Lu Hao was a man of his word. After returning to the academy, he truly kept his promise of weaving a flower crown for Yuanyuan every single day, and the floral arrangements were never repeated twice in a row.
Even when he had early morning classes to attend, he would wake up ahead of time to pick the freshest flowers, weave them into a tiny flower crown, and place it gently atop Yuanyuan’s head while the little fellow was still fast asleep. Sometimes, he would even weave a few extra ones to adorn Yuanyuan’s front paws and tail.
Reluctant to leave Yuanyuan behind at home alone, Lu Hao had specially fashioned a small basket, placing a soundly sleeping Yuanyuan inside every day to bring him along to lectures.
To this, his classmates had long since grown accustomed.
At first, they had been curious about what kind of creature the top scholar of the First Military Academy had contracted. Yet this little thing did nothing all day except sleep or eat, or otherwise curl up lazily inside the scholar’s pocket while munching on dried beef.
Such an obedient white fluff ball that neither cried nor made a fuss was utterly endearing; none of them had ever seen a pet beast behave so well.
Of course, all of that was a story for another time.
Before heading out, Lu Hao grabbed his car keys and wove a small rose flower crown for Yuanyuan to wear. Looking it over from all angles until he was satisfied, he opened his optical computer to snap a picture of Yuanyuan before lifting the little fellow onto his shoulder. “Yuanyuan, we’ll go shopping at the supermarket later and then eat outside directly. I have three days of rest this time, and I’ll take you out for a proper tour around the campus.”
Yuanyuan happily wagged his tail and let out an affirmative hum before asking eagerly, “Haohao, does Yuanyuan look good like this?”
“Good-looking, our Yuanyuan is the best-looking and the cutest.”
Lu Hao turned his head to meet the gaze of Yuanyuan on his shoulder, his eyes filled with gentle smiles. The moment Yuanyuan leaned forward, with just a single gesture, he knew exactly what the little fellow wanted.
The little guy wanted another kiss.
Lu Hao dropped a light kiss onto Yuanyuan’s forehead, letting the fluffy little beast, whose eyes curved into crescent moons with joy after receiving the kiss, rub affectionately against his cheek with its soft face.
The First Military Academy occupied an enormous expanse of land. Walking from the student dormitory area to the supermarket on foot, without driving, would take at least an hour and a half no matter how fast one went.
“Ah! Do we have to ride that stinky thing again? Haohao, that smell is just too awful; my nose is about to break!” With Yuanyuan’s sharp sense of nose, when he had followed Lu Hao back on the school shuttle earlier that morning, the smell of leather and sweat inside the vehicle had caused him to burrow frantically into Lu Hao’s clothes, impossible for Lu Hao to pull out.
Seeing Yuanyuan’s expression of utter disgust, Lu Hao chuckled and rubbed the little one’s head. “Don’t worry, I’ve put some aromatherapy in my car, so it doesn’t smell bad.”
Yuanyuan blinked his large eyes. “Oh, does Haohao’s car smell as nice as Haohao? Haohao smells the best.”
Lu Hao: “Nonsense, how do I smell like anything?”
Held securely in Lu Hao’s arms, Yuanyuan kept his gaze fixed entirely on Lu Hao’s face, his little mouth opening and closing as he declared, “Haohao smells nice everywhere.”
The way Lu Hao smiled was something Yuanyuan couldn’t quite describe or put into words. It was a feeling as though springtime flowers had bloomed and one was bathing in warm morning light, a sensation both comforting and warm.
Not only was Lu Hao’s smile warm, but every single one of his facial features was impeccably handsome. In Yuanyuan’s mind, terms like imposing, bright-eyed, and jade-like elegance simply weren’t enough to capture this breathtaking handsomeness.
Given that Yuanyuan had seen countless handsome men and beauties in the cultivation world, Lu Hao still possessed the capital to make his eyes light up, which alone demonstrated just what kind of immortal-like appearance Lu Hao possessed.
As Lu Hao walked toward his parking spot, he lowered his head to check on Yuanyuan from time to time, finding it amusing that the little fellow kept staring at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because you’re good-looking!”
The words slipped out without a trace of hesitation or delay.
No matter who it was, being told they looked good by someone they cared about would never fail to put them in a good mood.
Lu Hao let out a low chuckle. He had no idea what aesthetic standards wild beasts had, but seeing Yuanyuan speak with such earnestness, he couldn’t help finding it amusing. Yet alongside the amusement, he inevitably felt a surge of happiness.
In high spirits, he cupped the white fluff ball from his arms in his palms and raised it up toward his face.
Lu Hao tapped the tip of his own nose against Yuanyuan’s nose and rubbed them together twice, teasing Yuanyuan, who couldn’t stand up or hop around, into excitedly twisting his chubby little butt left and right.
Lu Hao knew that Yuanyuan loved it most when he did this.
Every time they nuzzled like this, Yuanyuan would be overjoyed, his eyes brimming with smiles and shining with light, bright as stars, making anyone’s heart melt.
“Is Yuanyuan very happy?”
“Happy! I love it most when Haohao kisses me.”
With his high standards, Yuanyuan adored beautiful people above all else, and from the very first glance at his poop-scooper, he had liked him immensely.
Back during the initial contract formation when he first met Lu Hao and discovered the other possessed such a stunning, otherworldly face, just a single fleeting glimpse had caused seeds of affection to take root, prompting his body to react before his brain ever could.
Otherwise, what kind of contract required mouth-to-mouth kisses to complete?
Yet, accustomed to acting like a lazy salted fish and naturally slow-witted in these matters, Yuanyuan couldn’t fully comprehend that realization.
Lu Hao had no inkling of what the little beast in his arms was thinking. His car wasn’t far from the house; stepping out of the courtyard gate and taking a left turn brought him right to it.
A luxury super sports car was parked outside the courtyard wall, a twentieth-birthday gift from Du Yang to Lu Hao, valued at two hundred million credits.
Although Lu Hao was a member of the Lu family, he held a ten percent equity stake in the Du Group gifted by his maternal family.
The Du and Lu families were not only bound by marriage ties, but were also grasshoppers tied to the same rope. With Lu Hao’s strength, barring any accidents, given time his achievements would not fall short of Lu Jingzhou’s. Once he bound himself together with the Du Group, it would be a mutually beneficial arrangement where both sides gained.
Lu Hao unlocked the car door and first let Yuanyuan sniff inside. “Yuanyuan, take a sniff and see if I was lying to you.”
Yuanyuan’s nose twitched, and letting out a surprised “oh,” he said happily, “Nope, Haohao wouldn’t lie.”
“Haohao is so wonderful, you have to give me a kiss as a reward.” Without waiting for Lu Hao’s agreement, Yuanyuan leaped straight out of Lu Hao’s arms and planted a swift smack of a kiss right beside Lu Hao’s lips.
If Lu Hao had wanted to dodge, he naturally could have avoided it, but he didn’t; he simply let Yuanyuan kiss him.
Not far from the human and the beast, a few students witnessed this scene and began whispering to one another, though it was impossible to tell what they were saying.
Noticing them, Lu Hao didn’t even spare them a single glance. After settling Yuanyuan securely inside, he started the engine and drove out.
The shopping mall of the First Military Academy was absurdly massive. Looking left, right, up, and down, Yuanyuan chirped non-stop, finding novelty in everything he saw.
No matter what Yuanyuan asked, Lu Hao patiently explained without a trace of annoyance.
“Doesn’t Yuanyuan want to eat ice cream? Come on, I’ll take you right now.”
Upon reaching the shop, Lu Hao let Yuanyuan pick for himself. “Look, Yuanyuan, there are many flavors of ice cream and popsicles here, but you can only choose one of each. You can’t pick more.”
“Why? I can eat a lot.” When Yuanyuan saw the ice cream inside the display case, he fell in love just looking at the pictures on top. He liked every single style, and since he had never tasted them before, he couldn’t narrow it down to a single favorite and wanted to have them all.
Lu Hao shook his head. “No, you can’t. If you eat too much, we won’t be able to eat anything else later. I’ll take you to get something else afterward, and there are many kinds of little cakes you love too.”
The store clerk was utterly dumbfounded.
News about the youngest scholar-son of Marshal Lu’s family contracting a pet beast was something no netizen following the First Military Academy students’ trip to Fire Cloud Planet could possibly be unaware of.
A Level 10 pet beast!
Admittedly, this pet beast was extremely adorable with its pair of big purple eyes cuteness personified, but that couldn’t conceal the fact that it was a Level 10 pet beast!
As everyone knew, Level 10 pet beasts, other than canine breeds and a few others proven to have decent intelligence, generally had rather worrisome cognitive capacities.
Yet when facing such a pet beast, the prestigious Scholar Lu was actually chatting and laughing with it as if conversing with another human being.
Could he have suffered too much stimulation and gone completely insane?!
Then, the shocking moment arrived. After Scholar Lu stated that he could only pick one ice cream and one popsicle, the white fluff ball genuinely used its tail to hook an ice cream and a popsicle out of the cabinet, before hopping down from the counter with a wronged expression to scamper toward the other snack sections.
So, it actually understood human speech, right?
“Haohao, I want to eat this. I’ve never had this before, can you buy a pack for me?”
“Haohao, this looks so delicious!”
“Haohao, I want this one, will you buy it for me?”
Lu Hao: “”
They always said women casting spoiled acts had the best fate, but this phrase applied just as well to contracted beasts.
Lu Hao simply couldn’t withstand Yuanyuan pleading with him in that pitiful, deliberately spoiled, and cute tone, begging him to buy this and buy that.
In the end, with a wave of Lu Hao’s hand: Did Yuanyuan like it? Buy it! Did Yuanyuan love eating it? Buy it! Did Yuanyuan want to taste it? Buy it!
In short, it was buy, buy, buy.
Yuanyuan was thrilled, leaping upward in a single bound, only to be swiftly caught by Lu Hao.
“Haohao, how can you be so good, buying me so many delicious things? Yuanyuan is so happy, can I give you a kiss as a reward?”
Lu Hao: “”
Earlier, when Yuanyuan had behaved obediently, Lu Hao had been so happy that he kissed Yuanyuan. At that time, Yuanyuan, who couldn’t speak yet, had seemed very surprised, but he hadn’t resisted; he had only widened his eyes as if asking, “Why are you kissing me?”
Back then, Lu Hao had casually replied, “Because Yuanyuan was a good boy and made me very happy, so I have to kiss Yuanyuan to reward him.”
Who could have guessed that Yuanyuan would now apply what he learned?
What more could Lu Hao say? He remained silent, but the doting look in his eyes toward Yuanyuan conveyed the answer loud and clear.
A soft sensation landed on his lips, accompanied by a slight tickling itch as fur brushed past the edge of his mouth. Both sensations made it abundantly clear to Lu Hao exactly where Yuanyuan had kissed him.
Only after Yuanyuan pulled back to create some distance did Lu Hao finally release the breath he had been holding in. “Yuanyuan, in the future, you can kiss me anywhere else, but you must never kiss me on the lips, understand?”
“Why?”
“Because that’s something only lovers can do.”
“Lovers?”
“It’s like a boyfriend and girlfriend relationship.”
“But I’m your contracted beast, why can’t I kiss you?”
What did lovers even matter? They were dao companions, after all; what was wrong with kissing his own husband?
Lu Hao’s head began to throb again. “Even if you’re my contracted beast, you still can’t. In this place, whether human or beast, that’s something reserved only for the person you like. Did you remember that? In the future, you aren’t allowed to kiss anyone else like that either, understand?”
Faced with this same old set of preachings, Yuanyuan let out a huff and said in an aggrieved, puffed-up tone, “If we don’t kiss, we don’t kiss!”
No matter what, as long as Yuanyuan agreed, it was fine.
Yet Lu Hao had no idea that today he refused to let anyone kiss him, but in the future, he would find himself plenty of times having to coax the little fellow into kissing him back.