Chapter 200: Let’s Run, Fox (XVI)

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Chapter 200: Let’s Run, Fox (XVI)

Shang Ke walked over to the two fox children. They were huddled tightly together, dirt smudging their upturned faces. Their huge eyes held both hope and fear. Their clothes were worn and filthy, as though they had not been changed or washed in a very long time.

And each child was clutching… a piece of raw meat?

Shang Ke crouched down, took their hands, and examined the meat closely. He had not been mistaken. It was raw, and there were already small bite marks in it.

Kellona was actually letting the children eat raw meat? Beastfolk retained plenty of animal instinct, but their society had long since moved beyond routinely eating flesh uncooked. Raw meat could harbor parasites and disease; for children with weaker constitutions, it was especially unhealthy.

Shang Ke’s expression darkened. He took the raw meat from their hands and threw it away, then led them to the stove. It was cold and empty, with no sign that anyone had cooked there recently. The food distributed to the household over the past two days was nowhere to be seen.

“You two eat this?” one child asked curiously. “Where’s your mother? Doesn’t she cook for you?”

The two foxes glanced at Shang Ke timidly and said nothing.

Shang Ke fetched water and cleaned their faces and hands, then took out the snacks he had prepared and divided them among the children.

The two foxes held the still-warm pastries in both hands and cautiously took a bite. Their eyes immediately lit up at the rich aroma and flavor, and they began eating much faster. As they ate, they watched the other children laugh and roughhouse nearby, and happy smiles slowly appeared on their faces.

Mutu leaned against the doorway, eyes watching the room while his ears remained alert to every sound outside.

Shang Ke stayed and played with the children until the two foxes were exhausted. By the time they finally left, it was deep into the night—and Kellona still had not returned.

After they escorted the other children home, Mutu said, “Kellona is probably at Apei’s place.”

Apei was a tall, broad-shouldered lion with a handsome face and a notorious appetite for romance. Many of the tribe’s young females had been involved with him. Under the former Lion King’s strict rule, Apei had only dared conduct such affairs in secret; now, with no one suppressing him, his promiscuous nature had fully emerged.

There was no need to guess what Kellona was doing at Apei’s house this late at night.

As Mutu and Shang Ke happened to pass Apei’s house, a woman’s seductive moan suddenly sounded from inside, mixed with a man’s rough groan.

They were making so much noise that every sound carried with embarrassing clarity through the quiet night.

Shang Ke had long since grown accustomed to the beastfolk’s sexual openness, but Kellona’s situation was different. If she had been trading sex for food or protection for her children, no one would have condemned her. Instead, she was pursuing her own pleasure while leaving the children neglected.

While the two foxes huddled in a cold house eating raw meat, frightened and alone, Kellona was here sleeping with a man. As a mother, her behavior was contemptible.

Shang Ke could not help wondering whether the two children were actually hers at all.

As Shang Ke brooded, a large hand settled on top of his head. Mutu said, “Stop thinking about it. We’ll just keep a closer eye on the children from now on.”

That was not a long-term solution. Given Kellona’s personality, the moment they gave her an inch, she would take a mile.

The next day, Shang Ke saw Kellona strolling through the settlement with the children. Her clothes were still shabby, but her complexion glowed with satisfaction, like a cockscomb flower after rain. From time to time she even exchanged flirtatious glances with nearby males.

Shang Ke did not intend to waste too much energy on Kellona when he had so many other things to do. He had already begun planning a school—not a school in the modern sense, but a place where children would learn while doing age-appropriate work and earn food through their own effort and study.

At twelve, beastfolk children began accompanying adults on hunts, so Shang Ke’s school would mainly serve those between five and eleven. The newly cleared fields could serve as experimental plots, and the crops and livestock raised there would first be used to reward the students. Shang Ke would also provide two free meals a day. The schedule would be two days of lessons followed by one day off, with performance evaluated at the end of each month.

The school met little resistance. The children had little else to do, and learning to support themselves was considered a good thing. Kellona’s two little foxes were five years old that year, exactly old enough to enroll. With Shang Ke supervising them, at least they would no longer have to fear hunger or cold.

While preparations for the school moved forward, the lion tribe’s first loch-bull cavalry unit also began taking shape. Other species were gradually being tamed as well, marking the transition from wild animals to true livestock.

Shang Ke never stopped exploring. Whenever he went outside, he searched for useful new plants and animals. Mutu, meanwhile, led the loch-bull cavalry on patrol throughout Kaloch Mountain, relentlessly hunting any Avani they encountered.

The cavalry’s reputation spread quickly among the surrounding tribes. Displaced beastfolk and weaker communities began approaching the lions one after another, asking to join or place themselves under lion protection. After discussing the matter, Mutu and Shang Ke decided to accept them selectively rather than indiscriminately.

As the lion tribe developed rapidly, its need for labor grew as well. Mutu had no previous experience building a large tribe, but he was bold, observant, and adaptable. Under Shang Ke’s guidance, he gradually developed the mindset and bearing of a true regional leader.

More and more often, he could resolve internal disputes without Shang Ke needing to prompt him. Under his leadership, the entire settlement began to flourish.

Shang Ke was deeply gratified by Mutu’s growth—and his own mission target was rapidly drawing closer.

“Fox, what are you doing?” Mutu stood outside the fence, frowning at the cloud of bees in the air.

A few days earlier, Shang Ke had brought back two wild beehives and placed them near the flower beds behind the house. Thousands of bees quickly claimed the area, filling the garden each day with constant buzzing as they moved among the blossoms.

Bees could sting someone to death! Once a swarm surrounded you, there was nowhere to escape. Why in the world had his fox brought something so dangerous home?

Ignoring Mutu’s anxiety, Shang Ke set the wooden hive he had built beside the flower bed, preparing for future colony splitting.

Naturally, Shang Ke had gone to all this trouble for honey. The beastfolk seemed not to know what honey was at all; in all his time here, he had never seen anyone harvest it. Most people gave beehives a wide berth to avoid provoking the swarm, much less deliberately carried them home.

To the other beastfolk, Shang Ke’s behavior was completely incomprehensible.

“Fox, come out of there. Be careful not to get stung.” Mutu’s entire body was tense, ready to charge in and rescue him at the slightest sign of danger.

Shang Ke continued working at an unhurried pace. Only after everything was arranged did he stroll calmly through the flower bed full of bees and return to Mutu.

“Fox, you’re really planning to raise these things?” Mutu immediately hooked an arm around him and drew him farther away from the garden.

Shang Ke nodded and gave him a reassuring look.

How could Mutu possibly relax? He had been stung before and remembered the pain vividly. Still, his fox rarely acted without a reason. Since Shang Ke believed it was safe, Mutu decided to watch for the moment.

If those bees dared leave so much as one welt on his fox, Mutu would burn the entire hive to ash!

The two walked to the front courtyard, where more than a dozen children had already gathered for lessons.

Shang Ke looked around and immediately noticed the two fox children were missing. He pointed to their names carved on a stone marker and raised his brows in silent inquiry.

One child answered, “I saw Kellona lock them inside the house.”

Shang Ke frowned. Some time earlier, he had noticed the fox children carefully wrapping up the food he gave them to take home, explaining that Kellona had asked for it. At first he assumed she merely wanted to taste his cooking and thought little of it. But they carried their food home every day. Eventually one child doubled over with stomach pain, and Shang Ke learned the truth: Kellona had been eating everything they brought back. The children received only one meal a day at school. No one made them breakfast, and their dinner went into Kellona’s stomach.

After that, Shang Ke forbade the children from taking their food home. He had never imagined Kellona would respond by locking them inside the house.

Shang Ke was furious.

Whether she was their mother or not was almost beside the point. Any adult with the slightest sense of shame should know better than to steal food from children.

Shang Ke suddenly realized the tribe needed a formal system of penalties. Theft, robbery, attempted murder of fellow tribesmen, selling tribal intelligence, damaging private or communal property, and abusing children, elders, or other vulnerable people all needed clear consequences.

The basic code Shang Ke drafted took only four or five days for Mutu and the elders to approve. Kellona became the first person sentenced under the new rules: she was sent to the clay pits and ordered to excavate three hundred loads before she could return.

For someone as chronically lazy as Kellona, there could hardly have been a more fitting punishment.

While Kellona served her labor sentence, Shang Ke took temporary responsibility for the two children.

At first the fox children were uncomfortable with the change. But Shang Ke bathed them every day, combed their fur, cooked good food for them, played games with them, and taught them all sorts of things. The two thin, timid children gradually became glossy-furred, healthy, cheerful little foxes and slowly began recovering from the damage Kellona had caused.

Piece by piece, Shang Ke later learned that Kellona was not their biological mother. Their memories were vague, but their real parents had been killed by the Avani two years earlier, after which Kellona had taken them in. The children did not hate her; they sincerely regarded her as their mother. She had treated them poorly and often used them to win sympathy, but she had still kept them alive for two years.

When Kellona finally completed her labor, the two fox children dressed neatly and ran outside the settlement to welcome her home. Ignoring the mud covering her, they threw themselves into her arms with tears of joy.

More than half a month of hard labor had slimmed Kellona considerably. When the children ran toward her, a trace of resentment crossed her face, but she suppressed it and gave them a perfunctory embrace.

That night, Shang Ke used newly harvested honey to make honey flatbread, candied fruit, and a sweet fruit drink. He gave them to the children to take home and share with their mother.

After sending the children off, Shang Ke turned and saw Mutu following the sweet smell straight into the kitchen. The lion stopped beside the stove with a greedy expression, tail swishing expectantly.

A bowl of honey sat on the stove, the clear golden liquid thick and glossy beneath the light.

Shang Ke dipped the tip of a chopstick into the honey and held it to Mutu’s mouth. Mutu licked it clean and immediately melted beneath the sweetness.

Awooo… Mutu swept Shang Ke into his arms and kissed him, sharing the lingering sweetness between their mouths.

Sweet things made people happy. Therefore, Mutu decided he was going to have a very enthusiastic night!

While Shang Ke’s home was full of sweetness, the fox children’s house was cold and cheerless. Kellona blamed the two children for the labor sentence she had endured. In front of others she could still maintain a gentle facade, but once they were home she turned cold and ignored every attempt they made to approach her.

The two foxes stared at the untouched snacks growing cold on the table and quietly cried. The time they had spent living with Shang Ke had been the happiest of their young lives. Even so, they had still longed to return to their mother. Now, for the first time, they understood with painful clarity that their mother did not love them.

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