Chapter 131: Is the Baby a Boy or a Girl?

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Xiaoyun and I hurried straight to the place where the Protector Cat lived. From inside came a whole chorus of loud meowing!

The moment we heard it, we grew even more anxious and rushed forward as fast as we could.

We were a little slow. If I had transformed into a cat, I would have been much faster, but whenever I went out, I always kept my human form.

I thought that if I turned into a kitten, I might be able to run much faster. But if some special situation arose and I needed to become human again, that would be troublesome.

If I changed back from a kitten into a human, I would be stark naked! How could I possibly do that?

So, worried about this very problem, I could only leave in human form. Although I was slower and ran until I was gasping for breath, I eventually made it there.

“Xiaomi! Xiaomi!”

The moment I entered, I rushed inside. The whole room seemed to be filled with meowing!

Xiaomi must be in terrible pain. When the babies in my belly had moved just now, I had been in enough pain to bare my teeth and grimace. How much worse must it be for Xiaomi, who was actually giving birth?

But when I nervously entered the room, I discovered that the meowing filling the entire place was not coming from Xiaomi at all.

“You—you’ve already given birth?!”

I stared at the three tightly wrapped babies, completely dumbfounded.

I could not make out their features. All I could see were three kitten-like bundles, each wrapped into a little ball. They had probably only just been born and were being kept away from the drafts.

But—how could it have happened so quickly? She was already finished?

“I had nothing else to do anyway, so I gave birth,” Xiaomi replied lazily, swaying her head.

Aside from lying there, she looked nothing like a woman who had just given birth.

Xiaoyun and I were both utterly bewildered. Since when was giving birth something one did simply because one had nothing better to do?

It seemed Xiaomi had suffered very little, and we had not been especially slow, either. The entire process had taken only five minutes.

Even counting the ten minutes Xiaoyun had spent coming to find me, it could not have been more than ten minutes in total. Yet within that brief span, I had somehow missed the actual birth entirely. What a pity!

Instead, I heard Xiaomi turn her head and call out, “Yubao, I want a big crab.”

Yubao was in human form. While tidying up the things scattered nearby, which appeared to be covered in blood, he shook his head.

“You can’t eat crab. It’s bad for the babies.”

“You said that before I gave birth! I’ve been craving it for a whole year! And now that they’re born, it’s still bad for them?!”

“Be patient. You still have to nurse them.”

“I’m not nursing them.” Xiaomi turned her head. “I want crab.”

Yubao grinned, picked up one of the babies, and began teasing it.

“What about catfish?”

Xiaomi could not hold back. Her eyes immediately lit up with obvious longing.

“Catfish works too!”

“Then we’ll have catfish tonight.”

After finishing his cleaning, Yubao hurried over to tend to the babies, replacing the layers of cloth wrapped around them.

It turned out that newborn babies came into the world covered in blood. They were also afraid of the wind, so they had to be wrapped up at once.

Once the blood and mucus coating their tiny fur had been absorbed by the cloth, they were wrapped in fresh layers.

Only then did we get a proper look at them. Their eyes were still closed, and their fur was a pale orange-yellow. Two of them had tiny wings.

The roots of those wings looked like little bean sprouts, so tender and delicate that they seemed liable to snap at any moment.

As Xiaoyun and I stood nearby admiring their strange appearance, we suddenly realized that Xiaomi was sitting off to one side without moving.

Why was she not holding her babies?

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“Xiaomi…” Xiaoyun and I edged closer. “Why aren’t you holding the little ones?”

“They aren’t mine.” Xiaomi turned her head away, then grabbed one of them. “Only this one is mine.”

“Uh?”

This time, Xiaoyun and I were completely stunned. We exchanged bewildered looks, unable to think of anything to say.

How could babies born after so much effort suddenly be declared someone else’s?

It might have been understandable if the father had said it, but Xiaomi? Had giving birth made her lose her mind? How could she not know which babies she had given birth to?

Before either of us could react, however, Yubao chuckled.

“Xiaomi is very simple-minded. Two of the babies were born with wings, just like me, so she decided they couldn’t be hers. But it’s all right. She’ll get over it in a couple of days. They’re still so soft and tender. Once she plays with them for a few days, she’ll be unable to part with them.”

“Uh…”

Xiaoyun and I remained utterly dumbfounded. It seemed that ever since we had entered the room, our mouths had not closed once.

So that was the situation…

But it was still rather astonishing.

No matter how simple-minded and foolish Xiaomi was, she should at least have known what the father of her children looked like. Yubao’s babies having wings was perfectly normal, was it not?

Could it be that Xiaomi had always assumed that, since she was the one giving birth, the babies would come out looking exactly like her?

If they did not look exactly like her, then they could not be hers?

Good heavens. It was almost unbearably adorable.

When I thought about it, it actually made sense. Xiaomi had been human once, and although the River of Forgetfulness had turned her into a cat, she should still have human genes. She had become pregnant without even knowing what penises and testicles were, and no one had ever explained the situation to her.

It was only natural that she would think this way.

Once I understood the matter, I sat there and laughed for a while. Then, feeling a little awkward, I reached out and touched one of the babies.

It felt soft and incredibly delicate. When it sensed my finger, it began crawling weakly forward. Its little leg bones had no strength yet, and it wobbled before tumbling over.

Their cries were surprisingly loud. Their meows sounded no different from those of ordinary kittens. With their tiny tongues poking out, they yawned and fussed noisily.

Those had been the loud kitten cries we heard earlier. They had filled the entire room.

I could not help remembering how Xiaomi had been before becoming a mother: full of energy every day, speaking in a booming voice, emphasizing every word, and being overbearingly domineering.

The little baby pressed its tiny paws against my finger and stuck out its little tongue, trying to lick me.

At that moment, my heart melted.

To tell the truth, I had once planned to ask Xiaomi what giving birth felt like when the time came. Was it painful?

But now, all I cared about was this tiny, tender baby.

I wondered: Xiaomi had originally been human, and although the River of Forgetfulness had transformed her into a cat, her genes should still be human. So why had she given birth to a kitten without wings?

I had thought all the babies would be little winged beasts like Yubao!

Still, this was for the best. Fortunately, one of them was a wingless kitten. Otherwise, if Xiaomi saw that all her babies had wings and looked nothing like her, she might have flown into a rage and refused to keep any of them.

As I thought about it, I suddenly raised my head and asked Yubao in a low voice, “How many are boys, and how many are girls?”

“Two males.” Yubao’s answer was crude and straightforward. He pointed to one of the babies nearby. “The smallest one, the one who looks like Xiaomi, is female.”

I was speechless.

Why not simply say boy and girl? Why insist on male and female?

Then again, he was an animal. To him, male and female meant exactly the same thing as boy and girl did to humans. There was nothing vulgar about it. The meaning was what mattered.

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“I knew before they were born. I was only guessing about which was which.”

Yubao laughed again. “You can go home and ask your master whether the baby you’re carrying is male or female.”

“What?”

I froze. My head began to buzz.

“Ask the River of Forgetfulness about the baby’s sex,” Yubao explained, apparently thinking I had not understood.

“Stop joking. There’s hardly even a bump yet. It’s still too early, isn’t it?”

“I seem to remember that you’ve been pregnant for nearly a year.” Yubao glanced at my belly and sniffed.

I immediately went on guard. “What are you smelling?”

“Whether it’s male or female.” Yubao looked slightly embarrassed. “It smells like a ferocious beast. I’ve never encountered that before, so I can’t really tell. You’d better ask the River of Forgetfulness.”

“Well, he might not know either.” I nervously twitched my nose, suddenly covered in a cold sweat.

“All males know.” Yubao smiled. “How could he not know whether his own offspring was male or female? Besides, your belly hasn’t grown much, so you probably aren’t carrying a litter. If there’s only one, he could tell immediately. He probably knew from the very beginning.”

After hearing this, I found myself unable to accept it.

I had always thought that having a boy or a girl was equally wonderful, and that only an ultrasound could reveal the baby’s sex. Who would have imagined that, in the animal world, husbands knew before their wives did?

After being astonished for a while, I temporarily put my own concerns aside and returned my attention to the two new parents’ babies.

I had to admit, the arrangement of two boys and one girl was excellent. Yubao was a spirit beast, while Xiaomi was merely a Protector Cat.

The River of Forgetfulness’s cat, transformed from a human, possessed only limited abilities. I knew that much.

But these kittens had not been transformed from humans. Perhaps their genes had already merged with those of humanity; perhaps they were simply destined to be cats from the moment they were born.

The other two little winged beasts were probably larger, judging from what Yubao had said, which meant they were the older brothers.

That was good. With two powerful spirit-beast brothers, the little kitten sister would have someone to protect her.

As I imagined it, I could already see the three kittens going out for walks a few days from now.

I wanted so badly to see it!

I kissed the wingless kitten in my arms. Although the other two were not Xiaomi’s babies, they reacted a little faster than their sister.

They had known to search for milk immediately after being born. And since they were, after all, flesh that had come from her own body—and since Yubao had promised her catfish that evening—Xiaomi obediently nursed them.

Nursing animals looked quite simple. Xiaomi merely lay on her side while the babies fed themselves.

After kissing the kitten, I placed it in the middle. We had once kept cats at home, and the middle position had always had the most milk. This little one needed to eat more.

My maternal instincts suddenly overflowed, and I could hardly restrain them.

I spent the entire day watching the babies. It was not until I returned to Chongye Hall that evening that I finally let out a long breath.

Giving birth actually looked rather easy!

I would have to discuss it with the River of Forgetfulness. When my time came, perhaps I should give birth in cat form too. Maybe it would be just as quick and painless as Xiaomi’s.

But first, I had to ask him whether my baby was male or female.

How had I been so foolish as never to consider that the River of Forgetfulness must already know?

He had known about my pregnancy before I did. How could he possibly not know whether the baby was a boy or a girl?