Chapter 243: Hidden Worries in the Heart

What are you thinking?

When Leng Xiao returned, he saw that the few younglings who should have gone to sleep by now were still wildly playing in the courtyard, while his female sat there, lost in thought.

He frowned; it turned out he hadn't dealt with those younglings who refused to sleep, and instead had come to his female, who seemed not to have heard his words, still staring ahead, deeply absent‑minded.

He reached out and pinched the female's cheek, finally bringing her back to herself. "Hm? A Xiao, you're back?"

"Hm, what were you just thinking about?"

Leng Xiao felt his female was a bit off.

Yun Li didn't answer him right away; instead she wrapped her arms around the male's neck, then perched on him. "A Mei came to see me earlier and asked me some questions. I gave her a bit of information about the foreign beastmen invasion."

"Hm, and then?"

Leng Xiao was unusually steady when alone with his female; Yun Li leaned against him, and the unease seemed to gradually dissipate.

"Then we talked about the younglings. The tribe's younglings used to be able to follow their parents down the mountain to play nearby, but now, because the Market appeared, there are always some foreign beastmen settling at the foot of the mountain."

When the female said that, her mood suddenly sank.

"Wait, what's the connection between the younglings not being allowed to go down the mountain and the Market?"

Even though he didn't know how their conversation jumped from the foreign beastmen invasion to the younglings, Leng Xiao quickly sensed that the female was off at that moment.

"What are you daydreaming about at home? Even without the Market, hardly anyone would bring a busy, helpless youngster who likes to run around down the mountain."

"Oh~"

Yun Li let out a low "oh", her mood still couldn't lift for a while; actually, what truly made her wonder if she had done something wrong was that the tribe might face a foreign beastmen invasion.

If she hadn't insisted on creating so many things that don't belong to this world, perhaps the tribe wouldn't have encountered these.

Those three younglings—wouldn't they now be just as lost, not knowing whose hands they fell into?

"What else did you say that made you so unhappy?"

Leng Xiao still knew his female well; if she hadn't run into a problem she couldn't solve at all, she wouldn't have become so despondent, wanting to curl up in his arms and ignore everything.

"There was nothing more said afterwards."

Gong Mei saw that she seemed troubled and thought she was pondering the foreign beastmen invasion, but Yun Li hadn't given her much information about it; she couldn't even manage to say a few comforting words, so shortly after she left with two Beast Husbands.

"You didn't say much, yet you still look like this?"

Leng Xiao indeed liked that his female was willing to rely on and cherish him, but that didn't mean he liked seeing her gloomy and unhappy.

"Are you worried about my brother and the others? They didn't go out to fight anyone; they were just waiting there for news while trying to find those three missing younglings. What's there to worry about? Or were you scared by the younglings' disappearance? Hm?"

Were you still frightened by the cub's disappearance? Hmm?

Yun Li was so disturbed by the breath he exhaled while speaking that she couldn't even worry whether she had brought disaster to the tribe. She sat upright on the male and said, "I just think those foreign beastmen will come to the tribe and cause these things because I created the Market; if I hadn't proposed to the chieftain and Priest to allow foreign beastmen into the tribe…"

She was truly worried that what she had done might have caused trouble for the tribe, after all the tribe had been fine before.

And her original motive wasn't that simple; before she could finish, Leng Xiao, with a composed face, cut her off: "What does this have to do with you? I said you were daydreaming at home, and you actually…"

Leng Xiao was so angry he didn't know how to address her, "Creating the Market wasn't just your idea; allowing foreign beastmen into the tribe also received the chieftain's and Priest's approval. You only put forward your suggestion, and they agreed because they thought it benefited the tribe."

"No one knew that the incoming beastmen would snatch the younglings right under the tribe's very eyes. Could you have known they'd do that? Or do you think other people's misdeeds are your responsibility?"

It was the first time Yun Li had been lectured by her male with such a composed face, the first time she saw Leng Xiao give her a stern look; she found it somewhat novel, and the unease and a hint of guilt were suppressed.

She poked the male's face with her finger and asked, "Are you angry?"

It seemed quite normal for him to get angry; after all, he didn't know he was a modern soul. Though he lacked any precognition, she had watched time‑travel dramas.

In time‑travel dramas, the heroine tries to use modern knowledge to change everything around her, always bringing a series of troubles.

Yun Li just thought about it more tonight; perhaps by tomorrow she'll pull herself together.

After all, the incident had already happened; besides actively solving the problem, there was no other way.

When the female leaned in as if to flatter, Leng Xiao grabbed her hand that was messing with his face, his tone becoming more serious: "If you know I'll get angry, stop daydreaming, or else be careful you won't be able to get out of bed for days."

Seeing the female approach as if to flatter, Leng Xiao seized the hand she was messing with on his face, and, with an increasingly serious tone, said, "If you know I'll get angry, don't let your thoughts run wild; otherwise, be careful you might not be able to get out of bed for the next few days."

Yun Li didn't believe what he might do to her at that moment, because the more such times came, the more things she had to handle.

Even if Leng Xiao truly worried that she would be alone and start daydreaming, the most he would do is hand the younglings over to someone else, while he stayed by her side watching.

"I was just thinking casually; don't worry, I'm fine."

Yun Li had told him, and indeed her mood improved a lot.

She smiled brightly, planted a kiss on the male's face and said, "But we don't know what our younglings are doing now; it seems they won't sleep tonight until they've played themselves exhausted."

Leng Xiao patted her head, "Whatever they do, as long as they don't cause us trouble…"

Just as he finished speaking, a thud of something heavy falling echoed from inside the house.

Leng Xiao's face darkened instantly—those troublesome brats!

Yun Li immediately perched on the male and laughed; seeing her laugh, Leng Xiao's expression eased a bit, but thinking of those younglings in the house, his anger flared again.

He carried the female into the house; the younglings, realizing they might have caused trouble, each retreated to their own little bed.

All four younglings slept in the outer house, separated by a wooden screen partition. Although Lengshuang was a female youngling, she was so young that she didn't want a single youngling to sleep alone; that would make her feel isolated, so Yun Li finally solved the problem with two bunk beds.

However, when Leng Xiao and Yun Li checked the two bunk beds, under the beast‑skin blankets were either a few snake cubs already deep in dreamland, or the fluffy toys Yun Li had specially made for the younglings.

But the real younglings were neither under the beds nor in the courtyard; they had run to Ji Xuan's solitary house to sleep.

Leng Xiao and Yun Li found the scene both infuriating and amusing.

They just didn't pull the pretending younglings out; after closing the door, they left.

The younglings quietly opened their eyes, confirmed that their parents had really left, muttered a few complaints at each other, and soon fell into deep sleep.

After quietly opening their eyes and confirming that their parents had truly left, the few cubs muttered a few complaints to each other, then soon fell into a deep sleep.