It was currently winter and the temperature outside was undoubtedly very cold for a cub who had just hatched.
It was very quiet during the night, the other cubs were asleep in their nests and the caretakers had returned to the staff quarters, well all but one, after all someone still had to look after the cubs at night.
Since Zhao Chuan was fired, it was Lin Yi turn to care of the cubs tonight. However, Lin Yi, who was asleep, was totally unaware that not far from him, a young cub, just after breaking the shell, had not only left the hatching room by himself, but even walked outside alone.
Wandering wantonly in the dark, the newborn cub found an unknown object with the residual smell, and then soon, he found another. The outside was very cold and it made the small cub slightly lower his head, pulling it closer as he brazed the chilling wind. But his light blue eyes were very lively and determined, contracted into slits as he observed the dark around him.
Following the scent, the cub entered a building, and after a while, the cub came to a closed wooden door. The knox race had superb perception and the shallow breathing coming from inside made the cub unconsciously move his ears.
Opening the door, the cub entered the room and saw a dark-haired youth peacefully lying with closed eyes on the mattress.
When sleeping, the youth's eyebrows relaxed and the expression he gave was very soft and gentle. It did not hold any aggression, and made others feel extraordinarily peaceful.
The closer he got, the clearer he could feel the scent of the youth. It seemed that he had finally found the person he was looking for. The cub got into the quilt covering the youth and laid down on the youth's chest.
The dark environment had almost no effect on races with night vision, and although there was a sense of mental fatigue, the cub stubbornly held his eyes open and looked at youth sleeping quietly.
When he woke up the next day, Xie Tao was stunned.
When waking up, his sleepiness did not disappear directly and Xie Tao still had his eyes closed when he noticed the weight pressing on his chest.
The weight made Xie Tao a little confused but as he was still in between sleeping and fully conscious, his mind was a little muddled. He therefore didn't think much about it and only raised his hand to push it away, but when he touched it… Fluffy, so soft.
Wait, this feeling…?
Suddenly realizing what it resembled, Xie Tao hurriedly opened his eyes and looked down only to meet a pair of blue eyes.
Actually, it was more of a very light cyan, like the sky during a cold winter, very clean and transparent, but it was easy to make people have the illusion of coldness.
His hand was on the back of the cub, and at this time when Xie Tao was slightly stunned, he heard a low-pitched sound from the cub, "Mah."
Its voice made Xie Tao wake up in an instant, and he cupped his hand under the cub as he immediately sat up.
This cub was not one of those Xie Tao had seen in the club, but it could not have appeared out of thin air. The only possibility was therefore that one of the eggs in the incubator had hatched.
But he didn't have time to think about how the cub had managed to get from the hatching room to his room. He hurriedly wrapped the cub in the quilt and carefully took it into his arms, as close as possible to his body, hoping to use his body temperature to warm the cub.
After finishing this series of actions at the fastest speed possible, Xie Tao relaxed a bit.
"Is it still cold?"
The cub tilted his head at the question and looked up at the youth. Knowing that the cub couldn't answer, Xie Tao met its eyes and then stood up with the quilt still wrapped around the cub. He then hurriedly put on his shoes and walked out.
Actually, it couldn't really be called walking, it was more like running and despite being a bit concerned about shaking the cub too much, Xie Tao still almost had the same speed as when he had been chased by the muka on his first day.
It was simply too cold and it was a much greater danger to the cub than motion sickness, the only thing Xie Tao could think about was getting this cub back to the hatching room.
The newborn cub needed to stay in a heat preservation room. Even Xie Tao who was only a newbie caretaker with lacking common sense, still knew such an important thing.
From the staff quarters all the way to the house where the cubs were taken care of, Xie Tao paid attention to the cold wind that was blowing at the cub he was holding, and it was not until he stepped into the hatching room that he could completely relax.
When Xie Tao had left his room, he had been anxious and wanted to quickly return the cub. He had therefore not even put on his coat and only wore his thin clothes as he ran in the cold wind. His fingers were therefore frozen and he made sure to not touch the cub directly with them, before they had warmed up.
It was nice to be back in the warmth and he even started sweating a bit because of the sudden temperature change. But Xie Tao didn't care about the discomforts, he was just relieved that the cub was now back in a warm environment.
Xie Tao sat down and pulled a cushion close, he then placed the cub that he wrapped in the quilt on top.
"You shouldn't be cold anymore, right?" Xie Tao asked softly. He wanted to touch the back of the cub, but he stopped himself halfway as he thought that his hand might still be too cold.
He was about to take back his hand but Xie Tao suddenly felt a small moist feeling on his fingers, making him stop his actions and look down.
The youth's fingertips looked a little whiter than the rest of his body and the Knox cub instinctively licked them and continued until they had warmed up a bit.
Xie Tao looked at the cub and then looked around the room. There was a broken egg in the incubator. Seeing the scattered black eggshell, he turned his eyes back to the round fluffy white cub that was placed on the cushion.
Realizing that the cub had licked his fingers in order to warm them, Xie couldn't help but soften his eyes and reach out to touch the back of the knox cub.
"Welcome to this world." That this cub had hatched was a good thing, or at least Xie Tao felt so.
What the youth said was not an abomination or any other kind of cold emotion and at this time, in the eyes of the youth, there was a very soft feeling. Looking into those eyes a warm sensation spread in his heart, which for the knox cub who perceived a lot of negative emotions almost every day before he hatched, felt almost too warm.
"Meah." The cub made a sound as he lifted one paw. He couldn't stop looking into the youth's eyes. He wanted to escape the unfamiliar warm feeling but at the same time didn't, he wanted to be closer.
Sitting on the blue cushion, this little newborn cub looked a bit round in Xie Tao's eyes, like a small fluff ball and it reminded him of the takila cub. However, in comparison, the knox cub looked more like a cat and it had a pair of small horns on its head. The eyes were also different and the light cyan was extraordinarily beautiful.
Xie Tao's breathing was still a bit fast because of the sprint here and his mindset was also the same as before. He therefore didn't sit for too long and instead wrapped the quilt over the cub and walked out of the hatching room in order to brew some milk.
The newborn cub probably needed to eat and the warm milk would be perfect to warm it up.
When leaving, Xie Tao carefully closed the door behind him. He suspected that he might have been too careless when he left last night and hadn't properly close the door, which led to the newborn cub running out.
Fortunately, nothing happened. But just the thought that the newborn cub had gone outside and been cold and frozen for a long time made Xie Tao feel very guilty.
When Xia Qi got to work, she heard a noise from the hatching room and went to check, but directly after opening the door she stopped.
Seeing the broken black egg in the incubator as well as the young man who was feeding a small cub with a bottle, the horror on Xia Qi's face could not be hidden.
The black egg that has been silent for more than 30 years had actually hatched?!
Xia Qi's mood at this time was undoubtedly complicated and she did not know whether the birth of this cub was a good thing.
Except for the cub in front of her eyes, there was no other knox in the entire universe. If she had been the only sevilla, Xia Qi felt that she would be very lonely..
Although there were many other races among the stars, but even if one can communicate with others, the sense of loneliness from not having a home cannot be erased.
Many people also hate and would be hostile if ever meeting a knox. So Xia Qi felt that it was probably not a happy thing for this cub to be born into this world…
Xia Qi looked up and when she saw that the young human being in front of her was looking at the knox cub with a soft gaze and was gently touching it, she suddenly shook her head to get rid of her previous thoughts.
She shouldn't think like this, for now she should just focus on taking care of this little cub.
"Xiao Qi, go onto the star network and post recruitment information, by the way, a job flyer based on what you write will later be printed out and posted on the street." Xie Tao had thought a lot about what to do yesterday and decided that he should first recruit three people.
One new caretaker to take Zhao Chuan's place, one person that can manage the finances of their club instead of Xia Qi so that she doesn't have to be as stressed and can focus on the cubs, and one guard to guard the gate, warding off kidnappers and other bad people. In fact, one guard was not enough, they needed at least two that could work in shifts, and they also needed a proper gardener to take care of the environment in their club. However, Xie Tao had decided to take it a bit slow and first recruited the main people. Xie Tao told her about his ideas and some basic requirements for each employee.
"Ok, good." Xia Qi nodded as she started to formulate the post in her mind.
"I also discussed some things with the president yesterday. I think we should fix the facade and hire someone to make the whole environment of our club better." Xie Tao spoke while thinking.
After being in this world for so many days, Xie Tao now knew that nursing associations weren't just orphanages but also kinda like kindergartens. However their club didn't have any "borrowed cubs" and it wasn't exactly unexpected. They needed the environment to look better so that parents would be willing to spend money to send their cubs to stay.
It was one of Xie Tao's goals.
Of course he could make money by bringing things from his world to this world. But it wasn't a stable income and if thinking about the long run, it was certainly better to patch this Cub Raising branch up and then make it self sufficient.
The iron gate was rusted and when looking in from the outside you would see a neglected and overgrown environment with old buildings. With such a facade, such an appearance, which parent would want to send their own cubs to their facilities that seem to be abandoned and only a home for ghosts?
Hearing his words, Xia Qi got a bit excited. She had always been painfully aware of the appearance of their club and wanted to change it but they had never had the money nor the time.
But now it seemed that their club would soon get a makeover!
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Translator's note:
Firstly, I swear that I hadn't read this chapter when I wrote the translator's note in the last one.
Secondly → OMBLG! It actually came true! （≧∇≦）
Wasn't that just the cutest!!
If you haven't died of cuteness yet, here is a pic of what the cub might look like, unfortunately I couldn't find one with horns: