H-He was awake?
Why had he suddenly woken up? Had he decided to stop pretending to be unconscious?
Mu Wanwan froze where she stood. When her gaze met those conscious, narrow black phoenix eyes, she suddenly lost the ability to speak.
So this was what he looked like with his eyes open.
His brows and eyes were dark as ink, and his gaze was faint and calm, yet colder and more indifferent than anything she had imagined.
Pale snowflakes drifted down. The bloody droplets clinging to her cheeks gradually turned icy cold.
The warmth and anticipation that had filled Mu Wanwan’s heart on her journey home slowly faded beneath his sweeping gaze, freezing into shards of ice.
She suddenly felt utterly at a loss.
The scale she had been clutching tightly slipped from her fingers and struck the ground with a faint sound. Yet to Mu Wanwan, it seemed as loud as an explosion, making her flinch like a startled bird.
She instinctively wanted to retreat, but her back was already pressed against the gate.
Her basket had torn apart earlier and fallen to one side, scattering its contents across the ground.
Mu Wanwan’s fingertips were ice-cold as she subconsciously lowered her head.
She had merely gone outside for a while, yet when she returned, her motionless vegetative dragon husband had transformed into a wide-awake, living dragon with an intimidating gaze.
He had even shed scales all over the courtyard.
The overpowering smell of blood made it difficult for her to breathe. She had no idea what she was supposed to do or what she should say.
She was simply bewildered and unsure how to begin, so she hesitated for a moment.
But Mr. Dragon was extremely sensitive.
The moment he saw the shock in Mu Wanwan’s eyes and noticed her instinctive glance behind herself, half of his fragile glass heart shattered.
As expected, all the tolerance and acceptance she had shown him had merely been a fleeting dream of his.
She only sympathised with him.
She only pitied him.
It had never been what he had foolishly imagined.
He was so hideous.
Even though he was barely maintaining his human form, he no longer had enough strength to conceal the ugly curse markings on his face or the scars that had just split open again.
He must look terribly, unbearably ugly.
Far uglier than what he had seen in the bronze mirror earlier.
It was no wonder she was frightened.
The fingers Mr. Dragon held behind his back trembled from the pain, yet he remained completely still as he faced Mu Wanwan.
He thought it was time for him to leave.
She was so afraid of him.
He had dirtied the courtyard she had worked so hard to clean and frightened her with his hideous face.
She had already done more than enough for him.
Besides, he had long ago decided that once he awakened, he would leave her.
Was it not better that she had no feelings for him?
This way, he would not need to resort to any means to make her hate him.
He only needed to leave quietly.
That was what Mr. Dragon told himself, yet his chest hurt terribly.
It must be the curse.
The curse had not fully subsided yet.
That had to be why the pain was so overwhelming that he could barely move, and why every meridian in his body felt as though it were shattering.
The stubborn dragon remained standing perfectly straight, as though something had nailed him to the spot.
A strand of his long black hair hung across his chest and fluttered in the cold wind.
He maintained a posture as rigid as a statue.
However, he had no idea that the fluffy ears he had forgotten to conceal were gradually drooping lower and lower.
They flattened against the top of his head at a pitiful angle and remained completely motionless.
Mu Wanwan cautiously looked up at him and immediately noticed the change in his ears.
Strangely, she felt herself relax.
Fortunately, he was still the same person she was familiar with.
The same awkward Mr. Dragon she knew.
Look at those drooping ears.
Based on all the time she had spent observing the little dragon version of him, he was probably imagining all sorts of nonsense again.
Wait.
Mu Wanwan suddenly realised that the dragon before her was likely overthinking something once more.
She felt angry, anxious, and amused all at once, while also having no idea how to comfort him.
However, much of her earlier unease gradually faded.
Gathering her courage, she lifted her foot.
She had only managed to take one step forwards when her sharp eyes noticed a certain dragon’s body slowly tilting sideways.
He was clearly about to collapse, yet he still wore a cold, unyielding expression.
Had she looked only at his face, she really would have been deceived.
Mu Wanwan suddenly felt her heart ache.
Her gaze swept over the courtyard covered in blood and scales, and her heart trembled even more violently.
Whenever she accidentally pulled out several strands of hair while combing it, the pain alone was enough to make her inhale sharply.
How could it possibly not hurt when he had lost so many bloodstained scales?
Why was he standing there and forcing himself to endure it, pale-faced and foolish?
Was he afraid of embarrassing himself in front of her?
What dignity did he still have left in front of her?
How could he be so foolish?
Mu Wanwan’s nose stung.
She truly did not know what to do with this dragon.
All her fear, awkwardness, and embarrassment became insignificant in the face of his swaying body and drooping, bloodstained ears.
However, she still could not bring herself to smile.
Biting her lip slightly, she began walking towards him.
Mr. Dragon was already in so much pain that he was close to losing consciousness.
Nearly all the spiritual power in his body had been drained. The only thing keeping him awake was the last shred of his pride, which refused to allow him to appear weak and dishevelled in front of his wife.
His vision was even beginning to blur.
Otherwise, why would he see her walking towards him?
Walking towards a disabled, scar-covered dragon who was as ugly as a rat hiding in the darkness?
It was as though her earlier hesitation, fear, bewilderment, and shock had all been illusions.
He could see the hem of her plain white dress stepping over the scales he had shed.
The sharp edges tore through the fabric and left scattered spots of blood upon it.
The world before him gradually shifted.
The grey sky disappeared, replaced by the folds of her skirt.
Mr. Dragon sensed that something was wrong.
He seemed to be losing consciousness.
As his body fell, a pale-green bracelet flashed before his eyes.
In the next instant, he felt something soft beneath his arm.
“Be good.”
Her gentle voice sounded beside his ear.
“I’m back.”
Mr. Dragon’s eyelashes trembled.
All the indescribable emotions in his heart scattered.
He seemed to have heard something unbelievable.
His entire body shook, and his heart was left with nothing but the desire to drag this person down into hell with him.
The desire was like an overwhelming darkness that swallowed him whole.
The belief that had supported him until now was like a crumbling tower.
The instant she touched him, it collapsed.
Shamelessly, he accepted the opening she offered and allowed himself to fall.
He retracted his sharp claws, transforming them into long, slender hands that left bright-red marks upon her sleeve.
…
The dragon had fainted and found his release, but Mu Wanwan was about to be crushed to death beneath him! =_=!!
Mr. Dragon’s collapse could perhaps be described as graceful, but his weight was certainly considerable!
His entire body was covered in blood, and Mu Wanwan was afraid of touching his wounds, so she could only move him very carefully.
She was already a third-rank cultivator.
That very morning, she had thought that her strength had increased greatly. Yet by the afternoon, she could barely hold a single dragon.
Mr. Dragon was extremely tall.
In human form, he was probably over 1.9 metres tall. Including his broken horn, he might even exceed two metres.
With the enormous dragon leaning helplessly against her, Mu Wanwan could not even fully extend her arms.
Struggling, she took out the multifunctional folding wheelchair Uncle Tie had made from her Spatial pouch.
It was supposedly capable of transforming into three different configurations.
She placed it on the ground and carefully avoided Mr. Dragon’s wounds. It took her a long time before she finally managed to seat him in the wheelchair.
Mu Wanwan sighed with relief.
Mr. Dragon sat obediently with his head lowered in the large silver contraption that looked nothing like an ordinary wheelchair.
Seeing the interwoven scars covering his entire body filled her with alarm.
Feeling slightly panicked, she bent down to examine his face.
The curse markings, which had not been very active recently, now seemed to have come alive.
They flowed slowly across his skin, dividing his face into sections.
It truly was frightening.
Even though she had looked at the sleeping Mr. Dragon countless times, her heart still palpitated at the sight.
Mu Wanwan took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and opened them again.
When she saw his bluish-purple lips, she hurriedly took out the pills she had refined earlier.
She gently pinched his chin and forced his lips open.
Clots of black-and-red blood immediately spilled out.
Mu Wanwan patted Mr. Dragon’s back and waited until he had expelled most of the tainted blood.
Then, with trembling hands, she wiped the stains from his lips.
She took out one of the Snow Condensation Pills she had saved for emergencies and pushed it into his mouth.
Afterwards, she fed him several Spirit-Replenishing Pills.
She then removed the remaining twelve mid-grade spirit stones and inserted them one by one into the specially designed grooves in the wheelchair’s silver armrests.
Only after watching one of the spirit stones closest to him slowly shrink did she release a long breath.
In another two hours, she would feed him the remaining Snow Condensation Pill.
He should be all right after that.
A sharp pain suddenly came from her ankle.
Mu Wanwan’s legs weakened, and she fell to her knees.
Only then did she notice that several scales had cut through her skin when she had entered the courtyard.
This dragon’s scales were truly hard.
They probably also contained traces of poison. Otherwise, as a mighty third-rank cultivator, she could not possibly have been in so much pain that she was unable to stand.
Mu Wanwan felt somewhat helpless.
She swallowed a Spirit-Replenishing Pill, calmed herself, and began using her spiritual power to slowly purge the poison from her body.
Sitting on the ground, she stared at the tattered pale-blue brocade robe draped over Mr. Dragon’s body, her emotions extremely complicated.
How had his icy gaze managed to intimidate her when she first entered?
He was a dragon on the verge of losing consciousness, covered in wounds and wearing the clothes she had bought for him.
He had secretly put them on and even torn them because they were too small.
The fabric hanging from his body barely concealed any of his scars.
His pose might have looked rather impressive, but his stern appearance had almost distracted her from his ragged clothes.
Raising a dragon was truly difficult.
Raising an awkward, overly sensitive dragon was even more difficult.
It was not only difficult—it also required strength and was terrible for her back. qwq
The ground was damp and cold.
Mu Wanwan watched snowflakes slowly settle on Mr. Dragon’s broken horn, forming a tiny mound of snow.
It almost looked as though the missing portion of the horn had been restored.
She wanted to laugh, yet her heart also felt sore.
The little Mr. Dragon’s horn had once been able to shatter falling hailstones into crushed ice.
Now, even snowflakes could bully him.
Once she had cleared the poison from her body and regained movement in her legs, Mu Wanwan quickly climbed to her feet.
She brushed the snowflakes from the top of his head and cleared the small pile from his broken horn.
Gripping the cold metal handles, she pushed him towards the steps leading to the corridor.
With great effort, she lifted the wheelchair over them and freed one hand to open the door.
Hm?
Why would it not open?
Mu Wanwan tried several times.
In the end, she even used her spiritual power before finally forcing open the tightly sealed door.
She failed to control her strength and nearly fell.
The room looked almost exactly as it had when she left that morning.
The door had been properly closed. Apart from a few objects that had been blown onto the floor, everything remained intact.
Warmth filled Mu Wanwan’s heart.
It seemed Mr. Dragon was not the sort of violent dragon who destroyed everything around him.
Otherwise, he would not have gone into the courtyard during the curse’s outbreak.
One of her slippers lay near the door.
Mu Wanwan stared at the two holes that had clearly been torn open by Mr. Dragon’s claw-like toes and froze for two seconds.
She only owned this one pair of slippers!
Although she had purchased a new pair for Mr. Dragon during this trip, she had now decided to revoke the troublesome dragon’s right to wear shoes.
Mu Wanwan sighed helplessly.
She was about to move the damaged slipper aside and push the dragon into the room when she bent down and noticed a small ball of fluff lying in the corner.
Mengmeng!
She immediately abandoned everything else and rushed over.
She finally saw the tiny fluffy creature huddled in the corner.
A scale had flown inside and landed beside it, slicing off half of the tuft of feathers on its head.
Its weak little body seemed to be trembling faintly.
Or perhaps it was no longer moving at all.
Mu Wanwan instantly panicked.
She carefully reached out and touched the little chirp’s body.
It was warm.
Thank goodness.
Her heart abruptly relaxed.
Mu Wanwan took out a Snow Condensation Pill, broke off a small piece, and placed it inside Mengmeng’s mouth.
She then picked it up and carefully placed it inside the nest on the table.
She waited for a moment.
Suddenly, Mengmeng’s two thin legs kicked.
Mu Wanwan heard it give a tiny cough.
Her eyes brightened, and she almost began crying.
She watched as Mengmeng coughed out a cloud of black mist before sitting up dazedly.
Its small, bean-like black eyes stared at her several times before it finally seemed to regain its senses.
Trembling, it stretched out its tiny wings and hugged her hand.
“Chirp…”
Mengmeng had truly believed it was about to die.
But now it was alive again.
It simply felt a little uncomfortable.
The half-bald tuft on its head rubbed against the back of Mu Wanwan’s hand.
It did not mind at all that her hand was still covered in the bad dragon’s blood.
“Chirp, chirp!”
After rubbing against her for a while, Mengmeng obediently sat on its small cushion.
Mu Wanwan took out a Spirit-Replenishing Pill and placed it on the little bird’s bed.
She stroked its fluffy head.
“Mengmeng is so well behaved. You’re a very brave little chirp.”
She understood.
Mengmeng must have been terrified by Mr. Dragon.
Its former friends and family might even have been killed by dragons.
How could it possibly not be afraid after facing Mr. Dragon alone while his curse erupted?
Mu Wanwan’s comfort was clearly effective.
Holding the pill, the little chirp began shedding large tears.
The tears clung to its feathers, but it was visibly happier and seemed to regain some of its energy.
It opened its tender yellow beak and began nibbling on the pill.
Mu Wanwan’s heart softened.
After confirming that Mengmeng had merely been frightened and inhaled a small amount of poisonous mist, rather than suffering any serious injuries, she began considering how to settle Mr. Dragon.
First of all, his tattered clothing presented a difficult problem.
Not only would it hurt to peel the fabric tightly stuck to his wounds from his body, but he was also no longer in his half-dragon form.
If she removed all his clothes and saw something she was not supposed to see, would that not be terribly awkward?
And what if Mr. Dragon suddenly woke up?
How was she supposed to explain herself?
Mu Wanwan looked at Mr. Dragon’s lowered brows and eyes, then at the devastated courtyard behind him.
Her head began to ache.
However, regardless of the situation, she could not simply leave the dragon sitting there.
Whatever needed to be done had to be done.
She no longer hesitated.
Walking to the bed, she first folded the bedding aside, revealing half of the warm-jade bed.
After thinking about it, she could not bear to make the dragon lie directly on the hard jade surface.
Resigned to her fate, she took the spare mattress she had purchased earlier from the wardrobe and laid it out.
She then pushed the dragon to the bedside.
“Mr. Dragon, I’m going to lift you onto the bed now.”
Perhaps because he was unconscious again, Mu Wanwan was more accustomed to seeing him this way.
Avoiding his injuries, she moved him onto the bed and arranged his limbs comfortably.
Then she pulled over his cotton quilt—the one that had already been dirtied and washed countless times—and carefully covered Mr. Dragon with it.
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