In the world of poisonous beasts, there was no distinction between day and night — the sky remained forever the same dull, overcast gray! The only way to gauge the passage of day and night was likely one’s own internal biological clock.

But Ziqing had slept for so long that she’d long since lost all sense of day or night at all.

She wasn’t sure if she’d been unconscious or simply asleep, but she’d had an exceedingly long dream — a dream of a child. In it, she was holding a small child’s hand, walking on and on with no particular destination, and yet no matter how hard she tried, she could never see the child’s face. She didn’t even know whether the child was leading her, or she was leading the child.

The whole way, neither of them spoke a word — they simply kept walking forward, forward, and yet she had no idea where they were actually going.

Finally, drifting muddled back to consciousness, the dream broke off abruptly.

Whether it had been a beautiful dream or a nightmare, she couldn’t say — but it left her staring blankly at her own palm, half-expecting, even though it had only been a dream, to still feel the lingering warmth of a child’s hand within it.

The moment the big foolish bear beside her saw Ziqing wake, it immediately let out excited growls. Only then did Ziqing snap back to herself and lift her head to look.

And in that instant, she was struck utterly speechless!

Good heavens!

What was she looking at?

Before her eyes, everything was filled with honeycombs — enormous and small, of every size, each brimming with honey, its sweet fragrance filling the air, so pleasant it made even breathing feel wonderful!

And the spot where she sat, all around her, was covered entirely in something soft and white and fluffy!

Ziqing reached out in disbelief and grabbed a small tuft of it, and was immediately struck dumb — this… this… this was bear fur, warm and soft to the touch!

A thick layer of it, spread out like a carpet!

Good heavens!

Was this all a dream?

This was clearly meant to be a dark, damp cave — how could it possibly…

At this moment, Ziqing felt as though she’d stepped straight into a fairy tale, everything around her so wonderfully beautiful, the very air itself carrying a scent of pure, simple happiness!

Ziqing stared around in a daze, and couldn’t help but laugh — a laugh of astonished delight, and yet also somehow a bitter one. She hardly knew what to say anymore.

She only thought: if this was a dream, please, let it never end.

“Growl, growl, growl…”

Suddenly, from behind her came the big foolish bear’s proud, joyful roar. Ziqing quickly turned to look — and was immediately startled half out of her wits.

For there — there, that big foolish bear’s once-shaggy white coat of fur had vanished entirely. If not for its build and its voice, Ziqing would never have recognized it at all!

This bear!

This bear had actually stripped off its own fur to make her a carpet to sit on — and now, sitting before her, was nothing less than a completely bare bear!

Though its bare skin was black, still… still, the sight before her defied all description.

Ziqing was rendered utterly speechless!

Exactly how much luck did she have, to encounter such a spectacularly foolish bear in the middle of the poisonous-beast world?

Ziqing shook her head helplessly, and seeing her not laughing, the big foolish bear, thinking she was displeased, hurried over, whimpering pitifully, nuzzling her gently with its long snout.

Ziqing looked at it, truly at a loss, not knowing what to do for a moment.

Seeing that Ziqing still wasn’t smiling, the bear let out a few more soft whines, cautiously nuzzling at her belly, as if trying to tell her that all of this had been prepared for the baby.

“A child!”

Ziqing murmured to herself, and the big foolish bear nodded frantically, not daring to get too close, only gently pressing against her.

“A child…”

Finally, Ziqing cautiously placed a hand on her belly, which had grown noticeably rounder. “My child…”

Seeing this, the big foolish bear backed away and nodded fiercely at Ziqing, over and over, without stopping.

Ziqing had no idea exactly what the big foolish bear meant by all this, but she knew one thing — the bear was overjoyed.

If even a bear could be happy for her, why should she still be so sorrowful?

She should be happy — she had a child now. Whatever else had happened, she couldn’t let sorrow be the way she welcomed this child into the world. What was there to be sorrowful about?

At the very least — at the very least, her child would have her, its mother!

To think, she herself hadn’t even had a mother, and hadn’t she still managed to survive just fine?

Gazing at everything so wonderful around her, Ziqing slowly began to smile. “A child… a child…”

She looked over at the big foolish bear, her eyes welling up with happy tears. “Big Bear, I’m going to have a child… I’m going to be a mother soon.”

Seeing Ziqing’s heartfelt smile at last, the big foolish bear immediately danced about with joy, waving its paws in delight. It loved seeing Ziqing smile — it just thought she looked especially beautiful when she did.

In all its long years in the poisonous-beast world, it had never once seen any poisonous beast smile quite so beautifully.

“Big Bear, thank you! Don’t worry, I will definitely carry this child and give birth to him, and then I’ll have him call you godfather, all right? Do you understand what a godfather means? It means someone he’ll recognize as a father figure — someone whose job is to protect his own father.”

“Big Bear, I don’t care — you’re being this good to him now, so from now on you’d better keep being good to him, and only him, forever.”

“Big Bear, do you understand? Why are you nodding away so foolishly? Ha ha!”

“Foolish bear, let’s make a deal — no more being this foolish from now on, understand? No more of it…”

As she spoke, Ziqing couldn’t help but let out a rueful laugh, gently rubbing the big foolish bear’s head.

Her smile carried not only happiness, but also an unmistakable, unshakable resolve!

She was absolutely going to give birth to this child!

She would absolutely ensure this child came safely, smoothly into the world!

Even if the child, too, was destined to be immune to all poisons, even if the child would be born bearing the unfortunate legacy of being an orphan of the isolated island — she would hold firm to this resolve!

Now, it wasn’t only for herself that she needed to uncover the mystery of her origins, to find her family and her people — now, there was also this little one to think of.

She had to be strong!

She had to find her way out of this place!

She… absolutely had to hold this child’s hand one day and ask that man to his face why he had done what he’d done!

Even if the answer she received left her in despair, she still had to ask.

So often, a woman’s strength doesn’t come from having a shoulder to lean on — it comes instead from having someone she needs to protect, someone who needs her.

Ziqing refused to dwell on it any further, unwilling to delay another moment.

She stood up, and once she was satisfied there was nothing seriously wrong with her body, she asked the big foolish bear to guide her out of the cave.

Those two special-grade poisonous beasts that could speak human words were undoubtedly intelligent creatures — sooner or later, they would return seeking revenge!

She couldn’t simply sit and wait to be attacked. She had to find her Wuzheng.

How fortunate she was — how fortunate that this quietly growing little one had managed to hold on through all those months of exhausting, relentless struggle!

She couldn’t help but marvel at this child’s resilience. Whether it was a boy or a girl, she thought, it would surely grow up to be every bit as strong-willed as she was.

But that didn’t mean she could afford to disregard the little one’s safety!

Now that she was with child, she could no longer be as reckless as before. Only the Wuzheng could truly help her now.

The Wuzheng could turn thirty percent of her strength into seventy percent of striking force — in her current situation, she needed it more than ever.

The one thing she was certain of was that the Wuzheng had fallen into this world together with her — if she was going to search for it, the best place to start was wherever the big foolish bear had originally found her.

But there was no way to explain any of this to the bear — after all, it was far too specific a matter, one that no beast, however perceptive, could ever grasp.

Regardless, she had to step out of this cave and see this world for what it truly was.

This world — the one she was absolutely determined to break free from.