Chapter Thirty-Seven Successive Births

  There was still one more night before the Orion hunters arrived.

  The moon is still big tonight, indicating that tomorrow will be another good day. Apparently, the severe drought outside will continue, and it's already late autumn this year. It can be imagined that farmers have almost no harvest.

  Lin Bei looked up at the moon in the sky, sighed, and then turned his body to crawl outwards.

  Too far away, Lin Bei couldn't see it, so he could only take care of the present first. The most recent thing in front of him was that the mother leopard was about to give birth.

  Just two days ago, Lin Bei found that the mother jackal's emotions were very anxious. After returning to the tree hole, she would scratch the trunk with her paws and make a rustling sound. When walking, she was also more sluggish. Lin Bei guessed it was due to prepartum syndrome. Since he had already helped, he would take care of it until the end. He wanted the mother jackal to safely give birth to the little jackal. As for later, Lin Bei wouldn't bother with it anymore.

  Climbing to the tree hole of the mother jackal, Lin Bei was already very close, but the mother jackal didn't show any intention of coming out to look. Its vigilance had almost disappeared. Suddenly, Lin Bei heard a panting sound.

  He steadied his body, and Lin Bei's snake-like senses were rapidly taking in all the information around him. He then caught a whiff of faint blood scent and saw into the tree hole where the mother jackal was giving birth to her young, and had already given birth to one.

  "So soon?" Lin Bei was shocked, fortunately he came today, otherwise he would have missed it.

  Newborn jackal has no hair, smooth and shiny, and the whole body is wet, this is the amniotic fluid brought out from the mother's body. The mother stretches her tongue to lick her baby, she needs to lick off the amniotic fluid on the jackal's body to keep its breathing unobstructed.

  Normally this kind of thing is quite easy, but at times like these it becomes very difficult, because another little trouble has popped up.

  With great effort, the second little raccoon dog was born. The mother raccoon dog opened her mouth wide and panted rapidly, but the two little raccoon dogs were just the beginning - the mother's belly was still quite large, and this litter would have at least six or seven more.

  Lin Beiqiu quietly circled around the tree hole, scaring away some small wild beasts, not letting them startle the mother jackal who was giving birth, and then lay down there, quietly watching, at this time he could only watch.

  The third little jackal to come out was a small meat leg, which was slightly kicking. It could be seen that the mother jackal had some difficulty, although she had been raised for a period of time, but in the days without Lin Bei, the mother jackal must have been injured and her physical strength seemed to be insufficient.

  Ten minutes, twenty minutes, Lin Bei looked at the little jackal that had only slid out halfway, and Lin Bei was getting anxious. The little jackal's legs were no longer moving, and its body seemed to be turning blue.

  "Come on, big sister." Lin Bei anxiously cheered in his heart for the mother jackal, at this time he had already forgotten his disgust towards the jackal, only hoping that it could safely give birth to the child.

  Thirty minutes, forty minutes, the mother wolf's belly contracted and finally gave birth to the third little wolf. However, when Lin Bei saw this little wolf, his heart sank. The whole body was purple and blue, with no chest or abdomen, soft and mushy, it had already died of asphyxiation in the womb.

  Lin Beichan sighed, watching the mother jackal still licking the fetal fluid on the little jackal's body with her mouth. After a few licks, she seemed to have discovered the situation of the little jackal and let out a few mournful cries, filled with sorrow.

  "His belly is still quite big, what about the little wolf behind?" Lin Bei felt his heart racing with worry, but it was clear that Lin Bei still had no solution. At this time, if Lin Bei dared to go out, the mother wolf would probably be scared to death.

  The mother jackal looked at the two little jackals in front of her, although they had just been born, they instinctively leaned against the mother jackal's body, curled up into a ball, soft and delicate, not showing any ferocity at all. The mother jackal glanced at the third little jackal, its body was gradually stiffening, the mother jackal let out a low growl, suddenly bit down on this little jackal and started chewing.

  Witnessing this scene, Lin Bei almost jumped up, and this female jackal actually ate her own child!

  "Eat one's own children?" Lin Bei was shocked, almost thinking he had seen it wrong, but clearly Lin Bei's eyes were good enough, the mother jackal really ate the little jackal, along with bones and meat, with fresh blood at the corner of its mouth. Lin Bei wasn't unfamiliar with mother jackals eating meat, but this time he found it even more terrifying. Even tigers don't eat their own children, yet a mother jackal would eat her own kid.

  "Beasts are just beasts!" Lin Bei's anger was suppressed in his heart, and he didn't make a move, because he was afraid that if he couldn't hold back, he would slap the mother wolf to death.

  The fourth little jackal slowly emerged, this time relatively smoothly, as the mother jackal seemed to have regained her strength, and in less than twenty minutes, the fourth little jackal arrived in this world.

  "It seems that eating one's own children is really nourishing." Lin Bei said with some sarcasm, and then suddenly froze.

  "I was wrong, I was wrong. The mother jackal doesn't have to eat its own children, but because it has no strength left, so it has to use blood food to supplement its strength, and the dead child just happens to be blood food. The mother jackal eats the dead one, which can supplement a bit, otherwise the later children will not be born."

  Lin Bei's heart suddenly became complicated, from a human perspective, this behavior is no different from **, after all, whether the child is dead or alive, there is no use of the corpse, but if standing from the beast's point of view, using a dead cub to exchange for another cub's smooth birth, it is beneficial for the beast's reproduction, or this is simply the beast's instinct, the dead, regardless of whether it is one's own child or another beast's child, has only one function, that is food, sustenance for survival.

  Although he understood, Lin Bei still sighed a little. However, his hatred for the mother jackal was not as strong as before, because Lin Bei believed that if there were a few rabbits or wild chickens around the mother jackal at this time, or if the mother jackal had enough physical strength to give birth to the remaining cubs, she would not eat her own children either. This is the greatness of maternal love, and all living beings should have such great maternal love. The mother jackal simply chose the most suitable way for the time being.

  The fifth one, the sixth one, the seventh one, and finally the last little raccoon was born. After that, Lin Bei found that the mother raccoon's whole body hair was wet through, exhausted to the point of only panting heavily, but still insisted on using her tongue to lick the little raccoons clean.

  There were originally seven little foxes, but one died, so now there are six left. The sixth little fox has a red birthmark the size of a fingernail on its left cheek. Because of this birthmark, this little guy may be teased by his siblings, and I hope they can all get along lovingly.

  Lin Beiding watched as the six little jackals fell asleep one by one. They had just come into this world and were still unaware of its dangers. The mother jackal's belly finally shrunk down, and she would soon recover her strength. She wouldn't be like humans who sit out for a month after giving birth, because she needed sufficient food to maintain her physical strength and produce milk to nurture the next generation.

  He took a last look, then Lin Bei slowly backed away, making no sound, and circled around the surroundings once more to confirm there was no danger before leaving quickly.

  Although there was a small episode in the middle, Lin Bei was still satisfied with the final result. The six little cubs were born safely, and what Lin Bei did during this period of time was not in vain.

  When he returned to Longtan, it was almost 4 am. Lin Bei climbed up the wooden house, checked Didi and Qiqi's nest, everything was fine, just about to take a nap, a slight eggshell cracking sound rang out beside him, Lin Bei suddenly saw a small snake poking its head out of the cracked eggshell.

  The stepmother gave birth to a wolf cub, and the snake eggs Lin Bei picked up also started hatching. Autumn was indeed a season of harvest.