The black gemstone, situated at the center, was the largest. The other gems surrounded it like stars orbiting the moon.
As Ruan Shu observed the bracelet, she noticed that the black gemstone looked different from the rest.
How to describe it?
The other gems were clear and bright, almost glass-like, while the black one was pure, opaque, and deeply dark.
It had a unique sheen, making it quite beautiful.
Ruan Shu tapped the black gemstone with her little finger, finding it oddly familiar.
But why would Almer give her a bracelet? Did he think it looked nice?
Yawning as she prepared to sleep, a blackberry vine, who’d been off wandering all day, climbed in through the window.
The vine wriggled its way to Ruan Shu’s side, attempting to crawl onto the bed, but she caught it mid-action.
As she held the little vine, she noticed its color seemed to have faded a bit.
She found a clean towel, wiped the vine off, and then tossed it onto the bed.
“I’m going to sleep now, so behave and don’t cause trouble.”
Ruan Shu yawned and lay down, but the vine slithered over to her wrist, flaring up as if it were bristling.
It hooked onto the bracelet on her wrist, trying to yank it off, while the other end slapped angrily on the bed.
What was this ugly thing, daring to claim its territory!
Ruan Shu’s wrist started to hurt from its tugging, so she moved it to her other hand, coaxing gently, “There’s another wrist here; be good.”
Her voice was soft and sweet, yet the vine stubbornly tried to pull the bracelet off her wrist.
It wasn’t just being petty—this silly bracelet was imbued with the scent of that detestable dragon, so strongly that the vine wanted to fight it off.
Despite its best efforts, the little vine couldn’t manage to remove the bracelet.
Frustrated, it gave the bracelet a sharp slap, and the next second, it vanished.
Ruan Shu: “???”
Ruan Shu: “!!!”
Where did it go?
She searched all over the bed, but the vine was nowhere to be found.
It had vanished right before her eyes!
Looking at the bracelet, Ruan Shu suddenly recalled Almer’s demonstration of spatial displacement.
Cautiously, she extended her weak Jingshen toward it.
In the next moment, the little vine reappeared, flopping onto the bed looking utterly battered and miserable.
Before the little vine could get up, a cascade of beautiful gemstones, pearls, and crystals rained down, landing precisely on top of it and creating a small, sparkling burial mound.
Ruan Shu: “……”
Wha… why are there so many things?
Wait, the bigger question is… Almer gave her a spatial bracelet!
“No, I’ll have to return it tomorrow.”
How could he give her something so valuable without a word?
The little vine struggled to extricate itself from the pile of glistening gems.
All these jewels—they all carried the scent of that annoying dragon!
Frustrated, the vine grabbed one of the gems with its tendril and flung it away.
But it must have used too much force because the gem bounced off the wall and shot straight back, landing right on top of it again.
The poor, defeated vine lay there, lifeless (╥﹏╥).
Why was it always the one to suffer?
Ruan Shu turned her head, “What’s wrong with you?”
The little vine, despondent, lay flat by the gems, hoping to be left alone in its misery.
Ruan Shu picked it up and placed it beside her pillow, then pondered how to put all those gemstones back into the bracelet.
Then she discovered that, as long as her hand touched them, she could store them with just a thought.
She fiddled with the bracelet and realized she couldn’t take it off either.
Oh well, time to sleep.
Hugging her pillow, she yawned, letting the matter slip from her mind. Almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, she was sound asleep.
The little vine was furious—how could she fall asleep so quickly?
Feeling wronged, it climbed onto her other wrist. The more it thought about it, the angrier it became, and it gave the bracelet another hard slap.
That shameless dragon! Embedding his own scales into this thing to wrap around her wrist—who did he think he was provoking?
Perhaps because she was truly exhausted from the day before, Ruan Shu slept exceptionally well, not even waking up for breakfast.
She vaguely sensed her father coming into her room at some point and thought he might have fed her some milk juice?
When she finally woke up, the house was empty except for her grandpa and the butler.
After lunch, Ruan Shu decided to go find Almer.
Ruan He: “Why go looking for His Majesty? Didn’t you just spend the entire day with him yesterday?”
The tone was unmistakably sour, as if he felt his precious little girl was at risk of being stolen away.
Ruan Shu raised her wrist and gave the bracelet a small shake. The silver bracelet, adorned with beautiful gemstones, encircled her delicate, fair wrist with an air of elegance.
In her soft, sweet voice, Ruan Shu explained to her grandpa, “Almer gave me a spatial bracelet. I want to return it to him.”
Ruan He: “…”
Upon getting a good look at the bracelet, Ruan He took a sharp breath.
“How could he give you that?”
Ruan Shu blinked, her eyes wide and innocent, with a hint of confusion. “What’s wrong with this bracelet?”
Standing up in a flustered state, Ruan He paced back and forth, muttering a string of curses about Almer under his breath.
“That bracelet… he wore it when he was little!”
Ruan Shu: “???”
“And it has a lot of history! It’s a family heirloom that the dragon clan traditionally passes down to their children. I knew it! I just knew that ras… ahem, His Majesty was up to no good. He’s really trying to take you back and make you his daughter. He’s barely grown himself, and he’s already thinking about a daughter? Why doesn’t he go and have his own? Trying to kidnap ours—where’s the sense in that?!”
Ruan He was practically fuming, glaring at the bracelet like it had personally insulted him. But aside from Almer, the one who had placed the bracelet on Ruan Shu’s wrist, no one else could remove it.
Even if Ruan Shu transformed into a little kitten, the bracelet would instantly resize into a delicate collar around her neck.
“Come on, let’s go find Almer and make him take it off. We don’t want this thing. If Shushu wants a spatial bracelet, Grandpa will get you one, and it’ll be even prettier than this one! I thought it was strange when you came back yesterday smelling so much like a dragon—I just figured it was because you spent the whole day with him. Turns out it’s because of this!”
He pointed at the bracelet, glaring at it with clenched teeth. “That black ‘gem’ is actually the first dragon scale he shed after hatching. It’s customary for a dragon’s elders to polish it and embed it in the bracelet. When the bracelet is passed down, that first scale is replaced with one from its new owner.”
Ruan Shu looked at the black ‘gem’ thoughtfully. She knew it looked familiar; so it was Almer’s dragon scale after all.
The situation now felt rather odd, almost like, ‘I saw you as a brother, but you wanted to be my dad.’
Thinking back, it made sense. Almer had always been incredibly kind to her—no wonder he always enjoyed feeding her at meals.