It started raining. Before the rain began, the experienced big tiger sensed the sign of rain and took the two cubs to shelter in advance.
Song Xu had seen her always lying on the beach to sleep and thought she didn’t have her own nest. Only now did she realize that there was actually a den nearby that could block wind and rain.
On a stretch of reef rocks by the seaside, there was a spacious cave. When they reached the bottom of the cave, they realized that biting onto a snake that was too long made it hard to jump up. The big tiger released the snake from her mouth and let him climb up by himself.
Song Xu hugged Wumu’s neck and hung onto him. Because of her small size, she was fortunately not among those whose necks were clamped by the big tiger.
The big tiger, lacking beastman rationality, seemed unable to sense that the two cubs were actually adult beastmen now. She only remembered that she was a big tiger with cubs, and still treated them the way she treated children—once she decided to change locations, she directly bit and dragged them along.
Below the cave, slabs of reef rocks stacked into step-like tiers, allowing the big cat to conveniently jump from one step to the next to reach the top. Snake-Snake climbed more slowly. He was long—by the time his head reached the fourth step, his tail was still under the big tiger’s feet.
Only after they had completely reached the cave did the big tiger jump up. Familiar with the place, she rested her head on a smooth stone inside the cave.
The heavy rain began to pour down, splattering noisily. Wind blew in from outside, carrying a bit of chill. The temperature in this place was somehow strange—hot during the day, cold at night; hot on sunny days, cold when it rained.
Song Xu looked at Snake-Snake, then at the tiger, and shuffled over to the tiger’s belly, burying herself in the fur. She immediately felt warm. Although Wumu didn’t say anything, Song Xu, looking at his eyes, wondered if she had chosen too decisively. She beckoned to him, signaling him to come over and share the “fur blanket” to warm up.
Wumu hesitated as he stared at the big tiger. He was actually more accustomed to fighting with the big tiger. This kind of closeness made him at a loss, but he still compromised, leaning against the big tiger’s side and rather reluctantly using his tail to encircle the tiger and the squirrel together.
Three beastmen—one with clear sanity, one without sanity, and one in between the two, sometimes good, sometimes bad—all watching the heavy rain outside.
The cave faced the sea. Below were reefs and tidal flats, along with some lower-lying ditches and pools connected to the ocean. In the distance, on the gray, hazy sea surface, it was unclear whether what rolled and surged was misty vapor or waves. Rain struck the reefs and the water, creating a noisy din.
Being able to lie down and quietly watch the rain on a heavy rainy day was truly pleasant. Even though there were still many troublesome matters unresolved, those were all things for after the rain.
Song Xu placed her feet against the tiger’s belly, rested her head on the snake’s body, and lay sideways, looking outside while thinking about something.
When the rain lessened, the big tiger got up and stretched. Her massive, truck-like body extended long, and she lightly shook her big head. Layers of fur were clearly defined, and the small patch on her belly that Song Xu had stepped on and messed up was especially conspicuous. The big tiger didn’t care about it. Like all felines after a waking stretch, she turned back to look at the two in the nest, swept her tail across their heads as if greeting them, then leapt down from the cave.
She was going to hunt, and she had no intention of bringing the two of them along—probably because she thought they were in the way.
Watching the fierce tiger descend the mountain, Song Xu sighed, “Those forearm muscles—what a big boss.”
A mental image suddenly appeared of a female underworld boss with a full tiger-pattern sleeve tattoo.
Shaking her head, Song Xu quickly climbed up and shook Wumu. “Quick, while Heisen isn’t home, let’s hurry down and catch fish to fill our stomachs!”
Heisen was a big tiger who was afraid of water. Whenever she saw them go into the water, she would roar and then personally drag them back, so they didn’t have many chances to enter the sea.
Song Xu didn’t particularly like eating fish, but whenever there was a chance, she insisted on going down with Wumu. She was always worried that in Wumu’s current state, he might swim and swim in the sea and suddenly forget who he was, then forget to come back ashore. Also, if she went along, she could give Wumu some suggestions, such as what to eat.
“Don’t eat that, Wumu. Many jellyfish are poisonous. Let’s swim a bit farther.” Song Xu stopped Wumu as he tried to eat a jellyfish and reminded him, “Although you’re also a poisonous snake, that doesn’t mean you’re not afraid of poison—especially marine ones. You haven’t eaten them before. You can’t eat randomly. Let’s eat something normal.”
Wumu was always especially easy to feed—basically eating whatever he encountered. When he ran into a big sea turtle head-on, he even opened his mouth to swallow it, only to be pressed down by Song Xu in one grab.
“No! It’s all shell—what are you even eating? Turtle shells are so hard to digest! Let’s just eat some ordinary fish.”
Wumu ate a bellyful of fish. Song Xu, on the other hand, surfaced from the sea holding a big clump of kelp, beaming with joy. “Great, we’re eating kelp today!” Crunchy kelp—she hadn’t eaten it in such a long time.
The two of them walked upward, dripping wet, and happened to be seen by the big tiger returning with prey in her mouth. At the time, one side was at the forest edge and the other at the seaside. They couldn’t see each other’s expressions clearly, but Song Xu had the feeling of being a child who had gone out to make trouble, came home covered in mud, and got caught red-handed by a parent.
Strange—she hadn’t had experiences like this when she was little either.
The big tiger dropped the primitive beast from her mouth and charged over, roaring. The big snake was once again chased by the tiger, slithering across the beach, while Song Xu, once again thanks to her small size and the big snake’s cover, was let off by the big tiger.
After driving them back into the cave, the big tiger still didn’t let them go. She blocked the cave entrance. Her massive body stood backlit, looking towering and ferocious. Her wide-open mouth still carried the blood of the primitive beast—anyone with slightly weaker courage would be scared to death on the spot.
Song Xu squatted beside Wumu, shrinking her sense of presence, silently chewing on kelp while listening to the big tiger’s lecture. Language barrier wasn’t a problem. Anyway, it was easy to imagine that what a fierce tiger-mom said when scolding her kids would be pretty much the same everywhere.
“Awwoo-woo! Awwoo! Roar!”
“Heisen is saying: ‘I told you not to go into the sea, not to go into the sea, and you just wouldn’t listen. Your skin is itching, isn’t it!’” Song Xu whispered as she translated for Wumu.
“Awwoo-awwoo! Roar!”
“This one is: ‘And you even dragged Song Xu along, you’ve got some nerve!’”
Wumu believed her simultaneous interpretation completely. Doubt surfaced in his eyes. He was wondering why Song Xu could understand Heisen’s words, while he himself couldn’t.
The big tiger finally finished roaring and placed the primitive beast corpse she had brought in front of the two cubs. Even though she had already tried twice before, and in the end Song Xu and the other still hadn’t eaten it, she still brought food back this time, still trying to feed them.
After several days of mutually torturous living, the big tiger also realized that these two cubs were unwilling to eat primitive beasts, but instead liked to go into the sea to catch fish to eat, and would also, like some primitive beasts, gnaw on leaves in the forest.
Why were her cubs different from her? The big tiger couldn’t think about overly complicated matters, but she understood the cubs’ diet.
Song Xu discovered that one time when tiger-mom came back from hunting, she didn’t bring a primitive beast. Instead, she directly dragged back a whole tree, with countless green-yellow fruits still on it.
Song Xu had never seen this kind of fruit before. It looked like a mango, and when you moved closer, you could smell a fragrant aroma. Even when bringing back food, the generous tiger-mom did things on such a grand scale. Such a tree—fruits, flowers, and leaves altogether—was enough for Song Xu to eat for many days.
Not only that, tiger-mom also tried to catch fish for Wumu at the seaside, but she always couldn’t overcome her fear of the ocean. She didn’t dare go too deep, restlessly pacing around in the shallow water area. In the end, she clawed out some shellfish and crabs, and also one slow-moving big sea turtle.
Looking out over the beach that the big tiger had turned upside down, reef rocks lay overturned everywhere, and the sandy ground was a complete mess. In order to rummage for edible food, she had flipped over all the large reef rocks in this area.
Feeding her cubs was her instinct. After accepting that her cubs were strange long strips and tiny fluffballs, and then accepting their dietary differences, tiger-mom proactively took on the responsibility of finding food for them.
She was a powerful tiger beastman and probably had never worried about food before, but cubs wanting to eat fish really stumped her. A big tiger “foraging along the shore” on the beach every day, with meager results—this dealt quite a blow to her confidence. As a result, her attitude toward the ocean grew increasingly vicious. When she had nothing better to do, she would roar at the sea surface a couple of times to vent her mood.
As for Wumu going into the sea by himself to catch fish to eat, she no longer stopped him. She just looked a bit depressed, sharpening her claws against the rocks, as if asking: “Are my claws not sharp enough?”
Song Xu saw this and found it extremely amusing. She helped clean out all the sand stuck in the places tiger-mom herself had difficulty dealing with. The big tiger’s paw pads were thick and solid. The claws hidden within were sharper than any bone knife Song Xu had ever used. There was also long foot fur growing in the gaps, and Song Xu really wanted to trim it for her.
Wumu came back, dragging a fishing net. Inside the net were all sorts of strange things—a bountiful harvest.
After tiger-mom brought back a whole fruit tree, Song Xu no longer needed to go searching for food, and instead put all her energy into making tools. She returned to her old trade and started doing handicrafts, searching for vines in the forest, peeling off the rough outer skin, and using the tough inner fibers to weave a large fishing net.
The fishing net was handed to Wumu to use for catching fish. This was more convenient and faster than catching them himself, and also allowed him to bring the harvest back.
Tiger-mom had eaten so many primitive beasts that she’d basically been fed silly, but Song Xu felt they couldn’t just continue self-destructing like this. They had to stop continuing to consume primitive beasts. Now that tiger-mom had already accepted that they didn’t eat primitive beasts and instead ate fish, the next step was to let her accept eating fish together.
In order to awaken the big tiger’s memories as a beastman, Song Xu even specially used tree trunks to make a wooden basin, made wooden skewers for grilling fish, and picked up large shells to use as pots to prepare fish soup.
The piled branches began to smoke, orange flames leaping up. The firelight reflected in the big tiger’s golden pupils, casting swaying shadows. In her ears, distant yet lively sounds seemed to surface—tribe beastmen striking beast bones against each other, making sounds to accompany people dancing around the bonfire.
Someone was calling her name.
Heisen, Heisen!
But that scene quickly vanished. The big tiger stared at the fire pile in front of her, her paws itching to move, and she reached out and slapped it.
Song Xu: “…Ah!”
After repeated setbacks, they finally managed to get the big fire pile going. Grilled fish, boiled shellfish, and roasted octopus were all prepared. Song Xu also tossed a few green-yellow fruits into the fire.
Now that things had finally settled for the moment, she decided to seize the chance to properly make a few good meals for Snake-Snake and the tiger.
Of course, if it didn’t turn out tasty, there was nothing she could do about it—after all, there were no seasonings.
