Chapter 33 – Lettuce feast together!

🙞❤︎🙜

Last night, I dreamed of my baby dragon, who was basically a little blue lizard with wings, turning into a human toddler. What?! Weird.

Habit made me wake up promptly at dawn, even though I didn’t need to. I kicked the covers off and stretched my arms over my head. Ah, my bed was really the best! I’d chosen the biggest, most luxurious one from the Cash Shop, and it was absolutely perfect. The mattress was hard but springy, and the beddings were made of the best quality cotton.

The only fly in the ointment was that the bed was almost too hot to sleep in now that we were in the summer season. The others had told me it would get hotter, much hotter, soon.

Should I turn on the climate control yet? I had refrained from using any of the house’s advanced settings because I didn’t want to spook the normies, but sooner or later I would probably use it.

Hmmm. Not today. It wasn’t that hot yet.

I snoozed for a few minutes more before getting up and going to the bathroom sink to wash my face and brush my teeth. Fengying had been horrified when she saw I had a toilet and shower inside my suite. Toilets were considered dirty in this world, and having one inside your room was considered beyond the pale. Though I mostly took her advice about the house, I stood firm about this one.

There’s no way I’m going to use an outdoor toilet again if I can help it!

Once I finished my daily routine, I went to my tiny dining room that I had furnished with comfortable chairs upholstered with lushly embroidered silk brocade and a small carved rosewood table.

I was still yawning when Yinuo, one of the maids, arrived with my breakfast.

“Miss Violet, Madam Fengying asked me to remind you that Prince Baiyu will be visiting today,” she said.

“Okay.” I was way too sleepy to say anything more.

I only woke up after I had finished eating my hearty breakfast of tea, soy milk, crullers, and shaobing, a layered flatbread stuffed with spiced pork. The Demon Chef’s meals really had a way of perking me up.

Today was the fifth day of the summer growing season, and I had instructed my apprentices to water the fields by themselves. Lari and Kharli were coming along nicely, and Mo had surprised all of us by leveling up farming. She must have some hidden characteristic that made her gain more experience faster. Now she was level 4 while the others were level 3. Without me to help them, they would undoubtedly deplete all of their energy, therefore I gave them the rest of the day off.

As for me, I had the entire day off.

The only thing on my schedule was a morning full of self-care and the afternoon visit by Prince Baiyu. I had lost count of the days he had spent sweeping the path around the house, but he’d stopped visiting right after he flew me back from Anwei. I figured he’d lost interest in me, though he had sent word through Shuye that he wouldn’t be able to see me for a while because he was busy with his work. Apparently, it was time for him to go over his clan’s yearly budget with the elders.

Now, finally, he had sent a message that he had some free time and wanted to see me this afternoon.

Fengying popped by to visit me while I was selecting the clothes I was going to wear today.

“Miss Violet, are you sure Prince Baiyu will be joining you for dinner?” she asked me, not for the first time.

I understood her skepticism. Eating human food was taboo for the clans because of an incident hundreds of years ago when there was a famine, and the God Beasts nobly gave their share of food to their human subjects, thereby discovering that they could survive by eating demons. That emergency measure had turned into a tradition, and, according to Shuye, it was a matter of pride among adult clan members that they were strong enough to live by hunting and eating demons.

Prince Baiyu had sent a message that he was arriving before dusk and staying until midnight. Consequently, he would be here during the evening meal. It’s not like I could tell him to go away while we were eating and come back when we were finished. We were in the middle of a forest, not a city, so there was nowhere for him to go.

“He won’t be eating anything; he’ll just sit with us,” I said.

“Why?” she asked.

I laughed evilly. “Haven’t you been complaining that Lari refuses to learn proper table manners? When the kids finish their chores, tell them they will be joining us.”

“But Lari isn’t ready! He’ll disgrace himself!”

Fengying didn’t have to say it, but we both understood that that would also reflect badly on me as his teacher.

“He’s smart, and I have faith that he’ll master it today,” I said. Basic table manners weren’t that hard to learn, therefore I wasn’t too worried. “By the way, make sure he knows he can’t pretend to be sick and skip dinner. Perhaps you can emphasize to him that it’s a good thing for him to meet the son of the Ruler of the Westerlands.”

Lari was both [Ambitious] and [Lazy], which required proper handling. The girls, on the other hand, had easily mastered their dining etiquette, according to Fengying. I didn’t believe for a second that Lari was stupider than them, which meant that he had just been slacking off.

Fengying just shook her head at me and left.

I browsed through all of my clothes, then decided to get new ones from the Cash Shop. If I remember correctly, there should be quite a few summer-themed items. I turned on the [Privacy] option for my room using the System, then grabbed a few Costume Packs.

Thank goodness people couldn’t see inside my rooms because each time I opened a pack, I had to go through the same magical girl transformation sequence.

The [Dazzling Summer], [Summer’s Delight], [A Breath of Summer], [Fairytale Fantasia], and [Cool Dusk] packs all yielded usable items. I was particularly taken by a white and purple robe embroidered with peonies and a cute cream-colored eyelet blouse with a ruffled collar.

By the time I finished shopping for new clothes, it was only midmorning. My days had been so full of farming and foraging that I’d barely had time for myself. Thus, my next move was to have a good, long soak in the hot spring.

I sank into the warm, welcoming water after I had scrubbed my body with honeysuckle-scented soap and a washcloth, and let my worries melt away. I remembered to add a Dewy Glow potion into the bathing pool. That was my secret to having flawless skin, despite the fact that I spent most of my days outdoors.

A gentle chime sounded when I had been in the bath for twenty minutes. Being in the hot water too long overstimulated the body, so the timer was there to alert people when they should leave. Small holes opened up at the bottom of the pool and the water drained away. Then I took a cold shower and moved on to the salon where a Cash Shop machine shampooed, conditioned, and styled my hair into soft, beachy waves.

Primping only took half an hour, and I emerged from the hot spring ready to face my apprentices’ complaints.

Sure enough, the moment that I stepped into the outer courtyard, the Three Stooges fairly blistered my ears with their loud complaints, high-pitched whining, and ill-tempered grumbling.

I took a few minutes out of my busy schedule to reassure them that Prince Baiyu would be dining with us and, yes, everything would turn out fine since I was sure that they would be able to conduct themselves properly after a final lesson from Fengying.

As a result of the kids panicking horribly, Fengying advised me to eat in my quarters, which I was happy to do. Lunch was yet another sublime meal. The Demon Chef had surpassed himself with the mouthwatering char siu rice with wild vegetables. I don’t know what marinade Deming had used, but the tender slices of pork were sweet, savory, and smoky from the grill.

I rested for a while after lunch, then went to the fields outside to check if the crops were doing well. Everything was fine, so I went back to the house for an afternoon nap.

When I woke up, Fengying absolutely insisted that I change into my best clothes. According to her, the best one was the [Springtime Delight] set. She and Yinuo, one of the maids, exclaimed over the floor length green silk dress with long white sleeves as though they had never seen a prettier dress before, even though they were unable to touch the Cash Shop item.

By the time Prince Baiyu arrived, I was already waiting in the main hall along with my three apprentices.

We exchanged greetings and bows, and I formally introduced Lari, Kharli, and Mo to the Prince.

The Three Stooges all looked pale and sick with fear, so I thought I would have some fun with them.

LinMeili

• Hmm, this chapter was very slice-of-life. Is it okay to have slower chapters like this which just describe daily life? I guess I just wanted to show how comfortable life is for her now compared to the first chapters.
• Thanks for reading my story!
• If you spot an error, please leave a comment, so I can fix it. I've been posting chapters everyday which means I sometimes don't have a lot of time to edit.