"Si Yan, I know it was you! Just wait, I'll definitely find the evidence!"
Si Yan waved her hand indifferently.
Watching Si Yan leave with her four cubs, Xiong Rou, having lost her slave and her salt, was filled with resentment.
The Witch Doctor stepped forward and said to Si Yan, "Si Yan, your cubs are injured. Three of them are less serious, but Dongchi is badly hurt. Especially his arm; it wasn't treated properly after it was broken and now it might not heal well. His leg was also broken during the fight just now. There's not much I can do to help you, but here's some witch's medicine. Take it and use it."
The Witch Doctor sighed. Both an arm and a leg broken... this Beastman cub might really be ruined.
Si Yan's expression grew colder.
"Thank you, Witch Doctor. Take these two beast skins I got from Xiong Rou in exchange for the medicine to treat the cubs," she said.
Sighing, the Witch Doctor said, "Si Yan, in the past, you didn't know how to be a mother. Now that you've taken them back, take good care of the cubs and don't abandon them again. Ah."
"Mhm, I won't abandon them. I will protect them well," Si Yan promised.
Mei Wen said with a smile, "In that case, the trip the village chief and I made here wasn't in vain."
After humbly thanking them several times, Si Yan approached the four cubs.
This was also the first time she had seriously looked at her other two cubs.
Despite his youth, Dongchi already showed hints of future handsomeness with his appealing wheat-colored skin and a mane of snow-white hair.
Nan Mo, on the other hand, had features somewhat reminiscent of Easterners: black hair, black eyelashes, and black eyes. His skin was fair and delicate, and he carried an air of rigidity and aloofness.
Si Yan sensed that Nan Mo's personality seemed even more restrained, as if he was somewhat avoiding her.
"Can you stand up?" Si Yan asked.
The cubs looked at her cautiously and warily. The atmosphere became tense and awkward for a moment.
Xi Qing broke the strange silence, asking, "Can we go back now?"
Si Yan nodded. "Yes."
Xi Qing suddenly frowned and asked, "You brought us back from Xiong Rou. You did it. How did you do it?"
He had watched it all happen, yet he didn't understand at all. Could it be that the previous document wasn't really a slave contract?
Si Yan sighed and said helplessly, "All that matters is that I got you away from that hellish place."
Stealing salt from someone's home, tampering with their slave contract, twisting right and wrong... All in all, she hadn't done a single good deed.
Si Yan looked up at the sky. If these little serpent cubs became villains in the future, would it be because they'd perfectly inherited her genes? Could they still be guided onto the right path?
Bei Ji looked at her and asked, "Mother, are you alright? What are you thinking about?"
Si Yan came back to her senses and said, "It's nothing. Let's go."
The cubs helped each other to stand up, Dongchi's face pale and sweaty from pain.
Si Yan slowly crouched down. The small female picked Dongchi up horizontally. She then squatted down to Nan Mo and said, "Climb onto my back."
Both Dongchi, being held by Si Yan, and Nan Mo, struggling to walk, were stunned.
Coming to their senses, Dongchi struggled fiercely, saying angrily, "I don't want you to hold me! Let me go, you bad female!!"
Si Yan refused to let go. "Be good, don't make a fuss!"
"Bad female, bad female!!" Dongchi bit her hard.
Si Yan hadn't received a scratch from her clash with Xiong Rou, but now, as soon as it was over, her own cub had bitten her hard enough to leave two rows of teeth marks!
Irritated, Si Yan smacked his bottom hard. "You little demon! Didn't you hear me tell you to behave? Show some sense!"
Dongchi flew into a rage, and in a moment of fury, his blood rushed to his head. But as soon as he tried to straighten up, he collapsed limply to the ground.
He was too badly hurt and fainted on the spot.
Si Yan felt an immense headache coming on. Indeed, Xiong Rou hadn't been the most difficult problem to solve; the real challenge lay with her own cubs at home.
Si Yan offered to carry Nan Mo on her back, but Nan Mo, his small face a mask of extreme caution, immediately reached out to Bei Ji and Xi Qing, refusing her help.
Si Yan didn't press the issue. Winning over the cubs wasn't something that could be done overnight, and she completely understood why they harbored resentment towards her right now.
After she carried Dongchi back to the cave, Si Yan reexamined the wounds of all four cubs. Dongchi's injuries were indeed the most severe, followed by Nan Mo, while Xi Qing and Bei Ji had only external wounds.
Even though they were the cubs of her body's previous owner, Si Yan felt as if they were her own flesh and blood. Seeing them injured made her own heart ache with each throb.
The injuries of Nan Mo, Xi Qing, and Bei Ji were relatively easy to treat. Si Yan directly applied the Witch Doctor's topical medicine to their wounds. She carefully laid Dongchi on the bed and treated his injuries. After finding some wooden boards, she splinted his broken leg with grass ropes. Then, she had Nan Mo lie down on a grass mat bed, brewed his medicine, and fed it to him.
Xi Qing and Bei Ji crouched in a corner.
Watching his gentle mother bustling about, and looking at his three brothers in the cave, Bei Ji's heart gradually warmed, overcome with a dreamlike sensation he'd never felt before.
His eyes shone with light as he softly said to Xi Qing, "Third Brother, it's like my dream came true."
Xi Qing's eyes were dark, and he didn't speak.
Bei Ji whispered, "I dreamed that Mother started treating us well. I dreamed she brought back Big Brother and Second Brother. I dreamed we were being spoiled in Mother's arms..."
Bei Ji's voice grew quieter, and he couldn't continue.
Xi Qing didn't say that it wasn't only Bei Ji who had such dreams; he had them too. Beastman cubs, especially snake Beastman cubs, weren't liked, and even their mothers didn't love them. But the Beast God had bestowed upon snake Beastman cubs a natural dependency on their mothers.
They depended too much on their mothers, craved their warm embrace so much, which was why they were so disappointed and angry.
Xi Qing said, "I won't forgive her."
He had said this before, but this time his voice was much softer.
Nan Mo's internal injuries were quite serious. Si Yan boiled some hot water to wipe Nan Mo's body, then turned her attention back to caring for Dongchi.
Dongchi was sweating from the pain of his broken leg bone. Si Yan kept wiping his sweat.
"It hurts, it hurts so much..." Little Dongchi's lips were pale.
Si Yan bit her lip. Given Dongchi's condition, relying on his own healing definitely wouldn't be enough. It seemed she would have to use her Special Ability. Her Wood-based Ability, which possessed a certain degree of healing power.
Si Yan immediately said, "Xi Qing, draw the curtain."
Xi Qing didn't hesitate and quickly drew the curtain.
With the grass curtain providing cover, Si Yan no longer had to hide her actions. She gently placed her hands on Dongchi's broken leg bone, and her green Wood-based Ability was released.
This ability had regenerative functions and was gradually healing Dongchi's leg injury.
The three cubs watched Si Yan intently without blinking.
Xi Qing and Bei Ji had seen Si Yan use the Wood-based Ability before, but this was Nan Mo's first time witnessing it, and his expression was strange.
This bad female... was she actually a Priest?
The expressions on Xi Qing and Bei Ji's faces were not much better.
On one hand, they were worried about Dongchi; on the other, they were very puzzled.
Why was Mother using this green light, meant for plants, on Big Brother? Would this even work?
After Si Yan's treatment, Dongchi seemed to feel much better, and his breathing became a bit more relaxed. Then Si Yan began to examine his arm.
"How many days has the arm been broken?" Si Yan asked softly.
Dongchi had awakened when Si Yan was treating his leg bone. He lay with his eyes closed, lips tightly pursed, the pale corners of his mouth trembling slightly as if he were holding his breath.
"Bei Ji!" Si Yan asked, turning to her fourth cub.
Bei Ji quickly responded, "Mother, Big Brother's arm has been broken for 15 days."
"15 days?" It would have already started to mend by now. But Dongchi's arm bone hadn't been set; it was growing crookedly. He was only five years old, just a five-year-old serpent cub! Why did he have to endure so much pain?