Chapter 22 Birthday

The fruits and vegetables are all ready to be dried up by the sun. They also started to cook three big pots of vegetable soup with a little bit of meat to thank those who gave and helped them harvest fish and dry the food. As well as to invite them to Hu'er second birthday party.

First, they divided a whole wild animal that weighed the same as a ten whole season old beastmen into three parts. Boiled the meat, other diced ingredients, and seasonings with water in the pot then put a cover on for quite some time. When it started boiling, they made the fire smaller and took off the cover and the meat. They then shredded the meat and put back the bones in the boiling soup. Waited for a bit before putting all the other cut vegetables in. After that, they started to put it in a wooden bowl.

They have two types of bowls, a big one and a small one. The big one will be given to beastmen and females. The small ones are for the cubs. Cubs can get a small spoonful of shredded meat and females can get one big spoonful of shredded meat. Beastmen will get more vegetables instead. No one said anything about how unfair it was as they are used to the way food is divided.

However, Hu'er who heard such a thing couldn't believe it. Females mostly can only get soup, no meat or vegetables in their place but now she felt the world flipped upside down. Although she didn't really experience such a thing her 'sisters' in the pavilion have those experiences and she saw it once when they were allowed to go out incognito. 

Min He and Jiu Hu are the ones who are with Hu'er right now. They are dressing her up as she will go out again. Both of them want to let her see how they give the food to the tribe members because they felt that Hu'er couldn't believe what they told her. Plus, they would take advantage of it and let Hu'er see more females. They thought that Hu'er likes to see females because everyone she sees is beastmen and she might be looking for the company of her mother too.

"Daddy, when are we going to eat the dried fruits, vegetables, and fish?" Hu'er couldn't help but salivate when she remembered how dried fruits taste.

"You can eat it once it's done. Half will be for our winter and the other half is for your birthday," Jiu Hu explained as he finished fixing her hair.

"Oh," Hu'er nodded. Then she realized, "When is my birthday?" Her body for some reason stiffened.

"In five days." Min He carried her and started going down. He suddenly frowned and looks at Hu'er. Her body is stiff and she's in a daze. He stops going down and turns her to face him.

Hu'er blinked. Her Birthday… The last birthday she had… was the day she died. She feels a little suffocated.

"Hu'er? Hu'er?" She feels a hand caressing her cheeks. Hu'er looks at the owner of the hand.

"Daddy," she muttered. She didn't know why but her Daddies were getting blurry. Her nose is runny. She sniffed.

"Hu'er why are you crying?" Jiu Hu panicky took Hu'er from his arms.

"Are you hurt?" He checks her body and feels her pulse, yet there he finds nothing. Hu'er didn't respond, making them panic more.

"Hu'er!" Hu'er finally snaps out. Raised her head to look at them. This is her life now. She might not be able to come back. Even if she can, coming back will only kill her. No one will protect her. Yet these men who she now treated as a family even though they aren't, would protect her.

Hu'er's tears got wiped by her Dada. She sniffed and rubbed her eyes before smiling at them. "Hu'er is fine. I want to go out."

They didn't know what to do, why she cried, and what happened. They could only do what Hu'er wanted to do. Fix her up and go out.

They went from house to house. Hu'er's energy came back. Smiling happily as she gives soup to the females. She didn't expect that the thought of giving food could let her see the other females.

The youngest female she saw is a four whole season old that still talks in gibberish but can walk a little stable. There is also a five whole season old that looks like eight years old already but her body looks a little fragile.

They were about to go home when someone stopped them, "Is this Jiuweihu? She can really hold herself up." A female beside Aunt Qiao looks at her in amazement.

"She already got her blessing," a young beastman who looks just a little younger than Jiu Lin came. Looking at her with desire.

Hu'er definitely felt it, such gaze is the most gaze she is familiar with. Her eyes glint. For some reason, the young beastman gives off the feeling of a powerful person. But Hu'er immediately changes her attention to the females. Her Daddies didn't like to see her staring at beastmen. Hu'er figured that out as they went from house to house earlier, so now if she can avoid them she will. She at least needs to grow up first then she can reasonably look at handsome men more.

"Just call her Hu'er. Hu'er is quite strong as far as I know before she could even get her blessings; she can already walk and talk." Aunt Qiao looks like she wanted to brag about Hu'er more but stopped herself.

"Really? Ah! This is my son. He is ten whole seasons old. Transformed at the age of five. Purely good at hunting and making weapons. I–" the female was interrupted.

"She's still young." Then the young beastman looks at her Daddies. "I apologize, Mom is just concerned about my future."

But her Daddies just snorted and said, "We will be going. Hu'er hasn't eaten yet. You will see her again on her birthday."

"Oh! Go on. I'll make sure to prepare her gift." Aunt Qiao shooed them and said goodbye to Hu'er.

When they were already far away the female spoke, "Why are they like that? Do they think their daughter is the only female here?"  She didn't like how they treated her.

"It might be because they saw my gift." the young beastmen can't take his eyes away from the back of Hu'er group. When he couldn't see them, he left. Shocked, his mom looks at him leaving.

"Great! We're in-laws now!" Aunt Qiao happily taps her shocked friend.

"That kid–. Well, their action made sense now…" The female still can't believe that her son actually gave the little female a gift. So many females have been born. He's very stubborn and picky. She didn't even see him make a gift for a female. The female wants to go home now and ask her mate when and what gift her son gave to the little female. She's too curious. Walking fast as she goes home. Completely forgetting that she could ask her mates that are following her.

Aunt Qiao chuckles and looks seriously at her mate. "Teach Xin Hua how to plant." When she saw that her mates agreed, they went home. She indeed wants to make her friend's son become Hu'er's mate as the young beastmen always have meat. As far as her calculation, if her son becomes Hu'er's mate there will be someone who can do mining gems and graphite, Jiu Lin is good at household and taking care of cubs as he was the one who took care of his brothers and Shun Su is good at crafting and craving things. No one knows how to hunt or plant. She can let her mate teach Xin Hua to plant but hunting is something he might not be able to do well.

Meanwhile, Hu'er and her Daddies are already at home. They didn't even know that someone was calculating Hu'er's, future mate.