The Amnesiac, Sickly Beauty Is Pregnant With My Dragon Cub - Chapter 2

The interior of the cave was damp and warm, without a hint of chill. The sound of pattering water echoed through the space; in the right corner of the cave sat a cluster of clear, natural spring vents.

Yu Xuanji’s voice was anxious and hurried, and the two arms wrapped around Cang Lan’s waist tightened their grip.

Cang Lan struggled to breathe and had no choice but to press one hand against the back of Yu Xuanji’s hand. The moment her palm touched, her fingertips were tightly seized. Yu Xuanji grabbed her entire hand and then pulled her into an even tighter embrace.

“Why did you leave me behind?”

Hearing Yu Xuanji’s aggrieved and pitiful interrogation, Cang Lan felt a sudden pang of guilt, but she immediately regained her sense of righteousness.

She explained, “I didn’t leave you. I only saw that you were asleep, so I ran out to hunt.”

Cang Lan raised the qiankun bag in her right hand to show Yu Xuanji. “Look, this is the prey I sto… I caught.”

Yu Xuanji’s voice remained anxious, but Cang Lan could tell it was much softer than before. Her face had initially been pressed against the back of Cang Lan’s neck, and her warm breath slowly brushed against Cang Lan’s icy, snow-white skin.

It tickled!

On any ordinary day, Cang Lan would have felt absolutely nothing from this level of contact. But today, for some reason, her entire body broke out in a layer of fine goosebumps. In an instant, her legs went soft, as if she were stepping on a layer of fluffy clouds.

As Cang Lan turned her head slightly, her lips brushed hard against Yu Xuanji’s smooth, fair chin.

Not good!

Cang Lan was frightened out of her wits. She snapped her head back and stood frozen like a board, unmoving.

Bad woman! Taking advantage of her!

Yet, the bad woman was soft and warm, carrying a faint, lingering fragrance that made even a dragon like her feel a bit dazed. Cang Lan wanted to push her away, but her body involuntarily leaned closer to the other woman.

Yu Xuanji’s gentle voice drifted out again: “I searched every corner of the cave and couldn’t find a trace of you. I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”

Cang Lan felt the woman’s body trembling against her back, and her hand gripping the qiankun bag turned slightly pale. She suddenly turned around and stiffly hugged Yu Xuanji. She had originally intended to fatten her up to eat her, but for some reason, seeing her in distress made Cang Lan’s heart ache as well.

She explained, “I didn’t ‘not want’ you. I really just went out to hunt.”

Cang Lan tossed the qiankun bag onto the ground, and two heads of emerald-green Chinese cabbage rolled out. She pointed at the cabbages and subconsciously rubbed her chin against Yu Xuanji’s shoulder, though the more she rubbed, the more it tickled.

“See, I brought you Chinese cabbage.”

Yu Xuanji said, “I wanted to go out and find you, but a restriction was placed at the cave entrance. I couldn’t get out.”

Cang Lan tilted her head and met Yu Xuanji’s burning, anxious eyes. She guiltily shifted her gaze. “I was afraid you would esc— be bullied by other monsters, so I came up with that idea. I won’t abandon you.”

She tightly encircled Yu Xuanji’s waist and placed one hand on the other’s back, stroking it gently as a silent form of comfort.

Hearing Yu Xuanji cough a few times, Cang Lan expertly picked the woman up in a horizontal carry.

This was something she did every day.

Yu Xuanji was in poor health; she couldn’t handle the wind or any shocks. Her body was lighter than a paper cutout, and her bones felt as if they would snap with a slight bend—Cang Lan hardly dared to let her bump into anything.

Cang Lan gently bypassed the water curtain and placed her on a stone bed in the innermost part of the cave.

Being held like this, Yu Xuanji wrapped her arms tightly around Cang Lan’s neck, nestling in her arms with her ear pressed against Cang Lan’s heart, murmuring softly, “A-Lan, I’m scared. You left me all alone in this cave. There are no living things here, only darkness and cold. I was so afraid.”

Cang Lan gently laid Yu Xuanji down. Just as she was about to stand up and leave, her neck was hooked by one of Yu Xuanji’s arms.

“I’m cold.”

She stared blankly at the weak, pitiful woman in white. For a moment, her compassion and obsession were stirred once again.

Fine, you win.

Cang Lan lay down on the bed, casually pulling up a blanket to cover Yu Xuanji, leaving a gap of about two inches between them. Staring at the woman’s serene and peaceful profile, Cang Lan found it impossible to connect this identical face with the enemy who had cast her into the Great Desolation back then.

When she found the woman in the desert, she was lying on the sand, dying, surrounded by a pack of Ghost-faced Spiders waiting to feast.

Later, while healing her, Cang Lan realized the woman didn’t possess a shred of power; she was a mere mortal. Furthermore, it had been over a thousand years since that white-clothed woman sealed her in the Desolation.

If this woman truly were her enemy, how could a mortal without any power live for over a thousand years?

After thinking it over, Cang Lan felt it was a miraculous coincidence.

However, Cang Lan always felt that this Yu Xuanji had designs on her—likely coveting her beauty, which was why she stared at her without even blinking.

Looking at Yu Xuanji, who was huddling into her arms seeking warmth, Cang Lan felt a bit of regret.

Insisting on hugging me! Won’t sleep unless I let her! Dragons are truly annoyed to death by this!

Cang Lan didn’t like sleeping in a bed. When she slept, she would transform into her dragon form and coil around a pillar in the Dragon Pool.

She had originally made up the lie on a whim, but who would have thought this foolish woman would actually believe she was her “wife.”

She didn’t know if the woman’s brain was broken or what, but ever since Cang Lan saved her, she had been clung to.

Cang Lan pulled the animal-skin blanket up to cover Yu Xuanji’s half-exposed shoulder. This was the fur of a tiger demon she had killed when it tried to seize her territory; even the stone bed beneath them had been personally carried in by Cang Lan from outside.

According to her previous habits, she would have simply swallowed such overconfident losers in one gulp. But because of Yu Xuanji’s arrival, Cang Lan had stripped the hides to make a warm blanket and even made a soft animal-skin pillow for her.

Cang Lan placed a hand on Yu Xuanji’s belly, gently feeling through the fabric with her fingertips. She asked, “Are you hungry?”

Yu Xuanji nodded.

Cang Lan lifted the blanket and prepared to sit up, saying, “Then I’ll go down and make you something to eat.”

Predictably, she was held even tighter by Yu Xuanji.

Yu Xuanji said, “Don’t leave me alone.”

Looking at the inseparable Yu Xuanji, Cang Lan said as if possessed, “I’m not leaving. I… you are my wife, how could I leave you behind…”

Hearing these words, Yu Xuanji pulled herself up by Cang Lan’s shoulder and repeated what she had just said: “Yes, I am your wife. You won’t leave me.”

Cang Lan: “…”

Once she had calmed Yu Xuanji down, she plucked a dark scale and placed it behind her, transforming it into a small black dragon with horns.

Cang Lan said, “This is transformed from my scale. I broke that singing black box of yours, so I’ll compensate you with this to relieve your boredom.”

“A scale?” Yu Xuanji’s expression changed drastically. She anxiously touched Cang Lan’s body and asked, “You plucked your own scale? Does it hurt?”

The touch made Cang Lan flinch, nearly rolling off the stone bed. She quickly explained, “It doesn’t hurt. For me, pulling a scale is no different from pulling a strand of hair.”

Yu Xuanji’s hand moved toward her again, scaring Cang Lan into grabbing both of her hands. “It doesn’t hurt! Not even a bit!”

She pointed at the little black dragon transformed from the scale and let it coil around Yu Xuanji’s wrists, instructing, “I’m going to make food. You are not allowed to get out of bed.”

Cang Lan then took out a small, pearl-like silver-white pill. She pinched Yu Xuanji’s chin with one hand and placed the melt-in-the-mouth pill in her mouth. “Take your medicine first.”

The silver-white pill dissolved instantly, permeating Yu Xuanji’s internal organs. She felt waves of warmth, and her icy hands and feet gradually grew warm.

Yu Xuanji asked curiously, “What did you give me?”

Cang Lan curled her lips into an extremely cunning smile. “Good stuff.”

She lifted the pillow, revealing a bulging small black box underneath. This pitch-black flat box had come with Yu Xuanji. The object was very strange; it would actually light up when touched, and human voices would come from inside.

It was truly miraculous!

Cang Lan had also heard Yu Xuanji call it a “Shou-Ji” (Phone). She guessed it was a distant relative of mountain chickens or wild chickens, except it was hard and inedible. She had secretly tried to taste it while Yu Xuanji was asleep, but ended up cracking a corner—it had no flavor at all and hurt her teeth.

Cang Lan placed the “Shou-Ji” on Yu Xuanji’s lap. “You can play with this. Even though one corner is broken, it still lights up.”

She jumped down from the bed, straightened her clothes that had been wrinkled by Yu Xuanji, and moved far away from her.

Cang Lan bared her teeth in warning. “You can only stay on the bed. Do not come near me right now. I’ve been feeling a bit off lately; if I go wild, I might eat you!”

Yu Xuanji tilted her head. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m… that…” Cang Lan froze, almost blurting out the words “estrus period.” She couldn’t say such things to a stranger of unknown origin.

She said, “Anyway, you can’t be too close to me right now. I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”

Yu Xuanji’s lips curved into a smile, her eyes full of certainty. “You won’t.”

Cang Lan didn’t bother saying more. She turned and left Yu Xuanji’s bedroom, reaching out into the air toward the qiankun bag. There were many treasures inside “borrowed” from Ming Huang. Cang Lan held her head high and placed the “prey” she had obtained under the stone bed.

She crouched on the ground, taking the treasures out one by one. “I also brought you some fun little things. This is a brush, this is an inkstone and ink stick, this is…”

Cang Lan picked up a paperweight and tapped it against her own forehead, exclaiming in surprise, “This doesn’t even break! It’s quite sturdy. That old phoenix really has a lot of treasures.”

She tossed the pile of items onto the stone table, standing with her hands on her hips like she was claiming credit, and laughed. “I was afraid you’d be too bored in the cave. You can write or paint to pass the time.”

Cang Lan saw a blue-covered book with black characters at the bottom of the qiankun bag. She took it out and tossed it into Yu Xuanji’s lap. “This book is for you. Read it to relieve your boredom when you’re free.”

Seeing that Yu Xuanji was quite interested in the book, Cang Lan sat down and leaned in close, patting her chest. “This dragon knows everything from astronomy to geography. If there’s a word you don’t recognize, feel free to ask me for guidance.”

Yu Xuanji smiled faintly. “Then I’ll ask for your guidance.”

Cang Lan rubbed her hands together and pointed at the cover with confidence. “Look, this book is called Gong Mu… Xi? I can bet this is definitely a book about civil engineering and architecture.”

Yu Xuanji looked at the three large characters on the cover—”Hong Lou Meng” (Dream of the Red Chamber)—and nodded with a smile. “Indeed.”

Cang Lan arranged all the gadgets and helped Yu Xuanji sit at the stone table. “Play by yourself. Except for going outside, you can do whatever you want.”

Watching Cang Lan’s departing figure, Yu Xuanji slowly lowered her eyes, her long, thick eyelashes casting a shadow. The little black dragon wrapped around her wrist loosened its grip, looking like a translucent black jade bracelet on her arm.

The little dragon affectionately rubbed its horns against the skin of Yu Xuanji’s wrist, seemingly very fond of her.

Yu Xuanji curled her lips and touched the happily wagging dragon tail, which then wrapped its soft, cool length around her left index finger.

In the kitchen, Cang Lan was busy preparing dinner with great enthusiasm.

She held a ball of fire in one hand to grill the silver fish she had caught. In the other hand, she held a kitchen knife, chopping at the Chinese cabbage while muttering, “How could cabbage be as tasty as fish meat?”

After chopping the vegetables, Cang Lan tossed the grilled fish into a pot and boiled it along with the cabbage.

Not long after she covered the pot, Cang Lan caught a whiff of something burning and prepared to open the lid to see if tonight’s dinner was thoroughly cooked.

There was a faint sound of footsteps behind her. Before Cang Lan could turn around, she was tightly embraced from behind by Yu Xuanji. She grabbed the two hands at her waist and cried out, “What are you doing!”

Yu Xuanji’s chin rested in the crook of Cang Lan’s neck. She tilted her head and lightly touched Cang Lan’s chin with her lips. “Didn’t you just say that except for going out, I could do whatever I want?”