Ch23 – Sorry, the Owner is very Busy

Aojia gazed down at the little leopard struggling in the blanket and played with the cute little black dragon in his hand. “Call my name and I’ll return it to you.”

“…”

Rong Mingshi stretched out his head and glared at this person.

Aojia rubbed the leopard’s head. Then he changed into a shape that was twice as big as the little snow leopard. He held the little black dragon in one claw and the snow leopard in the other claw as he flew towards the bedroom on the second floor.

The sudden change caused the little leopard to jump in a startled manner and hug the dragon claws and… dragon’s back! Aojia’s current size was enough for the leopard paws to reach behind the black dragon.

The black dragon flying in the air slowly hung lower and his chin touched the little leopard’s head in a reassuring manner. However, this was obviously useless and the little leopard held him tighter.

It wasn’t until the dragon and leopard were safely settled on the bed in the bedroom that Rong Mingshi released his four paws. Then he rushed up to the evil black dragon whose body size wasn’t that much different from his own. His paws pressed against the black dragon’s back and he pretended to bite the dragon wings, the clear leopard eyes full of feigned violence.

Snow leopards were also predators!

The black dragon turned over, dragon claws around the little leopard and the dragon wing on the other side placed in front of the little leopard, letting the little leopard take the wing into his mouth.

Rong Mingshi ground his teeth down for a while before opening his mouth. His leopard paws pulled at Aojia’s dragon wings and turned around, revealing his head from underneath the wings. He looked at the shrunken black dragon and then the little black dragon carving next to the pillow.

Aojia’s adult body was only reduced in size and it wasn’t the juvenile form, but Rong Mingshi was still very happy and fond of it. He happily pressed a paw against the black dragon’s belly and then he lay on it, soft facial fur rubbing against the belly of the black dragon.

The little black dragon was cute but the soft, flexible and warm sensations hadn’t changed. Rong Mingshi discovered this and liked the feeling of being warm with the black dragon even more.

At this time, the housekeeper who went out to collect information came back and saw such a scene through the bedroom’s central control system. His small and soft snow leopard was wrapped in dragon claws and wings by a body that was twice as big as him. Black and white were so intimately tangled together!

Even a beastmen couple wouldn’t fit so intimately together in their beast form. It might be different at night when no one would disturb this but this was broad daylight. It was incredibly… incredibly…

Shameless!

The housekeeper was so angry that the central process of the manor’s robot housekeeper that he temporary resided exploded and blue smoke emerged.

However, the dragon and little leopard wasn’t paying attention to anything else. Aojia slightly cocked his dragon head and looked at the little leopard lying on him. The dragon claws moved the leopard paws to his throat. This was the deadliest position and it was a place no one else had touched.

“Aojia.”

The black dragon’s vocal cords vibrated, making a low and elegant sound. Rong Mingshi discovered the warmth and vibration under his paws. His clear eyes looked at the black dragon and he didn’t move his mouth. He found that the beastman’s animal-like vocalization was different from the human form. It had little to do with the tongue and it was more important to control the vocal cords.

Aojia raised an encouraging claw to the little leopard’s fur. “Try it.”

Rong Mingshi nodded. “Aoji… ya.”

…It sounded a bit stuttering but the meaning was similar. The little leopard was excited and opened his mouth to repeat it. “Aoji, ya, Aojiya…”

These few words made the originally furious housekeeper stop as he was running to the weapons of destruction. He followed the manor’s data link back to the bedroom’s central control system and listened carefully to the child’s voice.

Over the years, he had taught the child countless times yet had never been able to make the child say a word. He only heard the little leopard’s unchanging chirping while the marshal could actually let the child speak. For a moment, the housekeeper’s data fluctuated in a complex manner.

Not long ago, he received an order from Duke Oran to send the child to the institute to extract his beast nucleus for research. For the safety of the child, he faked a starship accident and then attacked Duke Oran’s residence, but failed to kill Duke Oran.

Then Duke Oran had doubts about the child’s starship accident and investigated the child’s whereabouts, causing the robot housekeeper to return to the desolate star to take the child to a safer place.

The housekeeper searched the entire desolate star and didn’t find the little leopard, only the nutrients left be him. Based on the clues obtained from data analysis, he locked onto the marshal’s aircraft. The aircraft’s firewall was powerful and the aircraft was using space leaps. In this state, he couldn’t infiltrate and could only wait for the marshal at his manor in the Imperial Capital.

He originally thought the empire’s Marshal Black Dragon and Duke Oran were birds of the same feather. After all, rumours that their families would be joined in marriage had spread throughout the empire. The housekeeper didn’t expect that after checking for a few days, he never found a connection between the two. It was only Duke Oran who planned to arrange a marriage between the marshal and his daughter, who he had to replace the child, at the royal banquet.

In addition, Marshal Black Dragon arranged schooling for the child. If the child went to school, his whereabouts were bound to be exposed. Thus, the robot housekeeper still wanted to take the little leopard to leave.

Now that he saw the happy little leopard, perhaps he should have a good talk with the marshal. The housekeeper temporarily judged that the marshal was good for his child. However, he watched the black dragon and leopard tangled together while learning to speak and his data was still chaotic. He eventually masked all other signals and nestled in a corner of the bedroom control system to listen.

After hundreds of Aojiya, Rong Mingshi finally issued an accurate ‘Aojia.’

The little leopard lay under the black dragon’s head and sighed. It really wasn’t easy. How long would it take to learn to speak?

“Very good. Other beastmen learn to use their beast form a few years after birth. Rong Rong only took a few days. You are very powerful.”

Aojia grabbed the little black dragon and placed it in the little leopard’s arms. Rong Mingshi held the little black dragon and then his paws pressed against the big black dragon. Since the real one was present, why would he want the alternative?

Rong Mingshi placed the little black dragon to the side and wanted to continue learning to talk with Aojia, only to feel the quantum computer around his paw tremble and a call request jumped out.

Rong Mingshi felt it was refreshing. He hadn’t had much contact with people and he was relaxed after learning to speak. He accepted the call request while choosing the text communication method.

Then some text appeared on the interface in front of him.

“Store owner, your energy stone is really great. I am sending 2,000 star coins to your account. Please be sure to accept it.”

Rong Mingshi grabbed his head. He hadn’t expected to receive such a reply. The opposite person hadn’t received a reply and sent another string of text.

“Store owner, in fact, I have a very good cooperation suggestion. I will order customized energy stone carvings from you. I will provide you with beast images, the high-grade energy stones and each carving will be 10,000 star coins. The production cost is covered, you won’t need to go to the online store to buy energy stones or pay taxes to the platform. What do you think?”

In this person’s opinion, the store owner who sold such a good carving for only 100 star coins was completely short-sighted about money and was easy to deceive. He saw the cat-shaped energy stone and was quick enough to buy it. He earned hundreds of thousands from selling it. If he managed to lock onto the store owner’s supply, he could develop it further.

Unfortunately, he bought something from the story but didn’t find a specific sender’s address. Otherwise, he wouldn’t bother contacting the owner through the buyer and seller system of the Star Network and would go directly to this person’s home.

The black dragon saw these words and his eyes slightly narrowed. 10,000 star coins? The little leopard’s sculpting level was far more than Principle Stewart. Such a powerful energy stone was only worth this small amount?

Aojia wasn’t just the empire’s marshal. He was also a savvy businessman who ran the most profitable resource star of the empire and the best hospital in the empire. At first glance, he saw the intention of the person who bought his little leopard’s carving.

The first work was only sold for 100 gold stars on the Star Network but this was the price set by the little leopard. Aojia didn’t care as long as the little leopard was happy. However, this person’s suggestion would naturally make Aojia angry. This was taking advantage of his little leopard as a labour force.

Aojia was about to remind the little leopard when Rong Mingshi blinked, opened the imperial dictionary and started to look for the right words. Then he simply replied, “Sorry, I’m busy.”

After that, he turned off the interface and continued to pounce on Aojia’s body. “Aoji, jiao jijiji!”

Aojia, let’s do it again!

Rong Mingshi was the descendant of a wealthy businessman and also gave constructive suggestions to his grandfather. He hadn’t participated in specific business operations but he had never seen a pig running to a person wanting to eat pork.

Rong Mingshi now realized there was a problem with his previous pricing. Uh… he was a fool with more money than sense. Still, whether it was carving energy stones or repricing them, it had to be done with Aojia wasn’t at home.

Aojia had specifically shrunk to a miniature black dragon to tell him to speak. Everything else naturally had to be placed on the back burner.

A smile appeared on the black dragon’s eyes as he continued teaching the little leopard rubbing against his neck to speak.