LBRDI Chapter 44

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Cold Winter

Bonus ko-fi chapter (please read the tn note at the end)

The deadline for Nova Magazine was October 11 and Lu Yuan finally finished his masterpiece, a poem of nine lines, with a total of 102 words and punctuation marks, which took more than half a month to complete.

Since Lu Yuan refused to let Shen Mian read the manuscript, Dean Shen had to summon He Xing to send the manuscript for the three little dragons.

“Then I’ll go,” He Xing held back a smile, “You really don’t want to take a look?”

Shen Mian, “I’m not going. If he won’t let me look then I won’t look.”

He Xing and picked up the quantum computer and fastened it to his wrist, “Really?”

Shen Mian’s face was expressionless, “Come back and tell me after you read it.”

He Xing gave him a lanky salute, “Yes sir.”

He Xing accompanied the cubs to the library and sent the electronic manuscripts using the newly acquired desktop quantum computer.

Shen Mian ended the broadcast that had been on for the whole morning and went around to the backyard to look at the mana plants. Passing by the library under construction and looking up at it, Yan Tan grabbed a printout of the design and flew in the air with the construction crew.

The two black dragons got together and muttered and even with Shen Mian’s eyesight, he could only rely on the size of the black dragons to tell which one was the construction worker and which one was Yan Tan.

Although Yan Tan had no sense of direction, he’s really good at reading maps. Even if the lines are intricately drawn, as long as they are systematically categorized by colour, Yan Tan can distinguish them clearly.
Such a young dragon cub, if he pursued painting and singing or became a designer, he would be more reliable than if he entered the military.

Shen Mian held up his quantum computer to take a picture and send to Yan Zhou, who was highly likely training.

He didn’t expect that Yan Zhou would reply immediately: Why does Yan Tan seem to be darker?

Shen Mian, “…”

Shen Mian tilted his head up for a moment to take a closer look, thinking that there was something wrong with Yan Zhou. Re: Have you trained until you got amnesia? You can’t even remember your own son’s colour? He originally was this dark.

Yan Tan was originally the deepest colour of black and even if he was left outside and exposed to the sun for 180 days, he can’t go darker. After all, Yan Tan is a dragon cub the colour of a black hole, a black that creatures can reach.

Yan Zhou, who was in the Imperial Capital, was silent and felt that Shen Mian didn’t care about his little dragon cub all. One person and one dragon determined that the other party was incompetent through the internet and decided to blackmail each other.

After about an hour, Shen Mian, who was preparing for class, received a message from Yan Huan: My brother asked me to ask you if you could send two more photos over.

Shen Mian took time out of his busy schedule to refuse: Can’t.

It’s clear that Yan Huan, who was rejected, had no intention of speaking up for his brother.

Shen Mian prepared for the class for almost two hours before He Xing came back. He took the package and did not open it, leaving the delivery package on the table. He didn’t know what was in the black box and it landed on the table with a thud.

He Xing leaned on the edge of the table looking at Shen Mian.

This dragon’s eyes had a particular sense of presence and he stared at Shen Mian for a while. Although his eyes were still looking at the pages on his quantum computer, the pen in his hand paused, “What are you looking at?”

He Xing was trying hard not to laugh, “…The military tuxedo was delivered here to let me try the size.”

Shen Mian finally raised his head, “You’re going back?”

He Xing poured a cup of water for Shen Mian, “Yep, only for just a few days, I may not be able to wait until your exam results to come out.”
The scores for the childcare teacher’s unified exam will be released on the 20th, but unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to stay in the centre until then.

Shen Mian put down his pen and took a sip of water, “Aren’t you going to try on your tuxedo?”

He Xing was a little disappointed. It seemed that he couldn’t ask for any special treatment without having an official status, so he had to turn his back and open the package.

In addition to a full set of the military tuxedo, there was also a velvet box. He Xing opened it and took a look at it before putting it aside. Inside was a brand new medal.

He Xing was not paying attention to it when he placed it down. The convex side of the box was facing down and it fell off when the table shook.

Shen Mian caught it with one hand.

“You still use this kind of box for military medals here? It’s like the ones humans use to put jewellery in.”
That dark red velvet box; if it weren’t for the fact that Shen Mian took a look when He Xing opened it, he almost thought that the military department was giving out strange loot.

He Xing glanced at it.

“It’s a jewellery box. Originally, there was a video of a human proposing on the StarNet that blew up in the Empire. Later our Empire also learned the tricks of how a human proposes. The medals are sent to us with this thing, saying it saves us money on jewellery boxes. If you save up enough for three medals, you can even ask logistics to exchange it for a big one.”

Shen Mian, “The box is pretty nice and it’s good to be practical.”
The velvet was smooth and felt similar to Lu Yuan.

Hearing the compliment, He Xing hinted wildly, “I have more of these boxes at home. They’re in the closet and no one uses them. Do you want some?”

Shen Mian fondled with the velvet surface, “I don’t wear jewellery.”

He Xing once again hinted, “Wouldn’t it be appropriate to bring them here to put Gian’s crystal spines in? Also, Xing Fei will definitely buy them in the future. You can also see how shiny the medals are, I’m sure Gian will definitely like it.”

Shen Mian glanced at him, “You shouldn’t randomly give away these things. Why don’t you try on your tux.”
A jewellery box for a medal held in your hand. Wearing it on your body was like a scar and this thing was also randomly given away. Shen Mian still remembered the scars that ran across his chest when He Xing first turned into his human form.

He Xing failed the sales pitch and took his coat off, his toned shoulder blades tensing and relaxing with the movement. He changed into a black military tuxedo and turned to Shen Mian.

The marshal’s military tuxedo was thick and heavy, with a stiff fit, cut to He Xing’s measurements and fit perfectly. The rigid gown softened the sharpness, making the young marshal appear serious and dignified.
He Xing ripped off his epaulettes and stuck them on his shoulders.

Shen Mian took out the medal and pinned it to the tuxedo’s chest, “Is this how you wear it?”
The gold medal was decorated with red. The ornaments in the centre were bright red thorns, the symbol of the royal family. The flowers on the general’s epaulettes were the thorns, not red, but gold.

He Xing glanced down.

“Mhm.”

Shen Mian took two steps back.

“It fits well, you can praise the logistics team.”

He Xing tidied the golden tassels.

“Should have asked the accompanying officer for the size.”

Shen Mian sat back in his chair and as soon as he picked up his pen he remembered something he had forgotten.

“Lu Yuan is almost eight years old, he should learn to practice his human form. I have to buy them clothes.”

He actually forgot to buy clothes for Xing Fei.

It’s been almost a month since the little girl came back and he didn’t even prepare any new clothes for her, nor did he buy any clothes for Yan Tan.

He Xing squatted in front of Shen Mian.

“Is this all you think after seeing my clothes? Nothing else?”

Shen Mian lowered his head.

The marshal in the black tuxedo was handsome, but his expression was a bit like a big golden retriever who didn’t get enough attention, no, a military dog.
Does the Dragon Empire have such a thing as a military dog? There shouldn’t be, some dragons are perfectly capable of doing a military dog’s job.

Shen Mian thought about it for a long time and moved his fingers slightly, very much tempted to touch He Xing’s hair.

Unnecessarily distracted, Shen Mian spun his pen.

“Then I’ll buy a few sets for you.”

He paused to accentuate his tone, “Big baby.”

He Xing smiled and stood up to remove the medal and put it back in the box, “I’ll leave it here for you as an ornament.”

Shen Mian, “What are you giving me this for? Don’t you wear them when you attend important occasions?”
The dragons, as an empire, rightfully have honours as well as many different medals of contribution because of the royal family. Shen Mian didn’t understand the ranking of the medals, but by placing orthodox royal symbols on medals, one could imagine what the medals represented.

After all, the thorns on a general’s rank are only dyed, not the original colour.

He Xing closed the velvet box and handed it to Shen Mian.

“Who cares if I wear it or not? It’s just a nice decoration, nothing more.”
He still had the same look on his face, trying to control the ‘nothing’s unusual’ look, but his heart was beating like it was going to pop out, rush to Shen Mian and shout “I like you.”

But he can’t.
They’ve only known each other for a few months and it’s too abrupt to confess. With Shen Mian’s personality, how could he believe in such a thing as love at first sight? His status in Shen Mian’s heart was probably not even half as tall as the dragon cubs. It was pretty much the same as the red pig, who was so neglected in the backyard that he didn’t even have a part in the broadcast.

Shen Mian was silent.
He looked at the velvet box. He Xing held it a little tighter than how he usually would when moving things around in the centre.

He Xing felt like his breath was being dragged out by this silence.

Shen Mian took the velvet box.

“Thank you.”

He Xing was relieved when Shen Mian received the medal and couldn’t help but wonder: Does he know what I mean? Am I being too obvious?

Shen Mian turned around and picked up the quantum computer to exit the electronic textbook interface.

He Xing cleared his throat, trying to ease the non-existent embarrassment.

“Why aren’t you preparing for class?”

Shen Mian’s face was expressionless.

“To buy clothes for the dragon babies.”
He purposely pronounced the stress on the word babies.

He Xing, “…”

The dragon was silent for a few seconds, his soul sublimated in the embarrassment that suffocated him (a new lower limit was breached) and unashamedly answered, “Big babies are babies too.”

Shen Mian, “…”

True, what is there about R18 things that are embarrassing to talk about?

……

A day after the deadline, the big guns in charge of the draft selection process turned on their quantum computer’s at the same time.

The panel of judges for the Rising Stars congregation included authors of classic children’s books, well-known poetry authors, education leaders and Deans of childcare centres. These judges, who were virtuous in their fields, were divided into short essay and poetry groups. Fifteen short essays and fifteen poems were compiled from the submissions and the authors of the selected essays and poems could receive additional points for further study.

The poetry category’s most respected poetry author, Adeline, was a female Omega. As a dragon of the dream dragon genus, as romantic as she looks, she has published several critically acclaimed books of poetry and her score is likely to influence the next judges’ scores.

After perusing the dozen or so submissions, Adeline shook her head and was unable to cry or laugh.

“These kids can be so…”

Ms Adeline’s human form was only the size of a normal human’s hand, her wings and feathers were slightly spread like the starry sky.

Her husband leaned in.

“What’s wrong?”

Adeline pointed to a poem on her quantum computer.

“Look at this.”

Adeline’s husband squinted closer and subconsciously said, “My beloved grandfather, who once took me soaring through the stars.”

The first sentence was okay, moderate. The next was wrong.

Poem Title “My Grandpa”

My beloved grandfather, who once took me soaring through the stars.
While swimming in the vast expanse of stars,
He told me that the more expensive the starship, the further it flew,
And so a wish was planted in my young heart,
I want to buy the most expensive starship!
I’m a dragon cub with big dreams!
He was the dragon that influenced me the most,
I’m going to make him my target,
Wandering the sea of stars!

Adeline’s husband spoke,“…It’s quite practical hahahahaha.”

Adeline shook her head in amusement. The Dragon Empire was very tolerant of punctuation in poetry, many authors didn’t use it at all. This little dragon cub must have punctuated every line to make the word count.

She was familiar with this situation – little dragon cubs who didn’t want to write 800 words would write poetry, resulting in a huge workload for the poetry team. There were plenty of poems at this level and this one was more interesting than the others.

Short poems are not difficult to write, but it can be more difficult to write a good short poem than an 800-word essay because the short poem seeks to streamline the text to remain extremely romantic and imaginative. Many dragon cubs have no problem at all with imagination, but can’t do it with streamlined words. Mature dragons, however, have no problem streamlining, and the average level of romance and imagination is several notches below that of their cubs.

Adeline scored the poem, glancing at the author and instructor.

Author: Lu Yuan
Instructor: Shen Mian
Attribution: Qiming Childcare Centre

Ms Adeline smiled. There must be a few dragons cubs that wrote like that, but the instructor must also be an interesting dragon for being willing to put out such a submission.

After reading twenty more poems again, she took a little water break and then reopened a submission.

Unlike poems that were forced to make up word counts as a way to appear to be hardworking, this poem was so short that it surprised Adeline.

Title: “Cold Winter”

I’ve gone through the stars, Spring, Summer, Autumn and see Winter at the end,
A cold decorative surface,
Giving me winter flowers,
A midnight galaxy,

As soon as I get close,
There’s a warm fragrance in my chest.

Author: Xing Fei
Instructor: Shen Mian
Attribution: Qiming Childcare Centre

sauced

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I will be taking a break for two days just to rest for a bit. See yall on monday!

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Shallotnoodle

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