Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off

The room remained quiet for a long time after Rong Ye finished speaking.

Hu Yan stood there, completely stunned. He had always known that Rong Ye had a past. Anyone could tell that much just from the way he sometimes acted... carefree on the surface, but hiding something deeper underneath.

But he had never imagined it would be like this.

To poison one’s own father... and then slaughter almost the entire bloodline just for the throne...

Hu Yan’s brows tightened sharply.

That kind of cruelty...

Even ferocious beasts would not go that far.

For a moment, he felt a chill run down his spine. Rong Ye, who usually laughed and joked so easily, had actually walked out from such a hell.

Hu Yan looked at him again, and his expression slowly grew more serious.

On the other side, Su Qinglan did not show much reaction on her face. She remained calm. But her silence did not mean she was unaffected. She already knew part of the truth.

She had seen fragments before... seen how Rong Ye had been hunted down, seen how he had fallen, seen how he died in the last life because of his so-called brother.

But she had not known everything. She had not known that his brother had gone as far as killing their own father.

That level of ruthlessness...

Her eyes slowly narrowed.

"That man..."

A cold thought passed through her mind.

"He is far more dangerous than I thought."

For a brief moment, a sharp killing intent flashed across her eyes before it was hidden again. Anyone who dared to harm her people, she would not let them go.

After a while, Su Qinglan finally let go of Rong Ye’s face and stood up. Her expression returned to calm, but there was a new firmness in it now.

She turned her head and looked at Hu Yan.

"Did Shi Feng come back?" she asked. Her tone was steady. "He went to find An Mo and Xuan Long. He should be back by now, right?"

Hu Yan snapped out of his thoughts and nodded slightly. "He should be nearby."

Su Qinglan gave a small nod. "Go and call them," she said. "Call Xuan Long, An Mo... and Han Jue as well."

She paused for a moment.

"I need to tell everyone something." Her voice was calm, but it carried a quiet seriousness that could not be ignored.

Hu Yan looked at her for a second, then nodded again without asking further. "Alright." He turned and walked out of the house immediately.

Inside the room, only Su Qinglan, Rong Ye, and the three cubs remained. It did not take long before footsteps sounded outside the stone house.

Hu Yan returned first, and behind him came Shi Feng, Xuan Long, An Mo, and Han Jue. It seemed they had already finished what they were doing in the forest, because the moment Hu Yan called them, they came back without delay.

As soon as they stepped inside, they immediately sensed that something was different.

The atmosphere in the room was unusually quiet.

Su Qinglan stood at the center, her expression calm but serious, while Rong Ye sat beside her, looking far more restless than usual. Even the three cubs were sitting quietly, not making a single sound, their big eyes moving between the adults as if they understood that something important was about to happen.

Shi Feng was the first to speak, unable to ignore the strange tension. "Qinglan, what happened? Why did you call us so suddenly?"

An Mo and the others also looked at her, waiting for an explanation.

Su Qinglan glanced at them briefly, then gestured lightly. "Let’s sit first. We’ll talk after that."

Her voice was calm, but there was a firmness in it that made no one question her. Everyone quickly found a place to sit, forming a loose circle inside the house.

As they settled down, Rong Ye’s uneasiness became even more obvious. His fingers kept fidgeting together, and his fox ears twitched non-stop. His gaze wandered from one person to another, but he refused to meet anyone’s eyes, as if he was afraid that the moment he did, something would be exposed.

The tension in his body was so visible that even the others began to notice it.

Just as his nervousness was about to spiral out of control, Su Qinglan suddenly reached out and held his hand.

Rong Ye froze. He turned to look at her, and the moment their eyes met, something inside him seemed to settle. Her gaze was calm, steady, and reassuring in a way he could not explain.

Without saying a word, she grounded him.

His fingers slowly stopped fidgeting, and his ears gradually became still. The panic that had been building inside him quietly faded, replaced by a strange sense of stability.

Only after he calmed down did Su Qinglan shift her attention back to the others.

Everyone was now seated, their eyes fixed on her. Even the cubs remained unusually obedient, huddled close together without making a sound, as if they could feel the seriousness in the house.

For a brief moment, no one spoke. Then Su Qinglan finally opened her mouth.

"We need to kill someone."

Her voice was calm, almost casual, as if she were stating something ordinary. But the effect of her words was anything but ordinary.

The entire room fell into stunned silence.

Shi Feng’s expression froze, his eyes widening slightly as he stared at her.

An Mo blinked in disbelief, clearly caught off guard, but then his lips slowly curled into a grin, his eyes lighting up with amused admiration as he looked at her as if seeing her in a completely new light.

Even Xuan Long, who was usually the most composed among them, showed a rare flicker of surprise.

Han Jue’s brows furrowed deeply, while Hu Yan, who already had some idea of the situation, still could not help but furrow his brows.

No one had expected this.

In their eyes, Su Qinglan had always been gentle and composed, someone who took care of others and avoided unnecessary conflict. She was not someone who spoke lightly about violence, let alone something as serious as killing.

And yet, she had just said it so plainly.

For a moment, no one knew how to respond.

The air in the room grew heavy, filled with shock and confusion.

Finally, Shi Feng was the one who broke the silence. His expression turned serious as he looked at her and asked, "Who?"