Ch 65: My Wolf Husband

Lin Shuishi stayed in the warm, cozy tree hollow, holding the wolf close while the little bear continued to snore. The temperature here was much colder than in Dongshan, with patches of snow still lingering, making the bear think it was still winter, constantly wanting to dig a hole and hibernate. But its belly remained soft and warm, keeping Lin Shuishi’s feet cozy.

He felt both worried and melancholy, knowing that even if he went along, he wouldn’t be able to fight, and if danger arose, Fuli would have to divide his attention to protect him. So, he just leaned down to kiss the little wolf’s wet nose and held the creature tightly.

Meanwhile, Fuli led a pack of a dozen or so large white wolves, bounding through the bramble-filled forest, heading east.

Their thick pads and fur allowed the wolves to move effortlessly through the thickets, the pack exuding an aura of calm yet overwhelming power, fierce and unwavering.

The farther east they went, the quieter the forest became, and the worse the stench grew. Occasionally, they passed by villages, but all the doors were shut tight, or the villages were completely deserted.

Finally, Fuli detected movement and signaled the white wolves to flank the area.

They approached an abandoned temple halfway up a mountainside. In the cold, silent night, the place felt especially eerie and sinister. Groups of “vine armor people,” fully encased in armor, moved silently among the shadows.

They didn’t utter a word as they carried one bamboo cage after another, stacking them inside the temple. Some were covered with red cloth and placed to the side, while others were left outside the temple. The stone steps outside the temple seemed stained with blood, a deep red, and a few gleaming butcher knives were scattered on the ground. The statues at the entrance had twisted, eerie smiles, as if tainted by evil.

Fuli crouched in the mountains, baring his fangs as he observed the growing piles of cages. If Lin Shuishi had been there, he would have been shocked.

Inside the cages were all young animals!

Human infants, tiger cubs, young deer, mink kits…

All these creatures, brimming with nature’s essence, were now awaiting their deaths, to be bled out.

The beast markings gradually spread across Fuli’s entire face, and he began to transform, his fangs bared. The scout wolves circled around and silently took out the sentries stationed on high, while the rest of the wolf pack, led by Fuli, closed in on the temple. With their massive bodies and sharp claws, they launched a fierce attack on the temple.

Fuli, in a half-human, half-wolf form, extended his claws and pinned down a talking officer—a low-ranking commander who still retained human speech and fear, essential for directing the vine armor troops.

“Who is your master? Speak!” Fuli’s golden beast markings seemed to glow under the moonlight, reflecting off his face smeared with the purple blood of the vine armor people, making him look terrifyingly demonic.

The officer kept his mouth shut, but he was already paralyzed with fear, petrified by this wolf-like creature.

The vine-armored soldiers were supposed to be resilient and indestructible. On that fateful day, even a small squad of incomplete soldiers had managed to trap General Zhao Xing, the army’s top spear-wielder, within Xuancheng. But now, the fully-formed soldiers in his grasp were being torn apart and chopped down like brittle wood by the man before him, without any resistance.

The officer’s peripheral vision caught sight of the giant white wolves with their haunting eyes and the blood-stained statue of the deity, and he thought he had encountered a true divine being. He believed that the filthy, smoke-filled human world had finally awakened a god, who had opened his divine eyes to begin cleansing, ending, and delivering judgment.

At Fuli’s roar, the officer was scared out of his wits, trembling as he forced a few hoarse words from his hardening throat, “The Shaman!”

With that, his heart and liver shattered, and he vomited a mouthful of purple-green bile before convulsing and dying.

Not long after the clash of weapons, snow began to fall gently from the sky. The pure white snowflakes swirled around as if trying to thickly cover all the evil and sins that did not belong in the human world. In the dim temple, the cry of a baby finally echoed through the air…

Back in the hollow tree, Lin Shuishi couldn’t sleep either. He anxiously tugged at the white wolf cub’s bald ear, feeling restless and worried.

At that moment, he heard the rustling of branches at the entrance of the hollow. Lin Shuishi cautiously took the sharp dagger from his bundle and held it to his chest, ready to strike at any intruder who might approach unsuspectingly.

He looked at the confused little white wolf with frustration until he saw that it was a white wolf’s muzzle pushing through the branches at the entrance. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and set about helping to move the branches aside.

When he stepped outside, he noticed that light snow was gently falling from the sky, but there was still no sign of Fuli. The white wolf led Lin Shuishi along a path through the forest until they reached a clearing. When Lin Shuishi looked ahead, he was stunned.

The clearing was filled with a bustling group of “little ones”—all sorts of young animals and children, breathing heavily as they recovered. Fuli was there too, bending down to dismantle a bamboo cage. Inside the cramped space was a chubby child wearing a red bellyband, stuck and crying uncontrollably.

“You—you guys… kidnapped kids! This is terrible!”

Fuli, holding the chubby child’s leg, started walking toward Lin Shuishi. Seeing how he was handling the child as if it were a wolf cub, Lin Shuishi quickly stepped forward to take the child safely into his arms, only then relaxing a bit.

The child calmed down in Lin Shuishi’s warm, gentle embrace. After the hardship of recent days, the baby finally found some comfort and soon fell asleep, nestled peacefully in Lin Shuishi’s arms.

Fuli saw Lin Shuishi’s horrified expression as he looked at the “little ones” scattered all over the ground. Fuli took a deep breath, clearly exhausted from the constant crying and noise from these creatures during their journey. He had killed the vine-armored soldiers, but now there was a temple full of young animals with nowhere to go, and he feared that the “Shaman” might notice something was wrong and come looking for them.

Fighting wasn’t the issue; it was the safety of these little ones that worried him. So he used soft tree branches to link the bamboo cages together, enlisted the help of a dozen strong wolves, and slowly but surely dragged this pile of small creatures back to the mountains. Fuli then carefully erased any traces of their passage to avoid being tracked, a cautious habit of the wolf pack.

Fuli rubbed his temples and sighed, “Didn’t steal them—rescued them. A squad of vine-armored soldiers, all killed.”

Lin Shuishi, who had spent enough time with Fuli to understand his language well, even catching on to some of the wolf howls, felt a pang of concern in his heart. He quickly stepped forward, his eyes scanning Fuli’s body as if one pair of eyes wasn’t enough.

“Are you hurt? Let me see!” he said, finally managing to free one hand from the chubby child in his arms to reach out and check Fuli. Fuli simply grasped the small hand reaching out to him and reassured, “I’m fine.”

Lin Shuishi looked at the strong and healthy Fuli, then turned to the dozen white wolves who were only slightly dirty. If his hands weren’t full, he would’ve given them a thumbs-up!

It turned out the wolves were quite busy. Among the various small creatures, some were covered in fur, others in soft armor, all naturally equipped to withstand the cold. The only ones crying from the cold were the human infants, who had lost the ability to survive in the wild as infants through evolution.

Mentally resilient, but physically fragile.

The white wolves noticed this as well. They had no choice but to separate the human babies, placing them together and surrounding them to shield them from the cold wind. The wolves then used their warm bodies and fur to cover the “bald little ones,” providing them with warmth.

Seeing this scene, Lin Shuishi felt a pang of sorrow and was deeply moved.

Just as he was caught up in his emotions, the little white wolf ran over. Noticing that its kin were lying among the “bald ones,” it lifted its head proudly and slowly made its way to the human babies.

It let out a small grunt and lay down next to a whimpering baby. Seeing that the baby was still crying, the wolf snuggled closer and gave it a lick. But when that didn’t work, the little wolf had a sudden idea, recalling how the mother wolf would nurse its noisy siblings!

Just as Lin Shuishi was feeling touched by how the little wolf seemed to have grown up, he saw the wolf cub awkwardly maneuver the baby’s head between its own belly, then lift its leg as if trying to nurse.

“!”

Lin Shuishi quickly handed the chubby child in the red bellyband to Fuli, then dashed toward the wolf pack in a flash. The little white wolf was a male cub, and even if it were female, it was still just a cub with no milk to offer! The baby, having found a warm spot, was indeed starting to root around, and there was only one place it could latch onto!

The little wolf looked up at the “aunt” who had hurried over, tilting its chin up to gaze at Lin Shuishi. Then, with a somewhat thoughtful gesture, it lifted its leg, signaling to Lin Shuishi.

You’re here. Want some? Join in.

In the end, the little wolf cub received a firm flick on the forehead as a reprimand.

Lin Shuishi turned around to see Fuli awkwardly holding the chubby child at arm’s length, keeping the drooling baby as far away from himself as possible. Yet, with his large hands, he had the baby wrapped up warmly, preventing any crying.

Lin Shuishi felt a growing concern. In this weather, while the young animals might endure, the human children couldn’t. These little ones, both human and animal, had no access to milk. The little white wolf’s earlier attempt, though deserving of a scolding, was rooted in truth—they were hungry.

“Fuli, these children can’t go without food. We need to find a way to ensure their survival,” Lin Shuishi mused. “If their parents are still alive, the best thing would be to return them. The same goes for these little animals, though we don’t know…”

Fuli nodded in agreement. He had always believed that, whether human or animal, young ones could survive in the wilderness. After all, hadn’t he thrived in the wolf pack himself?

But Lin Shuishi understood that there were few like Fuli in the world. Most of these were ordinary children, and growing up in the wild would likely result in many deaths.

Lin Shuishi took the chubby child from Fuli, and the mighty and fierce Fuli finally breathed a sigh of relief. Fuli then took a deep breath and let out a long howl, a sound that echoed through the mountains and carried far, even though it didn’t seem particularly loud up close.

The snow began to fall more heavily, and within an hour, while Lin Shuishi was using fire stones to start a fire for cooking, he noticed rustling in the surrounding woods. Wild animals began to appear, sometimes a tigress, sometimes a small herd of deer, and even some ground-dwelling creatures! An armadillo emerged from beside Lin Shuishi’s fire pit.

The armadillo scurried over to the group of young animals, expertly grabbed one of its own babies, and happily zipped back into its burrow, disappearing from sight in an instant.

Soon, various mother animals that had lost their young arrived to search for their offspring. Some successfully found their babies, while others, especially social animals, took them back as a group. For those whose mothers had been killed while defending them, Fuli arranged for other members of their species to take care of them.

Finally, there was just one dazed and confused harpy eagle left. It called out for a long time until a massive eagle descended from the sky. The two of them stared at each other for a while.

Lin Shuishi had long since abandoned the idea of cooking and stood near the group of young ones, watching happily as one by one they were reunited with their families. When only this last one remained, Lin Shuishi nudged Fuli beside him, “Hey, hey! Do you think that’s its mother?”

Fuli paused, turned to look at his excited partner, and with a slight shake of his chest, he replied with a hint of amusement in his deep voice.

“That’s a male eagle.”

“???”

Lin Shuishi was puzzled but then recalled the devoted “male mother” white goose from the forest behind Dongshan. He quickly came to terms with it.

It seems that, in the bird world, male birds do have a bit of motherly instinct…