Chapter 49: The Tears of a Tiger

The next morning, Bai Yue stood outside her hut, stirring a rich, bubbling bone broth flavored with wild garlic, snap-roots, and a handful of star-grass she had traded two beast cores for.

The aroma was absolutely heavenly, but Bai Yue’s mind was entirely elsewhere.

Sigh.

She rested her wooden spoon against the rim of the pot and rubbed her temples.

Nine days. She had exactly nine days left to make Ruì Xuě smile a genuine, one-hundred-percent happy smile, or the Goddess Tiān-Mìng was going to evict her soul from this body and send her straight to the void.

And as if the ticking clock of her impending doom wasn’t enough, she was still completely baffled by last night’s events.

What went wrong? she thought, groaning internally as she chopped a tuber with slightly too much force.

Han Shān literally sprinted away from me like I was a rabid honey badger. One second he was looking at me, and the next he was making housecat noises and fleeing into the woods! Did I smell? Did I say something wrong? Ugh!

“You are thinking so loudly it is giving me a headache, little female.”

Bai Yue jumped, nearly dropping her stone knife.

Zhāo Yàn seemed to materialize out of thin air, leaning casually against the wooden support pole of her cooking canopy. The Fox Lord looked entirely too handsome for this early in the morning. His hair fell perfectly over his shoulders, and his eyes were sparkling with humour.

Before she could step back, Zhāo Yàn moved. He closed the distance between them in a single stride, wrapping a strong arm around her waist and pulling her back against his broad chest.

“Eek!” Bai Yue squeaked, her face instantly heating up as he rested his chin on her shoulder.

“Hmm,” Zhāo Yàn purred. He took a slow breath, inhaling the scent of the herbs and her skin. “Why do you keep running away from me? Especially after what we did in the springs……”

Bai Yue’s entire face turned the color of a boiled crab. “I-I am not running away! I am cooking! My sons need to eat!”

Zhāo Yàn chuckled, his hand sliding up to gently tilt her chin toward him. His red eyes darkened, the playful teasing melting into something much more hungry. “The food can wait. I am much more interested in finishing what we started.”

He leaned in, his eyelashes fluttering shut. Bai Yue’s breath hitched. She instinctively closed her eyes, entirely caught in his gravity—

“HELLO?! ARE YOU BLIND?! WE ARE RIGHT HERE!”

Bai Yue shoved Zhāo Yàn so hard he actually stumbled back a step.

Standing exactly five feet away, holding a stack of firewood and looking absolutely disgusted, was Mo Xiao. And right beside him, with his hands clamped firmly over his eyes, was Hóng Yè.

“MY EYES! MY INNOCENT EYES!” Hóng Yè shrieked, kicking the dirt. “DO NOT DO MATING RITUALS WHERE I CAN SEE YOU! NOT ESPECIALLY WITH THE CURSED FEMALE!”

Mo Xiao let out a booming laugh, dropping the firewood. “Sorry to interrupt, Fox Lord, but if we do not feed this Red Panda soon, he is going to eat me.”

Zhāo Yàn sighed. He crossed his arms and glared at the Alpha and the teenager. “I am going to throw you both into the Forbidden Swamp.”

“Food is ready!” Bai Yue announced loudly, desperate to change the subject as she began aggressively ladling the rich, steaming soup into wooden bowls.

Hóng Yè crossed his arms, his white-tipped ears flattening against his auburn hair. He glared at the bowl she set on the wooden table. “I am not eating that! I would rather starve than eat the cursed female’s poison! It probably has mud in it!”

Bai Yue didn’t argue. She simply handed a bowl to Shěn, the imposing Tiger beastman who had silently followed Hóng Yè out of the hut.

Shěn took the bowl. He stared at the soup. He lifted the bowl to his mouth.

Slurp.

Shěn swallowed. He blinked once.

Then, completely silently, a single, glistening tear rolled down the Tiger beastman’s stoic cheek. He didn’t say a word, but he immediately tilted the bowl back and began inhaling the boiling hot broth at the speed of light, practically eating the wooden spoon in the process.

Hóng Yè’s jaw dropped. “Shěn?! Is it that bad?! Are you crying from the pain?!”

Shěn finished the bowl, and silently held it out to Bai Yue for a refill.

Hóng Yè swallowed hard. His stomach let out a traitorous, deafening growl. Slowly, hesitantly, the teenager picked up his own spoon and took a tiny sip.

His amber eyes dilated instantly. The rich, savory flavor exploded on his tongue, warming his entire body. It was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted in his thirteen years of life.

“Well?” Bai Yue asked, resting her hands on her hips.

Hóng Yè aggressively wiped his mouth, his face flushing red as he puffed out his chest. “It is……barely acceptable! The roots are slightly mushy! But I am only eating it so I have energy to hate you!”

He then proceeded to shovel the food into his mouth so fast he nearly choked.

While the boys ate, a blinding flash of gold caught Bai Yue’s eye. Cāng Jì strutted out of a nearby guest hut, his silk robes flowing majestically behind him.

“Ah, Cāng Jì,” Bai Yue wiped her hands on a cloth. “Good morning. Shouldn’t you be flying back to the Dragon Peaks today? You have your Lumina-stone back, after all.”

Cāng Jì froze mid-stride. He clutched the glowing blue stone hanging from his neck and looked wildly around the clearing.

“Fly? Today?” Cāng Jì scoffed, loudly clearing his throat. “Absolutely not! Are you mad, female? Look at the sky!”

Bai Yue looked up. There wasn’t a single cloud. “It’s completely clear.”

“The pressure is entirely wrong for a royal takeoff!” Cāng Jì declared proudly, crossing his arms. “And the wind is……it is too pointy! Yes! Pointy wind ruins my scales! Furthermore, I have not yet acclimatized to the lowland dirt! I must stay another week. Minimum.”

Before Bai Yue could point out how ridiculous “pointy wind” sounded, a tiny orange blur darted out of the hut.

“Sparkles is staying!” Yòu Lín cheered, launching himself at the dragon and latching firmly onto Cāng Jì’s leg.

Cāng Jì looked down at the kit. A tiny smile tugged at the corner of his arrogant mouth, though he quickly masked it with a haughty huff. “Unhand me, rodent! I am not a climbing tree!” (He made absolutely zero effort to shake the kit off).

Just as Bai Yue was about to serve the next batch of food, the temperature in the clearing suddenly dropped by ten degrees.

The chatter died down. Bai Yue turned around, her breath catching in her throat.

Han Shān was stepping into the cooking area. The massive Snow Leopard looked exhausted, dark circles under his eyes. In his thick, muscular arms, he was holding Ruì Xuě.

Bai Yue tensed, fully expecting him to yell at her or run away again.

Instead, Han Shān stopped a few feet away. He actively avoided looking anywhere near her lips, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on the bridge of her nose. A faint dusting of pink still lingered on his pale ears.

“He…..” Han Shān cleared his throat, his voice a deep, awkward rumble. “He wanted you.”

“Cursed female.” Ruì Xuě whispered, squirming out of his father’s arms and waddling as fast as his little legs could carry him directly into Bai Yue’s legs.

Bai Yue’s heart melted completely. She dropped to her knees in the dirt, entirely ignoring Zhāo Yàn and the others, and wrapped her arms around the snow leopard cub.

“Good morning, my little snowflake,” Bai Yue cooed, kissing the top of his fluffy white head. It didn’t matter that he kept going back between calling her Mama and Cursed female. “Are you hungry? Mama made soup!”

“I want soup!” Ruì Xuě nodded, batting at her hair.

Han Shān stood frozen, watching the interaction. He watched the gentleness in Bai Yue’s eyes. He saw the way she carefully blew on a spoonful of broth to cool it down before feeding it to his son, wiping a stray drop from the cub’s chin with her thumb.

The fierce, painful wall of hatred Han Shān had built around his heart gave a crack.

“Hmm,” Han Shān murmured softly. “Maybe she has really changed.”

It was a beautiful, tender, perfect moment.

And then, it was entirely ruined.

Clatter!

Everyone jumped. Shěn’s wooden bowl hit the dirt, spilling the remaining broth.

The emotionless Tiger beastman was standing completely rigid. His ears were swiveling wildly, locking onto a scent carried by the morning breeze. He flared his nostrils, taking a deep, frantic sniff.

For the first time since he had arrived, Shěn’s deadpan, apathetic face violently twitched. His eyes widened to the size of big circles, his pupils dilating.

“Shěn?” Hóng Yè asked, his spoon pausing mid-air. “What’s wrong?”

Shěn didn’t answer.

He didn’t explain. He didn’t even say goodbye.

The Tiger beastman simply spun on his heel, dropped to all fours, and burst out of the clearing at the speed of a fired arrow. He tore through the bushes, kicking up a massive cloud of dust, and disappeared into the dense jungle as if the Grim Reaper himself were on his tail.

“Shěn?!?!” Hóng Yè screamed, dropping his bowl.

Bai Yue blinked, staring at the violently swaying bushes where the stoic teenager had just vanished.

“What in the world…” Mo Xiao muttered, scratching his head. “…was he running from, or running to?”

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