Rongrong successfully diverted everyone’s attention, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
The space inside was empty—there was nothing at all.
She saw the various items arranged at home, and she always felt an urge to store them inside the space.
But for now, she relied entirely on her strong willpower to suppress that desire.
If she suddenly did that, her family would be so frightened they might move out overnight.
Her activity range was quite limited; she could only stay inside the cave to play. She couldn’t reach any objects outside.
To avoid arousing the adults’ suspicion, Rongrong usually only dared to secretly stash a little trash—like some bones she took off her prey.
She selected a portion to smuggle into the space while leaving the rest behind so no one would notice.
After playing a few rounds of hide-and-seek, the cubs grew bored with the game. The three of them followed the adults and began imitating their movements, pretending to be grown-ups—quite adorable.
Ermao and Rongrong stopped Damao from getting too close to the adults, mainly for safety. If the adults weren’t careful and took a step back, it would be easy to accidentally step on them.
So they kept some distance. When they saw the others retreat, they also made space to dodge.
Damao thought for a moment, then ran up to the seated Ashi and jumped up with all his might—first his knees, then his arms, then his shoulders.
He crouched on Ashi’s shoulder, proud to be perched high up, showing off: “Hahaha, look at where I am!”
Ermao and Rongrong watched Damao squatting on Ashi’s shoulder, then they both moved closer to Ashi and said, “Father, Father, we want to sit up there too.”
Ashi stretched out his hand and gently let them step into his palm, then softly placed them on his other shoulder.
“Wow! So high!” Rongrong looked around at the different view. Used to seeing the household items, standing up high allowed her to realize those things weren’t actually as tall as she’d imagined.
It was just that they were too small, so everything around them appeared towering.
Ermao happily said, “It looks so different from here!”
Ashi stopped what he was doing, placing both hands protectively on either side of his shoulders. If the cubs slipped, he could catch them immediately.
A Yue had always been doting toward the cubs, but Ashi was even more so. Since Rongrong was the “fake” cub among them, some of her actions influenced Damao and Ermao. Now, the cubs seemed to be growing up quite well.
After playing for a while, the cubs started yawning. Seeing they were about to fall asleep while crouching on Ashi’s shoulders, Ashi carefully gathered them up and gently placed them in the bird’s nest to sleep, letting them lean against each other.
When Ashi turned around, he saw A Yue still holding a look of envy. He smiled and said, “Next time, I’ll let them stand on your shoulder to play.”
A Yue nodded excitedly, “Let’s rest for a while too.”
During the day, the cubs slept covered in furs.
The temperature was warm enough that the two adults didn’t need to watch the cubs constantly.
They could relax a bit and get up to feed the cubs only when they woke and got hungry, instead of always hovering over them.
The two lay on the wooden bed, feeling the cool breeze blowing in waves, and quickly fell asleep.
Rongrong woke from her nap to find everyone around her sound asleep. Suddenly remembering something, she quietly used a doll to block her figure, then silently slipped into the space.
It didn’t take long before she drank a good amount of spirit well water. She was thinking about how to transfer the spirit well water into the household’s water bag.
The water bag had a small opening and hung on the wall. Rongrong was still a cub; even with wings, she couldn’t fly up to take it down.
She had accumulated a small pile of bones she had collected, along with some feathers and a few small stones.
Yet the space remained empty.
The patch of farmland beside it was still unused. She stretched her long legs and quickly flew toward the small wooden house.
Fortunately, the door was only loosely covered—it wasn’t closed. She entered smoothly.
Inside, the house was empty except for some necessary furniture. There wasn’t much else. After searching for a long time, she finally found a bag of seeds tucked in an inconspicuous corner.
They seemed to be lotus seeds, with a faint pink lotus embroidered on the bag. Rongrong had never seen such a finely made bag before.
Having found the item, she placed it by the soil and quickly left the space.
She only dared to stay in the space for three to five minutes each time. If she stayed longer, she always got the illusion that her family outside was realizing she was missing and searching everywhere for her.
Just thinking about that scene was almost unbearable.
Back in the bird’s nest, the surrounding silence was soothing.
She ran quite a distance inside the space and stayed in the familiar environment, but drowsiness overwhelmed her. Soon, she quietly fell asleep.
Night fell, but it remained uncomfortably hot. Still, it was much better than daytime.
A Yue and Ashi said their farewells and went out hunting.
Ashi saw her off, only returning to the cave when A Yue’s figure disappeared into the distance. The cubs were curled up together, fast asleep.
He glanced at them, then took out more medicinal herbs and carefully stayed on the side shielded from the wind.
Ashi patiently ground the herbs into a fine powder, then mixed several powders together in different proportions. During this process, he was especially cautious not to let his skin touch the powders.
Finally, he wrapped the powders in several layers of leaves and fur, temporarily hiding them in a corner no one would approach. He muttered to himself, “Later when I go out, I’ll scatter them.”
Still uneasy, Ashi wrapped the package with several more leaves outside to ensure the scent wouldn’t leak.
He had found out which orc family had been placing the poisonous insects near their home.
He had deliberately investigated and confirmed that their lives had suddenly improved a lot recently, though nothing appeared to have changed on the surface.
There was no reasonable explanation for them becoming suddenly wealthy.
Ashi was very clear: those orcs probably received some benefit from someone, which was why their home condition improved so much. That family liked raising poisonous insects and occasionally used them for certain purposes.
They lived in a remote corner of the Huanshan Tribe, and their reputation wasn’t good. Other orcs instinctively avoided them. The family was always gloomy and surly.
Ashi wasn’t the kind to harm innocents recklessly. After careful investigation, he learned that family was connected with the Stone City Trade Caravan’s orcs.
According to their own words, their family would soon be able to leave the Huanshan Tribe and live a good life in the larger tribe.
A Yue and Ashi both came from Stone City, and the Stone City Trade Caravan had just been bullying Ashi’s family, which was responsible for some affairs. The caravan, passing through here, casually bought off orcs to deal with Ashi’s family.
Ashi washed his hands, and a flicker of coldness flashed in his eyes. Since they liked poisonous insects, he’d send them plenty more.
They would probably be very happy.
Thinking this, a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth before quickly fading.
He couldn’t afford to be arrogant or complacent.
Those orcs were just small fry; the ones behind them were the real threat.
While Ashi was feeding the cubs meat, A Yue came back with a deer, happily saying, “We didn’t go out long before catching a deer.”
They drank the deer’s blood, while the cubs crowded at the edge of the bird’s nest, eyes wide, staring at the prey on the ground.
There were many spots on the edge, but they didn’t like sitting anywhere else—it was more fun to fight over a spot.
While breaking down the prey, Ashi said, “I made some medicinal powder just now. Later, I’ll go out and scatter it in the den where those orcs throw insects into our cave.”
“Will it poison them to death?” A Yue asked without looking up.
Ashi shook his head helplessly. “Poisons strong enough to kill people usually have a strong smell and bright colors. Also, the orcs have to ingest it to be poisoned, but I don’t have that kind of power.” Orcs have keen senses of smell. If the food tastes off, they’ll know immediately.
Poisoning is generally very difficult.
Putting poison in food is the dumbest method.
A Yue glanced at the three adorable little heads. Her wingtip lightly tapped the cubs’ heads.
The cubs looked up and gently pecked A Yue’s feathers.
She retracted her wings and enthusiastically said, “Do you want me to do it?”
If she got discovered, she could run faster and wouldn’t let the orcs catch her.
“No need. I’m afraid you’d accidentally carry some powder back with you.” Ashi shook his head and thought to himself, these things needed careful handling even when he used them, let alone A Yue.
If it got on her, the scent would be hard to remove.
Night was dark and quiet. Ashi’s figure silently hid in the shadows as he approached the orc den, carrying several herb bundles that masked his scent.
Everything was quiet here. No other orcs lived around this place. Ashi came here without needing to hide from anyone and arrived smoothly.
Waiting for the wind to blow into the cave, Ashi seized the chance to quickly open the herb powder package and silently scattered the fine powder at the entrance of the orc den.
The powder billowed and mostly blew inside their cave.
Ashi immediately left, found a spot, scrubbed his body hard, and rubbed a lot of herbal juice over himself.
He carefully smelled himself to confirm no trace of that scent remained before finally relaxing.
In a good mood, Ashi went out to hunt.
This time, he didn’t fly far but caught a rabbit nearby. He thought for a moment and wasn’t in a hurry to return. Instead, he crouched and waited for more than half an hour, catching a second rabbit before heading home.
On the way back, Ashi deliberately took a detour past the orc family’s den. Unfortunately, he didn’t hear the commotion he’d expected and hesitated slightly before returning home.
A Yue was grooming her feathers, ready to head out hunting. Ashi was surprised: “Aren’t you going to rest for a while before hunting?”
A Yue whispered excitedly, “About half an hour ago, there were several screams from that place. Some orcs nearby went to see the commotion. The family that likes raising poisonous insects somehow attracted a large swarm of poisonous bugs inside their cave. They got bitten badly and had to ask for help to be sent to the neighboring tribe for treatment overnight.”
Ashi met Ayue’s questioning gaze and nodded slightly.
The two exchanged a look and silently smiled.