Hearing Long Zhong’s words, Long Yao broke free from Long Ling’er’s arms, flew in front of Hu Jiao Jiao, and bared his little sharp teeth in dissatisfaction.

“Hah!”

He puffed out his cheeks, trying to look fierce. However, paired with his cute and chubby little body, it was impossible to feel afraid of him.

Hu Jiao Jiao felt a headache coming on.

She remembered that in the book, these five little villains were very united. Why would Long Yao suddenly bite Long Zhong? Could it be that this world was different from what was written in the book?

With a stern face, she grabbed Long Yao by the tail, pulling him in front of her. Though the motion seemed rough, she didn’t use much force.

“Xiao Wu, don’t bite people!”

She scolded him gently.

Long Yao immediately retracted his fierceness, blinking at Hu Jiao Jiao with a pitiful look. His little tail wagged, not realizing that he had done anything wrong.

His mother protected him, so he had to protect her. Wasn’t that right? If anyone was at fault, it had to be his third brother for being mean to their mother!

Hu Jiao Jiao didn’t soften. She walked over to Long Yu, grabbed Long Zhong’s hand, and didn’t give him a chance to pull away.

“What are you going to do to Third Brother?”

Seeing Hu Jiao Jiao’s actions, Long Yu’s expression turned cold, and he hurried forward to stop her.

Sure enough, was she showing her true colors now? Was she finally going to hurt Long Zhong?

“You Vicious female, let go of me! If you have the guts, kill me! If not, I’ll definitely make you pay! Big Brother, take them and run!”

Long Zhong cursed in alarm, realizing that Hu Jiao Jiao’s grip was strong and that he couldn’t break free. He simply turned his head and told Long Yu to take the others away. He would take the beating alone.

Despite his struggles, Hu Jiao Jiao dragged him over to the water jar, forced his hand under the water, washed it, and then pulled him into the wooden house. As she turned, she used her mind to take out alcohol and medicine from her space.

Ignoring his curses, Hu Jiao Jiao carefully cleaned his wound with an alcohol swab.

“Ugh…”

Long Zhong hissed in pain, and the centipede-like scars on his face wrinkled together.

Hu Jiao Jiao glanced at him, amused.

“You were shouting so loudly just now. Why aren’t you crying out now that it hurts?”

Long Zhong glared at her angrily, his face flushed red. “It doesn’t hurt! Not one bit!”

This Vicious female wanted to see him suffer. He wouldn’t let her succeed!

“Oh? So, Zhong’er is so tough that he doesn’t feel pain? In that case, I won’t need to be so gentle.”

Hu Jiao Jiao raised an eyebrow in mock realization.

She remembered reading in the book that Dragon Beastmen were born rulers. Even a light bite could cause immense pain because their saliva acted like toxins, increasing the sensation of pain by a hundredfold or even a thousandfold.

On top of that, applying alcohol to a wound stings on its own.

This little Long Zhong had quite the endurance.

Without further ado, Hu Jiao Jiao quickly opened the medicine bottle, sprinkled some powder on the wound, and bandaged it with gauze, tying a neat little bow at the end.

Her movements were swift and efficient.

Meanwhile, Long Zhong was sweating from the pain, biting his lips so hard that he didn’t make a sound.

This female was definitely torturing him on purpose! She had to be! But he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

Just as the other kids rushed in, Hu Jiao Jiao had finished bandaging Long Zhong.

Seeing him sitting there unharmed, they all froze in place.

The Vicious female hadn’t dragged Long Zhong inside to beat him?

She had helped bandage his wounds?

Before the children could gather their thoughts, Hu Jiao Jiao stood up and waved over Long Yao, who was hovering behind them hesitantly.

“Yao’er, come here.”

Long Yao’s eyes lit up, and he quickly flew over.

“Yao’er, apologize to Zhong’er.”

“Huh?”

Long Yao froze mid-flight, dumbfounded by Hu Jiao Jiao’s words.

The other children also looked at her in confusion, not understanding what she was doing.

“Apologize,” Hu Jiao Jiao repeated sternly, her expression serious.

Long Yao lowered his head and flew reluctantly to Long Zhong, wrinkling his little nose. His tail twitched slightly as he lightly tapped Long Zhong’s arm with it, then quickly retracted. Turning to Hu Jiao Jiao, he blinked as if to ask, “I’ve apologized, is that enough?”

Hu Jiao Jiao’s expression softened, and she patted his head. “Yao’er is a good child. I know you wanted to protect me, but Zhong’er is your brother. You’re family, and you must not hurt each other.”

“You bit your brother’s hand, and it hurt him. You don’t want him to be in pain, do you? Just like how you want to protect me.”

The breakdown in family bonds was the key reason the little villains ended up with tragic fates in the book. Though the five siblings had a close relationship early on, they eventually turned on each other and died as a result. Hu Jiao Jiao had to stop such tendencies from taking root.

Hearing her words, Long Yao looked back at Long Zhong’s bandaged hand.

It seemed he understood what Hu Jiao Jiao was saying. He lowered his head in guilt and nodded slightly.

Suddenly, he flew over to Long Zhong’s side and gently rubbed his head against Long Zhong’s neck.

Long Zhong’s heart softened instantly. The anger and sense of betrayal he had felt melted away, and even the pain from his wound seemed to fade.

He pushed Long Yao away with his free hand, but his voice was filled with mock disdain. “Alright, alright, you’re a big male, always rubbing against me. Isn’t that disgusting…?”

Without missing a beat, Long Yao pouted and, like a stubborn calf, buried his head into Long Zhong’s side, rubbing against him even more enthusiastically.

Seeing the two brothers make up, Hu Jiao Jiao finally let out a sigh of relief.

She wasn’t sure if she could prevent the children from turning into villains, but if she could maintain the bonds between them, perhaps she could stop their tragic end of turning on each other.

“Alright, time to eat! If we don’t eat soon, the food will get cold.”

Hu Jiaojiao called the five children over for dinner.

She casually served the food as if the earlier commotion had never happened, placing bowls of rice, dishes, and slices of roasted deer leg on the table.

The five children sat in a row in the courtyard.

They noticed that the smoke in the yard was coming from a wooden rack, not from the house being on fire, and certainly not from Hu Jiaojiao trying to burn Long Xiu.

“What is that? Why put meat over the smoke like that? Won’t it go bad?” Long Yu asked with a frown, his small face looking like an old man’s as he questioned her.

“Mom, please don’t ruin the meat! We can finish it all!” Long Ling’er quickly turned to Hu Jiaojiao with pleading eyes.

Beastmen do not know how to preserve food. They would only hunt small amounts of prey, and if they were lucky enough to catch more or needed to store food for winter, they would let it rot. The children had grown up eating spoiled or rotten meat.

Hearing Long Yu’s words, Long Ling’er thought that Hu Jiaojiao didn’t want to give them the good meat.