Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Cheng Zhiyu glanced at the red cabbage seedlings, then at Little Black—their colors were strikingly similar. Honestly, he didn’t even need to ask the system to know the reason.

He wasn't sure yet whether the change in the cabbage seedlings was only in color or if there were other effects. He could only hope it was just a color change. Otherwise, if he ended up growing cabbages that could spit fire, his hope of eating vegetables would be dashed again.

Well, he’d have to wait and see.

After finishing his tasks, Cheng Zhiyu left the system’s space to cook. Little Black had already finished his milk, though his little face seemed filled with resentment.

Cheng Zhiyu felt a little bad—despite Little Black’s condition, all he could think was how adorable Little Black was.

Holding back a smile, he petted Little Black and said, "Little Black, I’m going to cook. Want to keep me company?"

Little Black refused. This human only ever gave him milk powder.

Seeing Little Black turn his back in refusal, Cheng Zhiyu didn’t push it. Instead, he poked Little Black’s butt and said, "Alright, I’ll go cook by myself then."

Little Black, having been poked: "!!!"

How dare this bold, shameless human! How could he do such a thing! The skin under Little Black’s fur began to heat up again. He decided then and there to ignore this reckless human.

He needed to regain his strength as soon as possible and leave this human’s side.

From a distance, Little Black watched Cheng Zhiyu chopping a piece of meat. The human ate so well, yet he only gave him milk powder.

Still, the human had taken him in. Before leaving, he’d give the human something in return—he didn’t like owing others.

With a serious expression, Little Black waddled on his short legs to a corner where Cheng Zhiyu couldn’t see him and began training his Water Power. With his past experience, he was sure to progress quickly.

Cheng Zhiyu whipped up a dish, made some small meatballs, and steamed some rice. Breakfast was ready.

There wasn’t much rice left at home, but Cheng Zhiyu wasn’t worried about running out of staples this time. He’d found a bag of flour yesterday and could steam some buns. Fortunately, he often helped his mother cook at home and knew how to steam buns—the only issue was the lack of yeast.

But it wasn’t impossible; he could let a small portion of dough sit for a few hours to act as a yeast substitute.

While making breakfast, he prepared the yeast dough and planned to steam buns that afternoon. It was a pity he had to ration vegetables, or he would’ve made stuffed buns too.

Carrying the food to the coffee table, Cheng Zhiyu called out to Little Black, who had somehow ended up in his room: "Little Black, time to eat."

Little Black: Hmph, I know you’re eating meat.

Seeing Little Black unmoved, Cheng Zhiyu called again: "Little Black, come eat."

Little Black’s ears twitched. Huh? There’s food for me too?

He glanced suspiciously at Cheng Zhiyu, who was holding his small bowl and placing two meatballs inside. Little Black quickly trotted over, and the human smiled as he set the bowl down in front of him.

The meatballs emitted a light, savory aroma and and were still warm.

So, the human had been chopping meat earlier to make meatballs for him? Little Black felt mixed emotions.

"Why are you just staring? They’re not too hot anymore—go ahead and eat." Cheng Zhiyu had a feeling that Little Black might not be an ordinary puppy. If he only fed him milk powder, it probably wouldn’t be enough.

But he didn’t dare to freely feed him meat, worried it might cause problems. After some thought, he decided to make small meatballs—tender and easy on Little Black’s stomach in small amounts.

Under Cheng Zhiyu’s expectant gaze, Little Black took a bite of a meatball. It was indeed tender. Though lightly seasoned, it had the natural deliciousness of meat and tasted very good.

After finishing one, he looked up and saw Cheng Zhiyu eating too—a small portion of stir-fried potato shreds.

Little Black knew that, given the current state of this planet, food was undoubtedly scarce. Yet this human had given him precious meat. How foolish! Good thing he’d met him.

As Cheng Zhiyu ate, he felt something nudge his ankle. He looked down and saw Little Black pushing his small bowl toward him with his paw.

*You eat.*

Cheng Zhiyu understood his meaning and was touched by this. But as moved as he was, he said, "Little Black, you should eat it."

Little Black insisted: *You eat.*

Cheng Zhiyu: "Thank you, but... the meatballs have your saliva on them..."

Since both meatballs were in the same bowl, when Little Black ate one, he’d inevitably touched the other.

Little Black: "..."

Annoyed, he took a bite of a meatball.

Cheng Zhiyu tried to explain: "Little Black, I’m not disgusted by you or anything."

Little Black: *Hmph.*

Cheng Zhiyu: *Sigh!*

After finishing the meal and cleaning up, Cheng Zhiyu rested for a while before starting his martial arts practice.

Little Black noticed that Cheng Zhiyu was quite clever. Though his movements were clumsy yesterday, they looked much smoother today.

Still, while this martial arts set could help strengthen the body, from Little Black’s critical perspective, it was full of flaws.

Since this human had let him stay here, he decided to offer a token of gratitude.

With that in mind, Little Black sneaked into Cheng Zhiyu’s room again. He knew many mental cultivation techniques, and one set in particular suited Cheng Zhiyu well.

Little Black looked up and, as expected, spotted a notebook and pen on Cheng Zhiyu’s desk—left there from when Cheng Zhiyu was planning his supply run and never put away.

Now, he needed to get the notebook and pen. The problem was, the desk was even higher than Cheng Zhiyu’s bed. The good news was, there was a stool next to the desk.

But the stool was about the same height as the bed.

Little Black: "..."

He could use his Water Power to lift himself up, but he hadn’t yet reached that level of control with his ability.

It would take at least three days to achieve the precision needed to hoist himself onto the desk. Little Black pawed the ground impatiently—he wasn’t willing to wait.

He decided to try jumping again. Maybe last night was just an off day?

Hoping for the best, Little Black pushed off with his hind legs and leaped upward. This time, he didn’t hit the desk, but his claws barely grazed the edge of the stool before gravity pulled him back down with a "thud."

Little Black: "..."

At least he’d closed the door. Cheng Zhiyu probably hadn’t heard.

After several attempts, he finally managed to jump onto the desk. Little Black used his paw to knock the notebook and pen to the floor, then jumped down after them.

Just then, noise came from outside. Little Black froze, quickly plopping down on top of the notebook—unfortunately, he was too small to cover it completely.

Cheng Zhiyu pushed the door open and saw exactly that.

The man and the dog stared at each other in silence...

After a moment, Little Black gave up all pretense and simply plopped down on the notebook.

Cheng Zhiyu laughed, walked over, and patted him. "How did you get this? Tell me, can a little dog like you actually write?"

Little Black: *Underestimating dogs, are we? Wait, no—ugh! I’m not a dog!*

Cheng Zhiyu couldn’t figure out what Little Black was up to, so he decided to let him be. After all, he had plenty of notebooks to spare.

Little Black brazenly carried the notebook back to his own corner, and Cheng Zhiyu didn’t think much of it.

When writing the mental cultivation technique method, Little Black made sure to hide from Cheng Zhiyu. Still, writing with paws was extremely challenging—not only was it slow, but the characters ended up crooked and messy. *Oh well, good enough*, he thought.

Cheng Zhiyu had no idea what Little Black was secretly doing behind his back. He had been acting mysteriously all day, but Cheng Zhiyu didn’t probe further.

---

Several days passed, and the cabbage seedlings changed day by day—though no matter how they changed, they remained red.

Fortunately, aside from their color being similar to Little Black’s, the cabbage seedlings showed no signs of gaining intelligence like Little Black, nor did they feel warm to the touch. This reassured Cheng Zhiyu. *At this point, they should be edible, right?*

As for Little Iron, after a few days, its vitality had increased to 30%, and the whole plant had grown a bit larger.

Cheng Zhiyu noticed that Little Iron’s leaves seemed to be growing harder and had taken on a black color, shining with a metallic glint under the sunlight.

*Did I actually name it correctly? Little Iron really does feel like it’s made of iron.*

He wondered what Little Iron would be like once fully matured.

Speaking of which, Little Black remained at its Level 1 maturity. Cheng Zhiyu felt a little guilty about this—to be precise, he was holding Little Black back. He still didn’t have the ability to fight zombies.

If just one zombie appeared, it would be fine, but facing more would put him in danger.

So, for now, he couldn’t take Little Black out to battle zombies.

Just thinking about this, Cheng Zhiyu sighed. *It looks like I need to get stronger as soon as possible.*

Not just for Little Black’s sake, but also because he couldn’t hide in this rented room forever. He estimated that the authorities were overwhelmed themselves now—if he wanted to leave, he could only rely on himself.

Besides, he still wanted to go back and find his family. Even though he’d managed to call them when the apocalypse began, how could he not worry?

Cheng Zhiyu shook his head and stopped dwelling on it.

---

In the bedroom, Little Black struggled to grip the pen with his paw and wrote the final character in the notebook.

*Finally!* He set down the pen, his sore front paws finally able to relax. Looking at the mental cultivation technique in the notebook, he imagined how completely surprised Cheng Zhiyu would be when he received it.

Little Black wagged his tail unconsciously, puffed out his chest, and held his head high. When Cheng Zhiyu came out from his space, Little Black just carried the notebook over, placed it at his feet, and set it down.

Cheng Zhiyu: "?"

He’d been curious for a while—Little Black had been mysteriously hunched over that notebook every day, hiding whatever he was doing.

He bent down, picked up the notebook, and saw that the previously blank pages were now filled with characters. Cheng Zhiyu’s eyes widened in surprise. "This is…"

Little Black puffed out his chest even further, a distinctly proud expression on his face. This was a mental cultivation technique passed down through generations of the Winged Tribe, something countless beast clans would fight desperately to obtain.

And now Cheng Zhiyu had gotten it without any effort. He must be so—

Just as he was thinking this, Cheng Zhiyu said, "Little Black, you know how to write? That’s amazing! But… what's this language? I can’t understand it."

Little Black’s paw froze.

He’d completely unconsciously written it in the Winged Tribe’s secret language…