Gu Ning took the pen from the little fox’s hand and wrote on the paper: We’re a family now.
Andrew had taken her original handwritten application, saying he would help her with the procedures. He would give her an official document later, but the original had to be kept with him.
Soon, the three of them would be officially registered.
Barto watched as she simply wrote on the paper about applying to make him and Cook her family members, and he instantly understood what she had done.
He stared at the word "family" for a long time, a wave of emotions churning inside him. It was an indescribable feeling.
Seeing the little fox remain silent, Gu Ning tapped his head with the pen, leaned forward, and tilted her head to look at him, teasing, "Are you crying?"
"Why would I cry?" Barto took a deep breath and looked up, flicking her forehead lightly. "Why didn’t you tell me?"
Gu Ning rubbed her forehead where he’d flicked her and wrote: If you don’t want to be my family, you can just think of it as mooching off the benefits.
Adult Female Beastmen had the right to form their own family unit and the right to kick members out directly. Of course, a male who was kicked out could appeal, but it was generally useless.
She had seen a video on PawPress where a male Beastman accused a female of kicking him out of her household. He’d only said a few words before he started wiping away tears and begging the female who kicked him out to take him back.
Such a big, sturdy guy, a snotty, blubbering mess—it was both pitiful and funny to watch.
The comments below his video were all either cursing him out or gloating over his misfortune.
Gu Ning didn’t really understand the family structures of male and female Beastmen in this world, so she just watched it for laughs.
It was only after researching the Beast Alliance’s laws that she learned that Female Beastmen were automatically registered at birth. They were the only ones who could be fully independent heads of a household, and upon reaching adulthood, they could choose any family members they wanted, regardless of clan or race.
Male Beastmen, on the other hand, had their registration tied either to their own clan or to a Female Beastman.
When a male devolved into a Mixed Breed, his registration would be canceled, and he would be removed from the normal Beastman social welfare system. Even if he wasn’t kicked out of his clan, the clan could only act as a guarantor to supervise and care for him.
A female, however, had the right to pull a Mixed Breed back into this system. It just required, as Andrew had said, the supervision of a third-party authority figure to handle the various situations caused by a Mixed Breed’s instability.
This family structure wasn’t that different from the small group units within the clans of Beastman society. It was really just a way to access social welfare.
However, based on the reactions of some male Beastmen online, it seemed they cared more about being registered under a female’s household than they did about their small family units from when they were young, or even their registration with a large clan.
At first, Gu Ning was worried that this might be the Beastman version of a "marriage system." After all, Beastmen had a clan-based society, and most she’d seen had a strong sense of clan identity, caring more about their own kind.
Some websites even had subdivisions for the same race. For example, on a community forum for the Dog Clan, Beastmen with sheepdog genes explicitly forbade huskies from entering their forums.
But she had learned a little from the laws. It seemed that females could freely choose males. Not a single law restricted a female’s "marriage"—in fact, the Beastman language didn’t even have a word for marriage.
As Gu Ning filled out the application form with a sense of relief, she also felt a little insecure.
She was technically an unregistered person. Even though she was a female, she wasn’t a real Beastman. The Beast Alliance had no information on her. Until she fully understood and integrated into Beastman society, it was better to be cautious.
"Who said I don’t want to?" Barto flicked Gu Ning’s head again. "I mean, you should have at least told me. What if you got scammed?"
’How could I get scammed?’ Gu Ning thought. ’Females aren’t bound by this system. If anything, I’m an unregistered person taking advantage of a female’s privileges.’
Barto seemed to read her mind and said, "Don’t think you’re getting away with something. Andrew definitely knows you have no personal genetic information on file with the Beast Alliance."
He hadn’t wanted to bring it up, afraid Gu Ning would overthink it, but the little secret between them was paper-thin.
It was the first time Barto had come so close to her true identity, and her heart skipped a small beat.
She suddenly realized that Barto rarely ever seriously asked about her origins. Whether it was her previous "Mixed Breed" identity or her current female one, he would at most mumble a thing or two.
She had thought that since Barto had been around Zone 19 for so long, he was probably worldly enough to have seen a female appear in a place like this before.
But now that he said this, she felt something was wrong.
Female Beastmen were so rare, how could one like her not have any genetic information on file with the Beast Alliance?
’Could it be...’
"This continent is much bigger than you think," Barto said. "There are plenty of people without personal genetic information."
Gu Ning: "...Barto."
Barto: "Hm?"
Gu Ning put her hands behind her back and asked, "Fingers... how many strips am I holding up?"
Barto couldn’t help but laugh. "What do you mean, ’strips?’ You just say ’how many.’ And how would I know?"
Gu Ning: "Just say it. Be honest."
’How does this little fox seem to have telepathy? He always knows what I’m thinking.’
Barto grabbed her hand, pulling it out from behind her back, and pinched two of her fingers. "See? Two."
Gu Ning said, frustrated, "Really? Other females like me?"
Barto automatically unscrambled her jumbled words in his head. "It’s true. Why would I lie to you? There’s a whole world out there, with skies and seas. The Beast Alliance was formed by land-based beasts. There are tons of people without personal genetic information."
After saying that, he asked, "You’re not a female from around here, are you?"
Gu Ning’s mouth fell slightly open. After a moment, she nodded honestly. "Yeah."
Barto: "So, you can’t expose your identity for now. Otherwise, it’ll be dangerous for you."
Gu Ning wrote on the paper: Do the Beastmen here discriminate against outside females?
Barto stared at her for a moment, thought about it, and said, "You could say that."
Gu Ning sucked in a breath. In that case, even as a female, her situation wasn’t much better than a Mixed Breed’s.
Seeing her troubled expression, Barto raised his eyebrows and asked, "Can you change into your beast form?"
Gu Ning shook her head.
Barto: "Do you have a tail?"
Gu Ning shook her head again.
Barto: "Can you make beast ears appear?"
Still shaking her head.
’I’m a human, a regular human. At most, I have some ancient monkey genes.’
But the Beastman language didn’t have a word for "human." They only had words for "person," or more accurately, "humanoid." She couldn’t very well say she was a monkey, and besides, monkeys had tails.
She still didn’t have a good grasp of the Beastman language and couldn’t express herself precisely to Barto. But he had already made things so clear that it didn’t matter what she said anymore.
The important thing was that the land-based beasts discriminated against outside females.
She could actually understand it. After all, even within the Beastman world, different kinds of dogs looked down on each other, let alone a Beastman from outside the Beast Alliance.
"If you can’t transform, you can’t transform."
Her answer was what Barto expected. He said, "Lots of Beastmen stay in their humanoid forms most of the time anyway."
Gu Ning: "Then, uh, why did you ask me?"
Barto: "There’s a difference between *not being able to* transform and *not wanting to*. I need to be clear on your situation so I know how to handle things in the future."
With that, he ran to a box in the corner, rummaged through it, and pulled out a pair of exquisitely crafted red beast ears, placing them on her head. "There, now you have them."