novelraw Chapter 125
Chapter 125
Chapter 125: It’s My Rice, I Can Do What I Want
Xia Li had originally planned to spend the afternoon accumulating some drafts, as he intended to spend the next two days with Lucia.
He and Lucia had been living as a couple for so long, but they had never had a proper date.
Even if Lucia didn’t have the same needs as a human girl, Xia Li, as the man, should still do something.
He had made plans, to save two more chapters of manuscripts and then take Lucia out to play.
After all, now that he had a car, it was very convenient to travel far.
As a result, after a whole day of messing around, he hadn’t written a single word, and all his time was spent petting the dragon.
It took Xia Li a while to coax the evil dragon back to a good mood.
He was afraid that the evil dragon would think of him as a bad person and stay away from him.
He explained that the deception just now wasn’t really deception, it was a common tactic used by human men on women they liked. Just like the birds in nature would court, the way humans court is more complex…
Lucia thought for a while and found that it made sense.
So she stopped accusing Xia Li of his crimes and, with a blushing face, went to the kitchen to make dinner for him.
Xia Li pulled her back. It was Thursday, and he insisted on having Lucia eat fried chicken and burgers with him.
Lucia said, ‘How can outside food be as healthy as home-cooked food?’ but in reality, after the takeout arrived, the whole dragon was so fragrant that she almost swallowed the chicken bones whole.
“Delicious, right?”
“Yes, delicious.”
This kind of food used to coax children worked instantly on dragons too.
Lucia sucked her fingers clean, her full and satisfied face particularly relaxed.
“This is the purpose of making money,” Xia Li said, tapping the empty box.
“The money that humans earn in this society always has only two uses ━ the first is for survival, and the second is to please themselves. The latter often accounts for a large proportion.
It’s actually very difficult to starve to death in this society now. You can eat five yuan worth of noodles for a week, and if you’re desperate, you can survive by rummaging through trash cans or begging. The efforts we make in this society are basically to please ourselves.”
“Oh…”
Lucia understood the general idea.
The food bought with money was indeed more delicious than the food made at home.
Leaving aside the portion size and cost-effectiveness, at least Lucia felt the satisfaction brought by eating this food.
“How much is this bucket?” she asked.
“There’s a promotion today, fifty yuan. It should be more expensive usually.”
“Fifty…”
Lucia counted on her fingers, starting to assess the value of this meal using her own unique unit of measurement ━ fried rice cakes.
“The price of fifty fried rice cakes,” Xia Li helped her calculate the answer.
“Fifty!” the evil dragon exclaimed.
“Well, because we have big appetites, I ordered three buckets.”
“That’s so expensive!”
“One hundred and fifty yuan, it’s no problem to eat it once in a while,” Xia Li enlightened her, “The money in this society will only become less and less valuable in your pocket. Ten years ago, five yuan could buy five kilograms of rice, now five yuan can only buy two kilograms, this is depreciation.”
“So we should spend our money in the future, there’s no need to save on living expenses, these expenses are a necessity for us.”
Xia Li had been instilling human values in Lucia, and now it was time to tell her about the values of this society.
He was afraid that the evil dragon would be too frugal and live a hard life with him at home.
He could be wronged, he had lived a hard life of eating a box of instant noodles for a week.
But wronging his girlfriend was not allowed.
“But… we have no way to make money now.”
Lucia lowered her head and fiddled with the chicken bones on the table, lost in thought.
After understanding the importance of money to modern life, Lucia felt more and more insecure.
It was very difficult for a dragon who had lost her power to find a place for herself in human society.
Lucia knew that with her current abilities, it was almost impossible to find a job that suited her in society, she couldn’t make money.
So, even if it was just the money for a rabbit hot pot, she wanted to save as much as possible.
This kind of thinking was strange.
When she was a dragon, she had no worries about eating or doing anything, but now she became hesitant.
Lucia carefully analyzed the root cause of this thought…
She wanted to live a longer life with Xia Li.
“Doesn’t that travelogue already have income?”
Xia Li tapped the table, waking up the evil dragon whose thoughts had strayed.
“And, didn’t I say, I’ll go out and find a job.”
“What about me?” the evil dragon asked.
“You? How long have you been on Earth… Get familiar with life here first, and it’s not too late to make a decision after you find something you like to do.”
◈◈◈
“I’ll just stay at home and eat for free?”
Lucia raised her face, still stained with ketchup, and asked blankly.
Xia Li laughed, “What’s wrong with eating for free? It’s my rice, I can do what I want.”
“…” Lucia was speechless.
The Brave Hero had just said that he wanted her to be self-reliant, and if she didn’t work, she would have to go out and be a stray dragon… How come he changed his mind now?
Could this also be a manifestation of liking?
“Alright, alright, just put your heart at ease. If there’s any difficulty, I want you to rely on me, instead of thinking about it alone.”
Xia Li stood up and cleaned up the garbage on the table.
Lucia’s values hadn’t yet been formed, and it was actually very simple to correct the dragon’s inherent hoarding behavior, just let her enjoy the happiness brought by spending.
“Let’s go, let’s go for a walk to digest.”
After packing up all the garbage, Xia Li took the car keys and dangled them in front of Lucia.
Now that he had gotten the car, he had to drive it more often.
Lucia didn’t say much, she followed behind Xia Li like a little tail dragon as usual.
“Just got off work, Aunt Zhao.”
In the corridor, their neighbor on the second floor, Zhao Qin, was rummaging through her bag for her keys. Hearing Xia Li’s greeting, she turned around with a smile.
“Yeah, the shop wasn’t busy today, so I got off work early. Have you guys eaten? I have food at home, why don’t you come over and have a simple meal?”
“We’ve eaten, we’re going for a walk.”
“Alright, drive slowly.”
Declining the neighbor’s kindness, Xia Li pulled Lucia’s little hand downstairs.
It was still bright outside, in Sichuan it usually didn’t get completely dark until eight o’clock in the evening.
At this time, the sun was red, hanging in the sky like a scorching sun.
“Just now when I greeted the neighbor, you should also greet her with me, this is basic etiquette between humans,” Xia Li said as he walked.
Lucia listened attentively, and thought, “Etiquette… What about Zhou Anqi and the others?”
“It doesn’t matter between friends, you can call them whatever you want, or not call them at all, it’s mainly for elders… Especially my parents, when you see them in the future, you should also exchange greetings and ask after them, this way you can appear to be a polite person.”
“Oh…”
Lucia silently took note of the main points.
After all, it was about the Brave Hero’s parents, this was still very important to her.
“Also, you should also greet me occasionally,” Xia Li gave an example, “For example, when you wake up in the morning, say ‘good morning’, and before you close your eyes at night, say ‘good night’ to me, preferably by climbing up to my bedside and whispering it in my ear.”
“…”
Lucia thought about it carefully, and felt that her relationship with Xia Li wasn’t so distant that she needed to greet him like this, right?
“Is there any benefit to saying it?”
“If you say it, I’ll launch like a rocket.”
“… Huh?”
“It would be even better if these good mornings and good nights could have a prefix,” Xia Li pushed his luck.
“What prefix?” Lucia asked.
How could the evil dragon understand human titles and appellations?
She only knew the two common relationships of ‘friend’ and ‘parent’, at most adding ‘couple’, any more and her brain would be confused.
“I’ll test you with a question.”
Xia Li didn’t answer. Hearing that he was going to give her a question, Lucia immediately perked up.
“What question?”
“I see you’ve been studying the list of human relationship titles recently… With the relationship between you and me now, if our relationship gets even better, even more sublimated, what should you call me?”
Lucia was stunned by this complicated question, and only after a moment did she answer.
“Boyfriend… ?”
“What’s above boyfriend?”
“I don’t know…”
“Let me remind you, use the word ‘old’ to form a word.”
Xia Li came to a stop in front of the car.
He was looking forward to Lucia giving the correct answer.
The evil dragon’s little face was silent.
It could be seen that she was really trying hard to think.
After half a minute of silence, Lucia gave an uncertain answer.
“Old… Old thing?”