CRA Chapter 36


Ice crystal


Most of the others were filming near the water and taking care of the cubs. Nobody noticed the little incident happening at the back.

Xie Luan, who found himself encircled by a silver tail and firmly held by the other, did not respond for a while. As a result, Xie Luan remained in the other’s grasp, floating over the steps.

As the youth in his hold did not move or speak, Ya Yi lowered his eyes a little and continued to quietly hold him in place.

However, thinking of the sudden panic that had appeared in the youth’s eyes just now, he lightly tightened his silver tail around the youth’s waist to silently show that he was safe.

When Xie Luan finally reacted, he reflexively reached out to grab onto the silver tail around his waist. Feeling the cold surface against his palms, he completely returned to himself and saw the current situation clearly.

“…Put me down.” With a low cough, Xie Luan said this with a subtle expression on his face.

He wouldn’t go so far as to say that he was embarrassed. When the other had been in his cub form, Xie Luan had touched and hugged him, and once, in order to appease him, he had even planted a kiss on the other’s fluffy forehead.

Xie Luan subconsciously felt that there was nothing wrong with the nox being close to him while in his cub form, and although he was conscious of him while in adult form, the familiarity in his heart weakened this feeling.

After Xie Luan uttered these words, he soon felt solid ground under his feet. The only thing was that… the silver tail was still half encircled around his waist.

Unlike the small fluffy tail while in cub form, this furless silver tail had a cold metallic texture. It almost looked like a tail belonging to a mighty silver dragon, and it seemed very aggressive.

The tail was not wrapped around his waist as firmly as before and was only partially circled around it. It reminded Xie Luan of how the nox liked to hook his fluffy little tail around his wrist when in cub form and suddenly he could understand and accept the current situation better.

Without much thought, Xie Luan reached out his hand to touch the silver tail half encircled around his waist.

The cold was very distinct. Recently the weather had warmed up and when standing under the sun during the day, it even got quite hot. This heat made it almost unbearable for Xie Luan, and so he could not help but touch a few more times.

Naturally, Xie Luan eventually restrained his hand. After touching the silver tail for a while, he lightly pushed at the tail, indicating that he did not need to hold onto his waist anymore.

This powerful and dangerous silver tail placed around the youth’s waist seemed unexpectedly meek. It could even be said to be submissive when touched by the youth, and the owner of this silver tail was the same.

The silver tail had not left the youth’s body this whole time, but once pushed by the youth, it quickly obeyed the youth’s request. However, the silver tail seemed to droop a little after returning to its normal position.

Xie Luan realized at this moment that one could read the nox’s mood from his tail. Although emotion almost never showed on the other’s face, the tail was actually very expressive. Even while in adult form, it would be easy to identify how the other felt just by looking at it.

When he raised the tip of his tail, it meant that he was happy, the same went for when he lightly brushed it against the back of Xie Luan’s hand. Drooping his tail like that, on the other hand, was certainly not a good sign.

Light colored, cold eyes, moved and stopped on his hand. Xie Luan stepped closer and touched the adult nox’s silver hair, just like he would a cub.

“Be good.”

As he raised his hand to touch him, Xie Luan’s eyes rested on the silver tail behind the nox. As expected, the tip of the tail turned up slightly.

This nox was still very good…

Looking at the slightly raised silver tail, Xie Luan gently smiled and thought this, but in the next second, a feeling of having his cheek gently rubbed stunned him in place.

Xie Luan often rubbed his cheek against the fluffy nox cub’s head, but having his cheek rubbed against him while in adult form, was of course an entirely different sensation.

However, before Xie Luan could respond, something caught his eye.

“What’s this…?” From where he now stood he noticed something he had never seen before. Just below Ya Yi’s neck, close to his collarbone, there was a small black mark resembling a totem and Xie Luan’s attention immediately shifted to this.

Only a small part of it could be seen, the rest was blocked by his shirt. But even just from seeing this small part of the black pattern, Xie Luan got a bad feeling in his heart.

“I don’t know.” Although he sounded very cold and indifferent, Ya Yi had actually answered Xie Luan’s question seriously.

He really did not know what the black mark was. Ya Yi only knew that from the time he was born and had exited his egg….. or maybe even from before he that, it had always been there. The mark could not be seen during cub period, it was first in adult form that it was visible.

This bad feeling he had was merely intuition. Xie Luan frowned.

The black pattern seemed rather complicated. Raising his hand, Xie Luan looked up at Ya Yi, then reached out and touched it. He could not see any pain in his face, and so the frown on his own slightly lessened.

What exactly is it? Xie Luan decided to carefully investigate it later, possibly even ask Zarad. However, Xie Luan hoped that his intuition was wrong.

Seeing that the youth’s eyebrows were still not fully relaxed, the nox subconsciously moved his tail behind him and then returned to cub form, swiftly jumping into the youth’s arms.

“Meah~”

The fluffy cub stroke against the youth’s chest several times, seemingly trying to attract the youth’s attention. He then lightly touched the youth’s palm with his two small horns.

Feeling the two small horns, Xie Luan at last temporarily put his worries aside and looked over at the group of cubs who were curiously exploring the new place.

Lin Yi, who was in charge of the shooting, soon finished and had gotten a good number of promotion-worthy photos. Among them, the mermaid cub was the subject Lin Yi took most photos of.

The reason for this was very simple, the sea coupled with the mermaid was without a doubt a quite perfect match.

The club’s official Xingyou account was usually managed by Xia Qi, and it was also up to her to pick out the best photos taken. After carefully sorting through the pictures, she logged into the Yunbao branch’s official account and updated their page.

“Exploring the new venue, I hope our babies can play happily like this every day.”

This simple sentence was accompanied with carefully selected photographs and just a few minutes after posting, they started receiving likes and comments one after another.

Ever since the series of events triggered by the flying contest, Yunbao branch’s official account on Xingyou had gained several followers. Although the number was only 5000 for the time being, it was a huge improvement from when they did not have any followers at all.

Starting from the day of the new venue’s completion, the mermaid and moye cub changed from spending the majority of their time in the indoor pool to the new ocean simulated area.

Although the two cubs could freely move between the two pools, the place where the two cubs mostly spent their time had gone from being indoors to outdoor. As a result, the next day, Xie Luan went to keep the two cubs company under the sun as they happily played in the ocean simulated area.

As it would be a bit inconvenient for him to enter the water, Xie Luan only intended to watch them from the shore. However, the mermaid cub, who heard his footsteps, quickly swam and arrived at the shore even before Xie Luan.

He seemed to have been waiting for him to come and had swum up to the shore even faster than usual. As soon as Xie Luan walked over, his trouser leg was immediately grabbed by the mermaid cub.

“Ah~”

The cub issued one sound. His ice blue tail was swaying gently under the surface, his azure eyes looking straight at the youth squatting at the shore.

Xie Luan was a little puzzled, he could sense that the mermaid cub was unusually happy, but didn’t really know why. Assuming that it was because of the ocean simulation and thinking that it meant that the mermaid cub liked it a lot, Xie Luan showed a happy expression.

However, the trouser leg in the mermaid cub’s grasp was not released.

Vaguely aware that there was something more going on, Xie Luan touched the mermaid cub’s short blond hair and asked in a warm voice, “What’s wrong?”

After asking, Xie Luan added another sentence, just like last time. “I won’t leave.”

Saying this, he watched as the cub at last let go of his pants, and then, after a while, Xie Luan witnessed a very unexpected scene.

The little mermaid cupped his hands and lifted up some water. The water held by the young cub then suddenly seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, shaping it to a certain form, before solidifying into a beautiful ice crystal.

“Pa~”

Holding up this beautiful ice crystal in front of the youth, the mermaid cub moved his tail from side to side.

Xie Luan looked down at the ice crystal presented to him, but was still too stunned to respond.

The shape of this ice crystal… It seemed to be a word in the mermaid race’s language.

The word, its meaning…

It was equivalent to the meaning of “Papa”.

________________

Translator’s note:

So~ now you finally have the whole chapter.

This chapter was amazing right!?

I mean, not only did Xie Luan discover a black pattern on Ya Yi’s skin, but the mermaid cub also seems to have some kind of ice power?!!!!

So exciting. XD

Many thanks to Jessica Lins for the coffee~ ❤️


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35 Replies to “CRA Chapter 36

  1. I’m always a bit sad about how MC treats the cub when he’s in his adult form.
    It’s like a clear show and sign that he’s afraid and worried and all this other useless crap.
    When it’s still the same fucking person(Knox)!!
    Like this blatant difference in treatment actually pisses me off!
    HES STILL THE SAME! Why you acting so distant and shit! When you know he loves you and you love him too!
    LOOK AT HOW HE ACTS TOWARDS YOU WHILE IN CUB FORM!
    STOP BEING SO FREAKING WEIRD AND AWKWARD AND DOSTANT!
    It’s hoenstly annoying and hurts my heart when I can see that Ya Yi knows that MC is afraid of his adult form and so chooses not to enter it for him.
    LIKE WOW!
    That’s just so fucking oh my god!!
    HES STILL THE SAME CAT YOU USELESS PIECE OF ERGAHAHHHGHG!!!
    Stop treating him differently is all. Just treat him the same.
    It’s like saying I had a son who I doted on and loved to death, and than suddenly stopped when he grew up.
    LIKE BITCH!
    IMA STILL LOVE YOU EVEN IF YOURE SLIGHTLY BIGGER!

    Balakebziejrnsiajr f
    -hoshiandme rolls around in disbelief at this treatment-

    Sorry for the crude words. Hoshi does not like difference in treatment based on appearance. It’s so annoying.
    They are still the same inside. What does it matter what they look like outside!!!
    It’s like saying you loved me when I was thin. Than I suddenly got fat and you stopped.
    It’s just pissing me off!! URGHAHAHHAHAGRSHHH

    1. Its prolly like.
      Seeing a toddler dumped in your doorstep and you took care of it and noticed that it hasnt grown for all these months youve taken it in.. and so you went to a doctor and find out that toddler was a midget whos 28 years old.
      How would u feel? O_O

      1. Hmm. It depends. Does the toddler act like a toddler or an adult?
        In the Knox’s case, he’s still pretty much an innocent kid, even though he’s reached his adult phase.

    2. It’s obvious that’s it more of a Knox is usually in his baby form and mc does all kinds of cutesy stuff with him that gets embarrassing when he sees knox in his adult form because he would never do that kind of stuff with an adult man. He doesn’t fear him at all. There is no sign of that.

      1. Well I didn’t mean to say fear. I did mention a lot of other emotions and bundled them up together.
        He’s been acting endlessly awkward whenever he sees the adult form, so much so that the Knox knows that he doesn’t really like him in his adult form and is shamed or scared or not willing to use his human form.
        When that’s just his ACTUAL form! I just want the MC to get used to it. Since he still acts the same, so regardless that’s still the same guy

    3. He doesn’t fear him. There is no sign of that. It’s clearly more of a he’s used to doing cutesy stuff with a baby Knox that suddenly becomes really embarrassing with adult knox because he would never do that stuff with an adult man and he doesn’t know how to face him in adult form while remembering how he usually treats him as a baby.

      1. Yes, but my problem is that he hasn’t explained any of that. It hurts the Knox’s feelings here!
        I’m speaking for the Knox!
        The Knox knows the MC is different when he uses his human form, so he doesn’t use it, and stopped for him!
        WHEN THEY ARE REALLY JUST THE SAME INSIDE.
        But the MC is putting up this dang wall, it’s hurting the Knox.
        Though in this chapter, he’s working past these stupid walls he’s putting up, petting the Knox and making him not feel so discomforted.

    4. Eh I found MC’s response quite reasonable actually. His feelings are also important so I think a compromise would be best? MC still provides Knox with comfort and doesn’t reject him. So I think MC should at least be given a grace period to adapt to this sudden (and large) change.
      Real talk, some gestures aren’t appropriate now that Ya Yi has (presumably) reached sexual maturity, especially in Knox culture (tail). Not unless Xie Tao is to forever see Ya Yi as a child. Bye BL. Xie Tao needs to be conscious of Ya Yi as a man, if he continued treating him the same It will be very hard for Ya Yi to shed his baby image and snag MC. To reconcile a baby (your baby) with an adult (potential lover) when there is a difference between parental and romantic love is…very difficult.

      Xie Tao is doing quite well in my opinion. Many other MC’s would struggle with this mental block until near the end of the book (cue forced smex). And I guess he could tell Ya Yi about it? But tbh with the speed he’s resolving it I’m not sure it wouldn’t just cause more angst. It’s unknown if Ya Yi is mature enough to just understand and continue to act normally.
      I agree that “beauty” shouldn’t affect meaningful love but I can’t see it as being the same situation. Rejecting someone for their appearance is a conscious decision while Xie Tao’s problem is psychological and out of his control.

      In fact I’m also having the same issue as MC lol. I love baby Ya Yi. But to accept him as ML is a different story. To be a baby (not sexual) or to be a lover, YOU CAN ONLY PICK ONE! >A< I need a dependable ML who the MC can also lean on. But yeah, sorry for the word vomit ^^;;

  2. Cough.
    After reading the last part. Just have to say. And pardon me for my rudeness and judgmental-ness.

    But. When I read, “the next day”…..
    Holy cow of mother flipping mermaid. Boy. You just had a bad feeling about some strange marks appearing on your baby’s skin. And you choose the next day to not go and confirm what it is, but go play with some other cubs and babies?!

    What the actual Knox.
    I’m over here dying of worry over my poor Knox baby and hoping he isn’t hurt and stuff.
    AND YOU DONT DO ANYTHING?!?!?!?!
    Cough. I’m disappointed in this MC.
    Highly. Disappointed.
    Like… what….
    I can’t even touch and feel my poor Knox baby and look at how worried I am!!!
    GRRR! MC YOU ARE INFURIATING ME!!

  3. FRICK! I just realized, didn’t the black horror leave a black totem mark? Is Ya Yi infected? ;_;

  4. NOOOOO OUR YA YI IS ILL WITH THE DISEASE!!! You’re kidding me right!!!! He was fine for 30 years so why does he have it!!! Are our cubs and caretakers in danger of being infected too????

  5. Forget about that black totem. Give me Gale! (┛✧Д✧))┛
    I wanna adopt him! ༼(∩ ͡°╭͜ʖ╮͡ ͡°)༽⊃━☆゚. * ・ 。゚

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