The Dragon King Insists That I Raise Him Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Brother, Brother, You Smell So Good

Tao Qingguan clutched his neck, trying to roll over. He couldn’t figure out what he was thinking last night; he had slept on the floor, twisting his neck all night. When he woke up in the morning, for a moment he suspected his head wasn’t even attached to his neck anymore.

He cautiously turned his head slightly, and a sharp, sour sensation shot straight to the top of his skull. Tao Qingguan immediately performed the expression of a screaming kitten clutching its head in pain.

This was worse than having no head on his neck. Tao Qingguan’s face contorted.

If he waited a moment before getting up, it might feel better, but having drunk too much juice last night, he was about to burst. Tao Qingguan, wearing a mask of agony, struggled to get up.

If his neck was like this, his body must be even more painful. Tao Qingguan seriously suspected he hadn’t been drinking juice last night, but rather fake liquor.

He tried to recall what happened last night, but his memory only contained the feeling of being sleepy and drifting off to sleep. Other than that—

Do not trespass.

A strange thought popped up, making Tao Qingguan even more certain he had drunk fake liquor; he was talking nonsense.

Tao Qingguan took a shaky step. The expected pain didn’t arrive. Tao Qingguan paused, tilted his neck, and took two steps in place. He found his body surprisingly agile. Putting the neck aside, he could even be described as refreshed.

He was wrong. It wasn’t the juice from last night; it was entirely his sleeping posture.

Tao Qingguan reflected that his quality of sleep was perhaps a bit too good; he had managed to fall asleep in such an awkward position.

He shifted his body slightly, trying to find his bearings. His head was tilted and couldn’t turn, limiting his vision. Tao Qingguan had no choice but to walk diagonally toward the bathroom. His lower abdomen felt sore and bloated, and he was anxious. He took a larger step, tripping over the Air Conditioner blanket in his blind spot.

With a loud crash, round two, he made intimate contact with the floor again.

But this time, his luck wasn’t as good as last night. He landed squarely on the smooth tile floor. His already injured tailbone suffered another blow, compounding the injury.

Tao Qingguan was pinned to the spot, his mind blank. He let out a howl, and tears of pure physiological reaction streamed down his face.

Damn it, that hurt!

He shakily reached out, steadying himself against a nearby cabinet to change into a squatting position. The burning pain in his rear was so intense that Tao Qingguan didn’t dare touch it. Was the Ancestral Home cursed to clash with his tailbone?

Was it shattered? It must be shattered; he felt like he was shattering anyway.

Tao Qingguan, despite his physical impairment, managed to stand up again. His eyes were fixed only on the bathroom. Hunched over, he shuffled step by step toward his target.

Yan Jiu, submerged at the bottom of the Fish Tank, had witnessed the entire ordeal. A look of indescribable expression crossed the fish’s face.

This kid doesn’t seem very smart.

A while later, Tao Qingguan dragged his heavy body back to the main hall. His rear still ached, and the pain intensified tenfold the moment he touched a chair or sofa.

Tao Qingguan stood barefoot on the floor mat. After much mental preparation, he didn’t have the courage to sit down. After a brief hesitation, he decided to use a side-lying position to play on his phone.

But when lying on his side, one arm was pinned down. Tao Qingguan adjusted several times but still found the posture awkward. He squinted, pondered for a moment, and decisively changed his position.

Tao Qingguan: or2

With a pillow underneath him and holding his phone in front with both hands, everything was perfect except for the slightly undignified posture.

It was a good thing he was the only one home; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to assume such a shameful position. Tao Qingguan’s face flushed slightly, but he quickly cast that embarrassment aside and happily played on his phone.

Yan Jiu, who had a clear view of everything: …

Definitely not very smart.

Tao Qingguan lazed around like this until the afternoon. In between, he fed the two fish a meal and then flopped back down.

Playing on his phone got a bit boring after a while, so Tao Qingguan opened the chat application with the red dot to deal with the messages he had long ignored.

The familiar profile picture was at the top of the list. His good colleague had sent him over a dozen messages. Tao Qingguan clicked in and saw that the earliest message was already a day or two old.

Guilty.jpg

But as soon as Tao Qingguan saw the content of the messages, he instantly transformed into a cold, ruthless heartbreaker and swiped his finger to exit the chat interface.

Again and again and again, she was sending him Civil Service Exam Past Papers!

His colleague, Lu Manman, hailed from a major province for the Civil Service Exam—a certain Eastern Province. After working for a few years, the Civil Service Exam blood in her system finally became uncontrollable, and she threw herself into the pursuit of a government job this year.

It would have been fine if Lu Manman were only studying for herself, but she kept trying to recruit him. Her methods included, but were not limited to, sending him Civil Service Exam Past Papers, occasionally asking him two classic essay questions, and Tao Qingguan even had the Civil Service Exam Reference Book Gift Pack she sent him in his suitcase.

Tao Qingguan: Fine, but unnecessary.

The world isn’t worth it. He decided to unilaterally sever contact with Lu Manman for the time being.

Tao Qingguan put down his phone. Having stayed in one position for too long, his body felt stiff. Since he was tired of his phone anyway, Tao Qingguan got up from the floor, preparing to move around a bit.

Distance creates beauty; absence makes the heart grow fonder. He would attend to his beloved concubine later.

The sun outside was scorching. Tao Qingguan had no interest in making things hard for himself, so he naturally walked up to the only two living things in the house and spoke in a teasing tone.

“I’ve been raising you two for so long, and you still can’t talk. You two need to reflect seriously.”

Yan Jiu’s tail-wagging motion paused, and its gaze fell on Tao Qingguan.

Did he notice him?

Tao Qingguan had no talent whatsoever, let alone the ability to perceive his presence by sensing Ling. It wasn’t surprising that others could sense his presence, but for Tao Qingguan, unless he actively revealed himself, the other party shouldn’t know.

And after the impact of so much Ling last night, he was certain Tao Qingguan had forgotten that memory.

But now…

Discovering his presence was a bonus point for the assessment. Tao Lihe having some small thoughts was one thing; cheating was another.

He felt displeasure, but immediately, he heard another sentence.

“Other pets can do laundry, cook, sweep, and mop. How can you two eat for free? Come out and hop around a bit; I’ll consider that you’ve mopped the floor for me.”

Yan Jiu: …So he was just having a fit.

Tao Qingguan tapped the glass twice, but ultimately didn’t have the nerve to take the fish out. He put on a serious face and declared, “You must contribute to this household. Starting tomorrow, Little White, you go out fishing, and Little Black, you need to fatten yourself up a bit more.”

Slurp.

Tao Qingguan swallowed, his gaze lingering on Little Black’s body.

Yan Jiu really wanted to close its eyes, but fish don’t have eyelids. It silently turned around, presenting its back to the mentally unstable Tao Qingguan.

After harassing the two fish, Tao Qingguan felt much brighter. He stood up straight, stretched, and let out a big yawn.

The weather was beautiful, and time was precious. He needed to start thinking about what to eat for the next meal.

He passed the dining table, and the half-bottle of leftover juice from last night caught his eye. Tao Qingguan stopped, resting a hand on his chin, contemplating how to dispose of the thing.

It tasted good, but it wasn’t very friendly to his life.

He picked up the juice and sniffed the opening twice. He still couldn’t smell any alcohol.

Tao Qingguan confirmed his sense of smell and taste were fine, so there was only one conclusion: this juice was problematic.

Reaching a conclusion he already knew, he nodded solemnly, tossed the juice into the waiting trash can beside him, and turned to reheat some food.

Halfway there, Tao Qingguan felt a slight burning sensation on his back, but it quickly vanished. He touched his back; there was no particular feeling, and he soon dismissed the matter.

Yan Jiu in the fish tank paused its movements, its dark eyes scanning the surroundings.

It seemed to sense the aura of scales.

…

Time flew by as the little slacker lived the life he had always dreamed of: eating, sleeping, playing, and then eating again. This was how a living person should be.

After several days of completely slacking off, Tao Qingguan felt refreshed in body and mind, and his whole demeanor brightened considerably. In the middle of it, his persistent good colleague kept urging him to study hard, which he chose to ignore selectively.

He had always been clear about public and private matters: rest was rest, and work was slacking off.

It was noon another day. Tao Qingguan woke up from his nap, reached for his phone by the pillow, checked the time, and found it was still early. He stood up, stretched a bit, and on a whim, decided to clean the house.

Of course, he only planned to clean the living room. Cleaning the entire Ancestral Home was something that would cost him his life.

Tao Qingguan started moving and felt a bit hot. He took off his shirt and continued sweeping while naked. As he passed the fish tank, he habitually started chatting with the two fish inside. After a few days of getting along, Tao Qingguan felt they had established a basic revolutionary friendship.

This was mainly reflected in him being responsible for feeding, and the two fish providing him with emotional value.

Tao Qingguan bent down and approached the fish tank. Little White, shy as ever, was hiding under the reef in the corner. Little Black, usually lively, had been floating near the surface for some reason these past two days, its eyes vacant, swimming slowly, completely lacking the liveliness it had when first brought into the tank.

“Little Black, I feel like you’ve gotten fatter,” Tao Qingguan tapped the glass. “If you get any fatter, you’re going into the hot oil.”

Yan Jiu, at the bottom, heard Tao Qingguan’s words and felt a wave of speechlessness in its heart.

How could it not be fat? It had developed a bloated appearance.

Little Black was already in bad shape during the last water change, but Tao Qingguan, a novice fish keeper, hadn’t noticed and put it back as usual. Little Black’s corpse had been floating in the water for nearly three days, swelling up.

If Tao Qingguan hadn’t noticed Little Black was dead during this water change, it would have had to stay with the corpse for another three days.

Yan Jiu, having lived for so many years, had never encountered such a bizarre experience. It wasn’t afraid of a fish corpse, but in the hot summer weather, even with the air conditioner on, Little Black was starting to smell a bit.

No, it couldn’t stand it.

Yan Jiu swam up from the bottom and slapped Little Black on the head with its tail.

Little Black tumbled several somersaults in the water, losing several scales. It wobbled, spinning in place, its belly gradually turning upward.

Yan Jiu was satisfied. With its belly up, even the dullest Tao Qingguan should realize Little Black was dead.

The wobbling Little Black, halfway through flipping over, slowly turned back. It was stuffed to death; its belly was packed with too much food, making it too heavy to float up.

Seeing Little Black return to its initial state, Yan Jiu wanted to close its eyes again.

“Hey, don’t fight,” Tao Qingguan’s eyes widened as he glared at Little White. “You really pick your moments. Little Black isn’t feeling well, and you’re trying to finish it off while it’s sick.”

Yan Jiu sighed inwardly. It was also feeling a bit unwell.

After lecturing Little White, Tao Qingguan continued sweeping. When he finished, sweat dripped down from his hair, leaving dry streaks on his body. His previously pale skin had gained some vitality. He casually scratched his arm, and as sweat droplets rolled down, he kept feeling an itch.

He grabbed a tissue to wipe the sweat from his neck. Turning his head, his gaze met Little White’s again. Tao Qingguan found it strange. Usually, Little White was very shy and liked to hide under the reef; it only came out when he bothered it. Why was it suddenly so outgoing today?

Tao Qingguan walked over and tapped the glass. “What’s wrong? Are you hungry?”

Yan Jiu remained silent, unable to speak. It coldly and ruthlessly slapped Little Black again, sending it into a spinning motion in place.

Tao Qingguan noticed Little Black losing scales and immediately looked worried. He opened the lid of the fish tank and gently stirred the water with his hand twice.

“Little Black, are you okay?”

Little Black: …

The water rippled for a long time, but Little Black didn’t dart away to another spot. Tao Qingguan poked Little Black with his fingertip, but there was still no movement. Only then did Tao Qingguan finally realize something was wrong.

He scooped Little Black out of the water with one hand. Little Black in his palm was lifeless. Tao Qingguan turned it over and over, examining it, and recognized a fact.

Little Black was dead!

Yan Jiu watched Tao Qingguan slump his head, his eyes turning sad, as if it were about to rain. Its heart was subtly pricked.

He really was just a child, getting sad over a fish he had only kept for a few days.

“How did it die? When did it die?” Tao Qingguan asked a series of soul-searching questions. “Can it still be eaten?”

Yan Jiu: …