Gavin's golden slit pupils immediately lit up, and he flashed a wide, toothy grin.
"I brought my own Beast Skin Bag." Terrified that the little female across from him would change her mind, he hurriedly shoved the Orange Crystal Stone into her hand, his eyes brimming with anticipation.
Ophelia held the Orange Crystal Stone up to the sunlight to verify its authenticity.
"Tyler, bag it up for him," she said.
Tyler nodded and took out the prepared Stone Bowl. One bowl held roughly one pound. He scooped ten heaping bowls, making sure there was more than enough.
Watching his Beast Skin Bag gradually fill up, Gavin's eyes grew moist. He wanted to say a few words of gratitude, but Ophelia was already surrounded by a bustling crowd. Unable to get a word in edgewise, he had no choice but to take his rice and leave for now.
"Little female, I want a bag of rice!"
"I want three bags!"
"I want five bags!"
The crowd gathering in front of the rice stall grew larger by the minute. This spectacle quickly caught the attention of Loki, Miche, and their group, who had just entered the trading market.
"Father, it's so lively over there. Let's go take a look." With that, Amy dragged Loki and Miche toward the stall.
"Huh, it's rice. I can't believe there's still rice available in this season, and it's preserved so well. It definitely won't be cheap." Miche looked at the snow-white grains of rice with greedy eyes.
Amy gulped down her saliva, recalling the fragrant scent of rice she had smelled at her mother's place yesterday.
"Look at her, Loki. Amy is practically drooling," Miche teased with a laugh. "Ophelia is so selfish, only knowing how to drink rice porridge herself while completely ignoring the child. Loki, why don't you trade for some rice to nourish Amy's body?"
Upon hearing this, Amy beamed, her eyes crinkling into happy crescents. She hugged Miche's thigh and whined affectionately, "Miche loves me the most! Father, you should hurry up and sever your mate bond with Ophelia so you can mate with Miche instead."
The gazes of the two females, one large and one small, focused on Loki. Faced with his beloved little female, he naturally couldn't bear to refuse.
He had only brought one Red Crystal Stone to the trading market today, originally intending to trade it for some fruit for Miche. Now that they wanted rice, he wasn't sure if it would be enough.
Clutching the Red Crystal Stone tightly in his hand, he gritted his teeth and stepped forward. "How much rice can one Red Crystal Stone get me?"
The second after he spoke, he froze.
"Ophelia, why is it you?" Miche was equally dumbfounded when she finally got a clear look at the person selling the rice.
Amy's face was filled with shock. "Mother!" How could her mother have so much rice, yet refuse to even spare her a single bowl of porridge yesterday?
Did her mother truly not want her anymore?
The thought made a sudden wave of inexplicable panic wash over her.
Loki's brows knitted tightly. "If you have this much rice, why are you trading it away? Wouldn't it be better to save it for Amy and my mother to eat?"
In the past, whenever Ophelia got her hands on even a tiny bit of rice, she would eagerly offer it up to his mother and Amy. But now, she was actually trading away such a massive amount.
Seeing the handfuls of Crystal Stones that she couldn't even hold in one grasp, along with the mountain of beast skins piled beside her, made his eyes throb with an oncoming headache.
A flash of greed crossed Miche's eyes as she stared at the Crystal Stones. How wonderful it would be if all of that belonged to her. Surging jealousy rocketed up in her heart.
Loki pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Whatever you've already traded is fine, but pack up the rest and bring it all back. Give half to my mother and leave the other half for Amy."
The surrounding crowd's faces instantly fell upon hearing that the remaining rice was no longer up for trade. However, sensing that Ophelia was the mate of the male before them, it wasn't their place to interject. They were dejectedly preparing to leave when Ophelia, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke up.
"Who do you think you are to tell me to stop trading? I'll do whatever I want with my own things. You have no right to interfere."
Being humiliated in public made Loki's face turn incredibly ugly. However, he also knew that this rice belonged to Ophelia, and strictly speaking, he really didn't have the authority to make decisions over it.
Seeing the snow-white rice about to fall into others' hands, Miche was naturally unwilling to let it go. Putting on a hesitant expression, she said softly, "Ophelia, it's the middle of summer. Where did you get so much rice? Could this be the reserve grain of the Snow Wolf Clan?"
Any tribe with decent strength would stockpile a bit of rice every year, but never too much—usually around ten pounds.
And the remaining rice in Ophelia's woven vine basket looked to be exactly around ten pounds.
Hearing this, Loki stepped forward and grabbed Ophelia's wrist, harshly questioning her. "Is what Miche said true? How could you steal the tribe's reserve food? If people find out, how will they look at me? You'll implicate Amy as well, being her mother!
"You are not to touch this rice anymore. Come back to the tribe with me and get on your knees to beg my father for forgiveness!"
Without any proof whatsoever, Loki condemned Ophelia of theft in just a few words.
Ophelia scoffed. "Just because you say it's the tribe's reserve food, it suddenly is? Which tribe has the capability to stockpile fifty pounds of rice all at once?
"Can your Snow Wolf Clan do that? Do you even have the capital for it? If you want to pocket my food for yourself, just say so. Anyone who knows us knows I'm your mate, but those who don't would think we're mortal enemies with the way you sling mud at me!
"Besides, we're about to dissolve our mate bond anyway, aren't we? Where do you get the audacity to boss me around?"
Every word hit the mark, plunging into Loki's heart like a barrage of sharp blades.
The surrounding crowd finally caught on and chimed in.
"Yeah, this little female has been trading rice here for a while now. She's already traded away well over ten pounds. How could it possibly be stolen?"
"And what's wrong with you as a male? Coming right up and convicting your own mate of a crime without proof! Could it be exactly like she said, and you just want to steal her rice for yourself?"
Seeing the crowd attacking him, Miche hurriedly stepped in to explain. "No, it's not like that! There's just a misunderstanding between Ophelia and him. She brought the family's rice out to trade because she was throwing a temper tantrum, and Loki just lost his head out of anger, that's all."
Amy was also frantic with anxiety. "Mother, hurry up and explain to everyone! Father is being misunderstood. He never meant it like that. Stop being so unreasonable at a time like this!"
Ophelia cast a frigid glare at the daughter standing near her feet. When Loki had been baselessly accusing her just a moment ago, the girl hadn't said a single word. But the moment the tables turned, her "good daughter" finally knew how to panic.
She replied coolly, "Explain what? Explain how, as my mate, he brings another little female and the little female cub I birthed to stroll around the trading market?"
"That's not it, Ophelia! We went looking for you but couldn't find you. We didn't expect you to already be here. It's all our fault for going to look for you too late," Miche said, attempting to subtly shift the blame back onto Ophelia in just a few sentences.
Unfortunately for her, she didn't get her way this time.
A male bystander suddenly spoke up. "I've bumped into them at this trading market several times now. So they aren't actually a family of three?"
"Is that so?" Ophelia arched an eyebrow. "You might not find me once, but you couldn't possibly fail to find me every single time, could you... my dear mate, Loki?"
Loki felt as though every word Ophelia spoke now was a resounding slap across his face. He strongly disliked this aggressively overbearing side of her.
"Forget it. Do whatever you want. Amy, let's go." With that, he grabbed Amy and fled the scene. Miche kept her head lowered, using her long black hair to hide her face as she scurried away in disgrace.
Watching their pathetic retreating figures put Ophelia in an excellent mood. She announced loudly, "Sorry for making you all watch that farce! Tell you what—three days from now, I will bring a hundred pounds of rice. When the time comes, everyone who trades will get an extra half pound of rice for free!"
With such a massive benefit dangled in front of them, she was confident that these people would spread the word of what had just transpired the moment they returned home.
It would also permanently cement Loki's reputation as a cheating scumbag, and Miche's as a shameless homewrecker.