Michelle was momentarily stunned before quickly snapping back to reality.
"Ophelia, are you seriously still threatening Loki at a time like this?"
"Fine! As long as you are willing to go gather herbs to cure Amy, I am willing to never see Loki and Amy ever again." The corners of Michelle's eyes turned red, and her eyes welled up with moisture.
Loki's expression was ice cold. "Amy is your little female cub too. I really don't like the way you are acting right now."
"I'm about to dissolve our mate bond anyway, so what do I care whether you like it or not?" Ophelia crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
"Or, you agree to dissolve our mate bond, and I'll go gather the herbs to cure her."
Loki furrowed his brow into a tight crease. "Impossible, don't even dream about it."
"Mother, are you really going to wash your hands of me?" Amy stood there in a daze.
She felt as though her mother truly wanted nothing to do with her this time.
Ophelia said, "Of course, if you don't want to go into the forest, it doesn't matter. After a couple of days, her allergic reaction will clear up on its own."
Michelle clenched her fists, her eyes blazing with fury. Of course she didn't want to go; the forest was full of beasts, and even males went hunting in groups. How could a little female like her go and expect to make it back alive?
"Tell me what the herbs look like. Since you refuse to act like a mother, I'll do it."
This time, Ophelia didn't refuse. She took a withered piece of aloe vera out of an animal skin bag in the corner.
"Take a good look. There are two kinds of this plant: one is poisonous, and the other is harmless. As for how to tell the difference, someone will just have to test it out to find out."
In the past, she was always the one who tested the medicines. This time, she wondered who it would be.
Her eyes darted back and forth between Loki and Michelle, while Amy looked at Michelle with eyes full of hopeful expectation.
Michelle was so angry she felt like she could grind her teeth to dust, yet she didn't dare to speak up.
Ophelia sneered. "Amy, it seems that in the eyes of your most beloved Aunt Michelle, you aren't all that important after all."
Naturally, Loki could not bear to see the woman of his heart put on the spot. He roared angrily, "Stop trying to stir up trouble here. Let's go, Amy. Father will definitely find a way to heal your face."
Stepping out of the stone house, Amy looked worriedly at her father. "Father, are you really going to dissolve your mate bond with Mo— with Ophelia?"
Loki gripped the Blood Crystal Stone tightly for a long time without saying a word.
Michelle squatted down and gently stroked Amy's soft, short golden hair. "It's not that your father wants to dissolve the mate bond now, it's that your mother doesn't want you and Loki anymore."
Amy puffed out her cheeks in a huff. "Hmph, I don't want her either! I want Aunt Michelle to be my mother."
Loki's face was as dark as ink. "Let's put that aside for now. Going into the forest to gather herbs to cure you is what matters most."
Inside the stone house, Taylor looked at Ophelia, hesitation written all over his face.
"If you have something to say, just say it. Don't keep it bottled up inside."
"Princess, you've already cultivated a whole patch of aloe vera in the forest—why didn't you tell Loki?" He had witnessed with his own eyes just how much the Princess used to cherish the little female cub Amy; he found it hard to believe that the Princess could truly bear to watch her suffer.
"It's just an allergy, it's not going to kill her." In the past, she had let her anxiety blind her because she cared too much, unwilling to let her daughter suffer even the slightest bit of hardship. But now, that daughter was no longer hers, and it was no longer her place to worry about her. Besides, she believed Loki would not just sit by and watch something happen to Amy.
After all, having offspring was also a bargaining chip for him in his bid for the chieftain position; otherwise, he wouldn't have plotted to cast aside the woman he loved and take her as a mate, purely because Dragon Clan females possessed strong reproductive capabilities.
"If Loki really refuses to dissolve the mate bond, are you truly going to force it? Doing that will cost you half your lifespan."
"It doesn't matter. Consider it the price I pay for being blind for all these years—it's only half a year." Of course, that was the worst-case scenario.
The day passed quietly, and by the next morning at nine o'clock, all the rice in the Farm Space had fully matured.
Ophelia found an excuse to sneak into the space to harvest it.
One hundred square meters didn't sound like much, but the workload was substantial.
Wiping away her sweat, she secretly made up her mind that once she earned enough points, she would definitely redeem the one-click planting and harvesting function.
She busied herself until the sun went down, yet two-thirds of the rice remained unharvested.
Looking at her trembling hands, Ophelia let out a sigh. It seemed she had been too optimistic; trying to farm for twenty days out of a month was going to be rather difficult.
Unlocking the one-click planting and harvesting feature required 200 points.
A rabbit skin could be exchanged for 20 points, a fox skin for 50 points, a wolf skin for 200 points, and a tiger skin for 200 points.
Ophelia's eyes lit up. She remembered that Taylor had hunted a red fox skin for her last year.
Immediately afterward, however, she recalled that when winter arrived last year, Loki had snatched the red fox skin away under the pretext that Michelle was frail and needed thick furs to make winter clothes.
Every single animal skin Taylor had brought her in the past had been wheedled or snatched away by Loki using various excuses.
Thinking about it now made her feel stifled with frustration, but fortunately, she had awakened this time and even acquired the Farm Space—she was already very lucky.
"Princess, dinner is ready." Taylor walked in carrying a roasted lamb leg and a bowl of white rice porridge.
"It smells so good." Ophelia was completely captivated by the mouth-watering aroma of the golden-brown roasted lamb leg.
Seeing her reaction, Taylor curved the corners of his lips slightly, then used a bone knife to slice the mutton into small pieces and put them into a stone bowl.
The rice porridge had been boiled until it was thick and thoroughly mushy, and when eaten together with the shredded roasted meat, it slid smoothly down the throat. It was simply delicious.
"This is too good. You should try some too." Ophelia scooped up some porridge with a wooden spoon, mixed it with the roasted meat, and brought it to Taylor's lips.
Under her sparkling, expectant gaze, the male simply could not find a way to refuse.
"Mmm, it's good."
"Ophelia!" A booming, angry voice exploded inside the room.
Taylor immediately took the stone bowl and placed it on the table to prevent a repeat of the scalding incident from last time.
Ophelia turned her head to look and saw an ashen-faced Loki, followed by Michelle and Amy.
"We haven't even dissolved our mate bond yet, and here you are seducing another male! Do you still have any regard for me at all? Do you even remember that you have a little female cub?"
"Taylor, you damned male!" Gritting his teeth, Loki raised his fist, preparing to smash it into Taylor's face.
Ophelia knitted her brows and raised her hand, hurling the animal skin quilt from the bed straight at Loki.
Sensing danger, Loki abruptly cut short his attack.
"Ophelia, you're actually hitting me for his sake?" Loki's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
"You're the one who starts throwing punches the moment you walk in. The one who makes the first move is the cheap one, understand?" Ophelia glanced at Loki with annoyance.
"You... you..." Loki was seething with rage.
"It smells so good. Mother, what are you eating?" Amy licked her lips, standing on tiptoes to peer toward the table.
Being a child, she could never resist the temptation of delicious food.
"Rice porridge. What are you putting on an act for? It's not like you've never eaten it before."
Amy's face flushed red as she lowered her head. "I—I haven't had rice porridge for a whole month."
Michelle also cast a glance at the rice porridge on the table, swallowed hard in secret, and said with a smile, "You really are something—even when you have rice porridge, you don't think of Amy. She's young and right in the middle of her growing years; she needs to drink more rice porridge so her body can develop properly."
"Ophelia, don't you agree?"