The room was dim. It took Mu Wanwan a while to fully adapt to the dark environment. Through the faint light coming in from outside, she watched Mr. Dragon stare seriously at the two white spirit-chicken eggs. He carefully withdrew his slightly sharp claws, turning them back into human palms, then gently touched the two eggs.
“Dabao.” His voice was very young, with a slight hoarseness to it. He softly called the name of the slightly larger spirit-chicken egg, and Mu Wanwan almost stopped recognising it as a spirit-chicken egg.
She felt a little embarrassed for him and could not resist quietly walking to Mr. Dragon’s side, confirming several times that what he was touching really was a spirit-chicken egg—
White, more than half the size of a palm, placed on the table and carefully wrapped in cloth. A spirit-chicken egg.
“Xiaobao.” Mr. Dragon then called out the name of the other spirit-chicken egg and, as before, touched its round head. Mu Wanwan was a little dumbfounded.
After calling their names, little Mr. Dragon was clearly in a much better mood. A trace of a smile appeared in his black-jade-like eyes, and the corners of his lips lifted slightly. He carefully withdrew his hand, touched his damp and messy long hair, frowned in disgust, then walked to the doorway. He took off his dirty cloak, shook it, and hung it on a wooden rack beside the door.
Only then did Mu Wanwan notice that behind that broken wooden door, there were several wooden sticks used as a rack. She watched little Mr. Dragon fussily hang up his cloak, then take a small comb made from who knew what and comb through his long hair.
He had no handkerchief, nor any towel, yet he still stubbornly tidied himself up like a proper little dragon.
Perhaps because he was a little cold, the soaked ears on his head kept twitching. He scratched them several times before they finally felt a little better.
Mu Wanwan’s eyes felt a little sore. Taking advantage of the last bit of daylight, she looked around the room—
It was dark inside, and just as simple as it looked from outside.
But there was a door, a bed, and a table.
The wooden door was broken and battered. The bed was quite large, but one glance was enough to tell that it had been picked up from a rubbish heap. One corner was missing and propped up with stones. Half a mattress and half a quilt lay on top of it, looking as though someone had violently torn them apart during an argument.
But he had handled them very well. The edges had been carefully sewn, and there was even a clean little pillow by the bed.
As for the table, he had probably made it himself. It was crooked and uneven, but very sturdy. On top of it were two neatly folded pieces of clothing and his two eggs. Unexpectedly, it matched this “home” very well.
Mm. It was a home.
Little Mr. Dragon’s home.
Mu Wanwan watched as he slowly and carefully tidied himself. He seemed not to care about the wounds on his feet at all. He walked to the table and took out a steamed bun he had hidden in his pocket.
The steamed bun did not look very good. There was a little green on it; it seemed to have gone mouldy. But it was large, with no bite marks. No one should have bitten it before.
Mu Wanwan watched as he carefully tore off the green, mouldy outer layer. He swallowed with some difficulty, then…
He broke off more than half of it and placed it beside the two eggs. “Daddy brought food back for you.”
As he said this, he originally seemed about to eat, but after thinking for a moment, he put down the small remaining piece of bun in his hand. He glanced at the two eggs again, and perhaps he was explaining to them, “I ate yesterday. I’m not hungry.”
Liar. She could hear his stomach growling.
One sound after another, very loud.
Mu Wanwan could hardly bear it. Even if this was a dream, she wanted to wake up quickly.
This dream was far too real. She could even feel the wet cold of the weather, the sound of raindrops hitting the crude roof, and Mr. Dragon’s hunger, even though nothing could be seen from his seemingly expressionless face.
But that shameful dragon noise was seriously haunting her. It kept ringing in her ears, making her heart ache so badly that she wished she could step forward, stuff that steamed bun into this dragon’s mouth, and then tie him up properly to apply medicine and treat his wounds.
The wounds on his face and hands had healed, but his feet and tail were still bleeding.
She even wanted to wake up quickly, but no matter how many times she pinched herself, she simply could not wake up. She could not do anything, nor could she change anything.
She could only stand in front of the table, just like Mr. Dragon, who was pretending not to be hungry, and stare fixedly at those two eggs.
Until her eyes turned red.
Outside, it gradually grew dark. Mu Wanwan could barely see anything anymore.
She felt a little dejected and thought she really was worrying for nothing. In any case, this was just a dream. If this dragon did not want to eat, then let him not eat. If he wanted to raise spirit-chicken eggs as his sons, then let him. Somewhat sulkily, Mu Wanwan felt her way over to the bedside and sat down, then lay down in a huff, even occupying his pillow.
The bed was a little hard, but the pillow was soft. There was no strange smell, only a faint scent of Mr. Dragon, somewhat like when he was in his vegetable dragon state. It was not unpleasant.
Was this dragon aura?
Mu Wanwan could not resist rubbing against it twice. When she realised what she was doing, her entire face turned red.
Was something wrong with her?!
Her night vision was poor. After the sky turned completely dark, she basically could not see anything. The room was quiet for a long time. At some point, little Mr. Dragon’s stomach also stopped growling.
Mu Wanwan felt a little sleepy. She was actually feeling sleepy inside a dream world. With her eyes half open, she listened to the rustling sounds in the darkness and sensed little Mr. Dragon gradually walking toward her side. She was inexplicably a little nervous.
But before she could be nervous for long, something hit her face.
Mu Wanwan watched as the quilt passed through her face. There was no painful sensation, and only then did she feel that she really was dreaming.
Mr. Dragon had piled both the mattress and quilt onto the half of the bed where Mu Wanwan was. The pillow was the same. As for himself, he simply lay down on the bare bed board.
Mu Wanwan emerged from the quilt and looked at his shadow in the darkness. He had curled into a ball.
Was he… going to sleep?
Mu Wanwan could roughly guess what was happening. Mr. Dragon probably felt that he was too dirty today and could not dirty the bed, so he chose not to cover himself with the quilt.
At this thought, Mu Wanwan felt as though something were scraping at her heart, a dull ache spreading there.
She wanted to say something, but nothing came out. She wanted to reach out and touch his horns, but she could only touch cold air.
“Dabao, Xiaobao.” Just as Mu Wanwan was feeling very sad, Mr. Dragon suddenly spoke again.
He called the names of the two eggs, then said in a voice so soft it was almost a murmur, “Hurry…”
“Hurry and be born…”
……
……
The next day, Mu Wanwan woke to a noisy burst of rain.
She thought she should already have woken up, but when she opened her eyes, what she saw was still little Mr. Dragon’s broken roof.
She froze for a few seconds before sitting up. Little Mr. Dragon was not in the house, and the cloak on the wooden rack was also gone. Mu Wanwan glanced at the steamed bun on the table, which had a little less missing from it, then looked at the two spirit-chicken eggs before walking through the door.
It was still raining outside, pitter-pattering. The sky was gloomy, but one could tell it was already morning.
Mu Wanwan felt a little ashamed. How had she even fallen asleep inside a dream world? And she could actually walk through walls. If she had known earlier, why had she spent all that effort yesterday twisting and turning through more than a dozen alleyways to get in?
Only, why had this dream still not ended?
Mu Wanwan felt helpless. She passed through the wall to the outside and searched around but did not see any sign of Mr. Dragon. She could only return to the little house and stare at the two spirit-chicken eggs in a daze. After another long while, the sky outside was almost dark, and Mu Wanwan worriedly walked out.
She had not taken more than a couple of steps when a sudden cat cry came from behind her.
“Meow-ow~”
She lifted her head and immediately met the eyes of a cat standing on the wall.
To be precise, it was a two-tailed cat.
It had two tails, and its fur was very beautiful. It did not look like a stray cat, but more like a pet.
That cat leapt lightly down from the wall, shook its tails, and circled Mr. Dragon’s house twice in a very human-like manner. Then it rolled on the ground several times, making its pretty fur dirty.
Mu Wanwan: “…??”
She did not quite understand what this cat was doing, but after making itself dirty, the cat did nothing else. It simply waited quietly at the entrance of Mr. Dragon’s home, crouching by the wall and swishing its tails.
Mu Wanwan waited with it.
About an hour later, one person and one cat finally waited until Mr. Dragon returned. He had more wounds on his body than yesterday, and the wounds on his hands and face that had been slightly better were seeping blood again.
He walked toward his “home,” his vigilant golden pupils gradually turning black. When he lifted his eyes and looked this way, he revealed an expression that could be called delighted—
His brows relaxed, his slightly pink lips lifted faintly, his gaze softened, and there were still droplets of water hanging from his eyelashes. It was an extremely gentle expression.
For an instant, Mu Wanwan felt a little embarrassed. But very quickly, she realised somewhat sourly that Mr. Dragon was not smiling at her at all.
“Meow-ow~” The two-tailed cat walked to his side. Mr. Dragon bent down, took a steamed bun out of his pocket—similar to yesterday’s—tore off the slightly mouldy outer layer, broke off a piece, and placed it somewhere relatively dry.
The two-tailed cat called at him again, then lowered its head and began eating.
With one hand, Mr. Dragon tugged at the hood of his cloak, trying to cover his ears, and with the other, he held half a steamed bun. He crouched on the ground. Blood from his feet and tail wound across the floor, dampening the two-tailed cat’s fur.
Mu Wanwan walked to his side and watched as he slowly fed more than half of the steamed bun to the cat. Her heart felt a little bitter—
This was probably everything he had managed to get today. So Mr. Dragon used to be such a gentle dragon? He raised eggs, fed cats, built a house, and worked hard to earn food to support himself.
He was still so young. Such a small dragon.
“Meow~” The two-tailed cat had probably eaten enough. It called at him, then jumped onto the surrounding wall. Mu Wanwan saw it look back at Mr. Dragon.
For some reason, she felt a little uneasy. She watched as little Mr. Dragon slowly stood up and walked to the side of the house. His eyes were bright as he said, “Daddy’s home.”
Leave a Reply