Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off - Chapter 287

Chapter 287: Chapter 287: Stove faints from Embarrassment
Stove was a very competitive plant. Seeing his “wife” swoon over Su Qinglan’s green energy made his leaves curl with a desperate need to prove himself.

He didn’t want to be just the powerful one or the plant who brought roasted meat; he wanted to be a romantic provider of the Great Green Light too!

He straightened his main stem, puffed out his chest, and began to concentrate with every fiber of his cellulose.

His leaves started to tremble, and a low, grunting sound vibrated through his vines. He was digging deep into his core, trying to mimic the way Su Qinglan moved her energy.

The little flower plant watched him with wide, curious petals. “Is the Monster Plant actually going to do something spiritual?” she wondered, leaning forward slightly.

After a long minute of intense shivering, a tiny, flickering spark of green light finally appeared on the very tip of Stove’s topmost leaf. It was small…about the size of a grain of sand, but it was definitely there!

The flower plant’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Energy!” She reached out her tiny leaves, mouth open to absorb the little snack.

But Stove had overcalculated. Just as the flower plant’s leaf touched the spark, Stove’s entire body gave a violent shudder. The little ball of light flickered once and went poof into a tiny puff of smoke.

Stove’s leaves immediately turned limp and pale.

His “eyes” rolled back into his stem, and with a dramatic, hollow thump, he fell face-first onto the wooden floor, completely passed out from the sheer exhaustion of trying to use his brain for magic.

The little flower plant stood there, frozen. She looked at the slumped, unconscious stove, which was supposed to be her protector, and then she slowly looked up at Su Qinglan.

“I don’t know him,” she seemed to signal, her leaves drooping in secondhand embarrassment.

“I’ve never seen this idiot plant before in my life. Please don’t associate me with this failure.”

She scurried across the floor as fast as her roots could carry her, hiding behind Su Qinglan’s thumb and pretending to be a very normal, inanimate decoration.

Su Qinglan was so stunned by the display that she clutched her stomach and laughed until tears pricked her eyes.

“Oh, Stove! You overachiever! You can’t just conjure energy because you’re jealous!”

Just then, the heavy footsteps of Han Jue echoed as he entered the room. He stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the scene: Su Qinglan was doubled over laughing, a strange, tiny flower was hiding behind her hand, and Stove was sprawled out on the floor like a discarded weed.

“What happened here?” Han Jue asked, his voice deep and confused. “Rong Ye told me the plant had brought home a ‘companion,’ but he didn’t mention he had worked himself to death.”

Han Jue leaned over the limp, motionless heap that was Stove. He nudged the plant’s main stem with his large hand, but the vines remained as floppy as wet noodles. Stove looked less like a mighty guardian and more like a pile of sun-dried weeds.

“He’s really out,” Han Jue grunted, his brow furrowed. “It’s a good thing that annoying fox is still outside with the laundry. If Rong Ye saw the ‘mighty Stove’ faint like a wilted cabbage, he’d never let the plant live it down.”

He turned his attention toward the tiny flower plant that was currently trying to burrow into the folds of Su Qinglan’s soft tunic. The wolf’s eyes narrowed slightly as he recalled the legends he had heard about her kind.

“Lan Lan,” Han Jue said, his voice dropping into a serious tone.

“If this truly is a spiritual plant, she can actually condense spiritual drops. They are the essence of the world’s energy. If you consume them, they would be incredibly beneficial for you and the cubs. It would ensure they are born with the strongest possible beast cores.”

At the mention of “spiritual drops,” the little flower plant went into a full-blown panic. She desperately tried to squeeze herself into the space between Su Qinglan’s arm and her ribs.

“NO! NO! NO!” she wailed in her tiny, flowery mind. “I knew it! The Big Wolf wants to squeeze me like a fruit! I’m only five years old! I haven’t even finished my first blooming cycle! If I condense a drop now, I’ll shrivel up and turn into dust!”

She was so terrified that she started emitting a faint, high-pitched hum of distress, her petals turning a pale, sickly shade of white.

Su Qinglan felt the flower’s absolute terror radiating through her skin. She could practically hear the tiny, frantic heartbeat of the plant against her palm.

She immediately reached out and placed a protective hand over the flower, shielding her from Han Jue’s intense gaze.

“Han Jue, stop it,” she said firmly, her voice soft but laced with authority. “Don’t say things like that. Look at how much you’ve scared her.”

She gently stroked the tiny leaves, sending a calming pulse of her own green energy into the plant.

“Don’t worry, little one. No one is going to make you do anything. You don’t have to condense a single drop. You can just stay here, eat your fill, and laze around in the sun. Consider this your new home.”

She looked up at Han Jue and shook her head, signaling him to keep quiet about it.

“I can feel her emotions, Han Jue. She’s far too young. She’s just a baby in the world of spiritual plants. Asking her to produce a spiritual drop right now would be like asking a newborn cub to hunt a mammoth. I won’t allow it. I don’t need her drops to be strong; I have you guys to protect me.”

The little flower plant gradually stopped shaking. The “Fat Female’s” words were like the most beautiful song she had ever heard.

“She’s… she’s protecting me? She doesn’t want to squeeze me? She wants me to be a lazy plant?” A wave of overwhelming relief washed over the flower. She snuggled closer to Su Qinglan, her leaves finally regaining their vibrant color. She decided right then and there that she would never leave this female’s side.

On the floor, Stove let out a long, pathetic sigh in his sleep, his leaves twitching as if he were dreaming of a world where he was the famous prince loved by all instead of the one being threatened with a stew pot.

Han Jue sighed, his expression softening as he looked at Su Qinglan’s protective stance.

“Fine. If you say she’s a baby, she’s a baby.” He said not wanting to push more.