POA Ch 7

The hatchling was furry, covered with white fluff and looked like a little white chicken. When this chicken first appeared, Meng Jiuzhao did not manage to associate it with the egg. He even thought that it was reserve food brought back by his ‘Mom and Dad’. It was only when Meng Jiuzhao saw Black also feeding this ‘Little White Chicken’ did he realise that: this could very possibly be the other egg!

The little white chicken was good at eating as well as sleeping, and was exceptionally good at snatching food. In order to fill his own belly, Meng Jiuzhao was forced to learn how to snatch food. He was blessed to have capable fathers, and the winged man called White would bring back lots of food everyday. However, other families weren’t as lucky.

    In this place, the concept of ‘family’ was not fully developed. Meng Jiuzhao observed that other than the few exceptions that cohabited like Black and White, most winged people lived alone and raised their cubs alone. 

Meng Jiuzhao also noticed something that he couldn’t understand initially. Nests that had two adults did not have cubs in them. The two adults would not guard their nests, and would instead go out daily to hunt. As for the nests of single winged people, there would definitely be eggs hatching in them. 

It was only after many guesses did Meng Jiuzhao realise: These people were males of their species, and the only reason why they would be hatching the eggs of their young on their own would be because the females left, which meant–

His own parents were the legendary “gay buddies”?!

Meng Jiuzhao made a 囧 face as he thought: his fathers could be said to be trendsetters of their time.

In history, the divergence of evolution of the two genders of winged dinosaurs caused them to become two separate species. As such, there was a period of time when these winged people became severely endangered. It was only after a certain winged person mutated to have a female’s organ and gave birth to the first child born to two male parents did their population start increasing again.

In the era which Meng Jiuzhao had lived in, people long stopped differentiating each other by gender, and genders were also no longer written on identification documents. Robots became popular and many people gave up on the ability to reproduce, choosing instead to pursue immortality.

Witnessing a new birth was considered an extremely precious experience to Meng Jiuzhao.

It was exceptionally difficult for single fathers to care for their cubs as after their partners left, they had to take care of their weak newborn cubs without moving an inch away from them. Any food they have previously saved up would be provided to their young, and they themselves basically wouldn’t eat.

But not all winged people would be able to accumulate adequate food before their partners leave. Some may not be strong enough, some not lucky enough, and many more inexperienced. In any case, in order to raise their cubs, they were forced to leave their nests to hunt. 

However, hunting brought its own risks, and adding on their weakened bodies prior to the hunt, some parents would leave and never come back. In such cases, their orphaned cubs would be raised by others in the group. (Examples of the other people would be Dragonfinch^[1]I still don’t know if this is a separate species or just another type in the same species, if someone knows, please tell me qwq male couples who obviously couldn’t lay eggs yet braved many difficulties in order to come to the breeding grounds)

Another more extreme case that could happen were the cubs being stolen directly. Meng Jiuzhao had witnessed this before, a winged person took the chance when the owner of a nest was out hunting to steal the cub inside. The person did it secretly, and Meng Jiuzhao did not know if Black noticed this happening, but after that, he found out that Black and White started guarding him and Dai Mao^[2]呆毛: literally translates to dazed hair/feathers (The name of the other cub in their nest) more closely.

Initially, Meng Jiuzhao couldn’t understand why Black (possibly) found out about the theft of someone else’s cub but still kept silent. When the unlucky father came back, he searched for a long time. He came back with food and many wounds, but found out that the cub in his nest was gone. He did not cry, only searching everywhere. All parents would be extremely anxious about things regarding their young, and everyone rejected the approach of that father. Hence he had no other choice but to continuously attempt to approach other families, but getting chased away in process. When Meng Jiuzhao was awake, he was still searching, and after he slept, the man was still searching. However, when Meng Jiuzhao woke up again, the man stopped searching, and was gone.

Translator has something to say:

if your baby gets kidnapped when you are getting food for them, imagine how sad it will be QwQ

also, I feel like I spend so long time translating these chapters but then I look at my word count after editing and see that it’s not even 1k words… pain

myu

I’m learning to translate as I go, my translations vary between loose and close to the original raws, but I’ll try my best to convey the meaning of the story ( ＾ω＾ )