Chapter 101: Reserved

Poof...

Jiang Yan had never imagined that, as a bachelor, he would be “claimed” by a little girl who was barely old enough to know better.

Come on—he was no pedophile, and certainly no pervert.

Glancing at the tiny girl still clinging to him, he could only reach out helplessly and lift her down.

“Ahem. Little Phoenix—no, Yunyun. That joke has gone too far. Today is the first time we’ve ever met. What you just said, big brother will pretend he never heard.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Yan even stole a glance toward his master and his senior brothers and sisters.

Mm, good. For now, none of them seemed to be looking at him in any strange way...

But why did the little dragon seem to have a flicker of fire in its eyes?

At that very moment, the small dragon was nearly exploding with rage. It had guarded that egg with all its might, only for the hatchling to emerge and immediately want to become Jiang Yan’s bride?

Why did it feel so much like watching its own precious cabbage being carried off by a pig?

A trace of dissatisfaction surfaced on Yunyun’s little face. She pouted in protest. “But that’s what the inherited memories say! You even called me your wife just now!”

With that, she fixed Jiang Yan with the look of someone gazing upon a faithless scoundrel.

“...”

Jiang Yan fell silent.

His mind raced.

Inherited memories? Could there have been something wrong with them?

And the “just now” she mentioned—was that in a dream?

He asked cautiously, “Do you still remember who you are?”

“I’m Yunyun!” the little girl said, blinking her huge, sparkling eyes.

“Do you know your surname? How much memory have you inherited?”

“I’m surnamed Murong, of course! Brother Yan, have you forgotten?”

After a brief pause, Yunyun tried hard to recall the fragments of memory she had received, then went on, “Mm... there seems to be too much memory! I haven’t finished digesting it yet.”

Murong, Yunyun...

Murong Yunyun?

Why did that sound oddly familiar?

As if he had caught Jiang Yan’s train of thought, the memory sea in his mind surfaced with a fragment from several months ago.

A breathtaking woman with an hourglass figure bathing in the middle of the lake...

A goddess-like beauty handing him a jade pendant...

And as the divine lady left, she told him, “Remember my name. I am Murong Yunyun.”

Memory complete.

Damn it!

So telling him to remember her name had been for this all along!

If he had not remembered it, would they have had to endure some drawn-out reunion scene?

The heroine tells the hero she has forgotten who she is.

The hero fails to recognize her and assumes she is someone else.

Then a long stretch of melodramatic nonsense is skipped over...

One day, the heroine regains her memory.

Excited, she tells the hero, “I am so-and-so.”

The hero is stunned, realizing at last that she really is her.

What the hell was that?

Wasn’t this kind of treatment supposed to belong to the male lead? Why was a supporting male character getting this sort of plot?

And on top of that, such a glorious beauty had... turned into a little girl!

A once-proud life, sent back to square one overnight.

Jiang Yan wanted to confirm it again. “You really are Murong Yunyun?”

Yunyun nodded eagerly, looking delighted as she gazed at him. “Really, really! I am Murong Yunyun. Brother Yan, aren’t you surprised? Aren’t you delighted?”

The corner of Jiang Yan’s mouth twitched. In the spirit of not arguing with children, he said, “It is indeed surprising.”

He remembered that back then, the goddess-like woman had called him A Yan, while this little girl called him Brother Yan and had even “claimed” him.

From that, it could be inferred that the A Yan she spoke of must have been the divine lady’s former lover.

Did that A Yan really look a lot like him?

Could he be that man?

Lin Qi had watched the show for quite some time. In the end, he could not help but speak.

“Yunyun, since you have already been reborn through nirvana, and your memories are inherited fragments only, don’t you think you are no longer the you of the past? Why not live well in the present? You have been given new life. The road ahead is still very long.”

Though these words were meant for Murong Yunyun, they also subtly enlightened Jiang Yan.

Yes. Living in the present and cherishing what he had now was what mattered most.

Why get tangled up in so much?

But Yunyun clearly did not understand the deeper meaning in Lin Qi’s words. She looked utterly confused and said, “But whether it was before or now, my name has always been Murong Yunyun!”

Seeing the puzzled look on Yunyun’s face, Jiang Yan came to a conclusion: the current Murong Yunyun was still just a child, mentally immature.

He rubbed the top of her head and smiled as he explained, “Yes, your name is Murong Yunyun. But you have to remember, you are you.”

Yunyun beamed, two shallow dimples appearing on her cheeks as she nodded earnestly. “Mm! Brother Yan, Yunyun will remember!

“You’re not allowed to not want Yunyun, okay? You have to wait until I grow up. Once I’m grown up, I can be your bride!”

Jiang Yan felt helpless. Why had the conversation looped back here again?

Forget it. Given enough time, the little girl would probably forget it herself.

“Little girl, we’ll talk when you’ve grown up.”

Yunyun automatically interpreted that as: all right!

And so, she took this as a solemn promise and remembered it to this very day. In her heart, she had already begun to regard herself as Jiang Yan’s future bride.

“Brother Yan, it’s a promise, okay? You wouldn’t want to become a lying little puppy, would you?”

“...”

Jiang Yan chose silence, only forcing out a faint, awkward smile at the corners of his mouth.

After making the promise with Jiang Yan, Yunyun seemed to remember something important.

She turned and looked toward the pile of scattered eggshells, then hurried over without the slightest hesitation.

Immediately after, under the stunned gaze of everyone present, she began crunching away at her own eggshell with crisp little bites.

Xie Lingzhou asked curiously, “Master, why is Yunyun eating her eggshell?”

Lin Qi explained, “Because her eggshell contains a portion of her divine power. By eating it, she can strengthen that power within herself.”

The little dragon shuffled closer to Yunyun on its short legs, wanting to introduce itself. Unfortunately, Yunyun was far too focused on eating eggshell to know how to start a conversation.

Still, it gathered its courage and tried anyway. “I...”

Before it could finish, Yunyun generously handed it a small shard of eggshell. “Here, have one. Eat it quickly.”

The little dragon froze, never expecting Yunyun to be so generous.

After a moment of hesitation, it finally took the shard.

“Yunyun, thank you. You can call me Brother Long! When you were still an egg, I was the one who watched over you. I even held you many times...”

Once it started talking, the little dragon simply would not stop.

Crunch...

Yunyun finished the last piece in her hand, and her gaze actually fell upon the eggshell still in the little dragon’s grasp.