Xiao San swallowed hard as Su Qinglan turned her eyes to him.
Just a few minutes ago, everything had been completely fine. Xiao San had gathered all his siblings in a circle to play a harmless, fun game from an unknown domain: "Bird Fly, Animal Don't Fly!"
The rules were extremely simple:
Xiao San would shout the name of a creature or object. If it could fly in the sky, the cubs had to lift one paw high in the air. If it couldn't fly, they had to keep their paws flat on the ground.
To make things more exciting, Xiao San had proposed a tiny rule:
"Every time someone makes a mistake, they have to give me ONE shiny crystal core!"
The little cubs, being naive and eager to play, had thought this was a brilliant idea. They brought out their treasured little pouches, filled to the brim with beautiful, sparkling, colourful crystal cores given to them as gifts by their loving mother, fathers, grandfathers and grandmother.
At first, the game was pure joy.
