Almer instantly held back the words he was about to say.
“Almer~”
A soft, cheerful voice called his name with a sweet and playful tone.
“Good afternoon, Almer.”
The young man’s previously dark expression brightened instantly. A smile crept into his golden eyes, and his lips curved upward involuntarily.
“Shushu, they didn’t say anything weird to you, did they?”
Long Chen replied, “Relax, we didn’t tell her about how you marked your territory by peeing on your grandpa’s bed when you were three, burned down the Dragon Palace at four, or plucked out my mustache when you were five…”
Almer, who was walking, stumbled and nearly fell. His expression froze completely.
“Why did you have to say that?”
He was flustered.
Even through the screen, his embarrassment and irritation were palpable.
Ruan Shu: “(ovo)”
Long Chen laughed heartily at Almer’s gritted-teeth look.
Karl laughed the loudest, “Little dragon boy has grown up and developed a sense of shame. Your childhood is filled with dark history—I could talk about it for a whole year without repeating anything!”
Hilarious. Back then, as he tormented them, he never imagined how mortified he’d feel thinking back on it when he grew up.
Almer glared, “Uncle Karl, you have no right to laugh at me. Grandpa told me that when you were little, you fought animals over milk, wet the bed in your teens, and challenged Uncle Mo Zhan only to get all your teeth knocked out…”
Karl: “!!!”
“You brat, shut up!”
Now it was Karl’s turn to be angry, transforming him from a mighty old dragon into a flustered mess. Wasn’t he old enough to save face?
Almer looked at the other two, “Grandfather, Uncle Mishu, I still have photos of you both lazing around in the orchid fields. Want to take a look? Or maybe I should post them online so everyone can admire our dragon clan’s elegance.”
Almer’s smile grew wider, but the other three dragons weren’t as happy.
During the orchid sessions, they had been so relaxed that their positions had become… a bit undignified. At best, the golden dragon was sprawled belly-up, legs akimbo.
Three dragons: … Damn it, this kid’s got us cornered!
And so, they all fell silent.
Almer snorted, but then his gaze met Ruan Shu’s innocent, round eyes, and his ears tinged pink. He raised a hand to his forehead.
“Shushu, don’t pay too much attention to those random things they said.”
Ruan Shu nodded obediently, “Alright.”
But how could she forget? Who would have thought Almer was such a mischievous kid?
Almer decided it was time to change the subject.
Then Almer realized that the three dragons indeed had mischievous intentions, wanting to whisk Shushu away to Dragon Island.
Almer glared at them furiously, almost wishing he could breathe fire to singe their hair again, just to remind them of past lessons.
“Don’t listen to them. If you want to visit Dragon Island in the future, I’ll take you myself.”
Yes, Almer was absolutely this biased. He wasn’t on Dragon Island, so why should the three old dragons get to take Shushu there? If she was going, it would be with him!
Ruan Shu obediently agreed, “Alright.”
Long Chen: ……
This ungrateful descendant, he doesn’t want me anymore!
He could count on one hand the few times Almer had ever been genuinely cute growing up. He, Long Chen, who was always so courteous, refined, and tasteful for a dragon, ended up with a grandson who spent his childhood wreaking havoc and causing fires—and now grew up to be a schemer!
This must be the fault of his Western dragon genes!
“Achoo…”
Somewhere on another planet, a dragon dad traveling with his wife sneezed.
Just as Almer’s video call was wrapping up, Ruan Xiao returned.
Seeing the three dragons didn’t surprise him; he simply greeted them respectfully.
Karl, unreserved as ever, patted his shoulder, “Xiao, you’ve grown so big, and now you’re a marshal!”
Ruan Xiao replied calmly, “It’s been a few hundred years.”
If he hadn’t grown, that would be a real problem.
Karl: ………
“You still don’t know how to make conversation. That hasn’t changed in hundreds of years.”
Ruan Xiao: “Thank you.”
Karl: ………
Almer added, “Marshal Ruan, my grandfathers want to ‘invite’ Shushu to Dragon Island. But I don’t think it’s the best time for a trip there right now. Don’t you agree?”
Without hesitation, Ruan Xiao took his beloved daughter into his arms and nodded firmly.
“I believe His Majesty is right.”
Ruan Shu, ever obedient, wrapped her little arms around her dad’s neck, her soft, furry head nuzzling gently against him.
“Daddy~”
Had there not been so many eyes on her, she might’ve snuggled even closer and wanted to press her cheek against his.
The three dragons were envious.
But it was clear they wouldn’t be able to whisk her away. She was someone else’s child, and there was no changing that fact—why couldn’t she have been theirs?
Karl, with just a hint of bluntness, voiced his thoughts, “Xiao, what if we give you Almer as a son in exchange? Then maybe you could…”
The other two dragons gave him a sidelong glance, surprised. They hadn’t realized that Karl, of all dragons, could come up with such… a beautiful idea!
Anyway, the dragons found Almer less amusing now that he’d grown up and was harder to tease; he was no longer as fun as when he was a little rascal. They weren’t exactly thrilled with him now—he was just one more dragon with multiple dads. And, hey, it’s not like they were gaining an extra dad, so what was the big deal?
Almer: “……”
Ruan Xiao: “……”
Ruan Shu: “……”
Almer, becoming his dad’s son? Well, this…
Ruan Shu didn’t quite catch the deeper meaning behind Karl’s suggestion, but Almer and Ruan Xiao understood perfectly.
Almer thought, ‘I’ll endure! You all dare to call me mischievous, yet don’t even try to act like respectable elders yourselves!’
The three old dragons were on the verge of being politely shown the door by Ruan Xiao, but they shamelessly stayed for a meal anyway—using ingredients they’d brought along.
Long Chen presented an assortment of seafood, much of which Ruan Shu had never seen before.
“Wow…”
Seeing her wide-eyed, excited gaze, Karl’s competitive spirit flared up.
“I brought something too!” he declared, tossing a menacing, gruesome-looking exotic beast into the yard. The beast lay dead, its large, unseeing eyes staring directly at them.
Ruan Shu: “!!!”
Startled, her eyes widened in alarm!
Ruan Xiao quickly covered her eyes. “No looking, sweetheart.”
And then, Karl promptly got smacked and sent flying by Long Chen and Mishu in unison.
After they finished their afternoon meal, the dragons knew it was time to go, whether they wanted to or not.
Before they left, Ruan Shu ran to her room and came back holding three small plants.
“This is a mini tomato plant—it already has tiny tomatoes on it, and if you care for it a bit longer, they’ll ripen.”
“This one is a strawberry plant, also with little fruit starting to grow. When it matures, you’ll be able to eat them. But they aren’t mutant plants.”
Ruan Shu offered them two strawberry plants and one mini tomato plant.
Ruan Xiao, standing beside her, added in a calm tone, “While these aren’t mutant plants and have no effects against X pollutants, both the fruits and the plants themselves are entirely pollution-free.”
This was something they’d recently discovered—vegetable and grain crops rarely mutated, and only certain fruit trees did. Yet these vegetables maintained a zero-pollution level.