Su Qinglan watched the interaction with a curious smile. She nudged Xuan Long with her elbow and whispered, "What was he saying? Can you understand his hisses? Is he telling his brothers how much he loves them?"
Xuan Long didn’t even blink. He looked at his soggy, grumpy son and then back at Su Qinglan with a perfectly straight face.
"He said he is just very happy to be here," Xuan Long lied smoothly. "He said he missed his mommy so much, and he told his brothers that he’s honored to have such big, strong protectors."
Hearing this, Su Qinglan’s heart melted, her eyes shining with joy. "Oh, really? What a sweet little baby! I knew they would get along eventually."
Inside the nest, Xiao San poked his tiny head out from under the thick hide, his little eyes wide with shock.
Shameless father! he thought, flicking his tongue in indignation. When did I ever say that? I never said I missed these furry walking monsters!
Xiao San looked at his mother’s happy face and realized his father was a master of deception.
He hadn’t asked for a big, noisy family. He didn’t want a "brotherhood" that involved being licked into a puddle.
All he wanted was a beautiful mother and a very large, empty bed where he could stretch out alone.
He looked at the two tiger cubs who were now trying to guard him by sitting so close that their heavy paws were inches from his tail.
One accidental rollover and he would be a flat snake!
"Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze," he thought miserably as a patch of Xiao Er’s orange fur tickled his nose again.
Xiao San gave up. He realized that until he could shift into a human form and speak for himself, he was stuck being his father’s "sweet little baby" and his brothers’ "chew toy."
He curled back into a ball, dreaming of the day he would grow big enough to wrap himself around the tigers and see how they liked being squeezed.
After the morning chaos settled down, Su Qinglan decided it was time to address a very important problem. Her children were basically naked.
While they had plenty of furs, she wanted something more comfortable and proper for them to wear.
She reached into her system storage and pulled out three huge rolls of fabric. These had been given to her as a reward when she gave birth.
The system didn’t provide "beast-style" leather or fur clothes; instead, it provided high-quality rolls of fabric that were incredibly soft, durable, and perfect for babies.
For herself, the system had already provided five ready-made maternity outfits, but the cubs needed something custom-made.
The fabric was amazing. It had a strange, breathable structure that felt like a mix of silk and cotton, but it was tough enough to survive a cub’s claws.
Even though the material was high-tech, it didn’t look out of place; it looked like a very rare, premium material that could exist in the beast world.
Su Qinglan looked at Xuan Long, who was sitting beside the cubs.
Out of all her husbands, Xuan Long was the most skilled with his hands when it came to delicate work. He knew many designs and had a very keen eye for detail.
"Xuan Long," she called out, patting the rolls of cloth. "Can you help me? Let’s make some clothes for the babies. This fabric is too good to waste, and the cubs are growing so fast."
Xuan Long walked over and felt the fabric between his long fingers. His eyes lit up with professional interest.
"This material... it’s strange but very sturdy. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s perfect for little ones who like to crawl through the dirt."
He immediately began to measure the sleeping tiger cubs with his hands. "For the two older ones, I’ll make little clothes so they can move freely. But for Xiao San..." He looked at the tiny snake coiled in the nest.
Xiao San poked his head out, sensing a new danger. He saw his father holding a pair of sharp bone shears and a long piece of bright green fabric.
No. Absolutely not, the tiny snake thought, his tail twitching nervously.
"I’ll make him tiny, long clothes," Xuan Long said with a proud smile. "He’s so small that the wind might chill him. If I make it tight enough, he won’t be able to wiggle out."
Xiao San flicked his tongue in protest. He hated the idea of being trapped in a tube of cloth.
He liked his scales to be free! He looked at his mother, hoping she would stop this madness, but Su Qinglan was already nodding enthusiastically.
"A tiny sweater! That would be so cute!" she squealed, already imagining her little ’noodle’ in a hood. She even draws a clumsy design of a sweater so Xuan Long can make something similar for the cubs.
Xuan Long got to work immediately. He sat cross-legged on the floor, his hands moving with incredible speed.
Within an hour, he had produced two small, orange-tinted outfits for the older cubs and one very tiny, very narrow green tube with a hood for the snake.
He picked up a sleeping Xiao San and began the struggle. It was like trying to put a sock on a very angry, slippery piece of spaghetti.
"Stay still, son," Xuan Long muttered, accidentally poking the snake’s tail. "This is for your own good. You’ll be the most fashionable cub in the Fox Tribe."
Xiao San hissed a miserable, muffled sound as the fabric was pulled over his head.
When Xuan Long finally finished, the tiny snake looked like a very small, very grumpy green sausage with a hood. He couldn’t even coil properly because the sweater was so snug.
Xiao San slumped over in his nest, his little eyes glaring through the hood. He felt like his dignity was officially gone.
Between the tiger saliva and now the baby fashion, he was starting to think his brothers had the better deal.
After finishing the tiny snake sweater, Su Qinglan and Xuan Long turned their attention to the two larger cubs.
Xiao Er and Xiao Yi were currently wrestling over a piece of wood, but they stopped when their parents approached with the new orange-tinted outfits.
Putting clothes on two energetic tiger-fox cubs was like trying to dress two wiggling clouds. It took both Su Qinglan and Xuan Long to hold them down.
Finally, the little clothes were on. The fabric stretched perfectly over their round bellies, leaving enough room for their thick tails to wag freely.
"Oh, look at you!" Su Qinglan praised, her voice full of motherly pride. She picked them up one by one and gave them big kisses on their fuzzy cheeks. "My babies are so handsome! You look like the most precious cubs in the whole world."
The cubs preened under her praise, standing tall and looking at their new second skin.
In the Fox Tribe, most cubs roamed around without any clothes at all, but the atmosphere outside had been getting very chilly lately.
Su Qinglan didn’t want to keep them wrapped in heavy, suffocating furs all day. These breathable, warm clothes were the perfect solution.
"I’ll make two outfits for each of them for now," Su Qinglan said to Xuan Long. "They are growing so fast that they’ll outgrow these in a month. I need to save the rest of this special material for when they finally turn into their human forms. They’ll need proper clothes then."