Life After Being Claimed by the Disabled Dragon Lady - Chapter 31

Lorrain stood beside the two of them, arms crossed, completely exasperated.

What was so glorious about stunning a fish with magic?

That such an arrogant dragon as Violet would willingly indulge her own Alpha for happiness—if other dragons knew, they would likely be utterly shocked.

Long Ling specifically held the fish up to Violet: “A rainbow-colored salmon! Its scales are glittering in the sun. It’s so beautiful.”

“This kind of fish must have evolved under the magical mist as it passed through the river of the Misty Forest. Its skin is a special cold-resistant material.”

Violet glanced at the rainbow salmon, then looked at the little dragon and said, “Come here, I’ll wipe your face.”

This was the first time Violet had ever wiped her face. Long Ling was surprised by Violet’s extensive knowledge and quickly placed the rainbow salmon on the ground, offering her clean, fair cheek to Violet.

The Alpha’s fair and clear cheeks were covered with water droplets, like a water hibiscus. Her nose bridge was straight, her red lips inviting. Her kissing skills were a little clumsy, but she was good to kiss.

Those icy blue eyes gazed at her unblinkingly, without any defense. Even if kissed, she would only blush and timidly kiss back.

Violet pinched Long Ling’s jaw, meticulously and slowly wiping her face with a handkerchief, as if polishing a privately hoarded sapphire.

The clean, soft handkerchief swept across her cheek, like the touch of the gentlest spring breeze.

At such a close distance, she could see the wicked dragoness’s thick, long eyelashes. Her dark golden eyes reflected Long Ling’s image, and there were so many other people watching nearby.

Long Ling became increasingly self-conscious under her gaze, biting her lip, her cheeks flushing hot.

Lorrain saw Violet flirting with the little silver dragon and teased with a smile: “You two dragons are too sweet! I wish His Majesty had arranged a Queen Consort for me, too.”

Long Ling’s skin was thin, and she blushed all the way from her neck to her earlobes. She couldn’t help but softly call out Violet’s name: “Violet.”

Violet unhappily glared at Lorrain.

She continued wiping Long Ling’s face, her slender, fair fingertips lightly brushing against Long Ling’s red lips. Her voice was low: “Don’t mind her.”

The long fingers pressed against her lips were cool and carried a faint, sweet scent of roses. Long Ling’s heart felt as if it were being tickled by a soft feather. She couldn’t help but pout and secretly peck Violet’s fingertip.

Violet noticed Long Ling’s secret kissing motion and glanced at her.

Long Ling’s face was red, but she kissed her finger two more times, turning the wicked dragoness’s cool, white skin a pale pink.

A faint blush rose on Violet’s earlobe. She pulled back her heated fingertip: “Go catch your fish.”

Long Ling quickly nodded, picked up the lively fish on the ground. The fish seemed to have recovered some energy and kept flopping in Long Ling’s hands.

Nora, who was attending nearby, saw her struggling and quickly handed over a round wooden club as thick as an forearm: “Miss Long Ling, just use this to knock it on the fish’s head. Hit it a few times to stun it.”

Long Ling held the salmon’s head with one hand and the wooden club with the other. The salmon continued to struggle under her hand, making it hard to aim for the fish’s head. She had to use her dragon claws to hold the fish still. The sharp tips of her claws brushed against the fish’s skin, and the scales on her dragon claws provided friction, perfectly clamping the fish.

Long Ling delivered a hard, muffled strike, and the salmon immediately gave up the ghost, turning belly-up.

Having caught such a big fish for the first time, Long Ling quickly found some grass by the roadside, wove it into a rope, and hung up her trophy fish, planning to string it together with the fish she would catch next.

However, catching fish seemed to have a beginner’s luck phase. After getting that first free fish, Long Ling squatted for almost an hour in front of the small waterfall where the salmon returned, her dragon claws growing numb. She only managed to catch two more salmon, and they weren’t the rainbow-colored ones from before. It seemed she would still need to use a gill net.

Long Ling was not discouraged and said to Nora, who was weaving grass rope nearby: “Nora, let’s go get the gill net. It should be easier to catch fish upstream.”

Nora immediately nodded: “Yes, yes, I’ll go arrange a boat for you now. There’s a large Moon Lake upstream. Setting the net in the middle of the lake should give us a higher probability of catching fish.”

Long Ling agreed. She prepared to tell Violet that she was going upstream to boat and catch fish.

However, as soon as she turned around, she found that Violet and Lorrain were already sitting at a camping table, playing chess. Her personal maid, Eleanor, was brewing tea for them, while Butler Marcia sat on a rug nearby, knitting a red scarf. Servants were setting up outdoor camping tents on the green grass and organizing cooking utensils. The outdoor setup was no different from being in the manor.

Well, she knew that for fishing, it was good enough that Violet had come to accompany her for a quick look.

She quickly ran over and said to Violet: “Violet, I plan to go upstream and use the gill net to catch fish.”

Violet put down her knight chess piece and looked at the bright-eyed little dragon: “Take your maid and some servants with you. Let them help you set the gill net.”

Long Ling gently hummed in agreement: “Okay.”

She turned to leave, but Lorrain smiled and asked, “Long Ling, how many fish have you caught so far?”

Long Ling was a little embarrassed: “Only three so far.”

Lorrain laughed, subtly hinting: “Three is about enough. The fish you caught are quite plump, enough for us three dragons to eat. Come rest with us.”

She had completely written her eagerness to quickly get to lunch on her face, even forcefully including herself in the midday meal.

Long Ling shook her head: “Not yet. I have a cooking competition to enter soon, and I need to prepare a hundred salmon. I’ll come back when I’ve caught enough fish.”

Surprise flashed in Lorrain’s eyes, and she praised her gently: “You’re entering a competition! That’s so remarkable, much better than that little girl Beverly. Well, good luck! We’ll wait for you here.”

Long Ling nodded reservedly. Violet didn’t think she was outstanding; she had fought hard for a long time just to participate in this cooking competition.

Violet heard Lorrain praise the little dragon, and a very slight smile was hidden in her proud eyes. Of course, her taste in Alphas was the best.

Not wanting Long Ling’s little dragon tail to get too inflated, Violet just said to Long Ling, “Hurry up and go.”

Long Ling quickly left, walking past a large pile of white pebbles by the stream. In the distance were the continuous, dark green, snow-capped mountains. At this season, the mountaintops still held patches of thin snow, and the base of the mountains was filled with the green of spring. Some of the babbling stream water was melted snow, making the water clear and ice-cold.

Nora had already arranged a fishing boat at the Moon Lake upstream, and five or six servants helped lift the drift net onto the boat.

This kind of drift net was made up of hundreds of net panels. Brand new nets had lead weights attached to the bottom and sponges and rubber floats hanging on top. They were quite heavy when lifted. If Long Ling tried to put this many nets into the water by herself, it would take a long time to manage.

As a dragon now, she was strong and robust and didn’t need so many servants attending to her, especially since fishing and netting was a very interesting activity.

Long Ling asked the other servants to wait on the shore. She and Nora rowed the blue tin boat to the center of the lake. The wooden oars parted the water into ripples. Under the sunlight, the clear lake water appeared a faint blue, reflecting the surrounding mountains and trees.

There were no fewer fish here than at the waterfall. Nora looked quite excited, pointing to the dark mass of swimming fish in the lake for Long Ling to see: “Miss Long Ling, there are so many fish here! We’ll definitely catch a hundred in one net!”

Long Ling was also delighted. Luckily, she had borrowed the fishing net from the wicked dragoness; otherwise, she would be foolishly waiting by the waterfall, hoping for salmon to drop onto her head, and catching them one by one would take a very long time.

Long Ling lowered her voice: “Keep your voice down, don’t scare the fish away.”

Nora moved more lightly and whispered: “Should we start setting the net now?”

Long Ling nodded slightly. They rowed the boat while placing the net panels into the clear lake water one by one. By the time the net was fully deployed, a small part of the lake surface was dotted with colored plastic floats, and the long fishing net drifted back and forth like a ribbon with the waves.

Uncertain about how many salmon they would catch, Long Ling was worried that the weight of the fish might be too great and drag the net away, so she found sandbags to anchor it.

After all that hard work, Long Ling was starting to feel hungry. She broke a piece of dry bread in half and handed it to Nora. The other servants also took out food, preparing to eat and then get to work.

They ate something under the tree to tide them over and drank a few sips of warm water. The bread was rock hard, like the wooden club she had earlier. Fortunately, dragon teeth were sharp, and she swallowed it after a few bites.

Nora pulled out several pieces of her homemade dried salted meat from her pocket and handed them to Long Ling. Long Ling took a few bites and found the salted meat too salty, bitter, cold, and hard. After eating a small piece, she drank half a water flask of water.

Nora, however, ate with great relish. She even put the salted meat into her own water flask and shook it vigorously: “Clang, clang, clang! Homemade salted meat soup.”

Long Ling sighed helplessly: “When I have time, I’ll teach you other ways to make dried meat.”

Nora happily said: “That would be great! Thank you, Miss Long Ling. Is the pub still hiring a chef? Have you found a suitable candidate yet?”

Long Ling shook her head: “I haven’t decided yet.”

Nora introduced: “I have a human friend who currently works as a helper in the manor’s kitchen, usually in charge of chopping vegetables, and she can cook some simple meals. Would you like me to bring her over for you to meet?”

Should she tell the wicked dragoness about such a small matter? It was just about adding a sous-chef to the pub.

Long Ling hesitated and said: “That’s fine, but I’ll need to assess her first. Is she here today?”

Nora happily replied: “Yes, she is. I’ll have her come see you later.”

Long Ling nodded in agreement: “Good. The gill net has been down for so long, it should be about time. Let’s go pull those fish ashore first.”

Nora quickly followed Long Ling, calling the other servants to gather their tools and board the boat. The tin boat rowed to where the gill net had been placed, and they slowly began to retrieve the net.

As soon as they dragged it out a short distance, they saw many silvery-white fish tangled in the net, and some small green shrimp jumping around in the finer mesh.

Joy blossomed in Long Ling’s eyes: “So many fish!”

Nora quickly helped pull the net: “And shrimp! Excellent green shrimp! There are too many, should I go get some water buckets?”

Long Ling: “Go ahead! I’ll watch the fish. Remember to bring those big water buckets with lids.”

Nora immediately jumped off the boat and went to fetch the large water buckets. Long Ling, with the help of the servants, scooped the gill net out of the river and slowly untangled the large fish caught in the mesh.

The catch from the gill net filled over ten large buckets. Inside were not only many salmon but also groupers, bitterlings, sea breams, mandarin fish, green shrimp, crabs, and also pufferfish.

Long Ling had seen pufferfish before. Their liver, roe, and blood contain toxins, but because their taste is exceptionally delicious, some chefs clean them meticulously and use them in dishes.

However, the pufferfish in front of her was too small, only about the size of her palm. It would probably only be enough for the wicked dragoness to have a taste.

She brushed off the green aquatic plants on the pufferfish and washed it thoroughly in the clear, cold lake water many times before holding it in her palm.

She had originally wanted to poke the pufferfish’s belly to see if it would inflate, but thinking of the wicked dragoness’s habit of poking her dragon abdomen, she thought the wicked dragoness might also be interested in this fish.

Long Ling let the servants carry the rest of the catch behind her, and she individually carried the small pufferfish all the way down.

Long Ling presented the pufferfish to Violet and eagerly asked, “Violet, would you like to eat pufferfish?”

Violet’s gaze instantly sharpened, and she stared coldly at Long Ling’s face.

In the short time they were apart, the little dragon wanted to poison her? And then find a new Omega after she was dead?