"This Dowager"
"Say, Xiao Yao, could you stop playing with that ball?" Houtu said irritably. "I finally managed to come over to play with you, and all you've done is play with that ball."
The Queen Mother of the West was in her boudoir, batting a ball of grass with her paws. She had no idea why, but the moment she saw it, she wanted to paw at it.
At Houtu's words, the Queen Mother of the West froze, then turned and asked, "What did you just say?"
"Stop playing with that ball!" Houtu repeated.
"No... what did you just call yourself?" the Queen Mother of the West asked, her pupils widening a little.
"'Your old lady,'" Houtu said in confusion. "What's wrong with that?"
The Queen Mother of the West bounded over to Houtu on all fours, her tail raised. She said excitedly, "'Your old lady' sounds so imposing!"
"Huh? Hehe... does it?" Houtu rubbed her nose and chuckled. "I'm already fifteen. It's time I had a way to refer to myself, and I really like 'your old lady.'"
"I love it too!" the Queen Mother of the West said happily. "I'll call myself 'your old lady' from now on too!"
"No way!" A distinctly disdainful look crossed Houtu's face. "'Your old lady' is exclusively mine. Think of your own!"
"I..." The Queen Mother of the West had only just taken form. How could she possibly think up something like that?
After hesitating for a while, she said to Houtu, "Houtu, help me think of one. Something as imposing as 'your old lady.'"
"Me?" A troubled look crossed Houtu's face.
After all, she hadn't come up with "your old lady" herself either. She could only stammer, "Uh... well, um... you'll have to give me some time. I'll go back