Chapter 46: Don’t Come In
At six in the morning, a little phoenix blinked its eyes open from its slumber.
Still half asleep, it snuggled against the black dragon’s body where it was nestled, until the dragon affectionately nudged it a few times with its head, prompting a disgruntled “chirp” from the phoenix.
Transforming back into human form, still groggy, it sat up and noticed it was still dark outside.
“Pheonix,” Long Ling also transformed into a human, his arm around Su Muluo’s waist, planting a kiss on his slightly drooping eyelids. “Go back to sleep, it’s still early.”
Su Muluo leaned against his dragon tiredly. “What time is it?”
He had planned to wake up early today and set off sooner.
“It’s only six,” Long Ling stroked his soft hair, saying, “we’re not in a rush anyway. No matter what, we can set off today.”
Su Muluo agreed with this reasoning, so he sluggishly burrowed back under the covers, burying his face into Long Ling’s chest.
Long Ling happily hugged his phoenix, rubbing his head against the phoenix’s. He enjoyed how the phoenix stuck to him, relying on him, looking all sleepy and cute.
And during winter, the phoenix was so soft and lazy, making him just want to hold the phoenix and stay snuggled in the blankets without ever wanting to leave the house.
Su Muluo didn’t know what Long Ling was thinking, but in his half-asleep state, he felt his dragon sneakily kissing him and patted him in response.
Two hours later, Su Muluo opened his eyes and felt less sleepy.
He tried to sit up from the bed, only to find Long Ling still holding onto him. He gently pushed him, “I want to get up.”
Reluctant to let go, Long Ling, remembering how the phoenix had willingly snuggled into his embrace while asleep, grabbed hold of his clothes… it was incredibly cute.
So he said, “Just a little longer, please.”
Yawning, Su Muluo lazily stayed put. Long Ling buried his face into the crook of his neck, savoring his favorite scent.
After being snuggled like this for a while, Su Muluo felt like he was being treated like a cat by this dragon and didn’t feel like being “sucked dry” by him, saying, “I need to change clothes!”
Long Ling responded with an “Oh,” releasing his hold. “The phoenix is so stingy.”
They had only snuggled for a short while.
Su Muluo: ?
Was this dragon complaining about being taken advantage of?
Immediately, he messed up Long Ling’s hair, got out of bed, and went to freshen up.
After changing into fresh clothes, Su Muluo entered the living room, picked up the jade pendant, and asked, “Are you awake?”
Before he could finish his sentence, a spirit entity swiftly floated out from the jade pendant, saying, “I’m awake! As long as phoenix calls for me, I will be!”
“Your Highness Phoenix, just call for me, and I’ll come out!”
Long Ling looked at the jade pendant and asked, “What about when he doesn’t call for you?”
The spirit within the jade pendant probably remembered the embarrassing conversation from yesterday and replied dryly, “When His Highness doesn’t call for me, I remain in a dormant state. You can treat me like an ordinary jade pendant.”
Upon hearing this, Long Ling glanced at his phoenix with a slight smirk. “So, during those times, you can’t hear or see anything?”
Su Muluo clicked his tongue. He understood the implication in the dragon’s words and promptly patted him.
“Yes,” the spirit in the pendant answered innocently, not understanding, “since His Highness the Phoenix created me thousands of years ago, he instructed me not to be disturbed, so I’m usually very well-behaved.”
Long Ling continued playfully, “Oh, it’s all about what the Phoenix says—”
He drew out the last syllable, and Su Muluo fell silent for a second.
Though the words didn’t sound significant, he felt something peculiar.
Surely this dragon was up to no good again!
He calmly told the spirit in the pendant, “You can go back to sleep. I’ll call for you when we’re ready to leave.”
—Then angrily patted Long Ling’s head, saying, “Stop talking!”
Long Ling obediently let him pat, looking a bit aggrieved and innocent. “I didn’t say much. It’s clearly the Phoenix who thinks so much. The Phoenix is naughty.”
Su Muluo: ?
“Alright, I’m naughty,” Long Ling quickly corrected himself under Su Muluo’s gaze, then affectionately nuzzled against his phoenix’s soft face. “But just now, that pendant said, thousands of years ago, the Phoenix didn’t want it to disturb you… But back then, only I and the Phoenix lived together. Why would the Phoenix be afraid of being disturbed?”
Su Muluo replied expressionlessly, “I have no idea. Now move away. If you keep blabbering, I’ll hit you.”
Long Ling grabbed his wrist, unafraid, and loudly continued, “It must be that back then, the Phoenix was always demanding affection from me, doing this and that, yet afraid of the pendant seeing it, so it kept the pendant asleep!”
With that, he defiantly turned and ran off, showing no sign of backing down.
Su Muluo: …
Several minutes later, Su Muluo calmly walked out the door, fingers hooked around a tangled, squealing little black dragon.
In the coffee shop, an orange cat lay fast asleep on a bed in the staff room. Su Muluo shook it awake, saying, “Sorry to disturb you, I need to talk to you.”
“Meow!”
Qiansui woke up very displeased, initially not realizing who it was until it opened its eyes and saw Su Muluo, freezing immediately.
Then, its fur bristled all over, and it swiftly darted to the end of the bed.
Su Muluo wondered why it was so afraid of him. “I—”
Qiansui interrupted anxiously, “I didn’t see anything yesterday! Really!!”
Su Muluo fell silent.
Oh, he had almost forgotten about that embarrassing incident yesterday when Qiansui caught him kissing his dragon.
So he immediately reached into his pocket and pinched the little black dragon.
Moments earlier, it had just managed to untangle itself from a knot when the phoenix reached in and, not understanding, grabbed its fingers and refused to let go.
“Squeak.”
Su Muluo tried to pull his finger free but couldn’t, so he let the little dragon hug him tightly and said to Qiansui, “Don’t worry, I just wanted to ask if you could help look after the coffee shop for a few more days.”
Qiansui asked, “Are you going out again?”
Su Muluo nodded.
Thousand Years remained silent for a moment, then said, “I feel like this shop might be going out of business.”
Su Muluo thought to himself that he had the same feeling, but reassured Thousand Years, “Don’t worry, it won’t go out of business. I still have some savings on me.”
Thousand Years’ expression slightly improved upon hearing this. He nodded and said, “Alright then, take care on your way.”
“Thank you,” Su Muluo replied.
He then stood up and walked out of the staff break room.
Coincidentally, just as he stepped out, two girls entered the shop—Song Nan and Yang Yueyue.
“Boss!”
Both girls were carrying heaps of things, ranging from fruits to snacks of all sorts, a dazzling array that startled Su Muluo, making him think they were here to sell something in his shop.
“What’s all this?”
“It’s a thank-you gift!” Song Nan smiled. “Boss, you’ve helped both Yueyue and me. We had to give you something in return, but since we didn’t know what you liked, we decided on food!”
“Yeah!” Yang Yueyue chimed in. “Thank you, boss! If it weren’t for you this time, I might have been possessed forever, wuwuwu.”
Observing her recovered demeanor, Su Muluo said, “Be more careful next time. Don’t touch those unidentified things again.”
He had considered whether the man behind the demonic spirit had intentionally targeted Yang Yueyue, but quickly dismissed the idea; she had no real connection to him. His henchmen were likely lurking in Lincheng long before, and Yang Yueyue had just been unlucky. Even without her, the man would have encountered other demons.
Yang Yueyue nodded vigorously. “Starting the day after tomorrow, I’ll go back to my hometown to lay low. That darn ghost has stirred up too many people, and now they’re all after me… sigh, I should’ve never trusted that marriage charm.”
“This kind of thing doesn’t rely on external forces. Maybe after you return home, you’ll find your own destiny,” Su Muluo comforted.
Yang Yueyue smiled at his words. “Thank you, boss! I’ll borrow your good wishes then!”
After they left, Su Muluo picked out some perishable fruits from the gifts and gave them to Thousand Years, taking the rest back to his rented house.
Before officially setting off, he sent a message to Liu He. Upon hearing that Su Muluo had found Suyuan, Liu He was very surprised and sent him a crying emoji:
“Sorry, Mr. Su, we couldn’t find this place earlier qaq.”
Su Muluo thought to himself that this was the Fallen Phoenix Clan from thousands of years ago, so they probably wouldn’t have found it either. He comforted Liu He briefly—then his phone was snatched away by the little black dragon watching nearby.
“Ah!”
“No more chatting with the phoenix!”
“We’ve been chatting with this woman for so long!”
Su Muluo glanced at the chat history, which didn’t even exceed ten messages, tapped the little dragon’s head, and said, “Got it, jealous little vinegar.”
After making all the preparations, he took out the jade pendant and awakened the spirit inside, asking, “Can you guide us?”
“Don’t worry! Leave it to me!” The jade spirit confidently agreed, expanding and projecting a map in mid-air.
Su Muluo looked at the crooked map for a few seconds and said, “I don’t understand.”
“It’s okay if you don’t understand. I can guide you… um, let’s head east for three hundred miles first!” The jade spirit said.
Su Muluo initially thought it was very confident and must know the route to Suyuan well… but soon he realized he was wrong.
—At six o’clock in the evening, Su Muluo looked at the desolate grave in front of him, lost in thought.
Although the jade spirit could sense the aura of Suyuan and roughly knew where it was, it was just a rough location… Throughout the day, he and his dragon had been led astray by this jade pendant three times.
So why did they trust this jade pendant so much from the beginning?
“Wuwuwu, I’m sorry, Phoenix Lord!!” The jade spirit cried, “My energy is not enough… But believe me, we’re very close! Tomorrow! Tomorrow I’ll definitely get you there!”
Su Muluo: “… Really?”
He didn’t believe it at all.
Jade Spirit: “Ah ah ah, I’m sorry!!”
It probably really didn’t have enough energy. After saying this, it “whooshed” back into the jade pendant and fell asleep.
Su Muluo looked at the jade pendant in his hand, then at the desolate grave before him, at a loss for words.
The little black dragon coiled around his wrist, laughing “ufufufu.”
Su Muluo immediately pinched the little black dragon, took out his phone, opened the navigation, and checked for the nearest city from their current location.
Luckily, there was still a weak signal. Half an hour later, Su Muluo found a hotel in a small county and decided to stay overnight there.
The hotel room environment was decent. Su Muluo placed the little black dragon on the bed and prepared to take a shower before going to sleep.
Because the little black dragon wasn’t allowed to transform into human form, it could only crawl restlessly on the bed, flicking its tail and staring at the bathroom.
It planned that once the phoenix got into bed, it would transform back and cling to the phoenix.
If the phoenix pushed it away, it would take the opportunity to… with the phoenix.
The little black dragon silently schemed in its mind, then happily spun in place.
After a while, the sound of running water in the bathroom stopped. The little black dragon thought its phoenix would soon come out… but it didn’t.
“Ah?”
What was the phoenix doing?
There was no response from the bathroom.
“Huh?”
Phoenix?
Still no response from the bathroom.
“… “
The little black dragon transformed back into human form and walked quickly towards the bathroom, saying, “Phoenix, what’s wrong?”
He had intended to push open the bathroom door directly, but as soon as his hand touched the door handle, he heard Su Muluo’s voice from inside, “Wait… don’t come in…”
The voice was low, tinged with some pain, and the breath was somewhat urgent, unlike its usual calmness.
Long Ling’s eyes darkened abruptly. “What’s going on? Did the phoenix fall?”
He still wanted to push the door open to check on his phoenix, but Su Muluo stopped him again.
“Don’t come in!” Su Muluo said, “I… haven’t put on clothes yet…”
This time the voice was louder, with a slight tremor in the tone, carrying a hint of secrecy, ambiguity, and suggestive moans.
Long Ling was taken aback, sensing the unusual tone of this statement, and suddenly realized what was happening.
Inside the bathroom, Su Muluo was trying to conceal something, his voice intermittent and unable to control his gradually accelerating breath.
“I’m fine, really… Just let me be alone for a while…”
“… “
Long Ling didn’t reply, just tightened his grip on the door handle.
At this moment, he and his phoenix were separated by only a door. He could even imagine what his phoenix looked like now—curled up in the billowing steam, fair skin tinted with a flush, trembling all over, those beautiful ink-black eyes gleaming with a watery sheen.
There was no sound from the bathroom. Long Ling took a step forward, whispering softly:
“Phoenix… is it like last time, in heat?”
T/N: Hello hello! There is plenty more where that came from, so stay tuned! And stay healthy! Straighten your posture, so some stretches and drink some water before continuing hehe~
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Also, check out the other series we have on HoH!
If you like cats, check out Revenge of the Garfield
If you like dragons, check out I’m Pregnant with the Hope of the Entire Planet and The Dragon and the ‘Princess’
How about some mystery or showbiz? Check out Morbid Addiction & Perfection
What about the perfect, most non-toxic male lead ever? Laws of Love
How about MC nursing ML back to health? Forced into the Deep
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