Chou turned around and snapped at the mushroom, "You rotten bean! Chou will stew you in boiling water!" He turned back to face Li Meirong and exclaimed, "This mushroom said he's contracted to this dimension's master! How can that be? Chou is the only Plant Spirit master needs!"
'Fool! I'm a mushroom, not a plant! We come from a different family, okay?' Ben Mo's telepathic words were conveyed to Li Meirong and Chou alike. He sounded most indignant with his reprimands.
Chou furiously squinted his grape like eyes, swivelling his gaze back and forth between the vile mushroom and his master, "You're the fool! You're a liar. You grow out of the soil just like Chou, if you're not a plant, then what are you?"
"No, I'm not. Mushrooms are not plants, I'm telling you…'
Before Ben Mo had a chance to clarify, Li Meirong placed Baby Chou on the ground and brought the conversation back to its original context, "Umm, about that…" She scratched the back of her head and muttered, averting her gaze from Chou's direct stare, "I did contract him. Little Chou, this mushroom is called Ben Mo and he's not lying. You can't kill him, okay?"
There was a brief time of awkward silence right after, the only sound which could be heard was Chou's gasp of disbelief.
After what felt like forever, the small boy furiously whispered, "Master, how could you do this to Chou?"
The Plant Spirit Boy reached with a trembling hand to grasp Li Meirong's fingers with his own. His chubby face adopted the expression of an aggrieved child who had been abandoned by his own parent. Tears welled up in his eyes, threatening to spill at any given moment.
Li Meirong fell into a daze. She wasn't even sure what to think of this confusing situation. Was it such a big deal to contract two spirits of a similar kind? It's not as though she betrayed anybody…
"Is it really such a big deal?" Her brows drew into a frown and she ended speaking her thoughts.
Chou's lower lip began trembling as well, the accumulated tears finally spilled down across his cheeks. He cried out, "Master is so cruel!"
"Chou, wait a minute. Let's talk about this first. Why does this bother you so much? You disliked Feng Huang too but in the end, you were willing to accept her, right? What about Snowball, he's part of our family too and you are fine with that, right?"
Li Meirong tried to reason with the emotional Pitcher Plant, crouching down to his height and wiping the tears off his round cheeks with her thumb.