When Xie Daiyu heard that Shao Xia was able to wriggle her way out of the punishment, he stood up from the ground. His eyes narrowed as he stepped out of the cave. He couldn’t believe that Shao Xia was able to escape punishment once again.

"Brother, where are you going?" Xie Suicheng was scared silly when he saw that his brother was walking toward the square. He realised that his big brother was about to do something and his heart could not help but thump wildly. His brother was pregnant and even if he was stronger than Shao Xia, he could not fight against her. That would be terrible. What if something happened to the child?

His mother had restrained and protected the child in his brother’s belly after much trouble. If something happened to his brother, and that too because of him, then his mother would skin him alive for causing trouble. He hurriedly chased after his brother, as he was worried that he would be the one who would be caught in the fray. With his feet running twice as fast as their capacity, he chased after his brother, who went looking for Shao Xia.

With Xie Daiyu in the front and Xie Suicheng in the back, the two brothers arrived at the square where Shao Xia had returned just after hunting. Her team was still cheering because of the victory that Shao Xia had led them through. Xie Daiyu stared at the woman who was being surrounded by the totem warriors and narrowed his eyes at her and before anyone could stop him, he broke through the crowd and—

SLAP!

The sound of the crisp slap echoed in the entire clearing and the cheers drowned out at once. The team members of Shao Xia all fell silent and turned to look at Xie Daiyu with varying expressions. Some of them were shocked, some were still processing what happened and some simply looked furious.

"Xie Daiyu?" Shao Xia slowly turned her head to look at the mer in front of her. The cheek where he had slapped her was still stinging but she did not rush to make a move on him. She knew that if she dared to make a rash move, the chief of the tribe would never leave her alone; after all, Xie Daiyu was pregnant with children and it was not a small matter that she could just ignore.

Xie Daiyu was breathing heavily and everyone thought that he was going to lose his temper at Shao Xia but the mer only sneered and turned on his feet before walking away.

The momentum with which he came to look for Shao Xia was nowhere to be seen and it looked like he had no intention of speaking to Shao Xia or holding her accountable for anything. This only made everyone even more confused.

"What is the meaning of this? Has he lost his mind?"

"Shhh...don’t say anything. He is still the son of the chief; you cannot lose your temper with him." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"But that doesn’t mean that you can just hit someone you want to!"

Xie Suicheng did not care about the complaints of the rest of the crowd. He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that his brother had done nothing else other than slapping Shao Xia in the face. If he had done something more than that, then he was worried that things might have escalated. It was a good thing that the two of them did not fight or else he would have been the one who would have been blamed in the end.

He heaved a sigh of relief and then followed his brother.

"Brother, you scared me," Xie Suicheng said to his brother, his face showing quite a lot of relief. "I, for a second, thought that you were going to fight with her."

Xie Daiyu glanced at his brother. "Do you think I don’t want to fight with her?"

It was not that he did not want to deal with Shao Xia; it was just that he couldn’t deal with her for the time being. He understood one thing very well: that the reason his mother did not make trouble with Shao Xia was because she knew that there was no evidence against Shao Xia.

Since his mother had gone to such lengths to protect him, how could he ruin her efforts, but there was no way he was going to let that woman escape?

Xie Suicheng was scared silly when he heard the words of his brother. He said to her worriedly, "Don’t tell me that you are going to find trouble with Shao Xia? Brother, I know that you are angry but there is no way you can cause trouble for Shao Xia. After Ruan Chanchan went missing, Shao Xia quickly used the momentum to make everyone like her. Even the elders are supporting her, they think that Shao Xia is a much better option to control and they are supporting her even more fiercely than they did mother."

"You cannot fight against her."

"I am the heir of the tribe," sneered Xie Daiyu. "If the elders are so inclined to support her, then they might as well leave the tribe with her. I cannot let these traitors run amok in the tribe anymore." This time Shao Xia tried to harm Ruan Chanchan; who knows what she would try to do the next time? It was better to deal with this problem before it caused even more conflicts.

**

"Achoo! Achoo!"

Ruan Chanchan had no idea that she had caused such a stir in the tribe even without being present. She rubbed her nose and looked at the heated bed that she had finally finished making.

"Is it done?" Rong Xian looked at the bed that looked quite weird but other than that, it did not look anything special. He turned to look at Ruan Chanchan as if silently asking what she was even trying to do.

"Hah! Is this thing going to help us from the chill of the winter winds?"