Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Xi City’s winters were long, but after TombSweeping Day, the temperature was gradually getting warmer.

Bai Huo’s cleaning service schedule wentfrom once a week, to three times a week, and finally to once a day … Bai Huo walkedout of the bathroom, sneezed loudly, and grabbed the little dragon cub from offthe newly purchased blanket. Sure enough, he found his electric shaver concealedunderneath.

“Lin Xi …” The corner of BaiHuo’s mouth twitched.

The little dragon cub blushed, and apologizedin a tender voice, “I’m sorry …”

Bai Huo shook him lightly, and fine fur rained down like dandelion fluff.

As soon as spring arrived, the littledragon cub had begun shedding. His whole body was like a poor-quality mop,wherever he went, up and down the house, from the bathroom to the living room,from the kitchen to the porch, everywhere carried a mark left by this guy. BaiHuo couldn’t understand, how could such a small child have so much fur to drop?

Fur loss usually meant the end of the three-monthcub stage and official entry into the soft scale stage. The dragon cub wouldsoon have his fuzzy fur replaced with beautiful shiny feathers. At the sametime, small and fragile scales would gradually grow under the protection of thefeathers.

Thinking of this, Bai Huo was very muchlooking forward to the child’s new coat.

“Didn’t I say to just leave italone,” Bai Huo picked off the fluff that was stuck to the little dragoncub’s mouth, and patiently taught, “Let it fall off by itself. Why did youshave it? If you shave your tender skin, what will you do when your scalesdon’t grow out correctly?”

The little dragon cub drooped his headdown: “Your, nose, red.”

Bai Huo rubbed his nose, unable to help feelingstunned.

The little dragon cub’s language organizationsystem wasn’t particularly precise. Sometimes when speaking, the words wouldjump out one by one. Bai Huo interacted with him day and night, it turns outthat the child had noticed his red nose and constant sneezing, so he thought tosteal the razor and shave his fluff off all at once. This was so Bai Huo wouldn’tbe made uncomfortable by his gradual shedding.

“Little cub,” Bai Huo was amused,“You’re so considerate.”

While saying this, Bai Huo picked up thenew razor that he’d bought last month and his smile stiffened.

The brand-new three rotating blades wereall entangled with smoky gray fluff. Bai Huo gently pulled, and the brutalized razorstopped whirling. With Bai Huo’s electronic incompetence, this shaver wasdefinitely unrepairable. He could send it in for warranty, but he couldn’texplain the ins and outs of this fur. They might run into someone whooverthinks, putting the little dragon cub in danger of exposure.

In summary, this thing was scrapped.

The culprit didn’t even realize it, afterhearing Bai Huo praise him, he shyly buried his face in the blanket. In thesun, his red ears flicked sharply, then he cautiously glanced up at Bai Huo androlled over onto his back, revealing his soft belly.

His little face was simply saying, won’t Dadrub my belly.

After such a long time, Bai Huo wasstarting to recognize some of the child’s small habits, such as, whenever hewanted something but was too embarrassed to ask, his ears and tail would twitch,his thoughts very easy to guess.

“Okay …” Bai Huo instantlyforgot about the expensive razor and smiled indulgently, then bent over to rubhis belly.

The little dragon cub felt very comfortable,he narrowed his eyes, and his tail swayed from side to side, humming in satisfaction.

This scene of the father and son’s happyfamily life didn’t attract the fat bird’s ire. The arrogant bird had been a bitbusy recently.

The weather was getting warmer. Who knewwhere it came from, but for these past two days, a Hwamei bird has been perchingon the balcony. The fat bird saw the Hwamei girl’s large wings and her aloof eyes,she didn’t even eat the garlic prawns that Bai Huo had bought for him, and flewoff into the forest to catch a fatty caterpillar, planning to present it to thelittle Hwamei.

It’s a pity that she wasn’t easilyimpressed. She only flew over every day like clock-work, and after eating thebug, she flew away without a backward glance.

Bai Huo mocked the fat bird for being friendzoned, but the arrogant bird firmly believed that as long as he diligentlydelivered the bugs, he could save this collapsing romance. Bai Huo was happy tosee his shameful look, and was too lazy to bother with him.

In the afternoon, while the sun was justright, Bai Huo put on his glasses and went for a stroll, letting the little cubget some fresh air.

His glasses were equipped with photosensitivelenses. Under the sun, the originally transparent lenses changed color, andthey now looked more like a pair of sunglasses, very trendy.

The icy lake had long since melted, shimmeringin the spring breeze.

“Splash”, soon after approachingthe lake, the little dragon cub plunged into the water, disappearing instantly likea nimble fish.

With a straw in his mouth, Bai Huo sat on atree stump and read a kindergarten admission brochure, the fat bird contentedlycombing his feathers on top of his head.

As his body gradually developed, the littledragon cub’s racial superiority became increasingly prominent. He didn’t needto be taught at all; he’d learned to swim by himself. When Bai Huo saw him jumpinto the lake for the first time, he was so frightened that he’d immediatelyjumped in after him. But he wasn’t a purebred water dragon after all, he hadlimited swimming abilities. Before he could locate the cub, he’d accidentallyswallowed water and almost drowned. He sensed that someone was dragging him byhis shoulder, and when Bai Huo turned to look, he saw the little dragon cubholding a big fish in his mouth, hurriedly pulling him towards the surface.

After coming ashore, the little dragon cubspit out the fish and anxiously rubbed Bai Huo’s wet face with his horns. BaiHuo rubbed his head to indicate that he was okay, realizing that the little cubhad just jumped in to catch fish.

The calm surface of the lake was broken,and the little dragon cub swam ashore, tossing three lively catfish to theground, then he darted towards Bai Huo while shaking the water droplets off hisbody.

“Oh,” Bai Huo was surrounded by fur,he patted the cub’s back with a smile, praising, “Awesome, you brought Dad’sdinner too.”

The little dragon cub didn’t have muchexpression on his face, but the tip of his ears unconsciously twitched. He climbedinto Bai Huo’s arms and curiously looked towards the brochure.

Bai Huo straightforwardly hugged him.Although the little dragon cub could already speak, Bai Huo noticed that thechild seemed to be taciturn by nature. If it wasn’t necessary, he preferred touse body language to express his needs.

“Human kindergartens are full ofchildren the same size as you. There’s toys, playgrounds, and teachers. Wouldyou like to go?” Bai Huo probed.

The little dragon cub was puzzled, he lookedup at Bai Huo and asked in a soft voice, “Why?”

As soon as the fat bird heard the words ‘kindergarten’,he excitedly flew up and bounced around on the branches, as if he could alreadysee a future of less competition for food at home.

Why? Of course, it was to cultivate thechild’s collective consciousness, to ease future integration into human civilizationwithout incident. But it was a little too early to explain this to the littledragon cub, with the brainpower of a three-year-old child, this would be mostlyincomprehensible.

Just as he was brainstorming a suitablereason to make the little dragon cub accept kindergarten, the little dragon cubread the page about food and drink in the brochure, then pointed something outwith his unique tender tone, saying gravely: “No fish.”

Bai Huo glanced at it, there really was nofish. Fish bones could easily get stuck in the throat. Most kindergartens didn’tserve fish to children for safety reasons. This was a devastating blow to thefish-loving little dragon cub.

He flipped the pamphlet over, and the littledragon’s eyes lit up again.

This page was about the kindergarten’slocation. It said that there was a small lake behind it, and described howbeautiful the scenery was. Looking at the little dragon’s glittering eyes, BaiHuo immediately knew what he was thinking, not knowing whether to laugh or cry,he closed the brochure: “Listen, you can’t jump into the lake and catchfish when Dad isn’t around.”

The little dragon cub tilted his head athim: “Why?”

Children like to ask why; Bai Huo felt thathis ‘bullshitting’ skills had grown in a linear fashion. The little dragon cubalready had the ability to discern a human’s breath around him. He wasn’t worriedthat the child would be discovered by humans when he went to catch fish. He wasworried about the ubiquitous surveillance cameras. When adult dragons go tounfamiliar places, they needed to carefully screen the area before theytransformed into dragons. Such a small cub, it’d be too easy for him to slipup. Without an adult present to help cover him, Bai Huo would truly feel uneasy.

After thinking about it, Bai Huo pretendedto be disappointed: “Because Dad can’t eat it ah. Dad will be sad if he can’teat it.”

The little dragon cub blinked, then nodded.Right, he couldn’t eat without sharing with his Dad.

An off-road vehicle was driving up adistant road. The little dragon cub sensitively looked over and instantlytransformed into his human shape. Upon seeing this, the fat bird on the branchalso quietly closed his eyes, pretending to doze.

After the cub stage, spiritual power wouldsurge in the soft-scale stage, the little dragon cub could now put away his tailand horns after taking human form. At first glance, he was no different from anordinary three-year-old child.

“Bai Huo.” Ji Bei got out of thecar and closed the door, heading towards him.

“Officer Ji, long time no see.” BaiHuo squinted at him and said hello, incidentally glancing at the car behind him.

“Don’t look, Captain Luo left for amission.” Ji Bei looked relieved. He looked up at the little dragon cub,and exclaimed in surprise, “He’s gotten so big.”

“Say hi to Uncle Ji.” Bai Huopatted the little dragon’s head.

“Uncle Ji.” The little dragon cubsaid, barely audible, then he buried his head in Bai Huo’s arms.

“Ah,” Ji Bei said aloud, patting down hisbody, then he pulled out a half bar of dark chocolate from his pocket. Luo WenXu had given it to him before leaving last night. He handed it over, a little embarrassed:“Uh, have some chocolate. Forgive my rudeness, I forgot to bring you agift. “

When the fat bird heard the words ‘chocolate’,he suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes focused.

The little dragon cub looked up curiously, seeingBai Huo not objecting, he reached out to take it. He didn’t touch thechocolate, rather, he was attracted to the glittering tin foil packaging, and startedfiddling with it.

“Do you dragons grow this quickly?”Ji Bei was impressed.

“Only for the first three months, it’sabout twelve times a human’s growth rate,” Bai Huo smiled and waved hishand. “It’s the same rate afterward. Sometimes, if the growth into adulthoodisn’t going well, it’ll take even longer than you humans.”

Since Ji Bei got to know Bai Huo, hiscognition was refreshed almost every day. Trying to digest the concept of“twelve times”, he looked at the little dragon cub’s cheeks and nodded,“He seems to be a bit thinner.”

“He hasn’t lost weight, he’s justshedding his fur,” speaking of this, Bai Huo was distressed. “Cub, letuncle take a look.”

At first, the little dragon cub felt a littleembarrassed. Seeing Bai Huo’s seemingly encouraging look, he gradually changed intohis dragon form and shook his fur, trying to make himself look more fluffy.

“He’s almost bald.” Ji Bei was unapologeticallyblunt.

The little dragon’s face immediately turnedblack. He changed back, burying his face in Bai Huo’s chest.

Bai Huo burst into laughter, hugging hisson, he put him on the ground, gesturing for him to go play on his own. Watchinghim running away with a pout, his smile was full of expectation: “But soon,his new feathers will come out. He’s my son, he’ll certainly be impressive.”

The ‘impressive’ bald little dragon cub slappedaround the three unlucky catfish; the chocolate bar long forgotten. The fatbird had waited for this moment, he swooped down and nimbly captured the chocolatefrom overhead.

Ji Bei jumped in surprise. He stared at thefat bird, and the latter glared at him, suddenly saying: “What’re youlooking at? It’s mine now!”

Ji Bei was stunned: “Is this also a dragon?”

“No,” Bai Huo said decisively.“He’s a chicken!”

Since there were more people to feed, thelittle dragon cub jumped into the water again and caught a few more big fish. BaiHuo picked up the firewood and started a fire next to the water. He took outthe spices and vegetables they’d brought, and started roasting the fish.

Ji Bei sat next to the fire, watching thelittle dragon cub fiercely pressing the catfish to the ground and biting themwith his sharp canines, he couldn’t help but shiver. He looked away, only tosee Bai Huo sporting a joyful fatherly smile, completely approving. Ji Bei hadno choice but to swallow back the question, “Is it okay for such a smallchild to be so violent?”

The fish was cleaned and marinated withginger flakes and sauce, brushed with oil, and placed on the grill. After a fewmoments, the fragrance spread out. Bai Huo haphazardly brushed the sauce, wastingmore than half. Ji Bei couldn’t look at it anymore, and forcibly took over:“I’ll do it.”

The little dragon cub and the fat birdwaited side by side, staring at the grilled fish on the rack and drooling.

Ji Bei skillfully flipped the fish andbrushed the sauce, chuckling, “The children seem to be very hungry.”

Bai Huo was too lazy to explain that thefat bird was already an 80-year-old elder, making vague sounds of agreement.

“Are all you dragons so fierce whenyou’re young?” Ji Bei grilled the fish, looking at the tooth marks in thefish, he couldn’t help but ask.

“Fierce?” Bai Huo stretched hisneck, twisting his head. “On the contrary, baby dragons are super weak,even weaker than humans.”

“But…”

In fact, Bai Huo also had some doubts,explaining: “Dragons are divided into three major types: water dragons,earth dragons, and fire dragons. Like the different human races, they all havetheir own strengths and weaknesses.”

Ji Bei: “Ohhh…So what type is thischild?”

“He should be a water dragon.”

Ji Bei noticed that Bai Huo used the word“should” and couldn’t help but ask: “Is the race not obvious whenthey’re babies?”

Bai Huo propped his chin on his hand, notsure how to answer this question.

In fact, the differences between dragon cubs,whether it was body type, coat color, or temperament, it was very obvious from birth.Generally, there was no such thing as being unable to classify.

Water dragons loved water and feared fire, theyusually had anti-social and cold personalities, and their scales were mostlyblue, green and other cold colors. Because dragon medicines mostly grew underwater, their innate advantages made water dragons more likely to go intomedical related professions; they were the indispensable medical unit.

Earth dragons loved mountains and rivers, theyhad large bodies and thick tails, but slow speed, low flexibility, and wereonly barely tolerant of water and fire. Most of them had meek personalities,and their scales were commonly subdued colors such as black and gray. Becausethey’re very mild, they’ve had few internal conflicts, and have the strongestreproductive ability among the three major races. Relatively speaking, the earthdragons had the most members.

The remaining fire dragons, as the name implies,were born with tongues that could spit fire. Although their scales were ofaverage hardness, they could withstand high temperatures, even surviving insidea volcano. They had crafty personalities and were good at disguise. They belongedto the typical hard-to-get-along-with elite troops. They had short tails and longnecks, were averse to water, and their scales came in mostly warm colors suchas red and orange.

Of course, this was a summary of the threemajor types of dragons in the primitive period. After entering human society,most dragon characteristics have been well suppressed after acquiring educationand civilization. At least on the surface, everyone was an upstanding dragoncitizen.

Dragons generally only mate intra-racially.Even after entering human society, marriage between different ethnic groups wasvery rare. One root cause was related to the education the dragon clan members receivedat an early age, the other was that interracial mating had a high rate ofdeformity in the offspring, making most people hesitate.

When the little dragon was born, Bai Huoinitially judged that he was a baby water dragon, but as the child grew older, BaiHuo’s doubts grew stronger. Indeed, compared to the usual baby water dragons,this child was too aggressive. He confronted the mighty Rock Wyrms just threedays after he was born, yet he never showed fear. And three months after beingborn, he could already dive into water to hunt fish. Even a baby fire dragonwould not be able to achieve such things.

The little dragon cub waited for a longtime, but the fish were still not cooked. He grumbled and ran into Bai Huo’sarms, saying in a tender voice: “Hungry.”

“No, you can’t eat raw fish.” BaiHuo immediately knew what he was thinking.

The little dragon cub sniffed, but beforehe could speak again, Bai Huo cut off his escape route with a smirk:“Half-cooked also counts as raw.”

Bai Huo, a loving father with principlesthat he wouldn’t tolerate being questioned.

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T/N:

This volume was easier to translate in someways, and harder in others. I’ve definitely felt the limits of MTL and dictionaries.The dictionary can’t teach you how to play mahjong lol. Thank God the internetexists. A lot of this was translated and edited on no sleep, so forgive anymistakes. Enjoy!