Chapter 14. Long Quang’s new favourite cute little animal-shaped light (sweet syrupy longan juice)

Sect Leader Xīn Lìjūn’s face twitched as Phương started brewing a big batch of black tea and jasmine tea and filled the counter with bamboo cups ready to be filled. “That’s too much.”

Zhèng Huá said in a weird tone, “You want me to leave now, right? You always make me leave after you appear. And who knows when you’ll let me come back here. Hey, add ten cups of goji berry herbal tea for this old man.” He placed several spiritual stones on the counter.

“Right away,” Phương said.

“….You can come back here freely.” Xīn Lìjūn said. “No need for ten cups.”

“Yes need for ten cups,” Zhèng Huá said.

Phương listened to the paying customer and took out ten extra cups and put another pot on the stove to brew the goji berry drink.

“Shīdì, you need to be more diligent in your cultivation,” Xīn Lìjūn chided.

Zhèng Huá huffed. He turned to Phương while gesturing at Xīn Lìjūn. “Can I get a refund on this boyfriend?”

“I’ll have to speak to the manager,” Phương said.

Zhèng Huá huffed a laugh; Phương’s lips quirked up.

The shared joke between Zhèng Huá and Phương made certain others watching feel quite sour.

“Aren’t you the manager?” Long Quang mumbled.

Phương spared Long Quang a smile in-between making bubble tea. “Zhèng Huá, how about little Long Quang instead? He’s cuter than Sect Leader Xīn Lìjūn.”

Zhèng Huá turned his gaze to Long Quang, comparing him and Xīn Lìjūn. “That’s true, his face reminds me of some famous handsome idols, and he’s certainly less gloomy and annoying.”

Long Quang’s face went red. “You—you—” He gave Phương a betrayed look. “I don’t even know him!”

Xīn Lìjūn snorted, wrapping a possessive arm around Zhèng Huá. “He’s my dual cultivation partner.”

It was Zhèng Huá’s turn to blush. “What? When did I agree to that?”

Xīn Lìjūn gave Zhèng Huá a kiss. “A sect leader is not complete with a Dao cultivation partner. You will become the madam of the Móyuān Gé Sect.”

Zhèng Huá shoved him away with a snort. “If you want a madam then I’ll find you a female cultivation partner.”

“You’ll be the second boss of the Móyuān Gé Sect,” Xīn Lìjūn corrected himself.

“Hhmpf,” Zhèng Huá huffed, but his expression eased up.

“I’ll take you visit and inspect the Móyuān Gé Sect. You can tell me anything you dislike and it’ll be changed. Unlike certain righteous sects, we don’t practice inedia, so there are many delicious foods.”

Zhèng Huá nodded. “Alright—”

“—So there’s no need to order so many drinks.”

Zhèng Huá rolled his eyes. “Oh, so that’s what you really want.” He looked to Long Quang. “He’s a dragon and he drinks a lot of bubble tea!”

Long Quang stiffened. It was really hard to deny that he wasn’t drinking a lot of bubble tea when he had almost finished his two cups.

“I want to visit the dragon kingdom,” Zhèng Huá declared.

Long Quang frowned. “Why?”

“Because it’s a place where people—I mean dragons—actually like bubble tea,” Zhèng Huá said.

Xīn Lìjūn: “…Huá-shīdì, don’t be so wilful. Dragons don’t allow human cultivators into their kingdom.”

“No humans allowed,” Long Quang said.

“But shīxiōng…” Zhèng Huá tugged Xīn Lìjūn’s clothes.

Xīn Lìjūn sighed and said, “When we return to Míwù Shān Sect, we can send an official letter requesting a friendly visit.”

“Míwù Shān? Not your demonic sect?”

“Here you go, all done,” Phương said. “Ten cups original milk tea with boba, ten matcha, ten taro, ten brown sugar, ten jasmine with cream cheese foam, all with extra boba and full sugar, no ice, and ten cups goji berry tea. They can be stored indefinitely in a suspended stasis spatial storage.”

Zhèng Huá brightened. He put everything into his spatial storage, ‘accidentally’ jabbing Xīn Lìjūn as he did so.

“Let’s go,” Xīn Lìjūn said. He wrapped an arm around Zhèng Huá.

Zhèng Huá grabbed the glass of matcha bubble tea on the table which he hadn’t yet finished due to Xīn Lìjūn’s interruption. “Fine fine, can I take this for now? I’ll return it later.”

“Go ahead,” Phương said.

“Thanks!”

“Now let’s go,” Xīn Lìjūn said.

“Wait, one more thing, what are those?” Zhèng Huá pointed to the display cabinet. “Those little animals?”

“They’re light orbs,” Phương said. “I refined them myself.”

“Give me a complete zodiac set,” Zhèng Huá said. He took out several more spiritual stones.

Phương smiled. “Of course. Do you want the rabbit or the cat?”

“The rabbit!”

Phương packed twelve chubby light orbs into a large cushioned box and handed it over to Zhèng Huá. “The on-off switch is on the base. They’re powered by spiritual stones.”

“Got it.” Zhèng Huá put the box away.

“Now can we go?” Xīn Lìjūn said.

Zhèng Huá looked at the rest of the display cabinets. “Well, those cushions look…”

Xīn Lìjūn wrapped an arm around Zhèng Huá and started pulling him away forcefully. “We’re going.”

“Fine.” As he was being hugged out of the shop, Zhèng Huá shouted, “I’ll be back!”

“Come again soon,” Phương waved.

Zhèng Huá and Xīn Lìjūn continued to bicker as they walked away. Xīn Lìjūn formed a crack in space and the two disappeared.

Long Quang finished his bubble tea, feeling inexplicably bitter.

Phương reached out and tapped the table. “Want another one? Or would you like dessert or a meal?”

“A dragon doesn’t choose. A dragon wants all of them.”

Phương gave him an encouraging look.

“…Please, anh Phương.”

Phương smiled in satisfaction. “Alright, brother will make everything for little Long Quang!”

Long Quang averted his gaze, already regretting that he had said those words to a human barely older than himself. His gaze wandered around the shop and landed on the display cabinets.

Even after that other human cultivator bought twelve of them, there were still many light orbs remaining.

Looking closely, there were multiple new little chubby dragon lights, all in different poses. The urge to sweep all of them into his spatial storage was strong, but he had to resist.

The smell of deep-fried food filled the air. Long Quang breathed in deeply and returned his gaze to Phương.

“It’s not yet dinner time, so have a snack to cushion your stomach first,” Phương said. It didn’t take him long to give Long Quang a plate of fried spring rolls and a cup of sweet syrupy longan juice with longan chunks.

Long Quang grabbed two spring rolls and stuffed them into his mouth. He had forgotten how delicious these were!

“Interested in those light orbs? Have you created a new technique yet?”

Long Quang had just put another spring roll into his mouth as Phương asked that. He gave him an annoyed look, chewed, swallowed. “I have made a new move.”

“Then show it to me, and you can pick another light orb for free.”

Long Quang drank some longan juice. “Watch carefully.” He collected water in the air and formed a water dragon, armoured with ice, and sent it flying around Phương.

Phương’s eyes widened and his lips curled up as he reached out for it. “Come here,” he coaxed, as though that did anything.

Long Quang manipulated the dragon to fly around Phương’s hands. He pouted when Phương successfully caught it.

“How cute. Can you make it into the shape of a baby dragon?” Phương petted the little water dragon with one finger.

Long Quang felt a phantom sensation down his back. He shook it off and changed the little water dragon into the shape of his baby cousins. “There.”

“So that’s what baby dragons look like,” Phương said. He held it up close. “You must see many baby dragons.”

“Do you like baby dragons?”

Phương grinned. “Don’t you? Look, the little stubby horns, the little tiny claws and the big eyes, who wouldn’t love them? I’m sure you were very cute as a baby too.”

Long Quang blushed. “Ahem.” He dissipated the water dragon. “Light orb now?”

Phương was disappointed. “Are you sure you don’t want to become a refiner? I’ll come out of retirement just for you.”

“No. Light orb now?”

Phương gestured generously towards the display cabinets. “Take your pick.”

Long Quang had another spring roll while he carefully assessed each object in the display cabinets.

Which was the best?

Each chubby dragon had its own charm, like the one curled around a ‘dragon pearl’, or the one posed ready to pounce, or the one about to trip out of its shell. There were also some new sea-animal-shaped lights as well, like sharks, whales, turtles, fish and starfish—

Was that…a jellyfish?!

There was a main bell-shaped-orb and little wispy tentacles. The tentacles was arranged in such a way that they supported the jellyfish light.

Long Quang stood up and slowly approached the display cabinets. “Anything I want? Can I touch it first?”

“Don’t break anything.”

Long Quang’s hand hovered over the little dragons for a moment, but then passed over to the jellyfish. The light switch was hidden under the bell. Pressing it, a soft yellow light glowed from the jellyfish bell, bringing out the patterns on the bell, with little pin-pricks of light along the tentacles.

This one! Long Quang pressed it again, but instead of turning off, the light changed glow colour from soft yellow to soft blue! Pressing it again turned it into a soft pink! And only on the third press did it turn off.

Dragon pearls didn’t change colour like this!

Long Quang couldn’t help but press it again, cycling through the different colours. Each colour had its own strengths, he couldn’t pick a favourite colour.

Phương smiled indulgently. “You like it? Some of the others also change colour.”

“I want this one.” Long Quang tucked the jellyfish light into his spatial storage, safe from everyone else. Being able to have it without having to pay made him feel even better.

Long Quang: Profiting from a profiteer is the best (≖ᴗ≖ ✿)

Phương: Look at how the little dragon is growing up!

 Notes:

Móyuān Gé: Demon Abyss Pavilion (see previous chapter)

Zodiac: The Chinese Zodiac has twelve animals; the Vietnamese Zodiac is much the same, except the ox is replaced with the water buffalo and the rabbit is replaced with the cat. I’ve heard two folk-reasons for the rabbit/cat replacement—one is that the Chinese word for rabbit sounds like the Vietnamese word for cat; and the other reason is that cats are more useful on a (Vietnamese) farm than rabbits.

“little Long Quang”: When Phương is saying “little Long Quang”, the word he would actually use for ‘little’ is “em”, i.e., “em Long Quang”, or even just “em” by itself. It is not the same as the Chinese 小 (xiǎo). “em” is the Vietnamese  pronoun term for younger sibling/younger person/younger partner (gender neutral). The older person will call the younger person “em”, while the younger person would refer to themselves as “em”.