The Amnesiac, Sickly Beauty Is Pregnant With My Dragon Cub - Chapter 10

 The lingering, intermittent sound of Yu Xuanji’s soft laughter drifted by her ears, accompanied by the whimpering cries of her two useless subordinates.

Cang Lan stood silently to one side with her arms crossed, her gaze fixed upon them. She clenched her back teeth so hard it hurt; her entire draconic being felt as if it had been submerged in a vat of vinegar, the sour scent of jealousy practically overflowing.

The two subordinates were whimpering with delight as Yu Xuanji stroked their fur, looking worlds apart from their usual images as swift and decisive thousand-year-old demons.

Cang Lan held her breath, dropped her crossed arms, and planted both hands on her hips, her face as black as the bottom of a pot.

It was the Grey Wolf Demon who first sensed a vague, ominous aura. It opened its eyes and looked up, meeting Cang Lan’s gaze—which resembled that of the Grim Reaper—causing its incessantly wagging tail to go limp and droop instantly.

It let out a few whimpering howls and used its front paw to ruthlessly poke the Iron-Eating Beast’s (Panda) rounded lower back, baring its teeth as it whispered in trepidation: “You idiot, the King is angry!”

Only then did the Iron-Eating Beast snap out of its trance. With its two paws still clutching Yu Xuanji’s thigh, it reluctantly rolled back a few times, its body instantly growing several times larger.

Yu Xuanji looked up at the giant panda, the corners of her lips curving upward. She wanted to feel if its fur felt the same as it did when it was small.

Cang Lan quickly pulled Yu Xuanji into an embrace from behind, tightly hugging her waist against her chest. She covered Yu Xuanji’s eyes with her palm and whispered softly against her ear: “These two great demons have the faces of villains (beady eyes and rat-like features). Don’t let their current flattering appearance fool you; they are actually full of wicked schemes.”

Yu Xuanji looked at the silver-grey wolf king before her, whose fur was as smooth as bright silk. Then she looked at the round, adorable panda cub. She found it impossible to apply the idiom “villainous features” to these two great demons.

With the speed of a lightning bolt, the two demons tucked their tails and fled the cave, arriving at a wasteland dozens of miles away in the blink of an eye.

The Grey Wolf Demon lay by a pool licking the cool, refreshing spring water, still reminiscing about Yu Xuanji’s touch. It clicked its tongue twice: “Our King is truly blessed. The Lady’s technique for stroking demons is simply superb. In my thousands of years of life, I’ve never been petted so comfortably.”

The Iron-Eating Beast said longingly: “But it seems no human has ever entered the Desolate Wilds before. I want to find a human wife too, so I can be petted every day. How comfortable would that be?”

The Grey Wolf Demon sighed: “Keep dreaming. Unless a pie falls from the sky, how could anyone possibly enter a godforsaken place like this?”

Meanwhile, a golden teleportation array appeared above a desolate mountain thousands of miles away. After the golden light vanished, two people fell from a height of a hundred meters, caught mid-air by a crooked tree, nearly becoming paraplegic from the impact.

Ting Lan rubbed her dislocated jaw and forced it back into place with a sharp crack. She jumped down from the tree and helped up An Zhi, who had landed face-first and nearly shattered. She twisted An Zhi’s displaced limbs back into alignment.

An Zhi spat out a blade of grass from her mouth, “Pah, pah,” and stood up to brush the dust off her trousers. She scanned the desolate mountain—before her lay an endless wasteland—and she sucked in a cold breath: “This godforsaken place is so huge; it won’t be easy to find her.”

Ting Lan said: “Didn’t we bring a compass? I have a few strands of the Master’s hair here; perhaps we can find her.”

With that, An Zhi took a compass out of her satchel. However, the needle, which should have been fine, swung wildly without any pattern, completely rendered useless by the magnetic field.

The two sighed helplessly. An Zhi put the compass away, her face filled with worry as she looked out at the endless, desolate desert.

On the other side of the desert, in an oasis, Yu Xuanji sat beneath a massive, towering Bodhi tree outside the cave. In her hand was a book written by Tushan Bai titled The Domineering Black Dragon’s Intense Love. Beside her stood a stone table and several stone chairs; on the table sat a kettle and teacups.

The book only contained the first twenty chapters. It told the rough story of an evil dragon who kidnapped an unmarried young lady and took her back to his cave. This dragon was overbearing, unreasonable, and arrogant; after snatching the lady away, he hid her in the cave and forced her to marry him.

Yu Xuanji’s lips curved slightly. She felt that this evil dragon shared some striking similarities with a certain someone. She turned her gaze toward the meadow nearby.

Not far away, Cang Lan was dressed in simple inner garments, a hoe propped on her shoulder and a snow-white cloth draped around her neck. She was carefully tilling the patch of meadow in front of the cave entrance.

Huang Liu followed behind, taking carrot seeds from a silken pouch one by one and placing them in the soil, using her foot to kick dirt over them. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with a cloth, staring longingly at Yu Xuanji, who was reading the novella.

Seeing that Huang Liu was distracted and not working properly, Cang Lan began to scold her. However, she turned her head to see Yu Xuanji approaching with a water kettle and a porcelain bowl, and immediately changed her tone: “You must be exhausted, go rest under the tree.”

Huang Liu had followed Cang Lan for over a thousand years, and this was the first time she had ever heard her use such a gentle voice to show concern. For a moment, she was so moved that old tears welled up in her eyes; she nearly transformed into a weasel to pounce on her beloved King.

Yu Xuanji poured the fresh water from the kettle into the bowl and handed it to Huang Liu first.

Flattered by the unexpected favor, Huang Liu held the bowl with both hands, and a fluffy, golden-yellow tail sprouted behind her. She wagged her tail happily and ran to the towering Bodhi tree, squatting on the ground to drain the water in one gulp.

Cang Lan pursed her lips, her tongue licking against her teeth. She was just about to ask why there was no water for her when she saw Yu Xuanji reach out, taking a corner of the cloth around her neck to gently wipe away the fine, dense beads of sweat from her forehead.

Yu Xuanji’s movements were very light. As her arm moved before Cang Lan’s eyes, it stirred a slight breeze carrying a faint fragrance.

Cang Lan liked the scent on Yu Xuanji—it was light and sweet, seemingly the scent of a flower. But having stayed in the Desolate Wilds for so many years, she had long forgotten what fresh flowers smelled like. She took a deep breath, holding it in an attempt to keep Yu Xuanji’s scent in her nasal cavity for longer.

As Yu Xuanji wiped the sweat from her forehead and temples, she pressed the back of her cool hand against Cang Lan’s warm, slightly flushed cheek, saying with a smile: “Are you tired? Take a break.”

Cang Lan shook her head, full of energy: “Not tired at all! I could plow another two acres!”

Seeing that Yu Xuanji had been standing in the sun for a short while and her fair skin had turned red and felt hot to the touch, Cang Lan drained her bowl of water, took the kettle from Yu Xuanji’s hand, and led her under the tree by her waist.

Cang Lan frowned with concern: “It’s too sunny. Look at you, your face turned this red after just a moment. Let me see your hands too.”

Yu Xuanji’s skin was very thin; even a slight bit of sun would make her turn a rosy white, and under the sunlight, her faint blue veins were clearly visible.

Cang Lan held Yu Xuanji’s wrist, pressing Yu Xuanji’s hand against her own face to feel the temperature of her fingers against her cheek, mumbling: “As long as your hands are fine.”

Immediately afterward, her gaze gradually shifted to Yu Xuanji’s neck, her fingertips stroking it lightly: “Wife, in the future, I will plant whatever you want to eat. The cabbage I grow will definitely be ten thousand times better than that of the Old Phoenix!”