Before long, Hu Jiaojiao lifted the lid off the pot, and a wave of steam billowed out, carrying a faint aroma of porridge.

She stirred the contents with a long spoon, and the scent of the porridge mixed with the meat, creating a mouthwatering aroma.

The cubs all swallowed in unison, their eyes shining as they stared at the pot of porridge, but none dared to step forward.

The vicious female hadn’t said they could eat, so they couldn’t. If they touched her food, they would get beaten.

Hu Jiaojiao noticed the cubs’ expressions and smiled faintly. She was about to grab bowls to serve the porridge when, suddenly, she felt weak.

Her vision darkened, and she lost consciousness.

“Thud!”

Long Ling’er only saw Hu Jiaojiao suddenly collapse to the ground, the long spoon falling and gathering dust. Startled, she gasped.

Long Yu, along with the other cubs, hurried over.

“Big brother, what happened to her? Is she dead?”

Long Ling’er asked anxiously, looking at Hu Jiaojiao lying on the ground.

Even though she had always wished for the vicious female’s disappearance, now that it might have happened, she didn’t feel as happy as she had imagined.

“If she’s dead, it’s better. No one will bully us anymore,” Long Zhong snorted coldly, his eyes filled with indifference.

Long Yu’s expression grew complicated.

Recalling Hu Jiaojiao’s strange behavior in the past two days, he knelt down and checked her breathing.

“She’s not dead, just fainted.”

“What should we do now? Should we get the healer to save her?” Long Ling’er tilted her head, asking Long Yu.

“No,” Long Yu refused decisively, his childish face showing maturity beyond his years. “Seeing the healer costs meat and animal hides, and we don’t have any.”

When they were beaten by the vicious female to the brink of death, she never took them to the healer either.

Suddenly, Long Zhong stepped forward and grabbed the knife Hu Jiaojiao had used to slice the meat.

“I say, why don’t we kill her while we can!”

The knife gleamed coldly under the sunlight, reflecting his sinister face.

He had long wanted Hu Jiao Jiao dead.

The other cubs were slightly tempted. If they killed the vicious female, the food would be theirs, and they wouldn’t be beaten anymore.

Before Long Zhong could act, Long Yu stopped him.

“No, if you kill her, grandmother’s family won’t spare us.”

He didn’t care if the vicious female lived or died, but he was worried her family might blame them and abandon them in the forest.

That family of beastmen would do anything for her.

Long Yao, who couldn’t understand their conversation, smelled the food and crawled over, nudging Hu Jiaojiao’s hand, trying to get her to wake up and feed him.

“Useless!” Long Zhong, frustrated, pulled Long Yao away, keeping him from touching Hu Jiaojiao.

His tone was filled with irritation from failing to kill her.

“Then what do you suggest we do?”

“Let’s just carry her inside. If she dies, it’s none of our business.”

Long Yu, always the calm one, thought it through and decided to let her be, allowing fate to take its course.

“I agree with big brother,” Long Xiu, who had been silent, finally spoke. “Whether she lives or dies doesn’t concern us.”

The cubs, having made their decision, worked together to carry Hu Jiaojiao inside, placing her on the straw bed.

Long Xiu, being blind, followed along, feeling his way along the wall.

“Big brother, her head’s bleeding,” Long Ling’er, who had been carrying her head, noticed blood on her hands.

Looking closely, she saw that Hu Jiaojiao’s scalp was bleeding.

“She must have gotten into trouble yesterday and got beaten. Serves her right,” Long Zhong sneered.

It was only karma if the vicious female was beaten to death.

“Her brain must’ve been damaged! No wonder she’s been acting weird since yesterday, cooking meat for us and letting us sleep in the wooden house…” Long Ling’er muttered under her breath.

“I wish her brain would stay broken.”

The cubs continued chatting, none of them even considering treating Hu Jiao Jiao’s wounds.

Long Yao, glancing at his brothers, wagged his tail and crawled up onto the straw pile. Slowly, he began licking Hu Jiao Jiao’s wound.

“Her brain might be damaged, but did any of you notice where she got the meat and food from?” Long Xiu, usually quiet, suddenly asked.

Aside from Long Yao, who didn’t care about such things, the other cubs froze.

“That’s right! Where did she get the meat from? Didn’t Xiong Qiu and his gang steal the last of it?”

Long Ling’er was puzzled. Yesterday’s meat had tasted so good that she hadn’t even thought to question its source.

“And what about the strange things in the yard? I’ve never seen those before,” Long Zhong added darkly, his scarred face twisting as he spoke.

“She must have stolen them,” he said coldly, his eyes narrowing on Hu Jiaojiao.

“I still think we should kill her now.”

…

Hu Jiaojiao had a nightmare.

She dreamt that her limbs had been cut off and she had been turned into a living corpse, floating in a large vat of water. The cubs came every day to slice new wounds on her, pouring salt and chili water over her.

As if that wasn’t enough, they added a swarm of ants into the vat.

The starving ants immediately crawled all over her, biting into her wounds and even burrowing into her flesh.

Eventually, they reached her brain, gnawing at it with a sickening sound!

The cubs’ hateful stares burned her like fire, and she woke with a start.

Her eyes shot open, and before she could fully gather her thoughts, she heard Long Zhong say, “Maybe I should just kill her now…”

Hu Jiaojiao’s pupils dilated, thinking she was still in the nightmare.

But then she saw the cubs, still looking like small, skinny children, far from the villains they had turned into in her dream.

She let out a long sigh of relief.

Wiping her face, she found it soaked in cold sweat.

A dull pain throbbed from the back of her head. Yesterday, she had been so busy she hadn’t paid attention to the injury, thinking it wasn’t serious. Who would’ve thought she’d faint today?

It seemed Lu Mian’er had hit her pretty hard.

The cubs hadn’t noticed she had woken up.

Propping herself up, Hu Jiaojiao softly asked, “Zhong’er, who are you planning to kill?”

The cubs jumped in fright, turning around to see Hu Jiaojiao staring at them with a resentful look.

“…”

“Mother, Third Brother was saying that the beastman who hurt you is awful, and he wants to kill him to avenge you,” Long Ling’er quickly lied, smiling awkwardly.

Nonsense! Lies!

Hu Jiaojiao scoffed internally—who would believe that?

Given how terrible the original Hu Jiaojiao had been to them, they’d be more likely to celebrate her misfortune than avenge her.

Still, she forced a smile. “Oh, so Zhong’er cares about me so much. That makes me so happy.”

The cubs always seemed to wish for her death, yet here she was, pretending as if nothing was wrong.

Life was tough.

Hearing her words, the cubs all fell silent.

Hu Jiaojiao didn’t call them out on their lie. Instead, she felt a wet sensation on the back of her hand. Glancing down, she saw Long Yao, his head resting against her hand, licking it diligently.

———-

Hi readers! Let me know what you think of my translation—whether you like it or think it needs improvement. Your feedback means a lot, so please comment!