Xiao Zi slowly turned his head backward and was terrified to see Xiao Bai's dark face.
"LIN! ZHI! YU!" One could feel the anger emanating from the cute, adorable voice.
And before we knew it, Xiao Zi received the beating of his life, while Xiao Baobao sat there looking contented, eating and drinking with a blissful expression.
Xiao Bai was really angry this time. He had become fascinated with some of the books here. If Xiao Zi had destroyed these books, he would have probably cut off Xiao Zi's precious tail.
After that little incident, Xiao Baobao sat in front of the documents and felt his CPU start to heat up.
He looked at Xiao Zi, whose tail was tied to Xiao Bai's wrist with a rope, and thought that they should leave the palace so that Xiao Zi could get some fresh air and also to minimize the trouble the little dragon might cause.
Xiao Baobao would never admit that he, one of the Great Guardians, was being overwhelmed by the royal documents and the ministers' nagging.
"I'm going out," Xiao Baobao announced suddenly.
The ministers looked up in surprise. They had only been here for four hours.
To be honest, having Xiao Baobao here to take over the documents was a great joy.
If it was Caspian who was here, they wouldn't even be able to change his mind. Though Xiao Baobao was an intelligent being, there were some rules they could find loopholes in and use against him.
But the Emperor was different. He was eccentric through and through. You couldn't predict his thinking or his next move. The last person who went against His Royal Majesty was thrown to the frontline at the border to fight the Hives. Though he survived, it was said that he had gone mad from the mental disorder.
They dared to treat Xiao Baobao this way because he was bound by rules.
"Your Highness, where are you going?" One of the ministers asked, a little disappointed. While Xiao Baobao was still here, they could change some things.
It was just a pity that Xiao Baobao's personality was designed to be lively and couldn't be confined to one place for a long time.
"Anywhere that isn't here," Xiao Baobao mumbled as he glared at them.
To be honest, he had a feeling that these old geezers were trying to trick him, but his codes couldn't detect anything wrong.
Seeing Xiao Baobao glare at them, the ministers fell silent because they had a feeling that Xiao Baobao had probably caught on to something. So they didn't dare push forward anymore.
Xiao Baobao grabbed the documents that needed to be handled outside the palace and stuffed them into his spatial storage.
Since he couldn't simply abandon his responsibilities, he decided to turn the situation into an official work trip.
At least then he could escape the palace for a while, and these cunning ministers.
He turned around and looked at the two cubs.
"You two are coming with me."
Xiao Bai blinked his eyes and thought it was a good idea. He couldn't enjoy his reading because Xiao Zi kept making noises and moving up and down.
"Pack up the things the two would need," Xiao Baobao instructed the palace servants who were nearby. They did probably stay out for three to five days.
Xiao Zi became excited by the thought of going outside and couldn't stay still.
Xiao Bai glanced at him before marching away, with the two cubs wobbling behind him.
A short while later, the three Xiao left the imperial palace together.
Their destination was one of the public planets, where Xiao Baobao had to inspect several facilities and attend a meeting concerning the recent development of the other planets.
That was one of the main reasons Xiao Baobao was assigned to oversee the empire.
The empire had a total of seventeen public planets in its orbit and more than thirty private planets that were either in the hands of the nobles and the rich, or had been abandoned due to their inhabitable nature.
And there were up to fifteen planets that had been conquered by the empire and dragged into its orbit. Thirteen of these planets were inhabited by their original inhabitants. One of them was dragged into the empire's orbit by a space magnetic storm, though it was empty because most of the inhabitants died during the storm. The few that were left had already moved out to other planets.
The other was also empty because the inhabitants couldn't adapt to their planet after it mutated due to the empire's orbit.
Every three months, one of the royal family would visit five of these public planets. This went on for two years every five years.
The third round of looking over the public planets had just started, so it was impossible to miss it.
Due to the fact that it was an annual visitation, and for fairness, the whole thing had to be broadcast.
The visit had been arranged in advance, and because it involved one of the empire's important visitations, a few reporters and livestream crews were already waiting outside the royal spaceport.
For the sake of fairness, the planet that was to be visited would not be known until they had landed there.
Though, there was no absolute fairness. It could catch them off guard sometimes.
The reporters and those handling the livestream followed them into the spaceship. The moment Xiao Baobao stepped out of the spaceship after they landed, the cameras turned toward him.
The government officials guarding the planet realized their planet had been chosen and ran forward to welcome him.
"His Highness has arrived!"
"The Guardian Xiao Baobao is here!"
The livestream immediately began broadcasting.
Millions of viewers poured into the official channel, and the number increased even more when they realized it wasn't the boring and cold Emperor nor the gentle and beautiful Empress that was conducting this month inspection.
After all, it wasn't every day that one of the Guardians personally appeared during an imperial inspection.
Xiao Baobao smiled brightly and waved toward the cameras.
"Hello, everyone!"
The viewers immediately became excited.
[Is that Xiao Baobao?!]
[He's so cute!]
[Upstairs, you don't want your account anymore?? How dare you call Xiao Baobao cute?!]
Before the account could defend itself, it was banned.
[Tsk, I just checked. It really got banned.]
[Serves him right.]
Because of Xiao Baobao's personality, he really wasn't bound to the rules as much as Ryan and Louise were. So, to match his personality, there were some legal lines he crossed sometimes.
Like the fact that Xiao Baobao hated being reminded what his name meant, or the fact that he hated people calling him cute.
When these things happened, Xiao Baobao banned those accounts out of vengeance.
[Wait, aren't those the two cubs Yu Weiwei's?]
The netizens finally noticed the two Xiao brothers following behind.
[Why are Xiao Bai and Xiao Zi with him?]
[THE THREE XIAO ARE TOGETHER!]
[Since when did Yu Weiwei's cubs start to follow the Guardians?]
[Why do I smell a conspiracy here?]
[Upstairs, everything smells like a conspiracy to you. Can't Xiao Baobao be babysitting the two cubs?]
[No, did you hear yourself? One of the Great Guardians babysitting for an inconspicuous teenager?]
[Is everyone forgetting something? Lin Zhe's best friend was Empress Elara. What's wrong with Xiao Baobao babysitting the Empress's guests?]
[That's not all. Who doesn't remember the feud between General Yu and the Emperor? They only made peace when they both got married. I don't see anything wrong with Yu Weiwei's cubs being related to the royal family with such connections.]
Xiao Baobao noticed the rapidly increasing number of viewers and the intense fighting amongst the netizens. But he didn't bother with them. As long as they didn't cross the legal lines and nobody called him cute, then everything was fine.
The officials welcomed him respectfully and began explaining the layout of the planet.
Xiao Bai remained beside him, listening quietly.
Xiao Zi, however, quickly became bored.
His little eyes wandered around.
There were too many interesting things here.
Xiao Bai noticed the way his eyes were moving and immediately grabbed his tail. He had seen those flying bug cameras when his father was livestreaming. It would be embarrassing for Xiao Zi to cause trouble while people were watching.
"Don't."
Xiao Zi turned around and stared at him.
Xiao Bai stared back.
"Don't touch anything."
Xiao Zi puffed out his cheeks.
He didn't look convinced.
Xiao Baobao, who had been listening to an official explaining the facility, glanced back.
For a few minutes, everything went smoothly.
Then they entered the facility.
The officials began showing Xiao Baobao one of the newly developed transportation systems used to move resources between planets.
The machine was enormous, with several mechanical arms extending from its sides.
Xiao Zi's eyes lit up.
Xiao Bai immediately became alert.
"Xiao Zi."
The cub froze.
Xiao Bai narrowed his eyes.