Chapter 145: A Six-tailed Fox of the Same Clan

"This is for our own selfish reasons," Fan Shang admitted openly. "It’s also a condition for exchanging the shards."

If you don’t know what tomorrow will bring, then live each day as if it were your last.

In the short time they had, she would love without reservation. Even if they had to part ways in the end, she hoped their memories of her would bring more joy than sorrow.

Fan Shang was the first to discover the shards’ secret. Although she stopped in time and destroyed most of the data, it still left an opening for others to exploit.

She wasn’t involved in anything that followed. She even secretly took a Beastman away with her, but she still couldn’t stop that experiment.

She heard about what happened afterward. Humans and Beastmen exploited each other, and the emergence of Mutant Beastmen led to large-scale riots.

Before the laboratory was destroyed, many humans were attacked by Mutant Beastmen, but that wasn’t even the worst of it...

Once the relationship between Beastmen and humans reached a freezing point, even neutral Beastmen would be forced to take part in the conflict.

At that point, even if humans possessed a vast arsenal of weapons, the Beastmen who could transform would be inescapable. Unless they went so far as to kill every single animal, there would be no way to guarantee people’s safety.

The best solution was to have the Beastmen leave Blue Star.

Fan Lin didn’t want that, but it was the only way.

Even though she knew they didn’t belong here, Fan Lin still wanted to be selfish for once and delay their departure for just a little longer...

"Barring any surprises, I promise." Wen Qian clutched the shard in her hand. If she could, she too would want to spend more time with the Beastmen.

She even wanted to go to the Beast World, but everyone knew... it wasn’t something she could do just by wanting it.

Everyone left the coffee shop with a heavy heart.

Although the Little Fox was sitting a short distance away, he had heard every word of their conversation clearly. He held Wen Qian’s hand tightly the entire way, clearly having something he wanted to say.

This continued all the way back to the villa.

Chi Heng changed back into his wolf form and lay down on the rug, while the Little Fox rested his head on Wen Qian’s shoulder.

"You suspected it all along, didn’t you?" the Little Fox asked in a low voice.

Wen Qian hummed a soft "Mm," assuming he was referring to the Beastmen having to leave Blue Star.

"I don’t want to leave you." Qi Ke’s nose twitched. "I don’t have to go back to the Beast World, and I don’t need any shards."

Wen Qian raised a hand and poked his forehead, finding it a little funny. "There are so many Beastmen on Blue Star, and most of them don’t want to stay here."

Who knows how many of them had been persecuted by humans, or how many died young because they were unable to transform.

None of this was fair, for either humans or Beastmen.

Besides, with so many Mutant Beastmen now, if this continued, war was inevitable.

"I don’t care about them..." the Little Fox said, his expression stubborn. He looked at Wen Qian with exceptionally firm eyes. "I only care about you. I want to be with you, so there’s no way I’m leaving you behind alone."

As he spoke, he gripped Wen Qian’s hand tightly, gently rubbing his cheek against her palm. His eyes were getting red again, but his expression was as stubborn as when they first met.

Wen Qian felt a little dazed. ’It seems this little fox has been full of worries since the day we met. He clearly has an expression that longs to be taken home and embraced, yet he stubbornly insists he doesn’t care and doesn’t need it... Perhaps that’s precisely why I find him so special.’

’It’s that kindness etched into his very bones, allowing him to maintain his goodwill and hope for others despite having experienced so much cruelty.’

"Qianqian, I don’t want to take that gamble." Rubbing his cheek against her palm again, he lifted his gaze to look at her with those dark, ink-black eyes.

’What a stubborn, headstrong fox... ’

A smile returned to her face. Wen Qian pulled her hand back and pinched his cheek. She teased him deliberately, "Gambling is illegal, so I don’t gamble either."

"That’s not what I meant!" The Little Fox, annoyed, went to bite the back of her hand. He gnawed on it for a while but didn’t leave a single mark.

"Oh, by the way, do you know what kind of Beastman was with Fan Shang?" Wen Qian deliberately cut him off, though she was also genuinely curious.

Just now, the Beastman with Fan Shang kept glancing, intentionally or not, in the Little Fox’s direction.

Once or twice might have been a coincidence, but later, even as the man was walking out the door, he didn’t forget to look back at the Little Fox one more time.

’Could those two know each other?’

"Fox Clan," the Little Fox replied, stunned for a moment, his ears drooping. Then, he added in a hushed voice, "A Six-tailed Fox."

Even when transformed, members of the Fox Clan can still see the tails of their own kind.

The tails just become semi-transparent, so other clans can’t see them.

"Foxes can grow more tails?" Wen Qian was shocked.

The Little Fox lowered his head even further, only managing a soft "mm" after a long moment.

Seemingly sensing his dejection, Wen Qian immediately smacked her lips. "Wouldn’t it feel weird having so many tails? I think foxes look better with just one... It’s so fluffy to hold, and it wouldn’t feel crowded."

The Little Fox peeked up at Wen Qian. Seeing her thoughtfully stroking her chin, completely oblivious to his expression, his ears immediately perked up.

His previous gloom vanished, and his dark fox eyes brightened. He gripped her hand tightly, his voice laced with a hint of caution. "You... really think so?"

"Of course!" Wen Qian nodded. "What, have you fallen out of love with your beautiful tail?"

He seemed to give it some serious thought. After a long moment, the Little Fox shook his head firmly. He sniffled, then pressed his full weight against Wen Qian, hugging her tightly.

A transformed man was quite heavy. Wen Qian, crushed and unable to breathe, reached a hand out to Chi Heng for help.

The massive wolf body immediately squeezed between the two, separating them.

Finally able to breathe freely, Wen Qian lay back on the sofa, only to see Qi Ke across from her still looking at her with an amorous gaze.

Wen Qian had a feeling that he was about to pounce on her again.

Shen Mqing, who had just woken up, came downstairs rubbing his eyes, holding the tail of his dinosaur pajamas in his hand. He glanced at Wen Qian, the Little Fox, and the others, and yawned, "Morning!"

Wen Qian tilted her head at him with an expression that said, ’Are you sure it’s "morning"?’

’If I’m not mistaken, it’s already 12:30 PM...’

At that same moment, the doorbell rang.

Opening the door revealed the takeout Wen Qian had ordered.

"Did you time your entrance perfectly or what?" the Little Fox asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What... I just played games too late last night," Shen Mqing pouted.

The Young Master had instructed him to take good care of the little female, so he had to take over all the chores the Young Master used to do, which of course included unpacking the takeout!

Watching Shen Mqing’s eager-to-please attitude, Wen Qian shook her head, but a faint smile was visible in her eyes.

’The kid isn’t as annoying as when we first met,’ she thought. ’He actually seems quite boyish now.’