Demon King – Chapter 578 – A Gift That Is Not Really a Gift?

“Dad… um… I want to raise a small animal.”

With her hands clasped together, rubbing them a little nervously, the Demon Lord returned to her old man after talking with Yuki, now with a plan in mind.

“Raise a pet?”

Ei Yuan immediately frowned.

“Did you forget how you got scratched by a cat when you were little? Aren’t you scared anymore?”

“Uh… you still remember that?”

The reaction was exactly what she expected. Eiru hadn’t had much hope that he would agree in the first place. She felt a bit disappointed, but didn’t react too strongly.

“How could I forget? Do you remember who took you to the hospital to get injections that day? You scared me half to death…”

That day, Ei Yuan had just gotten off work and was planning to drive out to pick up Liu Wan and Eiya. Then Eiru, who had only just started elementary school, suddenly came running back home crying, saying she’d been scratched by a stray cat.

Seeing those shocking scratch marks on her face and arms scared Ei Yuan badly. He immediately grabbed her, shoved her into the car, and rushed her to the hospital. In the end, Liu Wan and Eiya had to be picked up by a company driver.

“Well, I was careless back then…

Eiru stuck out her tongue a bit mischievously. Of course, that childish gesture wasn’t noticed by Ei Yuan, who was still thinking about the issue.

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“You know this. Even ignoring me, your mom definitely wouldn’t agree to something like this…”

“Yeah, I know… so forget it.”

Sighing, the Demon Lord had already guessed it wouldn’t work out. The man in front of her didn’t really manage household matters anyway. There was no point hoping for him.

“You’re not afraid of cats and dogs anymore?”

“Not anymore… I just really want to raise one.”

“It’s not that Dad won’t let you. Your sister’s health isn’t very good. Raising small animals might cause problems. Your mom is also worried about this…”

He started another long lecture. Eiru’s mouth twitched as she prepared to switch into her in-one-ear-out-the-other mode, but then she heard something unexpected.

“So the only option is to secretly raise it at your apartment. Don’t tell your mom, got it?”

“Huh?”

Eiru looked up in surprise. This was completely beyond her expectations. Her old man was… agreeing?

“Don’t get happy too fast. Raising a pet is your decision, so you have to be responsible for it. Registration, deworming, vaccinations. You handle all of it yourself. Dad won’t help you, understand?”

“No problem! As long as you agree! I’ll raise it secretly and won’t tell Mom!”

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Ei Yuan smiled. He actually didn’t oppose Eiru raising a pet. If anything, he supported it. He felt it could help cultivate a sense of responsibility. As long as the location and safety issues were handled, there was no reason to oppose it.

“Raising a small animal is very tiring. Everything about it will be on you. It’s not as easy and happy as you imagine. And since you’ve decided, you can’t give up halfway…”

Ei Yuan took out his phone and fiddled with it while lecturing his son.

“To you, it’s just a pet. But to them, you are their entire world. You’re a man, you need to know how to take responsibility. You can choose not to raise one, but if you do, you are absolutely not allowed to abandon it. Understood?”

“Got it, got it!”

Eiru just wanted to bring a certain big cat over to live with her. Yuki had already taken care of everything. She really only needed to handle the cat’s daily life.

“Even though the process is tiring, when those little guys cling to you, you’ll feel like it’s all worth it…”

Looking at how happy his son was, Ei Yuan seemed to recall something nostalgic. He almost reached out to pat her head, but then remembered that the kid didn’t like being patted and pulled his hand back halfway.

“By the way, Dad, why does it feel like you know a lot about this? Did you raise pets before?”

“I did. With your mom. When we first got married, we really did raise a cat.”

Ei Yuan took out his wallet and pulled out a small photo. In it, a brown-and-white cat was lying across the legs of the young couple.

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“I’ve never heard you talk about this before…”

The Demon Lord looked at the photo. The cat in it felt oddly familiar.

“Your mom wouldn’t let me talk about it. She was afraid that if you two found out, you’d make a fuss about raising pets too. She even hid the photos.”

Ei Yuan’s tone was a bit helpless, but he understood his wife’s reasoning.

“We raised it until it lived out its natural lifespan. It had two kittens. But even though we say it lived out its life, one day it suddenly ran away, leaving only those two kittens behind.”

Ei Yuan had heard that cats could sense when their time was coming, and that they would never die at home. It seemed to be their creed. So when the well-behaved cat they’d raised for years suddenly left them and the children, both husband and wife understood what it meant.

“Not long after that, your mom got pregnant with you. Maybe she was too sad, and also afraid it would affect you, so in the end we gave those two kittens away.”

“One was given to someone else. The other was sent to your grandpa’s place. But cats in the countryside are basically raised half-wild. The ones you often see hiding under the eaves back home are its descendants.”

So those were the grandchildren of the cat Dad and Mom raised? Thinking back, Eiru remembered that there really were a few cats around the old house. They didn’t look like local strays either. They really did resemble the one in the photo.

“By the way, what are you planning to raise? A cat or a dog? Or something else?”

As Ei Yuan spoke, he suddenly realized he hadn’t even asked what his son wanted to raise. How else was he supposed to prepare?

“A cat. A cat…”

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Eiru spread her hands to show Gulu’s size. In Ei Yuan’s eyes, though, it looked like she wanted to raise a dog.

“What kind of cat do you like?”

“Tabby cats, and Maine Coons. Those are my favorites.”

“Those are fine. I was worried you’d want to raise some high-maintenance purebred cat. How about this, I’ll increase your monthly living expenses by two thousand. But don’t say it’s for raising a cat. What excuse you give your mom is up to you.”

As he spoke, Ei Yuan immediately transferred two thousand yuan to his son. The generosity even shocked the Demon Lord.

“Huh? Dad, is this your private stash? Aren’t you afraid Mom will scold you?”

As soon as she said that, Eiru felt a light knock on her head.

“You brat. Stop watching so many TV dramas. Our family doesn’t have that kind of ‘one person controls all the money’ nonsense. If money needs to be used, then it’s spent. Why would anyone need to hide it? Private stash…”

“Anyway, same thing as before. You can only raise it secretly at your apartment. Not in the school dorm, and not at home. Whether it’s your sister or your mom, you have to keep it hidden from both of them. Understood?”

“Okay～”