Chapter 53

After finishing his sentence, the father ignored Toto.

Toto waited for a while, then got up to work with a slight disappointment. He slowly picked up his meal bag, thinking that if he slowed down, his father might call him back and say something.

But even as he slowly moved out of the tent, his father didn't look at him again.

Toto shook the food bag on his shoulder, walked down the road, couldn't help but sigh, and kicked a few pebbles away with his head drooping.

He also knew that the female father was not a female father in the traditional sense, and the male father was not a male father in the traditional sense.

Whoever's female father lays an egg, leaves the egg at home, takes a weapon, and goes out, only returning once every ten days or half a month.

Toto rolled and rolled until he hatched, and rolled and rolled until he was three years old. He still couldn't talk and would foolishly dig dirt in the grass every day. Once, he fell into a wolf trap and was soaked in the rain all night. No one came to find him, and he miraculously floated out of the water. At that time, he was malnourished and chubby, and he was round and plump. He managed to roll home, stumbling and swaying, without feeling any pain.

The three-year-old insect cub was old enough to remember things, and neither Toto nor Sorim would forget the scene when they lifted the tent flap and saw each other that day.

Perhaps realizing that the male insect was truly indifferent to the egg and only knew how to fight, Solim had no choice but to start hardcore parenting, going out to work and even tying Toto to his back.

However, since battles are too prone to friendly fire, Sorim simply placed the insect cubs near the battlefield. To prevent Toto from running away, he even tied him to a pillar.

However, this method was far too brutal. Once, a battle lasted too long, and when Sorim arrived at the safe house, Toto was half dead and almost starving.

Therefore, when Tuotuo grew a little older, Solim made the difficult decision to take a long leave of absence and stay at home to instill a lot of common sense in him.

At that time, the male father would never meet the female father. If they met, they would scream and argue. So the female father would sleep on the woodpile outside the tent.

Toto had been learning from Solim for a year, and the little male insect, who was only a head taller than an axe, had already mastered basic survival skills. Solim went out again, only to return home before they ran out of food.

Toto has no companions. He lives on the edge of the grassland, near a pasture deep in the mountains, where he has a long day to do from morning till night.

There were only two insects, no visitors, no neighbors. They were probably too lonely or too bored. One day, Toto came back with hay and saw the small stone slab at the door.

He was carrying a large bunch of mosquito-repellent plants as he rushed down the hillside, his head covered in sweat.

By today's standards of beauty, he was hardly cute back then. He was dark-skinned and thin, with a small hunting bow at his waist, and his hair was disheveled. He only had some baby fat on his cheeks, but he only made people want to bully him, not feel any pity for him.

Toto has his own little tent, while Xiongfu sleeps in a big tent. Next to the big tent is Toto's little tent, and a stone slab is placed next to his little tent with words written on it.

Toto still remembers the anxiety he felt at that time, not knowing what to do with that stone slab, which clearly belonged to his father.

It's clean and pretty, as if it's been polished for a long time, with even the sharp edges smoothed into cute curves.

What is that?

have no idea.

But I couldn't help but look, pretending to be busy while secretly glancing at those strange, orderly lines. They seemed like a sentence, a mark, or a painting; in any case, they were beautiful things.

Toto started a fire to cook, fed the little pack animal, chopped firewood, and played a war game by himself for a while, but still couldn't discover the use of the stone slab.

But as the sun was about to set, Xiong's father limped out of the tent and coldly ordered him to wash his hands and face.

Toto ran faster than the little pack animal that saw its mother, rushing towards the stream like a tornado and running back with a chill in its body.

The female father pointed to the stone slab and handed him a stone pencil: "Toto, this is your name."

After that, Xiong's father would spend an hour every night teaching him to read until Toto was able to read a book on his own. Xiong's father never touched that stone slab again. The stone slab is still hidden under Toto's pillow, as new as it was back then.

When Toto grew a little older, he realized that he was a male insect. If his female father had sold him, he could have exchanged him for a small territory from a nobleman, at least ensuring he would have enough to eat and wear. But his female father raised him as an ordinary female insect egg.

Toto's impression of his female father was that he was taciturn, aloof, and tall, like a mountain whose top could not be seen.

On this planet ruled by slave-owning nobles, survival is a difficult task. Every insect carries a heavy tax burden. Female insects that are incapable, disabled, frail, or old are driven to mines, where they live and eat at the bottom of the mines and rarely see the sun.

Sorim has to pay taxes to three insect races for each insect, plus medicine for his father. He also doesn't allow Toto to work as a miner, so he never has time to go home.

He didn't hide these things from Toto and told him everything, but both he and Toto chose to remain silent about the matter of their father.

No one’s family was as messy as theirs. No, that would be too much of a rant, as if he were about to complain, but God knows Toto wasn’t. He wished for some miracle, some useful, forever-lasting superglue to hold the three of them together.

He can even take full responsibility and be the most useful and best kid, clearing away all obstacles in life.

But he also knew that this was impossible, and he prepared for the worst.

The male father is leaving, and the female father may want an easier life, so everyone returns to where they belong. Where does Toto belong now?

No one answered this question.

Perhaps he could go back to the ranch and become a herdsman. In truth, he didn't want to study hard or leave home.

Toto shook his backpack, joined the queue for food, and took his meal as usual, packing up the portion he had saved for his father.

Someone patted his backpack. Toto turned around and saw a tall female military officer with a roguish smile on her face: "Hey, the little brat from the Sorim family." Standing next to him was a bishop with a calm expression.

Author's Note: