Oak International kindergarten was a 5-dayboarding school, the children were let out 4 pm every Friday.
Bai Huo got off the mahjong table at noon,and specifically went to a Japanese restaurant to buy sea urchin sashimi. Itwas packed into a small box, ready to be used to coax his son.
The kindergartenâs gate resembled a luxurycar show, extending from the parking lot to the street. Parents flocked likegeese to the fence, stretching their necks to look inside.
As soon as Bai Huo appeared, thekindergarten silently raised a class-A defense warning. The eyes of the twochild-care workers responsible for picking up and dropping off children widened,and they quickly closed the gate, as if theyâd seen an enemy. Who could blamethem, after witnessing Bai Huo being dragged out of the school by theheadmaster, they no longer trusted in his deceptive elegant face.
Bai Huo was resentful, he had no choice butto go back to incite chaos among the noble ladies and nannies waiting outsidethe school to pick up their children.
âDonât waste your energy, these peopleare aristocrats, theyâll just ignore you.â The childcare worker ridiculedfrom behind the fence.
Bai Huo was bored, he twirled the seaurchin lunch box around his index finger, not willing to admit defeat.
Ten minutes later, the upper-crust ladies tossedtheir Hermes handbags to the side and eagerly encircled Bai Huo, comparing and exchangingthe âParenting Scripturesâ.
âThree with seven is more dangerousthan four with six. In the event that you have a four, five and a six tile inyour hand, if you draw a seven, it becomes four, five, six and seven, and atthis time, you must discard four instead of seven. If you donât see any majorcards, youâre heading towards victory. If the 8 Character tile is already in aset, usually after 8 laps, youâll be one tile away from a mahjongâŚâ BaiHuo had dressed elegantly today, standing within a crowd of glittering upper-classladies, he wasnât at all overshadowed by their light, on the contrary, heâdbecome the focus of the crowd. While leading the crowd and speaking confidently,he didnât forget to smirk proudly at the child care workers.
âRight, right, last time just likethis, I went fishing alone âŚâ
âSir, sir, listen to me first, IâŚâ
âAiya, whose mother are you? Youâvenever heard of first come first serve? So, little master, if the next playerâsmahjong tiles âŚâ
At first, a few noble ladies just frownedin dissatisfaction, but gradually, this escalated into scolding, then thescolding became swearing and the topics digressed even further. Soon, they evenstarted criticizing their opponentsâ eye-catching clothing for being unfashionable,saying that it couldnât hide their lower-class stench. The bodyguards, nannies,and chauffeurs of each household felt offended on behalf of their madams, andeach got out of the cars to help. Soon, a parade of people were hurling insultsat each other in front of the school gates, the scene quickly becominguncontrollable.
However, the inciter of this riot hadalready casually hopped over the fence while everyone was in disarray, followingthe little dragon cubâs breath to find his classroom.
The teachers were holding an award ceremonyto reward the children whoâd performed well this week, letting them stepforward to wear a small flower pin and take a group photo. Li Lin Xi had anindifferent expression, propping his head on his arm, he blinked drowsily, butthen he suddenly smelled his fatherâs breath. He sat instantly upright likeheâd been injected with a stimulant, and looked out the door.
Just as expected, outside on the playground,a familiar figure sat on the slide and raised a hand at him with a smile.
Without a second thought, Li Lin Xi got upand ran out of the classroom.
The teachers were startled, reactingquickly, they chased after him.
At this point, the school dismissal bell wasgetting close, and there was no one in the school who didnât know Bai Huo bynow. The teachers knew that heâd come to pick up his child, so although theywere angry that heâd jumped over the fence again, they didnât make too much ofa fuss. They fetched Li Lin Xiâs schoolbag for him, and reminded him to readthe announcements before heading back to the classroom.
âDid you miss me?â After notmeeting for three days, Bai Huo was particularly excited. He picked up his sonand put him on his shoulder. âCome, letâs go home.â
The little dragon cub hugged him tightly, silent, then he leaned his head against Bai Huoâs head, and rubbed him lightly with his forehead, revealing a strong dependence and sadness.
Bai Huo thought that the child would be so happyto see him that heâd shake his tail, he didnât expect him to look so gloomy,and maybe even a little angry. Bai Huoâs heart shook.
âAre you hungry? I brought you seaurchins, theyâre raw ah.â Bai Huo tried to divert the little dragon cubâsattention with food.
But the little dragon cub not only didnâttake a look, he even started sniffling.
Oh no! Bai Huoâs internal alarm bell buzzed.This was the kickoff to crying.
âBaby, whatâs wrong?â Bai Huoquickly put the dragon cub down and looked at him face to face. âWhat happened?Did the school treat you badly? Are your classmates bullying you?â
The little dragon cub glanced at him andshook his head.
âWhatâs wrong?â
The little dragon cub looked at him withbig eyes, solemn, and said in a quiet voice, âYou said, youâll stay withme.â
Bai Huoâs conscience couldnât help but ache.
The little dragon cub turned his schoolbagover and unzipped it, then he hugged Bai Huo.
âWhatâs this?â Bai Huo saw that thebag was full of snacks, most likely the snacks handed out by the kindergartenteachers.
âItâs for you.â The little dragoncub looked at his face. âCanât eat alone.â
Bai Huo froze in place, he snapped out ofit a few moments later, a dense guilt slowly swallowing his heart.
It was actually very strange for Bai Huo to feel so guilty. His conscience has been missing for many years, and his mouth had no handbrake. He couldnât even remember all the random things heâd said in this life. As soon as it was out of his mouth, heâd forget about it, but the child had taken it seriously.
In the beginning, it was he whoâd promisedto stay with the child, it was also he whoâd nonsensically told the littledragon cub that he would be sad if he couldnât eat delicious food with him.Looking at the schoolbag full of snacks, he could almost imagine how this childwould pretend to eat after the teacher sent the snacks, then secretly hide themin his schoolbag for his father. Who knew how many days it took to fill up sucha large bag.
âLin Xi,â Bai Huo felt incrediblymoved, sincerely admitting his mistakes, âIâm sorry, please forgive me.â
The little dragon cub tilted his head athim, after a few beats, he walked over, his small arms wide open to hug him. Meaning,it doesnât matter.
Bai Huo hugged the child, tears in hisheart, why is my son so good! So good!
Soon, Bai Huo felt distressed again.
Heavens, the kindergarten gave outhomework, even worse, it was arts and crafts work. Staring at the info on the phonescreen, the loving, level 10 Klutz father felt very unenthusiastic.
The father and son had just eaten theirfill, and were both lying on the sofa to air out their stuffed bellies.
The fat bird had gone out to catch bugs inthe forest. Heâd recently fallen in love, the chasing after the Hwamei birdoccupying his life.
The temperature had risen in the past twodays, there was still a little bit of heat just after dinnertime. The littledragon cub stretched in Bai Huoâs arms, he seemed to be uncomfortable, constantlytwisting and turning. At first, Bai Huo thought that he wanted to use thetoilet, but he noticed that the childâs back was drenched with sweat, so he quicklytook off his clothes. After thinking about it, he exposed the white dragonscales on his belly so the child could cool out on top of him.
Bai Huo was born with a low body temperature, with his white scales, he was colder than other dragons. The little dragon cub spread out his four limbs and relaxed on his belly. As he shifted along with Bai Huoâs breathing, his eyes narrowed in satisfaction. This was the first time heâd seen the scales of an adult dragon; he was very curious. He incessantly poked around with his paws, observing Bai Huoâs reactions, seemingly trying to test out the hardness.
âCub, we need to have a discussionâŚâ Bai Huo looked at the outlandish handcraft projects requested by the kindergartenand said resolutely, âLetâs call your Uncle Ji.â
The little dragon cub poked at Bai Huoâs strongadult dragon scales, then poked at his own belly. How sad, there were only afew small, recently grown in feathers.
âLin Xi?â When Bai Huo didnât hear a response, he looked down just in time to see this movement. âPfft,â he laughed out loud, âLittle bald dragon, what are you poking?â
The little dragon cub turned red, andglared at him.
âOkay, okay,â Bai Huo forciblyrestrained his laughter, and comforted him. âItâll take at least ten yearsfor your scales to completely grow, itâs pointless to fret about it.â
The little dragon cubâs horns drooped.
With that motion, Bai Huo finally noticedthat the little guyâs horns seemed to have grown some more. In just one week, ahalf a finger length branch had grown on the tip of his horns, with a thinlayer of fuzz on top, it looked very fluffy.
Although Bai Huo had overactive hands, hestill restrained himself from touching the childâs horns. Newly-grown dragonhorns were very fragile, even a slight squeeze could snap them in half. Horn growthand bone growth were synchronized, this rapid horn growth meant that the dragoncubâs divine bone was also growing rapidly, which was a good development. Theonly problem was that it seemed to be a bit early.
But Bai Huo also didnât think that this was particularly alarming, after all, the dragons were a race with huge discrepancies in talent between individuals. Dragons could reach adulthood as late as the prophet whoâd predicted that Bai Huo would have a love disaster, who became an adult in his 70âs. Currently, he had wrinkled skin and almost no teeth. They could also reach adulthood as early as He Ling, who became an adult at the age of 13, conveniently breaking the adulthood record for female dragons. Either way, there wasnât anything to panic about.
Dragons had only one human form for their entirelives, their appearance was fixed from birth. Most dragons could switch betweenthe two forms after three months. But after they were a little bit bigger, andthe divine bone was more mature, talented ones could freely switch parts oftheir bodies. For example, Bai Huo could expose just the scales on his abdomen whilemaintaining human form.
The divine bone was a ring-sized,crescent-shaped bone located at the nape of dragons. It was the proof that theirancestors had obtained divinity at the chaotic beginning of the world. It wasalso the source of all their divine powers. After a dragon reached adulthood,the divine bone would freeze their age, allowing them to maintain the shape inwhich theyâd reached adulthood. After hundreds of years, the divine bone would graduallylose effectiveness, and theyâd start aging at the rate of regular people.
Most dragons reach adulthood between their 20s and 40s. Because the human forms of dragons were generally of a higher quality than the average human, the dragon race as a whole appeared very youthful. He Ling and other dragons like her were in the minority. Because she reached adulthood too early, her human form was fixed at the age of 13. She will look like a little Lolita forever.
The divine bone was an ordinary bone, it couldbe dug out or damaged. A dragon wouldnât immediately die after losing their divinebone, but they would gradually lose their spiritual power, and retreat intotheir human form, never able to take their dragon form. It made sense that thiswas the punishment for violating the First Dragon Convention. For dragons, who wereaccustomed to having a lifespan of at least 500 years, becoming a human, who onlyhad a short 20-30 years of peak vigor and youthfulness, was a dreadful thing. Itwas no different than being diagnosed with cancer. No one would wish cancer onthemselves, so the dragon raceâs first convention was respected by everyone.
From a fatherâs point of view, Bai Huo didnâtwant the little dragon cub to reach adulthood too early. A young shape was admittedlyvery flexible and light, but as a man, being too young and physically weak, foreverunable to reach peak performance, wasnât very desirable.
The little dragon cub had tired himselfout, and had fallen asleep on top of Bai Huoâs scales. Bai Huo carefully rolledhim onto the sofa, intending to go call Ji Bei to come do these wretched artsand crafts assignments. But a few seconds later, the little dragon cub frowned andkicked out, grabbing onto his ice-cold scales.
Bai Huo had no choice but to lie back down again.Forget it, itâs more important for his son to sleep.
I had to learn freakin mahjong just forthat one freakin paragraph. An hour and a half just to translate 1 paragraph (probablyinaccurately I might add). I havenât been this mad since FOD chap 12, whichneeded a freakin glossary.