Monster Dismantling Company

Chapter 77 Li Lin at age 8

"Huh? So the Dragon King's tail can move on its own..."

Recovering from her initial shock and realizing that Li Lin wouldn't eat her, she and Master Wang stood at the doorway to make room for Li Lin. It seemed Li Lin was creating a work of art—or, more accurately, clearing away the unstable elements in his surroundings. Like the coffee stains, the cluttered environment, and... the silver dragon.

As Li Lin bent down to clean the stubborn stains on the floor, the silver dragon could clearly notice that its tail was alerting his rear and responding to Li Lin's work. Its mechanism was similar to the knee-jerk reflex, requiring no conscious thought. However, like some kind of octopus tentacle with complex neural pathways, it could perform actions far more complex than a knee-jerk reflex, capable of semi-automatic tasks based solely on vague commands from the brain.

For example, helping Li Lin tidy up the jars behind him. For example, driving away the silver dragon—

Yes, the silver dragon found herself being driven away. Whenever she tried to approach the area that Li Lin had cleared, her tail would taut like a serpent, its sharp tip aimed at her, as if driving away an intruder into her territory.

"But this is my home..."

Upon hearing this, the tail immediately aimed at the silver dragon's nose—the silver dragon felt a sense of impending death for a moment, because she couldn't see the tail's movements at all.

"Say less," Li Lin muttered. "I'll return it to you after I've finished organizing it. You were pretty nice to me yesterday, so consider this a thank you."

We occupied her house to thank her.

Yinlong didn't understand the connection, but Li Lin seemed to be in a good mood. It seemed to be because of what she said yesterday.

"Your Majesty, are you rewarding me because I said 'I'd get a good night's sleep' last night?"

"Mm." Li Lin nodded readily.

She still didn't understand—but Master Wang next to her did.

"Oh dear!" He quickly grabbed the silver dragon's hand and shook it vigorously. "Thank you! Thank you so much! If you hadn't said that, something terrible would have happened!"

"what?"

Master Wang explained, "If Li Lin doesn't fall asleep the right way, something terrible will happen—something you absolutely don't want to see. You did the right thing yesterday."

"As expected of the Dragon King! Even when I'm asleep, it only slows down the system. The Dragon King's illness is so powerful!"

"The second half of that sentence is redundant." Li Lin wiped away a small coffee stain in front of him. "Alright, that makes me feel much better."

He stood up, hands on his hips, and saw the space he had cleaned so thoroughly that it looked brand new. The pungent smell of the alkaline cleaner that had been there earlier had been eliminated by the ventilation system, leaving only the pleasant fragrance of the detergent.

"Wow... thank you." Yinlong didn't dare to go in; she felt like she would make the place dirty if she went in.

Li Lin picked up the trash bag beside him and walked out. He patted Yinlong on the shoulder at the door and said, "Come out with me."

As he passed by, his tail involuntarily hooked around the silver dragon's leg, pulling her out.

"So you're going to start eating me now...?"

Looking at the tail that was hooked around her, she knew she was probably doomed today.

"I already told you I won't eat you, just how insecure are you?" Li Lin shook his head and retracted his tail. "Don't worry about it too much. This tail is actually similar to an octopus's tentacles; it's the autonomous action of my peripheral nerves. Just like judging an octopus's actions, don't judge my intentions by my tail. You have to judge from my overall behavior—but this also means that I intuitively feel that you're quite worth training."

Master Wang watched all this with great interest—because the phrase "get a good night's sleep" isn't effective just because someone says it. For example, it's useless if he says it himself.

He had initially thought that he and Li Lin weren't familiar enough. He never expected that the silver dragon he had just met could soothe Li Lin's heart.

"Tsk." Master Wang shook his head. The child has grown up, that's good.

"Oh, right, I haven't asked yet." He looked at the silver dragon, "What kind of dragon are you, sir?"

"Iron Dragon," the silver dragon replied. "I was born to live inside an iron shell."

"Oh... I'd heard these express trains were something special, and it seems they really do hold a secret." He then looked at Li Lin. "By the way, have you suddenly become more perceptive? You used to be so oblivious to the people around you. How come after you got a girlfriend, you're talking about trains in less than a day? Could it be..."

"Huh???" The silver dragon finally realized, "So... Dragon King! So you wanted to..."

"Of course, it's to train her into a qualified soldier. She said she was going to die, so of course I had to help her."

"Tsk tsk tsk." Master Wang shook his head. "I say, Li Lin, how could you say something like that? How about this, you play here by yourself for a while, and I'll discuss some things with her."

After saying that, he handed Li Lin a pen and a notebook, then led Yinlong a few steps into the carriage—

"Hello, hello." He nodded to the silver dragon. "I just asked about your identity, but I haven't introduced myself yet. My surname is Wang, and I am Li Lin's master and guardian. His parents entrusted him to my care before they left. I'm sorry to trouble you."

The silver dragon quickly bowed and said, "I dare not, I dare not. I have troubled Your Majesty the Dragon King—but I noticed that you have his scent on you. Could it be that you are one of his followers?"

"I suppose so. But we don't have a subordinate relationship; we only have a master-disciple relationship. And that's not important. What's important is the two of you."

He looked at the silver dragon and got to the heart of the matter: "Do you know how old Li Lin is this year?"

"I think I vaguely heard him say that he was only eight years old?"

"Hmm..." Master Wang nodded. "He often says that. But as a dragon, you should also know that biological age is not important to a dragon. Because a dragon will change its survival status according to its inner state."

Silver Dragon agreed. It was the same for her. For example, she preferred to curl up inside her metal shell; that was her preferred state.

"Then, I'd like to ask you another question—Lord Silver Dragon, have you ever attended school?"

Silver Dragon replied, "I have a university degree. Although it's from distance learning."

"Then you must have heard of Freud's classification of personality types?"

"Oh, I know, you mean that pre-war psychologist who studied sexual psychology?"

"Yes. So, the problem is quite clear now."

He looked at Yinlong: "Li Lin always says he's eight years old, but actually it's because his sexual psychology is in the 'latency period' between 6 and 12 years old, so he compromised and took eight years old."

Based on Freud's psychological research on children during this period, he summarized the common characteristics of children during this period as the "latency period".

In other words, it's sexual repression.