Binding the Dragon for the Empress Chapter 160

Fish Soup

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After administering medicine to Xuan Long, A'Zhi went back to the Heavenly Realm. He is, after all, grown up and wouldn't pester his parents for hugs like he did when he was a child.

However, as Xuan Long had suffered such a serious injury, A'Zhi was so worried that when he returned to the Heavenly Realm, he went straight to the Immortal Healer's hall and asked the most powerful healing immortal to teach him the art of healing.

He was already very gifted, and at a young age, his cultivation had surpassed that of many gods several times his age, and his future was immeasurable. Immortals who are not majoring in the art of healing may not be able to understand a simple healing technique in a million years, but A'Zhi was able to do it within half an incense, which made Ling Yue, the head of the healing immortals, want to take him as his disciple on the spot. Unfortunately, A'Zhi was the crown prince of the Heavenly Realm and was to succeed the Emperor in the future, so he could not spend his time here.

The healing technique that A'Zhi learned was called 'Broken Meteor'. If one were to go into detail, it was only a rudimentary technique in the orthodox healing arts, but it was more than enough to treat external injuries caused by mid-level demons.

A'Zhi thanked Ling Yue and hurried back to the mortal world.

A day in the sky, a year on earth. Even though he rushed, it still took him three or four days to reach the mortal world. The night was silent as it shrouded the small courtyard.

It was late at night, and the lights in the courtyard were not lit. For mortals, they couldn't see anything, but that didn't stop the immortals from moving. A'Zhi shrunk down and in the blink of an eye appeared at the door of the bedroom on the second floor. He raised his hand and knocked gently on the door, asking if Xuan Long had gone to sleep.

No one answered.

A'Zhi clearly sensed that Xuan Long's aura was inside the room, and after three consecutive unanswered questions, he went straight through the door and entered the room.

The bedroom was similar in structure to the dining room downstairs, with a small room with a bed against the wall directly opposite the door. Xuan Long was dressed in white profane clothes, lying quietly flat on the bed, with his hands positioned over his stomach and no quilt over his body.

A small white candle was burning on a round table not far away, its flame flickering slightly as A'Zhi arrived, flickering in and out of light.

A'Zhi sensed that something was wrong and approached quickly, finding Xuan Long's face even paler than when he had left after administering the medicine, his lips dry and cracked, and his breath so weak that he looked as if he was dying.

Although he knew that it was not that easy for a god to die, he still felt a tug at his heart and he lost his composure. At first, he gently called out to Xuan Long in panic, but when he didn't respond for a long time, he squeezed Xuan Long's shoulders and gradually shook him recklessly.

"Mother... Mother, wake up... don't scare me..."

Xuan Long found it noisy. He struggled to open his heavy eyes, and saw the mouth of the person above him moving incessantly, but he could not hear any sound, and it took a while for his eyes to focus on A'Zhi's face.

When A'Zhi saw that he was awake, he released his strength at once and his eyes reddened.

As he was about to speak, he saw Xuan Long murmur to himself.

"You're here..."

A'Zhi: "En, I learned 'Broken Meteor' from Lord Ling Yue and came to heal your wounds."

"How can you be so seriously ill, your forehead is so hot... You are like this, why don't you know to call a healer to treat you? If I don't come, were you planning on dying here from your condition?"

A'Zhi, angry and distressed, raised his hand and a silver basin appeared at the edge of the bed. He picked up the white cotton cloth in the silver basin, wrung out the excess water and folded it into a rectangular shape, and gently covered Xuan Long's forehead.

Xuan Long strained to raise his hand and took hold of the hand that hadn't had time to leave, and pressed it affectionately against his face, saying dully, "You haven't been in my dreams for a long time..."

A'Zhi froze, sensing that Xuan Long had mistaken him for someone else. Seeing how fondly he was looking at him, he couldn't ruthlessly shatter his dream, so he remained silent.

"Yuan’er..." Xuan Long pressed his hand against him, and tears suddenly streaked out of the corners of his eyes. His face was unmasked, and the scar left by the karmic fire on the right side of his face pressed against the back of A'Zhi's hand. The unevenness of the touch made A'Zhi feel distressed.

"......"

"I miss you..." Xuan Long said in a low voice.

The person in front of him never answered him.

Xuan Long had gotten used to the fact that even when Yan Yuan entered his dreams, he mostly just looked at him and didn't speak to him. That was why he was so obedient when the nightmare demon that had become Yan Yuan spoke to him.

"I have now... made the chicken soup dumplings... extremely well..."

"Even better than the owner of that dumpling stall… even better..."

"When will you come back... I'll make it for you… okay..."

"A hundred thousand years, a million years... a hundred million years... I can wait..."

"Come back..."

No one knew what it was like to wait for someone who would never return.

At least none of them expected Yan Yuan to come back, and all of them accepted this harsh reality. Ye Ling had Yan Jing and A'Zhi had his grandparents, and they accompanied each other, gradually moving on from the pain of losing their loved ones as time passed. The only one who remained stubbornly in place was Xuan Long, who refused to move on.

When A'Zhi finally became an adult, he was willing to listen carefully to Xuan Long and Yan Yuan's past. He finally understood how painful Yan Yuan's departure was for Xuan Long, and it was the first time he felt this kind of pain and despair viscerally.

The life of a god is too long, and living like this is actually far more painful than dying.

The wounds inflicted by such a demonic creature should not have caused such a serious illness, but Xuan Long's divine body was rebuilt, and he had defended Yan Yuan from the wrath of Heaven, so his soul had not yet healed. This, coupled with the fact that the injuries he suffered over the past hundred thousand years were never seriously treated, made him worse and worse as time went on.

Xuan Long soon fell asleep again. A'Zhi carefully took his hand out of his and wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, whispering:

"Don't cry... You'll still have me from now on, I'll visit you often."

"Why don't you move back to the Heavenly Realm so that you can see me every day and not feel lonely..."

The next day Xuan Long woke up to find that his chest wound, which had been deteriorating, had completely healed. The sun had already risen outside, and as he dressed and went downstairs, A'Zhi was coming out of the dining room with a bowl in his hand and looked up to see him with a delighted face.

A'Zhi was coming out of the dining room with a bowl in his hand, and looked up to see him with a delighted face.

"Mother, you're awake? I've made red dates and lotus seed soup, come and try it."

A'Zhi was wearing a dusty apron that he had found somewhere and his white face was stained with dust, just like a tabby cat, looking a bit silly.

When Xuan Long woke up, he smelled A'Zhi's scent in his bedroom and knew that he had come. He was not surprised to see A'Zhi, but was just a little taken aback by the sight of the soup in his hands.

A'Zhi called to him a few times before Xuan Long reacted. He took the bowl and murmured, "A'Zhi made this..."

"That's right."

The red dates and lotus seed soup looked very good. Xuan Long picked up the spoon and took a bite. Surprisingly, it was slightly bitter in his mouth and had a mushy texture, but it warmed his heart.

"Is it good?..." A'Zhi looked at him without blinking.

"Delicious." Xuan Long arched his lips.

"Then eat more, it's good for your qi and blood, there's more in the pot."

"Okay."

The two of them sat down at the stone table in the courtyard, and Xuan Long slowly ate all the red dates and lotus seed soup, while A'Zhi watched him eat. When he finished eating, he asked if he wanted more, and Xuan Long said he did, so A'Zhi took the bowl and filled it up again, doing so twice in the end.

Seeing that he had eaten several bowls, A'Zhi couldn't resist serving himself a bowl and brought it to the table to eat with Xuan Long. However, after taking a sip, he spat it out and said with a frown, "It's all mushy!"

"Don't eat it, don't eat it..." He reached out and snatched Xuan Long's bowl away from him. "It's all mushy and you're drinking so much, it's not poisoned is it..."

Xuan Long: "It's harmless."

A'Zhi wanted to reprimand Xuan Long for not taking care of his body, but then he thought that this was made for him by the child he had not seen for over a hundred thousand years, so even if poison had been added Xuan Long would have eaten it without changing his face. Therefore, he could not bear to speak up and instead sulked at himself, how could he not even cook a soup?

Xuan Long looked at him sulking and said, "I think it's good... thank you..."

A'Zhi looked up, his eyebrows knitted tighter: "What are you saying thank you for... treating me like an outsider."

Xuan Long's throat twitched slightly: "No… it's just, I feel happy."

A'Zhi hummed and laughed: "Then you have to get used to it, there will be a lot more of this kind of joy in the future."

In the afternoon, A'Zhi asked Xuan Long to move back to the Heavenly Realm, but Xuan Long refused on the grounds that he was used to it, and that if he left, there would be no one to look after the irises in the courtyard.

Although A'Zhi was not too happy about it, he respected Xuan Long's wishes and when he left, he said he would visit him next time he was free.

It was only ten days in the Heavenly Realm, but ten years on Earth. As a crown prince, A'Zhi had a heavy burden on his shoulders, so he did not have much time to come down to see Xuan Long.

Most of the time, Xuan Long was still alone, having no contact with anyone, and his days were no different from before, except that sometimes, after killing evil spirits in the mortal world, he would buy some fresh food for A'Zhi on his way back that he would send to the Heavenly Realm.

He still missed that person, and in the dead of night, in his midnight dreams, whenever he was badly injured, an inappropriate thought would come to his mind: if only he could fall asleep and not wake up again, that would be good.

One day, a hundred years later, Xuan Long returned from the mortal world after removing evil spirits, and found a bowl of fish soup on the table in the dining room. The stove showed signs of having been used, but no one's breath was left inside the house...

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: February 26, 2023