Jiang Lan's Nightmare

The dinner table was missing that little meatball tonight, and Sea God Palace felt especially deserted.

The kitchen still kept his meal warm for him: his favorite garlic-grilled fish and seaweed shrimp soup. The grilled fish had been made from the six-hundred-year Great White Shark he had carried back himself that morning.

Bo Saixi remembered clearly that the brat had been unusually serious while preparing the Great White Shark. As he scraped off the scales, he said that the fattest meat from the fish belly had to be saved for Mama Bo Saixi. She had pretended not to hear him then, but afterward, she quietly instructed the kitchen to cut off and marinate the piece of belly meat he had saved for her.

Now, that marinated fish belly still hung in the kitchen, waiting for the little brat who had said he would save the fattest meat for her to return.

Bo Saixi closed her eyes, her fingers tightening slightly within her sleeves.

"Guga, wherever you are, you must stay safe," Bo Saixi said softly, her voice scattered into the night by the sea breeze.

Then she opened her eyes, and her usual sharpness and composure returned to her gaze.

"Pass down my orders. Closely monitor any developments in the direction of the Heaven Dou Empire, and report immediately if anything unusual occurs. Also, contact every Sea God Island-affiliated force active along the continent's coast. If they find a six-year-old child in a penguin onesie whose catchphrase is 'guga,' they are to report it at once and protect him in secret. There must be no mistakes."

"Yes!" The shadow seemed to have received a pardon. With a whoosh, it vanished from the spot, moving at least three times faster than usual.

What a joke. The High Priestess's state just now had been even more terrifying than when she faced the Deep Sea Demon Whale King.

Bo Saixi gave the northern sea one last look before turning and walking back into Sea God Palace.

When she reached the entrance, her steps paused. Tilting her head, she looked at the dried-fish wind chime hanging by the side door of the palace.

Jiang Lan had made it for her when he was three, stringing together dozens of tiny fish he had dried himself into a crooked little wind chime.

Standing on tiptoe atop a chair as he hung it from the doorframe, Jiang Lan had looked up at her expectantly and said, "Mama Bo Saixi, this way, every time you come in, you can smell dried fish and won't forget to make fish for me!"

At the time, she had expressionlessly said it was ugly as hell. Yet that wind chime still hung on the door to this day, and not a single dried fish had gone missing.

Every day when she entered or left, she would unconsciously glance at it. Sometimes, she would even reach out and flick it, listening to the rustling of the dried fish knocking together as the corners of her lips curled up without her noticing.

Bo Saixi reached out and lightly flicked the wind chime. The rustling of dried fish colliding sounded especially crisp in the silent Sea God Palace.

"Little brat," Bo Saixi muttered under her breath before turning and walking into the palace, her red robe sweeping across the threshold.

"Huff..."

Jiang Lan lay sprawled in a hammock in the Zi Zhenzhu's storage hold, the hood of his penguin onesie buckled over his face and puffing up and down with every breath like a pufferfish stranded in a hammock.

Doro lay on his stomach, sleeping just as soundly. Her four tiny legs were curled before her, and the bow ribbon atop her bun had slipped crookedly to one side.

Her round body rose and fell with Jiang Lan's belly, while faint smacking sounds came from her mouth. Who knew how many Oranges she had stolen in her dream this time?

The snores of one boy and one spirit rose and fell in turns, one like a tuba and the other like a tiny bagpipe, performing a sleeping symphony that could only be called noise pollution.

A faint strip of light seeped through the crack beneath the storage hold's door. Outside, sailors could vaguely be heard drinking and shouting as they played finger-guessing games, but none of that noise disturbed Jiang Lan's sleep.

Jiang Lan had a dream.

In the dream, he stood at the gates of the Heaven Dou Empire's imperial palace, holding up the golden, gleaming Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud as he shouted at the Sea God's phantom in the sky, "Uncle Sea God! I got it! Now I don't have to run around for another six years, right?"

The Sea God's phantom looked down at him with a complicated expression, as if he could hardly believe that a six-year-old child had really run all the way to the Heaven Dou Empire and taken their national treasure.

Then the Sea God's phantom opened his mouth, about to say something, when the dream suddenly shifted to the dining table in Sea God Palace.

Bo Saixi sat across from him, holding a steaming bowl of fish soup. She looked at him expressionlessly and said, "Tonight's dinner is missing one dish."

Then the plate of garlic-grilled fish vanished with a whoosh.

Jiang Lan spun around anxiously in his dream, hugging Bo Saixi's long leg as he shouted, "Mama Bo Saixi, I was wrong! I shouldn't have run away secretly! Give me back my grilled fish, guga!"

Bo Saixi looked down at him, the corners of her lips slowly curving into a smile that made his scalp tingle. Then she grabbed him, pressed him across her lap, pulled down his penguin onesie, and gave his round little butt a fierce spanking.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

"Waaah—! Help, guga! I was wrong! I really was wrong!"

Jiang Lan wailed heartbreakingly in his dream, his butt burning with pain. But what frightened him most was not the spanking.

It was that after Bo Saixi finished spanking him, she turned him over and looked into his eyes. Her eyes reddened slightly as she said in a hoarse voice, "You are not allowed to run away secretly again."

Those words hurt him more than any spanking could.

Dream-Jiang Lan pouted, tears spinning in his eyes, then wrapped his two tiny arms tightly around Bo Saixi's neck.

He buried his face in her shoulder and mumbled, "Mama Bo Saixi, I'm sorry. Next time, I'll definitely tell you."

Then he woke up.

Jiang Lan's eyes flew open, and the first thing he saw was the low ceiling of the storage hold and the oil lamp swaying back and forth.

It took him several seconds to realize where he was. Not Sea God Palace, not his little bed covered in soft blankets, but the storage hold of the Zi Zhenzhu.

His sudden movement bounced Doro off his stomach. She bobbed twice on the hammock, then groggily opened her large purple eyes and let out a confused cry.

Jiang Lan sat in the hammock with his head lowered, silent for a long while.

The hammock swayed gently with the ship's motion, while the lamplight cast shifting shadows across his face.

Then he reached down and touched his butt.

Thankfully, it did not hurt. It was only a dream.

But his eyes still stung a little.

"What's wrong?" Doro crawled onto Jiang Lan's legs and looked up at him, her large purple eyes full of worry.

"I dreamed about Mama Bo Saixi." Jiang Lan's voice was a little muffled. The hood of his penguin onesie drooped behind his head, revealing a mess of fluffy hair. "She spanked me, and she cried."

Doro tilted her head and thought for a moment. "Wasn't that all just in your dream?"

"Yeah."

"Then why do you look so sad?"

Jiang Lan tugged at the sleeve of his penguin onesie, rubbing the fabric between his fingers as his voice grew quieter. "Because I think... Mama Bo Saixi might really be crying. I ran away without even saying goodbye. She must be really worried."

Doro stretched out her two tiny arms and hugged Jiang Lan. "Then when you go back, bring her a few more oranges, and she won't be mad anymore."