A vicious female is trapped in a beastly hell.

Chapter 487 Orphan
The autumn chill was so intense that the leaves on the trees in the courtyard had long since turned completely yellow, and they would flutter down in the wind, a task that the palace servants could never finish sweeping up every day.

However, the yard covered with golden fallen leaves is quite beautiful.

Shen Tang was leaning against the window admiring the autumn scenery when she suddenly sneezed, "Achoo!"

She rubbed her red nose and muttered, "Who's talking about me behind my back..."

Xue Yinzhou was tidying up in the inner room when he heard the noise. Without turning his head, the silvery snake tail precisely wrapped around her waist and easily pulled her into his arms.

With a "snap," the snake tail slammed the window shut. He casually wrapped his coat around her, "Did you catch a cold?"

"No, it was just a bit of a breeze~" Shen Tang wrapped her arms around his waist and tilted her head up to kiss him on the chin.

The tip of the silvery-white snake tail swayed happily. Xue Yinzhou lowered his head and kissed her lips in return, his voice softening, "It's getting colder lately. In a little over a month, it should snow. Be a good girl and stay in the palace. Don't always think about running away."

Shen Tang froze, inwardly groaning – ever since the beastmen found out she could teleport, they'd been watching her more closely than prisoners! Now she was followed everywhere she went, and the slightest movement made them feel like they were facing a major enemy.

You don't even treat prisoners like this!

Shen Tang knew that her beastly husbands were doing it for her own good, so she could only accept this helpless happiness.

After the two cuddled for a while, Xue Yinzhou looked out the window at the increasingly bleak autumn scenery and sighed softly, "Another year is about to pass."

Shen Tang nodded, "I remember when we first came to Kongdu City, it was the dead of winter, and not long after, I ascended the throne... In the blink of an eye, winter is coming again, which means it's been exactly one year."

Looking back on everything we've been through, she buried her face in his chest, her voice filled with happiness, "Thank you for always being there for me. We'll spend many more years together, year after year, never to be apart!"

The system interrupted inappropriately, ["Didn't the host always want to go back? After the mission is completed, you're not planning to go home?"]

Shen Tang said frankly, "The past is the past, and the present is the present. I wanted to go back then because I couldn't accept this strange and ugly body. Besides, who would want to stay after being suddenly thrown into a completely unfamiliar world?"

She smiled contentedly, "But things are different now. Here I have a new identity, a new mission, and a lover I want to spend my life with. This place is no longer a dangerous and unfamiliar foreign world for me, but my home."

[Does the host not have any attachment to their original world?]

Shen Tang was silent for a moment, then said softly, "I am an orphan."

[Sorry, host.] It really doesn't know this!
"It's okay, I'm used to it." She smiled lazily. "I grew up in an orphanage, I don't know who my parents are, and no relatives have ever visited me. I grew up all by myself, and it's not so bad."

She didn't feel that her life was as tragic as Xiao Jin's or Xue Yinzhou's, either having been homeless and scavenging for food since childhood or constantly being hunted and living in constant fear. The director and teachers at the orphanage were all very kind to her, and she had some good playmates. Shen Tang never felt that she was any different from other children.

If I had to pick a regret, it would probably be that I've never experienced true family love!

But things are different now. There was nothing to hold me back in that world, and the memories have gradually faded.

Now, her feelings and sense of belonging lie in this beast world and in the people who love her.

By the way, speaking of family...

Shen Tang remembered her only true "family" in the beast world.

The original female protagonist is Shen Qingli.

Since her escape six months ago, this woman has vanished into thin air, never causing any trouble again, and there has been no news of her whatsoever.

Shen Tang even suspected that she might have died somewhere, or was hiding in the shadows plotting something.
"System, do you know where Shen Qingli is right now?"

The system said helplessly, "[She also has system protection, but that bastard system has turned on its shield, so I can't detect any signal. However, the system competition isn't over yet, and the original female lead is definitely still alive.]"

"Didn't you say you were stronger than the female lead's system?" the system retorted angrily. [That idiot system upgraded to the latest version; now I'm on the same version as it, so I'm at a disadvantage.]

After a moment of silence, Shen Tang looked into the distance and said, "Actually, I've always had a question: why does the main system deploy two systems? Why make the two systems adversarial and competitive, forcing them into a life-or-death struggle? Can't they just cooperate?"

【no. 】

"why?"

The system couldn't answer either, and after a long pause, it stammered, "That's how it's initially set up. The main system only needs the best; failure is equivalent to a defective product, and defective products need to be disposed of."

"That's true." Shen Tang didn't ask any further questions.

……

In the remote and desolate mountain valleys of the north, resources are scarce and the area is isolated from the outside world.

This place does not belong to any country and has not yet formed a city. There are only scattered tribal villages, each inhabited by dozens to hundreds of orcs.

Beside the stream near the village, groups of two or three orcs were washing clothes, mostly males or elderly females, with one young female standing out from the crowd.

She was dressed in coarse linen clothes, but they couldn't hide her slender figure.

As winter approached, the river water grew colder and colder. She squatted by the river, washing clothes, until her hands turned red from the cold and she even developed frostbite.

Under normal circumstances, any single male beast passing by would definitely rush over to help.

But at this moment, the beastmen avoided him like the plague, and not one of them stepped forward to help.

These villages, formed by blood ties, are very xenophobic, but more so because the outsider female is "ugly".

She was filthy, with dark skin, and half her face was covered with ugly scars like centipedes, which was tantamount to disfigurement!

If Shen Tang were there, she would definitely be shocked.

This female was completely different from the one in my memory, but I could still vaguely see those familiar eyebrows and eyes. It was definitely Shen Qingli, even if she were reduced to ashes!
Shen Qingli was furious when she saw the snobbish looks from the orcs, but she just kept her head down and silently did her farm work.

She wasn't actually disfigured; she had simply covered herself in black powder to deliberately create this disfigured appearance in order to conceal her identity and escape capture.

Seven or eight orcs, all strong males from the village, ran up to the village entrance; they were the village's hunting party.

"Ali, I'm back!"

A young orc dressed in coarse cloth and animal skin ran out from the group, took the basket of clothes from Shen Qingli's hands and carried it on his back. He then grabbed her frostbitten hands and scolded her with heartache, "I told you, I can do these chores when I get back. Look, your hands are frostbitten."

Shen Qingli smiled gently, "I just saw that you were working too hard, having to go out hunting every day, and I wanted to help you share some of the burden."

"Ali, you're the best! Being with you is the greatest blessing of my life!" The young man smiled happily, feeling that he had struck gold.

Ali was someone he picked up from the road six months ago when he went hunting.

Although she lost half her face in the fire, she was kind and gentle, and promised that he would be her only partner for the rest of her life.

Rongtu is just an ordinary male with average talent. His strength is not outstanding among the younger generation of the tribe, and he will most likely die alone like most males.

But now, he has a female that belongs to him alone, and he feels that he is the happiest male beast in the world!