Chapter 3. “Son, mum will feed you!” (honeydew bubble tea)

Phương put in a generous amount of chopped chillies into his bowl. As he ate, he squinted his own eyes in enjoyment.

Watching Long Quang’s tail improved his mood further. As he watched Long Quang eat, Phương caught the sight of little pointed canine teeth.

How cute!

Long Quang had the kind of appearance could debut back in his old world, the kind where fans would shout, “son, mum will feed you!!”

Speaking of feeding him, Long Quang’s bowl was almost empty.

Phương stood up. “More?”

“Yes—no! What do you want from me?” Long Quang gave Phương a cold, cool look, which was ruined by his frequent glances at his empty bowl and Phương’s not-empty bowl, and how he kept touching his empty cup.

“You tell me, what can little Long Quang do?” Phương teased.

“I can…” Long Quang watched as Phương took his bowl and cup. His tail drooped. “Whatever, I don’t want to do anything for you.”

Phương laughed. He refilled the bowl and cup and took them back to Long Quang. “Have some more, young dragons are still growing dragons.”

Long Quang gritted his teeth. He wanted to refuse—but the food was right in front of him…

Phương grinned and sat back down. All bark and no bite. Phương watched him eat with great interest. “So, what brings a dragon here? Are you sure you don’t need a healing pill?”

“I’m fine,” Long Quang said.

“Is it not your blood?”

“It’s my blood.”

“Who injured you?”

“It’s a dragon thing, you wouldn’t know.”

“What if I want to know?”

At that, Long Quang stopped eating. He held the bowl protectively as he narrowed his eyes at Phương. “Are you a spy?”

Phương sipped sparkling lemonade. “Oh? And what if I am?”

Long Quang immediately fluffed up. “You human!” He pushed his chair back, but didn’t let go of his bowl.

Phương laughed. “Okay, okay, sorry for joking. I’m not a spy. I’m not part of any sect. I was just curious, dragons are pretty cool.”

“Well.” Long Quang heard that as ‘you’re pretty cool’, and his mood improved. Given that this human didn’t seem like an evil kidnapper, he said, “We dragons have regular competitions to establish the top dragon.”

“Ah.” Phương was familiar with sect tournaments. Everything had to be a competition. And given Long Quang’s appearance here, he had clearly lost and slunk away. Poor kid.

Phương stood up. “Let me make another drink for you.”

Long Quang glanced at him but didn’t stop him.

He could tell that Long Quang had a sweet tooth, so Phương decided to prepare a sweet fruit bubble tea using the fresh ripe honeydew melon he had recently bought from the market.

He wasn’t fazed by Long Quang watching his every move. His sword sliced up the honeydew melon into large chunks. Phương blended it with extra sugar and non-dairy creamer using his home-made blender device version 2.

The popping pearls—with coconut cream inside—had been prepared earlier. Phương put a generous helping of pearls in a cup and poured the blended honeydew on top.

“Ta-da, this is honeydew bubble tea,” Phương said. “You can drink this through this straw.”

Long Quang took the cup and sucked on the straw. His hair puffed up when the first pearl popped in his mouth. The sweetness of the drink made his eyes light up and his tail swish and the popping pearls reminded him bursting air bubbles under the sea.

Somehow, Long Quang reached the end of the cup before he was satisfied. He stared at the empty cup with a sense of betrayal—why were human cups so small? He gave the human a pointed look.

“Do you want another?” Phương teased. “What do you have to say?”

Long Quang huffed. “What do you want, human?” He reluctantly took out a spiritual stone. “Here.”

Phương took it without pretending to be polite. “I’ll make you another one right away.”

“Make me more!”

“Are you planning to stay here all night drinking? I have a guest bedroom.”

“I’m not that stupid,” Long Quang rolled his eyes.

“Do you even have a dragon pearl that I can steal?”

Long Quang wrapped his arms around his body. “Of course I do! But I’m not going to show you! I’m not going to stay the night!”

Phương’s lips twitched in amusement. “Alright, alright.”

He went to prepare a big batch of honeydew bubble tea. The blender was large enough to blend four cups at a time. Phương gave Long Quang one glass and packed the rest into takeaway bamboo-tube cups with lids.

“You can also have these cookies,” Phương said generously, as though he was giving them away for free. He placed a package of cookies, twelve cups of honeydew bubble tea, and twelve big straws on the dining table.

Long Quang could smell the sweet caramelly-baked scent of the cookies. He suddenly wanted to stay longer, he bet this human had a lot more tasty food hidden away! But…he had already said he wasn’t going to stay.

Long Quang sipped his second cup of delicious honeydew bubble tea with regret. A human who could make such delicious food and willingly give it to a dragon like him, he must either be truly nice or secretly dastardly evil.

“Oh, do you want to stay over now, kid? That guest bedroom is still available,” Phương said with teasing smile.

—Definitely dastardly evil!

“I’m not a kid, I’m already 50 years old!” Long Quang retorted.

Phương gasped in exaggerated shock. “Huh? You’re almost as old as me? Then why do you act like you’re 18?”

“Grrr!!”

Phương grinned, unfazed. Even the little growl was cute, was this dragon really 50 years old?

Long Quang sucked the rest of the bubble tea in his cup. He swept his hands over the bamboo cups, straws and cookies, storing them in his spatial storage.

He gave Phương a stern look. “I’m returning to the ocean.”

“Feel free to come back whenever you’re free,” Phương said.

Long Quang huffed. “I’ll come if I want to.”

He stood up, giving Phương, and then the house and gardens, a long look. Then he turned and walked towards the water, tail swishing behind him.

As the water reached his knees, there was a blinding light as his human form morphed into his dragon form. With a splash!, the long azure dragon dove into the water and swam away.

It was a pity that Phương couldn’t examine that dragon form for longer. The dragon was really cute—his emotions were worn on his sleeve, nothing like the sly cultivators he used to have to deal with.

He wondered if he had enticed him enough to return. The thought put Phương in a good mood.

Water parted as Long Quang swam. As he dove deeper, the ocean water became darker.

Long Quang also became more downcast.

Upon passing through the undersea barrier, the water was bright again. But Long Quang’s mood didn’t improve.

The patrolling turtles ignored him, as did the various other dragons and sea creatures that Long Quang passed.

Unlike the other dragons, Long Quang’s scales weren’t as bright and shiny, and his body wasn’t as big and powerful.

Towards the centre of the Blue Ocean Dragon kingdom was the awe-inspiring, brightly lit, Imperial Dragon Palace.

Long Quang’s home was a cave at the outskirts of the dragon kingdom. He transformed into his small human form in order to fit through the cave entrance.

Long Quang took out his dragon pearl to light up the space. The cave had jagged rocks along all surfaces except for the smoothed space in the middle. A few old items and broken treasures littered the space.

Compared with many human houses that Long Quang had seen (not that he had seen many), he had thought his cave wasn’t too bad. At least, his dragon pearl meant the space was brightly lit, and the cave was big enough for his full-sized dragon form (though it was getting increasingly uncomfortable).

But now that he had seen that human’s house, the cave suddenly felt lacking.

Long Quang took out a cup of bubble tea and drank it, feeling glum.

The sweet fragrant honeydew drink filled his mouth and the milky white pearls burst sugary creaminess.

Hmm, tastes good.

“Brother! You’re back! What’s that?”

Several little dragons swam into Long Quang’s cave. One was a younger brother, and four were various cousins.

“Where are your mothers?” he asked them.

“Cultivating!” the baby dragons chorused.

Long Quang pressed his lips together.

Some dragons liked to care for their young and some didn’t.

Long Quang reluctantly gave each of them a cup of bubble tea. “There’s no spiritual energy but it tastes good. Drink it and go back and practice.”

“Yes, older brother!”

The baby dragons hugged the cups with their claws and sipped through the straws. “Wow!”

“This is so delicious!”

“Thank you, big brother!”

“You’re the best!”

Long Quang puffed up, his tail wagging. “Hm,” he said in an appropriate big-brother-like manner. He played with his little brother and cousins for a bit before chasing them out of his cave.

After they left, Long Quang tasted a cookie (delicious!) and inspected his bubble tea treasures—only to realise that after drinking one and giving the five young dragons one each, he only had six left! His little stock had decreased by half!

Long Quang: Ah! My bubble tea!

Phương: *sets up a trap using bubble tea as bait* Hehe, I’m a genius (￣▽￣)