Free Web NovelWhat was happening outside the Ninth Star Sector did not affect Wen Yuzhi’s life.
Whether it was the Saint Clan or Mansendis, both had silently and perfectly kept all the chaos of interstellar affairs outside the Ninth Star Sector.
As much as possible, they gave the cub a carefree, safe, and comfortable environment to grow up in, not letting any of that messy nonsense disturb Wen Yuzhi.
To the Saint Clan, no matter how big something else was, it could never be more important than their little prince.
Ever since photos of Wen Yuzhi’s beast form had been released, the entire Saint Clan had become obsessed with their little prince now turned fluffy. They simply did not care at all about the affairs of outsiders.
Thanks to having such a whole pack of doting elders looking after him, Wen Yuzhi was living happily every single day too.
In the morning, Wen Yuzhi woke from sleep and lifted a paw to stretch lazily. Just as he was about to roll over, he noticed the spot beneath him was warm.
He lowered his head, only to discover that what he had been lying on while he slept was not the bed—
but Mansendis’s chest.
Last night, the cub had volunteered to soothe and comb through the silver-haired sovereign’s mental sea again.
It was just that Mansendis’s mental sea was simply too vast. Just barely combing through it once had already drained all of Wen Yuzhi’s strength.
By the time he finished soothing it, Wen Yuzhi was so tired he collapsed right onto Dad’s chest and did not want to move anymore.
His lashes trembled, and not long after, the cub fell asleep.
Seeing that, Mansendis could not bear to wake Wen Yuzhi. Since there also happened to be nothing that needed his personal judgment for the time being, he simply went to sleep together with the cub.
That was why, when Wen Yuzhi woke up, he found himself lying on top of Mansendis.
The cub was probably the first one—and the only one—who would dare sleep sprawled out on the body of the Saint Clan sovereign, who was famous for being cold and brutal.
Pressed tight against Dad, Wen Yuzhi could not help rubbing lightly against Mansendis’s chest.
Dad was warm.
Not cold at all.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, he quickly looked up.
When he saw that the silver-haired sovereign still had his eyes closed and had not woken up, Wen Yuzhi immediately let out a relieved breath.
After that, though, he carefully tucked in his little paws and tail, not daring to make any movement at all, afraid he might wake the still-sleeping silver-haired sovereign.
Dad worked hard all the time.
Wen Yuzhi hoped Mansendis could sleep a little longer right now.
So he stayed lying on Mansendis’s chest, watching Dad as he slept.
Strictly speaking, this was the first time Wen Yuzhi had ever had the chance to observe Mansendis sleeping.
In Wen Yuzhi’s impression, no matter when or where, whenever the silver-haired sovereign appeared before the Saint Clan or before him, he always looked powerful, indestructible, and as if he would never feel tired.
There were very few times like this, when he relaxed enough to fall asleep.
And yet right now, Mansendis was lying on the bed, his long silver-white hair spread across the pillow beneath him.
His eyes were closed. Perhaps because those cold, indifferent golden slit pupils were no longer staring at him, the silver-haired sovereign did not seem as chilling and violently oppressive in sleep as he did when awake.
Wen Yuzhi liked Dad as he usually was.
He also liked Dad like this, looking a little gentler.
And besides...
The cub blinked.
Comparing it with how he looked in human form, Wen Yuzhi realized that he and Mansendis actually looked a lot alike.
Especially the eyes.
Wen Yuzhi’s eyes looked like Mansendis’s.
It was just that the cub’s eye shape was rounder and younger. When he opened them wide, his pale golden pupils looked round and full, like a kitten’s.
But on Mansendis, those golden slit pupils were cold and violent, without the slightest trace of emotion—extremely indifferent, to the point that people did not even dare meet them directly.
If he had to describe it, one was still a little kitten, with round, milky-soft eyes that looked innocent and adorable.
The other was clearly already a fully grown big cat. Even if he did nothing at all, just the aura around him was enough to make people feel fear and dread.
An image rose in Wen Yuzhi’s mind without him meaning it to: a big cat with a little cat, hunting together. The big cat walked ahead, showing the little cat how to stalk prey...
And the more he thought about it, the more Wen Yuzhi realized that wasn’t that exactly what Mansendis had done with him in the training room before?
Lost in thought, he never noticed that at some point, the big cat before him had already opened his eyes.
—Those cold golden slit pupils, sharp as if steeped in frost, were watching him now.
When Wen Yuzhi finally lifted his head, his gaze met Mansendis’s by accident.
The cub froze on the spot, so clearly it was visible to the naked eye.
Mansendis, however, simply sat up with the cub still in his arms, his long silver-white hair spilling loosely over his shoulders.
He was only wearing a shirt, and his voice was still slightly husky from just waking up.
Wen Yuzhi blinked, looking a little...
When Mansendis looked over at him, Wen Yuzhi obediently said, “I was looking to see whether Dad and I look alike.”
“...”
Mansendis raised a brow slightly as he asked.
The cub nodded, then answered without hesitation, “I’m Dad’s cub.”
At that, a rare trace of a smile appeared in Mansendis’s eyes.
He bent down and kissed one of the cub’s little horns, murmuring softly, “Yes. Zhizhi is Dad’s cub.”
The wings behind Wen Yuzhi twitched sensitively. His cheeks warmed a little, and it felt as though the place where Mansendis had touched his horn still held the sensation.
It was a little itchy.
The cub lifted a paw and touched his own horn.
But...
Wen Yuzhi looked at the silver-haired sovereign in front of him.
The other man was looking at him too. Those golden slit pupils were completely clear, with hardly any trace of sleepiness in them. It did not match the state of someone who had just woken up.
So... Dad had already been awake?
The cub tilted his head, thinking uncertainly.
And Mansendis really had been awake for quite a while.
He had kept his eyes closed because he wanted to see how the cub would react after waking up.
And at this moment, Mansendis was incomparably glad that he had made that choice. Otherwise, he would never have heard the cub admit with his own mouth that he was his cub.
“Dad tricked me...”
Once he learned that Mansendis had been pretending to sleep on purpose, the cub’s cheeks puffed up slightly, and his little wings flapped too. He was obviously a little angry.
But that anger did not last long.
Mansendis reached out and rubbed the cub’s ears, then immediately apologized in a low ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) voice.
Being soothed and petted like that, the little bit of anger in Wen Yuzhi’s heart disappeared very quickly. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
Mansendis carried him to the bathroom to wash up.
Since he was in beast form, using his paws to brush his teeth and wash his face was not very convenient. Mansendis personally squeezed out the toothpaste and brushed the cub’s teeth, then soaked a towel in warm water and used it to wipe the cub’s face.
After wiping his face, he took another towel to wipe his paws.
Even though the paws were not actually dirty. These past few days, Wen Yuzhi had barely had any chance to touch the floor at all. Mansendis had even told Mond to cover the roads inside the base with thick carpets so the cub would not get hurt stepping on them, and so his beautiful snow-white fur would not get dirty.
After spending so much time together, Mansendis also knew that his cub was an exceptionally clean cub.
Even the towel for wiping his face and the towel for wiping his paws had to be kept separate.
And after wiping, oil for coat care had to be applied so they would not get too dry.
The things used for wiping the face, wiping the paws, and caring for the fur were all different too. Before personally raising a cub, Mansendis had never known that taking care of a child required such fine and meticulous attention.
Back then, all he used to do was jump into a pool every day and take a cold bath, then climb back ashore and wait for the sun to dry the water from his body before returning to his rock cave to sleep.
Spring, summer, fall, or winter—it had always been the same.
Mond probably knew exactly what kind of life his sovereign had lived before, so he had given very explicit instructions: every bottle and jar in the bathroom had to be used, and not a single one could be skipped.
“You may be strong enough not to need all this, but His Highness is different. Can you really bear to watch His Highness catch a chill, or get sick from the cold, or have his fur tangle up and his body become all grimy?!”
Mansendis had wanted to argue that there was no way he would raise his child until he was grimy, but Mond’s words did make sense.
Thinking that if those things were not applied, the cub’s fur would tangle—and if it tangled, it might have to be cut—
and if it had to be cut...
The cub would cry, wouldn’t he?
Mansendis could already picture the cub curling up, hugging his tail, and crying silently.
And after that, Mansendis very nearly followed the marked order Mond had left and used every single thing in all those bottles and jars on the cub.
It could be said that the reason Wen Yuzhi was able to keep such fluffy and silky-soft fur had no small amount to do with those care products.
After all the fussing was done, the fluffy cub smelled sweet all over, and Mansendis inevitably picked up some of that scent too.
So now, the silver-haired sovereign who inspired fear and dread outside carried the scent of baby cream all over himself.
If anyone from another race saw it, their jaws would probably drop straight to the floor.
And only after taking care of the cub did Mansendis finally have time to wash up himself.
Compared to the cub’s complicated routine, the way he dealt with himself was much simpler.
He handled it casually, finished quickly, and came back out.
Then he picked up the sweet-smelling cub, and the father and son went to the dressing room to choose what to wear today.
Unlike Wen Yuzhi’s wardrobe, Mansendis’s closet contained almost nothing but uniforms and formal wear. His everyday clothes were pitifully few.
Wen Yuzhi looked them over, then waved a little paw and pointed at one blue outfit.
It was a sapphire-blue shirt with a ruffled collar, embroidered with vine-like branch patterns in silver thread.
It counted as a rare bright-colored piece in Mansendis’s wardrobe.
But from where it had been placed, it was obvious that the silver-haired sovereign rarely wore it—or rather, had never worn it at all.
Wen Yuzhi picked it because he had never seen Mansendis wear that kind of color before.
—He wanted to see Dad wear it.
The cub looked at the silver-haired sovereign in front of him with eager eyes.
Without hesitation, Mansendis surrendered Wen Yuzhi’s right to be willful today and took the shirt to change into it.
And Wen Yuzhi’s taste had not been wrong.
Wearing that shirt, Mansendis looked like a noble gentleman born into privilege, while the authority that came from standing at the top for so many years made him feel overwhelmingly oppressive.
He looked just like the duke from a fairy tale who lived in a castle and was rumored to have a terrifying, dreadful personality.
Except that this duke was patient and gentle with his own child.
He let the cub choose all kinds of accessories for him, while Mansendis picked out a necklace for the cub to wear.
The fine silver chain was immediately swallowed up by the fluffy fur, but the golden gemstone pendant hung beneath the cub’s neck, swaying brightly.
It just happened to match Wen Yuzhi’s pale golden pupils perfectly.
And when Mansendis brought the cub outside, it drew no small amount of attention from the Saint Clan along the way, just as expected.
Mond looked at the silver-haired sovereign in surprise. “This outfit of yours...”
“Zhizhi picked it out for me.”
Mansendis spoke in a calm voice, though there was inevitably a more hidden meaning mixed into his tone.
Mond naturally sensed it, so he immediately sighed in admiration. “His Highness has excellent taste.”
Wen Yuzhi was a little embarrassed by the praise and quickly said, “Dad is handsome.”
Dad was handsome, so he looked good in anything.
Mond only smiled without saying anything.
He brought over warmed milk, still in a little baby bottle.
Once, twice, and then again—by now Wen Yuzhi had already lost count of how many times it had been.
He was used to drinking milk from a bottle now.
Mansendis first tied a little bib on the cub, then tested the temperature before bringing the bottle to the cub’s mouth.
When he did all this, the silver-haired sovereign’s movements were especially practiced.
These past several days, he had basically always been the one feeding the cub milk.
Occasionally, when he was not around, Mond and Alvin and the others settled it with rock-paper-scissors.
Perhaps because he was lucky, or perhaps because he was quick-thinking, Alvin had managed to win the right to feed the cub twice.
When the cub obediently lay in Alvin’s arms, that calm and steady adjutant had immediately failed to suppress his tail.
He had almost lost control in public and changed back into his original form on the spot.
And the Saint Clan inside the base had all noticed that Lord Alvin had been in an especially good mood lately.
So good, in fact, that it made their scalps tingle a little.
But compared to the other Saint Clan, Wen Yuzhi still preferred staying in Mansendis’s arms.
Probably because Dad’s scent made him feel safer and more at ease.
He gulped down an entire bottle of milk. Mond hurriedly handed over water for rinsing, and after the cub rinsed his mouth, Mansendis used a clean cloth to wipe the cub’s mouth.
From beginning to end, Wen Yuzhi had hardly moved at all.
Compared with Mansendis, it was almost as though he were the greatest sovereign here.
After eating and drinking his fill, it was time as usual for a little after-meal walk to help digestion.
Mansendis took Wen Yuzhi around the base for a while, and once that was done, he brought the cub to the study.
He handled official business, while the other half of the desk had already been cleared out and piled with a great many toys Selet had brought back, so Wen Yuzhi could choose whatever he wanted to play with.
Wen Yuzhi was not lonely either, because Mansendis would have the bone spines play with him. Sometimes it was Merita, and sometimes even Yiluo and Feier.
In short, compared to how lively it was over on the cub’s side, it was actually Mansendis, the Saint Clan sovereign, who was left out most of the time.
He did not mind that kind of situation in the slightest.
He would even take breaks from time to time and join in playing with the cub himself.
Then in the afternoon, Mu Luo came over for Wen Yuzhi’s regular checkup.
He placed the cub on a scale.
Looking at the number on it, Mu Luo pushed up the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose and said with certainty, “He gained weight.”
Compared to the previous few days, the cub’s weight had clearly gone up a little.
The credit for that naturally had to go to the milk Wen Yuzhi had not skipped at a single meal over the past few days, and Mond had also added some extra nutrients into it.
That old chief steward had recently immersed himself in cub nutrition, spending every day hugging nutritional books and reading through them.
As long as it was good for the cub’s body, the Saint Clan would buy it no matter how expensive or rare it was.
The Pachi people had been doing such good business recently that they practically walked with wind under their feet.
Under those circumstances, it seemed only natural for Wen Yuzhi to put on weight.
But Mansendis still was not satisfied with that.
Though he had gained a little, Wen Yuzhi still felt too light in his arms.
Sometimes Mansendis had to hold him tighter just to confirm that the cub was really there in his embrace.
Only then could Mansendis finally put his mind at ease, sure that he had not lost his Zhizhi again.
In response, Mu Luo said, “A cub’s growth is a gradual process. It can’t be too fast, and it can’t be too slow. His Highness is currently at a very healthy range. Pursuing more excessively would bring no benefit at all to His Highness’s body.”
In simpler terms...
Your cub is only this big. No matter how much he eats, he’s not going to suddenly get all that fat.
Mu Luo had seen plenty of parents with exactly this kind of mindset. Every race had parents who doted excessively on their children. It was just that Mu Luo had never imagined he would one day see that possibility appear in Mansendis.
Mansendis also knew he had been worrying too much.
He reflected on it for a moment, then seriously asked Mu Luo for more knowledge about how to care for a cub.
While they were talking, Wen Yuzhi thought for a moment, then flapped his little wings and flew straight down from the desk.
The desk was a certain distance above the floor, and if he jumped down rashly, it would be very easy to get hurt.
Fortunately, he still had his wings.
Using the wings on his back, Wen Yuzhi flew down from the desk. And when he landed, he was still clutching a polished gemstone ball in his arms.
That was the toy he had picked out.
Those Gumu really liked that kind of shiny gemstone.
He wanted to give this one to them.
His paws touched the soft carpet, and the cub shook out his fur. One bone spine picked up the gemstone ball for him.
Wen Yuzhi only walked a few steps before turning back again.
He remembered that there were so many Gumu, but only one gemstone ball. It would not feel right no matter who he gave it to, so Wen Yuzhi simply had the bone spines gather up all the gemstone balls.
That way every Gumu would get one, and no one would be left out.
In the hallway, the fluffy cub walked in front. Bone spines circled around him, while Yiluo and Feier followed closely two steps behind.
Wen Yuzhi’s destination was the kitchen.
Those Gumu were fairly timid. Aside from Wen Yuzhi, they did not like interacting with other Saint Clan, so most of the time they stayed in the kitchen.
After Mond saw how much His Highness cared about those Gumu, he had even built them a little movable house.
That way, they had a place to rest.
Wen Yuzhi had brought these gemstone balls because he wanted to use them to decorate the Gumu’s new home.
Thinking that if he delivered them sooner, he could also come back sooner and go eat with Dad, Wen Yuzhi simply gave up walking and started flapping his little wings, wanting to fly there instead.
As a result, he almost crashed into someone at the corner.
