With a splash, the showerhead in Su Duan's hand tilted, and the black furball clinging to his ankle instantly became a drenched little creature.

"Chirp chirp?" The little creature, transformed from a furball into a little mouse, let out a confused sound.

Su Duan was stunned for a moment, then bent down and picked it up by the soft flesh on the back of its neck, placing it on a small platform about waist-high beside him, used for holding bathing tools.

The fur on the little creature's body had been soaked into strands by the water, with its fluffy head suffering the most. The tips of its ears were dripping wet, and its fur was all stuck to its face, making its just-opened eyes appear especially large.

Su Duan turned off the water flow and touched the little creature's wet cheek with his fingertip. Lowering his gaze, his eyes met the eyes of the newly awakened little creature.

They were a pair of very pure blue eyes, with a bit of membrane from the juvenile stage still remaining around the edges, making them appear slightly hazy. However, the color and patterns were already vaguely visible, and one could imagine how beautiful they would be when fully grown. The black vertical pupils in the center, perhaps due to the shock from Su Duan or the stimulation of the water, were slightly dilated.

These beast eyes were exactly the same as Audrose's from the previous world.

The little creature, placed on the platform, tentatively rubbed its wet head against Su Duan's fingers. Seeing that Su Duan had no reaction of resistance, it used its two equally wet front paws to hug Su Duan's two fingers, as if eager to mark its territory, and began to lick them with a pitter-patter. Its originally curled up thin black tail also quietly extended and circled around the slender wrist of its prey in front.

It licked with focus and care, its pink little tongue going from the tips of Su Duan's fingers all the way to the gaps between them. When Su Duan felt a slight itch and gently curled his fingers, the little creature tilted its head and let its tongue slide along the back of his hand towards his wrist.

Beneath the fair and delicate skin, the pale blue veins slightly protruded, carrying a scent that was irresistibly tempting to it.

The instinct engraved in its genes told it that the person in front of it smelled delicious, and that as long as it gently cut the skin here with its teeth, it would be able to taste the wonderful flavor hidden inside. But strangely, it couldn't bear to bite down at all, as if just holding, smelling, and licking like this was enough to satisfy it.

Predation and feeding were instincts of a predator, while protection and nurturing were the voices from its soul.

The tongue with slight barbs made Su Duan's wrist very itchy. He softly called out "Viji" and prepared to withdraw his hand.

As a result, when his fingertips moved, they unexpectedly touched something hard.

"Huh?" With a certain premonition rising in his heart, Su Duan's action of withdrawing his hand paused. He gently pressed against the little creature's upper jaw with one hand, supported its head with the other, and carefully pried open its mouth to search inside.

Sure enough, he found two small white specks symmetrically on the tender red gums.

Su Duan touched them with his fingertips. They were hard. Although only a little bit was exposed, when his fingertips lightly touched them, he could already feel that they were very sharp.

"...When did you grow teeth?" Su Duan couldn't help but ask in puzzlement.

The development speed of the little creature had suddenly become unbelievably fast. In the dozen or so minutes that he had been in the bathroom, Viji had not only opened its eyes but had also quietly sprouted two small milk teeth.

However, the little creature, whose mouth was still being pried open by him, couldn't answer his question.

After Su Duan finished looking, he closed its little mouth. Although Viji didn't resist and let him pry open its mouth and look around inside, keeping its mouth open wasn't comfortable for any creature. After Su Duan let go, he considerately helped it gently massage the muscles around its mouth and chin.

The little creature made a low purring sound from its throat, and its light blue eyes also narrowed slightly. Its tail circled Su Duan's wrist even tighter.

It can even purr now...? How many kinds of sounds do Luota cubs make?

Su Duan couldn't help but get distracted and ponder for a moment.

If Su Duan had raised a cat before, he would know that this kind of sound was a common way for them to express "comfort". Unfortunately, as a herb spirit that hadn't yet had the chance to take human form, Su Duan knew nothing about these things and could only guess based on instinct that it might be acting coquettishly.

After comforting the little creature, Su Duan withdrew his hand and turned the showerhead back on, adjusting it to a suitable water flow intensity and aiming it at the little creature's position on the platform.

"Chirp!" The little creature, once again drenched, let out a slightly panicked cry.

It didn't like water. If it weren't for the delicious human in front of it, it wouldn't have gone near the bathroom at all. Sensing the unfavorable situation, the little creature shook its wet fur, preparing to make a run for it.

However, it was immediately pressed down on the butt by its delicious little prey and thoroughly washed inside and out.

"Chirp..." Viji, with even the base of its tail scrubbed, was carried out of the bathroom by Su Duan, looking quite listless.

Su Duan bent down and placed it on the pillow.

The bathroom had an automatic dryer, and the black fur, after being washed clean, had been dried until it was soft and fluffy, densely pressed together like a soft ball spread out on the pillow. Its thin black tail was slapping lightly behind it, making a slight patting sound.

In the lowered light blue beast eyes, the pupils were dilated very large, becoming round black glassy beads, intently staring at the black-haired human in front of it.

The slightly thin black-haired human was wearing loose and comfortable clothes after taking a bath, with a white long-sleeved sweatshirt on the upper body and light linen shorts on the lower body, barely covering the knees in length.

Because he didn't have pajamas, Su Duan used old summer clothes as sleepwear.

After putting the little creature on the bed, Su Duan also quickly climbed onto the bed.

He knelt on the quilt and pulled the curtains. Outside, the sky had completely darkened, and the snow hadn't stopped. From the lights of the orphanage, one could see that the ground was already covered in a thick layer of snow, and the windows were also frosted with a layer of white. As soon as one approached, one could feel the biting cold air rushing towards them.

Just as Su Duan was about to close the curtains, he suddenly felt a warm and soft sensation on his calf again. He turned his head to look, and sure enough, he met a pair of blue, watery beast eyes that seemed to carry a hint of grievance.

With a swoosh, Su Duan pulled the curtains closed, stretched out his arms to pick up the little Luota cub following at his feet, kissed its moist little nose tip, curved his clear eyes slightly, and asked softly, "Are you still angry, Viji?"

Earlier, when he was helping the cub wash the base of its tail, although the cub didn't understand anything, it still struggled fiercely, and after washing, it started to be gloomy, even its chirping sounded listless.

"Chirp chirp..." The cub reflexively stuck out its tongue and licked the corner of his lips.

Su Duan hugged the soft cub and got into the covers.

But he wasn't preparing to sleep. Instead, he had the system materialize the light screen and started playing educational videos for the cub.

The Luota race's position is that of predators. Their strength is at the unshakable top of the food chain in the entire beastman empire. Even now, when the race has experienced a catastrophe and declined, they can still maintain their position as the royal family. From this, one can glimpse how powerful they were when the race was numerous.

However, this kind of strength does not entirely depend on the genes of the race itself. Although the Luota are beastmen who only live with their partners after adulthood and tend to be independent, when the cubs are young, they are even more devoted to raising and educating the cubs than most other races.

The racial wisdom and combat experience accumulated over thousands of years are passed down orally and personally by the elders to the growing cubs.

This education begins from birth and never stops. So, Luota cubs can often easily crush adult bodies of other races during their underage period when they cannot switch between human and beast forms.

But obviously, they don't have such an elder Luota who can teach Viji now.

In fact, the only adult body in the Luota race that can be called an elder is a rare one. He is far away in the capital star, occupying the imperial throne, and at the same time teaching four or five cubs...

He has no plans to go to the capital star to offer himself to other Luotas to eat for the time being, so the emperor who is busy raising children probably can't be counted on.

But in order to grow into a healthy cub, in addition to a healthy diet, Viji's education issue absolutely cannot be neglected.

So Su Duan found the system, which although penniless has the technology, to help him steal a copy of the Luota cub education videos and guides belonging to the royal family's secrets.

-- That's right, with the development of technology, beastmen have long learned to use technology to store important information.

Although the projections woven from the data in the video are still different from real adult Luotas, it's not a problem to fool Viji who doesn't understand anything yet.

The adult Luota in the video demonstrated the most basic hunting skills. At first, Viji wasn't very interested and only gnawed on Su Duan's fingers to play. But after a few minutes, its two round eyes could only stare straight at it. As it watched, it crawled out of the covers and began to imitate the movements of its tribesmen in the video.

This is its instinct as a predator.

Desire to learn, desire to hunt, desire to gain strength...

After all, the cub's energy is limited. Viji bounced along with the video for half an hour and was so tired that it could only pant on Su Duan's chest.

Under his palm, the soft body rose and fell slightly, and the azure beast eyes focused on his gaze. Su Duan combed its fur from the top of its head to its back with his fingertips, and spoke softly to the cub on his body.

The faint sound of snowfall outside the window had stopped, and in this room there was only the cub's faint panting and Su Duan's voice, "When you grow up, I'll take you back to the capital star... You're royalty now, maybe you can even be an emperor in the future."

In fact, apart from the emperor and three Luotas who have just become adults, the remaining four in the royal family are all cubs. The entire race, including Viji, only has a pitiful nine.

...So objectively speaking, if Viji can be cured and return to the capital star, the possibility of inheriting the throne is not small.

The cub chirped unknowingly. At the age of just one day old, it could not understand the words of adults. It's just that the youth's voice was clear and light, like the first snow in winter. When it fell by its ears, it brought a sense of familiarity that made it feel at ease. Just talking to each other like this was already very satisfying.

The position on the chest seemed to be not close enough. The cub thought with its limited thinking ability, suddenly got up and crawled two steps forward, crawling over the human's chest, and finally stuffed its body between the youth's shoulders and neck.

"Remember to protect me then, or I'll be eaten by others." Su Duan touched the little furball curled up on his shoulder and earnestly urged, a little worried about the safety of his weak self.

"Chirp." The cub responded as if agreeing, stuck out its tongue, and licked the fair neck of the human in front of its eyes. The familiar and tempting scent kept pouring into its nostrils, but more than appetite, there was more of a desire to leave a mark on it.

This was its human.