Chapter 62: Debt is Paid

“Mama is very funny.”

The soft, musical giggle from the tiny snow leopard cub echoed in the sudden quiet of the clearing.

Bai Yue lay completely paralyzed in the dirt, her limbs still splayed out from her ridiculous theatrical performance.

The little cub wasn’t trembling anymore. His purple eyes were curved into happy, bright crescents, and his fluffy white tail was swishing back and forth. He reached out with both of his tiny paws, grabbed the wooden bowl containing the cooled, mild broth, and took a big, confident slurp. He giggled again.

He laughed, Bai Yue thought, her vision blurring as a massive, overwhelming wave of emotion crashed into her chest. He giggled. He actually smiled!

Slowly, her hands trembling, Bai Yue pushed herself up off the grass. She ignored the dirt clinging to her skirt and the stinging in her own eyes from the fire-peppers. She crawled forward on her knees until she was right in front of the cub.

She reached her arms out. For a split second, a horrific spike of fear pierced her heart. Will he flinch? Will he remember the bitter winter nights? Will he remember the cursed female who starved him?

Ruì Xuě didn’t flinch.

Instead, the tiny snow leopard let go of his bowl, toddled forward on his little paws, and threw himself into her open arms.

Bai Yue caught him, pulling him gainst her chest. She wrapped her arms around his small, trembling body, burying her face in his soft white fur.

Ruì Xuě didn’t stiffen up. He didn’t try to pull away. He melted completely into her embrace, wrapping his little paws around her neck and burying his cold, wet little nose directly into the crook of her collarbone.

Tears spilled over Bai Yue’s eyelashes and streamed down her cheeks.

In that exact moment, a physical shift occurred within her. The invisible weight she had been carrying since the moment she opened her eyes in this primitive world, the crushing “Karma Debt” of the original host’s sins, suddenly snapped.

The chain broke.

She was no longer an imposter playing house. She was no longer the cruel, sneering villainess destined to be executed. As she held the purring snow leopard cub, smelling the fresh, wild scent of his fur, the ghost of the “cursed female” was completely washed away. She was their mother.

Standing a few feet away, Zhāo Yàn watched the scene unfold.

The Fox Lord’s signature, devastatingly smug smirk had entirely vanished. His crimson eyes were slightly wide, locked onto the sight of the frail human female weeping in the dirt as she held the Alpha Snow Leopard’s son.

Zhāo Yàn remembered the day Han Shān had brought Ruì Xuě back to the village. He remembered the hollow, broken look in the cub’s eyes. He remembered the violent flinching, the sheer terror, the way the kit had looked like a shattered piece of ice that would never, ever be put back together.

To heal a trauma that deep should have taken years. It should have been impossible.

Yet here she was.

Zhāo Yàn let out a slow, somewhat shaky breath.

She was magnificent. She was a miracle. The Fox Lord realized, with a sudden, heavy thud of his heart, that he wasn’t just entertained by her fiery spirit. He was in awe of her.

[DING! 🌟]

The familiar chime of the Goddess Tiān-Mìng’s system didn’t just pop up as a tiny blue holographic square. It erupted in Bai Yue’s mind’s eye like a celestial fireworks display, showering her vision in golden light.

[CRITICAL QUEST COMPLETED: The Thawing of the Snow Leopard!]

[Status: MIRACULOUS SUCCESS! The Karma Debt has been paid in full!]

[Reward: The ticking clock has been shattered! Your soul is now permanently bound to this vessel. You have earned your life, Feral Mama!]

Bai Yue squeezed her eyes shut, sobbing a wet, watery laugh into Ruì Xuě’s fur as Yòu Lín immediately scrambled over to join the hug, wrapping his small body round both of them.

“I refuse to accept this.”

The beautiful, emotional silence of the clearing was suddenly shattered by a loud, wet undignified sniffle.

Bai Yue opened her tear-filled eyes.

Standing by the cauldron, Cāng Yáo was wiping her glowing golden eyes with a piece of extremely expensive silk. The Dragon Princess’s face was still a violent shade of red, and her lips were visibly swollen from the fire-peppers, but her haughty arrogance had returned with a vengeance.

“Are you quite finished weeping in the dirt?” Cāng Yáo demanded, her voice hoarse and cracking from the capsaicin. She crossed her arms, her gold bangles clashing loudly. “My mouth is in absolute agony, and I require another bowl of this glorious torture immediately. Do not make me wait, mud-rat!”

Normally, Bai Yue would have bristled. She would have yelled back.

But right now? With Ruì Xuě purring against her collarbone and the threat of cosmic death officially lifted from her shoulders? Bai Yue felt lighter than air.

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, letting out an unfazed laugh.

“Alright, alright, Sparkles,” Bai Yue beamed, gently disentangling herself from the cubs and standing up. “Keep your scales on. One massive bowl of pain and suffering, coming right up.”

As she picked up the wooden ladle, the system interface flashed one last time.

[System Notice: P.S. So, you remember how Han Shān went to fetch your third husband? The gentle Red Panda scholar? Yeah. Look west. Good luck! (≧∇≦)ﾉ]

Uh? Bai Yue frowned, the ladle hovering over the cauldron. What does that mean?

She was violently answered by the sound of approaching footsteps.

It sounded like a stampede. The ground beneath their feet began to vibrate slightly, accompanied by the snapping of branches and the rustling of heavy foliage.

“What is that?” Mo Xiao barked, his Alpha instincts immediately flaring as he drew his spear and stepped in front of the center fire.

Suddenly, the western treeline burst open.

“MOVE! OUT OF THE WAY! GET OUT OF THE WAY!”

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