Chapter 36
Lang Shuo froze for a moment. Of course he did not think Lang Yun was talking about the cubs in the tribe. Those fluffy bundles had always been placed in the large basket by him, carried wherever he went. Yesterday, Lang Zhao had seen the cubs and touched them twice, but after that, there had been no contact. No other young wolves had come over to disturb them in between either. Yesterday, even the sub-adults had been more obedient than usual.
Excluding these possibilities, it could only be the unborn cub.
And Lang Shuo was absolutely certain that Lang Zhao was a male beastman. Back when the heated beds were finished, Lang Shuo had the sub-adults use the remaining mud bricks to build two toilets, one in each direction at the foot of the mountain. He could not possibly remember wrongly which toilet Lang Zhao went to every time.
Suddenly, several familiar fragments flooded into his mind. It felt the same as when he had remembered things before, except the content he recalled this time overturned his understanding of this world.
Male beastmen, female beastmen, sub-beastmen. Sub-beastmen could get pregnant! They could give birth to cubs!
For a moment, Lang Shuo thought of many things.
There were three times as many male beastmen as female beastmen in the tribe, and even among the cubs, the ratio remained the same. He had always found it strange, but worried it was caused by accidents during migration, so he had never dared to ask.
Pregnant beastmen could not go out. Among the beastmen staying behind in the residential area, aside from several female beastmen whose bellies were slightly swollen, there were also several young male beastmen around the same age as Lang Zhao. At first, Lang Shuo had always thought that these few were injured and recovered slowly, which was why they were still somewhat weak now, while he himself had a good constitution and exceptional talent. Only now did he discover that those people were the ones with exceptional talent!
The information in the memories was too overwhelming, and Lang Shuo could not come back to himself for a long time.
Seeing that his expression was off, Lang Yun raised her hand and waved it in front of him, asking worriedly, “Shuo? What’s wrong? Do you feel unwell somewhere?”
Lang Shuo came back to his senses and shook his head. “I’m fine. I just remembered some things.”
Of course, Lang Shuo could not possibly reveal his shock. The members of the tribe all knew about this matter, even the underage young wolves understood it. If he acted too surprised, others would find it strange.
Even so, the matter still circled in Lang Shuo’s head. Seeing that it was about time to eat, he simply did not continue trimming the pottery, washed his hands, and went to take some food.
Lang Shuo had a habit. When the pressure was great, he liked to eat, or rub fluffy things. Right now, the pressure was not great, but his worldview had collapsed. He urgently needed food and fluff to soothe himself on both fronts.
Once there was food in his mouth, Lang Shuo went to hold the cubs, lifting the fluffy bundles out of the basket one by one and placing them on his lap. While petting the cubs, he slowly pieced together his shattered worldview. Thinking about it carefully, animals and humans could already transform back and forth. Sub-beastmen being able to get pregnant was also very normal. He had experienced death and rebirth. What else could he not experience?
It was fine. It was not too late to know now, Lang Shuo thought. Fortunately, he knew in advance. Otherwise, when the pregnant sub-beastmen in the tribe gave birth to cubs, he might have doubted life itself.
…
When Lang Yu returned to the tribe, he noticed at first glance that something was wrong with Lang Shuo’s mood.
Having cared for Lang Shuo for so many years, Lang Yu understood Lang Shuo no less than Lang Shuo understood himself. Sometimes, even when Lang Shuo did not feel anything, Lang Yu could see his subtle changes, let alone when Lang Shuo’s behavior was so obvious today.
Seeing his younger brother like this, Lang Yu did not even eat and walked to his side to ask what had happened. “Are you tired? Or did someone disobey?”
As he spoke, his gaze swept over several sub-adults. The sub-adults who were stared at immediately shivered.
Lang Yun was also nearby. Hearing this, she cut in, “I don’t know what’s wrong either. He’s been like this since noon.”
Lang Shuo had no energy, causing even the sub-adults who came over to report their work to lose motivation. But Lang Yun was certain that the sub-adults had been obedient today and had not done anything wrong.
“I’m fine.” Lang Shuo rubbed his face, making himself look more energetic, and answered the two of them. “Brother, Yun, don’t worry. I’m just a little tired. I’ll be fine after resting for a while.”
Only after finishing dinner did Lang Shuo slowly sort out his emotions.
However, acceptance was one thing. Knowing that sub-beastmen could give birth to cubs, Lang Shuo found it somewhat strange.
Usually, Lang Zhao and the other sub-beastmen looked no different from other males aside from always staying in the tribe. They did not look pregnant with cubs at all. Otherwise, even if he had not known of the existence of sub-beastmen, he would have noticed something off.
But thinking about the size of cubs, Lang Shuo could also understand why he had not noticed. Cubs were too small. Cubs around three years old were only a little bigger than a palm, and they were even smaller when first born. Meanwhile, sub-beastmen were similar in build to male beastmen. They were a bit taller than female beastmen and had larger frames. With a fist-sized cub in their belly, it could not be seen at all.
Forget those sub-beastmen merely being pregnant. Even if they hid a few cubs under their animal hides, one would not notice without looking carefully.
Lang Shuo’s gaze uncontrollably moved toward the sub-beastmen. After realizing this, Lang Shuo quickly withdrew his gaze. However, before long, his eyes would involuntarily drift over again.
Lang Yu, who had been paying attention to Lang Shuo, soon noticed this. When he saw that Lang Shuo was looking at the pregnant sub-beastmen, his heart sank.
Could it be that while he was away from the tribe, some young male had deliberately said something to his younger brother? After all, both before and after recovering, Lang Shuo especially liked cubs. If someone used cubs as an excuse, Lang Shuo very likely would be tempted.
No. He absolutely had to eliminate the possibility of anyone using giving birth to cubs to entice Lang Shuo.
Thinking of this, Lang Yu said, “When they give birth to cubs, they’ll also be given to you to watch.”
So stop looking. After the cubs were born, he could hold them however he liked. There would be as many as he wanted.
Lang Shuo had not expected his little movements to be discovered. He touched his nose and stopped looking over there.
Meanwhile, Lang Yu began recalling which partnerless young wolves had stayed in the tribe today. The one who could have found an opportunity to talk to his younger brother about cubs without being discovered by him must have stayed in the tribe and not gone hunting.
Because of this misunderstanding, when they set out the next morning, Lang Yu took away all the young wolves in the tribe who had no partners, including the sub-adults, leaving only steady, reliable members with partners behind.
There was another reason for taking the sub-adults. Lang Yu planned to use this opportunity to teach the sub-adults new hunting skills. Before encountering prey, he would have the sub-adults follow beside them and learn how to ambush and hide their tracks. After encountering prey, he would have the sub-adults hide or wander somewhere else, while the adult wolves chased. When truly pursuing prey, they temporarily could not bring the sub-adults along, as they would drag down the hunting party.
Lang Shuo, who had no idea how much Lang Yu was worrying over him, was preparing extra food.
Yesterday’s matter had reminded him. Since sub-beastmen were pregnant, then they should be like pregnant female beastmen and needed attention. Being overly tired or overworked was not good for the fetus’s development.
They could not be neglected just because their bellies were not obvious.
Therefore, after making breakfast today, Lang Shuo began boiling water again, planning to steam egg custard to supplement nutrition for the pregnant females and pregnant males.
Before snow season ended, the tribe had sixteen cluck-cluck birds that could lay eggs. Aside from those brought back by the hunting party, there were also a few sent over by the Black Wolf Tribe. They had probably learned from the sub-adults that their tribe needed live ones. After snow season ended, the cluck-cluck birds that were also reproducing would look for places to brood, making them very easy to find. As long as they found the place where they laid eggs and waited there, they could catch them one by one. They had successively caught more than ten, basically finding one every other day.
At first, the hunting party’s technique had been unfamiliar, and they would break the cluck-cluck bird eggs during the capture process. Out of ten eggs, having five intact ones was already good. Later, they figured out a new method, using tools to assist. The success rate increased greatly, and they would not hurt the cluck-cluck bird eggs either.
Cluck-cluck birds had a bit of a compulsive habit. They would only start brooding once the eggs accumulated to a certain number. Of the cluck-cluck birds brought back, Lang Shuo left some eggs for several cluck-cluck birds to hatch, while the rest were used for eating.
Aside from the few currently brooding, the remaining cluck-cluck birds were all in their egg-laying period. The young wolf Lang Hui would go over every day to collect the eggs. As long as the number of eggs in the nest was below twenty, the cluck-cluck bird would not brood and would keep laying.
A small portion of these cluck-cluck bird eggs were used to give cubs extra meals. Eggs were easier to chew than meat, and the cubs liked eating them very much. The rest had always been saved. Aside from the portion eaten last time with stir-fried Chinese toon, they had not eaten them again, so quite a few had been accumulated.
Lang Shuo calculated the number of people. There were four pregnant females and five pregnant males in total, plus the cubs. He took out twenty-four cluck-cluck bird eggs, cracked one into each bowl, beat them, added warm water, stirred, and placed them into the steamer.
Eggs cooked relatively quickly and did not need to be steamed as long as meat. After the water boiled, steaming for about ten minutes was enough. After cooking for so long, even without a timing tool, Lang Shuo was not affected. Feeling that the time was about right, he lifted the lid of the top steamer layer. A rich egg fragrance rushed toward him.
Lang Yun, beside him, smelled the aroma and came over to help, casually asking who it was for.
Lang Shuo and she moved the steamer down together. Using bamboo tongs to pick out the bamboo bowls, he answered, “One bowl each for the cubs and the pregnant beastmen.”
Lang Yun had not expected the extra bowls he prepared to be for the pregnant beastmen. She froze for a moment, recalling the timing of Lang Shuo’s emotional change yesterday. Suddenly thinking of something, she tentatively asked, “Shuo, did you only learn yesterday that Zhao and the others were pregnant?”
Before, Lang Yun had never connected Lang Shuo’s emotional change with these things. But today, Lang Shuo’s attitude toward those pregnant sub-beastmen was clearly different. She suddenly thought of it. Yesterday, Lang Shuo had thought Lang Zhao was sick. After she explained the reason Lang Zhao was resting, Lang Shuo had spoken less and continued like that until night.
Lang Shuo did not hide this point. “Mm.”
He had not known the other person was pregnant and had even arranged work for him. Most importantly, he had tired him out so badly that even after sleeping for a whole day, he had not recovered. Lang Shuo felt guilty.
“It’s fine. They usually don’t have such a big reaction. It only gets like this when they’re about to give birth.” Lang Yun comforted him. “You’ll know in the future.”
Lang Shuo: “???”
What did she mean, he would know in the future? Why would he know?
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