Chapter 132: Chapter 132: So this is a feet protector?

Then Feng Yiren said, "Should we bury the needle or burn it?"

Lin Huahua looked at him. "I will bury you."

Feng Yiren smiled. "You cannot lift me."

"I will ask Baiyu."

Hu Baiyu immediately looked at Feng Yiren.

Feng Yiren’s smile faded slightly. "That is cheating."

After the finger incident, Lin Huahua continued working, though now all three males watched even more intensely. Every time the needle came close to her skin, Hu Baiyu’s ears twitched. Every time she pulled the fiber too hard, Mu Qingyi’s hand moved like he wanted to guide her but stopped himself because she had said she wanted to do it alone. Every time she frowned, Feng Yiren leaned in as if waiting to say something, then swallowed the words when she glared before he could even speak.

She pricked herself again.

This time she did not make a sound.

Unfortunately, her tail betrayed her by jerking sharply.

All three males saw it.

Lin Huahua slowly lifted her head before anyone could react. "Do not."

Mu Qingyi froze.

Hu Baiyu froze.

Feng Yiren’s mouth was already open, so he closed it.

Lin Huahua nodded in satisfaction and kept stitching.

The cave slowly filled with the sound of work, the crackle of fire, the soft scrape of hide against stone, and the occasional quiet muttering from Lin Huahua whenever the fiber tangled. Outside, tribe life continued. Someone passed by the cave entrance carrying a basket of roots. A child laughed somewhere in the distance. A male voice called for someone to bring more water. The smell of smoke, warm hide, dried herbs, and roasted fish still lingered around them. It all felt rough, primitive, and strangely alive.

Lin Huahua was so focused now that she did not notice how her males were looking at her.

Mu Qingyi watched with soft admiration, because this was the first time he had seen her truly insist on making something for herself from beginning to end. In the past, the old Lin Huahua would have ordered someone else to do it, then complained when it was not perfect. This Lin Huahua frowned, pouted, pricked her fingers, glared at help, and kept going. She was clumsy, yes, but she was trying, and to Mu Qingyi that made her shine more than any perfect female who never touched work.

Hu Baiyu watched like every stitch mattered to his life. He did not fully understand the steps, but he understood that she was making something because her feet hurt, and that alone made him feel both proud and sad. Proud because she was trying so hard. Sad because he wished he could remove every stone from the tribe path so she never needed this in the first place.

Feng Yiren watched with the most complicated expression. He wanted to laugh at the crooked stitches. He wanted to mock the ugly edges. He wanted to ask if this thing was footwear or a dead river creature. But every time Lin Huahua bit her lip and kept trying, every time her little ears twitched in concentration and her tail curled with stubborn effort, something in his chest pulled tight.

This female was really different.

Too different.

And much too dangerous to his poor fox heart.

At one point, Lin Huahua picked up the first nearly finished piece, held it against her foot, then frowned. "It needs something to tie around the ankle."

Mu Qingyi immediately reached for a softer cord. "This will not rub too much."

Lin Huahua stared at his hand.

Mu Qingyi paused.

Then he placed the cord down in front of her instead of handing it directly. "You can use it if you want."

Lin Huahua accepted this compromise and took the cord with great dignity.

Feng Yiren leaned closer. "If you tie it like that, it will loosen after a few steps."

Lin Huahua glared.

He lifted both hands. "I am only saying the feet protector will escape before you do."

Mu Qingyi gave him another warning look.

Feng Yiren sighed loudly. "Fine. I will be silent and watch the feet protector die."

Lin Huahua ignored him and tried tying it her way.

It immediately loosened.

Feng Yiren’s fox ears perked.

Lin Huahua pointed at him. "Do not smile."

"I am not smiling."

"Your ears are smiling."

Feng Yiren looked offended. "My ears do not smile."

"They do."

Hu Baiyu nodded once.

Feng Yiren looked at him sharply. "You stay out of this."

In the end, Lin Huahua still figured it out after adjusting the cord twice and looping it through two small holes she punched with the bone awl. The second piece took less time than the first, though it was still crooked in places, and by the time she was done, her fingers were tired, her hair had fallen slightly into her face, and there were four tiny prick marks on her hand that the males had treated like tragic events from the moment they appeared.

She sat back at last and stared at what she had made.

The footwear was not beautiful.

Not exactly.

It looked like something created by a very determined person who had only half an idea, stubbornness, and three anxious beastmen breathing around her.

But it had thick hide under the bottom, soft fur inside, fiber stitches around the edge, and cords to tie around her ankles.

It was real.

It existed.

She made it herself.

Lin Huahua’s eyes slowly brightened, and her fluffy white rat tail gave a tiny proud swish behind her.

"I finished," she said, voice soft but full of disbelief, as if even she had not fully expected herself to succeed.

Feng Yiren stared at the strange thing Lin Huahua had made for a long while, and the more he stared, the stranger his face became, because the item in front of him was clearly not a normal hide wrap, not a basket, not a hand cover, and not anything he had seen females use before. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

It was shaped like her foot, padded with soft fur, tough under the bottom, and tied together with plant fiber in a way that looked crooked but strangely useful. His red fox ears tilted forward, then sideways, and his tail swished once behind him before he finally pointed at it and said with full seriousness, "So this is a feet protector?"