CH 51

Ning Chu didn’t answer, unknown what he was thinking, so Wuuth repeated, “May I?”

Not far away from the wall was a dragon nest. Ning Chu didn’t know which dragon cub turned over in the nest, as the subtle sound rang out in the quiet room, as well as the sound of their breathing.

Ning Chu’s first reaction was… this development was too fast! Wuuth learned to ask his opinion, but he… he really thought he would agree? He was about to refuse, when a soft sound came from the bed, the silhouette of a small dragon cub appeared against the moonlight reflected in the window.

Wuuth turned back into a small black dragon. Ning Chu swallowed back the words that were on his lips. It turned out to be sleeping with him in the form of a hatchling… He condemned the idea that he had just skewed away, and his heart began to hesitate. It was as if there were two little people in his head. 

One saying that the dragon form and human form were both him, so sleeping in the same bed wasn’t appropriate. The other one said that the dragon form was really small, so what could Wuuth do? He just wanted to be close to Ning Chu, and sleep on Ning Chu’s pillow as before.

Ning Chu struggled for a moment, but finally agreed, “…Okay.”

As soon as he said that, the little black dragon almost flew over and buried itself in the side of his neck. Ning Chu pushed him away, “Just sleeping!” He grabbed the little black dragon, not letting it get any closer to him, “Not too close, and don’t… bite me.”

Ning Chu was still embarrassed to say the word “lick”, but the little black dragon was wrong, trying to stretch the neck, licking Ning Chu’s nose tip. He wouldn’t bite him, it was really an accident today.

Ning Chu tilted his head and gently huffed, raised his hand and wiped the tip of his nose, surprisingly, he vaguely understood the meaning he wanted to express. He had to say it a little more clearly, “Can’t… lick me either.”

Couldn’t do anything, the little black dragon eyes were bleak. But being able to sleep with Ning Chu, and with his consent, the little black dragon’s low mood turned back slightly. Ning Chu let go of the little black dragon and moved Fifth Cub on the other side of the pillow to the side first, leaving a place for the ;little black dragon. He patted the edge of the pillow, “You can sleep here.”

The little black dragon obediently went to the place Ning Chu pointed at and squatted down. He looked at Ning Chu quietly and lay down on his side facing him.

Seeing the little black dragon behave, Ning Chu whispered, “Go to sleep.”

He closed his eyes and didn’t fall asleep for a while, and a moment later heard a slight scraping sound on his pillow. The little black dragon was moving closer to Ning Chu, little by little. He watched Ning Chu carefully while doing so, until Ning Chu’s eyelashes moved, then he immediately laid down obediently.

Ning Chu didn’t open his eyes, acquiescing to the distance he was keeping at this moment.

The next day, Ning Chu woke up very early. When he turned his head, the little black dragon next to his pillow was still asleep, and the distance between him and Ning Chu was the same as last night, not changed at all.

Ning Chu thought to himself, Quite honest.

The other dragon cubs were also sleeping, so Ning Chu quietly got up and went to the bathroom. As soon as he left, the little black dragon on his pillow opened his eyes and got up to shake his dragon wings.

After Ning Chu washed up and came out, the little dragon cubs woke up one after another. Wuuth sat on the edge of the bed, stroking Fifth Cub on his pillow. He looked up at Ning Chu who approached, “Look at Little Five’s wings.”

“What’s wrong?” Ning Chu tensed at once and looked over at Wuuth’s hand.

The other three little dragon cubs heard the conversation between the two and also hurriedly flew over. Fifth Cub breathed calmly and seemed to be waking up soon, lifting a pair of front paws to stretch and twisting her head to change her posture. The small wings on her back were now two or three times bigger than before, no longer clinging to her back, but resembling a pair of real dragon wings.

Ning Chu reached out and touched them, “Is it because of the fruit of the Tree of Life?”

Her body size also seemed to have grown a bit, and the color of her scales became darker. Fifth Cub rolled over and stretched again, finally opening her eyes.

Ning Chu and Wuuth were both beside the bed, along with the three young dragon cubs, looking at her in unison.

“Hmm?” Fifth Cub crawled up and crouched on the pillow, puzzled.

Ning Chu gently picked her up and checked the rest of her body, “Good girl, you’re finally awake, are you uncomfortable?”

“Aowu…” Fifth Cub didn’t feel uncomfortable anywhere, and she thought she just slept for a while. Did it take long?

“It’s the second day,” Ning Chu confirmed that Fifth Cub had no abnormalities and rubbed her head, “You slept through two meals.”

As soon as he said that, Fifth Cub’s stomach grumbled twice. Being watched by so many pairs of eyes, Fifth Cub shrank her neck in embarrassment. Ning Chu immediately bought her fresh oat grass from the mall, and while Ning Chu was buying them, Fourth Cub sniffed the dragon wings on Fifth Cub’s back.

Fifth Cub turned her head and realized that her dragon wings had become bigger.

“Awoo!” She opened her eyes wide in surprise and tried to move. The dragon wings suddenly became bigger, which shocked Fifth Cub a little bit. Her dragon wings slowly stretched and opened under her control, flapping a little. She suddenly took off, and her body was blown up by a gust of wind.

The three young dragon cubs watching were very surprised that Fifth Cub could fly! However, Fifth Cub was caught off guard and was so shocked by the sudden strange sensation that she forgot to move her wings, stopped halfway, and fell straight down.

Ning Chu finished buying the oat grass and caught her with a quick hand.

“There’s no hurry,” Ning Chu put Fifth Cub down and fed her oat grass, “Take your time and let Er Er and the three of them teach you.”

Fifth Cub was, after all, breaking her shell for the second time; she had never flown before, unlike the young dragons that learned to fly at birth. The stunned Fifth Cub turned her head to look at her dragon wings, and Second Cub came over to lick her forehead to soothe her. Although she didn’t feel comfortable for a while, Fifth Cub was still very happy.

She finally had a pair of normal dragon wings, so she could fly high up in the sky by herself without having to ask other dragons to carry her. Fifth Cub gobbled up the oats and burped, eager to learn how to fly right away.

Ning Chu was happy for her, but also a little uneasy, so he held Fifth Cub and rubbed her belly, which was a little bloated from eating too fast, “No hurry, no hurry, the wings have just grown a little, so it’s not too late to learn after a few days when the bones have grown stable.”

To Ning Chu, these suddenly big wings looked like a newborn baby, maybe they were still fragile inside, so it was better to be careful.

Fifth Cub also realized that she was in too much of a hurry and nodded her head, rubbing against Ning Chu’s hand.

At breakfast time, Winka himself came over as usual. When he saw Fifth Cub awake, he asked him about his condition and was relieved to know that Fifth Cub was fine. After breakfast, Ning Chu took the initiative to ask about the fruit tree field that Winka had mentioned yesterday and wanted to go to see it.

Winka thought Ning Chu was interested in the specialties of the elves, so he took Ning Chu to the fruit tree field and said that there was a new batch of fruit ripening in the next few days, so he would give Ning Chu some. There were several kinds of elven specialty fruit trees, which were basically used to make various kinds of magic medicine and cannot be consumed directly.

In the past two days, the dragon cubs had eaten a lot of magical beast meat, and Ning Chu said he wanted to pay Winka some money.

Winka was adamant, “Dragons will always be friends of the elves, it’s too much to mention paying us.”

Ning Chu had to give up, and raised his hand to touch the tip of his nose.

When they arrived at the fruit tree field, there were many busy elves, almost all the adult elves in Lough Valley. The fruit had been ripening for two days, and most of them were responsible for picking it. The carts under the trees were quickly filled and carried to the edge of the field.

Ning Chu also noticed that there was still a lot of fallen fruit in the fruit tree field, enough to cover the whole field.

Noticing Ning Chu’s gaze, Winka explained, “Those are fruits pecked by the blue-finned finches, and once the skin is damaged, the fruits will rot and fall off.”

Blue-finned finches were magical beasts that loved to peck at such fruits, sometimes destroying the fruit trees, and without them, the fruit yield would be doubled.

At first the elves thought of various ways, this kind of fruit tree used to make high-level magic medicine was very valuable. They tried to sprinkle the powder to repel the blue feathered finches nearby, or cover the fruit alone, the fruit tree would shrivel up, or even be affected by the magic array.

Covering the fruit trees with a less energetic magic cover, and completely unable to stop the blue-finned finches, they would even deliberately provoke the high-ranking magical beasts in the mountains, luring them to the fruit tree field to attack the magic barrier.

The fruit tree field was large, and the clan didn’t have enough manpower to guard it day and night. All along, Winka could only watch the large fruit fall off, and there was nothing to do except to speed up the picking when it was ripe.

“I have a solution,” Ning Chu said, “Let the dragon herd to guard it. The magical beasts wouldn’t dare to approach, if they smelled the dragons.”

“But how can the dragons…” Winka stopped mid-sentence and looked at Ning Chu in surprise, “You mean…”

“Er Er,” Ning Chu waved to Second Cub in the back, “Go to the back of the mountain and find some dragons.”

In response, Second Cub flew away and changed back to his adult form in the air. Not long after, he returned to the fruit tree field with a few ordinary dragons. At Ning Chu’s command, the ordinary dragons obeyed Second Cub’s orders and went to stand guard near the fruit tree field.

Winka’s eyes changed and Ning Chu took the opportunity to continue, “They are very obedient and can help carry the cart, and even water and fertilize.”

For some simple instructions, ordinary dragons would never disobey once they remember them, like these dragons, Second Cub ordered them not to attack the elves and to stay at the edge of the fruit tree field, which they basically wouldn’t leave. Winka could build dragon nests for these dragons at the edge of the field, and just feed them on a daily basis.

“They can still do that?” Winka was surprised and vaguely excited, “That’s amazing!”

There were limited numbers among the elves, and if they could really have the help of the dragons, as Ning Chu said, their efficiency would improve a lot.

This would easily solve the big problem of blue-finned finches, double the production, and double the amount sold. The elven specialty medicinal fruits had been in short supply outside, and many chambers of commerce and academies and the like from around the world grabbed them.

More money meant more supplies that weren’t available in the forest and were more expensive. Even though they lived here, who would refuse to make more money? Winka turned his head to Ning Chu and noticed that Second Cub was carrying a pouch on his shoulder.

Second Cub shook the pouch and gave him a quiet look.

Winka didn’t notice Second Cub’s gaze, but read the hint of the storage bag.

Ning Chu appeared to be a human, but in reality, he was more like a dragon. He arranged for his dragon group to help the elves, and it was only right that he should receive payment. It was like the commission of those human mercenary groups outside, he was the party who issued the “commission”, and Ning Chu was the party who took the “commission” and successfully completed it.

And Ning Chu’s purpose for staying here… could be this? Was he very short of money?

When Winka offered to pay Ning Chu, Ning Chu was a little surprised.

This smooth?… He was still torn between the dragon herd just going around the fruit tree fields, not doing any physical work. Should he charge Winka this money, or less? When Winka said he would pay Ning Chu 5,000 purple gold coins a month, Ning Chu took a breath, “Isn’t that… too much?”

“Not much,” Winka explained in his usual tone, “the part of the fruit that is broken on the ground can be sold for 20-30,000 purple gold coins a month.”

The money was originally thrown away, but now it was the same as getting it back for nothing, and Winka intended to befriend Ning Chu, so the pay was set on the high side.

Ning Chu’s eyes instantly changed, looking at Winka like a low-profile landlord. He stopped being polite and told Second Cub to go to the back of the mountain to find more dragons. Second Cub answered and flew away again, the storage pouch in his mouth having been quietly thrown away.

After negotiating the payment, Ning Chu and Winka signed a paper contract, somewhat similar to the commission card he had received at the academy.

As for the 5,000 purple gold coins per month, Winka proposed to use the money banks established in human cities. Money banks were available everywhere, and since Ning Chu couldn’t stay here all the time, when he couldn’t come in person, Winka would directly deposit the payment into Ning Chu’s account in the money bank.

This was the same as having a monthly paycheck put on a bank card, which was convenient for Ning Chu as he learned about the money banks here for the first time. He remembered that the Church elder also had a “High County Bank” card in his pouch, so did he have money in it?

Winka asked, “There are several money banks in the nearest city, but it will take about two or three days to open a new account, when do you think is the right time to go?”

Ning Chu thought about it and replied, “Some time later, I have other things to do, I guess I have to leave today and will come back then.”

Winka had already paid him a month’s worth of money when he signed the contract. He had a month to wait until the next one, so he wasn’t in a hurry.

After so many days of delay on the road, it was time for him to go find the Eldest Cub.

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