Master Bian Yun, who had been forgotten by Suisui: “…”
What kind of hilarious cub was this!
The moment its food was snatched from its beak, the little Ice Phoenix’s downy feathers stood on end. It looked up and saw it was its master; oh, then it was fine. It went back to pecking at the scattered eggshells.
Suisui bit down on the eggshell with a “crunch,” and her entire little face wrinkled up. She kept her small mouth open, not daring to move, fearing the shell would cut her.
Ye Wan looked down just in time to see the little glutton snatching food from the phoenix’s beak. Between laughter and tears, she placed her hand by the girl’s mouth.
“Spit it out. Are eggshells something you can eat?”
With a bitter face, Suisui spat out the shell and blew away the crumbs. Her small eyebrows didn’t unknit. “Mother, the eggshells obviously don’t taste good. Why does Xiao Huang-huang eat them with such relish?”
“Because Xiao Huang-huang was born from that eggshell. Eating it helps it grow better.”
“Xiao Huang-huang could eat the eggshell when it was born, but what did I eat when I was born?”
“You, of course, drank milk.”
“Where did the milk come from? Did it fall from the sky together with Suisui?”
This was the first time Bian Yun had heard anything regarding Suisui’s birth.
Fallen from the sky…
If she hadn’t personally witnessed the mother and daughter verify their kinship yesterday, she would have truly thought Suisui had fallen from the upper realm and been picked up and raised by Ye Wan.
“Didn’t you see the little puppies in the village drinking milk in their mother’s arms? The milk you drank was naturally fed to you by Mother,” Ye Wan answered unhurriedly.
Suisui had been weaned when she was over a year old and had eaten supplementary food ever since. Even if the women in the village nursed, they wouldn’t do so brazenly outside. Since Ye Wan didn’t like visiting others, Suisui had never had the chance to see it and naturally had no memory of it.
“Wow! Was that milk tasty? Mother, feed me milk again, okay?” Suisui’s eyes were sparkling; she was incredibly curious to know what her mother’s milk tasted like.
Ye Wan: “…”
Truly, a child’s “ten thousand whys” could be quite a headache sometimes. No wonder she always used the “wait until you’re older” excuse to brush things off.
“Children can only drink milk until they are two years old at most. How old are you now?”
“Almost four!” Suisui’s little head drooped dejectedly.
She couldn’t drink her mother’s milk anymore; today’s Suisui was a pitiful Suisui.
……
Lang Xuan, who had returned to his original body in the middle of the night, had changed back into his boy form by the time he returned.
When he entered the door, Suisui was eating breakfast. Breakfast consisted of small steamed buns and spiritual rice porridge made by her mother. Suisui ate without even raising her head; she felt that plain porridge made from spiritual rice was also delicious.
Lang Xuan saw the fluffy young beast by Suisui’s hand and froze.
He had only returned to his original body for half a night, and when he came back, his companion had a spiritual beast cub by her side?
“Lang Xuan is back. Do you want breakfast?” Ye Wan saw Lang Xuan stop at the door and quickly called out to him.
She knew Lang Xuan had left in the middle of the night, and she didn’t ask what he went to do. As a Divine Tree that had existed since the founding of the sect, even if his transformed state was that of a three-year-old cub, he wouldn’t get into trouble easily.
Lang Xuan walked to Suisui’s side. Seeing her eating so heartily that she didn’t even notice he was back, he couldn’t help but reach out and tug at her sleeve.
Suisui looked up, her little mouth smeared with a “mustache” of white porridge. Seeing Lang Xuan, she felt a bit guilty.
Oh no! I seem to have forgotten Tree Brother!
“Tree Brother, you’re back! This porridge is so yummy. Try some!”
Suisui scooped up a mouthful of porridge and held it up to feed Lang Xuan. For the sake of her feeding him porridge, he couldn’t blame her, okay?
Ye Wan naturally saw her daughter’s guilt. Forget her daughter; even she had almost forgotten him. Who told this Divine Tree cub to be the type who wouldn’t make a sound unless poked?
Lang Xuan lowered his head and ate the porridge, then pointed his finger at the little Ice Phoenix. “Where did it come from?”
The little Ice Phoenix, which had been being forcibly fed by its master on the table, saw Lang Xuan and began to flap its short little wings.
The Langxuan tree produces fine jade, which is food for phoenixes. As an Ice Phoenix with phoenix bloodline, it had a natural affinity for Lang Xuan. It leaped up and jumped directly onto Lang Xuan’s head.
Lang Xuan grabbed the little Ice Phoenix and was about to toss it away when he heard Suisui say, “Tree Brother, don’t be afraid. This is Xiao Huang-huang. It just hatched from the eggie. Shall we raise it together from now on?”
Suisui showed no sign of feeling that her pet had been snatched.
Lang Xuan pulled the little Ice Phoenix down, glanced at it, and then put it back on his head. “Okay.”
Ye Wan: “…”
She had clearly seen a sense of “broken friendship” in the Divine Tree cub when he first saw the little Ice Phoenix, clearly wanting to compete with it. Yet, with one “raise it together” from Suisui, he was comforted.
If this wasn’t happening between two innocent children, she would definitely have to start shipping them.
Ye Wan had thought the Sect Master wouldn’t read the transmission talisman so quickly, but he arrived just after they finished breakfast.
Chong Yuan looked at the little milk-beast perched on Suisui’s small crossbody bag. It was a tiny bundle with pale blue fur; from a distance, one would think it was a decorative doll.
He had obtained this spiritual beast egg in a lava passage a thousand years ago. He had originally thought it was an eighth-grade spiritual beast, but it turned out to be ninth-grade.
Chong Yuan wanted to probe the depth of this spiritual beast, but as soon as he touched the fur, frost formed on his fingers.
Startled, Chong Yuan withdrew his hand and looked at the still-immature and harmless little spiritual beast, as if the frost that had just encased his finger hadn’t come from it.
It was actually a spiritual beast capable of wielding ice spiritual power. An ice-power spiritual beast egg appearing in a lava mountain—if he had discovered it any later, he probably wouldn’t have even been able to save that sliver of weak vitality. No wonder it had never hatched.
“Uncle Sect Master, the eggie you gave me gave birth to a Xiao Huang-huang. Look.” Suisui picked up the little Ice Phoenix with both hands and held it up high for the Sect Master to see.
The frost had appeared quickly and disappeared just as fast; Suisui had no idea this tiny thing had already shown its might.
“Then Uncle Sect Master must congratulate you. Can you tell Uncle what kind of spiritual beast this is?” Chong Yuan squatted down and asked Suisui.
“Xiao Huang-huang,” Suisui said.
“It’s called Xiao Huang-huang? The Huang of Phoenix?” Chong Yuan asked, looking at Ye Wan.
Ye Wan nodded. “Master Bian Yun said this is an Ice Phoenix beast.”
The Sect Master instinctively stroked his beard.
The Ice Phoenix—if he remembered correctly, it was a beast that appeared in the Records of Three Realms Beasts. Any beast recorded there was extraordinary, even if it was a low-grade spiritual beast.
“I ask for the Sect Master’s understanding. Suisui and the little Ice Phoenix felt like old friends at first sight and couldn’t wait to form a contract. If I encounter any good spiritual beast eggs in the future, I will offer them to you.”
Speaking of this, even the thick-skinned Ye Wan felt a bit embarrassed.
“No matter. Destiny is determined by heaven. This spiritual beast egg was in my hands for over a thousand years, and I even let Zixun carry it with him, yet it never hatched. It is clear that this was meant to be Suisui’s destiny.”
Chong Yuan felt no regret; he even wanted to thank Suisui for letting him see the egg hatch.
“Thank you, Sect Master, for giving Suisui this opportunity,” Ye Wan bowed deeply.
Chong Yuan looked at Suisui, who was already playing house with the little Ice Phoenix, and said to Ye Wan, “How about… let’s not look for the child’s father anymore? Otherwise, I’m afraid we won’t be able to keep Suisui.”
If he didn’t know by now that Suisui was the one who had chosen the Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Milk yesterday, he would be a fool.
“How could that be?” Ye Wan covered Suisui’s ears. “The child’s father said that the child was an accident, but I am his true love. Even if he snatches me away, he won’t snatch the child.”
Chong Yuan: “…”
Listen to that. What kind of talk is this?
What exactly made her so confident? Had that man placed a curse on her?
Chong Yuan looked at Ye Wan’s head, and the urge to probe her sea of consciousness was stir-crazy.
Ye Wan took a step back. “Sect Master, my brain is fine.”
Chong Yuan: I’d rather your brain wasn’t fine.
Finally, Chong Yuan formally requested Suisui to take good care of the Little Ancestor Divine Tree. Suisui put her hands behind her back, nodded seriously, and said she would raise Tree Brother until he was “white and chubby.”
Chong Yuan left, satisfied.
……
After seeing off Chong Yuan, Ye Wan prepared to go to the Library as planned.
She had thought she had communicated well with Suisui last night, but when it was time to leave, Suisui, who had been lying on the soft couch immersed in raising her “chicken baby,” suddenly tossed the little Ice Phoenix aside and pitter-pattered out to the courtyard.
“Mother, I’m still a little cub who can’t leave Mother!”
Suisui hugged her mother’s leg and wailed, the kind with lots of thunder but not much rain.
Lang Xuan looked at Ye Wan’s other leg, seemingly hesitating whether to go and hug it too.
Ye Wan picked up her daughter. “Didn’t Mother agree with Suisui last night? Mother has her own tasks, and Suisui has her own little tasks too.”
“But, but I can’t bear to leave Mother.” Suisui hugged her mother’s neck tightly, looking pitiful.
Ye Wan thought for a moment. “Mother is going to a place with many books. If you go with me, you won’t be able to leave for three days, and there are no things to play with inside. It’s just right that you should learn to read; going to be immersed in the fragrance of books isn’t bad.”
“Many… many books?” Suisui instantly stopped wailing and climbed down from Ye Wan. “Mother said that adults should not be disturbed while working. Suisui was wrong. Suisui will be good.”
Every time Brother Hu came back from the school and didn’t recognize a word, his mother would chase him through the whole village with a stick. Learning to read was terrifying.
Ye Wan: “…”
She could at least be considered adjacent to a top student; who did her daughter inherit this aversion to learning from?
Ye Wan pinched the baby fat on Suisui’s face and said deliberately, “How about you come with Mother? Mother can’t bear to leave you either.”
“Mother, you are a mature adult. You should do your own things yourself. I have to stay here to raise Xiao Huang-huang, otherwise Xiao Huang-huang will starve to death.” Suisui patted her mother’s hand like a little adult and pitter-pattered back into the house without looking back.
Ye Wan: “…”
After seeing off Ye Wan, Bian Yun was still thinking about how she was going to comfort Suisui, only to see Suisui gathering up all the small dolls in the room, even putting the things Ye Wan had knitted in the basket into her storage bag.
“Suisui, what are you doing?”