“Don’t cry, don’t cry.” As soon as he started crying, Qi Huan was thrown into a fluster, quickly squatting down beside the little dumpling to comfort him. Just now, the edge of the plate was blocking his view, but now with a change of angle, he saw that under the other side of the plate’s edge, there was a golden star coin quietly placed.

Was this what the little fellow meant by having paid already?

After a good while of coaxing, he finally managed to stop the crying.

“When did I ever say I was going to sell you?” Qi Huan gently wiped Tuan Tuan’s tears, utterly puzzled.

“The day before yesterday.” The little fellow ‘accused’ with red eyes, tears still glistening on his eyelashes.

“The day before yesterday?” Qi Huan furrowed his brows, trying hard to recall, but he couldn’t remember saying anything like that.

“If not, then the day before that. Anyway, you said it. You also said something about having to bow under the eaves.” The little fellow sniffled, speaking in broken sentences.

“Master Qing Tang, that was just a joke, nonsense.” Qi Huan sighed helplessly, looking up at the sky. At that time, he thought the little fellow was just a cat, and he casually said it to scare him into behaving. After all, when he was young and did something stupid, Qi Qing would always say she would sell him off.

“Really?”

“Really, even if I wanted to sell you, I wouldn’t know how!”

The little dumpling was stunned, his porcelain-white face showing signs of tears about to flow again.

“That was also a joke.” Qi Huan quickly patted his own mouth in a remedial gesture. He was used to bantering while gaming, sometimes his mouth was faster than his brain.

Qi Huan swore to the heavens, coaxing for a long time, explaining that he was just worried about him getting poisoned from eating something. Only then did the little dumpling stop crying again.

“How about we go to the medical area now?” Qi Huan suggested once he saw the little fellow had calmed down.

“No.” The little fellow shook his head vigorously, full of resistance.

“The meat of stone beasts is poisonous to beast clans, it’s very dangerous.”

“I’m fine, no need to go.” The little fellow firmly refused.

“Really no discomfort anywhere, like a headache?” He checked the little fellow’s neck and arms as he spoke. They were white, tender, and clean, with no signs of a rash.

They had been fussing for almost half an hour, and the little fellow had eaten even earlier. By right, the rash should have appeared by now.

“Really none.” Tuan Tuan shook his head.

Could it really be an allergy, where some people react and some don’t? Qi Huan frowned in confusion. Worried that Tuan Tuan might feel unwell later while he was asleep, he took the little fellow back to the attic, sitting side by side on his bed.

“Did you really think I was a bad person before?” Qi Huan nudged Tuan Tuan’s short legs with his own, trying to stay awake to ensure he could call the base’s medical team immediately if something went wrong.

Tuan Tuan hung his head, picking at the corner of the blanket, “Not really, you’re a bit better than a bad person.”

“In what way?”

“You look better, but you’re fierce, but you have a good heart, but your mouth is bad, but you make delicious food.” The little fellow counted on his fingers, going back and forth with ‘but’, and Qi Huan could almost imagine his image bouncing back and forth in the little fellow’s mind with each turn.

“Is that why you didn’t leave?” The attic window was never locked, and it would have been easy for the little dumpling to leave the Human World Restaurant, just like how he snuck in.

The little fellow mumbled something, and Qi Huan didn’t catch it, “What?”

“Nothing.” The little dumpling shook his head.

“By the way, if you feel any discomfort, tell me immediately.”

The little fellow nodded, then looked at Qi Huan in confusion, “If you’re afraid the stone beast meat is poisonous, why did you make it taste good?”

“Seeing is ‘eating’, we humans have a saying, ‘Delicious is food, not delicious is medicine, inedible is building material’, the main point is not to waste.” Qi Huan half-supported his chin, speaking half-jokingly, half-seriously.

“Isn’t it because you’re greedy?”

“Hey! Seeing through but not pointing out, that’s how you make friends.” Qi Huan pretended to be serious, poking the little dumpling’s shoulder, shifting the topic to him, “So, where do you live?”

“Ninefold Star Domain.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“What’s the address?”

The little fellow looked up at Qi Huan, then lowered his head again, meaning ‘can’t say’.

“If you don’t tell me, how can I find your family to send you back? I can’t afford a starship ticket.” Qi Huan teased him, even opening his personal terminal to show his account balance after disabling the anti-peep mode.

“You’re so poor.” The little fellow, with tear-stained eyelashes, was dumbfounded looking at the long string of negative numbers.

“Hey, hey, hey, I’m going to be the first interstellar tycoon in the Ninefold Star Domain in the future.” Qi Huan pinched his soft dumpling face, ‘threatening’ him to take back his words, “Being too straightforward can be a bit hurtful, huh.”

“Sorry, temporarily very poor.” Tuan Tuan rubbed his cheek, obediently retracting and ‘editing’ his statement.

“Or do you remember anyone’s contact number from home? You can add them directly using my terminal?” Qi Huan thought of another way as he looked at the contact list, rare for the star network to have a signal tonight.

“Even with a signal, it won’t work. The network on the Waste Star can only connect locally. To contact people from other star domains, you need to upgrade to a top-level personal terminal, or go to the Command Hall to use their paid signal, or the other person has to be on the Waste Star and registered with a local number.” The little fellow’s tone was a bit helpless, as if saying, ‘How can an adult not know this?’

So this on-and-off signal was just a local network? Qi Huan ‘tsk’ed, luckily he could still afford the internet fee, “Then shall we go to the Command Hall tomorrow?”

“No.” Tuan Tuan shook his head vigorously again.

“Why not go to the Command Hall?”

The little fellow hesitated for a while before speaking softly, “The Jiufang family is our enemy, the kind with a particularly bad relationship.”

The Jiufang family, the operators of No. 7 Waste Star, the ‘noble’ party on Qi Huan’s ridiculous 250-year labor contract, the remnants of the interstellar era’s evil slave owners!

Qi Huan immediately shared the same enemy, knowing slave owners were no good, and also somewhat understood why Tuan Tuan didn’t want to see people or go out. If the relationship was really that bad, being discovered by the Jiufang family would likely mean being at their mercy, and he had no ability to protect him.

“So what do you want to do?” He propped his chin in distress, thinking that by the time he paid off his debt and saved enough for a starship ticket, the little fellow might have grown up.

“I want to wait for my little uncle in your shop.”

“What color is your little uncle’s hair?” Qi Huan’s mind moved, recalling the silver-haired youth he had seen earlier.

“Of course, the same color as mine.”

Sure enough, there was no such coincidence, Qi Huan sighed silently in his heart, reaching out his slender fingers to rub the little fellow’s head. The little dumpling’s hair was soft, slightly damp, probably from sweating earlier, “Are you sure he’ll come?”

The little fellow nodded, then shook his head, “Actually, not so sure, but I smelled his scent.”

“You mean your little uncle has been to the Human World Restaurant before?” Qi Huan was habitually about to prop his chin with his hand when he suddenly noticed a faint gray on his fingertips, all five of them, as if they had gotten dirty somewhere.

“Even if he has been here, he might not come again, right?” Qi Huan rubbed his thumb against his index and middle fingers, unable to rub it off.

He glanced around, finally fixing his gaze on the little dumpling’s head. The hair roots behind the little fellow’s ears seemed a bit white?

“What’s with your hair?” Qi Huan reached out to grab his hair for a closer look, and the little fellow hurriedly covered his head with his small hands.

Qi Huan suddenly realized, spreading his fingers, waving his gray-stained fingertips at him, “Dyed?”

The little dumpling’s body stiffened, a bit at a loss after being exposed.

Silver hair! Qi Huan’s mind instantly flashed to someone’s beautiful silver long hair.

“Is your little uncle very thin, very tall, wearing a ferocious beast mask, with particularly beautiful silver long hair, and a red-haired friend?”

Seeing that he wasn’t angry, the little fellow’s tense body relaxed a bit, nodding silently, “His hair is very long and beautiful, but I don’t know about the mask and friend.”

Qi Huan regretfully knocked his forehead, wishing he had left a contact at the time, and again just now, missing the chance.

Afraid of giving the little dumpling false hope, Qi Huan thought it over and decided to wait until he found the person during the day to confirm before telling him.

“Wait,” Qi Huan remembered something else, looking up and down at the little dumpling in front of him, “How old are you this year?”

“Nineteen.” The little dumpling weakly squeezed out two words.

“You’re actually older than me?” Qi Huan looked at the little dumpling-like person in front of him in shock, feeling like a part of his worldview was about to shatter.

“That’s different, humans come of age at twenty, we beast clans come of age at thirty-six. So according to your human concept, I should be around four years old.”

That made it more acceptable, Qi Huan exhaled, thinking it over and finding something amiss, “Thirty-six years to come of age, nineteen years converted to human age shouldn’t it be just over ten?”

“The growth state of beast clans is different from humans, the first twenty years are extremely juvenile, four-fifths of the time is needed for sleep, after entering the juvenile state, the growth rate is similar to humans.”

Does calculating age have to be so complicated? Qi Huan rubbed his temples, feeling sleepy just listening.

The little fellow hesitantly looked up, “There’s one more thing.”

“Mm, go ahead.”

“The beast core in the cabinet, I ate it.”

“Huh?” Qi Huan was stunned.

“I was just curious because it had my little uncle’s scent, and it was absorbed as soon as I touched it because the level was suitable…” The little fellow blushed, “I was injured and needed energy to heal, and it was because I absorbed that beast core that I could return to human form.”

Qi Huan: …

“But don’t worry, I paid for it, it’s all in the tin box where the beast core was, put back in the drawer.” As if afraid he would be angry, the little fellow quickly added, pointing with his chin to the drawer that originally held buttons and the beast core.

Following his gaze, Qi Huan got up and opened the drawer. The box was indeed back, and when opened, it was filled with a box full of golden star coins.

“Where did you get so much money?” Qi Huan was puzzled.

The little fellow lowered his head again, not speaking.

“Forget it, take this money back, that beast core was originally your little uncle’s collateral here, since you ate it, you can pay him back yourself.” Qi Huan shrugged lightly, since he said the beast core had his little uncle’s scent, it was most likely the silver-haired youth. Indeed, they were a family, their generous style was simply inherited.

Seeing he wasn’t angry, the little dumpling breathed a sigh of relief, hugging Qi Huan’s leg and rubbing it, “Huan Huan, you’re really a good person.”

“Don’t call me Huan Huan.” Qi Huan poked the little fellow’s shoulder in protest, the tone was like calling a puppy.

“Since you live in the Ninefold Star Domain, how did you come to the Waste Star?” Wouldn’t you be discovered by the Jiufang family when you came?

The little fellow hung his head, pinching the corner of the blanket, “The starship I was on had an accident, everyone else died, I was captured into the nomad area outside, and from what those people said, they wanted to ask my family for money.”

Qi Huan stroked his chin, guessing it was probably those desperadoes hiding in the nomad area who did it.

“I found a chance to escape, afraid of being found by them, I dyed myself black with waste mine materials in the mine pit. Later, I took the opportunity to hide in a hunting team’s trailer to enter the base…”

“You’re quite clever.” Qi Huan shook his head, the child spoke vaguely in some places, probably involving things he didn’t want to say, but to avoid the kidnappers’ pursuit and the Jiufang family’s sight, he thought of dyeing his fur to eliminate his most obvious feature, really quite smart.

“If only I hadn’t fallen asleep when my little uncle came that night.” The little fellow leaned against Qi Huan’s leg, sighing with a sense of longing.

“Don’t worry, maybe you’ll meet soon.” Qi Huan comforted him, “Before that, just stay here and recover.”

The little fellow didn’t speak, just rubbed his knee like a small animal.

Qi Huan looked at his black hair and shook his head with a smile, no wonder he chose black sheets and clothes at first, insisting on washing himself every time, probably carefully touching up the color after each wash.

The two chatted about all sorts of things for a long time, and the little fellow never showed any signs of discomfort, so Qi Huan gradually relaxed.

The window was slightly brightening, and the little dumpling yawned widely, feeling sleepy. Qi Huan was about to let him go to sleep when the little fellow’s stomach growled loudly.

“Hungry?” Qi Huan looked at him with amusement as he switched from covering his mouth to covering his stomach in embarrassment.

“Mm.”

Qi Huan rubbed the dumpling’s head, holding his hand as they walked downstairs, “I’ll make you something to eat, then you can sleep.”

“Is it especially delicious?” The little dumpling looked at him expectantly.

“Especially delicious.” Qi Huan nodded, what could be better than a midnight snack when you’re hungry?