Werebeast Gongs CH 111 Father And Son Reunited
Lei Jin didn’t know why, but the sound of this child crying twisted his heart with an unbearable ache, making him long to hold the little one in his arms and soothe him. And in the end, that was exactly what he did.
Ever since accompanying Mingya to Chunji’s place to change his bandages a couple of days ago, Lei Jin had begun noticing something strange about himself. One of the signs was that he couldn’t control his ears, which kept perking up involuntarily, especially when filtering out the sounds of the child. Whenever he heard the child’s voice, his heart would feel at peace for the entire day. But if he didn’t, his mind would grow restless, unsettled. Lei Jin concluded that he must have lost his mind—perhaps losing his own child had made him overly sensitive to other people’s children, to the point of irrational longing. To test this theory, he deliberately wandered around the tribe for a while. Given the cold weather, no one was foolish enough to take their children out for a stroll. Yet, as luck would have it, he did come across a few. However, no matter how adorable, clever, or beautiful those children were—whether werebeasts or young females—none left a lasting impression on him.
It must be an illusion, Lei Jin kept telling himself. For the past two days, he had forced himself not to dwell on it. But today, the moment he heard the crying, his resolve crumbled. His mind was consumed with the desire to see this child who had so thoroughly disrupted his thoughts. If this continued, he feared he might develop some sort of unhealthy obsession—why else would he be so inexplicably fixated on Chunji’s child?
This should have been their first meeting, yet the child gave him an uncanny sense of familiarity—the soft, dark hair, the bright, lively green eyes—as if the child had always been a part of him, natural and intimate.
He had heard that Chunji had found this child while gathering herbs, and that the baby was barely three months old. No wonder he was so tiny, so delicate. Thanks to his prior experience with Bubbles, Lei Jin now held the child with practiced ease.
"Good baby, shhh, shhh," Lei Jin murmured, his mind blank except for these words as the child’s cries sent his heart into turmoil.
But the moment he spoke, the child only cried harder, as if someone had pinched him mercilessly. His breaths came in uneven gasps, coughing between sobs.
"Lei Jin, what are you doing in there?" Chunji called from the yard.
"I swear I didn’t do anything!" Lei Jin hastily defended himself to the window. He was innocent.
"Brother Chunji, is that your baby? Don’t worry, Lei Jin wouldn’t bully him." Though the pain from the medicine on his leg made Mingya gnaw at his own claws, he still found the breath to defend Lei Jin.
"I know. No one could love that child more than he does." Chunji’s tone was strangely subdued as he said this.
Mingya found the statement odd—why would Lei Jin be the one who loved Chunji’s child the most? But he didn’t dwell on it. Besides, his leg hurt too much to think deeply about anything.
"Baby, your throat’s going hoarse. Stop crying." Lei Jin’s heart ached helplessly, but he had no idea how to soothe the child. He turned to Chunji for help, only to be told to figure it out himself. Never in his life had Lei Jin felt so utterly at a loss.
Yet the baby showed him no mercy, continuing to wail.
"Shhh, good baby, don’t cry. Who are you crying for? Even your papa isn’t paying attention to you. Are you hungry?" The belated realization struck Lei Jin. Spotting a jug of warm milk fruit juice on the table, he managed to coax the child into a brief pause, feeding him a couple of sips before the baby refused more.
Tears and snot covered the little one’s face, but for once, Lei Jin didn’t mind the mess. Normally rough and careless, he now mustered every ounce of patience he had, wiping the child’s face with meticulous care. Seeing the baby clean and pretty again filled him with inexplicable pride. Unable to resist, he leaned down and planted two loud kisses on those chubby cheeks. And still he didn't forget to insist on his innocence.
"It’s not like I’m taking advantage of you," he reasoned shamelessly. "I fed you, so it’s only fair you repay me a little." Then, unable to help himself, he gently poked the baby’s soft cheeks, marveling at how wonderfully smooth and tender a child’s skin could be.
The baby seemed to realize this was playtime, waving tiny fists and giggling.
"No wonder people say a child’s mood changes as fast as the weather in June. So true."
After a while, the baby yawned, clearly ready for a nap. Lei Jin laid him down on the bed and settled beside him, thinking he’d just rest on the edge for a bit. Surely Chunji wouldn’t kick him out.
By the time Moya arrived to pick them up, only Mingya was in the yard. Chunji was busy in the kitchen, likely preparing lunch, but there was no sign of Lei Jin. After greeting Chunji and asking Mingya, Moya learned that Lei Jin had been in the room all morning without coming out.
When Moya stepped inside, he was met with a heartwarming scene—two heads resting close together, the figures on the bed, one large and one small, both fast asleep. Lei Jin lay on his side, one hand resting protectively over the baby’s swaddled form. Sunlight streamed through the window, bathing them in warmth, the harmony of the moment almost too precious to disturb.
Yet Moya’s nose stung with suppressed emotion. If their own child had lived, wouldn’t it have been just like this?
That lost child wasn’t just Lei Jin’s pain—it was a knot in all their hearts that would never fully loosen.
Lei Jin was distracted during lunch. When Moya had woken him to leave, the baby had stirred too, tiny fists clutching his clothes as he cried pitifully. Normally averse to trouble, Lei Jin had nearly blurted out a request to Chunji—Let me take care of him for a couple of days. But seeing Chunji’s somber expression, he held back. After all, this wasn’t his child. He had no right to make such a request.
Xiya glanced between Lei Jin and the silent Moya, unsure what had happened. It wasn’t the time to ask, so he simply focused on his meal.
"Whose child is this?" The old man in black emerged from the medicine room, eyeing the baby in Chunji’s arms—the same one who had been crying nonstop since that female left earlier.
"Mine." Chunji didn’t look up, still soothing the child.
"You think you can fool me? Do I look like I can’t tell whether you’ve given birth or not? Brat, do you take me for a senile old man?"
Chunji pressed his lips together stubbornly, refusing to answer.
"Not only have you never borne a child, you’ve never even taken jade mugwort, have you?" The old man sat heavily on a stool, sighing. "When I helped you escape that damned place back then, what did I tell you? To live a good life, find someone, and never go back. But ten years—ten years!" His finger trembled as he pointed at Chunji. "In all that time, you never took a liking to anyone?"
Who says I didn’t? But after waiting nearly a decade, that person never once turned to look at him.
"And now you’ve outdone yourself—stealing someone else’s child! What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I didn’t steal him. I found him." Chunji reflexively defended.
"Nonsense! Don’t tell me you didn’t know whose child this was. Even if you didn’t at first, after what happened this morning, how could you not know? Children of the werebeast tribes—whether male or female—have an instinctive bond with their papa. Babies especially can recognize their own bearer. That black-haired female and this child were clearly close. Don’t pretend you didn’t see it."
Chunji was his own apprentice, raised by his own hands. Of course he cared for him. But that didn’t mean he could let him commit such a grave mistake, tearing a family apart.
"Master is right. It’s his child." After a long silence, Chunji finally admitted, watching the now sleeping baby in his arms.
"Then explain everything to me." Seeing Chunji’s admission, the old man’s expression softened slightly beneath his black hood.
The tribe knew Chunji was a skilled healer, but few were aware of one area where he was utterly inept—pregnancy and childbirth. Back when his master had taught him, Chunji had harbored an instinctive aversion to the subject, learning only half-heartedly. Fortunately, the tribe had dedicated physicians like Qing Qiao, and given Chunji’s already questionable reputation, no pregnant females sought him out anyway. He had been perfectly content with that arrangement.
So when Lei Jin had been pregnant, Chunji hadn’t hidden it—he simply hadn’t known.
It wasn’t until he encountered the banyan fruit during a herb-gathering trip that he recalled Lei Jin’s unusual condition at the time. If Lei Jin had been carrying a child, the acupuncture he’d administered would have directed the herb’s effects onto the baby. The dosage, negligible for an adult, could be devastating for a fetus—slowing its heartbeat, even inducing a temporary death-like state. That was why, despite being months along, Lei Jin had never sensed the child’s presence.
It had nothing to do with Qing Qiao’s initial diagnosis. Qing Qiao hadn’t known about the banyan fruit, so his assessment had been speculative at best.
Realizing this, Chunji had rushed back. By sheer chance, he had witnessed Moya placing the child on the hillside. Without hesitation, he had taken the baby.
The child had woken that very night, but between premature birth and the herb’s lingering effects, he was dangerously frail. For over two months, Chunji had mixed finely ground herbs into his milk fruit juice. There were moments when the baby’s suffering grew unbearable, and Chunji had nearly confessed everything to Lei Jin. But each time, he held back—not out of cowardice, but because he couldn’t bear to make Lei Jin lose the same child twice.
That kind of heartbreak… once was enough.
Especially after seeing Lei Jin lying pale and lifeless in bed that day, Chunji had wanted to strangle himself.
"If the child recovers, will you return him to them?" The old man asked, his voice steady, not commenting on anything else.
After a pause, Chunji nodded firmly. "I will."
That had always been the plan—to heal the child and return him safely. He wanted to make up for his mistake.
"Then go call them back now. Tell them the truth." The old man wouldn’t give Chunji room for second thoughts. Though they hadn’t seen each other in ten years, he knew his apprentice too well. That reluctance in his eyes? He still couldn’t let go.
"Master… are you certain you can heal Baby?" Chunji bit his lip, needing this one last confirmation. If the answer was yes, he would truly… let go.
The old man glared. "What do you think I’ve been locked in the medicine room doing all this time? You think I'm like you?"
Chunji huffed. "Now that’s the master I remember. Quit pretending to be all righteous."
"You brat, complaining about me under your breath again?"
"Nooo." Chunji pouted childishly, but inwardly, he felt a strange warmth. In the decade since the old man had left, no one had scolded him like this. As a child, he’d hated these lectures. Now, hearing them again… it wasn’t so bad.
Maybe it was time to straighten out his life—take care of this old man, live simply. No one else. Just the two of them.
"Let me keep him for two more days. After that… I’ll personally return Baby to Lei Jin."
The old man nodded. For all his recklessness, once Chunji gave his word, he kept it.
"Baby, soon, you’ll be back with your papa. Will you still remember me?" Chunji murmured that night, pacing the room with the awake baby in his arms. Then he laughed at himself. "You’re too young. You’ll forget quickly. But… maybe that’s for the best."
If he claimed to have no selfish feelings for this child, he’d be lying. The moment those green eyes had first opened, staring up at him, a traitorous thought had flickered through his mind—what if Lei Jin never knew this child existed?
After all, even without this one, Lei Jin could have others.
But after coming back to his senses, the thought had horrified him.
"Baby, when you go home… Roger’s going to have a heart attack seeing your eyes, huh?" The idea lightened his mood slightly. Rationally, he wanted to get along with Roger. But emotions weren’t so easily untangled.
The next day, Lei Jin returned with Mingya for another bandage change. He had meant to restrain himself, but his heart kept drifting toward the inner room. Ah, well. I’ve never been one for shame anyway.
Just as he opened his mouth to ask after the baby, Chunji spoke first.
"I’m busy here. Since you’ve got nothing to do, go watch the child."
Lei Jin didn’t need to be told twice. In a flash, he was inside, and soon, laughter spilled from the room.
Chunji listened for a moment, then snorted. "Who cares? He’s been keeping me up all night. Good riddance—I’ll finally get some sleep."
"Brother Chunji, what are you mumbling about?" Mingya asked. Also, you’re squeezing my injured leg.
"How about I gift you a son? Want one?" Chunji released his grip, teasing.
"No." Mingya’s furry face was dead serious. Then, brightening, he added with a sweet smile, "Mingya only wants babies born by Lei Jin! If Lei Jin doesn’t want to, then Mingya will have his baby!"
Chunji stared speechless. This kid… just how naïve is he? Still believing that werebeats can bear children.
But that kind of unwavering devotion… once Mingya set his heart on someone, it was for life.
Lei Jin really made one envious—to have three werebeasts so utterly devoted to him.
So Lei Jin, this is fate’s way of punishing you. You’ll never go back. You’re stuck here, living as a female, bearing children.
The thought eased something in Chunji’s chest.
By tomorrow… he’ll truly be ready to let go.
But when the moment truly came, Chunji’s hands trembled as he held the child. The old man placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Thank you, Master," Chunji whispered.
Winter had passed, but the air remained chilly. The courtyard, once vibrant with summer blooms, now held only a few evergreen shrubs, their stubborn leaves clinging to life.
"Lei Jin." Chunji called out just as Lei Jin was helping Mingya climb onto Xiya’s back.
"What’s up? Did your baby miss me again? Can’t be helped—I’m just too charming. Irresistible to all ages." Lei Jin sauntered over, playfully nibbling the baby’s fist. "Uncle will visit tomorrow, okay? Be good for your papa."
Chunji took a deep breath. "He’s not my child."
"Oh? Then whose is he—mine?" Lei Jin raised a brow, joking.
That solemn look… as if he’s serious. But Chunji doted on this child like it was his own. Lei Jin wasn’t blind.
"He is yours."
Xiya and Mingya both turned to stare.
Lei Jin froze, then scoffed. "Not funny."
"He’s the child you carried for seven months. The one you thought had died. I found him on the hillside, in the snow. Pei Ning can vouch for it." Pei Ning was the werebeast who accompanied him while herb gathering.
Lei Jin’s expression became solemn, his tone still calm. "You’re telling the truth?"
Chunji met his gaze steadily. "Yes."