I Abandoned My Beast Cubs for the Protagonist... Oops?-Chapter 56: The Golden Squatter

The echo of Bai Yue’s bold declaration—"He is my mate. Go find your own fox."—hung in the dead-silent clearing.

For three glorious seconds, Bai Yue felt like an absolute warrior queen. A badass protagonist who had finally taken control of the plot.

And then, the adrenaline vanished.

Did I just... Bai Yue’s brain initiated a frantic reboot sequence. Loading... Error 404: Logic not found. Did I just grab the Fox Lord, the man who hated my guts two weeks ago, and suck on his face in front of a literal celestial deity?!

Her face, already flushed from the kiss, went spectacularly red it rivaled Zhao Yan’s hair. Her knees, which had been locked in a stance of fierce defiance, suddenly turned into overcooked wet noodles.

She stumbled backward, a tiny, embarrassing squeak escaping her swollen lips. Gravity was about to claim another victory, but she never hit the dirt.

Zhāo Yàn caught her effortlessly. His strong arms wrapped securely around her waist, pulling her right back against his solid chest.

"Woah there, little female," Zhāo Yàn purred.

His voice was an octave lower than usual, gravelly and filled with a dark, completely unhidden delight. He leaned down, his breath ghosting over the shell of her ear. "Careful. You don’t want to fall after such a magnificent display."

"I—that was—I didn’t—" Bai Yue stammered, pushing against his chest. She couldn’t look him in the eye. If she looked into those crimson eyes right now, she was going to combust.

"It was a tactical move!" she finally blurted out, keeping her voice to a harsh whisper that only he could hear. "Purely strategic! A spur-of-the-moment diversion to get the crazy dragon lady to back off! That’s all!"

Zhāo Yàn didn’t believe her for a fraction of a second.

He let out a chuckle that she felt against her palms. "A tactical move?" he repeated, his thumb slowly stroking the sensitive curve of her waist. "You kissed me like a starving woman, Bai Yue. And you declared it in front of the entire Thousand Fang Tribe."

He tilted her chin up with one finger, forcing her to meet his devastatingly smug smirk. "You said I was your mate in front of a First Generation Dragon. You claimed me. There are absolutely no take-backs now."

Before Bai Yue could open her mouth to argue her failing defense, the sound of slow clapping cut through the romantic tension.

Everyone snapped their heads toward Cāng Yáo.

The Dragon Princess wasn’t gathering a fireball in her throat. She wasn’t summoning a hurricane to level the village. Instead, she had thrown her head back, her chiming headdress jingling like wind chimes as a melodic, entirely arrogant laugh spilled from her ruby lips.

"Hahahaha! Oh, how precious!" Cāng Yáo laughed, wiping a completely fake tear from her glowing golden eye.

She stopped clapping and crossed her arms, looking Bai Yue up and down like she was examining a particularly amusing, but ultimately worthless, bug.

"A tactical move?" Cāng Yáo projected her voice, having clearly overheard Bai Yue’s panicked whisper thanks to her superior draconic hearing. "Or the desperate flailing of a primitive little creature clinging to a gem she doesn’t deserve?"

Cāng Yáo stepped closer, her anklets chiming. She leaned in, inspecting Bai Yue’s muddy animal-hide skirt and the messy, half-dried state of her ponytail.

"You think a kiss means anything to a dragon?" Cāng Yáo scoffed, waving a manicured hand dismissively. "You think claiming him with your unwashed lips changes the fundamental truth of the universe? Look at you. You are covered in river silt. You smell like wild garlic and panic. You are a fleeting, fragile little thing that will wither and die in a few short decades."

The Dragon Princess shifted her gaze back to Zhāo Yàn, her eyes hungry. "And he... he is exquisite. He deserves the eternal, shining luxury of the High Peaks, not a mud-pit. A kiss is cheap. I am simply going to outshine you."

Cāng Jì finally found his voice. "Sister... please. Let’s just go home. I am fine! Let’s just leave!"

"Silence, Cāng Jì," Cāng Yáo snapped without even looking at him. "I am not leaving. I have found a new pet, and I am going to collect him."

With a theatrical snap of her fingers, the air around the clearing violently warped.

A massive cloud of gold dust materialized directly next to Bai Yue’s humble, slightly lopsided wooden hut. The dust swirled like a miniature tornado, solidifying rapidly into thick pillars of carved white jade. Walls of shimmering, translucent silk cascaded down from a roof tiled with actual, glittering mother-of-pearl.

Within thirty seconds, a literal, blindingly luxurious golden pavilion had squatted itself directly on Bai Yue’s metaphorical lawn.

"What in the world..." Mo Xiao muttered, shielding his amber eyes from the intense glare of the building.

"This," Cāng Yáo announced, gesturing grandly to her new palace, "shall be my temporary residence. I will stay here, in this squalid little village, until the Fox Lord realizes that a life of unimaginable wealth and power is far superior to sleeping in a dirt hovel with a woman who probably doesn’t even know how to properly polish a scale."

To prove her point, she snapped her fingers again. Two invisible magical servants carried out a massive, hovering silver platter from the pavilion and set it on a jade table near the entrance.

The platter was overflowing with exotic delicacies from the High Peaks. Crystal-clear spring water, honey-glazed meats, and, Bai Yue’s eyes zeroed in on it like a heat-seeking missile, a massive, sparkling crystal bowl piled high with fresh, plump, perfectly ripe raspberries.

Raspberries.

Bai Yue’s soul left her body, hovering in the air like a ghostly cartoon. Raspberries were her ultimate comfort fruit. In her past life, she would eat an entire carton when she was stressed, happy, sad, or just breathing. She hadn’t seen a single raspberry since transmigrating into this prehistoric forest.

Her mouth literally watered. Her stomach gave a treacherous, audible gurgle.

Cāng Yáo heard it and smirked triumphantly. "You see? Even the muddy female’s body knows it is outclassed. Enjoy your dirt, Fox Lord. My doors are open when you tire of playing house in the mud."

With a final, dramatic swish of her crimson silks, the Dragon Princess turned and strutted into her golden pavilion, leaving the scent of expensive incense and petty arrogance in her wake.