Chapter 126: Chapter 126: This is ridiculous. You both know she is doing this on purpose

Mu Qingyi’s eyes softened in a way that made it very clear he had heard everything and still chose peace.

Hu Baiyu also paused, looked at Lin Huahua, then looked at Feng Yiren, and somehow his silent lion face managed to say, she is cold, why are you troubling her?

Feng Yiren looked at the ceiling of the cave like he was asking the beast gods why he had been placed in this family.

"She is lying," he said.

Lin Huahua immediately coughed once, weakly and dramatically, then pulled the hide cloth closer around her shoulders. "My throat hurts."

Hu Baiyu panicked at once.

He set the basin down so carefully that the water barely moved, then crouched beside her and reached for her face. His big warm fingers touched her cheek, then her throat, then he looked at Mu Qingyi with real worry.

Feng Yiren stared.

Then he laughed once in disbelief. "This is ridiculous. You both know she is doing this on purpose."

Mu Qingyi walked over and placed one warm dry hide around Lin Huahua’s shoulders before answering calmly, "She almost drowned."

"That does not mean she did not stick her tongue out at me."

"She almost drowned," Mu Qingyi repeated, as if that sentence was now the wall every complaint would crash into.

Lin Huahua lowered her head quickly because if she looked at Feng Yiren’s betrayed face for one more second, she would laugh and ruin her pitiful act.

Feng Yiren saw her shoulders tremble.

He knew.

He knew she was laughing.

His tail lashed so hard it nearly smacked the cave wall.

"Fine," he said with a cold smile. "Be pitiful. Act innocent. I will remember this."

Lin Huahua looked up at him with the softest face she could manage. "Remember what? I am too weak to understand."

Feng Yiren turned around and walked toward the fish basket with the furious dignity of a fox who had lost a trial in front of two biased judges.

Mu Qingyi’s mouth twitched, but he hid it by turning toward the hot water. Hu Baiyu did not hide anything because he did not fully understand the joke. He only looked relieved that Lin Huahua was speaking, arguing, and making faces again, because to him every small sign of life from her felt like a blessing after seeing her underwater.

The hot water was ready soon, and this time nobody let her wash alone.

That did not mean they all stood there staring, because even Feng Yiren, shameless as he was, knew that Mu Qingyi would kick him through the cave wall if he tried anything while she was still shaken. Instead, Hu Baiyu helped her to the bathing corner, kneeling beside the hide curtain and keeping one hand close in case she slipped, while Mu Qingyi stayed just outside and checked the water temperature again with his fingers before letting her step in. Feng Yiren stood farther away near the fire, pretending to focus on cleaning fish, but his ears kept turning toward every tiny sound from her direction.

Lin Huahua sank into the warm water with a long relieved sigh.

The heat wrapped around her cold skin, and the warming leaves Hu Baiyu had crushed released a gentle scent that reminded her of grass after rain and smoke from a clean fire. Her shivering slowly stopped. Her tail, which had looked tragically soaked and limp earlier, floated beside her like a pale ribbon in the water, and her ears lifted little by little as warmth returned to her body.

Hu Baiyu sat outside the curtain with his back turned, but one of his hands remained inside just enough for her to hold if she wanted.

And she did.

At first she only touched his fingers.

Then held them.

Hu Baiyu went completely still.

Then his fingers curled carefully around hers, so gently it made Lin Huahua’s chest feel soft.

"I am really fine," she whispered after a moment.

His thumb moved once over the back of her hand.

Lin Huahua somehow understood that he did not believe her, but he wanted to.

So she said again, "I was scared, but I am fine now."

Hu Baiyu lowered his head outside the curtain, and although she could not see his face clearly, she saw his white hair fall forward and heard the soft rumble in his chest. It was not a purr this time. It was something sadder.

Lin Huahua’s fingers tightened around his. "Do not blame yourself."

He did not answer, but his silence felt heavy.

Outside, Feng Yiren’s voice came from the fire area. "He is not the only one who should stop blaming himself. Somebody else should learn to blame herself a little more and stop pretending jumping fish are innocent."

Lin Huahua’s ears twitched at once.

"Feng Yiren," she called from the bath, "do you want me to throw another beehive at you?"

"There are no beehives inside the cave."

"I can find one later." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Listen to her," Feng Yiren said to Mu Qingyi, his voice full of false sorrow. "She almost died and is already threatening me again. Such a vicious little rat."

Mu Qingyi’s calm voice answered, "You started it."

"I did not start anything. I am cleaning fish peacefully while being attacked from the bath."

Lin Huahua splashed a little water toward the curtain, though it did not reach him at all. "You are annoying."

"And yet you keep talking to me."

"Because you keep speaking first."

"Because someone has to teach you sense."

"I have sense."

"You followed fish."

Lin Huahua inhaled sharply, because he had returned to that point again, and if she had not been naked in warm water, she might have marched out and fought him with a wet hide cloth.

Hu Baiyu’s shoulders shook once.

Lin Huahua looked at him suspiciously. "Baiyu, are you laughing?"

Hu Baiyu immediately straightened.

Too late.

She had felt it through his hand.

Lin Huahua gasped. "You are laughing at me too?"

Hu Baiyu quickly shook his head even though she could barely see him through the hide curtain, then lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles in apology.

Her anger vanished embarrassingly fast.