"What a good girl our Nannan is.[1] Hurry and go wash up; once you've washed up we can eat." Zhao Chen stroked Nannan's little head.
Nannan nodded hard: "Mm."
With that, Nannan ran off at once to the bathroom.
Chu Xuan stood at the kitchen door, watching Zhao Chen busy at work.
In her heart there was an indescribable happiness.
Compared with commanding tens of millions of interstellar warships across the starry river,
winning battle after battle, gaining renown never seen before:
beside what was before her, all of that suddenly seemed unimportant.
Very soon Nannan had washed up by herself.
On the dining-room table every kind of fine food had already been laid out.
It was a lavish spread:
ten dishes made for three people.
"So many dishes… can we eat them all?" Nannan murmured quietly.
"It's fine; eat as much as you can." Zhao Chen laughed and put food in Nannan's bowl.
Nannan obediently began eating the fine food Zhao Chen had prepared for her.
In truth she had not expected the food her father made to be very good.
After all, her father was the Fierce Dragon Emperor, with so many matters to deal with every day.
How could he have a mind for making all sorts of food himself?
So the moment she took a bite, she was already prepared to manage her expression.
This was the first meal Daddy had made for Nannan; whatever it tasted like,
Nannan would look as though it was delicious.
She must not make Daddy sad.
But the moment she swallowed it, her eyes lit up.
This taste!
This taste even surpassed the head chef at her villa who cooked specially for her.
She could not help eating a few more bites.
"It tastes pretty good, doesn't it? If I may say so myself, the food I make can match a master chef's!" Zhao Chen looked at Nannan with a faint smile.
Zhao Chen was very confident of his cooking.
In the old days, when there was not so much to do, he would gather everyone of the Fierce Dragon to eat together.
Often he would cook himself too.
So his skill was quite fine.
"Mm, Daddy's cooking is delicious!" Nannan nodded hard, and very soon her mouth was stuffed like a little hamster's.
"Eat slowly; no one's going to grab it from you. All this food is yours," Zhao Chen said with a laugh.
Chu Xuan ate her food, and watching this scene she could not help smiling inside.
This happiness was precious indeed.
When they had finished this lavish lunch,
Nannan rubbed her little belly and burped.
It was perhaps the happiest and fullest lunch she had ever eaten.
"Nannan, rest a little. In a while shall we go to the amusement park?" Zhao Chen began clearing the bowls and chopsticks from the table.
Chu Xuan stood up to help too.
Nannan asked curiously, "There's an amusement park here?"
"Not here, but there is in the Fierce Dragon Kingdom. In a while we'll take a shuttle straight down; it'll only take a few minutes," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
"Won't this get in the way of Daddy and Mommy's work?" What Nannan thought of first was not her own fun, but whether it would get in the way of Daddy and Mommy's work.
Chu Xuan's body could not help stopping short.
Zhao Chen stroked Nannan's head and said, "You don't need to worry; I've already arranged your mommy's work. For the next week or more, we can both stay by Nannan's side. Daddy too."
Chu Xuan looked at Zhao Chen in some surprise.
"That's wonderful!" Nannan waved her arms excitedly, then yawned.
Having eaten so much food, she was a little sleepy now.
"Then Nannan will take a nap first, and after the nap we'll go to the amusement park!" With that, Nannan walked off to the sofa on her own, curled up in one corner of it, and before long was asleep.
Zhao Chen found a blanket and covered Nannan with it.
Nannan's eyebrows twitched, but she did not wake.
Zhao Chen carried the plates out, set them on the food cart, and walked outside.
Outside, naturally, were the guards responsible for Zhao Chen's safety.
These guards, seeing Zhao Chen appear, all lowered their heads.
"This is some food we didn't finish. Hardly touched, all of it. If you don't mind, share it out with everyone," Zhao Chen said, looking at the guard captain.
"Yes. Thank you, Your Majesty." The guard captain took the plates and spoke respectfully.
Zhao Chen stood at the door, watching those guards share out the leftover food without the least hesitation.
This was food made by the Fierce Dragon Emperor's own hands; how could they possibly mind?
Chu Xuan came to Zhao Chen's side at this point and said softly, "I still have a great deal to do over there. Freeing up a day or two is already the limit. Seven days…"
"It's fine; I've already been in touch with Medusa. She'll look after your work as well. Just treat this as your family vacation. Don't think about so much. That's settled." Zhao Chen looked at Chu Xuan with a smile.
Hearing this, Chu Xuan could only smile helplessly.
"For the next few days, if there's anywhere you want to go, anything you want to do, just tell me. For these seven days there's no Fierce Dragon Emperor and no great marshal. Only a family of three on vacation together," Zhao Chen said gently.
"Mm." Chu Xuan nodded.
But to have her think at a moment's notice of something she wanted to do was truly no small challenge.
For before this, what she did every day was always the same:
handle every kind of affair of the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, and if there was time, call Nannan, and read the messages she had sent.
And so a day would pass.
So truly asking her to think of something she herself wanted to do, there was really no answer in her head all at once.
Seeing Chu Xuan say nothing, looking thoughtful,
Zhao Chen did not think much of it.
Half an hour later,
Nannan stretched and woke up.
After a brief daze, she at once began looking for Daddy and Mommy.
Daddy had said he'd take them to the amusement park!
She went to the door; on two deck chairs, Zhao Chen and Chu Xuan were sitting.
"Nannan's awake?"
"Mm." Nannan nodded.
At this point she noticed too that there was actually a shuttle on the open ground.
"You're awake, so let's set off." Zhao Chen stood up and opened the shuttle's hatch.
He led Nannan by the hand into the shuttle.
Nannan had seen material and pictures of shuttles many times, but this was her first time seeing a shuttle, and still more her first time setting foot on one.
"Nannan, sit in the copilot's seat. From here you can see very, very beautiful sights." Zhao Chen set Nannan, with a smile, in the child seat in the copilot's place.
He had specially had it prepared.
Chu Xuan sat behind, between Nannan and Zhao Chen.
The family of three formed a triangle.
"Let's go." Zhao Chen started the shuttle, and the noise one might have imagined did not come.
It was very quiet.
This shuttle was the most advanced shuttle in the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's service, and Zhao Chen's own craft too.
All the technology aboard it was T3 technology.
Zhao Chen flew the shuttle up.
Though they were still inside the Dragon Palace Starport, Zhao Chen had long since applied for flight clearance,
and there were dedicated low-altitude lanes too.
The shuttle flew along its navigation route and flew straight out of the Dragon Palace Starport.
In an instant they were out in the space of the universe.
Nannan looked at the universe and space outside, her eyes full of curiosity.
Zhao Chen did not enter Dragon Star's atmosphere at once.
Instead he first flew the shuttle around Dragon Star a few times with Nannan,
letting Nannan see clearly this planet where she had been born and had lived until now.
"So beautiful. Is this Nannan's home?" Nannan blinked her big watery eyes.
Home?
When Chu Xuan heard this word, she felt her heart skip a beat.
For she had not realized that, before this, her idea of home had in fact been very vague.
She had been born into the Chu family.
But not long after her birth she had been traveling among planets and starships, seldom staying long in one place.
The planet where she was first born was, to her, really just a place name.
And later?
The idea of home was perhaps where her grandfather was, where her parents were.
And later still, the Fierce Dragon had given her the feeling of a home.
But to tell the truth, none of these feelings of home had been very complete.
And now, in Nannan's words,
this Dragon Star before her had actually given her the feeling of a home.
No.
It was not Dragon Star that had given her the feeling of a home.
It was Nannan.
Because there was…[2]