"Your majesty, I was just—"

"I know, I know," Queen Rong waved her hand and calmly stated, "I know, you are worried about the royal family and the prince. But Elder Huo, let me ask you something." She tilted her head to one side and smiled, even though the smile did not reach her eyes, and said to the old mer, "Do I need you to worry about my son? Do not forget that I am still alive; if Ah Xian is going astray, then it is my responsibility as his mother to stop him. I don’t see the point of you worrying unnecessarily."

With the queen stating her stance so clearly, even if Elder Huo wanted to cause a fuss, he knew that there was no point in losing his temper because he knew that there was no way he could win against the queen. Even with his blood boiling with rage, he could only lower his head in front of the queen. "I see. I apologise for overstepping my limits, your majesty."

Queen Rong didn’t say anything as Elder Huo turned on his feet and stepped out of the cave without saying anything else. Once the mer was gone, Queen Rong turned to look at his son, who was still breathing harshly, and questioned, "So, you still think that Miss Ruan will be alright under your care?"

"I can always take care of someone like Elder Huo," snapped Rong Xian, as he was unwilling to admit that he couldn’t take care of Ruan Chanchan. He was the prince of this tribe, the one who ruled over the entire west sea. How could he not take care of something so small? Ruan Chanchan was just a simple woman; it wasn’t like he couldn’t even take care of her.

Queen Rong sighed when she heard her son’s response. She closed her eyes and pinched the space between her brows before correcting her son, "I am not saying that you cannot take care of Elder Huo. But is he the only one you need to deal with before you can take Miss Ruan as your consort? There are countless elders who will not be willing to accept Ruan Chanchan. If you want to take Miss Ruan as your consort, then not only will you have to become stronger than ever, such that no one would dare to question you, but you also need to win the heart of the woman in question."

She tipped her chin toward the entrance of the cave. "At the moment, that woman is only working hard because she wants to repay your life-saving grace and then leave. Instead of worrying about the elders, you should think of a way to charm your little lady."

"We will talk about the rest of the things later on."

Rong Xian pursed his lips. A second later, he stubbornly stated, "She will agree to stay with me no matter what. I am a prince!"

"Well, if that is what you believe," Queen Rong got to her feet and slid down the boulder on which she was sitting and slowly and elegantly made her way toward the entrance of the cave. "I have a feeling that Ruan Chanchan doesn’t really care about you being a prince."

After she finished speaking, she walked out of the cave without taking a look at the twisted expression on her son’s face. While the queen was heading toward the square, Ruan Chanchan was preparing the seasoning for the fish stew. After thinking it through, she realised that it was better for her to make fish stew. Not only was it quite easy to prepare, but at the same time, it was quite delicious and filling.

As someone who had lived countless lives, Ruan Chanchan knew a lot of things. The fish stew, while quite easy to make, needed the proper seasonings. She whipped some chilli paste from her supermarket, and for the chilli peppers, she simply used the chilli that she found in the beast world. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Once the seasoning was prepared, she started stewing the fish with the tomato sauce and red potatoes. Of course, these things were all taken out from her supermarket!

"It smells really good," said Zhou Fan, who was quite excited. This was her second time hunting, and she was quite happy that even with the game being so small, they were going to eat a filling meal. It was she who arranged the meat. She was super proud of herself.

"Of course," Ruan Chanchan agreed with the girl with a chuckle. "This fish does not smell fishy; thus, the stew also smells good. You did a good job in hunting something so good, Ah Fan."

Though Ruan Chanchan was only casually praising Zhou Fan, she had no idea what kind of impact it was having on the other kids or the fact that when she would wake up tomorrow, she would end up finding a really grand surprise.

"Miss Ruan," Master Luo looked at the meat and bones that were stewing in the pot and then looked at the flesh that had been untouched by Ruan Chanchan and asked, "And what about these slices? You asked us to make them as thin as possible for you, but you did not use them for the stew."

"Hehe, that’s because we are going to eat them raw!" Ruan Chanchan had been craving sashimi for a while now. She took out the sauces that she had prepared earlier and said to Master Luo, "We can always eat the sashimi together with the sauces. It will taste even better than the cooked fish."

Master Luo wore a dubious expression on his face, like he was sure that it was not going to taste any good, but that was until he picked up a thin piece of the sashimi, dipped it in the sauce that Ruan Chanchan had prepared, and placed it in his mouth. As soon as he took a bite of the sashimi mixed with the sauce, something exploded within his head as if a mini explosion had gone off.