C14 Hatching the Egg!

"Yes!"

"For me?" Lin Wushuang gasped, looking at the bracelet in her hand.

Could this anciently traditional guy actually give gifts?

"It's mainly because it was cheap..." Lin Yi, who had just had breakfast at noon, remarked offhandedly.

Typical. One should never have high hopes for this jerk!

"Hey! Have you lost your mind?" Lin Yi crammed the last bite of his breakfast into his mouth and, seeing Lin Wushuang's bewildered yet adorable look, couldn't help but reach out and pinch her cheek.

"Smack!" Lin Wushuang, snapping out of her daze, swatted Lin Yi's hand away.

"Hey, I'm a grown woman now, don't just pinch my face like that!"

"Oh, we're being formal now... Remember, I practically raised you. Is there a single part of you I haven't touched?"

"Ah!" Lin Wushuang's face turned crimson at Lin Yi's verbal jab: "Jerk! Stop bringing up my childhood..."

Lin Yi grinned mischievously again: "As you command, Your Highness, the princess who wet the bed at ten..."

A sofa pillow smacked into Lin Yi's face.

"Ah! You jerk, Lin Yi, drop dead..."

"Hey! If I died, you'd lose a brother who's as handsome and dependable as me," Lin Yi taunted.

"I don't need one!"

Lin Yi removed the pillow from his face: "Anyway, you're almost in your sophomore year of high school. Want me to pick out a Familiar for you to start training?"

"You?" Lin Wushuang eyed Lin Yi skeptically, "Are you sure you're up to it?"

"There's no one more reliable than me!"

Lin Wushuang rolled her eyes.

"Have you come into some money recently? First a gift, now a Familiar..."

At that, Lin Yi just chuckled: "Oh yeah, making money is a breeze."

Finally, Lin Wushuang hesitated, "Never mind, I'm a top student. I have more spending money than you. Plus, I've got a feeling you're not the most reliable source!"

Now it was Lin Yi's turn to feel slighted.

"What's wrong with being a poor student? Don't underestimate us! Just you wait! I'll find you the best Familiar in the next couple of days..."

Time flew by, and before we knew it, the evening was well underway.

"I'm starving!" Lin Yi leaned on the table, moaning in agony.

"Your first familiar is about to hatch, and you're still thinking about food?" Lin Wushuang, who was crowded next to him at the table, chided.

Wushuang had only seen a familiar egg hatch in books; she had never witnessed it in real life, so her curiosity was piqued.

Lin Yi patted his thoroughly flattened belly. "But I'm really hungry~"

He had skipped breakfast to catch up on sleep and had only nibbled on a few buns for lunch. Now it was already eight in the evening. Lin Yi felt like he was on the brink of starvation.

"Yi~ There are some fruits left in the fridge. Maybe you could eat a few to tide you over?" Lin's mother suggested, equally curious.

It was precisely because Lin's mother also wanted to watch that Lin Yi was going hungry this late into the night.

"Ah!" Lin Yi sighed in resignation and continued to gaze at the familiar egg on the table with them.

The egg was a pale blue with darker stripes and some white spots scattered across its surface.

It resembled a vast blue ocean with waves continuously cresting and falling.

Yet, the flaw in this beautiful scene was a small crack on the shell, making it look like a massive abyssal maw lurking in the midst of the serene sea.

The crack had appeared around four in the afternoon. They had thought the familiar would break free soon after, but even after Lin's mother returned from work and they had all waited together, the egg remained unchanged.

Another hour ticked by...

"It still hasn't hatched..." Lin Yi couldn't contain his frustration.

In this world, hatching familiar eggs was a beloved practice, with eighty percent of people's first familiars coming from such eggs. It was believed that familiars raised this way would bond more closely with their human companions and be easier to train.

However, Lin Yi wasn't particularly enthused about the process. After all, in his previous life, even without familiars or spirit animals, as a common young man, he had at least seen chicks hatch!

The thrill of delving into the unknown while hatching a Familiar Egg was lost on Lin Yi.

He was, after all, a man with an unfair advantage. With the help of the panel system, he could uncover every detail about the Familiar Egg.

"Shh! Be quiet, it's about to hatch..." Lin Wushuang turned and gave Lin Yi a stern look.

Left with no choice and cowed by his sister's intimidation, Lin Yi silently resumed his watch over the egg.

Time passed, and just as Lin Yi was about to lose his patience again.

"Crack! Crack! Crack!"

A crisp sound shattered the quiet darkness.

"It's hatching!" Lin Yi exclaimed, leaping up with excitement.

"Shh!" Lin Wushuang, right next to him, kicked him hard, signaling him to keep it down.

"Crack! Crack!"

The cracks on the eggshell widened, particularly in the center of the lower front, where a slight bulge allowed them a glimpse of the moving shape inside.

"Crack!"

With one final soft noise, an oval-shaped little head emerged from a small hole in the eggshell.

"Ah! It's a snake!" Lin Wushuang, who had been watching intently, screamed and jumped back.

Girls tend to be scared of snakes.

The creature was a young snake, barely ten centimeters long, with a translucent blue body and icy blue eyes that emitted a cold gleam. Its slender body tapered at the front and thickened at the rear, covered in tiny scales.

"Haha! Scaredy-cat, I got you good!"

Lin Yi couldn't help but laugh at Lin Wushuang's terrified reaction.

"Jerk!"

Eventually, when things had quieted down, Lin's mother spoke softly, "It's a nonvenomous snake..."

"But it's still a snake!" Lin Wushuang said, still patting her chest anxiously.

"Give it a touch! It's actually quite cute," Lin Yi coaxed, bringing the young snake closer to Lin Wushuang.

"Ah! Keep it away!" Lin Wushuang, who had just settled down, was startled once more.

"Enough, Yi, stop frightening your sister," Lin's mother chided, standing up to rub her aching back after sitting motionless for several hours.

Finally, Lin's mother glanced out at the pitch-black window and silently thought to herself that it was time for a late-night snack.

"By the way, Yi, Familiar cubs are generally frail and prone to early death. It's best to keep them in the Familiar Book for the first few days," she called out to Lin Yi as she prepared the late-night snack in the kitchen.

"Mom, I've got it!" Lin Yi responded, adding, "Mom, I'm so hungry I could die!"

"Just a minute, it's almost ready."

The wind outside was refreshingly cool, and the crisp chirping of insects seemed to lull people into a sweet slumber.