Perhaps because Li Xi had just passed his childhood awakening period, Ren seemed to have more leisure time these past few days and stayed with them constantly. It wasn’t until yesterday that he was called away by a communication.
As usual, Yun got up quietly to wash up and then left the room for school. Li Xi waited for the door to close before rolling over to catch up on sleep. But he hadn’t slept long before the quilt was “whooshed” away. A large wave of cold air hit him, making him shiver.
Kale grabbed the cub’s one-piece pajamas, lifting him up and shaking him as a wake-up service. “Stop sleeping, go wash up.”
As the sensation of weightlessness hit him, Li Xi moved his sore eyelids and looked up at the male Zerg: “…?”
Kale didn’t care about that displeased look. He switched hands to carry Li Xi and walked toward the bathroom. He placed the cub, who was too sleepy to open his eyes, on the vanity. After a moment’s thought, he decided to personally help the cub wash his face.
He pulled out a towel, soaked it, wrung it dry, and then shoved the whole thing onto the cub’s face. His technique was clumsy and awkward.
The washing was incredibly rough. When Li Xi emerged from the bathroom, his pajamas were clinging wetly to his skin, water droplets were dripping listlessly from his hair, and a patch of his fair, tender face was rubbed red.
“…” Li Xi rubbed his slightly stinging cheek and stared silently at the culprit.
Halfway through the washing, his clothes had become soaked. He had wanted to do it himself, but Kale had apparently found some interest in it and insisted he could handle it.
Under such a gaze, Kale’s eyes darted elsewhere, unable to meet Li Xi’s scrutiny. He gave a guilty “ahem.” “Well, your Male Father here hasn’t taken care of other cubs before, so it’s inevitable to be unskilled. I’ll go back and practice, go back and practice.”
Li Xi remained silent.
Kale urged him again: “Oh, hurry up and change your clothes.”
Before going to change, Li Xi dropped a sentence: “Your own… you didn’t take care of either.”
Kale: “…”
Being of noble birth, no cub had ever dared to let him take care of them. Besides, he only had this one cub. Only this brat would dare speak to him like that!
However, his cub’s speech had become much smoother. It seemed that little female Zerg from the Shiya family wasn’t completely useless; he made for a decent playmate. Kale nonchalantly flicked his wet sleeve. His years of germophobia had vanished, replaced by a strangely pleasant mood.
Li Xi sat at the dining table eating the breakfast Kale had prepared. He was halfway through picking at the vegetables on his plate when a pair of arms suddenly scooped him up by the waist.
Before he could react while clutching his utensils, he was carried on a bumpy ride and tossed into a flight vehicle. Before he could sit steadily, he heard a voice urging a quick departure. That guilty, “thief-like” expression looked exactly like a Zerg trafficker on his first job.
Li Xi’s mouth was bulging with food he hadn’t had time to swallow. He held utensils in his right hand and a carton of milk—half-drunk and half-spilled—in his left, looking utterly dazed.
This Zerg hasn’t been reliable for more than a day or two. Li Xi made excuses for the neurotic Kale.
Kale was on his optical computer: “He finished handling it that quickly?”
“Don’t let him come to the Ancient Tree yet!”
“Idiots! Figure something out!” Kale was panicking.
After hanging up, Kale pressed his face against the window to look behind. Only when he saw that silver flight vehicle change its trajectory did he collapse into his chair like a survivor of a disaster.
Li Xi, drinking the meager remains of his milk, asked in confusion: “Why block him?”
Kale let his racing heart settle for a moment before flicking his cub’s forehead. “Are you stupid? If your Female Father comes, I won’t be able to get you out.”
Li Xi corrected him: “Steal.”
Kale sat bolt upright and said excitedly: “What do you mean ‘steal’?! Can the word ‘steal’ be used for my own cub?!!!”
The procedures had to be done today. Look at that! He didn’t even know how to use words properly!
Li Xi rubbed his forehead, pulled the corners of his mouth at the Zerg, and said coldly: “Oh.”
Kale clenched his fists: “…” My own cub. Must endure.
Kale ignored Li Xi and pulled a transparent crystal core from his pocket. The core floated in mid-air, and a gentle mental power slowly dispersed, soon filling every gap in the cabin. The flight vehicle bumped almost imperceptibly.
Li Xi glanced at the young female Zerg piloting the vehicle. He saw fine beads of sweat seeping from the pilot’s neck; his back was stiff, and the hands gripping the control panel were trembling slightly, veins popping as if he were desperately suppressing something.
Kale was focused on the crystal core; it was unclear if he noticed the vehicle’s abnormality. Li Xi silently buckled his seatbelt and gripped the nearby handle. He was truly afraid the female Zerg might lose control and stage a “flight vehicle crash” scene.
Li Xi didn’t have to worry for long before the mental power in the cabin dissipated. Kale looked at the A-rank beast crystal core with some dissatisfaction for a moment, then tossed it into Li Xi’s lap, adding a warning: “You are not allowed to give this to anyone!”
“…Okay.”
The diamond-shaped core was crystal clear. A thin thread like a swimming snake was trapped inside, and a faint mental power flickered on the surface.
Kale pulled a recovery agent from a hidden compartment and injected it into a pale blue vein, explaining: “This has my mental power on it. If you carry it, you’ll be identified as a C-rank male cub.”
Years ago, to ensure the birth of the egg, he had expended a massive amount of mental power and had yet to recover to his original strength; otherwise, the mental power on the core could have reached B-rank. Thinking about his mental damage gave Kale a headache.
Li Xi observed the object in his hand seriously, showing a rare spark of interest. Kale leaned his chin on his hand, looking at the cub with a faint, doting smile. But before the smile could fully bloom, he suddenly remembered the arduous journey of raising a cub. The smile collapsed instantly. Raising a cub is the death of me.
Li Xi: “…?”
This male Zerg changes faces too fast. One moment the atmosphere was pleasant, and the next it was all dark clouds. He couldn’t figure it out, so his attention shifted back to the core in his hand.
Between his research, the flight vehicle landed on the roof of a C-type building. Kale stuffed the core into the cub’s pocket and carried Li Xi into an elegantly decorated office.
Behind a vermilion desk sat a silver-haired elderly male Zerg. A steaming teacup sat by his hand as he looked down at some documents.
“Hello, Dean.” Kale set the cub down and stated his purpose directly. “Li He. I want him to study here.”
Dean Evans did not look up; his gaze remained on the thin sheet of paper.
Name: Li He
Surname: —
Gender: Male
Body: Weak
Mental Power: C-rank
After receiving this profile, Dean Evans’ brows hadn’t relaxed for a moment. Kale sat on the sofa, unhurriedly rummaging for tea leaves and casually brewing tea for himself, seemingly forgetting his cub entirely in an instant.
“Wow, Dean. Where did you get these tea leaves? Can you give me some?”
“No.”
The aged voice spoke slowly after a moment, a categorical refusal.
Kale expected as much and wasn’t disappointed. He shrugged. “Fine.”
“What is your relationship to this cub?” Dean Evans asked.
Kale took a sip of tea, being open and showing a hint of boasting: “My cub.”
Dean Evans’ brow jumped. “Since when did you have such a big cub?”
The Jonah family hadn’t leaked a single rumor.
Li Xi leaned against the window, his eyelashes fluttering slightly. Kale smiled and said vaguely: “Oh, Dean. That’s not important. What’s important is that I want him to go to school here.”
Dean Evans looked at the cub’s profile again, appearing hesitant. “The little fellow won’t be a troublemaker like you, will he?” Back when Kale was a student, he had nearly given the Dean a heart attack. He was truly traumatized.
Kale paused: “…” Exposing my past in front of my cub?!
Seeing the Zerg remain silent, a smile appeared in the Dean’s clear eyes, and he teased, “Hmm?”
“Impossible, Dean. My cub is so well-behaved.” Kale set down his teacup and looked at the cub’s back. His eyes grew dark, and his voice involuntarily became raspy. “Li He is very good.”
One couldn’t find a cub more well-behaved and low-maintenance than Li He; both of his personas were very sensible.
Sensing his former student’s sudden drop in mood, Dean Evans adjusted himself and spoke seriously: “It’s not unheard of for a male cub to enroll mid-term. Which class do you want him in?”
Kale glanced at the cub focusing on the outside world at the windowsill, then sat in the guest chair to discuss the details with the Dean in low tones.
________________________________________
On the playground stood dozens of students in uniform. At the front of the formation stood five or six students, each with their heads down and necks shrunk. A female teacher, hands on hips, was shouting at them, clearly enraged.
“I told you to train in your chosen teams, and what do you do? You sneakily climb the wall and run off?!”
“Running off is one thing, but you had to get caught by the Disciplinary Director?!”
“Are you revolting?!”
“…”
The scolding continued. At the very back of the line, the other students kept their heads down. Yun stood at the end of the formation, head bowed with the crowd, staring at the shifting tree shadows. His mind was wandering; a gaze from upstairs had been on him for a long time.
Seeing that the teacher had no time for his area, he secretly tilted his head toward the source of the gaze. A large pane of one-way glass came into view. The sunlight was blinding, making it impossible to see anything inside the building. He scanned the windows one by one, his movements becoming inadvertently larger.
“Yun—!” The combat teacher’s voice shook the heavens. The birds resting on the branches flew away in a flutter.
Yun hurried to retract his gaze and replied weakly: “Present.”
“Are you still spacing out on me?” The combat teacher pointed at Yun, his chest heaving. “What are you looking at? Is there a male Zerg up there?!”
Yun shrank his neck. “No… no.”
The five or six students at the front felt the teacher’s fire shift away and subtly relaxed their shoulders, though they couldn’t help but sweat for Yun. The combat teacher was famous for his explosive temper; daring to space out while he was in a rage was practically a death wish.
Upstairs, Li Xi let out a “pfft” laugh.
The conversation stopped abruptly. The room fell silent.
Dean Evans was confused: “…?” Why stop talking?
Meanwhile, Kale frowned at the cub who had laughed for no reason, wondering what was wrong with him.
“Excellency?” Dean Evans called out.
Kale snapped back: “Huh? Oh… nothing. Let’s just go with what we discussed.”
The Dean: “Mm.”
“I’ll have to trouble you, Dean,” Kale said politely.
Kale held a fair amount of respect for this Dean. He had caused the man plenty of trouble as a child; the Dean was one of the few Zerg who dared to scold him. Dean Evans didn’t buy Kale’s politeness and waved him off to get lost.
Kale, being thick-skinned, acted as if he didn’t see it, thanking the Dean repeatedly while successfully wheedling away some tea leaves. Before Dean Evans could lose his temper, Kale dropped the playful act. He left the Dean alone and walked to the cub’s side. “What are you looking at?”
Li Xi retracted his gaze. “Nothing.”
Kale took a casual look and saw the blond little female Zerg being scolded with his head down. He “tsk-ed.” “Your enrollment procedures are done. You can start getting used to things today.”
The moment Li Xi saw Yun, he guessed what this place was. He gave a short “Mm.”
Kale patted the cub’s slightly long hair. “It’s up to you. If you want to learn, learn; if you don’t, don’t force it.”
Dean Evans’ hand froze mid-sip: “…!” Is it really okay to educate a cub like that right in front of me? Do you think I’m dead?!
“Don’t let anyone bully you. If something happens, find Grandpa Dean; he’ll definitely help you.” Kale thought for a moment and continued based on his own experience, “Studying is quite boring—you have to get up early, do homework… yeah, it’s just pointless. If you can’t stand it, go back—”
“Kale!” the Dean growled. Stop corrupting the cub.
Kale shut up; he still had to give Dean Evans some face. He rambled on a lot, but Li Xi summarized it into one phrase: Whatever suits your mood.
Spoiling him.
Ren had always disagreed with sending the cub to school, fearing he wouldn’t integrate into a new environment and worrying about potential harm. After several days of fruitless discussion, Kale had acted first and reported later today, enrolling the cub.
Technically, a Female Monarch cannot defy a Male Lord’s command, but Kale really didn’t want to make things too tense with Ren, which is why he found a way to draw Ren away and sneak the cub out. He didn’t expect the cub to learn much; he just felt that the cub living in isolation for years without contact with those of the same age would be bad for his physical and mental growth. Even though his mental health had never been “healthy,” Kale still hoped for the best.
As for the harm Ren worried about, Kale looked down at the whorl of hair on the cub’s head. He figured the chance of this cold persona being mistreated was not very high. If it were the innocent persona, he truly wouldn’t have dared to just drop him at school so readily.
Kale wanted to say a few more things, but out of the corner of his eye, a silver flight vehicle leapt into view in the sky: “!”
His Female Monarch was here!
“Uh, I’m gonna run… I mean, go.” The moment he saw the vehicle, Kale’s whole being became tense.
Li Xi: “You…” Li Xi wanted to ask if he would be picked up tonight.
BAM—
He was answered by the loud sound of a slamming door.
Dean Evans: “…” During their talk, he had even praised Kale for being more stable. Hah. He took that back; Kale was the same impulsive brat as before.
Dean Evans turned to look at the confused little cub standing alone by the window and sighed. Kale said he was his cub, but an S-rank Excellency having a cub without any news leaking out, and with only a name and no surname on the personal info sheet… Dean Evans remained skeptical.
Regardless of whether he was Kale’s cub, the fact that Kale personally brought him for enrollment was enough to prove the cub’s identity was not simple. Remembering Kale’s plea before leaving, Dean Evans walked toward Li Xi to say a few things. Halfway there, the closed door was pushed open with a CLATTER, hitting the wall and bouncing back.
A dark shadow brushed past. Dean Evans, being old, was startled into backing up several steps.
Li Xi only felt a darkness before him as the male Zerg who had left returned, crouching in front of him and talking non-stop.
“Cub, I forgot to give you your optical computer.” Kale bypassed the visibly startled Dean. “It has the communication numbers for me and your Female Father, and some Star Coins.”
Kale unceremoniously strapped the device onto Li Xi’s wrist. “If you don’t know how to use it, let that little female Zerg teach you, or our kind, friendly, and great Grandpa Dean.” He didn’t forget to flatter the Dean.
Within three seconds, Kale dashed out the door again as if wolves were chasing him. In a short span of time, that door had suffered several instances of rude impact.
Dean Evans supported himself on the desk with one hand and clutched his chest with the other. The wrinkles between his brows deepened, and the fire in his eyes was becoming uncontrollable.
To avoid being collateral damage, Li Xi spoke up first with a well-behaved greeting: “Hello, Grandpa.”
Staying with that kid for too long has even changed the way I speak.