novelraw Chapter 135
Chapter 135
Chapter 135: The Silver Dragon Wins!
Xia Li had never seen a breakfast cart at this hour.
At the entrance of the alley outside the apartment complex, a small yellow bus was parked by the roadside, smoke curling from its windows, a mix of steam and fumes.
Xia Li walked closer and realized this wasn’t a breakfast cart at all, but a late-night snack stall.
Back when he had just started university and had no classes, he would often go out with Chen Tao for all-night internet sessions. This very cart was their go-to spot for revival afterwards.
“Fried skewers, not really suitable for breakfast, you…”
Xia Li was about to tell Lucia to wait a while for the noodle shop next door to open, but seeing the Evil Dragon’s drooling eyes made him change his mind.
“But they have fried rice cakes…”
Lucia stood beside Xia Li, pointing her finger at the rectangular white food in the glass display case.
It was indeed the kind of fried rice cakes Lucia used to eat. However, the ingredients in these kinds of fried skewer carts were mostly pre-cooked and frozen, completely different from the handmade rice cakes sold by the old women on the street.
But it was fine to let her try it. Xia Li pushed open the glass window, stretched out his arm to grab the tongs, deciding to have this for breakfast today.
“What else do you want? I’ll get it for you.”
“Everything except the vegetables.” Lucia said with a serious little face.
“Eating meat this early in the morning will give you indigestion.”
Xia Li muttered, but still, being a dragon-doting person, he picked out all the meat skewers.
“Hmph, you’re the one who wants to eat it. The first thing you said when you woke up was that you wanted meat, so now you can eat more…”
“Did I say I wanted to eat pork?” Xia Li glanced at her and retorted.
Lucia didn’t speak.
She walked around the food cart, watching the owner’s hot pot sizzling with oil.
Tsk!
What are you pretending to be, Little Dragon?
I’ve already seen through your little scheme.
He got a bit of both meat and vegetables. Xia Li didn’t want to eat too much of this greasy food, so he picked out a plate and handed it to the owner.
The cart owner was about to close up, so this full plate of food was undoubtedly a big order for him.
“There are tables and chairs behind you, just wait a moment. Do you want it spicy?”
The owner, wearing an apron, wiped the grease from his face and greeted them enthusiastically.
A pretty young girl with a sweet face stood beside him, staring at the pot of bubbling hot oil and said.
“Yes, but no chili peppers.”
“Huh?”
The owner didn’t understand, so Xia Li quickly pulled the Stinky Dragon over.
“No chili peppers, and less Sichuan peppercorns too.”
“Alright~” The owner readily agreed.
Xia Li pulled Lucia over to sit on a small plastic stool.
This kind of small stool was just right for her. She could even put her little feet sideways, looking like a squatting duck at first glance, quite cute.
In contrast, Xia Li’s long legs had nowhere to go, so he could only raise his knees and rest his wrists on them, almost as if he was sitting on the ground.
As the ingredients went into the pot, the sound of hot oil bubbling and sizzling filled the air, accompanied by the pungent aroma of hot fumes.
Xia Li stared intently at Lucia.
Lucia didn’t want to look at him. She looked around for a while, but found nothing to distract her. In the end, she could only play with her own hands out of boredom.
“Young man, want some beer? We have boiled beer.” The owner’s voice came from beside the frying pot.
Xia Li turned to ask the Evil Dragon, “Do you want some?”
“I don’t drink.” The Evil Dragon shook her head.
She wouldn’t drink something that would make her dizzy with a magic spell.
“You can try alcohol, it can make you forget your troubles for a while.” Xia Li said seriously.
Lucia shook her head again. “But I don’t have any troubles.”
“…It can also make you feel excited and happy!”
“I’m very happy now.”
“And it can also give you courage, to do things you wouldn’t normally dare to do.”
“I dare to do anything.”
Xia Li asked seriously, and Lucia answered with a straight face.
Four traps, the Evil Dragon didn’t fall for a single one.
Xia Li was helpless.
This dragon was obviously smarter than before.
Xia Li thought to himself, sooner or later, he would have to use both coercion and temptation to let her experience the joy of alcohol.
Ten minutes passed.
A plate of fried skewers sprinkled with seasoning was brought up.
◈◈◈
Xia Li ordered a bottle of soda. This kind of late-night place didn’t sell juice, so Lucia could only hold a bottle of mineral water and chug it down.
“So spicy…”
“Fried skewers in Sichuan are like this. Even if you don’t sprinkle chili powder, spicy seasoning is added during the marinating process.”
“This fried rice cake is poking my mouth!”
Lucia’s lips were red from the spice, her small mouth breathing out hot air with a hissing sound.
“This is a late-night snack stall. People who come here at night like this kind of heavy oil and heavy spice.”
As a Sichuan dragon, Lucia would eventually learn to eat chili peppers after a year or two, so Xia Li wasn’t in a hurry.
“Bear with it for a while, it won’t hurt soon.”
Xia Li rested his chin on his hand, looking at the Evil Dragon’s slightly swollen lips with a smirk.
This awful line didn’t get a response from the Little Dragon. Lucia’s head was dizzy from the spice, her small mouth taking big breaths, constantly waving her little hands to fan air into her mouth.
The Evil Dragon subdued by chili peppers was amusing, but also quite pitiful.
“Have some soda. Mine is chilled. Your mouth will hurt a bit when you drink it, but it’s very effective in relieving the spice.”
Xia Li shook his soda bottle and offered it to her.
Only idle people like them would go out for fried skewers and soda this early in the morning.
Lucia hesitated for a moment, thinking that Xia Li definitely wouldn’t harm her, so she picked up the glass bottle and chugged it down.
“Mmmmmm!”
Xia Li knew what the Little Dragon was saying. She was saying, ‘The cola is attacking me!’
“The cola used bubble magic, dealing a devastating blow to the Silver Dragon. But the Silver Dragon was not to be outdone. She opened her maw and used the Dragon Water Absorption magic, swallowing all the bubbles in one gulp… The Silver Dragon wins!”
Under the double stimulation of carbon dioxide and capsaicin, Lucia’s eyes were red from the spice.
She wanted to say something pitiful, but Xia Li’s explanation completely threw her off.
“I knew the Silver Dragon would win!” Xia Li slapped his thigh and said dramatically.
How could Lucia withstand such praise?
She shyly put the empty bottle back on the table, blushing and burping.
“…Human soda, it’s just so-so.”
“Then do you want to try beer?”
“No!”
“…”
Xia Li’s dragon-catching trap failed again.
When would he ever see the Little Dragon, dizzy from drinking, whimpering in his arms, wanting to do this and that with him?
Xia Li clearly felt himself becoming greedy.
This was his uncontrollable love for Lucia.
Just having her stand beside him made him crave more from her.
“Let’s go. I’ll take you to eat something milder when it gets brighter.”
The food was almost finished. Xia Li paid and took the still-panting dragon away.
“This level of spice is just the beginner level. Once you’ve lived here for a while, this kind of stuff will be nothing to you.”
“That powerful?” Lucia didn’t believe it and asked, looking up, “About how long will it take?”
“Maybe a year or two. Out-of-towners usually adapt in a year or two.”
“Oh… that’s quite soon.”
“Yes, what we have most is time. Time can smooth everything over.”
Xia Li squeezed the dragon claw in his hand, walking slowly under the streetlight.
The tree trunks that had been swept by the autumn wind were bare. A few evergreen trees rustled in the night wind.
The drawn-out night was gradually coming to an end. When a sliver of white light appeared on the horizon, even the stars dimmed.
Time could make a giant dragon slowly adapt to this society, making her accustomed to this place.
Dragons are solitary creatures.
It would take time for her to accept having one more person in her lonely life.
Xia Li was not in a hurry.
He had already told Lucia all the problems they would face.
Lucia said she was not afraid.
All that remained was to face these problems and solve them.