Lin Huahua felt him grow beneath her and the warmth that had already been spreading across her face immediately rushed all the way to the tips of her white rat ears.

For a moment, her whole body froze on top of Hu Baiyu. She had been laughing only a breath ago, and her small hands were still resting near his lion ears because she had been tickling him, but now she could not even remember what she had been doing.

Her big brown eyes slowly lowered, then quickly lifted again as if the ground had suddenly betrayed her. Her fluffy white rat tail curled stiffly against his thigh, and the more she tried to act like she did not notice anything, the more obvious her reaction became.

Hu Baiyu also froze.

The huge white lion beastman looked up at her with wide blue eyes, and for once, even his strong hands around her waist seemed unsure of what to do.

He had not meant to scare her. He had not meant to make her feel trapped. It was only that she was sitting on his lap, laughing with him, touching his ears, speaking to him so softly and promising that one day she would help him find out why he could not speak.

His heart had already softened so badly that it felt painful, and then her small body had been so close, so warm, and so trusting that his body reacted before his mind could control it.

But the moment he saw Lin Huahua freeze, shame hit him at once.

His lion ears lowered halfway, and his hands loosened around her waist immediately, as if he was telling her with his whole body that she could move away if she wanted.

He did not want her to be afraid of him. He did not want her to look at him the way the old Lin Huahua used to look at him, with disgust and impatience as if his existence was something wrong.

But because he could not speak, he could only look at her with nervous eyes and hope she understood that he had not meant to make her uncomfortable.

Lin Huahua understood some of it.

And because she understood, her face turned even redder.

"I..." she started, but the word came out so soft and useless that she immediately wanted to slap herself. What was she supposed to say?

Was she supposed to sit here and calmly explain that she was not disgusted, she was only inexperienced, embarrassed, and completely unable to handle a giant white lion beastman looking at her like she was the only warm thing in his world?

Impossible.

Her brain chose escape.

Lin Huahua suddenly scrambled off his lap so fast that her tail almost smacked his arm, and because she was too flustered to even look at him properly, she stumbled over the edge of the fur, steadied herself with both hands, then rushed toward the cave entrance like a guilty little rat running away after stealing food.

"I need air," she blurted out, even though the cave had plenty of air.

Then she lifted the hide curtain and ran outside.

Hu Baiyu remained sitting on the fur in complete silence, his hands still half lifted as if he had wanted to catch her but stopped himself.

His white hair had fallen messily around his face from their play earlier, his lion ears were drooping lower now, and his blue eyes stayed fixed on the moving hide curtain long after she had disappeared.

His whole body looked big and strong, but the way he sat there made him seem strangely helpless, like a giant lion cub that had been scolded without understanding what he had done wrong.

That was the exact scene Feng Yiren saw when he walked back in a moment later.

The fox beastman had just returned from outside with a bundle of soft skins tucked under one arm, because although he had left without explaining himself, he had actually gone to choose better materials for Lin Huahua’s clothes.

He had noticed the rough edge of her animal skin top earlier, and it had bothered him enough that he could not sit still. It was not that he was being sweet. At least that was what he told himself. It was simply that his female should not wear things that scratched her soft skin, and if no one else noticed, then he would fix it before she started pouting again.

But the moment Feng Yiren stepped inside and saw Hu Baiyu sitting there with his ears drooped, his face red, and his body still clearly reacting from what had happened with Lin Huahua, his own red fox ears stood up sharply.

His eyes narrowed.

Then jealousy crawled straight into his chest.

It was a very ugly feeling.

Because Feng Yiren knew exactly what must have happened. Lin Huahua had been on Hu Baiyu’s lap. They had been too close. She had run outside with a bright red face, and now the lion sat there looking both guilty and satisfied in a way that made Feng Yiren want to drag him by the hair again even though that would be stupid because Hu Baiyu was a three-striped beastman and also bigger than him.

Feng Yiren did not like it.

He did not like that Hu Baiyu had gotten that soft moment with her. He did not like that Lin Huahua had probably touched his ears and laughed with him while Feng Yiren was outside collecting skins like some hardworking abandoned male.

He did not like that he was jealous in the first place, because he had spent so long telling himself that he hated Lin Huahua, yet now every time she gave another male attention, his fox heart felt like someone was stepping on it.

So, because Feng Yiren was Feng Yiren, he chose to attack.

He tossed the bundle of skins near the wall, crossed his arms over his lean bare chest, and gave Hu Baiyu a look full of fake disgust. "Shame on you."