Chapter 31: She’s Gone
She took the little wolf cub with her.
She took She Yang.
But she left behind Hu Bai, and Fox Qi.
Hu Bai lay down and turned his back to the cave. He didn’t realize how pathetic he must have looked. His slender shoulders trembled slightly, his tears flowing uncontrollably.
The first time he was abandoned, he couldn’t find her anywhere after the sun came up. He’d searched and searched and searched, holding Fox Qi in his arms. In the end, the village chief, Fox Xin, told him he’d been sold. For just three Beast Skins.
He had been sold by his female master.
After a Male Beastman formed a pair-bond with a female, he became her private property. Females did indeed have the right to sell males.
But Hu Bai couldn’t understand. She had willingly entered the pair-bond with him. She had been pregnant for two months before giving birth to Fox Qi.
When they were together, she taught him how to use fire and they built a life together. Everything had been so wonderful.
Why did he wake up one day to find their cub here, but her gone?
Why did she sell him for a mere three Beast Skins?
’Am I that worthless? Do I... do I have to be abandoned by the one I love?’
For five years, a male who was sold as a Beast Slave and utterly abandoned by his female master... how hard was that life?
But even through all that hardship, he had raised their child.
He finally saw her again, but her footsteps still wouldn’t stop for him.
He couldn’t make her stay. She was gone again. She had abandoned him a second time.
’Is it because I’m too ugly? Is it because my health is poor? Or is it because my personality is truly that bad, that I was too cold to her?’
’It’s my fault. It’s all my fault. If I were better, she wouldn’t have left me.’
"Father!" When Fox Qi returned to the cave, he saw that something was very wrong with Hu Bai.
The IV drip was finished, and blood was even starting to backflow into the tube, but Hu Bai seemed completely oblivious.
Fox Qi quickly pulled the needle out and went to check on him.
When he saw that his father, the man he looked up to as his entire world, was actually crying, Fox Qi’s young heart trembled.
"Father, what’s wrong? Don’t scare me!"
Hu Bai curled into a ball, his voice low. "Aqi, your mother doesn’t want us anymore. She doesn’t want you, and she doesn’t want me."
Fox Qi was a little confused. "I know. She hasn’t wanted us since I was born. Don’t be sad, Father. It’s okay. Aqi is okay."
Hu Bai curled up even tighter. "She doesn’t want us now, either. She left. She just left. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have been so cold to her..."
"Father, what are you talking about?" Fox Qi tried to help Hu Bai sit up.
But Hu Bai was like a soulless doll, completely devoid of the will to live.
"Father, Father, what are you saying? I don’t understand. Get up! The pretty big sister worked so hard to heal you. Don’t get sick again!"
"...She... she’s gone. She abandoned us again."
Listening to his father’s words, Fox Qi, though muddle-headed, tried to make sense of them. "Father, I don’t understand. You said my mother doesn’t want us. But it was the pretty big sister who left today. You’re not trying to say... that the pretty big sister is my mother, are you?"
Hu Bai fell silent, not saying a word.
It was like a bolt from the blue for Fox Qi. "Dad! The pretty big sister is my mother?!"
"Dad, answer me! Is the pretty big sister my mother?!" Fox Qi’s heart gradually tightened in his chest.
The pretty big sister was his mother?
So that’s why his father’s attitude toward the pretty big sister had been so strange these past few days. He was cold to her one moment, yet carefully looking after her the next.
He was angry with her, but his father... he also cared about her deeply.
"The pretty big sister really is my mother, isn’t she?" The little cub recovered his composure much faster than Hu Bai.
Fox Qi quickly shook Hu Bai, forcing him to face him.
"If she’s my mother, why didn’t she recognize us?"
Hu Bai had no strength to speak.
Fox Qi gave up on that question and asked another, "If she didn’t recognize us, but you recognized her, Father, why didn’t you tell her who we are? Why didn’t you ask her why she abandoned us?"
"Father, if it were any other female, I couldn’t say for sure. But I don’t think the pretty big sister would have sold you. Could there be some kind of misunderstanding?"
"Father, are you really not going to ask her? If you don’t ask this time, will you truly not regret it?"
"Dad! If you don’t pull yourself together, I won’t have a mother, and you won’t have a female master!"
Fox Qi shook Hu Bai hard, and Hu Bai slowly lifted his head.
Fox Qi started to panic, too. Seeing that Hu Bai couldn’t be roused, he ran out of the cave himself.
A heavy rain was falling outside, making the path slippery. The five-year-old little fox cub was in a hurry to find his mother, and he accidentally tripped on a tree root, falling to the ground.
The rain was so heavy that it quickly soaked Fox Qi to the bone.
Through the curtain of rain, Hu Bai appeared at Fox Qi’s side. Fox Qi looked up at him.
"Dad! The rain will wash away her scent easily. If you wait any longer, you won’t be able to find her. Go find Mom, hurry!"
"Aqi, do you really think I should go after her? She’s the one who left us first... Should I still... run to her?"
Fox Qi’s eyes were red-rimmed. "Dad, if you don’t find her today, we might never find her again. Aqi doesn’t want to be without a mother! I don’t want to be without a mother as wonderful as the pretty big sister!"
Hu Bai crouched down and checked Fox Qi’s body. "Aqi, did you hurt your knee?"
"I’m fine!" Fox Qi pushed him forcefully. "Just go! Go find Mom! I can get back to the cave by myself, don’t worry about me!"
...
The rain grew heavier.
There wasn’t supposed to be such heavy rain during the minor rainy season.
Riding on the Wolf King’s back, Nan Zishi, draped in a raincoat, patted his head.
"First, let’s go get the stitches out for your mate. I’ll stay in your cave tonight. Otherwise, your Little Lao Liu probably won’t be able to take it."
She Yang and Little Lao Liu were both nestled in her arms, and Nan Zishi did her best to take care of the two little cubs.
To be honest, Nan Zishi shouldn’t have left in such heavy rain.
But the longer she stayed in Stone Village, the more reluctant she would be to leave Fox Qi, and... Hu Bai.
A strange feeling was making her, without realizing it, develop feelings for Hu Bai.
But a human was a human, after all. Her morals constrained her. Even if she felt herself starting to like Hu Bai, she would restrain those feelings because of her ethics.
’It’s better to leave early, before it becomes even harder to go.’
’By now, about two or three hours must have passed. Hu Bai’s IV drip should have finished long ago.’
’Once this drip is done, his pneumonia will be cured. As long as he doesn’t do anything reckless to himself again, he should be fine.’
’And then there’s Little Fox Qi. The little guy is smart, sensible, and so cute.’
’He suffered a lot when he was young, but an angelic cub like him is sure to have a bright future.’
Nan Zishi clutched the spot over her heart and gave a bitter smile.
’I’ve come so far, and I’m still thinking about that father and son.’
’As I thought, I really can’t bear to leave them. I’m still so worried about them.’