“I’m heading out, Dad~”
Bai Ning gripped her specialized parasol and pulled the brim of her hat low.
Like usual, she waved her hand toward Lü Erlu.
“Mm, alright. Get along with your colleagues, especially any young man who catches your eye. Your father is waiting,” Lü Erlu said.
Lü Erlu reached out to pinch her soft little face, but like always, Bai Ning slapped his hand away.
“Gosh, Dad, do you have any idea how annoying you are!” she snapped, her tone full of impatience.
“Besides, where am I going to find a man who ‘catches my eye’…?”
“Silly girl, I’m doing this for your own good. Relationships are things that happen naturally; you can’t rush them, but you can’t just wait forever either. I can still protect you now, but what if I get old in the future, or if some accident happens? If you don’t find a partner, who’s going to cherish you?”
“Dad, you’re a 30-year-old bachelor talking to me about relationships… You really have zero credibility! Besides, I can take perfectly good care of myself on my own~”
As Bai Ning spoke, she turned her pouting face away, but the tips of her ears were quietly stained with a faint red.
She took a deep breath, summoned an unprecedented amount of courage, and spoke in a voice as thin as a mosquito.
“And… if I really had to say which man catches my eye… you’re the only one in my heart, Dad…”
“That’s different, Bai Ning.”
Lü Erlu laughed and shook his head.
“Ours is the affection between a father and daughter. What I want you to experience is a romantic love where two people are mutually attracted to each other…”
“…Hmph, as far as I’m concerned, there’s no difference at all~”
Bai Ning tilted her head back stubbornly to retort, then turned and pushed the door open to leave without looking back.
Lü Erlu merely took it as the girl’s stubborn joking and didn’t take it to heart.
‘This group of silly girls… I’ve been nagging them for almost 1 month, and not a single one of them is listening. They’re clearly at the age where they should be falling in love. *Sigh*.’
Lü Erlu sighed with a worried expression.
‘It’s my fault. I didn’t send them to school when they were young. I did everything myself and taught them hand-in-hand, which resulted in them barely knowing any friends their own age.’
He muttered with frustration, turning to pace toward the back garden.
In the past, he was meticulous with the plants, performing every task — watering, fertilizing, and pruning — with absolute care.
But today…
He only splashed some water around, treating it as a chore to be finished.
He simply took off his shirt and began to exercise on the open ground, his body drenched in sweat.
To prepare for what was coming 2 months from now, he had to squeeze in time to work out every day and pick up the magic he had neglected for so long.
However, it had been too long since he had touched a wand.
The flow of his incantations had already been greatly compromised, becoming quite rusty.
“Good morning… Father… Wah! Father, why aren’t you wearing clothes!”
Ziya suddenly poked her small head out from behind the fence.
Once she saw the scene clearly, she immediately covered her face with both hands, yet her fingers involuntarily spread wide.
She peeked through the gaps at the lean muscles Lü Erlu usually kept hidden.
“…Ziya? Don’t you have to work today?”
Lü Erlu, covered in sweat, scrambled to pull his shirt back on and asked stutteringly.
“Honestly, Father! I told you just last night that today was my day off!”
“Oh, right. I think you did.”
Lü Erlu scratched the back of his head with a foolish grin.
“Hmph, then this is your punishment! Hehehe.”
Ziya lunged forward.
Through his newly donned clothes, her small hands began to poke and prod at his abdominal muscles.
“Hey! Ziya! A man and a woman shouldn’t be so physical! Besides, I’m your father!”
“Alright, alright, I get it~”
Ziya let go with a giggle, but she was quietly whispering in her heart.
‘Father, who usually just revolves around housework, actually has such a firm body. It’s a pity I’ve only just noticed; I might not have the chance to touch it again in the future~’
A sudden, inexplicable chill swept through his entire body without warning.
Both Lü Erlu and his “little brother” shivered, causing his lower abdominal muscles to twitch.
“Ziya, let’s go back to the living room. I don’t know what’s happening, but I suddenly feel a chill that’s making my hair stand on end…”
“Understood, Father!”
Ziya answered crisply, skipping along behind Lü Erlu as they headed toward the living room.
The sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, reflecting the figures of the father and daughter in a scene full of warm harmony.
***
Elsewhere, inside the Dragon Treasury.
“Not enough… it’s still not enough… it hurts so much…”
Long Jiu curled up amidst the mountains of gold, silver, and jewels.
She bit her lip hard, desperately trying to suppress the desires surging within her body.
Her voice was filled with painful whimpers.
She held herself tightly, her entire body trembling as she used every ounce of strength to fight against the instincts flowing in her bloodline.
“Father… Father…” she murmured unconsciously, tears pricking the corners of her eyes.
A dragon’s greed for treasure was an instinct carved into their very bones.
But at some unknown point, once she reached a certain stage of growth, this desire began to intensify.
Whenever she saw something shiny or priceless, an irresistible urge would scream at her to claim it as her own.
This was especially true after she awakened the power of the royal bloodline; the urge had become increasingly violent, nearly breaking through the cage of her reason.
To prevent herself from being consumed by desire, a subconscious mind had been forcibly split from the depths of her consciousness, silently guarding her as she teetered on the brink of collapse.
The treasures in the treasury kept piling up.
Others assumed it was simply the inherent wealth of the dragon hoard, but no one knew that most of these glittering objects were things Long Jiu had secretly brought back from the outside because she couldn’t control her desires.
Yet desire was like an unfillable chasm.
The more things she wanted, the more mundane gold and jewels felt dull and tasteless.
They could no longer satisfy her ever-expanding cravings.
Because Long Jiu knew better than anyone that the most precious treasure in this world was never one of these cold objects.
It was the figure who embraced her with a smile every morning, the one who had warmed her entire life.