A squirrel beastman and a snake half-beastman stayed for several days in the small thorn thicket at the edge of their tribal territory.

This was a fresh piece of news in the Wild Hoof Tribe. Everyone was discussing it, but not many people went over to take a look.

“I heard it’s a very big snake. Several of the tribe’s chiefs said it’s quite dangerous, so don’t go over there.”

“Anyway, that place isn’t somewhere tribe members often go. Just avoid it recently.”

The beastmen of the Wild Hoof Tribe preferred to waste their time leisurely grazing or chasing the opposite sex. After all, it was spring, and most animals in nature were in a restless state, with not much energy to care about other matters.

Qingzao, who was isolated from this kind of restlessness in the tribe, was very curious about those two outsiders. She knew that the small thorn thicket was Cangji’s secret place of residence, and she had even gone to look before. Now that two unfamiliar beastmen were living there, and she also noticed that Cangji would go over there from time to time, she became even more curious.

Qingzao and Cangji were the only two half-beastmen of this generation in the tribe who were still living in the tribe. She was a little younger than Cangji and was a sheep clan half-beastman. Her lower body was the body of a sheep covered in white fur, connected to a humanoid upper body. The upper body was also almost entirely white fluff, with two small curled horns on top of her head, and two sheep ears beneath the horns.

Avoiding the tribe members on the grassland, Qingzao quietly went around from the other side to the small thorn thicket. She had the habits of a little lamb—when she walked, she bounced and hopped. She ran too happily, and the scent of the squirrel beastman she had never seen before was too faint. She didn’t notice and plunged straight into the patch of grass where Song Xu often dug sweet grass stems, coming face to face with the little squirrel.

Qingzao realized that this was that unfamiliar beastman. Frightened, she bleated, turned her head in panic, and ran off.

Song Xu was digging the soil in beast form. The small, adorable squirrel was much smaller than a sheep, and yet it still scared someone away. Song Xu immediately shifted into beastman form and chased after her. “Wait a moment, friend, stop first, don’t be afraid!”

She said stop, and Qingzao really did stop. In the grass, she timidly and curiously turned back to look. Her dark eyes were round and shiny, and the sheep ears beneath her two horns twitched.

Such a cute little lamb! Song Xu broke into a smile and held out the grass stems in her hand. “Do you want to eat grass stems? These are really sweet!”

Sensing her friendliness, little lamb Qingzao walked back a few steps. It was like a lamb who had never experienced the darkness of society encountering someone who offered food—she happily took the food given by a stranger.

Song Xu, now in beastman form and about the same height as the little lamb, watched her gnaw on the grass stems while still sneaking glances at herself, looking both shy and curious. She couldn’t help reaching out to touch the little lamb’s head. The hair was fluffy and curly like the fur on her body, and felt very nice to the touch.

Seeing how gentle the little lamb looked, Song Xu directly had a mental image of herself feeding sheep at a farm.

At this moment, Song Xu suddenly felt that what she had said a few days ago wasn’t quite right. How could she eat mutton? Little lambs were extremely cute. That wolf beastman was right—she wouldn’t eat mutton anymore in the future!

“Hi, my name is Song Xu. I’m a squirrel beastman, from a very distant forest. I’m preparing to go to an even farther place, and will stay here for a few days. What about you, what’s your name?”

“Qingzao. I grew up here. I haven’t been to other places,” Qingzao said softly. It was obvious she was very curious, but she didn’t take the initiative to ask anything, instead saying, “I know where there are more and better-tasting sweet grass stems than these. Right over there.”

She pointed not far away, then trotted over with light little hooves. Very soon, she brought back a handful of thicker grass stems and handed them to Song Xu. “There are still lots.”

An entire child’s process of sharing when making a new friend.

“Thank you, you’re really friendly!” Song Xu praised sincerely. “And you look so cute. The fur on your body is white and soft, the texture is especially good.”

Qingzao had never been praised like this before. Although everyone in the tribe wasn’t that hostile toward half-beastmen, half-beastmen were always unpopular. Her short tail couldn’t help but swish behind her, and she softly asked, “You… and half-beastmen…?”

Song Xu understood. “Oh, the half-beastman snake who’s with me is resting.”

The little lamb asked, “You don’t dislike half-beastmen, right?”

Song Xu: “I super like half-beastmen!”

The little lamb suddenly jumped up happily and bounced around Song Xu in a circle. Under Song Xu’s praise, she quickly opened up. A chatty little squirrel—bring one, chat with one; chat with one, get familiar with one.

Cangji, same as yesterday, quietly lay in ambush on the slope near the small thorn thicket, gazing at the two unfamiliar beastmen. These past few days, he would come over every day to take a look, but never approached.

He thought that today would be the same as the previous two days, where he could only see a squirrel beastman playing and busying herself on the grassland. Who knew that as soon as he arrived, he saw a conspicuous patch of white on the grass, like a white cloud that had fallen onto the ground.

It was Qingzao. She was happily running beside that squirrel beastman, occasionally letting out bleating laughter. Suddenly, she stopped, let a long-tailed little squirrel climb onto her back, and then carried her while bouncing and hopping around.

Cangji: ?

Why did Qingzao seem to be so familiar with that unfamiliar beastman?

The little horse was on the slope here, confused and suffering in silence. Finally, after Qingzao said goodbye to the squirrel, he immediately went to block Qingzao.

“It’s too dangerous. How can you approach unfamiliar beastmen?”

Qingzao was startled by the suddenly appearing little horse. Flicking her ears, she said in confusion, “But Song Xu is very nice. She isn’t dangerous at all.”

“There’s also a snake half-beastman. He’s very dangerous!”

“I didn’t play with the snake.”

“You can’t get too close to strangers. You can’t do this next time,” Cangji warned.

The little lamb looked at him innocently, then suddenly hopped away. Cangji thought she had taken it to heart. Who knew that the next day, he would again see the silly little white lamb playing with the squirrel on the grassland. After playing for a while, the squirrel beastman led the little white lamb toward the small thorn thicket.

Cangji felt that this might be a dangerous signal. That squirrel beastman might be trying to trick Qingzao into the small thorn thicket to give her to that snake half-beastman as food.

When Cangji was young, he had once heard some terrifying stories from passing unfamiliar beastmen—stories about half-beastmen losing control of their beast nature and eating their own kind—which had made him very afraid for a long time.

He had secretly looked at that snake half-beastman. With such a thick and long body, he could probably eat several little lambs in one meal.

Cangji nervously followed after them. He saw the squirrel lead the little lamb to stop more than ten meters away from that crude little shelter, and also heard the conversation between the two of them.

The squirrel asked, “You saw him, right? That one is Wumu.”

The little lamb obediently said, “I saw him. Such a big snake.”

The squirrel said, “You can only look from here. If you get any closer, he’ll wake up.”

The little lamb said, “I won’t get closer. I’ve already seen him. But your home is very crude, meeh.”

The squirrel said, “Because we’re only staying here for a few days before leaving. We don’t need a very good house.”

It indeed was a crude shelter—rather low, with three sides roughly made of branches, barely able to block wind and rain.

The movement of Cangji approaching caught the attention of Song Xu and Qingzao. Two pairs of eyes turned toward him in unison—one innocent, one shining with light.

“Centaur!”

Cangji didn’t even know how it happened. He had gone over to stop Qingzao from approaching unfamiliar beastmen, yet in the end, he somehow ended up going with the two of them to the hillside to gnaw grass.

It seemed to start from when that squirrel beastman praised him. She was so sincere, and she really didn’t look like a bad person at all. The things she said about how knowing each other’s names meant they weren’t strangers anymore, and how having a mutual friend meant they could also be friends—Cangji felt it made sense. He was directly abducted and convinced by this simple line of reasoning, not only handing over his own name, but even sharing with her the dried hawthorn fruits he had stored.

“Even though it’s very sour, this taste really feels long-lost…” Song Xu chewed on the dried hawthorn fruit, frowning from the sourness yet unwilling to spit it out.

“If only we could dip it in a bit of honey. What a pity there’s no honey,” Song Xu said regretfully.

Cangji answered instinctively, “I know there’s a very big beehive in the black locust forest, but it’s on a very high tree branch. None of us can reach it.”

“A very high tree branch?” the squirrel repeated.

The little horse and little lamb couldn’t climb trees, but squirrels were masters at climbing. Stepping straight up a vertical tree trunk as if walking on flat ground was no joke.

Wumu woke up and, upon focusing his eyes, saw the squirrel lying head-to-head with him, cheeks puffed out as if chewing on something. The forked snake tongue he flicked out brushed against the brownish-red fur. Wumu suddenly shifted into half-beastman form, his previously curled upper body stretching out, the black hair that had been gathered together falling loose and revealing the snake scales on his neck.

Song Xu also immediately changed back into beastman form and said excitedly, “You’re awake! Hurry, open your mouth, I’ll give you something to eat!”

She was going to share something with a strange taste again, Wumu thought. In a not-so-clear-headed state, he opened his mouth. Song Xu stuffed several dried hawthorn fruits into his mouth in quick succession. A wave of sourness rushed straight to his brain, and his saliva was stimulated into overflowing.

Although snakes had no sense of taste, snake beastmen were different. After transforming, they had a set of taste buds similar to humans. Because of this, since meeting Song Xu, he didn’t even know how many strange flavors he had tasted.

Wumu propped himself up with one hand on the ground, uncomfortably opening his mouth to spit it out. Song Xu seized the timing and tossed a chunk of honeycomb into his mouth, pressing his mouth shut. “Chew, chew quickly, it’s sweet!”

Even without Song Xu reminding him, the honey overflowing from the honeycomb had already mixed with the sour and bitter dried hawthorn, forming a peculiar sweet-and-sour flavor. After the excessively sour and astringent taste was neutralized, the fresh, light fragrance of hawthorn became distinct.

Being stimulated like this right after waking, Wumu became clear-headed at an unprecedented speed. Only then did he notice that a part of Song Xu’s mouth was swollen. No wonder earlier, in beast form, the squirrel’s cheek had looked a bit puffed.

Wumu: “Face?”

The squirrel chewed on the honeycomb chunk. “Got stung by a bee. I was careless.”

When she climbed the tree to cut the honeycomb with a long branch and a bone knife, she made a lightning-fast escape from the crime scene. Before the cut honeycomb even hit the ground, she had already vanished. The bees that rushed out of the hive to seek revenge didn’t see even a trace of the culprit. She had even been proud of her series of maneuvers for a while.

But later, after everything calmed down, Song Xu went to pick up the honeycomb. The way that crystal-clear honey was flowing out looked far too tempting, and she wanted to take a bite first. Who knew that underneath the honeycomb, there was still a bee pressed there, which immediately gave her a sting at close range.

So, in the end, the closer you get to the finish, the more you can’t relax. Relax, and you flip the car at any moment.

Wumu looked at her puffed cheek, then noticed her little nest where she was lying, with white, soft fluff spread inside.

Wumu: “Fur?”

Song Xu: “This is wool a friend gave me to pad my nest. It was brushed off her body. There’s only this much in total, not enough to make a big pad for you, so I used it for myself.”

Anyway, when he slept, he often used his head to press against her. Rounding it up, it counted as adding him a pillow too.