Lessons on Raising a Partner

Chapter 31: Dean: You seem to be saying I’m handsome.

After listening to Auguste’s words, Bena bowed at the waist in her princess’s skirt with insect feet crossed. With a slight apology, she said, “I’m sorry, the boss didn’t know you were coming here beforehand. These minerals will be sent to you as a gift of indemnity.”

Without waiting for Auguste’s words, Bena pulled up the suitcase next to her and left in a hasty departure.

Colin looked at Bena as she had run away in a hurry and sighed, “No wonder nobody believed that this was really a zirconium gold mine. It’s a long time since the Lota Beta 11 people, who have stayed alone, have been seen in another environment.”

“Bena is a good secretary.” Corson felt the same, echoing his brother’s unsaid words.

Lota beta 11 aliens didn’t like to go out. They didn’t like to contact people on other planets except for people on this planet. Tanamo was the first person to step out of Lota Beta 11 and become an interstellar merchant. Bena was a secretary that Tanamo recruited more than fifty years ago. At that time, Tanamo’s business began to grow bigger but he was too busy to recruit a secretary. However, people in Starcraft didn’t like to deal with those from Lota beta 11 because they thought the beatle type aliens were ugly.

Later, she contacted Tanamo herself and said she was willing to be his assistant to help him. When Tanamo told Auguste the news, they thought Tanamo was joking. They thought that she could not hold on for long. But after more than fifty years, she continued to be Tanamo’s secretary and she became the most effective aide for Tanamo. Almost everyone who had worked with Tanamo knew that there was a person around Tanamo that helped him realize his dream of being an interstellar businessman.

Now Tanamo has long been a famous interstellar zirconium and gold miner, and Bena was still the closest person to him. Unlike Lydney, Bena was born a business woman, but her Lota beta 11 genes were destined to make her unaccustomed to the wandering and hardships of being an interstellar businessman. But in this world, there was always a reason someone chose to wander.

Bena waved and left behind a pile of zirconium and gold without taking away any interstellar coin.

Carl hurriedly collected the zirconium and gold while Lydney helped. Colin and Corson began to leave to find a shop that sold tungsten. That was why they came to the black market this time.

Jaime never spoke. He looked up at the large landing platform in the center, then turned to the Colin brothers who had only walked a few steps. “We don’t have to rush. It’s too late. I smell his disgusting scent.” Jamie had a nauseated look on his face.

“Dean has arrived.” In Auguste’s calm voice, they could not hear any emotion. “Let him come to us instead of scattering.”

Hai’an’s heart ached secretly for a while and Auguste was pitted by his teammates.

Auguste was trying to avoid direct contact with the Empire or the Freedom Alliance. As soon as Tanamo left, all the fighting came to the black market. The idea of letting Tanamo leave Lota Beta 11 was given by them, and as a result, he put himself closer to the Freedom Alliance.

This really hurt his face.

Colin spread open his hands and asked, “What are we going to do now? Look for tungsten in one shop after another?”

Auguste steadily stepped forward and the others followed him, listening only to Auguste’s solemn words, “We are going to go buy JianJian milk powder.”

Colin and Corson thought at the same time, ‘Auguste must have a fetish.’

Only Jamie knew what Auguste was going to do, but he didn’t want to explain for Auguste. Why should he explain Auguste’s fetish? This led to their confusion when Auguste took them to a grocery store called Hanging and Exploding Sky.

Auguste took the lead in pushing open the door, which was divided by a beaded curtain, making the pearls clink against each other. The owner, standing at the counter, heard the sound.

“Welcome.” The shop owner was a very old man. He wore a very fashionable pink checkered shirt, a purple tie and red peach-heart glasses. He sat up in his armchair and squinted at them.

“You! I remember you!” The old man pointed to Auguste. “You picked my best box and I lost a lot of money.” After that, the old man pointed to Carl and exclaimed in surprise, “Little girl, how did you become a man?”

Hai’an couldn’t help laughing, but he didn’t have a mouth, so he could only shake.

Although Carl had long red curly hair, he was not effeminate at all, and his tough and handsome features were very manly. What’s more, Carl’s sturdy figure was standing there in his handsome black uniform.

Colin had already laughed, and Carl was so angry that he shouted, “I’ve always been a man!”

“Oh, oh, since you were young, it’s hard for these old eyes to differentiate.” The old man smiled, apologized to Carl, and pulled out a disc from the drawer. “To compensate for my impoliteness, if you buy something, I’ll give you this old Earth DJ disc I’ve kept for a long time.”

Carl: “...”

Hai’an noticed that there was already a guest in the store before they entered. He was sitting at a table by the window. He looked about 30 years old and wore a dark grey windbreaker with a black shirt. Under his dark grey hat, he had short black hair and a slender figure. But from his knuckles to his wrists that were on the table, Hai’an could see that he was thin. He had a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his tall nose, the pupils of his eyes were pale grey and the lips were so thin they were almost colourless.

Hai’an recognized the man, who was the pure human who had chased Auguste through more than a dozen streets in Freeport.

Dean.

Hearing the rattle of the curtain, he turned to get to his feet and lowered his hat slightly. “Nice to see you again, Auguste.” His voice was so sweet and gentle that he did not reveal the hostility of that day in Freeport. After that, he also looked up at them and showed a smiling face, the corners of his mouth were gently raised, his eyes were sincere and shining, as if he were greeting an old friend whom he had not seen for many years.

“Long time no see, Jamie, Carl has grown up well.” He sighed softly. “Colin and Corson are always together every day. It’s so memorable. How are you doing?” Dean saw them standing a step behind Auguste and greeted them.

“You have a new crew member, a pure human being,” Carl said, frowning and stepping forward to block Lydney.

After Dean had finished speaking, Hai’an felt Dean’s sight shift to him and he felt nervous for a moment, the vines around his milk bottle freezing.

“And a potted plant?” Dean chuckled, shook his head, and there was an infinite amount of malice in his voice. “You’re still the same. Gathering a group of monsters together to find a sense of existence.”

Hai’an:

What was this man talking about?! Such poison!

Auguste ignored him and did not even give him a look. Instead, he went straight to the boss of the shop with his arms around Hai’an and said, “I want to buy ten cans of milk powder.”

“What?” When the old man listened, he noticed Hai’an in Auguste’s arms. “Oh, you have a baby. It looks good. The child is strong.”

Hai’an:

The old man looked at Auguste and Carl carefully before saying hesitantly, “It looks a little bit like you.”

Hai’an felt that the owner of the store’s thoughts were too wayward. He and Auguste were not even the same species.

The old man packed up ten cans of milk powder and handed them to Auguste. “Here, you can draw a box. The boxes are over there. There is tungsten liquid in a box. It depends on you which one you pick.”

Dean saw that Auguste ignored him and didn’t care. Instead, he took a step forward. “I want tungsten, too. Who do you think will get it?”

When Carl heard this, he sneered at Dean and said, “What did you buy, x-ray glasses?”

Dean raised his chin and said to Carl disdainfully, “Oh, curly stick.”

That was a mockery of Carl’s curly hair.

“You choose first or I choose first.” Auguste interrupted the quarrel between Carl and Dean. If they didn’t let the quarrel end, it would end in a fight.

Dean’s answer was that he went to get a box and opened it directly in front of Auguste. It was tungsten liquid.

“No need to choose, you have no chance.” He handed the box to the shop owner.

The shop owner sighed, “The best goods have been taken by you and I’m going to lose money again.”

Auguste then let go of the little chain and let Hai’an fly. “JianJian, you go and choose one.”

Hai’an didn’t know what to do, wasn’t the only tungsten liquid already chosen by Dean? The rest were useless goods, ah, the price is still expensive, why choose?

But Auguste insisted that Hai’an choose one. Hai’an had to look at the boxes carefully. These boxes were all packaged in the same way. There was no difference at all. How did Dean find the tungsten?

Hai’an pulled the steering rod, manoeuvred the small ship around the boxes, and finally stopped on the fifty-seventh box in the sequence, because it was the number of days he had been in this world.

When Auguste saw that Hai’an had selected, he went over and picked up Hai’an and the box.

They went back to the counter and opened it.

There was a drawing inside.

The old man took out this drawing with several pictures on it that had a large paragraph of text beside it. He found a magnifying glass and read the words carefully.

“Oh, it’s a design for underwear for ancient earth women.” The old man studied for a while and suddenly spoke. “You can buy some cloth to make the underwear.”