The Inverted Dragon’s Scale: Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven – Curving The Line And Saving The Country!
It was still during school hours and so two students wearing Renaissance High’s uniform appearing within Beast Aspect Pavilion was indeed eye catching. Therefore, the customers who were ready to order Jade Water Tea and enjoy the afternoon eventually all set their sights onto LiMuYang and CuiXiaoXing.
Moreover, a beauty like CuiXiaoXing is walking alongside with someone who was as pitch-black as LiMuYang. To them it seemed like what was happening was worth watching to find out what was going on.
Turns out it was just a couple doing boring things.
“Again its your typical drama of a ‘toad wanting to eat the flesh of a swam’, the boy might confess. This time its the maiden who is in control and the male who is submissive, the boy must absolutely not open his mouth so easily.”
“Oh, the maiden is getting angry.”
“The maiden left but was called back by the guy. Whats the girl called? CuiXiaoXing? Good name. However it seems like the boy still wants to persuade her to stay. He really is someone who doesn’t know his place, so stubborn.”
“What? What did he say? Your flower headband really looks nice on you? Excuse my eyes for being clumsy, I can’t believe that he is such an expert of this field.”
——-
CuiXiaoXing blinked. She had one hand on the bronze door handle but her footsteps have stopped and did not push open the door.
She looked at LiMuYang who, at this time, had a face full of panic and the expression in his eyes was flustered. His mouth opened like it wanted to say something, but also had an expression like he didn’t know what to say. Did he want to confess?
But, even if that was the case, she wouldn’t accept it. Hes asking for a rejection!
“I forgot to say just now. The way you wear your flower headband really looks nice.” LiMuYang said this to CuiXiaoXing. Because he was too desperate, when he said those words, it came out clumsily.
This vexed him a little, he was worried that his clumsiness had ruined the intended effect of his words. LiShiNian had always told him to say it naturally and casually as to not let people fell that it was intentional and illegitimate.
This performance today, surely it wouldn’t let people feel that he was being insincere?
CuiXiaoXing stagnated at the exit for a while and unexpectedly turned around and walked towards LiMuYang.
This surprised the crowd of customers within the Beast Aspect Pavilion. They never thought that this pitch-black youth had this kind of ability. He had used one phrase and the maiden who was in a state of anger to surrender.
She sat in the chair in front of LiMuYang again and acted like nothing had happened.
The waiter delivered the Jade Water Tea that she had ordered and she nodded her head to show approval. She had used the Empire’s aristocratic etiquette. Perhaps this small detail was not picked up by CuiXiaoXing herself.
On the other hand, LiMuYang still could not organize the events that had played out. He stood there and did not know what to do next.
CuiXiaoXing reached for the Jade Water Tea and took a sip. She then said to LiMuYang: “You try it too, although the taste is a bit sweet and deviates from the sentimental fragrance that the Jade Water Tea is supposed to have. Alas considering that this is the standard of JiangNan, the quality of this Jade Water tea is already quite excellent.”
LiMuYang sat down obediently, reached and took a sip of the Jade Water Tea, nodded and said: “It’s not bad.”
What he usually drank most was herbal medicine, Jade Water Tea was his family’s taboo product. This was because that old daoist had said that it would stimulate the heart too much.
And so, as long as the tea was better than the herbal medicine, he was more than happy to drink.
CuiXiaoXing had her line of sight on the flower petal that was swirling within her cup of tea. She said softly: “That was your first time saying those kind of words to a girl, am I right?”
LiMuYang’s black face turned slightly red.
Of course, because his of his black face, even if he blushed it would still show as a black-red colour.
“I’ve said it to my sister.” LiMuYang said embarrassingly:” Every time I made her angry, as long as I would praise how she is so beautiful, praise that her eyes were like the Southern Sea’s pearls, praise that her skin was like the Empire’s Northern snow, praise that every single piece of clothing that she wore were all doing JiangNan’s current fashion sense justice, she would dispel all previous thoughts and clutch at my sleeves asking if its really true.”

“She named this technique ‘curving the line and saving the country’. Because if a girl was angry at something, you must never continue bringing up that topic with her, or continue explaining yourself. It’s better to find another topic to talk about. This was what she taught me.
CuiXiaoXing lifted her head up to closely examine the expression on LiMuYang’s face.
When LiMuYang was talking about his sister, his voice seemed like it was filled with a thick layer of sweet honey. It almost seemed like substance made out of happiness would drip down from his face.
It could be seen that the feelings he had for his sister were great.
CuiXiaoXing’s emotions were stirred, she recalled within Heavenly Capital City, the tall but talkative person who would always put her behind himself when there was danger. She asked softly: “You love your sister very much, don’t you?”
“Yes.” LiMuYang replied while nodding. “But I still feel like she loves me more.”
CuiXiaoXing’s lips flashed a hint of smile and said: “Then you must have spoiled her a lot.”
LiMuYang shook his head and said with a sigh: “Initially that was supposed to be the case, a brother taking care of his sister, if there is anything good to eat he would share, if there is anything fun to play with he would also share, if someone were to bully her you’d have to take revenge for her and if she bullied someone then you would have to go help her out. Very clearly, I am not a good brother. In most cases, its always my sister taking care of me.”
“She is smarter than me by a lot, she stands out more than me by a lot. From a small age she had already started to yell that she would protect me and for this purpose she worked even harder. When my scores where at the bottom of the whole school, she would casually take the first place. She would say in a high tone that her brother isn’t dumb, he just doesn’t want to study. When she saw me getting pushed down by people, she would follow an old daoist and cultivated a skill called <<Art of Breaking Spirit>>,  she trained throughout the whole of winter and the whole of summer, three hundred and sixty five days in a year without stopping.”
The time when the old daoist would come to take care of LiMuYang was also the time where LiShiNian would cling onto his greasy sleeves and beg him to pass down his martial prowess.
The attitude that the old daoist showed for LiShiNian was much more affectionate than the one he had for LiMuYang. Every time he visited he would gift her something nice to eat. Every time he saw LiShiNian come home from school, he would smile until his creases flew off.
He didn’t have the heart to refuse any one of LiShiNian’s requests, under communicating with LiMuYang’s parents and getting their permission, he officially took in LiShiNian as his personal disciple.
Aftewards, LiMuYang personally saw LiShiNian use one fist to break a tree that had the thickness the size of a bowl within the courtyard.
LiMuYang also wanted to learn and wanted to suppress his disgust as he tugged at the old daoist’s sleeves begging to be taken in as a disciple also.
He also copied her sister’s tone of voice and said: “Grandpa old daoist, grandpa old daoist, teach me….”
“Talk properly.” The old daoist would fling his sleeve and said in a serious tone.
LiShiNian, seeing this, would start rolling on the ground laughing.
“<<Art of Breaking Spirit>>?” CuiXiaoXing gave it a thought and said while laughing: “that sounds a bit familiar.”
“It was taught to her by a JiangHu wanderer. It was probably named casually.” LiMuYang also laughed and said: “if someone ridicules my intelligence, she would use her own test scores to taunt them back. If someone were to bully me and say that I am weak, she would use her own martial prowess to retaliate. I’m a failure in my role as a brother, am I not?”
CuiXiaoXing shook her head and said: “Its the complete opposite, you are a perfect brother. You have succeeded because you have a sister that loves you this much.”
“And so, before you, she was the only person who would treat me like this.” LiMuYang met with CuiXiaoXing’s eyes that were so clear and transparent that you could almost see the bottom and said: “Although I don’t want to see you be involved in a conflict with Miss Zhao over a trash of a student like me, however, your actions have really moved my heart. When I was walking out the classroom alone and heard a flurry of rushed footsteps sounding behind me, I was really hoping that those footsteps were for me.”
“CuiXiaoXing’s feelings were moved by LiMuYang once again, she thought that either this guy either has talent for acting melodramatically on stage, if he had a mask on.
“Do you know why I turned around and came back?” CuiXiaoXing asked casually while her beautiful fingers were playing with the silver steel spoon.
“I don’t know.” LiMuYang waved his head.
“Because I have never seen someone botch up so badly when praising someone.” CuiXiaoXing said bluntly.
LiMuYang’s face went bright red and once more became clumsy and hurried to explain: “I didn’t have any experience. Doing something like that, wasn’t it very difficult?”
“It really is a difficult thing to pull off.” CuiXiaoXing said. “However, boys always tends to challenge their weaknesses, if you challenge your weakness all the time then you will eventually be able to pull it off naturally. Practice makes perfect after all.”
“……..”
“Why don’t you tell me the story?” CuiXiaoXing saw LiMuYang’s speechless expression, squinted her eyes, smiled and said: “tell me about the time when you were struck by lightning. I am actually very curious. It was, after all, something not everyone in the empire gets to experience. If you aren’t in a hurry.”
“……..”