"Vittorio."

"Vittorio."

"Hm."

"What about this?" I pointed to a picture in the book of a group of people eating a big meal, and asked again.

I had been using this method of language learning for three days now. I had to admit that it was childish, but very effective. In just three days, I had memorized the pronunciations of 100 words, even if it was just by associating them with Chinese or English homophones.

If I had used this method during the college entrance exam, I probably would have scored 140 in English. But my English was already pretty good. It was proving to be useful here as well, as many words had similar pronunciation in English.

If I continued like this, I would be able to have simple conversations with her or other humans after about a month. It was a bit exciting to think about...

On the other hand, the food had greatly improved. Although it was still the meat of a giraffe, it was now cooked differently. I had set up a simple stove with stones outside the cave, skewered the diced meat on tree branches, sprinkled salt and other seasonings, and listened to the sizzling sound of the fat dripping onto the flames. It was incredibly enticing.

Unfortunately, the taste of the cooked meat wasn't as good as I had imagined. Grilling over an open fire was completely different from charcoal grilling. It turned out that the tree branches with meat on them would catch fire.

It would be great if we had cooking utensils like pots. Hmm, I'll add that to my list of items to collect in the future. It was time to eat today as well.

"Eat?"

She asked softly as I tried to light the firewood with a lighter.

"Hm, eat."

"Okay."

With my current level of language skills, we could only have such simple conversations.

"You, eat?"

"Oh, no, not eat."

"Hm, okay."

Even such a simple conversation about eating together required gestures and words...

While starting the fire, I remembered the day I put a necklace on her. After doing something jaw-droppingly impressive, I couldn't help but have a proud smile on my face. It was a bit silly. Of course, she was stunned for only three seconds when I hugged her tightly. Then she quickly flew out of my arms, one hand carrying something and the other pulling me back into the cave. That was what they called being "cool for only three seconds," right?

But I saw Medusa's shy expression for the first time. Although she didn't blush, I felt like I could read her shyness from the way she scolded me while avoiding eye contact.

She later denied this thought, but I was sure she had been shy at that moment.

Sometimes, I thought about our relationship, but it didn't really matter. I decided to let the days pass like this. Cook food every day, do laundry, read books, and learn some exotic languages. There was nothing wrong with it.

...

But this wasn't good at all! I wanted to go online, I wanted to eat rice, I wanted to use a flushing toilet, I wanted to sleep on a clean and soft bed instead of smelling like animal fur!

Well... never mind.

Forget about a flushing toilet, now I had to struggle to even make a fire. Oh, it's finally burning!

The flames flickered like waves, and I carefully placed the skewered meat on the stove. Hopefully, it would be tastier this time. After all, I had already tried various dark dishes like charcoal-flavored, tree bark-flavored, smoky, and sandy.

As the meat was grilling, I reviewed the words I had learned.

"'Māi lā' means hello."

"'Māi nī tǎ' means goodbye..."

"Well, these two words don't really mean hello and goodbye. They're more like commonly used polite expressions, right?"

"Sigh, language learning is truly vast and profound."

Muttering to myself, I accidentally bumped my elbow into something soft.

It was probably her chest, that felt like thick silk.

I turned around to see her looking at the small notebook in my hand with great interest.

"Māi lā!" I used my newly learned skill.

"Heh..." She still had that captivating smile. I felt like she had become much gentler at some point, even though I didn't know when.

"Um... eat?"

"Not eating."

Was I an idiot? I had already asked, and she said she wasn't eating. Why did I ask again! Even if I wanted to make conversation, I should at least think before opening my mouth!"...... Okay."

It wasn't just my imagination, she was leaning towards me, and I could feel her tail wrapping around behind me.

"It's... time to flip the meat..."

I said in Chinese as I shifted my body forward and flipped the two pieces of meat.

"..."

Her tail wrapped around again, this time just below my knee.

I convinced myself that it must be warmer here, snakes were ectothermic animals after all. I tried not to think too much about it, even though it wasn't even cold in the afternoon!

Feeling the meatball pressed against my back, I tried to change my position and put my arm around her waist. It was indeed colder than my body temperature, so I let her lean against me like this. At least it helped me stay calm compared to having my chest pressed against my back.

The uncomfortable silence returned, it was hard to keep my gaze on the fire and the meat. Plus, her little snake in her hair kept licking my ear. Unconsciously, I stole a few glances at her face.

What was despairing was that she was staring at my face the whole time.

Finally, the meat was cooked. With a mouth watering, I tried to move my body to get the meat back, but my legs were tightly bound. A feeling of nervousness welled up in my heart, and my body became more sensitive.

"Um... the meat... is ready."

I could only say this in Chinese, so I gestured towards the stove hoping she would understand.

Great, her tail released from my leg... but still wrapped around once. I didn't dare to make any sudden movements. The loosened part of the tail skillfully passed a string of roasted rabbit meat to me. Why did I always feel like I was losing this round...

In the next round, the choice left for me was whether to use my hands to take the meat or not.

I was anxious because this could be an opportunity for her to play with me, although I didn't exclude the possibility that she was just being kind. But maybe because I had been played with before, there was always a shadow in my mind.

So, I made a move that I thought was smart at the time but regrettable later: I gently touched her tail with my hand.

The smooth scales felt very tactile, and my palm greedily caressed every inch of skin on the snake's tail, slowly moving towards the last part that was wrapped around the roasted meat.

Then, the tail suddenly loosened and slipped out of my hand. With my not-so-bad reflexes, I managed to grab the branch with the meat. However, the binding on my leg was still not resolved.

It was so frustrating to feel this sense of defeat, especially during what should have been a happy mealtime.

I took the meat off the charred branch, and the taste of the meat mixed with a slight taste of charcoal. The gray-brown meat split into beautiful patterns along the texture, which I couldn't resist as I was already filled with hunger.

As I took a bite, although there was a faint taste of blood, I was already used to it. This barbecue was so successful that I could only describe it as delicious.

While eating, I looked at her. As daring as it might sound, a mysterious and powerful force urged me to do something terrifying.

I offered her the half-eaten piece of meat.

"Foo... good... meal."

That was the limit of my language skills. What I wanted to say was, "Try it, it's delicious."

"Ah."

After a slightly astonished expression, she did what I expected and brought her mouth close to the roasted meat in my hand.

"Ha!"

Just like teasing a child, I suddenly pulled my hand back. Haha, even someone as powerful as Medusa could be teased by me...

"Oops, I'm really sorry, my apologies. I won't do it again next time."

On both sides of the raised eyebrows were small snakes with pointed teeth, and the hissing sound clearly conveyed a threat: even if I had a similar relationship with Medusa, I couldn't play around casually. Monsters might not understand the playfulness between human couples.

I obediently placed my hand near her mouth and watched her slowly eat the roasted meat, followed by my fingers.

Fingers...

When she took my fingers into her mouth, all the blood in my body rushed to my head. A large amount of oxygen was sucked into my lungs to supply the fast-beating heart.

My fingers weren't covered with crystal-clear saliva like in those movies from the island country; they were just wet. But it didn't matter, because I had already placed my tongue on her tender neck.

I boldly touched every place I wanted to touch, and exerted all my body temperature onto her.......

If I were to give advice to newcomers entering this world, I can only say to stay as far away from Medusa as possible. This creature is bound to bewitch with its magic, at least in my case.