“What’s so urgent that you had to find me?”
Chu Fan asked lazily, chewing on a candy figurine.
“What’s so urgent?”
Shen Yuying mimicked him playfully.
This duet between the big one and the little one left her momentarily speechless, not knowing what to say.
Seeing her silent, Chu Fan didn’t want to let the conversation drop, so he asked:
“You’re in my class, right? What’s your name?”
“Ao Chi.”
“Ao Chi? A flood dragon?” Chu Fan asked casually.
“Mhm.”
Ao Chi nodded.
“What does the young lady of the Flood Dragon Clan want with me?”
“Let me ask you, why did you give me a way out in class earlier?”
Hearing this question, Chu Fan couldn’t help but widen his eyes, looking at Ao Chi as if she were an idiot.
The next moment, Chu Fan crouched down to be eye-level with Shen Yuying and said with a laugh:
“Yuying, tell me, isn’t this person silly? She can’t even figure this out.”
“Exactly, exactly, so silly, a complete silly dragon.”
“You! What are you saying!?”
“I’m trying to get on your good side, of course not for you, but to climb the Ao family’s social ladder. What are you thinking?” Chu Fan teased.
Seeing Ao Chi’s face flush red with anger, Chu Fan even added:
“What? Are you like those infatuated girls too, unable to move a step once you see Teacher Chu’s good looks?”
“Ugh! You jerk! Even if everyone in the Ao family died out, no one would let you climb that ladder!”
Roaring, Ao Chi turned and strode away, not looking back once.
After Ao Chi had gone far, Shen Yuying looked up at Chu Fan:
“Master, you said she’s silly, and she really is. She doesn’t even think about it. If we wanted to climb the Ao family’s ladder, why would we anger their young lady?”
“Exactly. Seems this silly kid is a bit lacking in protein.”
“Pro…tein?”
Shen Yuying heard another unfamiliar term.
“It’s something similar to spiritual power.”
“Oh, oh.”
Shen Yuying nodded, then asked again:
“Then, Master, why did we make her leave angry? Wouldn’t it be easier to get the Reverse Scale if we used this chance to get close to the Ao family?”
“What do you know? I’m playing the long game to catch a big fish.”
“Isn’t it a dragon?”
“Shut up!”
Chu Fan chided her, but his gaze remained fixed in the direction Ao Chi had left.
Shen Yuying instantly realized something and smirked:
“Oh~ I get it~ Master is a tsundere~”
“Huh?”
“Master must be thinking~ you can’t let this child’s attention stay on you~ otherwise she won’t make friends in class~ right?”
“Wrong.”
Chu Fan said coldly, but the momentary tremor in his pupils was still keenly caught by Shen Yuying.
“Tsk tsk tsk~~~” Shen Yuying didn’t press further, just clicked her tongue teasingly.
……
Sure enough, under Chu Fan’s reverse influence, Ao Chi, with her exceptional talent and superior family background, quickly became the focus of the class, gaining all sorts of friends.
Including Shen Yuying.
“Class dismissed.”
On a day like any other, after class, Chu Fan called Shen Yuying over.
She was just about to run over when Ao Chi grabbed her wrist.
“What’s wrong, Xiao Chi?”
Shen Yuying asked curiously.
“That, Yuying, do you want to go to the market together? I heard there’s a place with really good baked cakes. My treat.”
Hearing this, Shen Yuying turned her head to look at Chu Fan, as if seeking his permission.
But Chu Fan just made a gesture that said “Up to you, but I’m not going.”
Shen Yuying immediately shook her head and refused:
“No, Master and I have things to do.”
Shen Yuying tried to leave but found Ao Chi hadn’t let go, pulling her back.
“You’re such a nice girl, why do you always hang around that rogue? To be honest, that master of yours really isn’t a good person, right?”
Hearing this, the smile instantly vanished from Shen Yuying’s face.
She slapped Ao Chi’s hand away and said coldly:
“Xiao Chi, presumptuously judging someone else’s teacher isn’t something a self-proclaimed good person should do either.”
Ao Chi was stunned by the sudden change in expression and could only watch as Shen Yuying ran to Chu Fan.
But when she saw Shen Yuying’s face instantly revert to that of an obedient little girl the moment she ran into Chu Fan’s arms and hugged him, she couldn’t help but feel puzzled.
‘What kind of charm does that guy have… that he can make people so happy?’
She didn’t understand.
She really didn’t understand.
That night, she returned home to sleep as usual, but this time, she didn’t sleep soundly.
Tossing and turning, thinking back and forth, but no matter what, she couldn’t find any good points about Chu Fan.
Why does everyone like him?
Why does everyone respect him so much?
Didn’t everyone start out in their own camps, having fun teasing the teacher?
“Argh… so annoying!”
Ao Chi cursed angrily in bed, her voice not loud but clearly frustrated.
She scratched her head and sat up, took a cup of water from the bedside, and drank it in one gulp.
But after lying back down, she still couldn’t sleep, tormented like this until late into the night.
In the dead of night, Ao Chi got out of bed and began wandering the silent Ao manor.
No one was around, not even a glimmer of light.
Only a thread of cold air crept into her clothes through her sleeves and collar, making her shiver and giving her goosebumps.
Ao Chi scratched the back of her neck, which was covered in goosebumps, and was about to go back when she noticed a sliver of light emanating from the most simple, most dilapidated, long-untouched room that had belonged to her deceased mother.
The light shone out through the crack under the door, not bright, but clearly illuminating two dark shadows.
Ao Chi’s heartbeat gradually quickened.
Although she had never met her deceased mother, she was very curious about the people in the room at this moment.
So she began to tiptoe, step by step, towards that door crack.
Finally pressing her eye to the crack, she saw the people inside.
(‘Is that… Father?’)
“Master, are you really going to do this? Even if the young lady is not your biological daughter, this plan… is still too…”
As she spoke, the woman in front of Ao Qing pursed her lips slightly, revealing a pained, reluctant expression.
Hearing this, Ao Qing couldn’t help but sigh mournfully:
“When I found Xiao Chi, still just a dragon egg, and raised her with care, it was for this day. As long as our Dragon Clan can become strong again, anything… is worth it!”
Though somewhat hesitant, Ao Qing still spoke with determination.
“But like this… can it really succeed… can it really… let the Dragon Clan ascend above the clouds again…”
“The Scorpion Gentleman said that as long as we inject the secret technique of their Scorpion Clan into Xiao Chi’s body, she will be capable of infinite asexual reproduction. At that time, with Xiao Chi’s body, which is that of a Heavenly Dragon, the children born, untainted, will inevitably also be Heavenly Dragons.”
Ao Qing said, clenching his fists tightly.
“As long as we let Xiao Chi keep reproducing… given time, the Heavenly Dragon Clan… will definitely return, definitely!”
“But the young lady… she’s only ten years old…” the woman said painfully.
“In ancient times, it was very common for dragons to marry and bear children at ten…”
“But…”
“Enough! Don’t say any more!”
Ao Qing waved his hand, stood up angrily, and walked towards the door.
Creak
“Ah!”
But as soon as he opened the door, he saw Ao Chi, who had long been scared stiff, fallen to the ground unable to move, her eyes full of terror.
“Young lady!? What are you doing here!?”
Only then did Ao Chi see that the woman was the maid who attended to her personally within the manor.
Ao Chi looked up at her familiar father, who now seemed so strange, so… distant.
And the fear in her eyes deepened as that distance seemed to grow.
Ao Qing also looked down at his daughter.
His hands, clenched behind his back, tightened further.
He didn’t approach her but instead turned sideways, lifting his head to look at the moon in the sky.
As he looked, he couldn’t help but sigh.
He gritted his teeth, turned his back to Ao Chi, and said in a hoarse voice:
“Xiao Chi, Father… won’t force you. If you want to leave now, then quickly… leave Longjian Town. In the future… never come back. I will just… act as if I never had this daughter.”
Looking at her father’s hands, clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh, palms beginning to seep threads of blood, Ao Chi, though her legs were still weak, gritted her teeth and, kneeling, used her knees to crawl step by step to Ao Qing’s feet.
Tears streaming down her face, she clutched Ao Qing’s pant leg, looked up, and cried out: “Father… your daughter… your daughter… your daughter is willing…”
Ao Qing looked down in disbelief, meeting Ao Chi’s eyes, which, though filled with fear, were still resolute.
“Father always taught me since I was little… to be a righteous person… to help the weak and oppose the strong… to sacrifice oneself for others… to uphold justice for the people… to be a good lord…”
Ao Chi choked up, tears falling like rain.
“Since childhood, whatever I wanted… Father gave it to me… Now… it’s finally my turn… to repay Father… to repay the entire family…”
“Xiao Chi…”
Ao Qing said, heartbroken.
“So your daughter… your daughter is willing… your daughter is willing to do anything…”
A flash of pain crossed Ao Qing’s eyes, but it was gone in an instant.
He crouched down to help Ao Chi up and sighed: “Then in three days… Father will wait for you at the Ancestral Altar… If you change your mind, do as Father said, leave Longjian Town, the farther the better. If you don’t change your mind… Father will… grant you anything you wish in the future.”
“…Mhm… your daughter understands…”