Chapter 71
Thirty-four Dragons (4)
Fuliu felt that this madam’s life was much worse than her own, and for some reason, she felt very refreshed. “Ah, you’ll only fetch a few coins by selling vegetables. Madam, I remember that you are a Rank 1 cultivator, so why did you only grow vegetables?
Mu Wanwan kept the smile on her face, not wanting to pay any attention to her, and just said, “Can I go out today?”
Fuyu looked at her mockingly for a few moments before calling out to the courtyard, “Hongye, are you done yet? Come here.”
“Yes.” Disorderly footsteps rang out, and Hongye soon came out from the courtyard. Only, there was still some unpleasant-smelling blood on her hands, and a few black and white feathers stuck on them, making one wonder what she was doing just now.
“Ah, Madam is here too.” Hongye smiled at Mu Wanwan.
“Stop grinning like a fool. Quickly, check the records— is Madam allowed to go out today?” Fuliu said impatiently.
Hongye, however, waved her hand, “I remember the dates. Madam can’t go out until tomorrow.”
Mu Wanwan nodded, “Then I’ll come back tomorrow morning.”
Having said that, she turned to leave, but was met with a guard who came out from the side, carrying a basket in his arms. At one glance, she saw that the basket was full of black and white feather balls. The smell of blood was sharp and pungent, and there was even blood dripping down from the bottom of the basket.
There was a bad feeling in her heart. Mu Wanwan saw the guard bow to her.
She nodded at him, and when they passed each other, she could clearly see what was in the basket——
It was a pile of feather balls that had died in a wretched state; amidst the black and white feathers, were pale yellow beaks.
No, there was one that wasn’t dead!
She saw it move its little wings slightly.
Mu Wanwan’s heart jumped. By the time she came back to her senses, she had already stopped the guard.
“Madam, what’s wrong?” Fuliu noticed her action and stepped forward to ask.
“Fuliu, what’s inside this basket?” Mu Wanwan pretended to be somewhat embarrassed, “Is it some kind of chick? Can they be eaten?”
“Chicks?” Fuliu froze at first, then laughed uncontrollably. Even Hongye and that guard also laughed out loud.
“How are these chicks? They are a kind of tit that lives in the outskirts of our forbidden grounds. Perhaps because of the abundant spiritual energy in the forbidden grounds, they’re bigger than the ones outside, and also rather intelligent—they’re very fierce.” Hongye was a straightforward one, “This time, I heard that Lord Ao Xue wanted to eat fruit when he was in the forbidden grounds, but ended up being chased and pecked by them, so he killed quite a number of them in a fit of anger.”
“The masters look down at these tits that have little low spiritual power and not much meat, so we servants were given quite a lot.”
Fuliu was amused by this ignorant madam, so perhaps out of sympathy, when she looked at how thin Mu Wanwan’s cheeks had gotten, she said casually, “Is Madam craving meat? Well, we’ve been given about a dozen or so of them. I’ll give you one to eat then, haha.”
I was waiting for you to say this, thought Mu Wanwan, and immediately showed a happy expression, “Thank you then, Fuliu. It’s been a long time since I got to eat meat.”
Fuliu raised her chin proudly, “Hongye, go get the one you just de-feathered and give it to Madam.”
However, Mu Wanwan shook her head. “Fuliu, may I choose one from this basket myself?”
“Huh?” Fuliu was a little surprised.
Mu Wanwan explained hurriedly, “I want to pluck the feathers and wash them to make a decorative object.”
“Oh.” Fuliu didn’t think much of it and nodded at the guard, “Then, take your time to choose, Madam. I’ll be going back to work.”
Mu Wanwan smiled at her gratefully. With a straight face, as Hongye and the guard watched, she grabbed the skinny chirp she saw that was still breathing with no tenderness at all, and even deliberately pinched its pale-yellow beak, “Then, I will also be heading back.”
“Madam, I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow,” said Hongye. Watching as Mu Wanwan’s figure departed somewhat hurriedly, she laughed with the guard.
The guard looked at her frail back and shook his head. “How pitiful. After marrying our disabled sovereign, she can’t even get meat to eat.”
Hongye also nodded in agreement and withdrew her smile. “My sister-in-law is the same. Hmm, that’s not right, after all, my sister-in-law still has her freedom. Thanks to Lord Ao Qin’s kindness, she even received a sum of money as compensation.”
In addition, although her brother lost all his cultivation, he seemed to have sobered up recently and woken up. He gave all his secret savings to her sister-in-law and was as cowardly as a dog at home every day. Come to think of it, while this madam had the title of the sovereign’s wife, in reality, the servants were living in better conditions than she was.
Just one bite of meat was enough to make her in such a hurry.
Hong Ye stopped thinking about Mu Wanwan and went back into the courtyard. She still had a lot of feathers to pluck.
……
As soon as Mu Wanwan was out of sight, she immediately changed her posture and cupped the skinny chirp in her hand. Feeling the blood that kept flowing from its small wings, she quickened her pace back to the palace.
“Chirp……”
She had just entered the courtyard and bolted the door when she heard the feather ball in her hand call out softly; it was very weak.
Mu Wanwan hurried into the room, took one of Mister Long’s elixirs, and briefly treated the skinny chirp’s wounds——
Starting from the end of its left wing, it had been cut all the way by something sharp. Half of its wing was broken, and there was red blood all over its black and white feathers.
Mu Wanwan was about to die of heartache. That dragon named Ao Xue, what kind of monster was he?
How could he bear to kill such cute feathery creatures? Besides, he even killed so many at a go— and the reason for that was actually because of wanting to eat fruit.
After she finished cleaning the little feather ball, she applied some of Mister Long’s medicinal ointment on it, then carefully wrapped the skinny chirp’s little wing in a bit of cloth and tied a bow. After thinking about it, she took a thin string and tied the skinny chirp’s claws up.
She had heard that this kind of feather ball had very strong tempers. She wanted to wait for it to heal before sending it away.
Mu Wanwan combed through the skinny chirp’s feathers carefully and said painfully, “I’m sorry, I had no way to save your friends.”
When she saw those skinny chirps, some had even been directly cut in half—only this one was lucky enough.
She thought she wouldn’t be getting any response. However, unexpectedly, after she finished speaking, the feather ball in her hand lifted the other uninjured little wing, brushed her palm lightly, and let out a weak chirp.
It was simply too heartbreaking.
Mu Wanwan suddenly felt that the loss of Mister Long’s furry ears was nothing. Now that she had brought back a feather ball, she would raise the skinny chirp into a big fat chirp in the future.
If it wanted to leave, she would let it leave.
With a hint of a smile on her face, Mu Wanwan touched the feather ball’s little head gently, “Little cutie, let’s live well from now on.”
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