Chapter 109: Chapter 109: He must be here because it is almost the mating season

Mu Qingyi looked down at her at once, and the moment he saw that her eyes were truly asking and not pretending, his expression changed. His usual calm was still there, but a faint shadow crossed his face because this was not something he wanted her to get curious about.

He lowered his head slightly, keeping his voice quiet so he would not add to the panic around them. "Snake beastmen are not like the others," he said. "They are often alone, very dangerous, and difficult to predict. They do not live as easily among tribes, and many of them are rough even by beastman standards. Females avoid them for a reason."

Lin Huahua’s ears twitched. "Rough how?"

Mu Qingyi hesitated, and it was Feng Yiren who answered with typical fox bluntness. "The kind of rough that leaves a female crying for all the wrong reasons."

Lin Huahua’s eyes widened at once.

Hu Baiyu looked displeased by that answer, not because it was wrong, but because he did not like Lin Huahua hearing it that way.

So the lion immediately bent a little closer to her and used his hands to show safer, clearer things instead. He pointed toward the forest, then mimed something snatching fast, then made a slicing motion with his hand, then pressed his palm gently to her shoulder and shook his head with serious eyes.

Do not go.

Do not wander.

Stay away.

Lin Huahua understood immediately.

Mu Qingyi added softly, "Please do not go into the forest again until the tribe has checked everything properly and we know it is safe. Even walking at the outer edge is not worth the risk right now."

This time Lin Huahua nodded without arguing, because with the way everybody around her was reacting, even she herself had started feeling unsettled.

At first she had thought maybe the tribe was overreacting, but now that she had heard enough, she felt that maybe in this primitive beast world, one really could not take things lightly.

What kind of terrifying man was this that an entire tribe would look ready to snatch their females up and hide them away just from hearing he might be nearby?

Tu Xiaotao, who had also been listening, turned to Lin Huahua and said in a low voice, "He must be here because it is almost the mating season."

Lin Huahua turned to her at once. "What exactly is the mating season?"

All three friends stared again.

Actually stared.

Tu Xiaotao’s rabbit ears tilted out in disbelief. Mao Qingyue’s eyes narrowed. Lang Yinzhi looked almost insulted by the question.

Before they could answer, Feng Yiren immediately stepped in again, because he clearly did not want any of them thinking too deeply about why Lin Huahua kept asking such simple things.

He clicked his tongue and said, "Did you all forget already? I said she hit her head in the forest when she tried to escape. A big piece of her memory is gone."

Tu Xiaotao’s whole face changed. Her ears dropped a little and she hurriedly reached out with both hands to check Lin Huahua’s face, then her head, then the back of her neck as if memory loss might be hanging there visibly like a bad fruit.

"That is true, I forgot because of the news?" Tu Xiaotao asked. "Are you sure you’re really alright? Does it hurt here? Or here? How much do you not remember? Do you remember me properly? You are not going to forget me again, right?"

Lin Huahua, who was being inspected like an injured rabbit by another rabbit, could only endure it for a second before lifting both hands and gently catching Tu Xiaotao’s wrists.

"I am okay," she said.

Then she shot Feng Yiren a glare.

The fox looked right back at her with a completely shameless expression that said yes, I said it again, what will you do about it?

Lin Huahua wanted to step on him from anger.

But before she could do that, Tu Xiaotao had already grabbed her hand and leaned in, her voice dropping into the tone of somebody about to explain something scandalous and wonderful.

"The mating season," Tu Xiaotao said, "is the best and worst time depending on who is asking. It is when males get bolder, females get more choices, everybody acts like they have lost some sense, and the whole tribe starts preparing as if a festival and a fight might happen on the same night."

Mao Qingyue gave a small nod and added more calmly, "It is when males who want a female come to pursue her properly. They bring things, prove themselves, and make their intentions clear."

Lang Yinzhi snorted. "And if the female likes what she sees, that night becomes very busy."

Lin Huahua’s face started heating again.

Tu Xiaotao noticed at once and became even more excited. "Aiyo, look at her face. She is blushing before we even finished."

Lin Huahua turned her face away, but that only showed the pink at the tips of her ears more clearly.

Mu Qingyi, Hu Baiyu, and Feng Yiren had all heard enough by now to grow far too quiet.

Lin Huahua could feel their eyes on her even without turning.

So of course she turned.

That was a mistake.

Because the moment she looked at them, she saw three completely different kinds of dangerous.

Mu Qingyi was the gentlest, but his warm eyes had darkened in that quiet way of his, and although he stood there looking calm and nurturing as always, the soft devotion in his face had deepened into something that made her heartbeat turn uneven.

Hu Baiyu had gone still in that lion way that always looked innocent and serious at the same time, but his ears were forward and his whole body seemed more alert than before, as if one single word from her could change the direction of his day forever.

Feng Yiren was the worst, because the fox did not even hide his reaction. His red eyes gleamed, his tail swished lazily, and he said at once, "I cannot wait for that night."