Deep affection knows no origin; remember the polar bear's love for you.

Chapter 78 The Shackles on the Heart

Guo Mi's words silenced Caesar. After a moment of quiet, Caesar's anger remained undiminished:

"Even if I protect him, so what? I'm only doing it because we're from the same polar bear litter!"

He said angrily:

“You and Mom have always defended him, but how can a cowardly bear like him survive in the Arctic? Look at him, even when he's called a freak, he doesn't dare to fight back, and even thinks he's right…”

Before he could finish speaking, Guo Mi interrupted him loudly:
"But aren't you the one who's been criticizing him the most?!"

Upon hearing this, Caesar was speechless. He stared blankly at Guo Mi, then turned to look at Slok, opened his mouth, but said nothing.

Guo Mi continued:
"You're angry that he admitted to those insults, and you despise him for being cowardly and incompetent, afraid to fight back. But what's the result? Haven't you been the one using those words to insult him more all along?"

Her gaze was so sharp that Caesar dared not look directly at her.

“You are his closest brother, yet even you have always said such things about him. How can you blame him for accepting these infamy now?”

Seeing Caesar's stunned expression, Guo Mi calmed down and said in a low voice:

"When you got angry because of what that bear said, did you ever think that you were the one who said those things to Slok the most? The bear only said it once and you got so angry, but you say those things to Slok almost every day. Doesn't Slok feel wronged?!"

Caesar fell completely silent; he had nothing to say.

Slok, standing nearby, was also stunned. This was the first time a bear had defended him on his personality issue, but...

He glanced at Caesar, a bitter look in his eyes, and whispered cautiously:
"Guo Mi, forget it, I..."

Guo Mi didn't even turn her head:

"Shut up too!"

Slok was scared, Slok shut up, but actually Slok was still a little confused:

Weren't we supposed to be defending him? Now this is...

Guo Mi finally turned her head and glared at him fiercely, making the male bear shudder.

She walked up to Slok and looked down at him, saying:

"You think you're completely unscathed?"

Slok dared not utter a sound. The rather large bear appeared so small, pitiful, and helpless in front of Guo Mi, who was a size smaller than him.

Guo Mi sneered:
"What constitutes a disgrace to polar bears? What are the rules for determining disgrace?"

"Is it just a matter of whether they dare to swat their claws at their own kind? That's a very narrow way of judging."

"So, if that's the case, I'm a female bear and so much smaller than you all, and that stupid bear was beaten so badly he didn't even dare to fight back, then he's a disgrace too?!"

Caesar, listening nearby, found his thoughts wandering uncontrollably.

A male bear? Beaten up and too scared to retaliate?!

He already knew that Guo Mi had won the final victory, but he never expected that the process would be even more outrageous than he had imagined!
He took a deep look at Guo Mi. Was this still the round bear he remembered?
Are all the male bears outside so cowardly and weak now?

But the thought of Guo Mi's still fierce eyes from the beginning made Caesar's front paws, which had been bitten through by her before, start to ache again.

Thinking about it carefully, it makes a lot of sense. He wouldn't dare to mess with the round-faced bear, so it's understandable that the other male bears were beaten up like that.

Just ...

Caesar's gaze returned to the several gruesome wounds on Slok's side. Seeing the bear trembling in pain, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes, one that he himself was unaware of.

On the other side, Slok, upon hearing Guo Mi's words, didn't know how to refute them and could only stammer:
"This, this is different..."

Guo Mi's ears immediately twitched, and she asked loudly:

"What's different?!"

She continued:

"You mean he had the guts to use his claws first, but then didn't dare to retaliate?"

Slok's eyes lit up, and he was about to say "yes" when Guo Mi spoke again, her words like waves crashing against rocks, relentlessly pounding down on Slok's head:
"So, must the shame of polar bears be judged solely by whether they have the guts to use their claws? Can't other criteria be applied?"

"Isn't hunting allowed? Isn't swimming allowed?"

"I can only stay in the water for half an hour at most, while you can swim indefinitely, even from sunrise to sunset. Would that make me look bad?" This was a dangerous statement, and Slok dared not say it, repeatedly denying it:
"I didn't, I didn't say that, I never thought that way..."

Guo Mi didn't give him a chance. Suddenly, she thought of something and sneered:
"And Caesar, he can't even catch a single fish in an hour. He's a disgrace to the polar bears too?"

Slok was completely terrified at this point, so much so that he jumped up but then collapsed to the ground because he aggravated his wound.

"No, no, no, you can't say that..."

As he spoke, he thought of going to Caesar in an attempt to explain things clearly.

When I turned my gaze to the side, the place where Caesar should have been sitting was empty; there was no sign of Caesar anywhere.

Slok paused for a moment, then, unsurprised, gave a wry smile, completely relaxed, and lay down on the rock, utterly exhausted.

Does Caesar no longer want to see him?

Indeed, Caesar has done more than enough to deal with this bear; it's only natural that he wouldn't want to bother with him anymore.

Suddenly, a furry bear's butt sat down next to me.

Guo Mi suddenly quieted down for some reason and just stayed quietly by his side.

Slok lay on his side on the rock, his muscles pulling at his wounds, gasping for breath in pain. But the gasping for breath only exacerbated the pain, creating a vicious cycle.

He rested for a while before weakly saying:
"Guo Mi, thank you."

His voice suddenly trembled with tears:

“No bear has ever defended me on my personality issues, not even my mother has ever understood me. You are the only one, thank you…”

Guo Mi's eyes flickered slightly. Slok's mother, but didn't Caesar just say...?

For a fleeting moment, she had a question, but she quickly dismissed it, sighed softly, and softened her voice:
"Thank you too, thank you for protecting the little bear."

Slok's eyes widened slightly as he suddenly remembered, "Oh right, there's also the little bear!"
Where did the little bear go?!
He struggled to lift his head, his eyes searching everywhere.

As if in response to his search, two small heads suddenly peeked out from behind the distant boulder!
After receiving a nod of approval from Guo Mi, the little guy ran over one after the other.

Fishbone was the fastest this time!
This was the first time he had run ahead of the salmon. As soon as he got close, he snuggled up to Slok and said sadly:
"Slok, I'm sorry, it was all for us."

Slok used all his strength to lift his paw and patted the bear cub haphazardly, laughing as he said:
"It wasn't for you guys, I... I was trying to prove myself..."

As he spoke, he tilted his head to look at the wounds on his body, his tone somewhat helpless:
"However, the proof failed."

The little bear was already half-grown up and not so silly anymore. How could it not understand that he was comforting him? The two little furballs squeezed in front of Slok and lowered their heads to use their paws to tidy up his messy fur.

Guo Mi thoughtfully left them some space.

The two little ones listened to her and didn't get too close to Caesar, but obediently stayed near him.

It was Caesar who dragged the reindeer ashore and then found them by smell.

When they arrived, the male bear had already run away, but the chaotic smell and the scent of blood still alerted the two cubs, so they secretly hid nearby.

This is what Guo Mi taught them before: if they smell these unpleasant odors, the best thing to do is not to go near them.

In nature, sometimes knowing when to back down is a rare life-saving skill.

As for Slok...

Guo Mi's gaze fell on the male bear who was struggling to lift his head and talk to the two cubs.

The shackles of cowardice had been binding him for far too long, and could not be broken by a few words from her.

Although Slok now appears nonchalant and even manages to find joy in hardship, Guo Mi knows that the bear hidden beneath that exterior is still weeping.

This psychological barrier takes time to overcome.

Whether the lock will eventually be unlocked or become larger and heavier remains to be seen.

Guo Mi looked up at the sky; the polar day was still here, and the stars were nowhere to be seen.

Caesar has left, but the scent he left behind is very lingering, and she doesn't believe he has completely abandoned his brother Slok.

(End of this chapter)