"Shang Xi? Shang Xi!!" Zhou Ziyou shouted.
Shang Xi ca back to her senses: "What? Are we there yet?"
"Are you dazed from exhaustion? Not yet!"
Shang Xi looked out the window, they were approaching the square, almost there.
Zhou Ziyou glanced at Shang Xi with concern, but didn't say anything.
When they arrived at Manting Community, they cooked a al together, enjoying the lively gathering. Shang Xi also drank so wine after a long ti, but not too much since her son Baby Shang was there.
After seeing off the two friends, she hugged Baby Shang and sat on a bench on the balcony, stargazing.
She didn't recall drinking much, but her words seed to drift.
"Baby, I'm sorry."
"You miss your dad, don't you? Mom knows."
"But if you want to see your dad, Mom can send you over anyti. We live separately now, but that doesn't an you can't see him. Baby, Mom loves you the most, burp..."
Shang Xi suddenly covered her mouth.
Baby Shang ran to the living room, fetched hot water, and brought it over: "Mom, drink so water."
"Burp... Thank you, baby."
"Mom, you're the most important." Baby Shang reached out, imitating an adult's gesture, and stroked Shang Xi's hair.
"Mom, actually, you also..." He blinked his big eyes but didn't finish the sentence.
On the other side, at ng Lai Mountain Manor, Gu Wen remained silent, drinking the wine he usually disliked. He wore a white shirt, but his eyes were filled with dejection.
"Shang Xi left with the cub, and you're this upset?"
"To pursue a mate, you can't be like this! Gu Wen, you're not up to it!" Jiang Bu said gruffly: "If I t a female I liked, I'd be much more assertive and make her fall completely for ."
"Wolf brother, just don't stutter and fail to speak when the ti cos," the long-haired man said.
"How could that happen! I won't stutter! I'm not afraid of them," Jiang Bu said loudly.
Qin Ming took a sip of tea and spoke to the silent Gu Wen: "When will you win back your mate? Blue Tail is still sad."
Gu Wen had clearly been drinking, and his usually calm eyes were drifting. He didn't flush when drunk, so it wasn't obvious that he was intoxicated unless observed closely.
Qin Ming frowned: "Or are you giving up?"
"Giving up?" Gu Wen repeated those two words lightly, then his eyes flashed nacingly: "What are you implying? What if I give up? Don't even think about it!"
Qin Ming: ...
"You're drunk. Human alcohol is truly formidable."
Gu Wen frowned, took a deep breath. The alcohol made his brain numb and confused. "No one should even think about catching her attention. She... she's mine."
The long-haired man let out a "yo" sound: "She's yours? Then how did she run off? Gu Wen, your wife ran away!"
"It wasn't for nothing, coming here today."
"Fu Su, do you really want your parents to have a long life?"
Broached on this topic, the long-haired man's smile faded, and his expression turned serious: "Yeah, they agree too. I just want to see them for longer."
He was adopted by the Wolf Tribe and only learned after leaving the mountain that his birth parents had conceived him late in life, now both eighty years old.
"Snow Crystal." He took out a white ice box. "This is what elderly wolves eat to regain their youth and extend their lifespan."
Snow Crystals are transparent and crystalline, with one forming every thousand years, making them extrely rare and coveted by the Wolf Tribes.
In the snowy mountains, only major tribes have access to a few. Most ordinary wolves can never obtain them, so they can only live for about three hundred years.
The major tribes have a few. Only wolves with high status and great contributions are eligible to consu them.
"If a pure human eats it, will they be fine?"
"Of course! Gu Wen's grandfather ate one when he was a hundred years old and still had a youthful appearance to pursue human girls who had just co of age."
"Don't ntion him!" Gu Wen's expression was extrely disgusted as he waved his hand, knocking over the wine bottle on the table with a shattering sound.
At the sa ti, a Snow Crystal from the ice box was jostled and drifted out, landing in Gu Wen's wine glass and dissolving in the liquid.
Coincidentally, Gu Wen, drunk and dazed, picked up the wine glass and drank it all down.
No one noticed this scene for the ti being.
Gu Wen shook his head, coughed, and stood up: "I'm going to find her."
He leaped across the rooftops of the city, his mind becoming hazy, filled only with Shang Xi's gentle, smiling face.
After Gu Wen left, Fu Su shook his head with a smile, about to put away the ice box, but frowned when he looked down.
"How is one missing?"
"What?!" Jiang Bu's voice cracked.
Jiang Bu stood up, sniffing deeply around the room: "It's not here, how could it be gone... wait," Jiang Bu picked up an empty wine glass and sniffed it deeply.
His expression instantly changed.
"This has... the scent of a Snow Crystal! Isn't this the glass Gu Wen drank from??"
Fu Su's brow furrowed as well.
"What happens if a young wolf eats a Snow Crystal specifically ant for elderly wolves?"
Qin Ming's expression also turned serious: "I rember my grandfather saying they would revert to a cub."
"What the hell!!!" Jiang Bu's voice cracked again.
On the other side, Gu Wen hadn't leaped far when he started feeling increasingly hot all over. He initially thought it was just from drinking too much, but when he reached the entrance of Manting Community, he felt like his body was on fire, followed by intense pain.
He leaned against a paulownia tree by the roadside, panting heavily, forcefully tearing at the buttons on his shirt.
Sothing was wrong.
He panted heavily, the pain causing him to break out in a sweat, feeling as if all the bones in his body were creaking, constricting, and shrinking.
Finally, his eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness.
At the base of the paulownia tree lay a plump, jet-black wolf cub.
Shang Xi: The third ti I've picked up a puppy.
Baby Shang (big eyes, big confusion): Who are you? Why do you sll like Dad!
Thank you for the little gifts and heartwarming comnts, my darlings. No matter what I write, I can't please everyone, so I'll just write what I want. Let's enjoy it while it lasts.
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