Chapter 23: A Strange Evening, Strange Food

“Ouch! Waaah~”

Zhu Qiu fell hard onto the floor.

She held back her tears, lying on the ground for a long time to recover before slowly crawling back up.

*Waaah~*

‘Why is it so easy to cry after turning into a little Dragon Cub girl? It was just a fall, and it didn’t even hurt that much. Waaah~’

‘It’s all Zhu Xiaxia’s fault. She lied and said there was candy in the room, which caused me to trip.’

Fuming, Zhu Qiu picked up the culprit that had made her slip.

She was just about to throw it away when she was captivated by the candy’s wrapper.

‘Huh? This packaging… it looks like a piece of candy?’

Near where the candy had been, a wooden box with a small hole was leaning against the corner of the wall.

This piece of candy had apparently leaked out from that hole.

Curious, Zhu Qiu picked up the box and shook it.

It made a rustling sound.

‘There’s something inside?’

She found the latch and opened it.

Inside, the box was stuffed to the brim with candy.

There were lollipops, fruit candies, and various other types of sweets.

“So there really was some! Zhu Xiaxia didn’t lie to me.”

She hadn’t found it at first because she had mistaken the box for a stool.

‘Seriously, who uses a wooden box as a stool in their house?’

She opened the box, tossed the lid aside, and poured all the candies onto the bed.

“Wow, wow, wow, wow!”

Amidst Zhu Qiu’s cheers of joy, the candies spread out across the bed one by one.

*Hehe…*

Zhu Qiu climbed onto the bed and lay on her stomach against the pillow, surrounding herself with the candy.

‘Lying in an ocean of candy really is a wonderful thing~’

She wanted to enjoy this moment of bliss, but her biological clock told her it was time to sleep.

“Mm~”

Zhu Qiu suddenly felt her eyelids grow heavy, and she could barely keep them open.

‘So sleepy. Why do I want to sleep so much? I rarely ever took afternoon naps before.’

The bed was soft, the blanket was soft, and the pillow was soft too.

It felt so good.

She loved it.

Zhu Qiu looked at the circle of candy around her with half-open eyes.

‘They’re all here.’

‘It’s fine. Zhu Xiaxia said she wouldn’t barge in. It’ll be the same if I enjoy them after I wake up.’

“……”

Before long, only the steady sound of the little girl’s breathing remained in the room.

Downstairs, Zhu Xiaxia sat in a chair by the dining table with a smile on her face, quietly waiting for Xiaguang to return.

‘I hope my daughter gets some good sleep.’

A Dragon Cub was still in its growth phase, so it needed more sleep.

‘Sleep peacefully.’

Time flew by. The sun slowly descended from its peak, eventually resting above the clouds, just moments away from sinking completely.

People in the entire Surface World could see the magnificent sight of the Burning Clouds, but unfortunately, the Dragon Race lived above the clouds and could not witness it.

Inside the Dragon Race Imperial Palace, Zhu Qiu, who was sleeping soundly on her bed, unconsciously rolled over and pushed the candy aside.

*Mumble…*

She rolled over again.

“Ouch!”

She successfully fell off the bed and landed on the floor.

Zhu Qiu climbed up with bleary eyes and rubbed them.

She looked out the window at the sky, which had transitioned from daylight to a murky gray.

‘?’

‘It’s dark already?’

Zhu Qiu quickly patted her own cheeks to wake herself up.

She ran to the window.

Outside was a hazy gray; it was indeed dark, and the sun was nowhere to be seen.

‘Holy crap, how long was I asleep?!’

*Gurgle~*

Her stomach was growling.

She was hungry.

“Zhu Xiaxia, is there anything to eat?”

Zhu Qiu shouted as she walked toward the door.

She turned the handle, only to find that the door wouldn’t open.

‘Huh?’

‘Oh, right. I locked it.’

But just as she was about to unlock it, her gaze drifted to the candy on the bed.

‘Oh yeah, I locked the door specifically to sneak some candy. How could I forget that after a nap?’

Zhu Qiu instinctively reached for the light switch next to the door, but nothing happened.

‘Huh?’

‘This is supposed to be the light, right? Is it already broken?’

‘Zhu Xiaxia really is something. She can’t even get a decent quality light for her own room. It’s already broken.’

‘Whatever. Eating candy is more important.’

Zhu Qiu happily returned to the bed and started unwrapping and eating.

With a lollipop in each hand, she was having the time of her life.

“This is so delicious. It would be great if I could eat this every day from now on, hehe…”

After finishing two, Zhu Qiu didn’t feel satisfied, so she continued unwrapping and eating more.

She didn’t stop until she noticed there were only a few scattered pieces of candy left.

By now, the sky had turned completely pitch black.

Using the faint light from outside the window, Zhu Qiu counted them: “One, two, three, four… seven, eight, nine. Nine pieces. There are only nine left.”

‘How are there so few left? Just how many did I eat?’

‘No way, I need to put them back quickly.’

Zhu Qiu climbed off the bed, but she found that most of the room was so dark she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.

Only the area by the window had a bit of faint starlight shining on the bed.

‘What a pain.’

Fumbling in the dark, Zhu Qiu found the box used to store the candy, brought it to the bed, and put the nine pieces back inside.

However, seeing the bottom of the box so easily made it seem a bit too obvious.

‘It’s fine, as long as Zhu Xiaxia doesn’t find out.’

She fumbled in the dark again to put the box back in the corner.

‘Actually, even if Zhu Xiaxia finds out, it’s fine. She wouldn’t be petty with me over a bit of candy, right? She is the Queen of the Dragon Tribe, after all.’

‘Oh, right. Since it’s this late, shouldn’t it be time for dinner?’

She had just eaten so much candy that she should have been full, so why didn’t she feel satiated at all?

It felt as if she hadn’t eaten anything.

*Gurgle~*

‘See? My stomach is growling again.’

‘I should go find Zhu Xiaxia for a meal.’

Zhu Qiu once again fumbled her way to the door, unlocked it, and pushed it open.

“Princess, your dinner is ready. Please enjoy.”

Two hands reached out from the darkness outside the door, holding a tray.

On it was a large, indistinct, blurry mass.

‘Is that… Xiaguang’s voice?’

‘But why can’t I see her face clearly? Is it because it’s too dark?’

‘Whatever, food is the most important thing in the world.’

Tonight’s food clearly wasn’t milk.

She could finally eat something substantial.

Zhu Qiu excitedly took the tray.

It was somewhat heavy, which meant the portion was generous enough to give her a full meal.

Just then, the door was slammed shut with great force.

The moon suddenly rose, and moonlight poured into the room, but it only illuminated the area on the bed.

‘Honestly, Xiaguang is being too rough. What if the door breaks?’

Zhu Qiu carried the tray to the bed, preparing to dig in.

But when she saw the food on the tray, her expression instantly froze.

It was a long, twitching White Large Tail.

The entire tail had been sliced into pieces with a sharp blade, but it wasn’t completely cut through; the pieces were still connected by the bone in the center, similar to how a fish is filleted.

Red blood seeped out from between every two segments of the tail, looking extremely gruesome.

A steel knife and fork were stuck into one of the middle segments, presumably the utensils for eating this tail.

*Gulp…*

Zhu Qiu’s little brain thought for a long time, but she couldn’t figure it out.

She was completely stunned.

‘Does the Dragon Race eat this kind of raw, disgusting meat every day besides drinking milk?’

‘Just what kind of food is this?’

‘Or… is it even food at all?’