Chapter 31
Four legs facing the sky
Their club had not yet built a trophy showroom, so after consideration, Xia Tao decided to hang the three medals on the living room wall, right next to the wooden bird rack.
Although Xia Qi and the others who had stayed behind, had heard that their club’s three cubs had all gotten into the top ten through Xingyou, it was another thing to see the three proud little cubs flaunting their shiny medals, with their own eyes. It really made them happy.
The sunflower shaped medals were also very cute, and especially so while hanging around the fluffy cubs’ necks.
Obviously it was just a friendly competition that tested the cubs’ basic flying ability. But when Xia Tao entered the house and brought the cubs into the living room, the other adults in the room exaggeratedly praised the cubs with sincerity.
Looking at the proud expression on the faces around him, Xia Tao coughed to hide the smile on his face.
“Tiuh! Tiuh-Tiuh!”
Being met with everyone’s praise, the three little cubs raised their chests high. Their black eyes were exceptionally bright and they happily called out several times.
When Xie Tao later removed the small medals from the three cubs, he could see that they were still a bit reluctant to part with them.
“Tiuh…” With a low chirp, the three cubs stroked against Xie Tao’s shirt. It was very obvious that the cubs were used to expressing their wants and needs.
Having three pairs of black eyes expectantly gazing up at him, as well as being snuggled by the fluffy cubs, Xie Tao naturally could not resist.
“Want to wear them a little longer?” With a smile in his eyes, Xie Tao added, “Later, I will just hang these medals on the wall, right beside your little house.”
The three cubs wanted to wear them, they really wanted to wear them. But they couldn’t always wear them. They would need to take them off when they bathed for example.
“Tiuh!” The medals were put on again and the small cubs happily chirped and flapped their wings, flying over to their little house.
On the other hand, when hearing the voice of the youth and discovering that he was back, the cubs playing and resting in the living room moved the tips of their ears and soon Xie Tao was surrounded by the cubs.
A mass of fluff together with one Muka cub. Xie Tao’s ability to walk had been fully incapacitated by the innumerable forepaws firmly clutching his shoes and trouser legs.
“I don’t think I would get such a warm welcome if I was away for three days.” Watching the human youth who had now sat down on the soft rug in the living room and already had several cubs climbing up onto his body, Zheng Zhou could not help but sigh.
To be able to be this close to the cubs was undoubtedly an important ability. In the Star Alliance’s Star Assessment of caretakers, it amounted for 15% of the total score.
After working together for some time now, Zheng Zhou had also realized that the human youth in front of his eyes seemed to have pretty good spiritual energy.
Even though the other sometimes fell short when it came to common sense, overall, his ability was obviously much better than that of a C-level caretaker.
So when he got to know that the youth did not have a star rating, Zheng Zhou felt it a bit unfathomable—
For the youth to partake in the Star Assessment, with the other’s ability, as long as he prepared for it, he would surely have no problem getting the B-level assessment, right?
Xie Tao who was buried in fluff, looked down at the three cubs still clinging to his legs.
Two of them were Saimo cubs, who looked like small lions. Standing on their hind legs, they were grabbing onto his pants with their baby teeth which had not yet fully surfaced and were pressing their entire body against his right leg, clinging onto it while looking up at him.
On his left leg clung the Takila just as firmly. Xie Tao tried to move his legs, but in the end, gave up on straightening them.
Occupying Xie Tao’s bosom, a round cub with two small horns on his head was nestling into his arms with an eye half open, looking down at the other cubs. As the Knox cub had now already taken that place, the other cubs seemed to give up crawling into his embrace and instead most of them climbed up onto his legs and refused to move.
With so many fluffy cubs on his body, Xie Tao felt as if he was covered with a fluffy blanket, and it also brought the kind of cozy warmth that not only warmed his whole body, but also his heart.
On Orte, shortly after the cub left, Tanner had called the butler to his study.
“Sir, you don’t have to donate anonymously to this cub raising club.” The butler tried earnestly to persuade him, “You may justly and honorably…”
Before he could finish, the butler was silenced under the man’s sharp gaze and took on a proper work attitude.
So, a few days later, Yunbao branch received an anonymous donation. When Feng Wenxian, who was in charge of the financial affairs of Yunbao branch, told the sum to the others, they all were stunned.
Two million credits???
Their first reaction was that they must have misheard. Which wealthy person would so kindly donate two million to their club out of nowhere? The fact that they were anonymous made it even more incomprehensible…
Confirming that it was indeed two million credits, Xie Tao involuntarily shifted his eyes to the Kuhti cub playing with his two friends.
Using the method of exclusion, the most likely person to do this was clearly the Kuhti cub’s parent…
But as the other had chosen to remain anonymous, Xie Tao, even though he had basically confirmed it in his mind, could not voice his guess.
A large anonymous donation had been received and they had recently also attained their first share of fame. Two days before the end of the month, Yunbao branch welcomed the first new cubs since the Kuhti cub.
There were six new cubs, five of whom were Kuhti, Kuwei and Cotto cubs.
Considering that the event that made Yunbao branch gain fame was mainly related to these three races, Xie Tao was not surprised by this.
“Tiuh-tiuh, tiuh—”
Having been carried and put down on the soft carpet covering the living floor, the five cubs looked similar to small fluffy baby chicks as they sat together and curiously took in their new environment.
Not counting the three original ones, there were now five more. Xie Tao walked up to the wooden bird rack that was not far away and looked at the three fluffy cubs sitting outside the cabin at the top. Suddenly, this rack looked quite small.
The three cubs were also a little at loss. They really liked this wooden rack a lot, but now that there were five new companions, it would not be enough for all of them…
“Ah Tao, I think we should just buy an indoor tree directly. There is some space over there, in the upper right corner, we can place it there.” Xia Qi paused to think and then said, “We should buy a Bannou tree, they don’t require much care and they have a very nice appearance. They should be suitable for indoor planting.”
Xie Tao did not hesitate and quickly made the purchase according to Xia Qi’s suggestion. The wooden rack would not be removed and soon there was also a big tree with colorful autumn colored leaves growing in the living room.
Additionally, they even made several small nests and added them to the branches. Now that there were many places for the cubs, they did not have to worry about unfairness due to lack of space.
“Tiuh-tiuh.”
The cubs of the three races were obviously very interested in the nests in the tree and after Xie Tao finished, they all, one after another, flapped their small wings and flew up to the tree, choosing their own favorite nest.
Their club now had a fluffball tree…
Looking at the cubs squatting in their respective nests, each one of them appearing exceptionally round and fluffy, people would not help but think this.
In comparison, the last cub out of the six was different, it was a Moye cub.
Xie Tao had before heard that the Moye race was known in the interstellar for their rough and thick skin, and that they had the strongest defense capability out of all the interstellar races.
Having never seen the original form of this race, Xie Tao was stunned for a second when he for the first time saw the cub form of the Moye race.
It looked like… a small turtle.
“He just turned one this month and our cub is still a little unskilled when it comes to balance, so you may need to take extra care of him.” The one speaking was an adult Moye male, a race where men and woman generally had a much larger and sturdy figure than the other races; when in humanoid form, they measured up to at least 2.3 meters tall.
Balance?
Just as he showed some doubt regarding this statement, Xie Tao saw the Moye cub, who had slowly been taking two steps after being put down, suddenly turn over onto his back.
The Moye cub’s four short legs were restlessly kicking in the air for a long time and when he could not turn over, the cub began to hum and whine for his parent.
“That’s it…” The parent standing next to him explained rather helplessly that he did not know why his cub would flip onto his shell when walking and that the cubs of their race would normally not so easily be turned over like that.
In response, Xie Tao approached the Moye cub and squatted down beside him. He then stretched out his hands towards the cub.
Touching the edges of the hard shell of both sides, Xie Tao then moved his one of his hands to gently touch the cub’s belly and with a warm voice said. “Be good.”
Feeling a sense of security from the youth, the Moye cub, who was humming and wildly pedaling his four short legs in the air, gradually stopped moving and his sight shifted to the youth’s face.
Xie Tao turned the Moye cub back over and then patted the cub’s shell.
Seeing the young man’s behavior for himself, the Moye cub’s father felt reassured and decided to let his cub stay at this Cub Raising Branch.
After the parent had checked in and left, Xie Tao picked up the Moye cub from the ground and prepared to take him to the cub house.
As they were walking there, Xie Tao remembered that the Moye people were a water-loving race.
It seemed that now the mermaid cub would finally have a small companion to play with.
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Translator’s note:
Yay, more cubs! A fluffball tree! ＼(^o^)／
We even got a Moye cub!!! It was just so adorable when he was laying on his back, waving his legs in the air, I think I have died of cuteness once again! XD
On a more serious note, I found some fanart a while ago. It is from the original novel and I have some (probably) bad news to break to you— The Muka appears to be more of an insect-like creature… When I first translated it I did wonder if he was more of a beetle-like creature, but as I, like many of you, thought that he was the ML, I became so unsure; I mean, a gigantic beetle ML totally defies the laws of BL….. So I went against my initial instinct and decided to ask someone who had already read it and as they said that he looked more like a dragon, I went with dragon/lizard-like and translated it as scales rather than shell.
When I found out about it, I put the fanart in characters and also put an explanation in the Muka’s “character description”, but I did put off bringing this matter up. It’s quite a big thing and it seems I’m a bit conflict avoiding… But now it has been said.
I can continue translating him as more lizard-like or I can go back and change the text to the more correct translation, but that would mean turning the Muka cub into an insect-like thing, what would you guys prefer?
[x] – “Four legs facing the sky” is an idiom and means laying flat on one’s back.