Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off

The vision shifted again, and Su Qinglan felt like she was watching a horror movie where she was the main character.

Soon the scene arrived where the past version of herself drugged Hu Yan. And she took a deep breath with anticipation, as this was the time she had arrived from her modern world.

But her hope dies down when nothing happens like that...she was so shocked she couldn’t comprehend what to think now.

In this memory, there was no transmigration.

There was no "modern" Su Qinglan to take over. The original, broken Su Qinglan remained in control.

The scene was cold and devoid of love. It was a desperate, messy act of a woman whose mind was already punctured by the Witch Doctor’s dark spells.

Su Qinglan watched from the sidelines, her soul trembling.

Is this what happened before I arrived? she thought, her eyes wide with terror.

Is this the timeline where I never came to save them?

As the days passed in the memory, Hu Yan’s character shone through the darkness.

Even though he had been tricked, he was a noble man. He looked at the fragile, erratic female who was now his mate and made a choice.

He decided to accept her. He tried to be devoted, bringing her the best meat and staying by her side to guard her cave.

But the past Su Qinglan couldn’t understand his devotion. The dark clouds in her mind, placed there by Mu Lihua and the Witch Doctor, made her see enemies everywhere.

She treated Hu Yan with coldness and cruelty, never giving him a single spark of hope, even going as far as to beat him just to take out her anger.

Then came the news: she was pregnant.

Hu Yan’s golden eyes lit up with a joy so pure it made the watching Su Qinglan want to weep.

He truly believed that a child would change everything. He thought that holding their cub would finally change her and make her a mother.

Even Han Jue began to soften. He started taking over her care, watching her silently.

For a brief moment, there was a tiny, flickering smile on the past Su Qinglan’s face when she felt the cubs move. The men thought she was finally changing.

Even Rong Ye, though he still kept his distance, began leaving baskets of fresh fruit at her cave entrance every morning before disappearing into the trees.

They were a family on the verge of healing. But the Witch Doctor would never allow it.

The tragedy struck when the past Su Qinglan was heavily pregnant.

One morning, Hu Yan woke up to find the cave empty. The furs were cold, and she was gone.

The entire tribe went into a frenzy.

Hu Yan and Han Jue searched for three days and three nights, their hearts heavy with a terrifying dread. They didn’t sleep; they didn’t eat.

They followed a faint trail of blood and scent deep into the mountains, far away from the safety of the Fox Tribe.

Finally, they found a hidden cave tucked behind thick vines.

Hu Yan rushed inside, but he stopped so abruptly that Han Jue crashed into his back. The air in the cave was filled with the metallic scent of fresh blood.

Su Qinglan was sitting on the cold stone floor. Her clothes were stained a deep, horrifying crimson. She was staring at the wall with empty, hollow eyes, her face devoid of any emotion.

In front of her, lying in the dirt, was a tiny tiger cub.

It was covered in blood and mud. It was so small it could fit into the palm of a hand. Its fur was matted, and its little head was turned to the side.

Most importantly... it wasn’t breathing. It wasn’t moving. There was no sound of a tiny heartbeat.

"Qinglan?" Hu Yan’s voice was a broken whisper. He felt like the world was collapsing in front of his eyes. He looked at his lifeless son, then at his mate.

"What happened?" Han Jue demanded, his voice shaking with fury and grief.

"Why did you leave the tribe? What did you do?"

The past Su Qinglan didn’t even look at them. She spoke in a flat, robotic tone, as if she were reading a list of chores.

"I don’t want to carry cubs," she muttered.

"It is ugly. It is disgusting. It made me feel so much pain every time it moved. I didn’t want it...I don’t like it."

The words felt like a dagger to the heart. Hu Yan let out a strangled cry, a sound of pure, raw agony.

He collapsed to his knees, his hands reaching out to touch the cold, tiny body of his child. He had waited so long to meet this cub.

He had dreamed of teaching him to hunt, of watching him grow. And now, his son was gone before he could even take his first breath.

Hu Yan’s grief quickly turned into a terrifying rage.

"Roarrrr..."

He let out a roar that shook the cave, his eyes turning a deep, blood-red. He lunged toward the past Su Qinglan, his claws extended. He wanted to kill her. He wanted to tear her apart for murdering their innocent child.

"You monster!" he screamed.

Han Ju jumped forward, grabbing Hu Yan from behind to hold him back. "Brother, stop! Don’t do it!"

The present-day Su Qinglan, watching this scene, felt like she was dying.

The pain was so intense it felt like her soul was being shredded. She saw the tiny, muddy cub and realized that in that timeline, her children never had a chance.

"Baby...my baby," the current Su Qinglan sobs as she isn’t even able to watch the small cub. Her heart felt like it was squeezing itself in agony. She couldn’t bear to watch it.

What had she done? No... this had to be the work of the witch doctor or Wang Mulan. She refused to believe that even in a frenzied state, she could have done something like this.

Her eyes locked onto Hu Yan, who was broken, shattered beyond recognition.

Seeing what he had become, she wanted to run to him, to explain that she had done nothing... that it wasn’t her.

Please... don’t look at me like that.

"Your Lan Lan would never do this... Hu Yan, believe me..." she wanted to scream, but her body refused to move, just like before.

She could only watch...trapped within the past, seeing everything through the eyes of the former Su Qinglan.

She could only watch the blood, the mud, and the lifeless cub... feeling the crushing weight of a past filled with nothing but darkness and death.