Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off

Su Qinglan watched the bickering pair with a tilted head. She had always known An Mo was Duo Duo’s uncle, but the way he and Xuan Long acted was different. Like they knew each other beforehand.

She reached out, grabbed Xuan Long’s arm, and pulled him a few steps away from the noisy group.

"Xuan Long, wait," she whispered, her green eyes searching his. "Do you actually know him? I mean, really know him?"

Xuan Long stayed still for a moment, his gaze drifting toward An Mo, who was currently making silly faces at the baby snake. He took a calm, deep breath before leaning down to whisper in her ear.

"Yeah," he admitted softly. "He and I... we grew up together."

Su Qinglan’s eyes widened. "What? You were childhood friends?"

Xuan Long looked a bit distant as he explained.

"From childhood, I never really knew my father or my mother. I was raised by the clan elders, but they didn’t really care about me."

"They just made sure I didn’t die. I had to grow myself up. An Mo was the same. He lost his family at a very young age too. We lived a very short distance from each other, so we ended up... being there."

Su Qinglan’s heart melted. She knew Xuan Long had always been lonely, but finding out there was someone who had accompanied him through those dark, cold years made her day brighten instantly.

"So he’s your best friend!" she whispered excitedly, her face lighting up. "Then I definitely need to treat him better! We should take care of him better."

Xuan Long let out a dry cough. "Lanlan, don’t waste your kindness. Even if you kicked him, that thick-skinned idiot wouldn’t mind at all."

Despite his words, Xuan Long looked at An Mo and Xiao San with a softening gaze.

He knew exactly why his son was so close to this man.

An Mo had given the cub a powerful blessing that boosted his strength.

Since Xiao San had absorbed An Mo’s energy, he naturally felt a deep, soul-level connection to him.

Whatever, Xuan Long thought, his eyes suddenly twinkling with a mischievous thought. Let him play with the cubs. I’ll just work harder with Lan Lan to give birth to more babies so he’s too busy to bother me.

Suddenly, he scooped Su Qinglan up into his arms, surprising her. "Lanlan, don’t stand in the sand. It’s getting hot; you’ll burn your feet."

As he held her, his gaze accidentally fell on her stomach. His expression shifted instantly. He reached out a large hand and gently touched her belly, his fingers trembling just a little.

"Lanlan..." he murmured.

"What is it?" she asked, looking at him with a puzzled expression.

Xuan Long opened his mouth, then closed it. He wanted to ask, "Are you pregnant again?" But he remembered how Han Jue had blurted it out once and made her annoyed. He didn’t want to get hit by her sandals for giving her fake hope.

He tried to be subtle. He leaned in, pretending to nuzzle her neck, but he was actually trying to sniff her deeply.

He was searching for that tiny, faint scent of a new life.

But as he sniffed, his face fell. His own scent was so dominating on her, mixed with the faint smells of the other husbands, that he couldn’t distinguish anything at all.

How do I find out without alerting her? He wondered frantically. I worked so hard that night when she was in heat... surely it worked?

As he remembered the details of that intense night, his thoughts took a very vivid turn.

Suddenly, his ears turned a bright, flaming red. The heat spread down his neck, making his emerald eyes flicker with embarrassment.

Su Qinglan noticed it immediately. She reached up and flicked his red ear playfully.

"What happened? Why are your ears so red all of a sudden?" she teased. "Is it the sun? Are you getting heatstroke?"

Xuan Long let out a loud, fake cough to hide his embarrassment. He tucked his face into her shoulder so she couldn’t see how flustered he was.

If Lanlan knew the "shameless" things he was thinking about right now, she would definitely take off her sandals and beat him until he turned into a real snake.

"It’s just the sun," he lied through his teeth, his heart thumping. "Very hot. Let’s just... keep moving."

Su Qinglan giggled, hugging his neck tightly. She didn’t believe him for a second, but she loved seeing her "cool" husband acting so fluffy and flustered.

Xuan Long’s gaze then fell on An Mo with a look of pure disdain. The man looked like a wilted flower, his lips dry and his clothes covered in dust.

Typical pampered man!

An Mo was far too arrogant to ever think about practical things like carrying a waterskin or food for the road. He probably expected the clouds to rain down nectar just because he existed.

With a grunt, Xuan Long reached for the leather water bag hanging at his waist and tossed it hard at An Mo’s chest.

"Drink," Xuan Long said coolly.

"Consider it payment for entertaining the cubs. I don’t need a dried-up corpse following us."

An Mo caught the bag with a surprised blink, but he didn’t hesitate to chug the water down.

As he did, Hu Yan saw an opportunity.

The tiger beastman didn’t want to carry the cubs while trekking through the heat and when all they did was dripped their saliva all over him.

So he stepped forward and unceremoniously stuffed both Xiao Yi and Xiao Er into An Mo’s startled arms.

Xiao Yi and Xiao Er were stunned. Xiao Yi, the eldest tiger cub, immediately bared his tiny fangs at An Mo.

He hadn’t forgotten the "sand-potato" scare from earlier.

This bad ghost had made him cry in front of his mother and his younger brother! His snot had been flying everywhere, and his dignity was currently in the trash.

He was definitely going to hold this grudge until he was a full-grown tiger.