Translator: Gin
Editor: DragonFae
It was not often that Rimbaud felt like taking the initiative to invite humans into his territory. He snuggled in a corner of the sofa, his fish tail curling around two bottles of cocktails and pulling them to him. With the tip of his tail, he pushed open the caps of the bottles and poured the contents into glass cups. As it was poured out, the cocktails chilled, causing a layer of frost to form on the walls of the cups.
Rimbaud pushed the two low-proof drinks towards them, before rescinding his fish tail, which morphed into two slender and long legs that were straight like pencils. He wore a loungewear set of a gray pair of shorts and a gray short-sleeved shirt which had a pink cat paw print logo printed on its front, his medium-length gold hair lazily curled and draped over his shoulders. At that moment, he no longer seemed to be the haughty, disdainful king he once was.
Amidst the slightly awkward atmosphere, Lu Shangjin asked, “Have you dealt with Aileen?”
Rimbaud didn’t even lift his eyelids, replying indifferently, “She is just beneath your feet.”
Lu Shangjin’s legs shrank back. Why did his words sound a little scary?
“The supplies on the island are insufficient. Some things that could not be bought, I brought in advance. Later on, if there’s anything lacking, get the ferry to deliver it.” Yan Yi placed the whole bag of staple fresh meat cans and freeze-dried snacks on the table. He even included many small toys and catnip balls.
“Hey, Daddy’s obedient Da Bai, come and get your fur combed.” Lu Shangjin took a steel comb to comb Xiao Bai’s hair. Xiao Bai felt comfortable being combed, and lifted his head to rub it to and fro on Lu Shangjin’s body, resulting in white fur being stuck all over Lu Shangjin’s suit jacket. Then, he began to purr and lay on Lu Shangjin’s legs with all four limbs in the air.
“So obedient, even lying down to let me comb his stomach.” Lu Shangjin conveniently touched him without feeling any wariness. Xiao Bai’s mood suddenly flipped and bit down on Lu Shangjin’s hand in one go. He held on with two front paws and refused to let go, kicking wildly with his two hind legs. At once, white fur flew around the house like falling snow, sticking all over Lu Shangjin’s haute couture suit.
“Why are you angry now? You even dared to kick Laozi. Believe it or not, I’ll beat you until you scream.” Lu Shangjin could not pull his hand away, and could not bear to hit the mischievous little cat’s head. He could only let his suit jacket get torn to shreds by the cat’s little paws. Smiling, he sighed, “This little brat.”
“By the way, Rimbaud, you should stop teaching it maths already. From my observations, I can see that you are not very good at this subject. Don’t force Xiao Bai, and don’t force yourself.”
Rimbaud rested one arm on the sofa, propping up his back and crossing one leg lazily. He raised his eyelids slightly, “If I don’t teach, how will he learn anything?”
“Sigh, whether or not he learns anything now is now fully dependent on the strength of his resistance.” Lu Shangjin hooked his hands under the armpits of the little white lion and raised it up, “I was even hoping that he could help to manage the company once he’s big enough. Nevermind then, if it continues to be this way, it’s still pretty cute.”
“No can do.” Rimbaud said, “I’m also waiting for it to grow up to make love to me.”
Lu Shangjin was speechless for a moment. In the face of such a raunchy and wild answer, he suddenly had no idea how to reply.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Xiao Bai was especially happy today, so much so that he dashed randomly around the room. One moment, jumping on the table, one moment, crawling up Lu Shangjin’s leg, another moment, leaping onto Yan Yi’s shoulder and frantically pulling on and playing with his rabbit ears.
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“Hehe! Today I snuck to the arcade while they were training. I was there for so long that I played 1000 rounds on the claw machine till they were all empty and finally just managed to get the grand prize. I’ll give it to Xiao Bai to play with!” As Lu Yan ran up the stairs, his rabbit ears swung around. He carried a backpack, bulging from all the things stuffed in it and hugged a large carrot stuffed toy against his chest.
The special training base had an arcade attached to it. Usually, on holidays, when there was no training, you could go there to watch movies, play billiards or various Virtual Reality games et cetera. Yesterday afternoon, Lu Yan had brought Xiao Bai there to play, and the little lion ended up lying down in front of the claw machines, refusing to leave, all the while staring fixedly at a blue stuffed fish about as big as a palm and whining. Clearly, he really wanted that toy.
Lu Yan assumed that, obviously, the toy Xiao Bai wanted was the extravagant grand prize, a gigantic carrot toy. As a big brother, could he even bear not to give his little brother his heart’s desire? Lu Yan diligently played for a whole afternoon and exchanged all his pocket money for game coins but still could not grab the big carrot. Early this morning, he rushed to the World War II claw machines and finally clinched victory. Other than the big carrot, he had stuffed all the toys he grabbed into his backpack.
He gleefully dashed into the house and bumped into Yan Yi and Lu Shangjin who were busy rubbing the lion.
“En? Why are you guys here? I thought you went directly to the training ground to watch their year-end assessment! I missed you guys to death!” Lu Yan eagerly gave each of them a cursory hug before heading straight for Xiao Bai. When he passed Rimbaud, he took out two squeezy packets of jelly from his pocket and handed them to him, “Auntie said there was only coffee flavor left today, I also brought you a packet of latiao.”
“Qiu Qiu’s still the same, completely unchanged.” Yan Yi smiled as he shook his head.
Rimbaud naturally took the snacks. As he did everyday, just when Lu Yan turned around, he squished his round rabbit tail, then crossed his legs and tore open a bag of Spicy Gluten Sticks to squeeze them out and eat. Smoothly, he said, “Today there’s an assessment, is there food in the canteen?”
“There is, there is. Everytime the end-of-year assessment date comes around, they make a big meal that’s super tasty. Today we’ll go there earlier.” Lu Yan took off his backpack and ran over to the cupboard to drag Xiao Bai off of it. He hung the lion over the crook of his arm and brought it back to the sofa. With the top half of Xiao Bai’s body draped over Lu Yan’s forearm, the lower half stretched out into a long kitty strip.
The little lion grew very quickly, especially because immediately after weaning it could lick minced meat and eat milk mochi. As compared to when it first arrived, Xiao Bai had grown two sizes and now weighed roughly eight kilos, about the same as a large adult ragdoll cat. Lu Yan struggled to pick it up, and it was as though he was carrying a very big stuffed toy.
Filled with anticipation, Lu Yan placed the carrot toy in front of Xiao Bai. Xiao Bai sniffed it, pulled on it twice, then raised his paw and walked away, jumping over to Lu Yan’s discarded backpack and putting his head in to rummage it. In the end, he found the blue fish stuffed toy, and began to happily play by himself.
“Hey, I took really long to get this carrot, come over and play with it-”
Yan Yi laughed in amusement and raised his phone to take some photos of them.
“It’s rare for this whole family to be together, let’s take a group photo!” Yan Yi placed his phone on the table and set a timer on his camera, then dragged Lu Shangjin to sit on the sofa.
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Lu Yan hugged Xiao Bai, who was biting onto the blue fish toy, into the crook of his arm and crammed himself into the middle of the sofa.
Rimbaud was not used to such an overtly warm scene and remained where he was, leaning against a corner of the sofa, propping his chin up and gazing listlessly out the window.
The afternoon sun shone through the curtains, casting a strip of golden light across them. The shutter sounded and the photo was taken. A fresh ray of sunlight was wedged into it, creating a unique code that would be digitally preserved for a long time to come.
However, was it even possible for Xiao Bai to behave and stay in one pose for a minute? Once he stepped on Lu Yan’s legs, he struggled against Lu Yan’s chest, flying out of it and in that moment, was caught in a burst shot. Another shot consisted of his back legs on Lu Yan’s head and his front legs hooked on his shoulders. And yet another shot had him flying into Yan Yi’s torso and yanking on Yan Yi’s rabbit ears with his teeth. In the final shot, he jumped into Rimbaud’s arms, with four limbs facing the sky.
After taking the photos, Yan Yi flipped through them and could not stop laughing. Lu Shangjin picked up the lint roller and dragged it over his body to clean the white fur off of him. Intentionally or not, he hinted to Lu Yan, “Cough cough, if you’ve got free time, let’s go somewhere and have a chat.”
“Sure, about what?” Lu Yan sprawled out on the sofa and teased Xiao Bai. He was not listening to Lu Shangjin at all.
He was also completely unaware of the fact that, in the months that he had been separated from Bi Lanxing, Lanxing’s father had given him the ‘talk’ countless times. Indeed, whenever he talked to Lanxing on the phone, the content was slightly different from before. He would occasionally say some things completely unrelated to work, things that would turn his face red and make his heart race.
Lu Shangjin coughed again, “En…now that you are eighteen, some things need to be properly discussed.”
“Let’s not talk about it for now, we have to go.” Yan Yi glanced at his watch, it was almost time. They couldn’t avoid the bodyguards and related personnel for too long. They had to go to the assessment site early to wait for the students to arrive.
¤¤¤
This year, the overall grades scored at the end-of-year assessment weren’t too bad. Yan Yi personally selected several students with stellar grades and announced their graduation. In the following year, they would be able to enter IOA Headquarters for internships. The list of graduates included Border Collie alpha Duan Ye, elemental-type glands Tan Qing and Tan Yang siblings, puppet omega Lilith and Siamese omega Pai Tun.
The night exams ended, Rimbaud leaned on the balcony, accompanying Xiao Bai. Xiao Bai jumped onto the balcony’s railing and looked towards the training grounds.
Students waited outside quietly with the domesticated experimental subjects, hoping that their respective trainers would receive a good score, but also worried that if they scored too well, they would not be able to see each other after leaving Greenfly Island.
Soon after, students began to walk out of the training grounds in trios and pairs, all holding their grade slips. Xiao Bai attentively watched every student intently till he saw the last one leave, then turned to jump off the railing and walked back to the bedroom slowly.
Rimbaud was surprised by this behavior. He returned to the bedroom and closed the curtains, lying down next to Xiao Bai.
Xiao Bai was acting differently from usual. He pressed the fish toy that Lu Yan had gotten for him under his claws, staring in melancholy at the wall, as if in a daze.
Rimbaud raised his hand to pat Xiao Bai on the head, “What have you thought up?”
Xiao Bai picked up the fish toy and crawled into the crook of Rimbaud’s arm, curling into a comfortable position. He snuggled against Rimbaud’s body and lay down, purring and rubbing his head on Rimbaud’s chin.
In previous years, after the end-of-year examinations, students could go on holiday and return home to visit their families. However, this year was a bit special. Most students would be going to sea as volunteers to help clean up the remaining ice blocks littered throughout the sea.
The speed at which Xiao Bai grew had also increased. Often, when Rimbaud awoke, he would find that Xiao Bai had grown a whole size. It seemed that the genes of its main body which made it giant were still present, and this worried Rimbaud. He would be at a loss for what to do if Xiao Bai grew into a massive white lion!
At this moment, Xiao Bai had already grown to the size of an adult German Shepherd. His weight had soared to 80 pounds, his appetite increased exponentially by day, and the fur on his body had turned silvery white like thin snow under the moon. His body shape was beautiful and perfectly streamlined, under the fur and skin, the ripples of his firm muscles could occasionally be seen.
Its eyes also changed from being honest and cute round eyes to almond-shaped ones that were slightly upturned and sharp. Its sapphire blue pupils were exactly the same as Rimbaud’s.
At its current size, it was extremely difficult to hug and hold it as Rimbaud had done in the past when it was simply a small furball. It was also becoming more and more mischievous. Sometimes, it would hide in a corner, ready to pounce, assuming the posture of a predator by pressing its body low and ceasing movement. When Rimbaud would walk past, it would shoot out like an arrow released from a string, sending Rimbaud flying onto the bed or sofa, then use its powerful paws to firmly press him down.
Rimbaud’s reaction speed was certainly not comparable to that of a big cat. Many times, he was successfully attacked and captured against the sofa, unable to move even a bit.
White lions were elegant and domineering by nature. He rescinded his claws and stepped on Rimbaud’s chest, slowly lowering his head to gently lick the fragile skin on the omega’s neck, that was so thin his blood vessels were visible. As if transfixed, he licked at the faint yet sweet scent of white thorned roses on his skin. To it, this scent was more addictive than catnip.
When it stuck out its tongue, a round blue marking of an eye appeared on its pink tongue that was lined with barbs. Rimbaud had once given him the power to speak oracles, and he could personally recognise this as the mark of a messenger.
On occasion, gods would close one eye when messengers overstepped boundaries, since such offenses were also kind of fun for them. Rimbaud rested against a corner of the sofa. He dragged a nail across the throat of the white lion, gently hooking it under its chin, and pressing a light kiss to its lips. By its cheek, in a bewitching voice that could make people turn soft and crumble, he asked, “Does the little kitty miss me?”
The white lion shook its fluffy ears, which were redder than before. It jumped off of Rimbaud’s body, turning its back on him and sitting down to begin purring.
Although its IQ had yet to return to what it originally was, it seemed to recognise that Rimbaud was its wife.
Rimbaud sat up and realized that the skin on his chest had been marked by circular paw prints from being stepped on for too long.
He immediately picked up his phone to capture a photo of this and sent it to his Moments, which Lu Yan taught him to use, along with some sweet pictures of Xiao Bai revealing its belly.
After a while.
Yan Yi replied: So cute.
Lu Shangjin replied: It’s grown a lot fatter again, I ordered 20 crates of canned staple food, I’ll have Xiao Ning bring it over in a bit.
He Suowei replied: Saved! Saved!
Awwwwww 🥺
Thank You for the new chapter (๑˙❥˙๑)
I just hope BaiChunian won’t have some kind of memories loss when he will turn back in human form. I’m kinda fed up with the amnesia plot… 😀