Chapter 33
The focus of today's meal is whether the relationship between Finks and his partner is stable, not the cubs. Finks confidently handed Li Jue to Ling Xi.
The boy was very skilled in taking care of the cub. He took out bibs, baby cutlery, and even a folding baby seat from the backpack he had been carrying on his back.
It was the first time that Li Jue had seen such a strange, layered room, like an amusement park. If he stared at it for a long time, it seemed as if the whole building was spinning.
When Ling Xi put the bib on him and put him in the baby seat, Li Jue kept looking around with curiosity.
Sometimes you look at the table and the seats, and sometimes you look at the people sitting at the seats.
A dragon, to be exact.
Although the dragon has good eyesight, unfortunately the baby cub is too small. Sitting on a high place, they stretched their necks as much as possible to see clearly; some even took out telescopes.
It's so small and mini.
Is this the baby dragon?
Why does he feel so much cuter than the little bad guys in my memory?
For the dragons, this is like watching a live variety show about children.
Especially when the older boy took out a wet towel to wipe his hands, and the little guy's eyes curved and a pair of cute dimples appeared on his face when he smiled, the dragons in the distance were stunned.
Would a dragon laugh like that?
Can a dragon be as sweet as a milk ball?
...No, is this kid really one of them?
Our crazy cool dragons can’t be this cute!
The suspicious onlookers probably never imagined that their random questioning would lead them to accidentally see the truth.
Xiao Lijue was already used to being watched by people and was not afraid of the sight of so many dragons.
To be a popular guy, you must have the awareness of being a popular guy.
After the first dish came, Ling Xi patted his arm, indicating that it was time to eat.
Zaizai is very focused when eating. His father said that he can’t do other things while eating, otherwise it will be bad for the digestive system (what is the digestive system? Zaizai doesn’t know.) and he won’t be able to grow tall.
Ling Xi asked him if he wanted to be fed, and Li Jue shook his head.
He is already a three-year-old baby and can eat by himself!
The dish on the plate was a kind of deep-sea fish bone, as dry as a twig.
Li Jue wrinkled his nose and sniffed. The smell was strange, which made him lose interest in eating.
He first looked at Ling Xi who was nearest to him. The latter was not picky about food at all and was eating with relish, dipping her food in the green sauce.
Li Jue looked at Qian Xing on the other side again. The Sea Monster King feeds on marine creatures. Even if this kind of fish did not appear in his sub-world, it did not prevent him from feeling at home while eating.
As for the Finks and other dragons farther away, they would have no objection to this common dragon menu.
The little cub was confused - didn't they all find it unpalatable?
Is it just that it doesn’t smell good, but it might taste different?
Zizi was skeptical, and imitated Qianxing's behavior, picking up the knife and fork and cutting.
But his knife was for children and couldn't cut anything.
Li Jue simply picked it up, held his breath and took a big bite——
Unfortunately, his little baby teeth were completely useless when it came to such hard food.
The cub put the fish bone back on the plate and did not cry or make a fuss to attract the adults' attention. Instead, he just lay on the table in a depressed mood.
Ling Xi was the first to notice and whispered, "Kitty, why don't you eat fish?"
Li Jue rested his head on his arm, opened one eye, and lowered his voice like his brother, sharing a child's secret amidst the adults' conversation: "Because, the cub is not a cat!"
Ling Xi asked: "Then what are you?"
The lying child smiled and said, "It's a pear!"
Ayashi said, "Well, she'll be called a pear when she grows up. Now, she should be called a pear flower."
First the flowers bloom, then the fruits bear. A plant's life also has an infancy and a maturity period. Li Jue doesn't understand this principle yet, but Ling Xi already knows it, so she always tells her son that he is a little pear flower.
The cub accepted this, but also had a new question: "Lihua, what should I eat?"
"Hmm... When Rika was little, she also drank milk, right?"
Ling Xi took out the small backpack again, which seemed to contain a universal treasure box, containing everything the baby wanted.
He scooped a few spoonfuls of cereal from the can into Li Jue's small bowl and poured in milk.
The children's bowl has a built-in heating function. Ling Xi operates it familiarly, and in a short while, a bowl of fragrant milk-flavored porridge is ready.
Ling Xi pushed the bowl over and said, "Eat this first to fill your stomach. When we get back, I'll ask Chief Finks to prepare it for you again."
Li Jue held up the spoon and waited for the little brother to help him straighten his bib that was wrinkled from lying down. He took a deep breath of the sweet milk and then started eating happily.
The milk porridge may look monotonous, but it is completely filling for a three-year-old child.
When other strange dragon dishes were served, Li Jue no longer had to pinch his nose to try them. After drinking a bowl of milk porridge, his belly was already full.
After eating, the little kid with nothing to do continued to hold his face in his hands and stare blankly.
A tan animal caught his attention.
It looked a bit like the monkeys he had seen in the zoo, only without hair and covered with a slippery, shell-like substance, similar to the scales of a dragon.
It is much smaller than a cub, and is very agile. It can jump between different tables and even different stairs. It has a long, thin, curly tail.
The strange thing was that, apart from Li Jue, no one else seemed to notice its existence; even though the animal had already cleared the plates of several people by eating and taking away.
Since no one has noticed, we should create opportunities for others to see.
"Xixi."
Li Jue whispered.
"Um?"
Although Ling Xi agreed immediately, she was still concentrating on dealing with the food on the plate that was as hard as a rock.
The cub said loudly: "Little! Monkey!"
Li Jue's pronunciation was very clear, Ling Xi heard it clearly, and was also stunned.
How could there be monkeys in this place where there are dragons everywhere and there are no other species except the two of them and Qian Xing and a few others?
Ling Xi followed his gaze and didn't see the monkey. "Where is it?"
Li Jue turned his little head. The "monkey" ran so fast that only an afterimage was left. His eyes could not keep up with its speed at all.
The adults' conversations were too boring, and the adults' food was even more boring. The little one had long wanted to find something interesting.
He tugged at the corner of Ling Xi's clothes and prayed devoutly: "I want to see it!"
"But..." The boy hesitated. Although children have no right to speak when adults are talking, it didn't seem right to run away without permission.
Li Jue's golden cat eyes were watery, and he pleaded softly, "Just take a look."
If there were a competition for "Who is the last person who can't resist Rikyu's coquettishness", the champion would definitely be Ayaki.
He jumped off his chair first and was about to pick up Li Jue, but was stopped by Finks.
Of course, Li Jue is the first in Ling Xi's heart, but sometimes, she has to listen to the boss first.
He squeezed the cub's little hand and said, "Wait a moment."
The boy quickly came to the leader. Finks put something into his hand and whispered, "Give this to Lin Wang. Let him..."
"yes."
Ling Xi obeyed the order.
Before leaving, he looked at the little cub with puffed up cheeks, stroked the curl at the end of Li Jue's hair and coaxed him, "I'll be back soon and take you to see the little monkey, okay?"
Li Jue has always been a very easy-to-please child. He blinked, and the little pufferfish returned to normal. He looked eagerly and said, "Then you have to come back soon."
"good."
After Ling Xi finished speaking, she took advantage of her small size and inconspicuousness to come and go freely, and quickly left the main table where the elders were.
Li Jue watched his little brother run to the second floor to talk to Lin Wang, and then lay on the table bored again.
Just then, the little brown monkey appeared again.
It jumped onto Elder Qiao's shoulder, who was located just opposite Li Jue.
Elder Qiao seemed to be completely unaware of its existence and was still asking about the details of Finks and Qianxing's "wedding"; Finks racked his brains to make up stories and deceive people, while Qianxing sat quietly by the side, watching him talk nonsense with a smile on his face.
The monkey squatted on the elder's shoulder and hooked his finger at Li Jue.
The cub looked left and right, and after making sure there was no one around, he pointed at himself blankly and said, "Are you calling me cub?"
His voice was very soft, almost like he was talking to himself.
The monkey actually heard it, and not only nodded like a human, but also made a pinky promise again.
The little monkey jumped from Elder Qiao to Elder Zilong's head, made several strange poses, made a face, and patted his butt at Li Jue.
If an adult saw this, they would definitely think the monkey was provoking them.
But children’s thinking process is different. Li Jue naively thought that the little monkey was inviting him to play.
The folding baby chair that Ling Xi brought for Li Jue is much lower than the regular ones on the starship, and the baby can get down by himself.
The parents were busy being interrogated by their parents, and no one noticed that the child was preparing to escape.
In the past, when the adults lifted him in and out of the baby chair, Li Jue had paid attention to how to unlock the safety buckle, and today it finally came in handy.
The child successfully stepped on the small steps and got down from the baby chair. When he looked up, the monkey was already in front of Qian Xing's plate. The Siren King also didn't care about its appearance.
"Squeak."
This time Li Jue could hear the monkey's voice, but he just couldn't understand it.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"
The hairless monkey with armor slapped his butt again and turned and ran away.
Zizi was stunned for a moment.
Do you want to follow by yourself?
He tried hard to move forward with his short legs, calling out in a baby voice: "Wait, wait for me!"
The little monkey jumped onto the stairs to the third floor and looked down at him.
He ran all the way from the main table to the stairs and then up again. The stairs that tall, long-legged dragons walked on were too high for a child, so Li Jue had to use his hands and feet to climb up.
After only climbing a few steps, the pampered cub felt tired and stretched out its little hands as it usually did to its parents, saying, "Can you please hold me?"
The cubs are still in the stage of confusion about the size of objects and have no concept of how big they are or how big the monkey is.
The little monkey looked at the white and tender little hand in front of him, then looked at his own brown paws, and scratched his head in distress: "Squeak, squeak."
I can't do it!
But it thought of another way. It turned around, let its long, thin tail hang down, and turned its head to signal: "Squeak!"
No kitten can escape the temptation of a cat toy. Li Jue looked at the curly tail trembling so close to him and instinctively reached out to grab it.
The gentle child only used a little force when grabbing the monkey, which did not cause any pain.
In addition, its structure is different from that of ordinary monkeys. It can climb up by pulling the child with its tail, and its speed is obviously much faster. Several times, the little cub behind it almost flew up during the jump.
When Ling Xi came back from Lin Wang's place, she saw the empty baby chair. Li Jue had been taken away by the little monkey long ago.
*
The brown crustacean stopped, and Li Jue, who had released his hand, gasped for breath. Although he didn't need to walk himself later, it still consumed his energy to carry it all the way.
The little monkey sat on the ground, scratching his chest and back, then scratching his head, and squeaking from time to time, as if he had something to say to Li Jue.
The cub naturally didn't understand a word he heard. He bent down and picked up the monkey, who was panicked for a moment, but immediately immersed himself in the cub's light floral scent mixed with milk, and calmed down from being uneasy.
"What's your name?" Li Jue introduced himself seriously, "I'm Zizi!"
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!”
Li Jue suddenly realized: "Your name is Zhizhizhi?"
Little monkey: “?”
"Oh, it looks like you guys are getting along really well."
Suddenly, another voice came from behind.
Li Jue turned around holding the little monkey and saw a strange adult with his hands in his pockets, looking at them with a smile.
It’s not completely strange, there is still a hint of familiarity.
Li Jue racked his brains to recall where he had seen this brother.
I can't remember.
Although Natsu's apparent identity is a member of the golden dragon family led by Finks, there are too many dragons on the starship and too many of them like Li Jue. Everyone who sees the baby will say hello and take the opportunity to rub it. It is impossible for the child to remember every one of them.
The fact that the cub didn't recognize him didn't annoy Natsu, as that was what he expected.
Perhaps it was because of a guilty conscience. Even though he had tried his best to get close to most people and smile at them on the starship over the years, he still felt that the Golden Dragon Family had not truly accepted him.
"Brother, is this your little monkey?"
The baby's baby voice brought Natsu back to his senses. He was stunned for a moment before realizing that the "little monkey" Li Jue was talking about was the armored monkey in his arms.
The Armored Ape is one of the weapons secretly raised by the Black Dragon Family. It may look small, but it has absolute lethality.
They are arrogant and eccentric and do not listen to discipline. Every black dragon must undergo the test of taming armored apes during its youth.
Natsu thought of the blood that flowed from the scratches and bites of this armored monkey when he was young, and then looked at the guy in front of him, who was as obedient as a toy in the arms of his cub——
Such a double standard!!
Natsu had long experienced the baby's miraculous soothing ability, but now he realized that not only higher races could be healed, but even uncivilized monkeys like the Armored Ape, which had no mental abilities at all, could obey commands.
It's incredible.
Natsu could hardly contain his excitement. If such a wonderful little cub could be controlled by its father, the future of the Black Dragon family would not have to worry!
He will be the key to his father's capture of the cub, so the road ahead will be...
Natsu was immersed in his wandering imagination, and in a trance he found that Xiao Lijue was still looking at him curiously, still waiting for the answer that he had not received before.
"Oh, yes, it's mine." He squatted down so that he was at eye level with the child. "Do you like it?"
Li Jue held the little monkey and nodded, answering crisply: "It's so cute!"
Armored Monkey and Natsu both looked surprised.
cute?
Is that a word that can be used for the fierce me/armored ape?
Seeing that his brother looked unconvinced, Li Jue wanted to prove it to him.
The little hand touched the top of the ape's not-so-furry head, using the same method that parents usually use to rub kittens.
Armored Ape never knew before that being touched on the head was so pleasant?
It narrowed its eyes and the whole monkey relaxed.
Natsu on the side was stunned.
Is this really the armored ape that he has raised since he was a child, fought with since he was a child, and has yet to defeat?
Could it be that it was switched?
His lips trembled as he thought of another possibility. Because he was always afraid of the overly wild armored ape and never thought about getting along well with it, he didn't realize that all animals like to be patted on the head.
However, there was one place that he was aware of, a restricted area that the Armored Ape would never allow to be touched.
He was determined to conduct an experiment, but also prepared to snatch the cub away if the armored ape attacked. "Well, how about you try to see if you can... touch it, just touch its tail?"
Tail?
Li Jue's eyes fell on the little monkey's thin tail that was curled up again.
Just now, the cub "flew" over here with its squeaky tail!
He stretched out his little hand, palm facing up: "Squeak, squeak, touch it!"
The armored ape cooperated very well by lifting its tail and placing it precisely on the child's palm.
When the cub turned his hand to hold it, the tail playfully wrapped around his little arm.
The cub and the monkey live happily and harmoniously.
Natsu rubbed his eyes again and again, unable to believe that all this was real.
——Then what does that painful experience of me getting bitten and bleeding because I accidentally touched its tail compare to? !
"It looks like you guys are having a lot of fun."
Another person is coming.
Li Jue was just thinking about how this sentence sounded familiar, as if he had heard it not long ago, when he felt the little monkey in his arms suddenly become nervous.
It squeaked and tried to get into the cub's arms, but when it saw there was no way to hide, it simply jumped out of his arms and hid behind Li Jue, shivering.
The little cub didn't understand what was happening yet, but when he saw his other brother's attitude, he immediately became respectful: "Father."
The middle-aged man's dark eyes looked over, not at his son, nor at the little animal that was extremely afraid of him.
His attention was all on Li Jue.
The little guy thought the adult looked familiar: "Uncle, have I seen you before?"
Hubbard smiled.
On the day that Finks brought his cub to report to the Elders' Council, he was next to Elder Joe. The fearless little thing took the initiative to climb onto the elder's legs, so he witnessed the whole process.
"We've met before," the man said. "I'm Hubbard. What's your name?"
"I'm—Baby~" Li Jue introduced himself the same way he did to Elder Qiao that day, blinking his light golden eyes. "Uncle, I've heard of your name!"
"Oh? Really?" Hubbard asked intrigued. "Did Finks mention it to you?"
The dragons on the starship would not call their eldest brother by his name. The name of the parent was a little unfamiliar to the little cub, and he could still vaguely remember who Finks was from Qian Xing's voice.
He nodded: "Yes, brother said so!"
Hubbard had never heard of such a strange name as "Brother Mi", but it didn't matter: "So what did he tell you about me?"
"Hmm..." The cub propped up his little face, thought seriously, and finally answered in a baby voice, "Brother Mimi said that you are, um... a big bastard!"
Obviously, Li Jue didn't understand that "bastard" was a very bad word, and he even smiled when he repeated it from memory.
Hubbard's face turned pale, but he was not angry. After all, the adjective he used to describe Finks was much worse than "bastard"; of course, this part could be omitted in front of the children.
Natsu had two extremely surprising things today.
First, his unruly armored monkey, who was as docile and docile as a kitten or puppy around Li Jue;
Secondly, his father, the head of the family who was usually dictatorial and authoritative, actually bent down and spoke to the child in a kind and gentle voice.
Just as Hubbard reached out his hand to Li Jue, the armored ape hiding behind the cub let out a frightened and shrill cry, which scared the cub.
The armored ape wanted to escape, but there was no way to go.
Hubbard frowned, and a hint of cold displeasure flashed in his black eyes.
However, the next second, when he looked at Li Jue, his kind smile returned: "Little friends, are you getting along well?"
It’s this question again. Zizi wondered in confusion, why am I asked the same question every time today?
He looked at the armored ape squatting on the ground, trembling, holding its head with its paws, and hesitated: "Uncle, it's very afraid of you."
"Maybe it has some misunderstandings about me." Hubbard still maintained the smile of a good elder. "I won't do anything now, don't worry."
The latter sentence was addressed to the armored ape.
The little brown animal trembled with fear, and only calmed down a little when it was held in the cub's arms again.
Li Jue vaguely realized that this uncle must have done something bad to the little monkey.
After a stray cat near his house was kicked by an uncle, it gets angry every time it sees that man.
"Uncle, are you a bad person?" Zizi thought so and asked.
"He's certainly not a good person." Hubbard smiled nonchalantly and continued the interrupted conversation, his index finger just a fraction away from the child's forehead. "Little boy, can I touch your dragon horn?"
Li Jue blinked.
In order to hide his cat ears, Ling Xi did use some bug-level illusion from his son's world, but this pair of dragon horns were real, and they were glued to the top of his head using a method that Li Jue didn't understand, making them look as if they were natural.
The boy estimated that the cub must be kept by the Golden Dragon family all the time. Knowing Li Jue's true identity as a cat, they would not risk being exposed by touching the cub's horns casually, and naturally they did not tell the cub not to let others touch it.
Li Jue had been feeling a little itchy on his head for a long time, and it would be great if someone could help him take off the pair of horns that didn't belong to him.
The child's big round eyes looked at the adults. His tender face, skin whiter than milk, and long, light eyelashes made him look like an elf who was not of this world.
"Uncle." Li Jue hooked her little hand, and when Hubbard came closer, she whispered into the adult's ear, "Son, there's a secret!"
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