Chapter 7 Flower Crown

Since the "tail feather incident," Akari has found that her resistance to Tang Lu is plummeting.

She now has to subconsciously control her tail feathers when she walks, for fear that if she's not careful, those few unruly feathers will pop out again and "attract bees and butterflies".

Tang Lu, having fully experienced the warmth of the sun and the silkiness of its tail feathers, adapted well to life in the Demon King's Palace.

No longer content with her life of eating, sleeping, and occasionally, unintentionally, bothering Lili, she began to explore new pleasures.

For example, taking advantage of loopholes.

Of course, she wasn't actually fleecing people, but rather taking advantage of the spiritual plants and flowers in the Demon King's Palace garden.

After reviewing several urgent reports, Chi Li rubbed her temples and habitually used her divine sense to locate Tang Lu.

They discovered that the little tree spirit wasn't in the bedroom or on the terrace, but in the back garden, sticking its little bottom out, fiddling with something.

Out of a sense of responsibility as a "guardian" and a little curiosity, Chi Li got up and walked towards the back garden.

Then, she saw a scene that made her eyelids twitch.

Her carefully cultivated rare spiritual plants, each one priceless and some even coveted by alchemy elders, are now suffering a terrible fate!

Tanglu was squatting in the flower bushes, her little hands carefully picking petals and leaves.

She specifically chose those with the brightest colors and the most beautiful shapes, muttering to herself:

"This red one is for Lili...this blue one is pretty too...and the gold one looks like Lili's hair..."

A small pile of colorful "trophies" had already accumulated at her feet. Among them, the few "Dream Orchid" petals that shimmered with starlight and the few "Frost Jade Grass" leaves that were carved from ice crystals made Chi Li's heart bleed.

The Dream Orchid only blooms once every three hundred years!

That Jade Grass needs an extremely cold environment to grow!

Chi Li took a deep breath and told herself: Calm down, she's still a child, she doesn't understand, I can't argue with a newly formed tree spirit about these material things...

She was about to step forward and gently tell Tang Lu that these flowers and plants might not like being treated this way.

Tang Lu had already discovered her.

"Lili!" The little one's eyes lit up. She held up the pitiful flowers and plants in her hands and ran over like she was showing off her treasures. Her face was still covered in mud, like a little kitten.

"Look!"

Chi Li stared at the rare spiritual plants that had been brutally dismembered, her lips twitching slightly: "What... are you doing?"

"As a gift!" Tang Lu answered confidently, her smile radiant. "It's for Li Li!"

Gift?

Looking at the pile of "withered flowers and fallen leaves," Chi Li simply couldn't connect them with "gifts."

She began to wonder if she had been giving the little guy too little pocket money (spirit stones), so that he could only express his feelings by tearing up her garden.

Tang Lu didn't care about anything else. She pulled Chi Li to sit down on the white jade bench next to her, then hugged the pile of flowers and plants, squatted down at Chi Li's feet, and began to seriously... weave something.

Chi Li looked down at her.

Sunlight filtered through the lush foliage, illuminating Tanglu's focused little face.

Her fingers were not very nimble, even a little clumsy, and the delicate petals were rubbed and crumpled in her hands until they looked pitiful.

But she did it with utmost seriousness, her light brown eyes sparkling with pure light, as if she were completing a unique work of art.

She would occasionally pick up different petals and leaves and compare them to Chi Li, muttering, "Does the color match Li Li?" before continuing to work diligently.

Chi Li's initial feeling of heartache for the spiritual plants dissipated unconsciously in the face of this clumsy sincerity.

She even felt that watching the little guy busy for her was... not so bad?

Time passed little by little.

Finally, Tang Lu breathed a sigh of relief and held up her "masterpiece".

It was... well, a very abstract floral crown.

A ring was painstakingly woven from the supple stems of the herb, with various petals and leaves crookedly inlaid on it. The bold color scheme and unrestrained shape were enough to make any gardening master faint on the spot.

But in Tang Lu's expectant gaze, Chi Li managed to discern a hint of... cuteness within that colorful mass?

"This is for Lili!" Tang Lu stood on tiptoe, holding the horribly disfigured flower crown in both hands, trying her best to put it on Chi Li's head.

"A crown! Lili, wear it!"

Chi Li's body stiffened instantly.

A crown?!

How could she, the ruler of the demon realm, the incomparably majestic phoenix, wear such a... gaudy, childish (or rather, utterly naive) thing?

If her subjects saw this, she would lose her title as the Demon King!

They've become a laughingstock throughout the three realms!

Her first instinct was to dodge.

But when he looked down and met Tang Lu's clear eyes, which seemed to say "Praise me, praise me," the words of refusal stuck in his throat.

To make this, the little guy plucked half of her rare flowerbed, getting his little hands and face all dirty, all to give her a "crown".

Chi Li was engaged in a fierce internal struggle.

Prestige? Face? A laughing stock in the Three Realms?

vs

Make the little tree spirit happy.

...

The outcome seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

Chi Li closed her eyes briefly, her expression one of tragic heroism, and lowered her noble head slightly.

Tang Lu immediately and happily placed the colorful flower crown, which still smelled of earth, on Chi Li's long, shimmering red-gold hair.

After putting it on, she took two steps back, examined it carefully, then clapped her hands and gave a heartfelt compliment:

"So beautiful! Lili is the most beautiful!"

Chili: "..."

She knows what she looks like without even looking in a mirror.

Imagine a queen with an imposing presence, dressed in magnificent robes, and possessing unparalleled beauty, wearing a wildflower wreath that looks like something out of a kindergarten craft class...

The scene was too beautiful for her to bear thinking about.

The guards hidden in the shadows and the occasional servants passing by all kept their heads down, their shoulders trembling like leaves falling in the wind.

Chi Li could feel her cheeks burning.

She had lived for tens of thousands of years and had never felt so... ashamed.

But strangely, seeing Tang Lu's overjoyed expression as she jumped and danced around her, beneath that sense of shame, a tiny, unfamiliar warmth and satisfaction quietly sprouted...

That's all.

Let it be a laughing stock.

Anyway... no one dares to laugh in front of her.

Chi Li thought to herself, "This broken pot is doomed."

She even raised her hand and gently adjusted the crooked "crown" on her head to make sure it wouldn't fall off.

“Hmm,” she heard herself say to Tang Lu in as calm a tone as possible, “...Thank you.”

Tang Lu's smile widened. She rushed over and hugged Chi Li's waist, rubbing her face against Chi Li's luxurious robes: "Li Li likes it! I'll make more for Li Li tomorrow!"

Chi Li's vision went black.

Are you coming again tomorrow?!

She could almost see her garden, which she had meticulously tended for centuries, crumbling into ruin at the speed of light…

His Majesty the Demon King's majesty was utterly shattered into dust by the "coronation" of a childlike floral crown.

But she touched the crooked flower wreath on her head and looked at the little tree spirit clinging to her legs.

Suddenly, I feel like this crumb... is actually kind of sweet?