Lifting their small chests

“Mister, the madam asked me to remind you to go onto the Star Network’s live broadcast platform and watch channel 266 this afternoon. May I ask if you want to do this now?”[1] In the living room, the butler glanced at the connector that had specially been placed on the living room table by the madam and approached the man in order to carefully inquire about this.

Channel 266?

Tanner frowned. He had a vague impression of this live broadcast channel, but it had been a long time since he last visited it and even after thinking deeply he still could not remember what was broadcasted on it.

Eventually he gave a slow nod and put away the document in his hand.

The butler brought a tea set and after being served, Tanner leaned back and leisurely took a sip as he waited for the other to set it up.

He did not know why his wife had specially arranged for him to be reminded to watch a live broadcast. But he was not busy at the moment and if his wife wanted him to watch it, then it certainly must be for a good reason.

He and Fuya’s marriage could be regarded as an arranged marriage.

The Waren family had financial resources and the Leicester was a renowned deep rooted family. On the surface it looked like a mutually beneficial arrangement. However, for Fuya to marry him, it was in fact still a quite low marriage for someone with her background.

The reason for this was that it was not something planned by the Leicester family. As the only daughter of the old master and the youngest in the family, Fuya had been favored by the elders of the Leicester family. She had therefore been given the freedom to choose by herself who she wanted to marry and she had chosen him.

At that time, he had already become the master of the Waren family and he had been relatively indifferent towards his marriage partner at first. For him, marriage was a way to tie two families together in a mutually beneficial relationship. He had felt that it did not matter which family’s young lady he married, it was enough as long as they respected each other after marriage.

But after marrying his present wife and living with her for so long, Tanner could not deny that he had developed certain feelings for her.

The connector on the living room table was started by the butler and after entering the platform and jumping to channel 266, a live video immediately appeared on the virtual screen.

As soon as he laid eyes on it, Tanner was stunned.

It was the Cub Flying Competition.

At this time, the vague impression in Tanner’s heart became clear, the channel had looked familiar since it was there that the flying competition was broadcasted live every year.

Because of the matter regarding their cub, Tanner had not paid attention to the competition for the past two years, or more accurately, had deliberately avoided it. Suddenly seeing it awoke complex feelings in his heart.

What was the meaning of this?

Seeing the flying competition only made him think of his three year old cub who could still not fly. Tanner immediately felt a bit depressed.

He did not want to watch the live broadcast, but knowing that his wife wanted him to see it, Tanner endured and in the end did not make the butler turn off the connector.

The competition was close to ending either way, the only thing left was for the committee to announce the results.

With the thought of completing his wife’s request, Tanner lowered his head and unhurriedly poured himself some tea as he listened to the voice of the competition’s host.

Sure enough, by the time the awarding session began he had already calmed down and remained unmoved even when hearing “first place” and “score”. He had gone back to wearing his usual cold unsmiling face, nothing could faze him now.

“The name of the record breaking contestant and the winner of this year’s competition is…”

The host’s deliberate pause made the audience involuntarily sharpen their ears. Even Tanner, who was not looking at the screen at that moment, could not help but pay extra attention.

“Peido Leicester-Waren”

…Peido?

By the time the last syllable of the first name was called out, Tanner’s body was already frozen in place.

Then, when he heard the two following surnames, Tanner’s hand holding the cup could no longer remain stable. The expensive tea cup fell to the ground.

At this time, in the arena –

After the name of the winner was announced, many in the audience were stunned and it took some time before they realized their error.

They had been so anxious to see who would cross the finish line first that they had completely forgotten that the ranking and who won actually depended on two scores. It was not entirely decided on who was the first to arrive at the end, but also on the points gained by passing through the golden circles.

Recalling the close-up, when the Kuhti cub reacted quickly and elegantly passed through the golden circle which had appeared above him. The audience felt that his technique was very good and him breaking the record as well as winning did not feel as shocking anymore.

Flying was a basic ability that the cubs of all three races possessed and as they were still young their ability did not differ much.

In the competition it therefore came down to mentality and precision. Many cubs were afraid of missing the golden circles and unconscious slowed down their flying. Meanwhile the Kuhti cub did not hesitate and dashed forward with determination every time he spotted one. It was precisely this that gave him an advantage.

Hence, the more golden circles there were on the track, the more distance the Kuhti cub could put between him and the other cubs.

With this logic, the Kuwei cub in the lead should be best. But it seemed that the Kuwei cub had put its focus in the wrong place and had missed a few circles it should not have missed…

When the lens had focused on the two leading cubs, some in the audience had noticed that the Kuwei cub had to periodically looked back at the Kuhti cub who was slowly shortening the distance between them. It seemed that this action had been its downfall.

“Tiuh?”

The red fluffy cub in his arms, raised his head and gazed up at Xie Tao with an expression as if he could not believe that he had won. Then, after a pause, he hesitantly called out to him like he was asking for confirmation.

“You got first place.” Being just as shocked as the audience, it was first when Xie Tao heard the cub call out to him that he back to his sense. Xie Tao immediately answered the cub’s probing gaze, however his voice was full with disbelief and after saying this, he repeated it with more earnest tone. “Peipei, you really got first place.”

The host had already announced the top ten of the flying competition and after compiling the results, the other two fluffy cubs in his arms ranked fourth and sixth.

The rest of the results were announced and soon that only thing left was the handing out of awards.

The cubs in the top ten would be taken to the stage by an adult and they would all receive a small medal. The first place medal was gold, the second to fifth was in silver and the sixth to tenth were made out of bronze. Each medal was marked with the ranking the cub had obtained.

When the host saw that the cubs ranking first, fourth and sixth were brought up on stage by the same black haired youth, he got momently stunned and the audience as well as those who were watching the live broadcast from home could not help but be astonished.

To have three in the top ten… and one even got first place—?!

For one person to take three cubs to receive their medals, it was something that had not happened in any of the previous flying competition and was a very rare sight to behold.

Which club could they belong to?

Because the three cubs were of different races, many people assumed that the person carrying them must be a caretaker and immediately started trying to find out the club behind them. However, after a closer look, they discovered that the supposed caretaker was a human.

Humans were very unlikely work as caretakers… Not being able to think of a reasonable answer, everyone could only put their speculations aside for the time being.

The adults brought the cubs to their respective positions on the display platform. Those ranked six to ten were placed on the lowest block to the right, two to five on the left block that was a little higher, and lastly there was a middle block that towered over the others which was reserved sourly for the one ranked first.

Xie Tao observed the other adults, he then stepped forward and placed the cubs on the winners podium, one to the left, one to the right and one in the middle.

After the cubs were placed in their positions, the adults retreated to the side and the awarding ceremony officially began.

The chairman of the committee was the one who handed out the small medals and when she hung it around the cubs’ necks, the cameras would do a close-up and the cub receiving the medal would be shown on the screen.

The medals were bestowed starting from the tenth and after all of the other had received theirs, it was finally the winner’s turn and the cameras zoomed in.

The Kuhti cub was standing on the highest block and was looking at the person who was giving him the medal. His black eyes were bright and seemed full of vitality.

When the golden medal was at last around his neck, the red fluffy cub suddenly stretched his back and raised his small chest.

Seeing this scene, Xie Tao could not hold in the laughter.

It was not only the Kuthi cub either, on the side blocks two other cubs had also proudly lifted their small chests when they had gotten their medals, the three really stood out among the other cubs. [2]

Thus, during the close-ups when they bestowed the medals, the audience could not help but put extra attention on these three cubs who stuck out their little chests in an exaggerated manner. It was a really funny sight to behold and many adults watching the live broadcast could not stop a smile from surfacing when they saw this.

Their chest movements seemed to radiate confidence and pride. There was nothing wrong with this… it was much better to be confident in oneself than timid, as long as it was not blind confidence.

The teacup smashed into the ground and shattered, his clothes were soaked by the tea. But despite this, the man sitting on the sofa in the living room did not move and continued to stare at the screen showing the live broadcast.

When he later saw the red fluffy cub standing on the winners podium’s highest position, with a golden medal resting against his lifted chest…

The eyes on that stone face started to sting.

_______________

Translator’s note:

Now you finally got the whole chapter. It seems that the cut-off I chose for the teaser was not good… or maybe too good?

I especially love the conflict shown in one of the comments on wattpad that goes something like:

“That was so bad of you, how could you! Whyyyyy….. Thanks for the teaser.”

Haha, sorry for making you suffer like that, and for laughing, I guess it was a bit cruel of me to end it like that.

But I hope that the damage taken by the cut-off has now been healed by the cuteness in this chapter. ( ^ω^ )

I mean, the Kuhti cub even managed to crack that stone face!

[1] – When he is saying “you”, he is using the formal “nin” in oppose to the informal “ni”.

[2] – There was an idiom here, crane in a flock of chicken, it means way above the common or manifestly superior.