Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off-Chapter 403: The Cave That Broke Their Hearts

"Control your eyes! If someone saw you, they’d think you were all planning to pounce on one pitiful female!"

Mortified, she buried her face into Xuan Long’s damp shoulder, her heart hammering against her ribs.

Was it the long separation? Or the fact that she felt so exposed under the open sky? Whatever it was, she felt like a rabbit trapped in a den of lions.

Xuan Long let out a low, possessive hum, stroking her wet hair.

Sensing the tension reaching a breaking point, Han Jue reached into a pack they had carried across the sea and pulled out a large, supple piece of animal hide.

He tossed it to Xuan Long, who immediately swaddled Su Qinglan in it, hiding her from the world and from the searing eyes of the others.

Han Jue’s jaw was tight. He felt a sharp pang of possessive shame; the idea of any other male in this coastal tribe seeing her in such a "seductress" state made his blood boil. She was glowing, her skin slick with seawater, looking every bit like a mountain spirit that had wandered into the ocean.

Rong Ye, never one to be deterred by a bit of hide, reached out and poked her waist through the fur.

"Lan Lan... sigh. You’ve become so thin." He pouted, his violet eyes scanning her frame with genuine concern. "Where is your chubby belly? It’s gone!"

The other males narrowed their eyes, realizing he was right. Their Lan Lan had lost her healthy softness. The stress of the sea and the strange island had carved away her curves.

"You’ve dropped weight," Hu Yan growled, his face turning sullen. It was a silent vow: they would have to feed her until she was round and pampered again.

Su Qinglan poked her head out of the fur wrap, glaring at the fox. "Where are you touching?! If you want fat rolls, grow them yourself! Why touch mine? You stinky fox!"

Rong Ye looked deeply offended, flipping his wet hair back with a flourish. "I am not stinky! I am the most handsome fox in the forest, the sea, and every land in between!"

The walk back to the cave was silent, mostly because the males were too busy scouting the surrounding area with critical, judgmental eyes.

When they finally reached the small opening in the plain where Su Qinglan had been living, they stepped inside and the atmosphere plummeted.

Their expressions immediately shifted from protective to heartbroken.

The cave was... empty. Aside from a few thin, worn hides spread across the cold ground and a simple stone slab over a fire pit at the entrance, there was nothing.

No stockpiles of dried meat hanging from the ceiling. No jars of preserved fat. Not even a stray bone.

To these powerful hunters, who usually kept their storage pits overflowing to ensure their female never felt a pang of hunger, this looked like a tragedy.

She had been living like this?

Hu Yan’s heart thudded painfully against his ribs. He looked at Su Qinglan, then at the three cubs, imagining her struggling every day to find enough to feed four mouths all by herself. No wonder she was thinner. No wonder her "chubby belly" had vanished!

What they didn’t realize, of course, was that the cave wasn’t empty because of a lack of hunting or food; it was empty because the two tiger cubs and the tiny snake were bottomless pits.

Any meat she brought home was devoured within seconds. Furthermore, land beasts were rare on the coast; they had mostly been surviving on a diet of fish, which digested far too quickly for a growing tiger’s liking.

But to the males, it just looked like she was starving.

Su Qinglan, completely oblivious to their internal drama, reached down and picked up a dry, slightly rough hide from the floor. She tossed it toward them.

"Here," she said, still a bit flushed from earlier. "Wipe yourselves down. And the cubs too, they’re still damp."

Xuan Long didn’t use the hide on himself.

Instead, he caught it mid-air and stepped toward her. His expression was uncharacteristically soft, filled with lingering sadness.

He began to gently wipe the seawater from her face and hair, his movements slow and careful, as if she might break.

"Lan Lan..." he murmured, his voice thick with guilt.

Behind him, Hu Yan and Rong Ye sighed deeply and moved toward the cubs.

They began rubbing the tigers dry with such fervor it looked like they were trying to polish them.

Xiao San, the little snake, was the easiest; one quick swipe of a cloth over his scales and he was perfectly dry, looking up at them with a confused flick of his tongue.

Meanwhile, Han Jue and Rong Ye didn’t waste a second. They immediately began rummaging through the small bags they had carried across the ocean.

"This is spoiled," Han Jue muttered, tossing a piece of damp, salted meat out of the cave entrance with a look of pure disgust. "And this. We need fresh food. Now."

They started pulling out their remaining supplies—the high-quality jerky and dried fruits they had guarded with their lives during the journey—stacking them in the center of the cave like a sacred offering.

Amidst the chaos, Stove saw his opportunity to run away.

The weed carefully dragged his pale, thin "wife" out of the hide bag and into a patch of bright sunlight near the cave entrance. He laid her down gently, then flopped beside her.

"Sob sob!"

He didn’t want to do any work today. Not a single bit.

He knew these "stinky males" well... if they saw him looking idle and green, they’d immediately order him to go fetch dry wood or find herbs.

"I am a victim of the sea!" Stove thought, hugging his little flower.

"I need to spend quality time with my female to recover from my trauma!"

He pretended to be a completely lifeless, withered vine, hoping that if he looked pathetic enough, they would leave him alone to bask in the sun.