It decided that it would "hide" the energy that could make it grow quickly, so that it could grow slower and stay with the prey in front of it longer.

At the same time, a kind of intuition also flashed through its mind...

It seemed there was a behavior more intimate than licking and rubbing that could leave a deeper mark on the prey before its eyes.

......

The cub education video used the language within the Luota race. Su Duan had no intention of prying into this information that was originally an imperial secret, so he generally did not ask the system to translate for him. So until Viji had carefully washed his face and neck with saliva, Su Duan was unable to know the real reason behind this marking, and simply attributed it to the child suddenly being clingy.

But from that day on, a strange phenomenon occurred: Viji's growth rate began to slow down.

It wasn't that it completely stopped growing, but compared to the speed of growing a bit every day in the first two months, it had obviously slowed down a lot.

Perhaps it had entered a gentle period of development?

After observing for a few days and confirming that except for growing a bit slower, the Luota cub was still very healthy, Su Duan slowly put his mind at ease.

... Growing a bit slower was also good. He heard that if a cub's body developed too quickly, it could very likely lead to an unstable foundation, causing skeletal defects when grown up.

Su Duan lived quietly like this with Viji in the orphanage. He himself had a very quiet personality to begin with, and Viji was also a temperament that was unwilling to pay attention to anyone besides him and didn't play with other cubs, so the two of them formed their own little group.

The two people who had previously tried to throw Viji away seemed to have forgotten about them and did not come to bother them again. Su Duan gradually stopped paying much attention to them.

Before leaving the orphanage, the footage recording those two trying to murder the cub egg still couldn't be released for the time being. For the current Su Duan, raising Viji healthy and well was the most important thing.

Time flowed by like water.

When Viji grew to two years old, the old dean had the idea of finding an adoptive family for Viji - in his view, such a physically healthy kaka beast with glossy fur did not need to stay in the orphanage all the time and was fully qualified to find a normal family to live with.

Although kaka beasts were not a precious race, compared to the other cubs in the orphanage who had defects to varying degrees, Viji's advantages were still very obvious.

But this idea seemed to have completely failed at the first step. When he communicated with Viji, wanting it to get close to the adoptive family when they came to visit the orphanage, he was mercilessly threatened with a low hiss!

Su Duan reached out from behind to soothingly stroke its chin, coaxing in a low voice, "Viji, be good," only then did it reluctantly relax.

Old Dean: "..."

Although what was in front of him was only a kaka beast that theoretically did not have combat power as high as their race, in certain moments, it gave him the illusion of a fierce beast.

He had ample reason to suspect that if he dared to continue speaking, this kaka beast would pounce on him and fight him.

In front of Su Duan, it was so docile, even taking the initiative to expose its belly and rub against people's hands with meows. But when facing others, it became fiercer each time.

-- At this rate, it would be impossible to find an adopter.

He should probably advise Su Duan to let this cub get closer to other people more.  

But Su Duan's attitude made him hesitate a bit... That human very clearly treated this Kaka beast cub as family, not only bringing it to his own room to care for it every moment, but even using his meager salary to buy snacks and nutritional food for the cub on the Star Network, allowing it to grow into the strongest cub in the orphanage.

This had already far exceeded the scope of responsibility for an orphanage caretaker.

Perhaps Su Duan was preparing to adopt this cub, but this kind of thinking was actually a bit unrealistic.

Not to mention the economic pressure from raising a cub, just looking at Su Duan himself, he was still a child--

That's right, in the eyes of beastmen, even though Su Duan was already in his twenties, the fragile pure humans, before wrinkles grew, in their eyes were always equated to the existence of cubs.  

Moreover, Su Duan's health had always been poor these past few years, his face perennially lacking color. The old dean, seeing him, would often have the feeling that this frail child could collapse at any time, and didn't dare let him do heavy work.

Two children, relying on that bit of meager salary from the orphanage, how could they live on?

The old dean had wanted to persuade Su Duan countless times to not get in too deep, lest the separation later on be too heartbreaking. But each time he met those clear, jet-black eyes, the words of advice would suddenly seem to become cruel, stuck in his throat unable to come out.

It was the same this time too.

The old dean's gaze lingered for a while on the human youth lowering his head to comfort the cub and the cub rubbing its head against the youth with meows. In the end, he still sighed silently, swallowing the words he had wanted to say but didn't for who knows how many times.  

They looked too natural together. Calling them kin wasn't quite right, they seemed to have an even more intimate aura... As if they were meant to accompany each other from birth.

So advising them to keep their distance also became a guilt-ridden matter.

Finally, under the cub's threatening gaze, he just tactfully said to Su Duan: "In a week, an adopter will come to the orphanage to select an adoptee. You can let Viji carefully consider it. This adopter is a Kaka beastman with a very good temperament and family background. Because his only son died young, he decided to adopt a child. In the future... it will probably be difficult to encounter such a suitable adopter again."

Indeed, being the same race as Viji and having excellent family circumstances, it did sound like an adopter tailor-made for Viji.

But no matter how good the conditions, Su Duan would never send Viji away, because he had raised this cub, it was an existence he had lived with for two worlds. Even though Su Duan had never directly expressed these feelings, just like Viji, he had also already... considered this cub his possession.  

Of course, leaving the orphanage was necessary. He would take Viji to the capital star sooner or later.

So in response to the old dean's well-intentioned advice, Su Duan just curved the corners of his eyes and nodded, saying: "Alright, thank you."

Then after the old dean left, he lowered his head and whispered to the cub: "Be good, Viji. Let's hide in the corner when the time comes, okay? Mm... You can be a bit fierce, but don't actually bite anyone."

The cub licked the corner of his lips and let out a loud smacking sound, expressing agreement with this idea.

A week later, all the cubs in the orphanage were gathered in the playroom, waiting for the arrival of that legendary adopter with very good qualifications.  

It was an elderly adult Kaka beastman with gray eyes and a very gentle demeanor. From his attire, one could see he was either wealthy or noble.

Having been instructed by the old dean beforehand, most of the cubs in the orphanage actively crowded in front of this adopter, making all sorts of sounds, striving to show their healthy and cute side.

However, after interacting with the cubs for a round, this gray-eyed adopter suddenly walked towards the black-furred cub curled up in the corner.  

Viji instantly raised its head and bared its teeth at him, displaying an unmistakable warning and resistance, forming a stark contrast with the group of cubs beside it eagerly trying to curry favor.

The adopter's gaze lingered for a long time on this "fellow race" cub's seemingly slightly too long tail and its cold, fierce azure beast eyes. A hint of unclear meaning flashed in his gray eyes as he smiled at Viji.

"...This child looks really healthy," he turned his head and warmly praised to the old dean following at the side.