27 Realizing one’s mistake

The ten fluffy cubs on the winners podium were in the spotlight and the attention given was like being immersed in a warm, shiny and bright aura. Standing high above the crowd, with the gleaming medal around their neck, they received countless cheers and praise from the adults.

In the beginning, Xie Tao had also encouraged the cubs on the podium. But after a while, he lifted the round cub crouching on his left shoulder and held him in his arms.

Meeting those cyan eyes, he touched the small horns through the cloak and snuck a hand in under the fabric to stroke the cub's soft back.

"Meaah." The light cyan eyes attentively watched the youth as he called out to him.

Since it would be inconvenient if many people saw the Knox cub, the cub needed to wear the small cloak before he went outside. Compared to the other cubs who could explore the world and enjoy the praise and attention of others, this Knox cub had to hide himself and was not allowed to shine at his brightest.

Thinking about the cub's situation and watching the lively scene in front of him, Xie Tao continued to gently stroke the back of the cub, expressing comfort.

The cub in his embrace was unusually complying and Xie Tao could feel the cub snuggle against his chest as he started emitting low vibrations from his throat.

"Baby." Because the cub was so well behaved, Xie Tao pulled the hood on the cub's head back a bit and lowered his head to plant a kiss on the fluffy cub's forehead.

The light touch on his head had made the Knox cub unconsciously issue a high pitched sound from his throat, and the tip of the small fluffy tail became exposed below the cloak's edge as it went limp and fell down. Gazing up at the youth who had raised his head again, the tail slowly started to recover, moving left and right before lifting the tail high.

"Meaah-"

The pupils gazing up at the youth were slightly contracted and as he called out to him, the cub swept his soft tail across the back of the youth's hand in an attempt to half-hook around the youth's wrist.

But this time, Xie Tao's hand was still a little too far away for the small tail. It managed to touch it, but it was not easy to half hook around it.

Feeling the soft touch near his wrist, Xie Tao looked down and saw the little tail trying hard to hook around his wrist.

Unable to stop the corner of his lip from rising, Xie Tao moved his hand a bit so that the fluffy tail could smoothly complete the wrist movement.

At the end of the award ceremony, Xie Tao took the three cubs off the winners podium. The three round cubs wore different colored medals and even though they were now sitting in his embrace, their small chests were still raised high. It seemed that to them it was still important to keep this posture.

Xie Tao did not want to dampened or interrupt their cheerful mood and only lightly touched the small chest that were sticking out.

So fluffy and soft, with the warmth of a cub.

The Cub Flying Competition was a highly regarded event among the Kuhti, Kuwei and Cotto race. As they all cared about the cubs of their own races, the event got a lot of attention and it was a fun way to strengthen their friendship.

Although other races in the Interstellar did not pay as much attention to this competition, such a large scale event jointly organized by three different races where of course widely known of.

After the following closing ceremony, this year's Cub Flying Competition hosted by the Kuhti race, had officially come to an end.

During the competition, a discussion had stated on Xingyou and even though the exciting contest had ended, the interest in the topic still lived on and had increased even further.

"I heard that in this year's flying competition, there was a rare scene of one person taking three cubs to the stage in order to receive awards."

This message was posted in the thread on Xingyou and it immediately got many replies, one of which had an image attached.

The image was a screenshot of the flying competition's live broadcast, it was taken during the award ceremony.

On the platform, parents and caretakers were holding their cubs. Standing to the left, one young man with black hair particularly stood out. He was not holding just one cub in his arms, but three.

This had surprised many in the audience as well as those watching the live broadcast, and made them curious. Now that someone mentioned this matter and brought the memory to the surface, many people joined in to discuss and followed the development of it.

"It must be their nursing club that took them up to receive the awards. I haven't witnessed a scene like this in a long time."

This comment had most replies. Some people argued that it was impossible for a human to work as a caretaker, while some had started discussing which association and branch it could be.

"In any case, it must be one of the top ranking clubs. If one just keep an eye on their official Xingyou accounts, there will definitely be an update on their homepage soon."

This comment immediately got a lot of likes and rouse to the top. After reading it, some curious people instantly started using this ingenious method to search for the club, but unfortunately, they still could not find it…

…Why could they still not find it?!

This left a lot of people, who had been confident in the method and had worked hard, bewildered. They also felt that the club definitely had to to be among the top clubs, so how could this be??

It needed to be said that they did not yearn excessively for this unknown club. The flying competition was after all just a friendly exchange between the three races. What was displayed in it was only basic flying skills and the competition was mainly used to deepen their relationship.

However, because the flying competition itself got a lot of attention, it was good for clubs to publish the results if their cubs got high rankings in it. This as it would show that their club had good nursing ability.

So which club would be stupid enough to not take this opportunity?

Some people were still struggling to find out which club the cubs belonged to, but not long after, another comment appeared in the thread that completely stole everyone's attention.

"The Kuhti cub who took first place in the flying competition, I'm pretty sure he wasn't able to fly before… He used to be in the same club as my cub, so I'm quite certain."

Right after this person posted the comment, they added.

"I was very surprised when I saw the close-up in the live broadcast. I hadn't expected that the cub would be able to learn how to fly so soon and to be able to do it so well. The parents must be very happy."

The information given in these two comments was big. A nursing club had not only managed to get three of their cubs into the top ten, but also made a cub, who previously could not fly, able to win first place in the big cub flying competition. This was on a completely different level—

The former was not particularly remarkable, it only left people a little amazed and curious after hearing it, but the latter was truly worth keeping their eyes on.

Hence, the interest in the thread increased even more after the addition of this information and it didn't take long until it got onto Xingyou's hot list.

By the time this happened, several of the Kuhti cub's previous nursing club had already taken notice of the thread. Seeing it getting more and more attention, the staff at these clubs could not help but start pondering.

Maybe it was because of them that this Kuhti cub could now fly?

Although the cub had been unable to fly while he stayed at their club, their caretakers had put in a lot of time and spiritual energy to teach him, so, perhaps their guidance had later taken effect and played a role in the cub's success…

You could not blame them for thinking this way. These were the top clubs in the interstellar with A- and even S- level caretakers. Receiving guidance from them through spiritual energy was definitely very beneficial, there was even a chance that it would stimulate a potential ability in the cub.

While the interest in the topic was still rising, Xie Tao, unaware of what was happening on Xingyou, traveled to the central city of Orte.

He had been invited by Fuya to the Waren estate as a guest. It was an invitation, but in actually it could also be considered a request. The Kuhti woman had said that she hoped he could be there as support and encouragement for the Kuhti cub in his arms.

As for why he would need support, it was apparently related to the cub's father.

Fuya had prior requested that the butler receive Xie Tao. So when he arrived at the manor together with the three round cubs in his arms and the Knox on his shoulder, he was lead to the living room sofa by the butler and was asked to wait for a bit.

Xie Tao did not have to wait long, and he soon saw two adults of the Kuhti race, with the same light red hair, exist the adjoining room.

The man walking in front had a cold and serious face, the only sign of the other's emotions was the faint stiffness that could be detected. Particularly when the man laid his eyes on the red fluffy cub in Xie Tao's embrace, did the rigid expression on his face become more apparent.

Seeing the Kuhti cub in the youth's arms who was carrying a gold medal around his neck. Tanner suddenly felt his legs grow heavy and it was a little difficult to walk forward.

His wife had just now brought him into the study and told him that their cub needed his praise and encouragement, not blame or a cold face.

It was not healthy to blame the cub when he did not do well enough, it only made their cub cower when he was at home.

During the flying competition, when he had been standing in the highest position on the winners podium, the cub who was in the center of attention had been full of confidence and pride.

But now when he was back home and saw his father walking over, the cub lowered his head and shrunk back, looking somewhat timid and shy.

When he saw the cub's reaction, Tanner at last realized his mistake.

Feeling his wife pushing at his back, Tanner walked the few remaining steps and then stopped in front of the youth sitting in the sofa.

Xie Tao met the man's eyes and then looked down and touched the soft back feathers of the Kuhti cub in his embrace. The fluffy light red cub still had his head lowered and did not dare to look up at his father who was standing in front of him.

"Do Peipei want to show the medal to mommy and daddy?" Xie Tao said this in a warm voice, and then emphasized, "Gold, the first place medal."

After saying this, Xie Tao lifted the cub and, with natural movement, put the Kuhti cub in the arms of the man in front of him.

Tanner automatically received the cub, but his body became partially rigid when he sensed the fluffy feeling in his hands. It had been a long time since he last held his cub.

Neither of them said anything and they stayed in this mutual silence for a moment, then the cub in his embrace accumulated his courage and slowly raised his head.

When he saw that his father still wore a cold face. The Kuhti cub's courage that he had gathered with great difficulty, faltered, but the weight of the medal around his neck served as a reminder. It gave him the confidence to continue gazing up at his father and meet his eyes.

Gold, the first place medal.

I got first place.

"Tiuh-Tiuh!"

Summoning his courage once again, the fluffy light red cub stretched his back and strongly called out to his father. With this action, the golden medal on his chest became even more prominent.

Tanner's body, which previously was only partially rigid, became completely frozen.

______________

Translator's note:

The confrontation has finally begun! ＼(^o^)／

My favorite part of it all was how Fuya had to keep pushing Tanner from beind in order to unfreeze him, so hilarious. Now is just the question if he will stay completely frozen or will be able to change and praise our little Peipei.

Although I previously just wanted the "sperm donor" to go to hell and have Fuya and Peipei leave to live happily and successfully on their own, I now hope Tanner can change for Peipei's sake and become a better father and husband. (It might be his pov that got to me..)

On another note, I have a bit of a request for you. I'm doing a study on fears and dangerous animals for school and I would really appreciate it if you could take my survey:

Doesn't work anymore, I've tried it. I as in SlothfulxQuiet in case anyone gets confused haha.

It won't take long to complete and it would really help me out. ( ^ω^ )