Chapter 1

"Notes on Raising Mushrooms as an Emperor" by Dan Qingluo [Complete]

About this book:

Lin Ling was a little Mushroom Spirit growing on a beam in the Imperial Study. Every day, he watched the tyrant go about his routine-

Confiscating estates, exiling people, and exterminating entire clans.

Little Mushroom had no particular objection to any of this. It was just that the little flowerpot he used for basking in moonlight kept getting caught in the crossfire, crashing to the floor along with the memorials.

So he entered the tyrant's dreams every day to complain, and the tyrant gave him a new flowerpot.

Up on the beam, Lin Ling gazed at his newly acquired flowerpot, happily imagining moving into it, when someone angered the tyrant again.

The moment the tyrant raised his hand, Lin Ling nervously reminded him in a tiny voice, "When you get angry and start smashing things in a moment, don't smash my new flowerpot again, okay?"

The room fell utterly silent. Under everyone's gaze, the tyrant turned around and moved the flowerpot somewhere else first.

Their legs trembling, not daring to look a moment longer, the ministers belatedly realized that their ruthless, decisive emperor was also learning how to raise a soft little mushroom.

PS: A fictional dynasty, with fairly modern language. A sweet little bedtime story/something to lull you to sleep. If you bring your brain along, you might not get any sleep OvO

PPS: There are lots of similar stories on my author page, all independent short stories with the same main characters. If you like this one, go take a look~

Content tags: Supernatural, a match made in heaven

Sweet romance

Imperial court, adorable pet

Lighthearted

Main character viewpoint: Lin Ling; interaction: Shi Changyuan; supporting characters: court ministers

Other: Adorable pet, sweet romance

One-line synopsis: A tyrant and his adorable mushroom-spirit consort

Theme: Work hard for what you want

Chapter 1

Crash-

Inside the Imperial Study, an exquisite jade cup was hurled from the desk onto the floor, sending shards flying. The ministers dropped to their knees in a flurry, cold sweat streaming down their bodies.

On a beam covered in carved reliefs, a thumb-sized white mushroom watched the tyrant below and unhappily swayed his little umbrella cap.

Smashing things again.

He actually had no particular objection to it. Perhaps this was simply how human rulers managed their subordinates. But a few days ago, this human ruler had accidentally smashed his flowerpot, and had shown no intention whatsoever of compensating him.

Now that, he very! much! objected! to!

As a Mushroom Spirit, Lin Ling felt that growing on a human ruler's roof beam really wasn't appropriate.

He wanted to return to the deep mountain forests he had heard about, so he had specially prepared a little flowerpot for his move. Yet he had barely gotten his hands on it before the tyrant smashed it with a crash, breaking it into pieces scattered everywhere.

"Gentlemen, you have truly disappointed me."

Directly beneath the beam, the tyrant sat on his

dragon

throne, his tone calm, as though the jade cup he had smashed earlier had been an illusion. But the calmer he was, the harder the kneeling ministers trembled.

Only the little white mushroom on the beam swayed cheerfully, stretching his stalk to count the shards on the floor.

One, two, three, four, five pieces...

"My little flowerpot met an even worse end. It broke into sixteen whole pieces," Lin Ling muttered, with a touch of inexplicable pride.

"To have dragged out such a simple examination fraud case for so long, it is difficult not to suspect that you gentlemen are involved yourselves."

Once Lin Ling finished counting the shards, he tried to eavesdrop and find out what had angered the tyrant today, but all he heard were some strange words.

Something about exams and cases?

Hmm... someone was probably fighting.

The emperor in his black dragon robe walked over to the prostrate ministers and looked down at them, his voice chilling. "Perhaps I should dismiss you all and have you investigated."

Mushroom understood even less of the conversation that followed. He knew the tyrant was handing out punishment over this fight, but Mushroom didn't understand why "pigeons" were a punishment too.

Mushroom only understood beheading. Clearly, a mushroom really ought to live deep in the mountain forests.

Lin Ling grew even more determined to return to the mountains. He simply stopped listening to those strange words and quietly waited for nightfall, when the tyrant would rest.

As the oil lamp burned low and the shadow on the wall flickered, the tireless human ruler finally loosened his robes and belt, preparing to lie down.

The tyrant hadn't returned to his bedchamber because, as Mushroom knew, he would have to get up and work again in another four hours.

"Now's my chance!" Lin Ling acted swiftly, entering the tyrant's dream the instant he lay down.

"Heh heh heh, I'm back-" Lin Ling had barely entered the dream and hadn't even seen the tyrant yet before he began announcing his purpose.

"If you still won't replace my little flowerpot, I'm going to keep pestering you. Well, have you made up your... eek?!"

Before Lin Ling could finish, the sinister surroundings in the dream gave him a terrible fright.

A dried-up well in a deserted courtyard, clinking iron chains, and faint sobs rising and falling-it was deeply unsettling, like the cold palace of legend, or perhaps a dungeon.

Mushroom had never seen anything like this. He hurriedly waved his hand, using hallucinogenic spores to alter the dream, returning them to the brightly lit Imperial Study.

Lin Ling looked around and nodded in satisfaction. It was exactly like the Imperial Study during the day.

The tyrant in the dream sat on the couch in only his inner robes, his black dragon robe loosely draped over him. His long black hair fell at his sides as he propped his head on one hand and leisurely played chess against himself. His relaxed posture was a far cry from the imposing presence he maintained during the day, even when he wasn't angry.

"Found you!"

This was Lin Ling's third time entering his dream, so he knew his way around. He plopped down opposite the tyrant. "You smashed another cup today. It broke into five pieces."

The young man held up five fingers and waved them in front of the tyrant. "But you broke my little flowerpot into sixteen pieces. I can't even glue it back together anymore..."

It was a dream.

Shi Changyuan knew he was dreaming. For over a decade, his nightmares had been nothing but those dark secrets of his youth in the cold palace.

Lately, however, something strange had happened. The nightmares now took place in the Imperial Study, and there was an unfamiliar young man, pretty but odd in every way, who endlessly pestered him to replace a flowerpot.