Chapter 90 – The Abandoned Panda Cub..

Xie Hui sat down with the cub in his designated spot, tied on a bib for him, pushed the bowl in front of him, and watched as the cub eagerly began to eat. Then he turned his head and waved at the assistant.

While making breakfast, he’d also prepared a portion for the assistant. After all, it wouldn’t be right to call someone in from far away for extra work and not even offer a meal.

It was quite a distance to go out for breakfast from here, and the assistant had arrived early.

After breakfast, Xie Hui took Xie Jia out for a walk in the yard to help with digestion. But the moment Xie Hui turned around, the little cub had already climbed up onto a bamboo stalk.

Last time had genuinely scared him, but when he later tried climbing again in secret and found that falling from a lower height didn’t hurt, his boldness grew. Behind Dad’s back, he started sneaking up again.

Xie Hui recorded a video on his phone of the cub being foolish.

He wasn’t trying to romanticize the non-human cubs in their juvenile stage—he just showed everything honestly, laying it bare before the audience.

Xie Hui wasn’t even sure if any of this would be meaningful. But when he thought about how, in the original storyline, this little one had tried so hard to protect his companions, he felt that while the cub was still small, he should repay what the cub had done in his past life.

This time, not having been scolded by Dad, the cub got a bit cocky and climbed higher than usual. When he looked down and realized the height, his paws immediately went limp, and he hung from a bamboo branch, letting out a terrified, ear-splitting whimper.

Xie Hui handed the phone to the assistant and walked over to the bamboo. Maybe it had happened so many times that the cub didn’t even wait for him to arrive—he just fell off on his own.

“Didn’t I tell you not to climb so high?”

The cub buried his head skillfully in Xie Hui’s arms, whimpered twice, and stubbornly refused to look at him. Seeing how smoothly he pulled this off, Xie Hui tugged at the corner of his mouth and reminded him:

“Your ears are sticking out. You should still be able to hear me, right?”

The cub’s body stiffened for a moment, then, right in front of Xie Hui, used his paw to cover his black ears.

After another round of play in the yard, Xie Hui took him upstairs to the bathroom, gave him a thorough bath, dried his fur, then wrapped the damp cub in a towel and brought him to the spacious balcony.

As soon as the cub reached the wooden table, he lay down obediently in a good spot, spreading out all four limbs to sun his fur.

The camera captured how his long fur slowly fluffed up and dried under the sunlight.

While sunning his back, his little tail wagged uncontrollably, melting the hearts of countless viewers.

Xie Hui rarely stayed with him for the entire sun-drying session, but today he did. Afterward, he picked up a comb and began grooming the messy fur.

His cub’s fur was a bit longer than that of a regular panda, so it required extra attention to keep tidy.

Once he was neatly combed, it was nearly lunchtime. As Xie Hui stood up, the cub’s paw pressed against the back of his hand.

Right in front of Xie Hui, he turned around and gave his short little tail an exaggerated shake.

“Hmm?”

Xie Hui didn’t quite get what he meant. The cub stepped on the comb with his paw, ran over again, and wiggled his tail vigorously.

“You want your tail fur combed too?”

“Yaa~”

Xie Hui followed his cue and gave the tail a few strokes. Then he noticed a little strawberry hair tie nearby. He picked it up, pulled a small tuft of fur together, and tied it into a little topknot with the pink strawberry tie.

The cub didn’t resist at all, maybe because he was still young. After it was tied, he climbed to the mirror to check himself out, his short tail wagging even faster now.

That afternoon, Xie Hui took him to the mall, bought some daily supplies and snacks. After dinner, they walked the assistant to the door together. When they got back, they watched cartoons in the living room.

As the cub focused on his cartoon, Xie Hui sat beside him, phone in one hand, and the other gently rubbing his little ears, while talking to the livestream about juvenile non-human cubs.

Unexpectedly, the livestream went on for quite a while, and a surprising number of viewers watched it through to the end. After all, such an adorable cub was pure emotional comfort no matter how long you looked at him.

“Just like what you’re seeing today, juvenile non-human cubs aren’t as aggressive as the news claims. They don’t randomly attack or bite people.”

To prove it, Xie Hui offered his hand to the cub’s mouth.

The cub, who had been watching cartoons and gnawing on bamboo shoots, froze for a second. He turned his head, looked at Xie Hui, then at the bamboo shoot in his paw. Tentatively, he placed the shoot into Xie Hui’s palm, letting out a small, aggrieved whimper.

Xie Hui took the shoot and held it to the cub’s mouth. Watching him nibble seriously, he continued chatting with the viewers.

“Raising a child is definitely troublesome, and that includes juvenile non-human ones. Though their bodies are tough, they’re naughty, and their diets require special care.”

“I hope that those watching don’t let a moment of impulse drive you to adopt one just because Jia Jia looks so sweet and well-behaved.”

“Every child is unique. They might be mischievous or even ill-tempered. Even a good boy like Jia Jia has times when he secretly licks spilled food or gets himself stuck in a tree from climbing too high.”

The cub’s ears, once perked up, now drooped a little.

“Juvenile non-human cubs don’t have the terrifying aggression that some people imagine. Jia Jia has relied on me since he was very young. Even if we can’t communicate with words, I can still understand what he wants through every one of his actions.”

Xie Hui gently squeezed the paw pad on the back leg of the cub. He’d had so many thoughts before, but when it came time to speak, only a few words came out.

Children can’t choose their parents. They don’t get to choose whether or not they come into this world. But parents—they do have that choice. There’s no exam, no barrier. There are far too many irresponsible parents in this world.

Many of the clients Xie Hui dealt with were like this. They might be excellent in other areas, but as parents, they failed miserably.

“Abandoned juvenile non-human cubs are sent to orphanages, where they do receive decent care. But without parental presence in childhood, most grow up with psychological issues.”

“One of the Empire’s most well-known psychologists once publicly released data—over 85% of his patients were non-human individuals who were abandoned as children.”

As he said this, the viewers saw the cub in his lap peeling the skin off a piece of fruit.

That cub, Jia Jia, was clearly well cared for despite being non-human. His little paw held a tangerine; he carefully peeled it and held it out to Xie Hui.

“Yee”

Xie Hui accepted the peeled fruit and thanked him. The cub shyly covered his face with his paws and went back to peeling another one.

Many in the livestream audience had abandoned children themselves. Having a child was low-cost—just provide your genes and wait a few months.

Abandoning a non-human cub right after birth brought little consequence. But doing so after raising them for a while carried the risk of prison.

No one wanted to gamble on whether they had the patience to raise a creature for 18 years before it became a real child.

And unwilling to bear the consequences of quitting midway, they chose to end things before they even began.

“Have you ever seen the big playground at the orphanage? Every time a photo is taken there, lots of people comment on how cute it looks.”

“But among the little ones lying neatly in rows on the playground floor, sunning their fur, there might be one of the children you abandoned. They only have a tiny space to lie in—not like Jiajia, who can roll around freely on a spacious wooden table while sunbathing.”

The cub, suddenly hearing his name, handed the half-peeled orange he was holding to his dad. Then he tilted his head up, eyes clear and bright, filled with anticipation and excitement—clearly waiting for Xie Hui to praise him.

The viewers watching the livestream were caught off guard when those innocent, trusting eyes suddenly appeared on screen. The joy and hope in them were impossible to miss.

“So good. Thank you.”

Xie Hui smiled and rubbed his head in praise. The cub leapt up happily, using his paws to clumsily try and hug his dad’s neck. The fluffy fur on his arms tickled Xie Hui, making him laugh uncontrollably.

His low, magnetic laughter blended with the cub’s soft babbling—tender, silly little sounds—and the whole moment radiated a strange yet perfect harmony, full of the warmth of home. Most of the viewers found themselves thinking: maybe these young non-human cubs aren’t so scary after all.

At the very least, this one is truly adorable.

No—extremely adorable.