Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Two minutes later.

Besides the fire, the little dragon cub wasbiting into a half-cooked grilled fish fillet.

Bai Huo helped him wipe off the sauce onthe corner of his mouth, urging with an indulgent expression, “Eat slowly,don’t choke.”

Ji Bei was dumbfounded.

Hey ‘loving father’, what happened to yourprinciples? What about not being allowed to eat half-cooked meat? This was thefirst time Ji Bei saw someone backtrack so quickly. He looked at the littledragon cub and the fat bird thoroughly enjoying their meals, and decided to nottouch his share, leaving it for the two children.

“Eat up, at the rate they’re going,there won’t even be bones left over in a little while.” Bai Huo advised.

Ji Bei had a chronic illness, so hisappetite was as small as a cat. He shook his head, saying, “It’s allright, I’m not hungry. They’re growing children, let them eat a little extra.”

Bai Huo dug out the warm Qingke beer he’d buriedbesides the fire and handed him a small jar. Ji Bei smelled it and took a sip outof curiosity, then he immediately coughed: “Spicy.”

Bai Huo laughed: “Officer Ji doesn’tdrink beer often?”

“I don’t drink.” Ji Bei coughedtwice, his cheeks flushing. “There’s so much work to be done at the office,I must stay alert 24/7.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is. But don’tworry, this beer isn’t very strong, you’ll get used to it after a few sips. Ittastes good, and it’s very refreshing.” Bai Huo seemed a bit regretfulabout not being able to sell the product.

He glanced at the little dragon cub, thechild was tearing off a piece of meat from the fish’s tail, raising his head togulp it down in whole, his movements were very bold. After entering the soft-scalestage, the little dragon cub’s appetite grew significantly larger, and he nolonger ate in small bites like before, gradually exposing his fierce dragon instincts.

It’s a pity that the child couldn’t drink, BaiHuo thought, feeling lonely. He’d been drinking by himself for so many years,no one willing to accompany him.

The two men were slender types, especially BaiHuo. Ji Bei was well dressed, but Bai Huo just wore a thin shirt, his sleeves rolledup to his elbows. There was a slight breeze over the lake. In the fire’s light,the outline of Bai Huo’s face was extremely soft. From the neck down, his skinwas so white it was almost transparent. A sexy collarbone was hidden under theslightly messy white shirt. He narrowed his eyes and lifted the beer bottle, exudinga languid and charming atmosphere.

The little dragon cub and the fat bird battledfor the last fish, Bai Huo was completely relaxed, obviously not intending to mediate.He had on a leisurely expression of watching a cockfight.

In the end, Ji Bei couldn’t stand it, hehelped them split the fish in half: “Half each, play nice.”

Although dragons could change shape, it stillconsumed their spiritual power. As a cub with limited spiritual power, it was muchmore comfortable for the little dragon to keep his original shape.

After receiving Bai Huo’s approval, thelittle dragon cub turned back into his dragon form to eat the fish.

Ji Bei watched his little furry tail swayback and forth and his hands itched, he couldn’t help but stealthily reach out totouch it.

He rubbed the furry tail.

Upon seeing this, Bai Huo broke out into laughterand asked, “How does it feel?”

“It’s … soft.” Ji Bei staredblankly.

The little dragon cub sensed the sneakattack and glanced at Ji Bei alertly. He squeezed into Bai Huo’s arms, turningto conceal his back. The little dragon cub still had sauce on his two paws, whileclimbing up Bai Huo’s arms, he’d left a bunch of oily paw prints on Bai Huo’s designershirt. But Bai Huo didn’t get upset, he just fondly patted the child’s head.

Ji Bei finally knew where the wrinkles on BaiHuo’s shirt came from. As a certified Virgo detective, he immediately feltstrong distress.

Bai Huo was very slender, he looked likehe’d never touched a dumbbell in his life. Even his arms holding the littledragon cub looked a bit thin. Ji Bei watched as the stains on his white shirt increasedwith each passing minute. He couldn’t help thinking that it wasn’t easy being asingle father. No matter how unreliable you were, feeding, washing clothes, andcoaxing your child to bed, all these things couldn’t be avoided. At firstglance, the little dragon cub was well-mannered. He never stayed upset for long,he didn’t even get angry when he’d fought with the other child just now, whichshowed that he was many times more patient than other children.

Besides, such an expensive shirt wasscrapped so easily. As an unemployed single father, although he didn’t say aword, Bai Huo must be very distressed. Bai Huo looked unperturbed on thesurface, but who knew how helpless he felt inside.

“It’s very hard to take care of a childalone.” Thinking of this, Ji Bei couldn’t help but deeply respect him.

“Huh?” Bai Huo asked. He didn’t know thatJi Bei’s imagination was almost as wild as Lin Ke’s. After seeing such sincererespect in the other man’s eyes, he was at a complete loss for a moment.

Actually–

Regarding eating, the little dragon cub usuallycaught fish himself, if not, Bai Huo would simply order a salmon set takeout.As long as there was fish, the little dragon cub wasn’t picky with the sidedishes, cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, it was all good. The only thing Bai Huo neededto do was observe to prevent him from eating raw meat.

Regarding baths, since the little dragoncub hatched, Bai Huo only washed him once to get rid of the egg liquid. Afterthat, the child inexplicably felt embarrassment, and refused to let Bai Huowash him, preferring to jump into the lake and bathe himself.

Regarding sleeping, as long as Dad Bai Huo’sbreath was around, he could fall asleep at any time, there was no need to coaxhim.

Additionally, the housework and the laundrywere all taken care of by the cleaning lady. The cleaning lady Bai Huo hired wasan elderly earth dragon. She worked attentively and skillfully. Bai Huo onlyhad to worry about her nagging; housework wasn’t a concern at all.

To sum up, it was really easy to raise thischild. These few months Bai Huo had raised him, except for running over to themahjong parlor to lose some money every day, he’d never done any properbusiness.

Thinking of this, Bai Huo’s shriveled up consciencewas finally tugged.

This won’t do, he needed to be a lovingfather who took responsibility for his child.

Fortunately, Ji Bei was very professional,and didn’t diverge too much into this topic. Instead, he asked: “How old isLittle Lin Xi in human age now?”

Bai Huo rubbed the little dragon’s head inshame: “About three years old, but this child is probably a little bitmore intelligent.”

Ji Bei nodded: “I just saw you holdingwhat seems to be a kindergarten brochure? Are you planning to let him receive ahuman preschool education?”

“I’m thinking about it,” Bai Huosaid frankly. “He should be done shedding in a few days. I’ll take him tosee the school, then I’ll make a decision.”

Ji Bei consequently revealed thereason for this visit: “Actually, I didn’t just come here to reminisce, Icame to ask for you guys’ help.”

Bai Huo noticed that he said “you guys”instead of “your”, asking, “Including my son?”

Sure enough, when it comes to his child, BaiHuo immediately became more alert.

Ji Bei suddenly felt a little pressure, heexplained in as mild a voice as possible: “This is the case. Starting sixmonths ago, we’ve continuously received reports from parents, stating that theirchildren disappeared from Oak International Kindergarten. After investigatingwith Captain Luo, we discovered that this was part of an organized childtrafficking ring. The victims were all kindergarten aged boys. This gang isvery cunning. We’ve tracked them for several months, but two weeks ago, when wewere planning to close the net, they suddenly stopped moving for some reason.”

“You want to……”

“If we’ve guessed correctly, they’ll continueto commit crimes,” Ji Bei said, “By comparing the information aboutthe victims, we’ve noticed that their trafficking targets have distinctivecharacteristics, such as moderate height and weight, large eyes, white skin ….”

Bai Huo glanced at his son’s body.

“We’ve already thought about findingsuitable human children to help the police complete the arrest, but workingwith three-year-olds is too difficult. One, they’re too small to control, two,the sting is too dangerous, no parents want to let their children take the risk.“

Bai Huo didn’t understand: “Officer Ji,I understand that you want to solve the case urgently, but how can you be surethat I’ll let my son participate. I’m also a parent.”

Ji Bei seemed to look very ashamed: “Iknow this is putting you on the spot, but please think over it, Bai Huo. If thiscase isn’t closed, the children in Xi City will be in danger. You dragons arestronger than humans, after all. I can only turn to you for this. You don’thave to worry about safety. We’ll arrange plain clothes officers to protect LinXi throughout the process. We absolutely won’t let him be harmed. “

Seeing Bai Huo hesitate, Ji Bei handed thefile he’d brought from the car to him, emphasizing: “Why don’t you readthis report first? We can reimburse you for all expenses, including the highadmission fees for the international kindergarten.”

Bai Huo picked up the file and startedreading.

Contrary to expectations, he wasn’t shorton money. When all was said and done, he’s lived longer than most humans, he hasmany sources of information and connections, it was quite easy to make aliving. In the early years, when the country wasn’t very developed and the lawswere flawed, Bai Huo was strolling along the coast one day when he suddenly deviseda plan. He tricked several human big shots into opening several undergroundbars and mahjong parlors. Later, when the big shots died out, the shopsnaturally fell to him.

Given that he was too lazy to even count afew dollars, he later pulled He Ling in to invest, leaving only half the sharesto himself. He became the behind-the-scenes boss, earning dividends every year.Although He Ling disliked talking, she was a business genius in the humanworld. After so many years of development, he’d accumulated a considerableamount of wealth.

He Ling once pitilessly calculated that if BaiHuo hadn’t squandered so much money at the mahjong tables over the years,instead investing his money in real estate, he’d easily make the list of Xi City’srichest and most influential persons.

The title of director of the Poverty AlleviationOffice wasn’t just empty talk.

“Huh?” Bai Huo turned the page andsaw a familiar face, suddenly frowning. “This child …”

Ji Bei looked over and said, “This isthe latest victim, he was studying in Oak Kindergarten’s upper class. Hedisappeared a month ago. The child’s father is an executive of a listedcompany. Because the boy is his only son, he spoiled him a lot. After theabduction, the family went crazy, the mother was extremely distressed. She’sbeen admitted to the hospital, and lives on nutritional injections. “

With that said, Ji Bei flipped the file over,revealing a photo of the grief-stricken mother.

It really was that child.

The little dragon cub obviously alsorecognized the two people, he pouted and poked at the child’s face. After hatching,this child made him show his fangs for the first time by snatching his glassbeads.

Bai Huo gently rested his chin on top of thelittle dragon cub’s head: “Do you remember him?”

The little dragon cub nodded.

“Do you still hate him?”

The little dragon cub was silent for awhile, then he shook his head.

After that incident, Bai Huo had bought hima case of glass beads, big and small, of every color. By comparison, he couldgenerously ignore this little bit of hatred.

Bai Huo saw this and felt both amazed and gratified.This boy was so fierce, but his heart was quite broad. Plus, it was rare forpeople to be able to weigh the gains and losses without holding grudges.

“This child has been taken away by abad guy. Do you want to save him?” Bai Huo asked.

Ji Bei watched this interaction betweenfather and son, his impression of Bai Huo once again refreshed.

This time, although he was asking Bai Huo forhelp, the final decider was actually Little Lin Xi. As a father, Bai Huo didn’tchoose to make all the big decisions by himself, instead choosing to ask for hischild’s opinion. This approach really surprised Ji Bei; Bai Huo always seemedto be quite senseless.

As Bai Huo had previously explained, thelittle dragon cub looked like a normal three-year-old, but his IQ was clearlyabove that. After thinking calmly for a while, a pair of big eyes looked up at BaiHuo’s face: “What about you?”

“Of course, I’ll be with you.” BaiHuo smiled.

The little dragon cub climbed up Bai Huo’sbody, hooking his hands around Bai Huo’s neck. “Let’s go on anadventure.”

Ji Bei was petrified by this soft tendervoice, when he could finally react, he asked in excitement, “He … did heagree?”

“We’ll give it a try,” Bai Huo huggedhis son tightly to prevent him from sliding down, and looked at Ji Bei solemnly.“If it’s no fun, I’ll put a stop to this immediately.”

“Yes, that’s fine …” Ji Beinodded and suddenly stood up, earnestly saluting the two, “I represent XiCity …”

“No, no, no, sit down.” Bai Huo hurriedlycut him off.

Ji Bei smiled, embarrassed, and pushed hishair back, then he remembered that he needed to make some calls: “I’llarrange the interview for you next week.”

“Interview?”

“Yeah,” Ji Bei fished out hisphone as he explained. “Nowadays, kindergartens need interviews in order to be admitted.Little Lin Xi will be a transfer student. I’ll tell the headmaster; she’ll meetyou in person. The process is relatively simple, just act natural, no need toworry.”

“What do I need to prepare?” BaiHuo woke up from his daze; his son was actually going to kindergarten.

“Just prepare suitable clothes,everything else is the same as ordinary. Oh right, just in case something leaksout, we’ll need to keep your identity confidential. Except for the headmaster, everyonein the school will think that Little Lin Xi’s a normal transfer student.”

“Moreover, we’ll give your child a GPSchip and an emergency alarm button –Hello? Lu Luo, Director Bai agreed, quicklyhead to Oak International Kindergarten …” Ji Bei arranged the follow-upmatters on his phone.

The fat bird heard that the little dragoncub was going to kindergarten and excitedly flew down from the tree branches:“Kindergarten! No more food sharing!”

Bai Huo reached out and flicked him away.Watching the little dragon cub innocently climb up and down his body, using hislegs as a slide, Bai Huo’s emotions felt jumbled.

In the end, the cub was a boy, no matterhow clingy he was with his Dad, it’s only natural that he yearned for adventureand discovering new things.

Oh no! What’s with this sudden feeling ofloss, like an old man living in an empty nest!

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T/N:

upper class–Wikipedia “In China, pre-school education is generally divided into a“nursery” or   “preschool”stage and a “kindergarten” stage.

Upper Kindergarten: 5- to 6-year-old children.”

an adventure- could also be to take risks / to take chances

empty nest- ahome where the kids have grown up and moved out