Audrose did not stop him out of pity, only forcing him to rest when he was too tired. Love was not an excuse to stop someone from growing. Since his lover was willing to do it, he would only provide help in the matter.

Watching the one you love grow little by little was like slowly uncovering a precious gem, watching it radiate a gentle luster.

It was a very proud feeling.

They did not have children. After he abdicated, the one who inherited the throne was Avid's eldest son. He took Su Duan traveling everywhere.

They lived and traveled together for a long time, visiting all kinds of planets, long enough for his strength to wane and his appearance to age.

But Su Duan did not change at all. His appearance was always young and clean. Time gave him endless favor, freezing him in the most vivid form.

Audrose would occasionally feel a little inferior and doubtful, but it would quickly be dispelled by his lover's constant enthusiasm and shyness.

The end point of their journey was Reunion. When they arrived, the flowering season had not yet arrived, and the planet was a bit plain green, not really what one would call beautiful.

But Su Duan liked it very much.

They settled down here, still living in the small wooden house that Audrose had built with his own hands in the beginning.

Another decade passed. When the first ray of morning light spilled through the window, Su Duan heard the sound of Audrose's last heartbeat.

This man, no longer young, still held him in his arms in a protective posture as always.

He stared blankly for a while, raised his head and kissed the corner of the man's lips, and said to the system, "Please help me stop the prop effect, thank you."

......

With a slight patter, the first flower on this planet quietly bloomed its delicate petals.

This place would soon be a riot of flowers.

......

When he opened his eyes again, Su Duan felt a little dizzy.

At first, he thought it was an aftereffect of changing worlds, but he soon discovered that it was a problem with this body.

The system said, "Host, this body of yours is a bit malnourished and didn't have breakfast today."

Su Duan shook his head and said, "Is that so? Then I'll find something to eat in a bit."

The system happily stuffed a piece of bread into his hand.

Su Duan was stunned for a moment and asked suspiciously, "What's this?"

The system: "After the last mission ended, the system went back for an upgrade. Because the host did an especially great job on the last mission, after the upgrade we obtained a special prop slot. The water and food inside can be used at will! Although it's all the most ordinary food, at least the host won't have to go hungry!"

Su Duan curved the corners of his eyes and said, "Thank you."

The system: "It's all thanks to the host!"

Su Duan quietly nibbled on the bread in his hand as the system began transmitting information about this world to him.

The background of this world was still interstellar, but the owners of this star domain were not humans, but various kinds of beastmen.

These beastmen were in the form of beasts when they were young. Generally, when they reached adulthood, they would gain the ability to transform into humans, and from then on, they could freely switch between human and beast forms.

There were also pure humans, but very few in number, and human strength was far too weak compared to beastmen, so they generally stayed in lower-treated job positions.

For example, working as a caretaker in an orphanage.

More precisely, it was a "cub orphanage".

Because beastmen were in beast form before adulthood, the orphanage was crawling with all kinds of young cubs.

His current job was a caretaker at an orphanage on a remote small planet. Because his strength was too low, he was assigned to work in the nursery, where all the unhatched or unweaned young beasts were. Their strength was very small, so even as a human, he could easily subdue these little ones.

Of course, the price of easy work was that his salary was also shockingly low.

He was now in the incubation area of the nursery. Su Duan looked up and around. There were probably five or six incubators in this room, each containing an egg.

This was not the only room. There was another room next to it filled with eggs, but the ones there seemed to be cubs that had not hatched for a long time.

Just as the system was about to transmit more information to him, a dispute suddenly came from the next room.

"It's been ten years...no movement...must be dead..."

"But we can't throw it away...the dean will be angry if he finds out..."

"Just say the human in the nursery lost it...there's no surveillance here..."

...Someone wants to throw away an egg?

An egg in this world is a living child.

Feeling that something was wrong, Su Duan didn't wait for the system to introduce him to the treatment target's information. He put the half-eaten bread on the table and hurriedly pushed open the door to the next room.

Sure enough, there were two tall men standing inside. One of them showed an embarrassed look when he saw him come in, while the other showed a hint of ferocity on his face.

"What? You want to meddle in other people's business?"

Su Duan's pupils constricted slightly.

He noticed that the fierce-looking man was holding a jet-black egg in his hand, holding it very casually, as if he would throw it away at any moment.

Su Duan said in his heart, "System, please buy me a spinach."

The system said, "Okay."

After eating the spinach, Su Duan had some confidence and accurately called out the name of the fierce man, "Xu Wei, put the egg back."

The fierce man didn't take his words seriously at all, and even snorted disdainfully. He began to tauntingly toss the egg up and down in his hand.

As the egg fell again, the man threw it a little crooked. In an instant, Su Duan determined that the egg would definitely fall to the ground this time. He rushed over directly, knocking the man named Xu Wei aside, and reached out to catch it before the egg fell.

But he was still a step too late—

The black egg hit the corner of a table to the side before Su Duan caught it in his palm, but only narrowly.

That hit seemed a bit heavy. The eggshell slowly cracked open in his palm, and light-colored egg white flowed out.

It's over...Su Duan held the egg in his hand blankly, feeling extremely sad.

However, the egg white only flowed out a little before stopping. What flowed out next was not the yolk, but a black paw, constantly waving, with the fur on it becoming strands due to being wet.

Su Duan stared blankly with wide eyes.

—It happened to hatch at this time?

In less than half a minute, with the constant struggling of the creature inside, the entire eggshell completely split open from the middle.

Revealing the complete appearance of this cub.

It was jet-black all over, dragging long black fur that clung tightly to its body due to the fluid from the egg, making it look a bit skinny. Its limbs were very short, but it had a long tail. It didn't seem to have opened its eyes yet, and the position of the eyes couldn't be found.

...It looked like a mouse with a mouse cord attached.

It stretched out what was probably its head, constantly sniffing around Su Duan's palm, then raised it towards his face.

In the pitch-black pile of fur, a tender pink little mouth suddenly opened, and it let out a soft chirp at him.