Seeing the golden mark on the mermaid cub's forehead in the picture, as well as the fact that the photos were from a cub raising branch on Gaia, several important people in the Houdie family instantly knew what was going on.
The mermaid cub in the picture certainly was from their family. It was the one they had sent to be abandoned on Gaia.
Their family's cubs didn't have the golden mark until they were one year old. They had indeed hoped that the cub wouldn't survive until then…. It was hard-hearted, but there was no need for any excuses, they had made this decision for the sake of the family's reputation and best interest.
Their family had birthed a cub who couldn't speak. It may not be a big deal in other races, but it was completely different in the mermaid race.
The cub who was supposed to be gone was still alive. When the people in the Houdie family who knew the whole story first got word of it, they were thrown into disorder.
It happened so suddenly, moreover this was not something they could just close their eyes and ignore, they had to deal with it.
As for the identity of the mermaid cub in the photos, his father was the second son of the old master. Or more like, had been.
The cub came into the world as an orphan. When the cub was born, the father of the cub had already passed away and the mother died soon after giving birth to the egg.
If the cub hadn't been abandoned on Gaia, he would also have been a young master of the Houdie family.
"Take back the cub from that club first and give them enough money to keep their mouths shut."
The old master turned his head towards one of his trusted aids as he spoke. He was sitting on a high-back chair, the black cane in his hand knocked against the ground, making two clear sounds.
The matter had not yet blown up, but a hole had appeared. Now that they had seen the hole, how could they not rush to repair it?
The cub raising club on Gaia must be aware of the mermaid cub's speech impairment. As the first step was always to gather relevant information, the old master of the Houdie family had a basic understanding of the club.
The "Yunbao" cub raising club had twice caught the public's attention on Xingyou, but it was not very well known. In other words, it was presently not completely unheard of but could still be considered an ordinary low-level club.
Knowing that it was just a small club, the old master was still very calm.
It was only this year that the cub raising club had begun to slowly grow, before that, it had just been a worn out club of interest to no one.
Since this was the case, getting them to keep their mouths shut should be very easy. They basically only needed to handle the staff within the branch and then the matter should not spread further.
The reason as to why the cub had been abandoned was not hard to guess. The only thing they needed to consider was how to hide the fact that the cub could not speak.
After dispatching his men to Gaia, the old master of the Houdie family sat down and calmly waited for his subordinates to bring the cub back.
Follow-up matters were not properly handled, but they could only do so much now.
The purpose for sending people to Gaia was very simple. Whether it was the old master or the person sent by him, they only regarded it as an easy thing to accomplish.
However, they hadn't expected that it would not go according to their expectations.
Gaia was a planet quite far away from Haliumite, they needed to waste several days just to reach it. Curran, who was in charge of this mission, arrived at Gaia on the third day and he soon found his target on the planet, the Yunbao Branch.
The Houdie family's cubs all enrolled in a Connor Branch on Haliumite. Being used to the latter, when faced with this cub raising branch, he naturally did not think much of it.
Someone came to visit. He was a polite man, dressed well and well mannered. From the fins on both sides of his cheeks near his ears, one could see that he was an adult merman of the mermaid race.
When people of other races came to their club, Xia Qi would without question politely receive the visitor with a bright mood. But with the recent matter regarding the mermaid cub, Xia Qi held suspicion for the man from the very beginning.
It was not clear whether the other was coming for their club's mermaid cub, but as a proper host Xia Qi did not dare to probe. After a simple conversation, the man asked if it was possible to get a tour of their club.
"Sure." Xia Qi nodded.
Knowing that his request was unlikely to be refused, Curran's actions were very directed. He did not bother to hide his objective and directed walked towards the cub house to find the target.
He wanted to see the cub with his own eyes before he laid his cards on the table.
As he approached the villa, Curran could not help but think that contrary to his expectations, the cub house actually seemed to be quite well built.
Once they reached the door, Xia Qi tried, as politely as possible, to block him and asked if he could wait at the door for a moment. After having been reminded by the others, she was very careful to not let outsiders know that there was a Knox in their club.
"Meaah." The cub was very obedient and let the youth put a small black cloak and cap on him. The Knox cub was lying on Xie Tao's leg, only the small fluffy tail was sticking out from under the cloak and was quietly resting on the youth's leg, showing an obedient attitude towards the youth.
Xie Tao picked up the round cub and hid him in his arms as much as possible. From other people's point of view, they should not be able to see what the cub in his arms looked like.
The man entering was a male mermaid, he did not observe the room's environment and instead only hastily swept his eyes over it, searching for the specific target as soon as he stepped in.
Seeing the other's actions, Xie Tao came to a conclusion.
_______________
Translator's note:
Many thanks to Jessie, anon and ⁽⁽ଘ( ˊᵕˋ )ଓ⁾⁾, for the coffees! 💕💕
Also thanks to everyone for being so understanding about the late notice last week and for all the well wishes. It was a bit of a scare as we were afraid that he had broken his tail and that it would need to be amputated, but luckily he had just been bitten at the base of it. He still needed surgery and supervision. But he will be back to normal in a few weeks, although he is looking quite miserable in his cone right now. ( ^ω^ )