Lu Yan stared at the little tail poking out from the edge of the wardrobe, her breathing catching for a moment.
Acting on instinct, she crouched down and reached out to touch it.
But the little one hiding inside the wardrobe seemed to sense something. The fluffy tip of his tail suddenly curled up and disappeared back inside.
Afraid that the little guy might hurt his tail by getting it caught, Lu Yan hurriedly grabbed the wardrobe door and gently pulled it open.
What she saw next made her heart ache.
Gu Xinghuai was curled up in the dark corner of the wardrobe.
The little lion ears atop his head drooped weakly. His small face was flushed red, and his round, pale eyes were wet and glassy with tears.
His tiny body was curled into a ball, tightly hugging his own trembling, fluffy tail.
The moment the wardrobe door opened, the tiny fangs pressed against his lips trembled. He warily opened his little mouth.
A faint, animal-like whimper escaped his throat as he instinctively put on a threatening little snarl.
He was clearly burning with fever to the point that he was barely conscious. But when he raised his head and saw Lu Yan standing right in front of him, his watery eyes slowly turned in her direction.
The little bit of wariness gradually faded, replaced by timidity and a faint desire to draw closer.
However, just as Lu Yan reached out to pick him up, Gu Chenyu’s large hand came from behind her and beat her to it, lifting the child out of the wardrobe.
Lu Yan turned around and shot Gu Chenyu an annoyed glare, lowering her voice as she questioned him.
“What are you doing? Didn’t you ask me to stay with the child? Why won’t you even let me hold him?”
Holding the little cub securely with one arm, Gu Chenyu took the rumpled blanket from beside the bed and folded it neatly again.
As he carefully wrapped the little one’s exposed tail, he answered her.
“Gu Xinghuai is currently in a half-beastified state.”
The implication couldn’t have been clearer.
Lu Yan had hated the child’s beastification genes so much before. If he didn’t wrap the child up securely, what if she got angry again after holding him for a while and hurt the child’s beast ears or tail?
Lu Yan immediately understood that Gu Chenyu was still hung up on the time she had accidentally grabbed the little one’s beast ear too hard.
There was nothing she could say in her own defense, so she could only glare at him impatiently.
“Are you done yet?”
Gu Chenyu then put a pale-white knitted hat on the little one’s head, covering both of his tiny lion ears completely.
Only after making sure none of the child’s beast features were exposed did he hand him over to Lu Yan.
But the moment Lu Yan took him, the little cub, who had merely been blankly shedding tears in Gu Chenyu’s arms, suddenly began crying in fierce protest.
His two feverishly hot little hands pushed against Lu Yan’s arms as he sobbed and cried indistinctly for his daddy…
Lu Yan froze for a moment. Holding the crying little cub, she looked up at Gu Chenyu somewhat awkwardly.
“Gu Chenyu, the baby wants—”
“He’s hungry.”
Apparently afraid that Lu Yan would refuse to hold the child any longer, Gu Chenyu immediately came to a conclusion and continued in his usual calm tone.
“I’ll make his formula.”
With that, before Lu Yan could object and hand the child back to him, Gu Chenyu turned around and left the little room.
Now that she had no one to help her, Lu Yan could only stare helplessly at the little baby crying in her arms.
The sick little white lion cub looked even more fragile than the last time she’d seen him.
He was such a tiny bundle—light and soft.
Large tears continued to roll down his little face.
Lu Yan’s heart ached at the sight, but she deliberately put on a stern expression.
“What do you need Daddy for? Isn’t Mommy’s hug good enough?”
Despite what she said, she hugged the soft little cub even tighter.
She carried him back to the bedside. After thinking for a moment, she stiffly reached out and somewhat awkwardly wiped the beads of sweat from the tip of his little nose.
This seemed to be… the first time she had ever tried to take care of her little baby.
Gu Xinghuai opened his watery pale eyes wide. When Lu Yan’s fingertip drew close, his little nose twitched.
As though he thought he was still dreaming, he gave her finger a fierce little baby bite.
But instead of actually biting down, he merely pressed his tiny teeth against her finger like a nervous little animal.
It was hard to tell whether he was trying to threaten Lu Yan or show affection. After hesitating for a moment, he cautiously gave her fingertip a few little sucks.
Lu Yan let the cub’s tiny baby teeth nibble harmlessly at her finger, leaving her hand covered in his drool.
She wasn’t angry at all. The corners of her lips curled slightly as she examined the little cub putting on such a brave front.
“Are you hot?”
Only then did the little one belatedly realize that the Lu Yan holding him was actually real, not someone from his dream.
He gave a guilty little whimper.
His tiny hands fumbled around, still trying to burrow his face beneath the blanket and hide.
“Don’t move.”
Gu Xinghuai immediately went still and obedient.
Lu Yan supported his warm, round little face with one hand.
Taking advantage of the fact that Gu Chenyu wasn’t there, she removed the hat from his head and muttered under her breath,
“Gu Chenyu wrapped you up so tightly. Who exactly is he trying to hide you from?”
Freed from the hat, the little one’s beast ears couldn’t resist twitching and perking up. They comfortably stood at an angle.
However, they only perked up for a moment.
Amid his dizzy, feverish haze, Gu Xinghuai suddenly remembered something. His little face went pale, and he sluggishly covered the beast ears on his head with both hands.
In a soft, hoarse voice, he warned her,
“You can’t… can’t look…”
As he sniffled and issued his little warning in a babyish voice, enormous tears rolled down his cheeks for her to see.
Lu Yan immediately understood.
Gu Xinghuai was still traumatized by what had happened last time. He still thought that she hated the way he looked when he was beastified.
Her heart gave a faint pang, but outwardly, she deliberately acted domineering as she grabbed his two soft little hands.
She pulled his hands down and declared imperiously,
“Why can’t I look? You’re my own little baby. I can look at every part of you! Not only am I going to look, I’m going to play with you!”
As she spoke, she reached out and stroked one of Gu Xinghuai’s thin, soft little beast ears.
Gu Xinghuai immediately squeezed his eyes shut, his eyelashes trembling with fear.
His little face was tense, looking utterly pitiful, as though he was prepared to let her do whatever she wanted.
“Wuu…”
But the disgust and pain he’d expected never came.
Instead, there was a gentle, warm touch, softly rubbing his little ear.
Gu Xinghuai cautiously opened his eyes.
He saw Lu Yan happily kneading his two soft, fluffy little beast ears, clearly unable to get enough of them.
Gu Xinghuai stared blankly for a moment, blinking his tear-soaked pale eyes in confusion. For a while, he completely forgot how to react.
After playing with his ears for a while, Lu Yan suddenly deliberately furrowed her brows and gave an unhappy little “Hmph.”
Gu Xinghuai thought Mommy was finally going to get angry.
But in the next second, Lu Yan began complaining instead.
“Gu Chenyu is really too awful! He hid such cute beast ears away and wouldn’t let me play with them. He even taught my baby not to let me see them! I’m going to go settle the score with him right now!”
Gu Xinghuai became even more confused.
Seeing that Mommy was really about to carry him off to find Daddy and settle the score, Gu Xinghuai grabbed her hand with his tiny hands and pleaded in a trembling voice,
“Mommy, don’t be angry. Daddy… didn’t teach Xinghuai anything bad…”
As he spoke, he voluntarily lowered his little head toward her hand, letting his two tiny beast ears tremble as they rested in Lu Yan’s palm.
He added softly,
“You can play with my ears, Mommy… Don’t be angry with Daddy…”
Lu Yan gently rubbed those adorable little beast ears, though there was still a hint of annoyance in her voice.
“What about from now on? Will you still let me look at them?”
Gu Xinghuai’s little ear tips trembled.
“Mm…”
Lu Yan was just about to triumphantly hug the little cub and smother him with affection.
Suddenly, something caught the corner of her eye.
She turned her head.
Gu Chenyu had returned at some point. He was holding a freshly prepared bottle of milk and standing silently in the doorway, his expressionless face fixed on her.
Clearly, he had witnessed every last bit of her terrible behavior—using him to threaten their little baby…