Chapter Eight: The Reformer of the Household

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Her words were not exactly harsh, but to a male who had fallen for her, it was like a bolt from the blue.
In the end, Leng Xiu dragged away his lost-spirited younger brother. He only managed to take one of the two black porcupines back with him; the other was driven off by Mu Qing and carried away by several other males.
Thus, only Yun Li and Mu Qing remained in front of the stone hut.
“What are you staring at me for like that?”
With no other beasts around, Mu Qing had been gazing at Yun Li for quite a while before she finally pushed him away.
Unexpectedly, the male suddenly embraced her and said, “Leng Xiu and the others came for you today.”
He noticed? And then?
Yun Li thought to herself, wasn’t her clear boundary just now obvious enough?
“What do you want to say? I’m your primary mate now. Unless I meet a stronger male in the future, your place with me will never change.”
Mu Qing felt a complicated surge of emotion. He knew very well that if he hadn’t happened to be there when A Li most needed someone to care for her, a snake beastman like him could never have become the female’s primary mate.
After all, the other beasts in the tribe were right—snake beastmen were cold-blooded, because unlike others, they were born without the instinct to nurture their young.
Mu Qing himself had been abandoned by his mother as a child, growing up lonely as a lone beastman until he wandered here.
Therefore, Mu Qing had never considered having offspring with a mate. He feared that if he followed his nature, he might abandon his young, which A Li would surely hate him for.
“Does A Li like young ones? If she does, she could have wolf cubs with Leng Xiu and Leng Xiao.”
What nonsense is that?
Yun Li pushed Mu Qing away, a little angry, and asked, “What exactly are you thinking? Wasn’t my attitude clear enough just now? No matter how good Leng Xiu and Leng Xiao are, they don’t compare to you in my eyes.
And wolf cubs? Can’t we have our own? Don’t you even realize I’m a wolf female?
Even if you can cultivate and become stronger than me, our offspring wouldn’t necessarily be snake cubs.
Besides, I’ve said from the start, I’m not afraid of snake beastmen. Even if I have snake cubs in the future, I won’t dislike them.”
Thinking that what she just did hadn’t been taken seriously by Mu Qing made Yun Li so angry she couldn’t help but kick him.
Mu Qing looked down at the spot she kicked, and somehow, his heart surged intensely.
“A Li.”
Yun Li replied impatiently, “I’m here!”

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The next moment, the male suddenly lifted her up.
“Mu Qing, what are you doing? You… mmph!”
The excited male, unsure how to express his sudden joy, hugged the female tightly and kissed her fiercely.
Caught off guard, Yun Li slapped him twice in anger. Seeing that Mu Qing seemed to enjoy being hit, she feared he might take advantage of her right at the doorstep.
She quickly grabbed his ear and shouted, “If you dare force me into that here at the door, I’ll break off our bond, do you hear me?”
Mu Qing’s excitement, like an arrow already on the string, was half extinguished by her words. He panted heavily with his head buried in her neck, voice restrained, “A Li, don’t leave me. I’ll listen to you.”
Yun Li felt that if he truly listened to her, he would have let her go and taken a cold bath by now.
Yet Mu Qing, uncomfortable and unwilling to leave his female, held on.
Yun Li was stunned by his disregard for his own well-being, but rather than suffer herself, she preferred he endure it.
After all, one encounter like this usually meant she needed two or three days to recover. If he succeeded today, she’d be bedridden for days afterward.
After a long while, when Mu Qing finally calmed down, Yun Li relaxed.
“Sorry, A Li, I couldn’t control myself…”
“Hmph.”
Before he could finish apologizing, Yun Li snorted coldly, “You know you’re wrong and still won’t let me down.”
She almost thought she was going to be taken right there at her doorstep by this bastard.
Mu Qing fell silent for a moment, unwilling to anger her further. He kissed her forehead gently to soothe her, then, under her wary gaze, released her and promised,
“It won’t happen again.”
He had only been holding her so tightly because his heart was overwhelmed, and that was the only way he felt secure.
Yun Li pressed her lips and said, “It better not.” Then suddenly remembered something, looking around, “We need to build a courtyard wall outside this house; otherwise, any passing beast can see everything.”
Mu Qing didn’t know what a courtyard wall was, but he accepted her word.
“Fine, tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
“Not you doing it. Am I supposed to do it myself?”
Saying that, Yun Li pulled him and circled the stone house, “Build walls all around, like the path we just took, with a big front gate and a back door.
If anyone fights outside, they must do it beyond the courtyard.
We also need a mud stove at home, like when you roast meat outdoors—you dig a hole, then use flint stones and dry leaves to start a fire.
Then build a wooden shelter for the kitchen—made of wood, with the stove inside…”

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Mu Qing listened to Yun Li’s instructions; he understood some parts but not others.
“Building four stone walls is simple, but how do you build a wooden shelter? And what exactly is a mud stove?”
He had never heard of these things. He had seen tree houses—nests built on trees by bird-beastmen, cleverly made with branches to shield from wind and rain.
The dry season was unbearably hot, the cold season bitterly cold.
Would Yun Li’s wooden shelter be like those tree houses? If so, would he have to plant a tree in front of the house first?
Yun Li had no idea he was imagining her wooden shelter as a bird’s nest or considering digging up a tree to plant.
She believed in doing the urgent first and told him to start by making a mud stove outside.
Although Yun Li lacked practical experience, as a child by the seaside, she could even mold sand castles.
A simple mud stove was easy enough for her to model from clay for Mu Qing to see.
The wooden shelter she planned was to be an open kitchen attached to the stone wall. As for why not another stone house, Yun Li simply wanted a bit of color variety in the courtyard.
After all, the ground beneath their home was so hard no weeds grew—not even a blade of grass—which meant it couldn’t be dug or farmed.
Later, Yun Li would find some artisans in the tribe. Since they could make stone bowls and basins, making stone platforms or troughs should be possible too.
Stone platforms would be for storing pickled meat, salted vegetables, dried wild fruits—good for preserving food.
Stone troughs might be used to hold soil, to see if anything could be grown.
She had grown flowers before; planting some edible wild greens shouldn’t be too difficult.
Yun Li wasn’t very confident but thought it worth trying.