Beauty and the Beasts

Not long later, he appeared onto the surface once again, bringing along a bubble that held animal skin clothes.

“Are you really going to hunt?”

Bluepool crawled up to the shore, turning his fishtail into legs and putting on an animal skin skirt.

“I know what I’m doing. It’ll be fine as long as I can hunt within a short period.” He took a long look at Bai Qingqing, then walked toward the forest with determination.

Bai Qingqing put a red stone fruit into her mouth and bit at the skin.

Forget it. She wasn’t going to care anymore. Bluepool was a three-striped beastman. Even if he couldn’t hunt anything, he shouldn’t end up being attacked by instead.

If he could get more accustomed to the land, it’d be easier for him to adapt to the family after he found a mate in the future.

Bai Qingqing washed up the stone fruits and lugged them back slowly. She would just treat this as physical training.

Parker caught a large prey that could feed the entire family. The leopard cubs could smell the scent of food coming from afar and promptly returned, crowding by the fire and happily going around in circles.

Parker tore off a few pieces of half-cooked meat and threw them to the grass at the side. The three cubs immediately dashed up to fight and ate happily as they blew at the meat.

First stepped on a piece of freshly roasted meat and tore away at it. He would bite off a chunk, swallowing down without chewing much. He didn’t care that the soil on his paws would get onto the meat. He just focused on his own food while paying attention to Third’s and Second’s.

Second behaved in a similar way to First. Only Third, who was slightly weaker compared to them, would have his guard up warily, eating very carefully.

Hmph. What’s the point of eating so fast? If we aren’t full, Mom will still give us food.

Third then looked warily at his brothers as he thought to himself.

“Clean up your paws. They’re all filled with dirt. It’s so dirty.” Bai Qingqing patted First’s head. He was the most vigorous in eating.

“Uhh!” First wiped his paws messily on the grass, his mouth not leaving his food.

Parker placed a bowl of purple starch noodles in front of Bai Qingqing. When he saw that her attention was on the children, he flicked her forehead.

A “thud” sound rang out, and Bai Qingqing grabbed onto her head and let out a loud cry. She then turned to look toward him. “Why did you do that?”

“Your food is ready. You only remember the children. They are already very old.” Parker gave it some thought before saying, “There’s little rainwater in the light rainy season here. I’m planning on bringing them into the forest to learn to hunt.”

“So soon?” Bai Qingqing was stunned.

The forest had always been dangerous to her. Even a beastman could be eaten by a wild beast.

“Can’t you teach them a little later?” Bai Qingqing couldn’t help but say.

However, the leopard cubs were very excited. They stopped eating the meat and opened their round orange-yellow eyes wide as they looked at their father.

“Howl howl?”

“Howl howl!”

The three children kept on crying out.

“Quickly go and eat. I’ll bring you guys out in the afternoon.” Parker put on a dignified expression and stared at them as they ate docilely before he turned his gaze away.

Uhh, he must be like his father earlier. The children were very well-behaved.

Bai Qingqing nudged Parker’s arm, calling him out from her trance.

“Can’t we wait to teach them after they get a little older?”

Parker said decisively, “No. The earlier they learn, the better. The village isn’t absolutely safe. They’d only be more alert after experiencing danger. The stricter I’m with them now, the higher the chances of their survival in the future.”

Bai Qingqing didn’t understand these things and thus didn’t say much.

The water for cooking the starch noodles was still boiling. Winston kept on sieving more batter into the pot.

When Bai Qingqing saw that a lot of the roasted meat was being eaten up, she urged, “Winston, quickly come over to eat as well.”

Parker immediately threw a displeased glance at him, grabbed onto a large piece of back meat, and ate in large bites.