Chapter 61
Now that he had ice cream to eat, Yomi completely forgot about the earlier unpleasantness. In any case, there was no hurry to leave. He plopped down onto the grass and warmly patted the empty spot beside him. “Mr. Black Feather, would you like to sit down and have a cup of tea?”
He was even inviting him to stay for tea? Black Feather was flattered beyond belief and quickly went over to sit down.
Before long, someone really did bring him a steaming cup of tea from the RV.
Karl bent slightly at the waist. “Please enjoy.”
…Such elegant posture. One glance and you could tell he’d been trained. Absolutely impeccable! On chaotic Junk Star, for even a subordinate’s etiquette to be so thoroughly polished—Sheep Asura really did have ambitions of becoming emperor!
Black Feather accepted the tea with both hands, then glanced sideways at the little person beside him.
Yomi had originally been focused on scooping ice cream into his mouth, but halfway through, Anxius picked him up, set him back down two seconds later, and suddenly his butt felt much more comfortable. Lowering his head, he saw: wow, Anxius had put a blanket underneath him.
Black Feather lowered his head to look at the bare grass beneath himself, then looked at the huge monster over there whose attention was fixed entirely on Sheep Asura, clearly with no intention of giving him a blanket too. He quickly covered his awkwardness by taking a sip of tea.
As expected of one of Sheep Asura’s people—he’d come in and immediately established dominance.
After drinking tea for a while, Black Feather glanced sideways at Sheep Asura’s subordinates. They were all eating ice cream, and the atmosphere no longer seemed quite so tense. Seizing the chance, he decided to bring up certain matters of possible cooperation.
Black Feather said, “I have long heard that your abilities are extraordinary, and now that I’ve met you in person, the rumors were indeed true… Lord Sheep Asura, may I ask… have you ever considered unifying Junk Star?”
Yomi, who was eating ice cream, visibly stiffened and looked at Black Feather in disbelief.
What on earth was this man talking about?
Black Feather stared nervously at the little one. “Please don’t misunderstand. I am not presuming to guess your intentions. It’s only that someone as formidable as you… if you remain confined to this tiny little place of ours, it truly feels like a waste of your talents.”
Yomi’s pace of eating ice cream slowed significantly. He glanced at Anxius and saw that Anxius couldn’t care less, as though Black Feather were no different from the prison guards. Relaxing, Yomi slowly shook his head. “That sort of thing… we’ll talk about it later.” What was the difference between that and a child in primary school already thinking about whether to go to Tsinghua or Peking University? That was way too far ahead.
Black Feather echoed, “Of course. Then let us start by discussing the matter of Evil Ghost State and Skull State…”
When it came to forming an alliance, he had prepared extensively in advance. In order to make Sheep Asura consider the matter seriously, he now spoke at length with a smile, his tone neither servile nor overbearing, laying out one professional strategy after another, along with all the possible benefits that might follow…
The terminology was incredibly specialized! Yomi almost couldn’t understand half of it. From time to time he nodded, but since he didn’t really understand, he didn’t offer opinions either, brushing it off with the kind of calm evasiveness only an old hand could manage.
Black Feather, secretly analyzing every expression on the little face before him: Ah, when will I ever learn how to remain so unfazed in the face of important matters?
Once they were done talking about serious business, Black Feather noticed that Sheep Asura was still eating ice cream, and couldn’t help trying to grow a bit more familiar. “What do you think of this ice cream?”
The moment the subject turned to something he liked, Yomi brightened. “It’s good. I like vanilla best. For this brand, vanilla is definitely the tastiest flavor. What about you?” At last, a shared topic!
Black Feather: “…Ah, I also like vanilla.” Lord Sheep Asura was hiding his depths far too well. Was this an ice-cream-themed test of whether he would go along with him?
“Then why didn’t you say so earlier?” Yomi immediately got to his feet. “I’ll go get you a tub.” Chatting while eating ice cream together was the most pleasant thing.
“No, no need! I’m on a diet lately. I don’t eat sweets.” How could Black Feather possibly let him? He had to survive this test. If he accepted it, wouldn’t that imply he coveted Sheep Asura’s things?
Did they think a careful mind like his wouldn’t see through that?
“Alright then…” Yomi sat back down with regret and ate a few more bites of ice cream, then quietly glanced at Black Feather’s body. He didn’t look fat at all.
Noticing Yomi sizing him up, a bead of sweat slid down Black Feather’s temple. He stiffly asked, “May I ask… what do you think of my human form? Would you be willing to be friends with me?”
Yomi found himself in a difficult position.
Although Black Feather had a human form, he looked more like a humanoid crow than a true person. Most people only retained a few traces of their original form, but Black Feather’s human body was covered all over in black feathers. Even by monster standards, no one would call it an attractive human form.
“You… you look very majestic,” Yomi said to the ugly monster, “and friendship doesn’t depend on appearance. Anyway, I think you’re quite nice.”
“Thank you for your praise!” Having received what he interpreted as a hint of cooperation, Black Feather nearly cried. When Yomi finished his ice cream, Black Feather rose and shook hands with him in farewell.
Not far away, a pigeon excitedly pulled out a camera and captured the historic meeting between the two.
In the photo, Black Feather was bent slightly forward, both hands clasping those of the mysterious little figure wrapped in a cloak. The little figure had his head lowered, his whole body emanating a trembling, inscrutable aura!
Surely this photo would remain in Junk Star’s history forever.
Once the lord of Skull State and his entourage had left, Anxius lifted the refrigerator back into the truck, wiped Yomi’s hands after he licked his lips, and carried him straight back to the vehicle.
Dusk was already close. Several vehicles lined up and slowly drove out of the forest.
Gousheng lay in Yomi’s arms, lowering his head to eat the sweet ice cream Yomi had saved for him. Gousheng loved it. After taking a few bites, he even left quite a bit and nudged it toward Yomi with his paw, wanting him to eat some too!
Yomi said, “…Thank you, Gousheng, but I already had some. You eat it yourself.”
Only after seeing that Yomi really wasn’t going to eat any did Gousheng lower his head and lick the ice cream clean. Having tasted ice cream for the first time in his life, the little wolf cub rubbed himself all over Yomi in delight, his eyes full of worship.
Yomi pinched the back of his neck and felt that Gousheng was getting stronger and sturdier by the day.
After that day, word began to spread that Sheep Asura and the lord of Skull State were friends.
That rumor was mainly spread by Black Feather. He didn’t want the other factions setting their sights on him, so spreading word that he had joined hands with Sheep Asura meant that if any other power wanted to move against him, they would first have to weigh whether they had the ability to contend with Sheep Asura! Hmph!
A few days later, once several leaked photos surfaced as proof, the rumor spread even more widely.
In the photos, Black Feather and the mysterious Sheep Asura were meeting in secret, surrounded by men and horses, with huge trucks nearby. Although no one could see what was inside the trucks, that didn’t stop people from imagining things.
If two people with such vast power were meeting to join forces, there was no way the trucks were carrying food, right? Clearly they contained terrifying weapons!
The other factions in Evil Ghost State were also troubled recently. After the infighting not long ago, the biggest faction had actually already set its sights on Sheep Asura. They had only refrained because they themselves had taken losses and couldn’t risk acting immediately. In their original plan, once their strength recovered, the next target would have been that rumored Sheep Asura.
Who could have imagined that Sheep Asura would somehow see the future and expand his power one step ahead of them, swallowing up an entire Skull State in one move? That had completely caught them off guard!
A lone Sheep Asura might perhaps still have been manageable. But Sheep Asura allied with all of Skull State… how was anyone supposed to fight that?
And at a time like this, for Sheep Asura to make such a major move in allying with Skull State, it surely couldn’t be just for defense against them. Who knew how many other forces he might also have backing him elsewhere?
Damn, tiny as he was, his appetite wasn’t small at all!
From that moment on, the major factions all lost sleep at night. Whoever dared challenge Sheep Asura now was simply courting death!
In the end, they could only make up their minds: rather than wait to be dealt with, better to take the initiative and go show goodwill. If they were lucky, perhaps they could at least retain some management rights!
And so Yomi’s farm began receiving a steady stream of completely inexplicable gifts. It made him so happy. Why did so many people want to be friends with him? It was only a prison, after all—everyone really didn’t need to be so polite!
The bosses coming to curry favor: “…”
In any case, no matter how complicated things became outside, life on the farm itself remained completely unaffected.
The seedlings that had once survived the rainstorms had all now grown to full harvest size. The vegetable garden was huge. Apart from what they ate themselves and what they supplied to the Little Lamb Chef Team, all the remaining vegetables were taken to the market and sold out every single day.
As the weather grew warmer and warmer, the chicks lost their fluff, and Gousheng too grew taller and stronger.
Yomi could no longer easily scoop him up in his arms. Under meal after meal of meat and bones, Gousheng’s lame leg had almost entirely lost its limp. He could run extremely fast now, entirely like a little wild wolf.
Even so, Gousheng remained extremely attached to Yomi. Every day after herding the chickens, he would go nowhere else, just trailing obediently behind Yomi.
A few days later, Anxius built a doghouse and officially declared that Gousheng had to become independent.
Yomi: Gratified.
Gousheng: “Awooo!”
Furious!
Once Gousheng became “independent,” Yomi started thinking seriously again about his original intention of sending the little wolf home.
To be honest, after raising him for so long, he’d already grown attached. In his heart, he was very reluctant. But no matter how reluctant, he still wanted the wolf to have the freest possible life.
He decided to take Gousheng along on a few more hunts. Once Gousheng could catch food by himself, Yomi would bring him back to the forest of his homeland. As for whether Gousheng would stay on the farm or return to the wild, that would depend on Gousheng’s own wishes.
Yomi always felt that Gousheng was so clingy now only because he had mistaken the one who fed him for his wolf mother. But once he returned to the familiar forest and smelled his family’s scent again, would Gousheng really still want to stay on a tiny farm?
With those thoughts in mind, Yomi started downloading wildlife documentaries to his communicator. Every night before bed, he would play one for Gousheng, letting him get used to the forest in advance and learn some hunting techniques from the big predators.
Because of Gousheng’s future, Yomi started suffering from insomnia.
That night, unable to sleep, he rolled over and discovered that Anxius wasn’t asleep either. He lay there unmoving, eyes open, looking at him.
“You can’t sleep either?” Yomi was surprised. Having someone else awake with him instantly made him feel much less miserable. “Should we get up and eat a midnight snack? I heard that eating some carbs makes you sleepy.”
The truth was that Anxius wasn’t suffering from insomnia at all. For several nights in a row, he had simply been waiting for Yomi to fall asleep so that he could kiss his cheeks and horns, only to end up waiting until the latter half of the night. At this point, he was honestly worried. “Why can’t you sleep?”
The moment that topic came up, Yomi’s brows furrowed. “Who else but Gousheng… I’m worried that if we release him, other wild beasts will bully him.” He looked exactly like a mother worrying over a child who had gone far away.
“…” Anxius had not expected that to be what was troubling him. “He won’t leave the farm.”
“Huh? Really?” Yomi didn’t sound very convinced. “But there isn’t a single one of his own kind on the farm. Won’t he feel lonely? The forest is obviously much better suited to him, right?”
The moment he said that, he noticed Anxius staring at him blankly, and in his gaze there was now a trace of worry as well.
Yomi said, “See? You think so too.”
Anxius thought nothing of the sort. He would be delighted if Gousheng returned to the forest. But in truth, he could tell that the wolf cub would never leave Yomi. It was only Yomi’s words just now that had made him think again of Yomi’s human identity.
Living in a place where there was not a single one of your own kind… did Yomi also often feel lonely?
“Are you lonely?” Anxius asked him softly.
The question left Yomi completely puzzled. “With the farm this lively, how could I be lonely?” Still, once you couldn’t sleep, thoughts had a tendency to wander. And once the floodgates opened, they couldn’t easily be shut again. At that moment, Yomi wanted very badly to talk to Anxius. “Anxius, do you feel lonely?”
Anxius shook his head too. Before meeting Yomi, yes, he had known loneliness. But now every day felt full of happiness.
Still full of thoughts, Yomi continued drifting with them. “Before, you said you liked me. But if… if I weren’t the same species as you, would you still like me?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without even the slightest pause for thought.
That “yes” came out with such force and certainty that Yomi’s heart began pounding wildly.
Discussing something like this in the middle of the night… it felt strangely thrilling.
In the quiet, Anxius leaned closer and, this time no longer willing to wait, lowered his head and touched Yomi’s lips with his own.
Yomi froze.
Anxius didn’t use much force, as though deliberately leaving him a chance to resist.
Two seconds passed.
Yomi, unable to resist at all, felt utterly helpless. One of Anxius’s arms wrapped around him, holding him close, while his mouth was kissed again and again, very gently.
Yomi didn’t resist, and so Anxius pressed his advantage and shamelessly “bullied” him further, kissing along his neck too.
It was Yomi’s first time experiencing anything like this. At first he trembled pitifully for several seconds. But very soon, his eyes started to narrow with pleasure: wow, this felt really exciting. It was actually… pretty comfortable…
The moment Anxius noticed him trembling, he grew nervous. Looking more carefully, he found that the person in his arms had practically melted into a puddle of softness, his expression dazed, his eyes misty and damp, as if he had truly been forced by some overbearing tyrant.
“…”
If Anxius hadn’t had such strong self-control, he might really have turned into a beast.
Suddenly Anxius stopped moving. Still deeply caught in the stimulation, Yomi lifted his eyes and looked at him lazily.
The moment their eyes met, Anxius abruptly sat upright, as though preparing to leave the bed.
“What’s wrong?” Yomi, face flushed deep red, stared at him in shock. Then, suddenly annoyed, one melodramatic line from some dog-blood drama flashed through his head and he blurted it out: “It’s not like I was going to make you take responsibility!”
Anxius: “…”
His heart nearly split with rage. He was furious and yet wanted to laugh at the same time.
Yomi was about to continue, but Anxius pounced right back over, clutching him tightly and lightly biting his mouth—not hard, but in a clingy, almost sticky way. “Say yes.”
Anxius’s breath was a complete mess, carrying an overwhelming pressure. Heard coldly, it almost sounded like coercion. But Yomi knew that in truth, this was practically Anxius begging him.
Yomi was mortified.
The truth was, for a while now, he had already felt that things between them were very ambiguous. Once Anxius had finally torn away the paper from the window, Yomi had honestly been ready to go along with it.
Wasn’t it just dating? If it made you happy and you enjoyed being together, then that was enough. That was what Yomi had thought then.
But now Anxius had left him hanging right in the middle of all this… and suddenly Yomi felt an urge to make things difficult for him. He didn’t realize that this was simply relying on being cherished.
Meeting Anxius’s eyes, Yomi didn’t dare truly look into those golden irises. Stiffening his neck, he said, “If I don’t agree, are you going to make us sleep in separate rooms? Is our relationship really that fragile?”
How dramatic, how unreasonable, Yomi thought with a secret thrill.
Anxius fell silent for a few seconds. Not only did he not get angry, he leaned down and, with absolute dominance, kissed Yomi all over his face.
Yomi was practically kissed stupid.
The kisses were so forceful it felt as though his whole face had been stamped with seals.
After a long while, Yomi’s scalp had gone numb from being kissed, and he simply lay there and let it happen.
So this was what falling in love felt like?
The air was completely saturated with hormones, and before they realized it, the temperature had turned scorching.
Anxius was completely addicted to kissing him now. Pressing down on those beautifully shaped lips, he deepened the kiss over and over again.
At this point, even if Yomi wanted to run, he could never escape.
Anxius held him tightly, and kissed him even more fiercely. It was as if he was using every ounce of strength in his life to touch Yomi’s heart with his own.
He wanted to hold him even tighter, kiss him even deeper, swallow his lovely beloved whole and keep him safely at the tip of his heart…
A current seemed to flash through his heart. Anxius stared him down, yet when he spoke, his tone was all tenderness and indulgence. “No separate rooms. Whether you agree or not, you’re still my baby.”
Yomi was mortified. “What do you mean? I’m not your son.”
“…Baby means baby. Not son.”
So mushy.
Pulling the blanket tightly around himself, Yomi looked bashful like a little bride. “Shouldn’t you be calling me dear instead?”
“…”
At last realizing something, Anxius abruptly leaned in close.
Yomi couldn’t even turn over now. He was pinned down so tightly. Those golden eyes stared fixedly at him, hot breath brushing his face. “What did you just say?”
“Nothing. Dear, go to sleep…” Yomi said in a tiny, trembling voice. The next second, he was scooped up and kissed ruthlessly all over again.
Anxius had gone completely mad with excitement.
Yomi was excited too. At first he even smiled sweetly while being kissed. But soon enough, he started feeling like calling the police… really, for one brief moment, Yomi genuinely felt like his cheeks were about to be sucked clean off!
