The system's voice rang out in a timely manner: "Host, this is your healing target for this time."

Su Duan looked at the black-furred little cub in his palm that was not even as big as his hand, blinking in surprise.

It had actually become so small.

Not only Su Duan, but the other two men in the incubation room also showed obvious surprise.

-- This egg that had been in the orphanage for ten years without any movement had actually hatched just like that?

You should know that for eggs that hatch cubs, in the half month before officially breaking out of the shell, the data detected by the incubation box will start to show abnormalities. But at least a few minutes ago, when they took the egg out of the incubator, the data from the incubator where this cub originally stayed was still the same as before, still showing no signs of hatching.

But just now, that cub had indeed crawled out of the eggshell right in front of them.

Looking at the black cub in Su Duan's palm, Xu Wei's face couldn't help but turn ugly. The reason he dared to have the thought of throwing away the egg was because this egg had never shown any signs of hatching and no life signs could be detected. So most people in the orphanage had long thought it was a dead egg, and even if it disappeared one day, no one would raise any objections.

-- The orphanage was already busy enough taking care of those hungry cubs, who had time to care about the whereabouts of a dead egg?

Except for their stubborn old dean, but it wasn't a big problem either. They could just push all the responsibility onto this black-haired human in charge of guarding the incubation room.

The resources of the orphanage were limited, especially since the planet they were on was very remote. The government's support for the orphanage was already very perfunctory, and the funding allocated each year was pitifully small. Their orphanage hadn't replaced or added any new equipment for a long time, and every incubator was very precious.

Now all the usable incubators in the orphanage were full. If there were new eggs coming, it would undoubtedly face the embarrassing situation of having no incubators available.

Incubators were indispensable for cub eggs. Only a very small number of powerful species could hatch in a bare environment -- of course, eggs of species at that level were all highly valued and would definitely be carefully guarded, and wouldn't be sent to an orphanage.

If a new egg with signs of life died due to their negligence, it would definitely damage the reputation of their orphanage if word got out. At that time, the already low funding might be reduced or simply not issued at all.

The old dean's idea was to pay for most of it himself, and they would raise a little money to purchase a new incubator just in case, but not many people agreed.

The orphanage's wages were already low, and no one wanted to spend extra money to do charity.

Of course, Xu Wei also disagreed, but the shortage of incubators was indeed a fact. So he came up with a solution—

This black egg had already wasted ten whole years of resources, and now it was time to make room for other eggs.

Waiting until a new egg arrived to find an opportunity to throw away this black egg might attract others' attention. It was better to let it disappear quietly now, so it would seem natural later.

But perhaps he was destined to have bad luck today. Not only did his companion who came with him suddenly hesitate, but they were also caught by this human guarding the incubation room!

And as luck would have it, he even cracked that egg. Even if that cub accidentally hatched because of it, if investigated, his actions still violated the law.

The empire had strong protections for cubs. In today's laws, murdering cubs was a felony. Even just the intent would be punished.

If he was reported for this, he definitely couldn't escape the fate of going to jail!

However, the surveillance in this incubation room was broken, and this human named Su Duan couldn't produce evidence. Plus, the companion beside him was in it together with him. The words of Su Duan alone were far less weighty than the two of them combined.

If Su Duan went to report them to the old dean, they could completely turn the tables and push all the responsibility onto Su Duan.

Thinking of this, Xu Wei's confidence that had weakened a bit just now returned again.

"You listen to me..."

He was just about to warn this weak black-haired human, but Su Duan had already walked out of the incubation room holding the cub in his hands without looking back.

Leaving the two people who had failed to do bad things looking at each other.

"It was all your bad idea, what do we do now?"

"What are you panicking for? There's no surveillance here. Isn't it just a matter of words? Can't the two of us out-talk him?"

"Just wait and see. If he dares to talk nonsense outside, we'll..."

However, while they were planning like this, they didn't know that Su Duan had already had the system record the entire process just now.

He also knew that in the current situation, as someone who didn't have much presence in the orphanage, he had no way to confront two junior executives. He might even be slandered by the other party instead.

The video was of course ironclad evidence, but with the surveillance in that incubation room already broken, the source of the video couldn't be explained, which was also a big problem.

So the video could only be kept for now and used when the time was right later. Anyway, with the system's tracking function, he wasn't afraid of not being able to find those two people later.

The top priority now was still to take good care of this newborn black-furred cub in his hands.

After all, barring any accidents, this would be his future partner.

He put the wet little cub on the table, not throwing away the eggshell either. After wiping it a bit, he piled it to the side, then found a clean towel and carefully wiped the mucus off the cub's fur.

Although this cub that hadn't opened its eyes was a bit thin and ugly, it was very well-behaved. No matter how he moved it, it didn't resist at all. It tightly gripped the base of Su Duan's fingers with its two front paws, nestling its little head against his fingers, occasionally making weak chirping sounds.

The system took the opportunity to continue introducing in his ear: "This time's healing target is named Vigter, a beastman, belonging to a powerful and rare race in this world—the Luota tribe. The current king of the empire is of this race. The Luota tribe used to be very powerful, but three hundred years ago, due to a sudden outbreak of genetic defects, a large number of cubs in the tribe died. Now the number of Luota is not enough to form a tribe, and there are not many left even in the royal family."

"Gene defect?" Su Duan grasped the key point and asked, "Is Vigter's illness this time related to this?"

The system said, "Yes, the healing target is an egg from three hundred years ago that hadn't hatched yet. It still has genetic defects due to the racial chaos at the time. Unfortunately, the healing target was lost until it was picked up and sent to the nearest orphanage ten years ago. When this genetic defect flares up, it causes the beastman's mind and body to become highly agitated, with their destructive desires multiplying. They lose control of their behavior and ultimately die from excessive exertion."

Su Duan's movements of wiping the young cub in front of him paused for a moment, and he lowered his eyes slightly.

Dying in this way... it must be very painful.

After carefully wiping away all the mucus on the cub's body, the black fur became fluffy. The originally scrawny, mouse-like cub instantly puffed up, turning into a soft, fluffy black furball.

Behind it trailed a thin, long little thread of fur, with slightly denser fluff at the end, like a little demon's tail.

Su Duan couldn't help but reach out and touch its little tail. The cub sensitively moved its tail, then wrapped it around his finger, opening its tender red mouth and letting out a soft "coo".

Although clumsy in its movements, it already displayed an unmistakable possessiveness.

It really wants to mark its territory at the first opportunity, not changing at all.

Su Duan tapped its little head with his fingertip. The cub, who hadn't opened its eyes yet, stuck out its tongue and licked his fingertip. The cub's tongue was also pink, small and tender, lightly touching Su Duan's fingertip, causing a slight tickling sensation.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, Su Duan gently pulled his finger out of its tail's grip, then used his palm to hold it up on its back. The cub obediently curled up its limbs as he picked it up like this.

Su Duan used his other hand to gently part its hind legs, searching for its gender characteristics.

He didn't know if the target was a boy or a girl this time.

After half a minute, Su Duan confirmed that it was a boy, just like the previous two times.

But—

"It seems to be only one centimeter," Su Duan said softly after a moment of silence, voicing his discovery.

The system said, "To be precise, it is one centimeter and 0.8 millimeters, host."