“Xi Xi, are you asking how long after mating before pregnancy occurs?”
“Mmm…”
“Female beasts get pregnant at different rates, I can’t say for sure. Some get pregnant after the first mating, while others take ten days, or even months.”
“What if… because we’re different Beastmen, I can’t get pregnant?”
“Why wouldn’t you get pregnant? Beastmen from different tribes in our settlement can all have young… Does Xi Xi not like little beasts? If Xi Xi doesn’t like little beasts, then we just won’t have any!”
While moving things out of the cave, Lin Xi recalled Wu Chen’s response to that question from two days ago.
She didn’t have strong feelings about Wu Chen’s final statement about not having young – at least when she accepted Wu Chen, she had already prepared herself for the possibility of pregnancy.
It was just that she had been completely ignorant about reproductive conditions in the Beastmen world and wanted to clarify things.
Now she roughly understood the process from conception to delivery for female beasts here.
The length of pregnancy for female beasts here is determined by the male beast’s tribe.
For example, since Wu Chen is a black panther, his female beast’s pregnancy would last just over three months.
Additionally, when two Beastmen who form a mate-bond are from the same tribe, they typically conceive and bear young very quickly after being together.
But if the two Beastmen are from different tribes, it takes longer for the female beast to successfully conceive – ranging from several months to a year or more.
Lin Xi thought this might be because, over time, the bodies of two Beastmen living together gradually undergo mutual fusion and evolution.
Although this idea seemed unscientific, it was clearly what Wu Chen had meant!
But according to this, even if Lin Xi couldn’t use contraception, she would likely need quite some time to meet the conditions for pregnancy.
This made her breathe a slight sigh of relief!
After all, since arriving in this world – from realizing she had traveled through worlds, to seeing completely unscientific Beastmen creatures exist, to deciding to form a mate-bond with a Beastman, and finally actually spending that passionate night with Wu Chen – everything had happened too fast!
Lin Xi felt that these events, happening one after another in quick succession, had left her without even a moment to catch her breath!
Although she kept telling herself to calmly settle her mindset and rationally accept everything, Lin Xi felt that if just one more thing requiring her to make a choice happened now, her mental state would collapse under the pressure!
So when Wu Chen said, “If Xi Xi doesn’t like little beasts, then we just won’t have any,” Lin Xi immediately felt relieved!
There hadn’t been enough time to understand things, and she couldn’t completely trust Beastmen yet.
But at least Wu Chen being able to say those words proved he was quite indulgent toward her.
As for the future… Lin Xi took a deep breath and gave herself some encouragement!
Let her adapt gradually – she would surely find a way to survive!
Thinking this, Lin Xi placed the fruit shell filled with various wild fruits on the ground outside one side of the cave.
By now, the ground outside the cave was already covered with a small area of items from inside, while the interior of the cave was piled high with many polished stone blocks.
All these stone bricks were made by Wu Chen in a single day yesterday, following Lin Xi’s requirements.
After the rain a few days ago, the weather had turned cold immediately. Although the cave could block the wind, the air remained chilly.
These past few days, unless Wu Chen transformed into his beast form and lay down with Lin Xi, she had to maintain a single position on the grass bed, not even daring to turn over.
Why? Because if she stayed in one position for too long, the animal skin blanket beneath her would remain warm, but if she turned over, she would roll onto a cold spot!
Being someone extremely sensitive to cold, Lin Xi finally decided to build a heated kang bed inside the cave!
Otherwise, when winter came, with no heating, no air conditioning, and the inability to keep a fire burning for long periods inside the cave, Lin Xi felt that she might not even survive the winter, let alone face future hardships!
Wu Chen didn’t understand what Lin Xi meant by a “kang,” but when he heard it was something that could make the cave less cold, he immediately started gathering the materials she needed.
The stones were carried back by Wu Chen from the dried-up tributary downstream, wrapped in animal skins, bundle by bundle in his mouth.
After bringing them back, he carefully chipped away the overly protruding edges and corners as Lin Xi had instructed.
Then, Lin Xi used a straight tree branch as a measuring stick. After measuring the spot in the cave where she planned to build the kang, she asked Wu Chen to fetch several large stone slabs, flatten them, and use them as the kang’s surface.
Once all the stones were ready, Lin Xi began the kang-building project.
Building a kang was not unfamiliar to Lin Xi. Since childhood, she had seen adults construct kangs four or five times at her grandmother’s and neighbors’ houses.
Besides, as she grew older, she enjoyed watching short videos about wilderness survival.
Early in the morning, after breakfast, Lin Xi asked Wu Chen to fetch soil from the hillside outside the tribe.
Wu Chen went carrying a shoulder pole.
Lin Xi had pierced holes on both sides of two oversized soft fruit shells, tied ropes to them, and then fastened the other ends of the ropes to a thick branch, creating a simple shoulder pole.
After Wu Chen left, Lin Xi moved the animal skin blankets and food out of the cave to prevent them from getting dirty with mud.
When Wu Chen returned with the soil, Lin Xi first took a processed giant beast rib to use as a shovel.
She mixed the soil Wu Chen brought back with dried grass and the animal fur she had collected from recent hunts.
Then, she poured water that had been soaking salty stones for a day and night into the soil, stirring it into mud slurry. This would make the plain mud more adhesive.
Just as the two were mixing mud at the cave entrance, the commotion they had been making over the past couple of days seemed to have drawn attention. Finally, a beastman couldn’t resist and came over to see what they were up to.
Upon learning from Wu Chen that Lin Xi was building a kang for warmth, the golden-haired tiger beastman stood frozen in place for three seconds before swiftly turning into a beautifully patterned Siberian tiger and dashing toward the center of the tribe.
“Wu Chen, he…?”
Lin Xi looked at Wu Chen with confusion and a hint of unease.
Wu Chen’s expression remained unchanged as he continued using the beast bone shovel to scoop mud into the soft fruit shells, following Lin Xi’s instructions.
“It’s nothing. He went to find Chief Bai Nu.”
After a pause, he added, “Since Xi Xi came up with a way to keep warm in winter, the chief will reward Xi Xi.”
Hearing Wu Chen say that, Lin Xi immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
That beastman’s expression earlier had truly made it seem as though she had done something utterly shocking!
But… judging by the original state of Wu Chen’s cave, building a heated kang bed might indeed be somewhat advanced for the beastmen?
With this thought, Lin Xi stopped worrying about the beastman who had run off.
She bent down to pick up the tools she had prepared earlier and entered the cave, officially beginning her first attempt at building a heated kang bed!