Chapter 179: Stay-at-Home Dad Cary [Part 1]
At the hall, Cary was emanating with anger, resentment and low pressure as he sat there with an ashen face.
There were four fellows crouched in front of him. From left to right, they were the gray cat Wheeze, Scarlet Wind, Snowball and Dough.
The gray cat was licking its paws and wiping its whiskers, cleaning up the dredges of food around its mouth. It paid no heed to the low pressure surrounding Cary at all. Scarlet Wind wagged his tail somewhat nervously, keeping his head bowed and casting a glance at Cary from time to time. He looked like he acknowledged his errors slightly. Snowball looked charmingly naive, and on the outside he looked simple and honest. In reality, everyone who knew this white fatso understood that it was just a front, and that it had a bellyful of evil tricks up its sleeves. It learned from Dough and was getting naughtier and naughtier. As for Dough, the chameleon was long since hardened by many similar experiences. It would play pretend or grovel when need be, looking more innocent than even Cary himself.
The moment Cary saw their appearances, the blue veins on his head bulged and pulsed. He had only gone out to race fighters with Udoze for a short while, but when he came back he discovered that his storage cabinet was three kinds of empty – eaten, drunk, and carried away completely.
Words could not describe his fury when he swept a glance across Snowball. Recently, this white fatso had learned how to store food like a hamster. Cary thought that the reason this white fatso’s mouth had become so big was because it was stuffed with food.
While holding his forehead, Cary said in a heavy tone, “Tell me, why the hair are you guys always targeting my storage cabinet? Xiao Shang, Ba Dao and Beaver had plenty of food in their storage cabinets too, hadn’t they? You think I’m easy to trifle with, huh?”
Dough blinked. It did not know how to speak, but this little devil was the origin of it all. It continued to feign innocence.
“Who opened the lock?” Cary asked.
Ever since he came back to Sector K he had changed the lock three times already. He had even purposely acquired a so-called high security lock from the A Squadron not long ago, or he would not have let down his guard in recent days. As a result, the sight that greeted him when he returned was an empty storage cabinet.
He was wrong, he truly was. He should not have let down his guard especially after this gray cat had returned. When these fellows were gathered as one, they were literally no different from scourges who found the backing of several organizations!
The trio on the right looked at the unperturbed gray cat at the leftmost corner in unison upon hearing Cary’s question.
The corner of Cary’s eyes jumped at the sight. He knew that it would be the cat.
Cary loved and hated the gray cat at the same time. It did save its life once, but god if this fellow wasn’t infuriating.
Cary thought for a while before asking, “Wheeze, I gotta ask. Did Cillin abuse you and not feed you?”
“No.” the gray cat was very calm and undaunted.
“Then why are you emptying out my storage cabinet with them?!”
“That’s because Dough and Snowball said that you have specialty food from Sector K. I haven’t eaten much specialty food from Sector K; at the very least I haven’t eaten the stuff in your storage cabinet before.” the gray cat said without any self-consciousness that it had committed a mistake at all.
Cary’s eyebrows jumped. He stepped right onto the tail of Dough who was just about to escape, before grabbing onto Snowball’s big face, “You two…”
Dong! Dong!
Cary gave each pet a chop to the forehead.
Snowball clutched its head with its fat palms and looked aggrieved, whereas Dough slowly slid down the wall as its flat body began to recover in pitiful fashion.
“Enough with the old tricks!” after Cary gave Snowball and Dough a good fixing*, he turned towards Scarlet Wind and advised patiently, “Scarlet Wind, you mustn’t learn from these two naughty fellows. Let me teach you a saying called ‘proximity to pitch makes you black’. Breaking into someone’s cabinet and stealing their food is wrong! You should not do it!”
*basically means beat up
Scarlet Wind wagged his tail and cocked his head. He seemed to be digesting Cary’s words.
After the gray cat had licked its paws, it looked at Cary and asked, “Cary, why are the stuff on this planet so expensive? Isn’t this Vanguard’s headquarters? How can they treat their own members like this?”
On this planet, the prices of a lot of food were doubled or even multiplied many times, so the gray cat felt miserly after it saw the food price. The amount of allowance Cillin gave it was limited, and it really wasn’t worth spending on these items. That was why these fellows had gone to rob Cary at the beckon of Dough’s tail.
“In reality, every B Squadron was expected to prepare its own food and etc, and only medical and some other facilities fell under public use. The lay in of supplies and wealth were all a test to the B Squadrons. The general census is that capable B Squadrons are self-sufficient and able to maintain a relatively abundant amount of wealth. Those who aren’t self-sufficient would have no choice but to pay an even greater price in exchange for their needs.”
“I see. How stingy of them!” the gray cat said with a flick of its ears.
“This isn’t stinginess. If you wish to buy large sums of food, the best way is still getting on a spaceplane and buying it from someplace outside. Ten squads couldn’t feed someone with your appetite, you know.”
Although these four fellows looked pretty small, they were in fact all ravenous gluttons. Dough’s food intake was three times its own weight, whereas the gray cat, Scarlet Wind and Snowball were all beings of great metabolism.
Right now Snowball was almost sixty centimeters in height when it stood upright. Its growth could be said to be extremely speedy. Cary had already gone out on a spaceplane midway to shop for supplies, but he did not factor in the appearance of the gray cat and Scarlet Wind. Right now Scarlet Wind was in the process of growing, and his food intake was evenly matched with Snowball’s. Cary pondered and thought that he might have to go out on a big shopping spree again.
Suddenly, a strange look flushed over Cary’s face as he gave himself a slap.
F*ck! If Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu themselves did not care about their pets, then why the hair am I putting so much thought into this? Doesn’t that make me a stay-at-home dad?!
Scarlet Wind looked at Snowball and Dough and figured that their words were pretty accurate. Stay-at-home dad Cary was pretty easy to deceive, although there seemed to be a slight problem with his psyche. He didn’t think that Cary would slap his own face.
When Cary looked at the four fellows interacting with each other through their eyes, he waved his hands helplessly and said, “Get out of here already, my stomach aches every time I see your faces. Scarlet Wind, Snowball, the exam to test your level of your culture is about to arrive. If you fail it your salary will be deducted, and considering that your salaries are already in the red, hmph hmph, when the time comes there won’t be my storage cabinet for you guys to empty out.”
Scarlet Wind and Snowball had been learning about culture as of late. Although they hadn’t learned for long, they improved pretty quickly. An exam would be prepared for them in a few days, but the standard of the exam would not be reduced just because they were beginners. The exam’s difficulty was at the level of intermediate education, and it was also the reason why these two rather intelligent creatures had had their salaries deducted to the negatives. Vanguard members were not without pay even during the recovery period of their five-year mission, and every official member was paid a steady salary. The only two members in the entire Sixth B Squadron whose salary were deducted into negatives were Snowball and Scarlet Wind.
The exam’s level of difficulty was set by Cillin himself. He believed that they would be able to catch up very soon judging from the level of development of their brains. Cillin had been feeling a sense of urgency ever since the trip to Sector S, and there was a necessity to integrate these two fellows into the squad as soon as possible. Otherwise, a hiccup might arise when they were out on a mission later.
Snowball and Scarlet Wind went to the study room to study. The gray cat and Dough also followed after them: one to teach, and one to enjoy where the crowd was.
After the four fellows had left, Cary got up and went out to inhale some fresh air and exhale the stale air in his chest. He felt as if he had gotten old having to face these little bastards every day.
To his surprise, the second he got out of his room he saw Xiao Shang, Beaver and the others coming back from outside.
“Yo, stay-at-home dad! You done lecturing the kids?” Xiao Shang said laughingly.
Cary felt the string known as rationality in his head snapping with a dull noise, “You’re a stay-home-dad! You’re all stay-home-dads! Your whole life and your past life and your future life have been stay-home-dads!”
“Hey, isn’t it good that they’re close to you? You should know that Snowball and Scarlet Wind are already very strong even before they grow up completely. Once they do, your backing would be most impressive.”
“Mm. Speaking of which, Scarlet Wind is starting to feel more and more like a human. Just yesterday I saw him unlocking a retro lock with impressive smoothness.” Beaver said.
The corner of Cary’s eyes twitched yet again. Opening a lock?… I have a bad feeling about this…
