Chapter 72

Thirty-five Dragons (1)

After she finished applying medicine on the little feather ball, it folded its little wings, gave a couple of weak chirps, then laid down on the little handkerchief Mu Wanwan spread out for it. Covered with some scrap fabric, it fell asleep quietly.

It really was obedient.

Smitten, Mu Wanwan reached out a finger and touched the little patch of white feathers on its little head— it was so soft, and yet so fragile.

The feather ball’s body was black, grey, and white; its tail feathers were somewhat long, and it looked like it was wearing a little black vest. There were white feathers on the top of its head and around its neck, making it seem as if it were wearing a little scarf. Its beak was a soft yellow, and it was really cute.

The featherball really was very thin. Barely the size of her palm, it seemed to be a very young bird. Also, with its docile and clingy manner just now, and its small body and tiny beak, it should be a male mountain sparrow?

Mu Wanwan’s heart gave a squeeze. She stroked its head gently with her fingertip, “Shall I call you Mengmeng from now on?”

She was actually rubbish at naming things; the few names she thought of for the feather ball were: “Little Black”, “Feathers”, “Whitey”, “Birdie”, “Mengmeng1“…

Looking at those options, it seemed that Mengmeng sounded the best.

It was so small and soft— when its wounds healed, she would feed it till it became fatter and grew more feathers. Wouldn’t it feel really good to touch then? And it would be so cute too.

There was a hint of a smile in Mu Wanwan’s eyes. She put the basket away and walked to the bedside to take a look at Mister Long, then lifted the quilt to look at its tail. After ensuring that everything was fine, she got to work.

She had slept rather well last night, and there were ample stores of spiritual energy within her. She wanted to take advantage of this last full day she had left before going to the market to quickly cultivate more spiritual plants she could use to exchange for more money.

Mu Wanwan took out all the seedlings in the interdimensional pouch2. She spent most of the day cultivating another fifteen seedlings to maturity, and after some thought, decided to keep the remaining two seedlings at home.

As such, she had a total of eighty-two mature fruits. Apart from having to feed a dragon, she now also has a featherball to feed, which would use up some of her stock. She would probably only have eighty fruits to sell, but that was a pretty good number too.

Mu Wanwan comforted herself with that thought and looked out at the sky. It was already almost dark, and thankfully, there was no rain.

For the past few days, she had stopped having three meals a day. One reason was because Mister Long kept throwing up blood a few days ago and she had to take care of him. The other reason was that after having been promoted to the next rank, she no longer got hungry as easily as she did when she was Rank 1. Time flew when she trained, and an hour would go by before she knew it. Cooking took a lot of time.

However, Mu Wanwan still maintained the habit of eating at least two meals a day— breakfast and dinner were a must. The last of the spiritual rice had been eaten yesterday, so even if she had no more spiritual rice to feed the dragon with, she had to give him spiritual fruit.

Mu Wanwan still remembered Mister Long’s state when his tail rotted because of the lack of spiritual energy last time.

She rubbed her shoulders which were slightly aching from having sat too long, then stood up and headed to the kitchen.

She was going to cook something for the little feather ball and herself. As for Mister Long, she didn’t dare to give him regular rice in lieu of spiritual rice, so she would just feed him two Baizhen fruits later.

Hence, when night gradually fell, Mister Long, who woke up after much effort and hurriedly sent this spiritual consciousness out, was met with this scene——

His wife wasn’t sitting by his bedside as usual, but was at the table that was a little distance away. On the table were a simple dish of stir-fried vegetables, a bowl of white rice, and two spiritual fruits.

There was a smile on her face, and she seemed to be gently caressing something with her right hand. Mister Long could even hear a somewhat delicate chirping sound.

Mister Long was stunned, and only regained his senses after some time. His spiritual consciousness circled around and finally saw the little thing that she kept caressing so gently——

W-wasn’t this one of those long-tailed tits of the forbidden grounds that were not even at Rank 1 but very ferocious?

Why was one here in his and his wife’s room?

Before he had time to process this question, Mister Long heard his wife who usually spoke very little say in a very gentle voice——

“Mengmeng, do you like this?”

Mu Wanwan stroked the feather ball happily, then punctured a Baizhen grass fruit, squeezed a little onto her finger and brought it to the skinny bird’s beak. She watched as it ate with great difficulty; its soft yellow beak pecked at her fingertip, and it looked so very obedient.

Mister Long felt sour— as sour as a lemon.

He had only been unconscious for a day, and his wife had a new feather ball.

And she was even calling it Mengmeng when she wouldn’t call him “husband.”

Mister Long retracted his spiritual consciousness and pretended that he didn’t care at all— but his lips were very tightly pursed.

“Mengmeng is a little princess. When I go to the market tomorrow, I’ll buy some scrap fabric to make you a prettier cushion,” said Mu Wanwan softly. In the quiet room, her voice, together with the occasional chirps, were like knives, stabbing into Mister Long’s heart.

After all this time, she had never given him anything like a love token— he wondered if last night’s pouch counted as one— yet now, she was going to make a cushion for a little tit. Moreover, he had just swept that tit with his spiritual consciousness just now.

Who said it was female? It was clearly a shameless male bird.

Mister Long told himself not to be bothered by a bird whose spiritual intelligence wasn’t even unlocked. He just closed his eyes and waited quietly.

But after waiting for a long time, what he received was the sound of her pushing the door open and leaving.

Mister Long couldn’t quite describe what he was feeling; his eyes stung——

He was aware of it— that he didn’t really have an important place in her heart. Perhaps, he wasn’t even as important as a little tit.

——If Mu Wanwan knew that a certain dragon was actually thinking such thoughts, she would have died from the injustice. Her hands had gotten dirty from feeding the feather ball and she only wanted to go out to wash them before coming back to feed the dragon!

Footnote:

1 Mengmeng: This is an informal Chinese colloquialism for ’cute’/ ’cutie’, but I chose to transliterate it as Mengmeng instead of calling it Cutie to retain the overall tone of the setting and the world.

2 Interdimensional pouch: Previously translated as ’Universe pouch’, I’ve decided to translate it as ’interdimensional pouch’ as it conveys the pouch’s properties better.

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