The daily life of the Immortal Lord's Little Treasure
1
The little demon, now newly given a name, naturally felt that whatever the wise and mighty immortal lord chose was fine.
Only after the excitement subsided did she lazily slump onto the immortal's lap and tug at his sleeve:
"Daddy, how do you write 'Little Treasure'?"
Xie Zhuo looked at the ink stains on the paper, concealed the helplessness in his eyes, put down his pen, and grasped the mischievous hand.
The mischievous little demon, caught without a trace of guilt, sat up, reaching for the calligraphy brush on the table.
Xie Zhuo saw that Xiao Yao's hand was wrapped around the pen like a bun, and a slight smile appeared on his lips. He then raised his other hand and wrapped it around the plump white "bun".
"Father?" The little demon tilted his head back in confusion, just in time to catch a glimpse of the immortal's smile, as warm as melting ice. It wasn't until a light tap on his forehead brought him back to his senses.
"Focus."
"I'm very focused." Xiao Yao said with a straight face, the arc of the flowing spring water in his eyes seemed to be larger. Before he could see it clearly, his attention was drawn to the movement of his hands.
The immortal held his hand and moved it to the bottom right corner of the already worn-out page.
With a few strokes of ink, Xie Zhuo stopped drawing on the white paper.
The little demon straightened up and peered out.
Even if he couldn't read many characters, he could tell that the words on the paper were definitely not "Xiao Bao".
On the white paper, a lifelike, lazy little baby lies on the steps, smacking his lips.
"Father, who is this?"
Xie Zhuo released Xiao Yao's hand, his eyes filled with a smile as warm as the blossoming flowers of spring.
"It's Xiaobao."
"But this isn't a word..." The dim-witted little demon clearly didn't realize it.
"Hmm, it's not a word." Xie Zhuo's tone was calm, his lowered eyes reflecting the neatly combed hair on Xiao Yao's head, patiently waiting for Xiao Yao to react.
After a long while, the little demon, who had practically stared a hole through the paper, finally spoke in a serious tone, her voice hesitant and evasive:
"That's not true at all."
"No, that's not how it is."
Xie Zhuo repeated Xiao Yao's words, and seeing that the tips of Xiao Yao's ears were turning red little by little, he raised his hand to cover Xiao Yao's ears and helped her cover them up.
The little demon was completely unaware that he was no different from someone burying their head in the sand, and gripped his pen tightly, changing the subject:
"Father hasn't told you how to write the characters for 'Little Treasure' yet."
The long brush, dipped in ink, swept across the white paper again, leaving two small characters on the silk.
Xiao Yao's face gradually fell as the characters took shape. He placed the pen in Xie Zhuo's hand and tucked his own hand into his sleeve.
"Daddy, I don't want to be called Xiaobao anymore."
"Why?" Xie Zhuo asked gently, without criticizing the little demon for acting on a whim.
The little demon glanced at the words on the paper again: "I want to be called Xiao Xiao."
Xie Zhuo's gaze swept over the spot where Xiao Yao had looked. Two completely different characters were printed above, one simple and the other complex. He understood almost instantly what was going on in Xiao Yao's head and, unusually, rejected her idea:
"Don't be lazy."
"I wasn't being lazy," the little demon refused, making excuses.
Before Xiao Yao could continue to explain, Xie Zhuo stroked Xiao Yao's head and asked, "Do you know what 'Bao' means, and why I named you with the character 'Bao'?"
The child, who was still unaware of human knowledge, shook his head, his hair brushing against the immortal's palm, like a little animal affectionately nuzzling its beloved.
"It refers to a precious object, or a treasure. You have an extraordinary background..."
Before Xie Zhuo could finish speaking, the increasingly excited child interrupted him: "So it means I'm the Immortal Lord's darling!"
The usually calm and composed immortal, faced with the bright, puppy-like eyes of the head turning in his arms, hesitated, swallowing the words of denial that lingered on his lips. His Adam's apple bobbed repeatedly; any explanation seemed wrong.
While Xiao Bao may not be considered a treasure, given his origins, calling him a treasure wouldn't be an exaggeration. Furthermore, he's temporarily residing in his Jade Palace, which, in the eyes of others, makes him appear to be under his protection.
After much thought, he felt more and more that Xiao Bao's childish words were not wrong, and even felt a little regretful...
"Father!"
A childish call echoed the syllables in his heart, and Xie Zhuo's eyelashes trembled slightly. Looking at the little demon who suddenly stood up and leaned closer, he used his spiritual power to steady the trembling demon, who was standing on his lap, and spoke softly:
"What's wrong?"
The little demon's face beamed with obvious smugness: "I can write Daddy's name!"
Xie Zhuo showed just the right amount of surprise, praising Xiao Yao: "My little treasure is so amazing."
If the little demon had a tail, it would surely be so coaxed that it would be wagging its tail to the sky. Turning around, it took a wolf-hair brush from the brush holder, and its small figure somehow exuded a majestic aura.
The grayish-white pen tip was saturated with ink, and with the little demon's powerful swing, it left behind two unsightly ink blots.
Seeing that the other person had stopped, Xie Zhuo straightened up and embraced Xiao Yao, resting his face, which bore a striking resemblance to hers, on her shoulder. He glanced at the two clumps of writing on the paper, barely making out his own name, then reached out and ruffled Xiao Yao's loose hair, asking with a soft laugh:
Is Xiaobao a puppy?
Having never seen a puppy before and not understanding the hidden meaning in the words, the little demon blinked in confusion and corrected in a serious tone, "Xiao Bao is Xiao Bao."
"I know," Xie Zhuo replied, taking Xiao Yao's ink-stained hand and placing the wolf-hair brush back into her hand with the correct grip. "From now on, hold the brush like this." After Xiao Yao had the brush, he covered it with his own hand, and the ink-dipped brush tip touched the paper again. "Knowing how to write my name isn't enough; you must also know how to write your own..."
...
The little demon wrote it a few times, then lost interest, put down the pen and stopped moving, instead leaning back into the immortal's arms:
"Daddy, what's a puppy? Daddy likes puppies..."
Xie Zhuo heard every single question the little demon asked. He took the pen from the little demon's hand, cleaned the little demon who was stained with ink, and used his spiritual power to transform it into a palm-sized puppy:
"This is the puppy, go play."
The puppy and the little demon were placed on the ground together. Xie Zhuo watched the little demon run away. The messy table was restored to order by the operation of spiritual power, leaving only a piece of white paper with a painting in the corner.
He carefully cut off the painting from the lower right corner of the white paper, along with four small characters.
The first two characters are crooked and illegible, clearly written by a stone that was just beginning to learn human civilization. The following two characters are "Xiao Bao," which he wrote next to the portrait for demonstration purposes, with a little ink splattered between the two names from a little demon practicing calligraphy.
【Xie Zhuo · Xiao Bao】
Xie Zhuo glanced at it, the thought of erasing the writing with magic disappeared, and he carefully put away the portrait.
2
Amidst the blooming flowers, a butterfly conjured by spiritual energy hovers neither too high nor too low above them.
Occasionally a gentle breeze would blow, and the flowers would bow down one by one, revealing a fluffy head. The butterfly seemed oblivious, and stopped on a pink and white flower.
The moment it stopped, a shadow suddenly descended, and a figure that was enormous relative to its existence opened its blood-red maw.
The fairy butterfly dropped shimmering scales and flew high into the sky, leaving only a little demon clinging to a blade of grass among the swaying flowers.
The little demon, biting into the flower in its mouth, sensed the presence nearby. The regret of not catching the spirit butterfly vanished, and it turned and ran towards the figure that appeared.
"Mmm." The words that came out of her mouth, which was still stuffed with flowers and grass, became indistinct. The little demon had just wrapped her arms around the immortal's legs and was chewing on flowers while complaining incoherently when her body was lifted into the air and she was held in the immortal's arms.
Xie Zhuo held the little demon with one hand and pinched the grass stem sticking out of the little demon's mouth with the other: "Spit it out."
The little demon paused for a moment while chewing, and before he could speed up his chewing, his cheeks were pinched tightly, and the immortal's cold voice rang out again:
"Spit it out."
"Immortal Lord, I..." The little demon frowned, and just as she opened her mouth, the hand that was pinching his cheeks quickly pulled away the exposed grass stems, taking the broken flower out of his mouth along with it.
The flower formed from spiritual energy returned to this small world. Xie Zhuo pried open the little demon's mouth, examined it carefully, and then thoughtfully found a reason for the little demon's return:
Is it because your teeth are coming in and they're hurting?
He stuck a finger into the little demon's open mouth, rubbing the fingertip against the little demon's teeth: "You can't just eat anything."
The little demon seized the opportunity to bite the immortal's finger and mumbled, "I didn't eat anything random, I was cultivating."
Although Xie Zhuo still feeds him with spiritual power these days, he is far less generous than before, and naturally cannot satisfy the spoiled little demon.
Hearing Xiao Yao's proud voice, Xie Zhuo withdrew his hand and pinched Xiao Yao's round cheek:
"Who cultivates like this?"
The flowers and trees in this world are all formed from spiritual energy. The little demon won't be harmed if it eats them, but if it develops this habit and continues to act this way in the outside world, it's hard to guarantee that it won't eat poisonous flowers and trees. Thinking this, he said:
"The flowers and plants are bitter; you must not eat them anymore."
The little demon's face gradually showed confusion:
What is bitterness?
The flowers and grasses swaying in the wind brushed against the immortal's calves. The immortal's expression turned slightly sad, his eyes filled with a mixture of pity and sorrow. He belatedly remembered something: there was no life in his domain. All things were formed from spiritual power, merely imitating their form but not their true essence. Their taste did not exist.
He lowered his eyes and met a young, innocent face that was looking at him with a dependent expression.
The gentle breeze around him suddenly stopped, and only then did he realize how little his little treasure possessed.
"Immortal Lord, what is bitterness?" the little demon asked again, tugging at his clothes.
Bitterness brewed in Xie Zhuo's heart, but he couldn't find the words to explain it to the little demon. In the little demon's barren world, where even taste didn't exist, he found it difficult to find anything to describe the bitterness to her.
He rummaged through his storage space and found a pill to replenish spiritual energy, then handed it to the little demon's mouth.
The little demon trusted the immortal and never refused any gifts from him. Not to mention, he sensed a rich spiritual energy in the pill, and almost the instant the pill reached his lips, he swallowed it.
The pill melted instantly in his mouth, leaving a sweet aftertaste. The little demon's eyes lit up; this was undoubtedly a completely new experience for him. He immediately exclaimed:
I like bitterness.
"Xiao Bao, this one is sweet."
Xie Zhuo explained that he hoped Xiao Bao would have the best possible experience when he first tasted food in the world.
The little demon's will was easily swayed, and he changed his mind: "Then I like sweet flavors." He looked up and saw Xie Zhuo's empty hand, smacked his lips, and asked again:
"And what about bitterness? What kind of bitterness is it?"
Seeing his greedy look, Xie Zhuo's eyes softened with affection and amusement:
"Life has many flavors, and Xiao Bao will experience them all in the future."
...
-----------------------
Author's Note: Another side story update! The prequel was conceived before the main story even started. I also came up with many other side stories to write during the serialization process, and there might be more later, we'll see [doge emoji]
On the surface, some people say: Xiaobao and I are just complete strangers.
In reality:
My little one is being naughty and throwing tantrums, that's just kids playing around; he's eating flowers, but my baby's never seen anything like that before [poor face] (feeling guilty and heartbroken.jpg)
In short, they were all spoiled.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
