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Chapter 13 – Mo Li Will Eat Anything When Hungry

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Fishead is a freelance translator,
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Author:
Return of Han & Tang
Original Source:
SFACG
Word Count:
2264 characters
Translator:
Fishead
English Source:
Re:Library
Word Count:
1499 words

It feels like I’m about to change!1 Mo Li hurriedly covered his mouth, suppressing his ever-increasing pitch, and ran towards a secluded alley. No one saw, no one saw, no one saw! Mo Li silently repeated in his heart; after all, a young dragon appearing in a human vassal state is essentially setting a plot for disaster.

Fortunately, amidst the bustling street, everyone was deeply engrossed in their own activities, sparing no attention to notice the peculiarities of others. Squatting at the end of a quiet alley, Mo Li, half-crouched, gritted his teeth and firmly gripped the flashing pendant dangling from his bosom.

What are you rushing so much for, you little trinket? Do you want me to reincarnate again? If I get turned into dragon meat skewers, you have to take full responsibility!

Mo Li swiftly felt his chest becoming hot and stuffy, akin to being submerged in a pot of boiling oil. This sensation intertwined with the burning hunger gnawing at his empty stomach as if a fierce fire were coursing through his entire body. As a strange energy spread through Mo Li’s body, a shard of dilapidated glass beside him reflected his appearance.

His black hair was stained snow white with undertones of cherry, resembling a painting of plum blossoms in the snow. It gradually cascaded down to his legs, and a pair of cute, petite dragon horns grew from his head like sprouts after a heavy rain.

“Crap.”

In the glass’s reflection, the young dragon girl with cherry-white hair sat with her legs in a W-shape and her feet pointing towards each other. The once well-fitted clothes were now baggy and loose due to the change in physique as if someone had just draped them over the girl’s body.

As she rubbed her hair, the satin-like strands of cherry-white hair glided silkily between her fingers, and a subtle melancholy graced her refined, otherworldly countenance. Her mind delved into the universe’s most fundamental philosophical query: What’s baby gonna have for lunch this afternoon?

Her rumbling belly demanded all of Mo Li’s attention, leaving her unable to focus on reverting back to her human form. However, maintaining this appearance would make moving within this human-filled city nearly impossible! Without even considering the obviously non-human horns on her head, her appearance alone had a 100% chance of turning the heads of everyone she walked by and could cause normal people to turn into lolicons.

“Growl…”

The temple that was Mo Li’s belly constantly raised protests while ringing its gongs loudly.

“Alright, alright, stop screaming. You think I want you to go hungry? Isn’t this all because I don’t have a choice…”

The young white-haired dragon clutched her abdomen and muttered resentfully. “Alright, alright, I got it. I’ll take you to get something to eat right away, okay.”

Mo Li looked around and randomly gathered a few discarded rags piled up in the alley. After some simple MacGyvering, she fashioned a headscarf from the rotten fabric, neatly bundling up her overgrown and slightly annoying hair behind her head, while also hiding her horns and appearance. Mo Li, gripped by extreme hunger, paid no mind to the dirtiness of these random rags. She casually used them to cover her head, resembling a little beggar, completely squandering her fairy-like face.

On the streets of Fran City.

“Freshly baked croissants!”

“Restaurant-wide discount! When ordering tomato and beef stew with foie gras, your second cup of hot water will be half off!”

“Haven’t had lunch yet? Try our cheese and asparagus soup…”

The streets and alleys resounded with the familiar, ceaseless calls of hawkers. As the old adage goes, while the speaker might be absentminded, the listener is remarkably attentive. The customary shouting of the street hawkers caused a certain young dragon, hiding in the shadows with an empty belly, to mumble hypnotically.

“Cheese bread, roasted buns, sausage and bacon, vegetable soup…” In a corner, Mo Li squatted before a shop, drooling incessantly. Her saliva pooled on the ground, on the verge of forming a small stream.

“Hungry, hungry…” Beneath her hood2, the girl frequently wiped away the saliva at the corners of her mouth, her heterochromatic eyes sparkling with tiny stars.

“Tsk, where’d you come from, little beggar? If you’re not gonna eat, get outta here and quit disrupting my business!” The fat owner frowned upon noticing Mo Li’s shabby attire, subconsciously categorizing her as an orphaned child begging on the streets. It was as though he had encountered something unclean, prompting him to start berating her.

“Eat… eh, wait a sec! Who told you I’m a beggar? I’m here to eat!” Seeing that the fierce owner was ready to call over security, Mo Li hurriedly explained.

“Eat? Hmph, can you afford to eat at my restaurant?” The owner spoke, his face filled with disdain.

“Don’t look down on me!” The secretion of hormones can influence a person’s thought process to a certain degree. Like in the current situation, Mo Li, who is currently a young dragon, seems to have had her intelligence crippled. But this really couldn’t be blamed on her; expecting a recently born dragon without parents to find food for herself is an incredibly difficult demand.

Under normal circumstances, Mo Li might not have behaved this way. However, her diminished IQ after becoming a young dragon made it so that she could only perceive the condescending owner as someone very annoying. As such, she put her hands on her hips and loudly retorted.
“Isn’t it just money? You think I don’t have any!” After her words, Mo Li fumbled through the pockets of her oversized shirt. Under the impatient gaze of the owner, she finally retrieved a few broken copper coins. She even forgot that the money she had looted earlier from the assassins was tucked away in the pockets of another set of clothes…

“See! I have money, so I can go in and eat now, right.”

“You poor little brat…” A large hashtag gradually appeared on the owner’s forehead; he felt as though he had been tricked by this little brat. After waiting for so long, he felt that he really did get tricked.

“Beat it! You’re even poorer than the stinky beggars I usually see. Calling you a beggar is already a compliment. You, poor brat, if you don’t have money, then quit disturbing my business!”

“Tsk, tsk! Why so fierce! Isn’t this still money?”

“This kind of dirty and stinky money can’t even be used to buy a cup of hot water in my shop, understand? Hurry and beat it, otherwise, I’m going to call security!” The owner was so furious that he looked like a man-eating lion.

“Tch, so rude. Not willing to take my money, well, I’m not willing to eat at your shop. It’d dirty this lady’s… peh, this lord’s mouth. Not enough money to buy hot water, what are your cups made of, gold? Or is your water scooped with gold?” After hesitantly walking away from the shop, Mo Li became increasingly angry as she thought about it more. At that moment, she made an astonishing decision.

Making sure that there was no one around, she snuck back to the side of the shop, in thought. Perhaps fueled by the impulse from her anger or driven by the instincts of the dragon clan, her cognition sparked an idea that would have never normally crossed her mind. The young dragon then opened her mouth and bit down on the corner of the shop’s wall without a second thought.

“Crackle, crackle… Hmph, stupid owner, now let’s see you look down on me.” Mo Li scolded as she chewed on the broken bricks in her mouth. The young dragon swaggered in triumph as if she had settled a profound debt. Even her tail, concealed beneath her cloak, rose high toward the sky. Hum, Hum~ now you know how powerful I am, um, let me my hand on my hips for a bit.3

“Watch me modify the corners of your shop to be a little more round and smooth… Crack, Crackle, Crackle, huh?” Mo Li, who was chewing on the bricks, was momentarily shocked. Perhaps she was too hungry, as she found that the taste of the brick in her mouth was surprisingly good… A while later.

“Who the **** did this??” The owner, who had made a considerable amount of money that morning, walked out to leisurely sunbathe. While inspecting his shop, he noticed a giant hole in the corner of his wall, as if it had been gnawed out by mice. He immediately rubbed his eyes, thinking he must have seen it wrong.

“Boss, the traces around this hole seem to be from some kind of small animal, probably a mouse.” A worker, investigating the cause of the damages on the wall, analyzed reasonably.

“********! Since when are mice this big? Damn it, it must be some4 thief stealing my shop’s building materials. They better hope I never catch them!” The owner viciously declared.



 

Footnotes:

  1. Aight Sooo uuhh I may have just now realized that my Italics weren’t copying over onto the website, so if you read something that you thought was Mo Li talking in his mind it probably was
  2. Yes I know I translated headscarf earlier but author uses cloak here if I remember right sooo I just ran with hood
  3. Yes you read that right, I left it like that because I felt that is I did anything else I wouldn’t know how to express what I imagine author is trying to express.
  4. So I say some thief here but the author uses this phrase 饥不择食
    then thief and I think he partly joking about the fact that the owner just berated Mo Li when she was starving or I could be reading to much into it, the pains of chinese sometimes.
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