Lu Hao carefully put away the needle and thread, making sure they wouldn’t prick Fang Jing while he played on the bed later. Only after finishing all of this did, he pick Fang Jing up. “It’s not that. I don’t mind it, nor do I think taking care of you is troublesome. Not right now, and not in the future either. I was just afraid that you might hate taking baths. Even though you didn’t show any signs of resistance, I preemptively assumed that a fluffy creature like you would hate baths just like cats do.”
“Once we get to Capital Star, there will be lots and lots of delicious food there. I want to take you to try all of it. With a bib, you’ll be able to eat to your heart’s content without worrying about getting messy.”
“Yuanyuan, I really like you.” Looking distressed, Lu Hao pressed his forehead against Fang Jing’s.
“You aren’t a burden to me. You are my family. I will never feel that family is a burdensome presence.”
Fang Jing lowered his eyelids, letting Lu Hao cradle him under his arms. This feeling of being suspended in midair didn’t give him much sense of security, but he managed to suppress the urge to struggle. “I like Haohao too. Haohao is the best.”
With someone as gentle as Lu Hao, it was genuinely hard not to fall for him.
Regarding what happened yesterday, the two of them tacitly chose not to bring it up again. Fang Jing told Lu Hao that he was hungry and asked if Lu Hao could take him to get something to eat.
Even if it wasn’t mealtime, Lu Hao always found a way to get food for Fang Jing.
After eating and drinking his fill, Fang Jing curled up on the bed and fell asleep once more.
Sitting beside him, Lu Hao felt unusually lost and helpless.
In the end, things were different.
The way Fang Jing interacted with him was different now compared to when they were on Fire Cloud Star.
Back on Fire Cloud Star, once Fang Jing was full, even if he was sleepy, he would still obediently chirp at him a couple of times. Only when Lu Hao looked back at him or gave him a kiss would he feel secure enough to fall asleep.
Instead, look at him now. As soon as he finished eating and returned to the room, he jumped over to the bay window, curled up into a ball, and went straight back to sleep without even getting on the bed.
That spot seemed to have become his designated, temporary home that belonged solely to him. Lu Hao clearly realized that Fang Jing didn’t seem as attached to him anymore.
Realizing this, Lu Hao felt an extreme pang of heartache.
He couldn’t even figure out why it hurt so much.
He couldn’t even understand why every single action of Fang Jing’s had the power to sway his emotions.
Inside Lu Hao’s bag were two items that anyone else would consider pure garbage.
They were a large and a small flower wreath, both long withered and stripped of their vibrant colors.
The smaller one belonged to Fang Jing, and the larger one to Lu Hao.
When he was packing up the tent and leaving Fire Cloud Star, Fang Jing had insisted by any means necessary that Lu Hao bring the small wreath along.
Even though the wreath had long withered and emitted a decaying scent, Fang Jing refused to throw it away. He kept pestering Lu Hao to find a way to wrap them up and bring them back to Capital Star together.
For the past two days, Lu Hao had been busy contacting his parents and answering Lin Shen and the others’ questions, completely forgetting about their existence.
Taking advantage of Fang Jing’s sleep, Lu Hao took the wreaths out of his bag, trimmed away the rotted parts, hoping to slow down their decomposition as much as possible.
Yet in the end, it was no use. Everything was futile.
Eventually, the wreaths stopped being wreaths. They shattered into pieces all over the floor, impossible to piece back together, broken into countless individual stems.
Staring blankly, Lu Hao looked at the pile of withered, shriveled, and wrinkled stems before him.
He couldn’t stop the cyclical progression of the sun, moon, and stars, nor could he halt the inevitable destiny of all things marching toward extinction.
Likewise, Fang Jing couldn’t either. Since Fang Jing couldn’t even keep the flower wreath he loved, why should he believe Lu Hao’s sweet-talking promises of treating him well for a lifetime?
Let alone Fang Jing finding it hard to believe and lacking a sense of security, even Lu Hao himself doubted it.
Leaving a familiar environment and entering an unfamiliar, brand-new world, Fang Jing would inevitably feel uneasy and lack a sense of security. When he suddenly learned that the person he relied on most might eventually share this affection with others, throwing a tantrum was only natural.
Yet Xie Zhinian and the others claimed that Fang Jing was in the wrong, even suggesting that Lu Hao send Fang Jing back to the Lu family and hand him over to professionals who specialized in raising and training contracted beasts.
Putting himself in Fang Jing’s shoes, Lu Hao finally realized just how important he was to Fang Jing.
“Ji~” For some reason, Fang Jing groggily woke up. With a hazy mind, he instinctively let out a chirp, twitched his nose, and following a familiar scent, lunged forward in a flying leap, landing securely in a warm embrace.
“Yuanyuan,” Lu Hao caught the white ball of fur and said guiltily, “Yuanyuan, I’m sorry. I broke your wreath.”
Hearing this, Fang Jing snapped wide awake. “Ji?”
“Can you speak human language?”
“The wreath is broken?”
“Yeah, I…” I just wanted to trim it up a bit, who knew it would still break?
Lu Hao wanted to apologize, but before he could finish his apology, Fang Jing got mad. Accusingly, he said, “How could you break my wreath? That was a gift you gave me, my only gift.”
Lu Hao: “…”
In an instant, Lu Hao finally understood why Fang Jing had been so stubborn about making him bring the broken wreath along.
“It’s not the only gift, Yuanyuan. If you like them, once we go back, I’ll weave one for you every single day, okay? Right in front of my house at the military academy, there’s a garden with so many flowers. I’ll pick them all to make wreaths for you, alright? If you don’t like those flowers, we can specially plant your favorite flowers and grasses, okay?”
“Hmph, I don’t believe you.” Fang Jing jumped from Lu Hao’s arms onto the floor, using his tail like a broom to sweep the scattered stems together. Looking at the petals of varying lengths that had already dried up, a layer of mist welled up in his eyes.
He glared angrily at Lu Hao. “It’s all your fault! Why did you touch my things? Look, you broke it. You have to pay me back!”
“Alright, I’ll pay you back. I’ll compensate you tenfold, so stop being mad.”
“Hmph, that’s more like it. But I’m still so sad. My gift is just gone like this.”
Unable to bear seeing Fang Jing like this, Lu Hao scooped him up, ignoring his protests, and planted kisses on his face.
On the very last kiss, Lu Hao accidentally landed one right by Fang Jing’s lips. “Stop being sad. I’ll give you even more gifts in the future.”
Completely stunned by the sudden kiss, Fang Jing’s brain turned to mush. The entire “person” felt dizzy and ethereal, as if his soul was about to leave his body.
He raised his tail and gestured a height with it. “Haohao… I still have this much sadness left.”
Fang Jing couldn’t even understand why he liked Lu Hao’s kisses so much.
Lu Hao: “…”
Struck by a sudden flash of insight, Lu Hao understood immediately.
He kissed Fang Jing again, looked at his tail, and asked with a smile, “How about now, Yuanyuan? How much sadness is left?”
Having received a kiss and growing so happy he could burst, Fang Jing could barely restrain himself from hopping left and right. His tail dropped slightly lower than its previous position. “There’s still this much.”
Resigned, Lu Hao kissed him again and again until Fang Jing was coaxed back into high spirits.
Once the little guy was happy, all past grievances were cast to the wind. Or perhaps he simply wasn’t the type to hold onto things. That very night, acting as carefree as ever—as if he hadn’t just been throwing a moody temper tantrum a moment ago—he snuggled up against Lu Hao for a cozy cuddle session before drifting peacefully off to sleep.
After several days of flight, the transport ship finally arrived at Capital Star.
The prosperity of Capital Star completely exceeded Fang Jing’s expectations. The moment they stepped off the transport ship, military cadets who had bound contracted beasts were picked up by their family elders.
Students returning from Fire Cloud Star this time were granted a few days of rest. First, to settle and comfort their contracted beasts, and second, to give students whose bonding failed some time to adjust.
“Haohao, is this what you call Capital Star?” Fang Jing sent a telepathic voice transmission to Lu Hao. Ever since Fang Jing stopped fussing over the “girlfriend” misunderstanding, Lu Hao had been worrying about something else.
He wasn’t worried about anything major, just the fact that whenever other people were around, he and Fang Jing couldn’t communicate properly. It was only later that Fang Jing learned to send voice transmissions to Lu Hao through their contract bond.
Lu Hao had a large backpack strapped to his back, while his two great bodyguards stood to his left and right—an Ice Tiger, with Fang Jing cradled in his arms. “Yeah, this is Capital Star, Yuanyuan. Eldest Brother will be coming to pick me up shortly. Wait until I return Second Brother’s contracted beast, and then we’ll head back to the school.”
The Lu family rarely had anyone home at this hour. Lu Huan couldn’t stand up, yet he insisted on spending every day immersed in the military’s research institute.
As for Lu Chen and Lu Jingzhou, needless to say, the father and son held vital official posts and were so busy every day they practically lived in their offices. The last time the three of them managed to gather together to watch Lu Hao’s livestream was purely during their lunch break.
As for Lu’s mother, she was also a busy woman. Being a university professor, she had a tight schedule. Among all the members of the Lu family, only Lu Hao, who was still studying, had the most free time.
Lu Chen arrived quickly. With a wave of his hand, he instructed the accompanying Lu family attendants to load the contracted beast onto the vehicle before asking Lu Hao, “Aren’t you going back to rest?”
“No, Eldest Brother. I’ll take Yuanyuan straight back to the school. Yuanyuan, this is my eldest brother.” Lu Hao deliberately made the introductions.
Lu Chen was slightly caught off guard. He had heard from their father that his third younger brother’s contracted beast seemed to have some intelligence, but he didn’t expect a pet beast to actually greet him.
To his surprise, Fang Jing’s actions made his jaw nearly drop to the floor.
Fang Jing had spent the past few days on the transport ship watching videos, so he knew the proper way to greet people in this society. Lu Hao had explicitly told him that outside of his presence, he must never expose the fact that he could speak human language around anyone else.
Actually, even without Lu Hao’s reminder, Fang Jing knew better. At that moment, he let out a chirp and extended his front paws—which were only as long as Lu Hao’s index finger—making a gesture as if he wanted to shake hands.
Unfortunately, Lu Chen didn’t catch it.
“Eldest Brother, Yuanyuan is saying hello to you. He wants to shake hands.”
“Huh? He can even shake hands?” Finding it utterly unbelievable, Lu Chen doubtfully extended a hand and grasped Fang Jing’s tiny paw, which was even smaller than a Chinese date.
Fang Jing shook Lu Chen’s hand and let out another chirp.
Lu Chen was completely dumbfounded. He didn’t understand what that chirp meant, leaving him staring blankly for a long moment without reacting.
Fang Jing looked up at Lu Hao and asked in confusion, “Haohao, why isn’t your eldest brother saying hello back?”
“Eldest Brother, Yuanyuan is saying hello to you. You need to say it back to him.”
Lu Chen: “…”
Shaking hands with a pet beast was one thing, but now he actually had to say hello back?
Nowadays, do meetings with pet beasts require such formal, high-spec protocols?
Still, one thing was certain: this four-dissimilarity little beast named Yuanyuan indeed possessed some intelligence.
Being polite, Lu Chen said a brief “hello,” gave Lu Hao a few parting instructions, and then got into his vehicle and left.
Capital Star First Military Academy was massive. The student dormitories included four-person rooms, double rooms, and single rooms.
Naturally, if you had money, you could also rent a single detached two-story house.
Since Lu Hao wasn’t used to living with others, Mother Lu had arranged a small two-story cottage for him to live in alone.
This could also be considered Lu Hao’s second home.
As soon as they arrived home, Lu Hao opened the courtyard gate and stroked Fang Jing’s head. “Yuanyuan, look. This is my garden. I planted the seeds and sprinkled them here myself. Pretty, isn’t it?”
“Pretty.” From getting off the transport ship all the way to being picked up by the school’s exclusive vehicle, Fang Jing gazed at the towering skyscrapers outside the car window without even blinking.
This place was truly different from the cultivation world. To use the phrasing from the videos, it was overflowing with a sense of high technology.