Chapter 377: Chapter 212: Su Liyan: "Brother, its tongue coating is so thick, it’s so scratchy!

Lu Yuan ignored Xiaotian’s request.

Seeing Lu Yuan’s silence, Xiaotian stubbornly pleaded, "Hehehe, Boss, how about this? When we get close to your friends, you can put me down then?"

Lu Yuan finally responded, "That could work. I didn’t expect a Brother Pingtou like you to be so concerned with your image."

Xiaotian grinned, chuckling twice, and said proudly, "Hey, at the very least, I’m a Brother Pingtou who can talk."

"True. I’ve seen my share of talking Xingzi and Demon Beasts. But you’re the first I’ve met who can talk before his fur has even fully grown in." It was hard to tell from Lu Yuan’s tone whether he was praising or teasing.

"Young Master, where are you?" The retainers shouted, holding torches as they searched halfway up the mountain.

"This is all your fault. You shared a tent with the Young Master and still slept like a log," one of the retainers complained.

"I... I didn’t. It’s all my fault." The retainer who had shared Lu Yuan’s tent was filled with regret and didn’t argue back.

"Look, there’s a figure walking over in the distance. The shape looks like the Young Master!" a retainer pointed.

The four retainers ran toward Lu Yuan. When they reached him, they shouted in unison, "Young Master!"

Lu Yuan, holding three stalks of Star Spirit Grass, tossed them to one of the retainers. "I could hear you yelling from a mile away. It’s not like I was going to get lost."

One retainer said with a smile, "Of course. Our Young Master is incredibly skilled. Jackals, wolves, tigers, leopards—they’re all a piece of cake for you."

"Such a smooth-talker. Don’t tell me you guys have been looking for me for over an hour," Lu Yuan said, noticing the retainer’s sweat-drenched forehead.

Another retainer raised his left hand and said, "Young Master, I found a stalk of Star Spirit Grass."

He had stumbled upon this stalk of Star Spirit Grass by chance while searching for the Young Master. He was quite lucky.

"This must have been hard on you all. Pack your things, let’s head down the mountain. We should reach the estate by dawn," Lu Yuan said.

"Young Master, what’s this wild game you’ve caught?" a sharp-eyed retainer asked, looking at the Brother Pingtou at the Young Master’s feet.

Xiaotian squeaked twice and pawed at the ground as if in response, cursing inwardly, ’Wild game? Your whole family is wild game!’

Lu Yuan bent down, picked Xiaotian up by the scruff, and placed him in the retainer’s medicine basket. "Carry him down the mountain. I’m going to keep him as a pet. We’re not eating him!"

"Oh, oh, okay, Young Master." The retainer jostled the medicine basket on his back, afraid the Brother Pingtou might escape.

Seeing this, Lu Yuan started to reach out to stop him, but then thought better of it. ’Ah well, let Xiaotian endure it.’

The jostling made Xiaotian’s head spin. ’If the Boss hadn’t told me not to speak in front of you punks, I’d definitely give you a piece of my mind! How dare you treat me like this!’

On the way down the mountain, a retainer asked, "Young Master, what kind of pet did you catch? I’ve never seen one before. Other than the white fur on its back and the top of its head, the rest of it is all black."

The reason Lu Yuan recognized the Brother Pingtou at a glance was that he’d watched plenty of *Animal World* as a kid. "Spring has arrived, and all life awakens. On the great plains, it is once again the season for animals to... hehe..."

Just what kind of animal was this Brother Pingtou?

Chaos in Africa? Brother Huan calls the shots!

How did a Brother Pingtou, which should be on the African savanna, end up here? Was it fleeing its enemies? Or searching for love?

Lu Yuan couldn’t figure it out, and Xiaotian refused to say a word no matter how much he asked.

Lu Yuan said, "The little animal you’re carrying is called a Brother Pingtou. Look at its flat head, and that ’granny gray’ dye job—doesn’t the name fit perfectly?"

"Young Master, now that you mention it, it really does look like that!" the retainer said, shaking the medicine basket again.

By the time Lu Yuan and his men reached the foot of the mountain, the sky was already beginning to brighten.

"We’ve been busy all night. Let’s skip the pancakes with green onions and see if there’s a place selling breakfast nearby," Lu Yuan said, stretching.

One retainer replied excitedly, "Yeah, yeah! I’m so tired and sleepy right now. A bowl of fresh-ground soy milk with some fried dough sticks and pickled vegetables would be amazing."

The other three retainers said in unison, "You were the one who was dead to the world last night!"

Lu Yuan and his men found a breakfast stall at the foot of the mountain and ordered some scallion pancakes, assorted cured meats, and tea.

It wasn’t that Lu Yuan didn’t want to get them fried dough sticks and soy milk, but this was all the stall had.

This was already quite good. An ordinary household wouldn’t have things like soy milk and fried dough sticks.

While the men were eating...

Xiaotian leaped out of the medicine basket.

"Young Master, it’s getting away!" a retainer shouted from his seat, unwilling to even put down the scallion pancake in his hand.

"He won’t run," Lu Yuan said, then offered a piece of cured meat to Xiaotian.

Xiaotian sniffed it, shook his head with a look of utter disgust, and refused the meat.

Lu Yuan then said, "Don’t like it, little guy? I’ll get you something tastier when we get back to the villa."

Xiaotian nodded and whimpered twice in response, thinking, ’It’s so frustrating not being allowed to talk!’

"What a smart little guy," the retainers praised.

After Lu Yuan returned to the Yandu Villa, he dismissed the retainers to their own tasks.

Xiaotian followed at Lu Yuan’s heels, scrambling over steps and thresholds, grumbling as he went, "Your house is so big! It’s a real pain to get around!"

Lu Yuan pretended not to hear.

"Honey, look what I brought back," Lu Yuan said as he walked into the room, pointing at the Brother Pingtou for Su Liyan.

Su Liyan, dressed in a nightgown, was sitting at her vanity, combing her long, glossy, and smooth black hair with an exquisite wooden comb.