No Money to Divorce

The winter sunlight was spread warmly across the grassland.

The kit looked around for a while before getting bored and laying down. Zhong Yan quickly moved away. Fortunately, he had responded quickly and took a few steps back. The rabbit leaned towards him and laid down on its side before dozing off.

It didn’t rest on its long ears, so it covered the grassland like a big fluffy blanket

Zhong Yan sat himself down again, next to its ear.

With one section of the nest done, Adrian climbed back down the ladder and walked out from behind the wall only to see the rabbit sleeping on its side, while Zhong Yan had disappeared.

He wondered, had Zhong Yan returned to the house? But if he did, he would have at least told him.

Unless…Adrian looked to the direction of the artificial pond, but nobody was there.

Just as he was about to look for him back at the house, he suddenly stopped in his tracks when he walked by the rabbit’s ear.

Since it was laying on its side, one of its ears was laid out over the ground like a blanket, but there was a suspicious human-shaped bulge in the center.

Adrian: “…”

He lifted the ear of the young kit, and as he expected, Zhong Yan was laying inside. Since his cover was removed, the breeze was coming in. And so, he sneezed and slowly woke up.

“Are you also an amphibious animal?” Adrian was practically speechless. “Don’t you need oxygen when you sleep?”

Zhong Yan sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Did I fall asleep? It was too warm inside…”

“Go sleep in your room.”

“I’m not going to sleep anymore, I’ll stay with you while you build the hutch.” Zhong Yan crawled out from beneath the kit’s ears. “Are you not going to headquarters today?”

“It’s the first day of the new year, I think even the Supreme Council isn’t doing business today.” Adrian put down the bunny’s ear. “Don’t buy anything today.”

“Why?”

Adrian said, “There are cameras on the drones, I don’t want them to catch any footage of me with a rabbit in my house. That’s going to destroy my image. You’ll have to wait till I’m done with the hutch.”

“Okay, we have a lot of leftovers anyway, it should be enough for today.”

Adrian spent the entire day building a house about eight meters in both length and height, and made a door that the rabbit could pass through. The door opened from the opposite direction of the house, so nobody could see what was in the hutch from above or from the house. But his thoughts were too optimistic; he thought that once the nest was built, the rabbit would definitely stay obediently inside. After all, Zhong Yan spent three years instilling in him the concept that “giant space rabbits are very well-behaved animals”.

This idea was tragically shattered that afternoon.

The small building was set up, but no matter how they tried to pull the rope tied to its leg, the kit would not budge. Baiting it with food didn’t work either as it had just eaten not long ago. It was not hungry yet.

“Didn’t you say these rabbits were well-behaved?” asked Adrian with a blank face. He regretted having listened to Zhong Yan’s nonsense now. How could he have trusted a fanatical giant space rabbit nerd to tell him that they were well-behaved! He should have added the roof later, then he could deal with everything else after dropping the rabbit in with his ship.

Feeling guilty, Zhong Yan argued, “Isn’t it? It didn’t get mad at you no matter how hard you tried to pull it.”

“Didn’t you also tell me that rabbits liked nests like these?”

“It’s reasonable to say that this is what it’s used to, so it should have taken the initiative to go in. I have a giant space rabbit breeding license.” Zhong Yan eyed the empty wooden house. “I think we have to layer on some soft padding on the ground. Right now, the ground inside is hard, so it’s not attractive to the giant space rabbit.”

Adrian was completely unable to understand. “Don’t they live in space all year round? Why do they like things like that? Do they get padding in space too?”

“That’s how these mysterious creatures are,” said Zhong Yan matter-of-factly. “This is why the giant space rabbits are so fascinating! There are many mysteries surrounding them, such as how they came to mutate this way. Did you know? They found new results in the experiment just a few years ago, and they speculated that it may be related to a type of cosmic radiation…”

Adrian could tell already that this was going to be bad. Once he gets started, he probably would not stop even after an hour. He quickly cut him off. “Alright, if they like it soft, then they like it soft. But what can we use as padding?”

Zhong Yan stopped in dismay that the topic of “the cosmic radiation hypothesis on the mutation of giant space rabbits” would not be continued. After some thought, he said, “Why don’t we just buy some blankets? We don’t have to stitch them together, just lay them on the ground and we can easily wash the dirty ones in the future instead of having to do all of them together. We can also get pillows as well. Any sort of bedding will do as long as it’s soft. We’ll buy some and pile them on the ground.”

Actually, according to the process, domesticating a giant space rabbit should start with training them to discharge their waste at set timings, but Zhong Yan figured he was about to go soon, so there wasn’t any need to spend so much effort on this as Adrian definitely would not be keeping it for long either. They can send it to the protection agency in a few days, and there will naturally be professionals there to take care of it.

But what he never thought of was the fact that this lop-eared giant space rabbit would stay under their care for decades to come. His thoughts at this moment would soon lead to the madness caused in the following years by the rabbit’s refusal to use the toilet.

Adrian had no comments. “Alright, I think twenty comforters should do the trick. We’ll also get some cushions and maybe some bedding as well.”

They both turned on their terminals at the same time, then they both paused.

…If they buy something off the virtual community, they would be delivered by the drones, and the drones have cameras on them.

“I’ll buy them on the way back from work tomorrow,” said Adrian.

“But I don’t think your car can fit twenty comforters and a bunch of pillows, can it?”

“I’ll just drive a big enough car.”

Zhong Yan was shocked. “You have other cars?”

“Isn’t that nonsense?” Adrian asked in return, “Don’t tell me you only have a scooter back in the capital?”

“Yeah,” Zhong Yan responded.

“…” For a while, Adrian did not know what to say. “You’re doing quite a lot to keep your image clean.”

Zhong Yan contended, “No, that was all I could afford. The things in the capital are too expensive. Both the car and housing prices there are the highest in the Federation.”

“Well thank you for educating me on that. I’ve only lived there for about seventeen years.” Adrian snided, “Have you never realized that I have an underground garage?”

“I do know there’s a garage in this house,” Zhong Yan responded. But he always thought that it was the same as the villas in the capital that could only park a car or two.

“My underground garage is about as big as the first floor of this house,” Adrian revealed.

Zhong Yan was so shocked that his eyes widened.

“So don’t worry, I have cars that can fit twenty comforters.”

“Are you that rich?” Zhong Yan asked with admiration.

“I’m alright,” said Adrian understatedly. “The main point is, my garage is full, but I remember I still have a few extended large-capacity cars in a resort under my name in a neighboring planet.”

Zhong Yan’s eyes glistened brighter in awe as he looked at him. Adrian was getting a little light-headed. It was no wonder that some people in the virtual community loved to flaunt their wealth. Experiencing it for himself was quite…

But before he could enjoy two seconds of Zhong Yan’s gaze, he was interrupted by his ringtone.

“What’s up?” Adrian had a clear look at the caller and was instantly displeased.

Fayn was unaffected by his emotions at all and sounded in high spirits. “Happy New Year, Boss! I’m out with Dr. Wei to have some fun and we happen to be near your house. Why don’t we have dinner at your place tonight? You’re home, right?”

“Happy New Year.” Adrian looked up to the giant rabbit beside him that refused to enter its nest, and firmly rejected. “Nobody’s home”

“Stop joking, I’m right outside your door and I see lights.”

Adrian, “…”

“Hello? What’s wrong? Come open the door.”

“No…” Adrian struggled to find the right words, “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming earlier?”

Fayn was surprised. “When have I ever called to tell you I was coming? Haven’t I always just came? What, you got something you can’t show anyone in your house? Isn’t it just that guy there? It’s not like I haven’t seen him.”

From Adrian’s words, Zhong Yan was able to deduce what was going on, so he mouthed out a question, “Suster?”

Adrian nodded.

Zhong Yan pulled Adrian’s wrist over to him and placed his terminal to his ear. “Suster. It’s me.”

“…” Fayn jumped. “What’s going on?”

“Well, we were just about to go out so why don’t we go out for dinner together?” Zhong Yan was speaking to him completely unperturbed. “We haven’t cleaned up the house yet and it’s a bit messy, so we won’t be inviting you in.”

His tone sounded so natural that Fayn couldn’t find anything wrong with his words, so he responded in a dazed state, “Oh…Um, that works, I guess? Dr. Wei, they said we’re going out to eat.”

Only then did Zhong Yan realize that Wei Lan was around as well. He could only hear a vague and incoherent response from Wei Lan, then Fayn continued. “Dr. Wei says sure, so you guys come out and I’ll drive.”

“Alright, we’re coming.”

Zhong Yan hung up the call and looked at Adrian.

“Drive out your extended car,” Zhong Yan said, “We’ll buy it after dinner. Then we can get the rabbit in when we’re done tonight. We shouldn’t wait for tomorrow. Too many matters are suddenly coming up.”

Adrian wiped his face. “Alright, go get changed.”

Adrian drove his car out from the underground garage and to the front yard, picking Zhong Yan up, then left the gates. Fayn and Wei Lan were both chatting outside their car. When they saw Adrian’s car, both of them stopped.

When Adrian and Zhong Yan got out of their car as well, Fayn said, “Isn’t that a bit over the top? We’re just eating dinner. Do you have to drive out a limited edition car?”

…No, it’s only because this car has the largest capacity. Adrian said, “I just casually picked one.”

Fayn’s face showed that he almost wanted to say “You’re shitting me”, but Zhong Yan tried to add on to the story, “He forgot to charge the car he usually drove.”

“Didn’t I say I was going to drive?” said Fayn.

Adrian responded, “We’ve got other things to do after dinner.”

“It’s the first day of the New Year’s, what kinda business you got?”

“Just buying some things.”

“What a coincidence, I was just about to head down to the commercial district to buy myself a new razor. I’ve been too busy these past few days.” Fayn stroked his chin and turned to ask Wei Lan, “Are you going too, Doctor?”

Wei Lan nodded. “Sure, I could stock up on some cereal.”

Adrian and Zhong Yan met eyes for a moment, and their faces looked slightly awkward. If they went together, then they obviously wouldn’t be able to explain why they had to buy so many comforters and pillows in one go. So, with a throbbing head, Adrian tried to find a way to stop them. “I don’t think we’ll be going the same direction. We’ll be purchasing bedroom accessories.”

Fayn was shocked as he stared at the awkward looks of the two. He asked in suspicion, “What sort of bedroom accessories are we talking about?”

Calmly, Wei Lan offered his analysis, “I don’t think it’s the type that’s suitable to be bought with other people around.”