Chapter 153 Mushroom and Fish Ball Soup: Add more fish balls!
"Wah!" Papawei clapped her hands, speaking in baby talk that only she could understand. Her big green eyes were shining as she stared at the water sphere in front of her, which kept changing shape. The transparent water swirled and pulled, turning into a bird spreading its wings, a big tree with lush branches and leaves, and even into small bell-shaped flowers and a big, exquisite treehouse.
Papame landed on the treehouse terrace from the air and immediately saw her little daughter sitting in the open space in front of the house. The dim sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves and fell on the little flower fairy, making her long golden-red hair look warm and bright.
Seeing her mother return, Papawei, who was already overjoyed, became even happier. She pointed to the water balloon in front of her mother and asked her to look, but when she turned her head, she found that the big water balloon that was spinning around had disappeared.
The little flower fairy tilted her head in confusion.
Papame quickly stepped forward and picked up her youngest daughter, who was sitting on the straw rug. She looked up at the tall demon sitting in the treehouse and thanked him gratefully, "Thank you so much for taking care of Papame, Master Xiaoshui. My husband also received his nut candy today, and he'll be here soon!"
Dedean did indeed fly over quickly, carrying a large wooden bowl filled to the brim with food he had received from the magic workshop, with a piece of sweet-smelling nut candy on top.
Dedean handed the nut candy to the demon sitting quietly in the treehouse. Before he could say goodbye, the tall figure in front of him disappeared. He smiled helplessly and flew to his wife's side: "I didn't have time to say goodbye to Little Water today either."
Papamei couldn't help but laugh: "It's okay, Master Shui will come again tomorrow. Come on, come on, I'm hungry. What's delicious today?"
"Today's acorn bread has jam filling! In addition to nut cookies, we also have acorn pudding today!" Dedean said as he flew into his cabin to start preparing dinner.
Almost as soon as they entered the Land of Sin, a patrol spotted Papame and her companions. After meeting the official and answering some questions, the two flower fairies were put into an empty straw hut. They later learned that the original owner of the straw hut had been a slave in the Land of Sin.
That flower fairy slave had an almost legendary experience. When he was still a slave, the Flower Fairy restored his magical talent and then pardoned him. After becoming a free man, he continued to follow the Flower Fairy. Now, he has been granted an even more noble status by the Flower Fairy. The two flower fairies who came from afar had seen that legendary flower fairy named Ananka from a distance. If it weren't for the fact that he didn't have antennae and wings, they would have thought that he was also a member of the royal family!
Papame has a talent for water magic, so she joined the irrigation team in the Land of Sin, responsible for watering the fields; Dedean has a talent for mental magic, but his body is too weak to go out to do business. After arriving in the Land of Sin, he thought he could only stay at home to take care of his daughter, but he didn't expect to be assigned to take care of the snow sheep. Although the people working with him were all underage children, Dedean was still very happy to have a job.
As a result, Papawei was left without anyone to look after her. The couple discussed it and decided to have Papamei try taking their youngest daughter to work first, since the sheepfold was a frozen wasteland and not suitable for such a young flower fairy to stay for long.
Papawei was very well-behaved. After being wrapped in a straw blanket and carried on her mother's back, she remained quiet and well-behaved even when she couldn't move for most of the day. However, because Papawei had joined the irrigation team, she had to release water magic for a long time. The overly active magical environment affected the baby's health, and Papawei soon developed a fever.
After seeking help from the patrol team, Papawei was immediately taken to the medical room. She recovered the next day and was able to crawl around. However, Papamei and Dedean were still quite frightened. After discussing it again, they decided to ask Dedean to give up his current job and stay at home to take care of Papawei.
Unexpectedly, the next day a demon came to them and offered to look after Papawi for them, in exchange for Dedean giving her the nut candy he had received as payment. The two of them readily agreed.
In fact, when they first arrived in the Land of Sin, even just seeing those incredibly tall demons from afar made Papame and Dedean feel terrified. The magical aura they exuded was just too terrifying!
However, they soon stopped being afraid of the demons. This might be because the triangular wooden hut they were living in was built with the help of the demons and the patrol team, or it might be because they discovered that the demons, like the flower fairies, although larger and more terrifying, were also working diligently for the land of evil.
"Shall we make mushroom and fish ball soup again today?" Dedean asked, deftly striking the flint. "You still have plenty of mushrooms and fish balls left!"
Papame nodded vigorously: "Add more fish balls!"
After placing her youngest daughter on the bed, Papame took a bellflower from her sleeve. She had chased after it in the wind for a long time on her way back. She handed the bellflower to Papame to play with, then summoned a ball of water and threw it into the large wooden pot in front of Dedean, which Dedean had already filled with delicious mushrooms and fish balls.
Papame then picked up the wooden bowl next to her, flew to the small pool of sun spring at the edge of the terrace to fetch water, and returned to the house when Dedean had already started cutting acorn bread.
Papamei took the gray bird egg from the cabinet, cracked the egg liquid into a bowl, put away the eggshell, and stirred it carefully for a while. Then she took out a dried thornberry, finely ground a layer of powdered sugar into it, and stirred the egg liquid and powdered sugar evenly again. By the time she had stirred the egg liquid and powdered sugar evenly, Dedean had already served the mushroom fish ball soup and put the sliced acorn bread on the table.
Papamei summoned a water balloon and threw it into the rising wooden pot. She then placed the wooden bowl filled with egg liquid into the water, rubbed the flint to make it shine brighter, and looked at the egg liquid that quickly began to bubble in the bowl. Papamei sighed with emotion, "By the Flower Goddess, it's a good thing we came to the Land of Sin. If it weren't for the Flower Fairy giving us Gray Bird Eggs and having the cook teach us how to make egg custard for Papawei, I wouldn't have known that Gray Bird Eggs were so magical—I had no idea that Gray Bird Eggs could be eaten!"
“I only realized how much food there is after I came to this land of sins.” As he spoke, Dedean looked at the storage cabinet in his house, and he couldn’t help but smile. “Although we don’t have an underground warehouse now, our storage cabinet is already full. By the grace of the goddess of flowers, I never dared to dream of such a thing!”
Papamei laughed too, dimmed the flint, told the steamed egg custard to cook slowly, sat down at the table, picked up the soup bowl and took a big gulp, then picked up a fish ball with a fork, took a big bite, and chewed it with her eyes squinted happily.
As they ate, the aroma of steamed egg custard wafted through the air. Dedean got up to extinguish the flint, picked up his youngest daughter from the bed, and began to feed Papawei the steamed egg custard he had prepared.
After blowing on the delicate steamed egg custard to cool it down, Dedean brought it to his youngest daughter's lips, watching her eat it with gusto.
“All of this is thanks to Lady Flower Fairy.” Papame took a bite of acorn bread, savoring the sweet taste on her tongue, before continuing, “Lady Flower Fairy also reduced our magic tax. One of the flower fairies’ sons in our irrigation team works as a servant in the Flower Castle, and he told us that His Majesty the King had actually increased taxes, and it was Lady Flower Fairy who exempted us from that extra tax.”
Dedean hesitated for a moment: "You mean, the Flower Fairy has voluntarily waived her share of the magic tax? If that's true, the magic tax won't increase in the Land of Sin, and His Majesty the King will be angry, won't he?"
Papame nodded: "They'll definitely be angry, won't they? I heard them say that the Flower Fairy was sent to the Land of Sin by the King because she wanted to redeem the sinners there. Thinking about it, it makes sense. The royal family is in the capital, but Lady Shushuxin is in the Land of Sin. Even though she's also royalty… Darling, I want to join the patrol team. I want to protect the Land of Sin. I want to protect the Flower Fairy. I want to protect you and Papame… If I die, I'll have to entrust Papame to you."
“In the Land of Sin, I don’t think you’d die easily even if you were a member of the patrol team. The Flower Fairy even keeps the children’s food in mind, let alone the safety of the patrol team.” Dedean glanced at his thoughtful wife, then lowered his head to continue feeding their daughter egg custard. “You should really think about whether you can join the patrol team. The Land of Sin has the population of a large city. I’ve seen the patrol team members train every day, and their magical aura is very strong. You might not be chosen.”
“…If I can’t participate, then I’ll do more work. I have to do more for the Flower Fairy.” Papame said practically.
Dedean chuckled and turned to look out the window. The sky had completely darkened, but it wasn't pitch black outside. The Sun Spring beneath the Magic Tree—which they now knew was the Tree of Life—was emitting a soft, bright light.
"By the goddess of flowers, I'm actually starting to look forward to the harvest month," Dedean murmured to himself.
The harvest month is indeed fast approaching. Shu Xin stood by the bedroom window, intently feeling the gentle breeze coming towards her.
The concentration of magic in the air is increasing rapidly.
She had initially thought that the excessively high magic concentration during the previous harvest month was a strong backlash caused by the extreme scarcity of magic in the Land of Sin after its restoration. However, the magic concentration in the air now clearly tells her that it is actually the high magic concentration that a harvest month should have under normal conditions, or even a low magic concentration.
...Just how much magic do true river elves actually need?!
Shaking her head, Shu Xin lay back on the bed, ready to sleep. But after closing her eyes, she couldn't help but think of Xi—there were only half a month left until the harvest month. When would Xi come back? He took away high-level combat power with him!
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Author's Note: Finished writing at 3:30 AM. I have to go to work at 8:00 AM, so I'm trying to get a few hours of sleep. Was the pace a bit too fast? Writing this was incredibly difficult, almost unbearable.
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