Chapter 104: Estrangement

Zongfang finally broke free from his memories after a long while and found his voice.

His chest was blocked, and he wanted to ask if she liked that pretty boy, but the words stopped at his lips. He knew if he asked like that, he would quarrel with her again, and if they quarreled, she would be sad, and if she was sad, he would be even more uncomfortable, so he swallowed the breath alive.

"Qiaoqiao, I was wrong, I did the wrong thing, I shouldn't have left you alone, regardless of the reason. Nor should I have neglected you. What can I do for you to forgive me?"

Qiao Suisui closed her eyes in fatigue and gently pulled her hand out of his.

"You don't have to be like this, we don't trust each other enough. If the press conference wasn't done by you, then let Suote not interfere with my freedom; I want to stay wherever I want. Also, I won't go back to the Research Center to be studied as a specimen, absolutely not."

Zongfang looked at his empty hand, the sourness in his heart spreading to his mouth. In the end, he didn't say anything, stroked her head, said "Okay," and stopped disturbing her rest.

Because the nine snake eggs were not full-term, they could only be incubated in an incubator.

Qiao Suisui felt a bit better and went to see them once. They were just ordinary eggs, and she didn't find which one was the two-headed one, so she gave up. She told Zongfang that it would be fine if he wanted to take all the snake cubs away. Zongfang looked at her silently after hearing this, suppressing the dull pain in his chest, lowered his eyes and said: "I'll leave after your body is better. If you don't want to see me, I'll try to appear in front of you as little as possible."

Actually, Qiao Suisui just didn't like snakes, and was even scared to death. She had always ignored the cubs' affairs and threw them to the men. But after this quarrel, she began to have no motivation to explain to Zongfang, and even had no desire to share.

Luka and Laiboli clearly saw that something was wrong between the two, discovering that even when they were together, they were silent more often. Laiboli was happy to see it, so he put more effort into stealing her attention, focusing on seduction with beauty. Luka chose not to interfere, but would often talk to Qiao Suisui about the cubs, such as who fought with whom today, who bullied whom, who was picky about food, and would also show her videos recording the cute moments of the cubs.

Over time, even if Qiao Suisui didn't care, she began to remember who was the eldest, what personality each had, who was naughty, and who was obedient. After all, no one could refuse a fluffy little animal looking at you with big eyes.

The four little lions were also brought to the Huangting. The little guys were a bit bigger and could chase everywhere. They loved to stick to Qiao Suisui's feet when they had nothing to do; it was the natural attachment of younglings to their mother.

Naonao was the most overbearing, holding her calf with his fat paws every time, not allowing his brothers and sisters to approach Mom. The little lions started to grow nails. Once, Naonao was pestering Qiao Suisui to play, and she had a servant make a cat teaser stick specifically to tease them. The little lions watched the feathers on the teaser stick go up and down, eyes fixed, and pounced back and forth. Naonao stood up with his two hind legs on the ground, using his paws to reach for the feathers, but lost his balance and pounced onto her feet.

Qiao Suisui liked to be barefoot, and Laiboli knew her habit, so the entire palace was covered with soft carpets for her, and she wasn't wearing shoes, so her feet were scratched by Naonao's claws, a thin cut, and blood beads overflowed from the wound.

She didn't care, nor did she use her talent, just casually wiped it with a tissue and continued to play with them.

At night, after taking a bath and preparing to go to bed, she felt her head a bit dizzy, thinking she was tired from the day, so she rested early. As a result, Luka came to see her after finishing his work at night. It was a habitual touch of her head, but this touch revealed she had a fever.

"How could this happen suddenly?"

Laiboli looked at the medical team with dissatisfaction, putting them under great pressure.

A doctor wiped his sweat and said: "Checked carefully, Miss Qiao's incision is recovering very well, not even leaving a scar. Perhaps... perhaps she just gave birth, her constitution is still very weak, and she caught a cold?"

The more he spoke, the less confident he became. The temperature of the entire Huangting had been re-installed, and Laiboli even spent money to hire a central control team specifically to adjust the temperature. Several places where Qiao Suisui often stayed, such as the flower room, garden, greenhouse, her palace, etc., all had specialists to adjust, and even the weather could be chosen, just to ensure she didn't catch a cold or get sick.

Laiboli laughed in anger at this answer, but didn't embarrass anyone in person, only saying to his secretary: "A bunch of trash, fire them all. Find me the best doctor immediately, name your price."

After dealing with this, he returned to the inner palace and saw Luka holding her ankle looking at something, and Zongfang was checking her. The last quarrel wasn't entirely without benefits. Although Zongfang and Luka and Laiboli still didn't have much to say, they could coexist harmoniously compared to before. At the very least, he no longer looked for trouble, and the three men now maintained a subtle surface harmony.

Laiboli walked closer and asked: "Has the fever gone down?"

"Took medicine, still sweating." Luka put her feet back into the quilt and tucked the corner of the quilt for her. "I'll leave for a moment. Even if she wakes up and wants ice water, don't give it to her."

Laiboli thought this fever was related to her being greedy for the cold these past few days, and nodded. Little did he know that Luka was going back to clean up the cubs.

He walked to the cubs' room, signaled the servants to retreat, and then pulled over a chair and sat down.

Although the four little lions couldn't transform or speak, they were already enlightened. At this moment, seeing their father's bad face, they all lined up and squatted down with great discernment.

"I'll only ask once, who scratched Mom's foot, stand out and admit it now."

The three little lions looked at each other, blinking their innocent big eyes, not knowing. Only one, who was usually the most naughty and loved to show off, was unusually quiet today, drooping his little head and squatting there honestly.

Luka solved the case quickly. He stiffened his face and named 'Naonao'. The little guy shivered and didn't dare to move.

"Still not coming over?"

Naonao walked over reluctantly, and the other three little ones couldn't help but feel nervous for him.

Luka thought he was walking too slowly, so he scooped the little lion into his hand, his palm against his little belly, making his four claws hang down and unable to exert force.

"Slap—"

An extremely loud sound echoed in the room.

The other three were stunned.

Naonao let out an 'Aow', eyes full of tears.

Luka slapped his butt again and said: "Still have the face to cry? Shut up."

"Sob sob sob..."

Naonao scratched with his four claws, unable to break free, looking just like a little turtle.

Luka taught him a lesson twice more and threw him to the ground. A little lion of this size had already mastered jumping and balance, and Naonao landed lightly and hurriedly slipped behind his eldest brother to hide.

Luka crossed his arms and said to the four younglings: "Learn to grind your claws tomorrow. In the future, when playing with Mom, don't be heavy-handed."

The four little ones nodded in unison.

"Also, roll more in front of Mom, flip your bellies, and rub with your tails. Whoever does it well will be rewarded."

The four little ones nodded in unison again.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 105 =====