After Becoming Pregnant With The Empress Cat's Cub - Chapter 44.1

“Didn’t you say losing control and showing your beast form is shameful and should get you disqualified? Now look at you all. I’ve taken photos of everyone. Later, I’ll print them out and hang them all over this hall!”

Hearing this, the people on the ground began to plead. “No…”

Lan Ye turned her lens toward Li Hu. Rin must have held back on her, as she only looked unwell but hadn’t shifted. “General, you set the rule that anyone who loses control must be withdrawn. Look at them now, they’ve all shown their beast forms. Should we disqualify all of them?”

Li Hu’s brow furrowed. “This is intentional! It’s not that they lost control on their own!”

Lan Ye snorted. “Then ask your precious daughter if Hakimi’s loss of control was ‘intentional’.”

Li Sha was about to say “yes” when she heard Lan Ye’s threat: “People who lie will never be able to turn their tails back!”

Li Sha realized her tail was out. She tried desperately to hide it under her skirt, but her clumsy paws were useless. She tried to insist that Hakimi’s incident was her own fault, but Lan Ye interrupted again.

“Liars also grow beast noses.” Lan Ye looked at Rin.

Ju Rin: …Is this really how spiritual power is used? But meeting those sparkling eyes, she sighed and released another wave of intimidating pressure.

Li Sha felt an itch on her nose. A surge of panic hit her. No! Please no! Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t stop the change.

Lan Ye was fast, snapping a photo before Li Sha could cover her face. It was magical, the nose became transparent and then shloop, it turned into a little cat nose. A dark grey kitten nose on a human face was quite a sight.

Li Sha screamed in collapse. Her beast nose had been seen by a human. “I-I didn’t lie!”

Lan Ye: “Was Hakimi’s spiritual power your doing?”

Li Sha shook her head frantically.

Lan Ye sighed. “What a lying bad baby. When I print these photos, I’ll enlarge your nose specifically. The posters will be at the entrance of the concert hall, one for every person who comes to watch.”

Li Sha stared at Lan Ye as if she were a monster. Her face went bloodless, her kitten nose looked dry, her ears went flat, and she burst into tears. “Mommy, Mommy…”

Lan Ye looked at her with disdain. And Li Sha had called Hakimi a loser? At least Hakimi didn’t cry for her mommy.

Li Hu was in pain, but seeing Li Sha’s breakdown, she forced herself to shield her daughter. “Rin, stop!”

Lan Ye looked at her. “Begging her is useless. You should beg me.”

Li Hu’s eyes trembled. She didn’t want to bow to this human, but hearing Li Sha’s heart-wrenching cries, she wavered.

Lan Ye looked at her. “Does it hurt to see your child being bullied?” She paused and looked toward the corner. “Hakimi has a mother, too…”

Li Hu looked confused for a moment, then followed Lan Ye’s gaze to the tear-stained, bedraggled beastman in the corner. Her eyes flickered with a hint of unease. Li Sha had been a bit excessive… but if that beastman had just withdrawn, Li Sha wouldn’t have done so much…

However, now was not the time for that. Li Hu looked at Lan Ye, ready to swallow her pride and apologize for Li Sha.

But the human spoke first. “The pure gold trophy we agreed on, the one with rubies. Don’t forget it.”

Li Hu froze. What? Back to the trophy? But she soon understood, the human was negotiating. “Fine.”

Lan Ye nodded. The “mental distress fee” for Hakimi was secured. An apology wasn’t necessary; it wouldn’t be sincere anyway. And if apologies worked, Si Qing wouldn’t need to be a cop.

Lan Ye elbowed Rin’s waist again. Rin looked down at the human, who hadn’t even turned around. She was getting very comfortable with those signals, as if she naturally expected Rin to understand and obey.

…She did understand. After a moment’s hesitation, she withdrew her spiritual pressure.

In the corner, Hakimi watched in a daze. Her tears fell silently when she heard Lan Ye say, “Hakimi has a mother, too.” She had never told Lan Ye that every time she was bullied and told her mother, her mother would only blame her for being useless. She had fantasized countless times about her mother protecting her, but it never happened. Her mother only told her to handle things herself and stop being a “loser.”

She had stopped expecting help. She just took the bullying and said nothing. Watching Lan Ye’s back, Hakimi felt a surge of courage she had never known. Her weak legs regained feeling, and she tried to stand up.

Lan Ye, satisfied with her photos, saw Hakimi fall. She rushed to help, but Rin stopped her. Lu Li stepped in without being asked. Since Lan Ye was pregnant, she would handle the heavy lifting.

She easily hoisted Hakimi up. Lan Ye squatted in front of the girl, stroking her head. Seeing her tears, Lan Ye assumed she was still upset about the beast form. “Look, everyone loses control. It’s no big deal, don’t be sad.”

Hakimi shook her head violently. She wasn’t sad; she was happy. Her head-shaking sent tears flying like water droplets, a few landing on Lan Ye’s face.

Lan Ye felt she might have underestimated how much this affected beastmen. To her, it was cute, it must be the societal indoctrination of this world. Like how some people in her world thought weighing over 100 pounds was a “disgrace” without any regard for health.

“Stop crying. Losing control isn’t a disgrace. I think it’s cute.” Lan Ye turned and pointed at a random person. “You. Is showing a beast paw embarrassing?”

The person, under Lan Ye’s warning gaze, shook their head frantically.

Lan Ye nodded, satisfied. “Is the paw cute?”

The person nodded again.

Lan Ye turned back to Hakimi. “See? Do you understand now?”

Hakimi looked blank. “What?”

Lan Ye sighed. She had overestimated Hakimi’s wits. She looked at Lu Li.

Lu Li’s eyes lit up. “I get it!” She raised her hand, a habit from her bilingual school where non-transformed cats would raise paws to speak. Lan Ye nodded for her to answer.

Lu Li said confidently, “Don’t let other people’s evaluations affect you! It’s not shameful just because they say so, and it’s not cute just because they say so!”

Lan Ye was impressed. Lu Li was quick! But then Lu Li continued: “Because the person saying it might be being forced to say it!”

Lan Ye: …I take it back. Loudness has no correlation with brain capacity.

She turned to Rin, encouraging her to weigh in. Everyone on stage looked at Ju Rin, curious. What did the human mean?

Ju Rin: …Do they think this is a classroom? How did things turn into a lecture?

Meeting those encouraging eyes, the kind she’d only seen from her royal tutors before age five, she spoke.

“Lan Ye wants to tell you: do not fall into other people’s evaluation systems. Those are merely tools used by others to control you and achieve their own goals.”

Lan Ye clapped loudly. “As expected of the Princess!” She hadn’t thought that deeply; she just wanted to say that the words of unimportant people are like farts.

Rin: …Please stop the praise.

Since there was a more high-end answer, Lan Ye adopted it. “See? They say showing a beast form is shameful, then they make a rule that you have to withdraw if you show it. Then they use tricks to make you show it so they can force you out. In that situation, what should you do?”

Hakimi: “What should I do?”

Lan Ye didn’t expect an answer from her. She looked at Lu Li. Lu Li raised her hand again. “Don’t listen, don’t withdraw!”

Lan Ye thought that was okay, but not “high-end.” She looked at Rin.

Ju Rin: …I don’t want to answer. Why am I the backup option? Why wasn’t I asked first?

But Lan Ye’s gaze was so encouraging, as if saying it was okay to be wrong. Ju Rin found herself speaking.

“Change the rules.”

Lan Ye clapped again. “As expected of the Princess!”

Ju Rin’s ears warmed slightly. The praise was… okay.

The answer was great, but maybe not practical for Hakimi yet. Lan Ye patted Hakimi’s head. “The best way is to change the rules, but if you can’t yet, that’s okay. Just know it’s not your fault. Like today, even if you did have to withdraw because of a ridiculous rule, it’s not your problem. It’s the problem of the person who made the rule. They must be a bully, a senseless person with no empathy and no sense of aesthetics.”

Li Hu, who had just recovered, felt personally attacked again. She wanted to ask who exactly was “senseless and lacked aesthetics,” but her gut told her to stay quiet. The answer would only make things worse.

Hakimi looked into Lan Ye’s serious eyes, and her heart pounded. She felt something burning in her blood. Lan Ye was so amazing! She wanted to clap, but she realized she still had paws. Soft pads hitting each other made no sound.

Hakimi’s smile slumped. Everyone else had recovered, but she still couldn’t turn her paws back into hands.

Lan Ye noticed. She looked at the Princess, who had also squatted down. “Rin, can you help?”

Ju Rin looked at Lan Ye’s hand, which was gently stroking the “No. 1” girl’s head. She felt a pang of discomforts, he almost wanted to put her own head under that hand. She shouldn’t be touching other beastmen.

She reached out and covered Lan Ye’s hand with her own. Lan Ye felt a familiar warmth spreading from Rin’s palm.

Hakimi’s eyes widened as she felt a powerful spiritual force guiding her own chaotic energy. She looked down at her itching paws… they turned back!

She looked at the Princess in disbelief. So… powerful!

Rin didn’t look at her. She took Lan Ye’s hand and helped her stand up.

Looking up at the two figures standing side by side, Hakimi clenched her fists. Only a beastman as strong as the Princess is worthy of standing by Lan Ye! She wanted to become strong, too.

Lan Ye, seeing Hakimi’s paws return to hands, felt Rin’s power once again. It was incredible. This invisible spiritual power could make people suffer or make them whole. Rin did it all with such a calm, “master of the world” aura.

It was so charming!

Lan Ye’s heart raced. She gripped Rin’s hand, her eyes shining.

“You’re really driving me crazy, I want to kiss you so much!”

The onlookers: !

Li Sha’s spiritual power faltered again. This human was shameless! In front of everyone, she had such “filthy” thoughts about the Princess!

If Lan Ye knew, she would have patted her belly. They already had a baby, what was so surprising about a kiss?

Ju Rin looked into Lan Ye’s sparkling eyes. This person always spoke so hyperbolically…

Her ears felt hot. She felt a sensation similar to her dream last night, her body felt like it was moving beyond her conscious control. She reached out and tilted the human’s chin.

Under everyone’s stunned gazes, Ju Rin lifted Lan Ye’s chin slightly and leaned in toward those lips.

She was the one who was so “driven crazy” that she lost control and wanted to kiss her.