Chapter 98: A Sudden Family Crisis

"If you keep doing that, you won't be able to hunt any prey in the future."

Upon learning that Yun Li wasn't afraid of injury but refrained because of a cleanliness obsession, Gong Mei remained silent for a while before coming over to advise Yun Li, "Your strength is still quite weak, so the killing power of a bow and arrow in your hands isn't that great."

"If you turn into a beast, yet still… can't bring yourself to lower your face, then when real danger truly arrives, what will you do?"

She didn't actually say anything too harsh; she swapped the originally "pretentious delicate" for the still acceptable "can't bring yourself to lower your face."

Yun Li gave Gong Mei an embarrassed expression and said, "I understand. A Xiu and the others have already mentioned it to me; I'll be careful."

Leng Xiu and the others would certainly never bring it up, but Yun Li turning into a beast to hunt on her own refuses to accept any grievance, which is a hurdle she must overcome to improve her strength.

They would, through their own experiences, gently tell her that to become stronger, she can't have too many reservations.

Otherwise, when the moment of life-and-death truly arrives, her habitual inability to let go would cause her to lose a life.

Fortunately, heeding the advice, when Yun Li left Leng Xiu's protection to hunt alone again in the afternoon, she didn't hold back as she had in the morning.

She didn't use poison; relying solely on the arrow's damage and her modest Three-Legged Cat skill, Yun Li still managed to hunt two juvenile antlered deer and a hammer bear that day, but she sustained many injuries.

Watching the usually bright and laughing Leng Xiao, who seldom teases him in front of her, she couldn't laugh.

Yun Li kissed his brow and eyes, "There, A Xiao, I'm fine, aren't I?"

The worst injury she sustained was a fierce bite on her shoulder from a ball bear, followed by being struck directly by the bear after it died, causing her to vomit two mouthfuls of blood.

Wasn't this the most common minor injury when they first started hunting?

They all came through the same way, so she'll have to get used to it sooner or later.

"I feel sorry for you."

Cradling the female in his arms, Leng Xiao buried his head on her other, still-uninjured shoulder, his voice muffled as he said, "I used to think a few injuries during a hunt weren't a big deal, but seeing you hurt makes my heart ache as well."

Precisely because he knows how hard it is after being wounded, he feels even more sorry for her.

Yun Li patted his back and said, "So now you understand how I feel when I see you get injured, right? In the future, when you go out hunting, be more careful, otherwise if you get hurt I'll be sad too."

It's still sadness, but you can't hide things from me. If I find out you concealed something, I'll only be more upset.

"When I have something, I tell you directly; the ones who hide things from you are the two of them."

Leng Xiao didn't hesitate to shift the blame onto Mu Qing and his brother; when they get injured they usually come before Yun Li and act pitiful, but Mu Qing and his brother say they're afraid A Li will be sad, they usually prefer to endure it themselves, and only when the careful A Li discovers it do they speak the truth.

"So don't copy them."

Yun Li whispered to Leng Xiao in complaint, "I tell you all my matters, yet you always hide something from me behind my back."

Although there are some things she truly doesn't understand, can't they just explain them to her properly?

She's not the kind of unreasonable female.

Upon hearing that, Leng Xiao immediately assured Yun Li, "I haven't hidden anything from you; even if there were something I needed to conceal, it was my brother and Mu Qing who threatened me not to tell you."

Just as Mu Qing and Leng Xiu had previously investigated what Rui and Meng had done during A Li's mother's difficult childbirth, which Mu Qing and Leng Xiu insisted on keeping from A Li.

At first, Leng Xiao wanted to tell Yun Li directly.

"Is that so? Then what about Jiao Jiao having liked you?"

Yun Li suddenly brought up Jiao Jiao, and Leng Xiao was stunned for a while before reacting.

He immediately looked a bit panicked, sat up straight, and asked, "A Li, is the Jiao Jiao you mentioned the female who was with the silver old woman who assisted you during delivery?"

If it's her, I swear to the Beast God that I have no thoughts about that strange female at all.

After all, I already have you; back then you had just given birth to our cubs.

If I had dared to have any thoughts about a female other than you back then, then let Mu Qing and Leng Xiu deal with me however they wish; even if they beat me to death, I'd deserve it.

"So, is that really the case?"

Yun Li actually only heard it whispered by A Yu, because the Ji Chen she liked had been paying a lot of attention to Yun Li for a while; A Yu, before Yun Li even met her, had already investigated her thoroughly.

Naturally, the female beastman Jiao Jiao, who had been raised alongside the silver old woman since childhood, occasionally delivered herbs to Yun Li's home under the pretext of medicine, and Yun Li knew that all too clearly.

Unlike Yun Li and Gong Mei, who aren't very familiar with Jiao Jiao, the Witch Doctor disciple, A Yu knows her better than anyone.

Jiao Jiao is a female beastman who is very good at deceiving males; when she likes a male, she dotes on him in every way, but once she loses interest, she becomes politely distant.

Even if the other is already her partner, once she decides, she can dissolve the partnership.

Originally, after A Yu saw Jiao Jiao when the other two Beast Husbands returned to Yun Li, she stopped delivering medicine to Yun Li's house, assuming Jiao Jiao had given up on Leng Xiao.

But who could have known that Jiao Jiao would, while Yun Li was away, happen to run into Leng Xiao playing with wolf cubs.

Out of Yun Li's goodwill, and an indescribable dislike for Jiao Jiao, A Yu and Xin came to visit the injured Yun Li and took the opportunity to inform her of this matter.

Leng Xiao had no idea that the few polite words he exchanged with Jiao Jiao today were being watched by Yun Li's friends, so he hurriedly began to explain to his partner.

"I know there's such a strange female, but I don't know why she likes me."

I've clearly already formed a Mate Bond with you; she's a Witch Doctor disciple of the Tribe, so she shouldn't lack male suitors.

Even if she thinks I'm good-looking or has a fine figure, I'm still a male who already has a female.

No matter who she likes, she simply can't like a male who already has a female.

He recounted that after Yun Li gave birth to cubs, Jiao Jiao had come to see him three times.

After finishing, recalling that he ran into Jiao Jiao again today, Leng Xiao, to prove his innocence, detailed without omission where they met and exactly what was said.

Finally, he grasped Yun Li's hand, his voice trembling, "A Li, you have to believe me; I truly have no connection with that Jiao Jiao."

In a beastman family dominated by females, the male's greatest taboo is losing the trust of the females, because that means his standing in the family will soon be marginalized.

If Yun Li were any more ruthless, he and their cubs would also become marginalized at home.

That's something Leng Xiao cannot tolerate at all; he loves his current life.

Anyone who dares to undermine his standing in A Li's heart will be killed!

While Leng Xiao stared unblinking at his female, his heart pounding, the Beast Husband Yun Li, whose forehead was already sweating, gave a smile.

"I naturally trust you, but if you encounter that Jiao Jiao again in the future, you must tell me."

"I don't like other females keeping a male like me in their thoughts."