The Inverted Dragon's Scale

Zhao Dafu knows his strength is his money, if he was to compare his looks and talent with Zhu Jian and Xu Huawei it would only end up bringing humiliation to himself.

Just as Zhu Jian was still concentrating on his painting and Xu Huawei was still playing the flute, Zhao Dafu, who was still having difficulty reciting the poem on his mind, trotted over to Li Shinian’s side, flipped open his folding fan and said with a smile on his face: “beautiful girl and beautiful scenery—-this trip has been well worthwhile—-Shinian, are you hungry?”

Li Shinian smiled, shaking her head: “I’m okay. I just had two pieces of cakes.”

Zhao Dafu glanced at the plate of cakes, before he said: “We came here in a hurry, so I only had time to ask the kitchen to prepare a few cakes. If Shinian doesn’t like them, I can ask the kitchen to make something else—-Shinian what is your favorite? It must be the red bean paste lotus cake, right?”

“I like to eat osmanthus cake.” Li Shinian answered.

Pa—

With the closed fan in his hand, Zhao Dafu gently tapped it against his palm as he said: “like I said—me and Shinian like the same things, we both like the refreshing fragrance of osmanthus. The flavour is strong and it’s not heavy, it’s very hard to get sick of it. Shinian if you like, I can bring a box over to you tomorrow.”

“Zhao Dafu, you’re so mean—-there’s so many other girls here but you’re only giving it to Shinian, are we invisible?”

“Exactly, we also want some—-my taste is different to yours, I like to eat red bean cakes —-”

“I like glutinous rice cake—-”

—–

Zhao Dafu flipped open his paper fan and laughed loudly: “Yes. Yes. Just a few boxes of cakes, if you like, I can tell someone to bring it over to all your houses—–”

“Did you hear, there’s a difference. Shinian’s cakes are personally delivered by Zhao young master but he will ask ‘someone to bring it over’ for us—-”

“It’s because sister Shinian is beautiful. If you were as beautiful as sister Shinian, people would also treat you the same—–”

“Exactly, this is a society that only cares about looks—it’s too cruel—”

—–

With a full smile on his face, Zhao Dafu turned to look at Li Shinian and said in a gentle voice: “Shinian what do want to eat for lunch? The freshwater fish at Shou Mian Pavilion is pretty good. I know the young boss there, I can ask them to save us two puffer fish. The roast duck at Yi De Restaurant is also good, it’s carved into thin slices and rolled up. It melts in the mouth. Of course, if you have other suggestions—do not hesitate, I am paying today.”

Li Shinian shook her head: “I can’t eat lunch with you, I have to go home. I did not tell my family when I went out, they are waiting for me to come back.”

“Is this not a trivial matter? I can just send someone to your house and let them know? After we have lunch, we could tour around Sunset Lake—–Watch the setting sun at Sunset Lake with classmates and friends, it really is a joy.”

Li Shinian still shook her head. Seeing this, Liu Caicai grabbed her hand and whispered in her ear: “Shinian, let’s go—-it’s rare for Zhao young master to treat us to a good meal.”

“Exactly. We should go to eat roast duck, their roast ducks are famous—-”

“I want to eat pufferfish—-”

—–

Li Shinian still shook her head, she firmly said: “you guys go eat, I really have to go back——If I don’t my parents will be worried.”

Before Li Muyang left Jiangnan, many things have happened at their home. Luo Qi and Li Yan had been cautious and anxious all the time, worried that their children would meet with another accident.

Li Muyang was not around anymore so they were unable to take care of him. But they still cared for Li Shinian in every possible ways—–Although Li Shinian felt that they were a little too strict, she understood her parents’ kind intentions.

So, she tried her best to stay by her parents’ side the majority of the time. During the long summer holiday, she seldom went out.

Even her close classmates and friends were puzzled by her actions, Li Shinian is confident and outgoing, back then she often went sightseeing all over the place with her friends —-

“Shinian—–” Zhu Jian and Xu Huawei also walked over. Zhu Jian offered the scroll in his hand to her and said: “help me take a look, where else do I need to make changes?”

Li Shinian did not reach out to pick it up, instead said: “Zhu Jian, you’re embarrassing me. You know I don’t know anything about painting—–”

“I’ve seen you draw—-”

“I was just doodling. ”

Xu Huawei held onto the bamboo flute and said with a charming look: “Shinian, the other classmates are going to stay, you should also stay and have fun together—–if you leave now everybody would be sad, right?”

Li Shinian already stood up, with a sweet smile on her face she replied: “I’m sorry, but I really have to go back—–you guys have fun.”

With that, she hitched up her skirt and dashed towards the broken bridge.

After she passed over the broken bridge she will reach the bank of the lake, then by following the path along the bank she will reach home. There is a big difference between her and Li Muyang.

Li Muyang is a boy who is weak on the outside but is even weaker in the inside; he could adjust his ideas and goals at any time according to his requirement.

He does not have strict demands on himself.

Li Shinian is weak on the outside but tough in the inside, once she had came to a decision it is near impossible for her to change her mind.

“I can arrange a car to take you home.” Seeing that there was no way he could persuade Li Shinian to stay, Zhao Dafu immediately changed his strategy.

Li Shinian refused with a smile: “No. You look after Caicai and the others——It’s only a short distance home.”

She waved her hand in the air and ran in large strides.

“Hiss—-”

A sharp sound suddenly echoed across.

Just as Li Shinian was still in doubt of where the sound came from, a shocking scene occurred before her eyes.

In the depths of Xishi lake, where the lotus leaves clustered densely on the surface, a monster with a frog-like head and a human-like body leaped out of the lake.

Its feet looked like duck webs that could step across the water at a rapid speed.

It treaded across water without a trace, like a ghost.

Water spirits!

An extremely vicious creature that is rarely seen in the divine continent.

This creature can live on both water and land, and are mainly found in the area of the Lake of Death

With their frog-like face and human-like body, they resemble devilish ghosts—-Whoever caught sight of them would think it’s a ghost.

At first it was just one, then very quickly many water spirits, one after another, rose out of the water.

They clenched onto a black, shiny fish spear as they pounced over to where Li Shinian was situated on the broken bridge.

The group of water spirits rushing forth looked like a huge army of frogs in migration.

Of course, the former was infinitely more horrifying than the latter.

Li Shinian was frozen in fear by this scene.

She had never seen such evil creatures, more importantly, had no idea why would they attack her—-

Her eyes were opened wide, her mouth hung open, her legs quivering and her body unable to shift in the slightest.

“Hiss—-”

The water spirit in front came close to her as it opened its mouth, revealing an extremely long tongue, while the fish spear in its hand lifted high up, thrusting towards the stomach of the little girl paralysed with terror.