The Magical Orange

Doro ran over, bit down on the leg of Jiang Lan's penguin suit, and yanked him out of the sand like she was pulling up a radish.

"Pwah!" Jiang Lan spat out a mouthful of sand and wiped his face. "Jump Boost!"

Doro conjured a golden orange.

Jiang Lan looked at the gleaming golden orange, somewhat hesitant.

"This... isn't some kind of elemental attack, is it?"

"Just try it!" Doro stuffed the golden orange into his hands.

Jiang Lan took a deep breath, peeled open the golden orange, and cautiously took a small bite.

The next second, golden light began pouring from his entire body. He looked like a human-shaped light bulb, dazzlingly bright.

Doro squinted from the glare and raised her little stubby arms to shield her face.

Jiang Lan felt a surge of energy churning wildly inside him, demanding to be released.

He opened his mouth, and a beam of golden light blasted out, shooting straight toward the sea. It exploded into a small mushroom cloud over the water, and the waves it kicked up splashed all over the rocks by the shore.

Jiang Lan: "Nice."

"I... I can fire mouth cannons now?"

Doro spun in circles excitedly, her four little stubby legs stamping out a string of tiny pits in the sand. "More, more!"

She conjured another orange, this one black.

Jiang Lan looked at the orange, black as ink, and his mouth twitched.

"This color doesn't look promising..."

But out of trust in Doro, he still took a bite.

Then he regretted it.

The instant the black orange entered his mouth, an indescribable flavor exploded across his tongue.

It wasn't sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, or salty. It was a flavor that... made him want to lie down and give up.

Jiang Lan sprawled on the beach in the shape of a star, staring blankly at the sky. The hood of his penguin onesie had slipped crookedly to one side, revealing a face that screamed: Who am I? Where am I? Why did I eat that black orange?

"Jiang Lan! What's wrong with you?!" Doro anxiously circled around him, patting his face several times with her little stubby hands.

Jiang Lan slowly spoke in an utterly flat tone. "Doro, I don't want to work hard anymore."

Doro: "..."

"I don't think being the Sea God is all that interesting." Jiang Lan continued in the tone of someone who had seen through the mortal world. "Life is better spent lying flat. From now on, I'll lie on this beach, soak up the sun, enjoy the sea breeze, and wait for crabs to crawl into my mouth."

Doro panicked. She grabbed the collar of Jiang Lan's penguin suit with both little stubby hands and shook him desperately. "Pull yourself together! That black orange was a failed experiment!"

"It failed wonderfully." Jiang Lan let her shake him, his body limp as if he had no bones. "Failure is the mother of success, but this failure is my final destination."

Frightened, Doro hurriedly conjured a normal yellow orange, pried open Jiang Lan's mouth, and stuffed it inside.

The moment the fresh orange segments entered his mouth, sweet juice instantly washed away that bizarre taste. Jiang Lan abruptly sat up, gasping for breath, clarity returning to his eyes.

"What did I just say?" Jiang Lan asked blankly, touching his face.

"You said you wanted to lie flat. You also said failure was your final destination," Doro repeated honestly.

Jiang Lan fell silent for two seconds. Then, with a solemn expression, he gripped Doro's round shoulders, looked into her eyes, and said word by word, "Doro, never let Mama Bo Saixi eat that black orange."

"Why?"

"Because if Mama Bo Saixi ate that black orange, she'd probably say, 'There's no point in guarding Sea God Island. Whoever wants Lord Sea God's trials can have them. I'm quitting to grow kelp.'" Jiang Lan imitated Bo Saixi's tone expressionlessly. "Do you think that would look good?"

Doro seriously imagined Bo Saixi squatting on the beach and growing kelp. Then she shuddered all over, her little white dumpling-like body trembling like jelly.

"Not good."

"So remember this: black oranges are forbidden magic. Don't use them unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Got it!" Doro nodded hard, and the bow ribbons on her bun bobbed along with the motion.

Only then did Jiang Lan let out a breath of relief. Just as he was about to stand up, he suddenly felt another strange energy churning in his stomach.

"Wait." He looked down at his belly. A small bump had appeared around the stomach area of his penguin onesie. "I think... I haven't finished digesting it?"

Before he could finish speaking, his body began undergoing a series of strange changes.

First, his hair turned rainbow-colored, sparkling under the sunlight as though he had a rainbow sitting on his head.

Then his skin began changing colors—red, then green, then blue—switching so quickly that he looked like an out-of-control neon sign.

Doro's eyes went wide. Her mouth hung open, and she did not even notice the drool trickling from the corner of her lips.

"Doro, what exactly did you put into those oranges?" Jiang Lan looked down at his gaudy skin, trying desperately to stop this accident.

Doro thought for a moment before uncertainly saying, "I added a little extra Soul Power?"

"A little Soul Power? You mean adding extra Soul Power can make Orange mutate?" Jiang Lan's eyes widened into perfect circles, his rainbow hair swishing about with his movements.

"Probably... maybe... perhaps...?" Doro's voice grew softer and softer, and she nearly shrank her head into her round body.

Jiang Lan was about to press her further when his skin color suddenly switched to transparent mode.

That was right—transparent.

He looked down and could see his little belly beneath his penguin suit. He could see the lunch still being digested inside it.

"Doro!" Jiang Lan screamed. "How am I supposed to face anyone like this?!"

In a fluster, Doro conjured a pile of oranges and stuffed them into Jiang Lan's mouth as though she were playing cat's cradle. "Eat, eat, eat! Maybe if you eat enough, you'll go back to normal!"

Jiang Lan passively accepted Doro's feeding. His mouth was crammed full of oranges in every color, and his cheeks puffed up so much they looked ready to burst.

The red oranges made his body temperature soar, scorching a little pit into the sand beneath his feet.

The blue oranges made the air he exhaled carry icy flecks, and a thin layer of frost formed over his eyebrows.

The white oranges made his whole body glow, bathing the surroundings in a ghastly white light.

Multicolored lights flashed over his body in endless succession, making him look like a walking disco ball.

In the midst of this chaos, a familiar voice came from nearby.

"Guga, what are you doing?"

Jiang Lan and Doro froze at the same time.

They slowly turned around and saw Bo Saixi standing at the edge of the beach, a teacup in one hand and the other held behind her back, watching them with a scrutinizing gaze.

Bo Saixi looked at the scene before her. The hand holding the teacup hung suspended in midair without moving an inch.

What did she see?

A six-year-old child with rainbow-colored explosive hair and skin flashing wildly like a neon sign.