disgust, he was still slightly taken aback when he saw who it was.
She was a woman, a woman whose stunning beauty could not be concealed even though she was dressed like a beggar and her face was covered in grime and dirt.
She was haphazardly wrapped in several pieces of tattered cloth of different colors and textures, which could not completely cover her body, revealing large areas of skin that were blue or even purplish-red from the cold. Her hair was messy like a bird's nest, and her face was dirty, making it impossible to recognize her.
But those big, watery eyes that once shone brightly and captivated audiences in front of countless cameras.
At this moment, she looked at Lin Feng with just the right amount of timidity.
When Su Wanqing saw Lin Feng's sharp eyes looking over, she thought to herself, "It worked! He noticed me!"
She immediately put on a delicate smile that she had practiced countless times in front of the mirror, a smile she believed would best evoke a man's protective instincts and pity.
She tried her best to make her voice sound gentle and delicate, even with a hint of a sob, and timidly began, "This...this...brother...you...hello..."
She paused deliberately, a thin layer of mist quickly gathering in her watery eyes. Seeing that Lin Feng was just staring at her expressionlessly, with the stone axe in his hand still radiating a cold light, she couldn't help but feel a tightness in her heart.
She cursed him inwardly as "a clueless blockhead," but she still forced herself to continue, "We...we're lost, and we haven't eaten for days. We're all freezing and starving. Could you...could you have some mercy and give us something to eat, and let us...take shelter under your warm roof...take shelter from this deadly cold?"
As she spoke, she made a concerted effort to showcase her already impressive curves to the fullest, even through her tattered clothes.
His eyes were full of the implication that "I'll give you anything if you agree."
She believed that in this isolated, desolate place, where food and clothing were scarce, no man could resist the temptation of a beautiful, once high and mighty star who was now throwing herself at him. Even if he were a eunuch, he would still have some reaction!
However, Lin Feng's reaction was far beyond her expectations, and like the sharpest icicle, it shattered all her confidence.
Lin Feng simply looked her over coldly, as if examining an inanimate object, from head to toe, and then from toe to head.
His gaze was so sharp it could pierce her very bones, seeing through all her schemes, hypocrisy, and self-righteous tricks.
There was no surprise, no pity, and not a trace of being captivated by her beauty in his eyes.
In his eyes, this suddenly appearing, overly "refined" and affected woman was more like a potential threat, a parasite trying to gain without effort and consume his precious resources.
"You? Who else?"
Lin Feng's voice was deep and cold, devoid of any emotion, as biting as the coldest wind in the primeval forest, instantly freezing the ambiguous atmosphere that Su Wanqing had carefully created.
Su Wanqing's heart skipped a beat; this reaction was wrong!
This isn't how the script should be! Is this man blind? Or is he not even a man at all?
But she forced herself to force a smile that looked worse than a grimace, her voice becoming even softer and more seductive, with a deliberate tremor: "And...and my sisters, they...they're all dying, they're all terribly ill, their bodies are failing, only I...only I'm still relatively healthy, so I risked coming out to try and survive..."
As she spoke, her eyes reddened, and a few well-prepared tears rolled down her cheeks at just the right moment. "Brother, please, have mercy and save us! We're truly desperate. If you're willing to help us, we sisters will repay your kindness by doing anything for you..."
"My home, my food—why should I give them a place to live? Why should I give them food?"
Lin Feng interrupted her without any politeness, his tone filled with undisguised mockery and hostility, "The shelter I painstakingly built, the food I stored up for the winter, are my only means of fighting against this cruel world. You think you can just give it to me like that? Who do you think you are? A celestial being descended to earth or the Virgin Mary?"
Su Wanqing hadn't expected him to be so direct, so rude, and so unapproachable.
Those men who usually fawned over her and treated her like a goddess would probably think the sun had risen in the west if they heard their goddess being reprimanded in such a tone.
Her smile froze completely, and for a moment she didn't know how to respond.
But the will to survive quickly brought her back to her senses. She gritted her teeth, as if making a firm decision, and her voice became even more alluring and seductive: "Brother, please...please don't be angry. Of course we know that your things were hard-won. You see, we are all weak women with no strength to even kill a chicken. In this desolate wilderness, we really can't survive. As long as you are willing to take us in, give us a bite to eat, and let us live, you...you can ask us to do anything..."
As she spoke, she slowly and tentatively took a few steps closer to Lin Feng, the curves of her body faintly visible beneath her tattered clothes as she moved.
She reached out her hand—the one that had once held the hands of countless movie stars, now covered in frostbite and scratches—to pull at Lin Feng's rough sleeve, stained with animal blood:
"Brother, as long as you nod..."
"roll!"
Lin Feng suddenly roared, like a thunderclap exploding from the ground!
The stone axe in his hand suddenly rose slightly, the blade still stained with the dark red blood of the snowclaw lynx. An extremely sharp killing intent, mixed with the bloody smell of wild beasts, burst forth instantly, pressing down on Su Wanqing as if it were a tangible force!
"This is my home! I earned it with my blood, sweat, and life! I will not allow anyone to violate it! Whoever dares to covet my house or steal my food, shall die! Do you understand? It's death!"
His bloodshot eyes, etched with the marks of years of struggling to survive alone in a brutal environment, now gleamed with madness and ferocity.
This wooden house, and the food stored in this cellar that will allow him to survive the long winter, were things he had obtained with great difficulty!
Why should it be given to women?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com