The Dragon King Insists That I Raise Him Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Tao Qingguan: Little White, Daddy Loves You~…

Tao Qingguan buried Little Black in the backyard, sighing repeatedly as he did so.

What a waste. Although there wasn’t much meat, it was fresh. It just wasn’t fresh anymore.

Tao Qingguan returned indoors and washed his hands several times at the sink. After washing, he brought his hands to his nose to sniff, then pulled them away with a look of disgust.

Smelly.

He had only touched it and it smelled this bad; Little White must be thoroughly marinated. With that thought, the way Tao Qingguan looked at Little White also became tinged with distaste.

Fortunately, he still had a bit of conscience and didn’t forget to change the water in the fish tank. It was due for a change tomorrow anyway, so changing it a day early wasn’t too much trouble.

Tao Qingguan tidied up the haphazard decorations in the fish tank and scooped Little White out of the basin, placing him back in the tank.

Before today, the fish tank held two happy little fish; now only one remained. What was gone is gone, a sad tale for those who hear it.

Tao Qingguan sighed again, dipping his hand into the fish tank to poke around a couple of times. “Little White, you have to live well. You’re the only seedling left at home.”

Yan Jiu dodged Tao Qingguan’s reaching hand and swam towards the reef at the bottom of the tank, where the water was deeper and Tao Qingguan couldn’t reach.

In the past, Tao Qingguan would have given up harassing Little White, but today, he stubbornly stood on his tiptoes, cornering Little White like a bully, going over to take advantage of the little fish.

Tao Qingguan stroked Little White’s smooth scales, his words flowing freely, “Still trying to run? Touching you won’t cost you a piece of flesh. Could you be a shy little female fish?”

Yan Jiu: … Unbelievable.

With his ‘younger son’ dead, Tao Qingguan focused all his attention on his ‘elder son.’ The frequency of his daily harassment of Little White skyrocketed. His pent-up fatherly love had nowhere to vent, so he would occasionally tap the fish tank, checking if Little White was still alive.

“Still alive?”

“Do you want me to catch you a little companion?”

“How can you sleep at your age? Get up and swim a few laps.”

“Want to play catch? I toss a piece of fish food, you catch it.”

“…”

Yan Jiu was driven mad by the incessant noise, his head throbbing.

How could a person talk so much?

As the saying goes, one either explodes in silence or becomes abnormal in silence. Yan Jiu truly couldn’t stand Tao Qingguan’s daily chanting in his ear, so he decided to find something for the other party to do.

That night, while Tao Qingguan was asleep, he slipped out of the fish tank and reverted to human form.

Moonlight streamed through the window onto the tiles, white as frosting. Even without streetlights, the countryside at night wasn’t completely dark.

The dim light caused no disturbance to Yan Jiu. He strode into the study, pulled a book from the very top shelf, and brought it downstairs, mixing it in with the pile of books Tao Qingguan had brought back on the coffee table.

Every day at noon, Tao Qingguan would read for a while. When his backside wasn’t healed, he’d be on the computer; now that it didn’t hurt anymore, he sat on the sofa to read.

He was too idle; otherwise, he wouldn’t have so much time to harass him.

After hiding the book, Yan Jiu felt it wasn’t enough and sent a few more messages to Tao Lihe.

Dozens of kilometers away, Tao Lihe was busy working when he suddenly received several messages filled with unusual concern. He clicked them open, and the green chat bubbles illuminated his face:

Arranging morning and evening drills for candidates should also be part of the physical fitness assessment.

Tao Lihe: “?” Subway, elderly person, mobile phone…jpg

Seriously, he really needed to sleep; he must be hallucinating.

…

Tao Qingguan was woken up by the sound of marching cadence early in the morning. He fumbled for his phone next to the pillow; it was only 5:30 AM.

Rubbing his eyes with resentment, he dragged his heavy body to the front window to see which scoundrel was disturbing his sleep.

Tao Qingguan abruptly threw open the window and stuck his head out. A neat line of people appeared before his eyes.

Middle-aged men and women in tracksuits were running in single file, shouting cadence and taking small, rhythmic steps, their serious demeanor comparable to high school morning exercises.

Tao Qingguan couldn’t believe it. He closed his eyes, rubbed them a few times, and opened them again. The scene remained the same.

He felt dazed and confused. Are morning exercises the new trend now instead of square dancing?

Seriously, one shouldn’t wake up early; one starts having hallucinations.

Tao Qingguan, looking utterly bewildered, closed the window and sleepwalked back inside, rummaging through his suitcase.

Yan Jiu, who had also been woken up, felt a sense of relief watching Tao Qingguan’s actions.

Although Tao Qingguan hadn’t woken up on time, it was still good that he was getting dressed to go out now.

Yan Jiu waited for Tao Qingguan to leave so he could go back to sleep, but before he could, Tao Qingguan covered himself with his small blanket.

Tao Qingguan stuffed his ears with earphones—the result of his long search—and peacefully drifted back to sleep, listening to comfortable white noise.

Yan Jiu stared at the sleeping Tao Qingguan for a long time, confirming that Tao Qingguan had absolutely no intention of going out for a run. He displayed an expression of disappointment, hating that iron couldn’t become steel.

Too decadent; having no ambition at such a young age.

Tao Qingguan: ZZZZZ…

He slept until almost ten o’clock as usual before getting up. Tao Qingguan hugged his pillow and turned over. He reached behind him and patted his poor tailbone; it felt much better, only still hurting slightly when pressed.

Tao Qingguan grabbed his phone and played a few rounds of a small game to wake up. With no work to do, his schedule became irregular. The only fixed routine was feeding Little White in the morning; everything else he did according to his mood.

He ate when he was hungry and slept when he was sleepy.

However, although this was enjoyable, it got a bit boring after too long. For the first time, he realized he might have masochistic tendencies, enjoying being tormented by life, the sadist.

The sun climbed unnoticed to the center of the sky, and the cicadas in the trees chirped weakly.

Tao Qingguan, wearing a different pair of brightly patterned shorts featuring Tom, sat in front of the electric fan, enjoying the cool breeze. His shirt lay discarded in the corner of the sofa, and Tao Qingguan squinted, almost pressing his face against the fan.

The weather was getting hotter, and the effect of the water in the large hall’s Air Conditioner was getting worse. Tao Qingguan strongly suspected that the water in the backyard well was either boiling or had evaporated. In short, like him, it had no way out.

Tao Qingguan muttered to himself repeatedly, “A calm heart brings natural coolness, a calm heart brings natural coolness…”

How could it be cool! He wasn’t a corpse; he couldn’t get cool at all.

Tao Qingguan casually grabbed a book from the coffee table, placed it on his lap, and opened it. He planned to read a few pages to hypnotize himself and sleep through the hottest part of the day, so it would be cool by evening.

This was how he had been taking his midday naps lately, and the effect was excellent. After a few days, the number of pages he had read was merely a scratch on the book.

Tao Qingguan listlessly started reading. He scanned the first line and realized this book wasn’t the one he had been reading before. Thinking it didn’t matter what he read, Tao Qingguan continued.

After reading the first two pages, Tao Qingguan unbelievably flipped the book to the cover and saw “Miscellaneous Talks on Summoning Rain.” Confusion appeared in his eyes.

Has the Civil Service Exam competition gotten this intense now?

After questions about spring, summer, autumn, and winter—questions that made one’s vision go black—were they now developing the metaphysics field too!?

Uncertain, he took another look.

Tao Qingguan flipped the pages rapidly, finally confirming that this was a book entirely dedicated to metaphysics.

He smacked his lips, marveling inwardly. No wonder everyone fought tooth and nail to get into the civil service exams every year; if your head wasn’t sharp enough, you couldn’t squeeze in at all.

Tao Qingguan flipped the book back to the front and continued reading from the third page.

This book was quite interesting; it told the story of the Descendants of the Rain Master.

Legend had it that the Descendants of the Rain Master could communicate with heaven and earth and possessed the ability to summon rain. During droughts, the Descendants of the Rain Master saved countless lives. Unfortunately, human power was ultimately limited and could not contend with nature, and many people still lost their lives.

As times changed, the legacy of the Rain Master gradually faded. Many Descendants of the Rain Master forgot their identities, and the ability to summon rain also vanished into past memories.

Tao Qingguan looked at the illustration of a Descendant of the Rain Master blending into the crowd, indistinguishable, and his finger paused on the page.

Time, which seemed gentle and harmless, could actually destroy everything. The legacy of the Rain Master was dwindling, and perhaps one day it would quietly fade from the stage of history as if it had never existed.

Tao Qingguan felt an inexpressible sense of regret. He steadied himself and turned to the next page.

Just as he suspected, the Descendants of the Rain Master with the ability to summon rain became fewer and fewer. After humans learned Artificial Rainmaking, the legacy of the Rain Master suffered another severe blow; abilities that lost their utility naturally lost human importance.

But just as the legacy was almost broken, an unexpected event occurred. Rapidly developing technology destroyed the ecological balance. Even though humanity tried its best to remedy the situation, the damaged ecosystem showed little improvement. Newly planted trees could never restore the former prosperity, and the same planting methods yielded far less than before.

As the ecology continued to deteriorate, humanity invested significant effort in finding the cause of the decline. Finally, they found the answer in a lush, green field.

Humans discovered a special substance in the field, a substance called Ling.

All things have spirit; Ling does not dissipate but transfers. When the land ecology was destroyed, the Ling originally hidden in plants and animals dissolved into the air, then flowed into the sea with the rainwater, settling there.

The owner of this field was a Descendant of the Rain Master, one with talent who had accepted the legacy. When he was occasionally lazy, he would summon rain instead of watering. He didn’t know why, but the crops irrigated by the summoned rain grew much more luxuriantly.

This discovery was taken seriously, and humans quickly found the reason: the Descendants of the Rain Master could bring the Ling from the seawater back to the land, rebalancing the Ling between the land and the sea.

Thus, the Descendants of the Rain Master were gathered by the state. Under state protection, this legacy was reborn and given a chance to continue.

Reading this, Tao Qingguan suddenly understood. This was similar in concept to exam questions about improving the environment, like the West-East Gas Pipeline or the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

As expected of a Civil Service Exam question, it found such a novel angle.

Although the Descendants of the Rain Master sounded mystical, the end of the book did not forget to mention the Party and the country, integrating metaphysics with real life and the modern situation, fully utilizing their characteristics and advantages.

Tao Qingguan nodded secretly; this mystical book was becoming more and more “red” the more he read it.