âYou regret it?â Zhou Chong Wen lookedback and asked Bai Huo, who had just caught up.
Bai Huoâs amber eyes were still trained onthe ground, his beautiful white scales almost fusing with the clouds, his long,white dragon whiskers rising and falling in the wind.
When the black dots on the snow completelydisappeared from their field of vision, Bai Huo turned around and took the leadin front of Zhou Chong Wen, flying away as he said in a heavy voice, âLetâsgo.â
Zhou Chong Wen spoke no more, turningaround again. His tail flicked as he suddenly dived into the thick clouds.
In the distant horizon, the sun penetratedthrough the layers of blockage, a ray of golden light shining upon thesnow-capped mountain ranges.
When we meet again, he should be a little moregrown-up, Bai Huo closed his eyes against the wind.
*
Five years later.
âBossââ
A short hairy dragon ran up the mountainwith a copy of an old newspaper. Because he was too excited, he tripped over hisfeet and fell flat onto his belly, âOuch!â
Bai Huo picked his ears and turned around,biting a dry blade of grass, he sighed, âJian Guo, this isnât a New Yearâsparty.â
Liu Jian Guo spit out the sand in hismouth, giggled, then gave the newspaper to Bai Huo, like he was presenting atreasure: âBoss, a human expedition just passed by, I found this undertheir car!â
Bai Huo glanced at the wrinkled, yellowed newspaper, obviously uninterested, but looking at his little brotherâs eager and flattering face, he took it reluctantly.
A strange smell wafted up.
Bai Huoâs forehead wrinkled: âJian Guo,be honest, where did you get this thing?â
There was desert all around them, exceptfor the sandy soil on the desert mountains, there was no places for trees todig their roots. Because it was so desolate, there were very few humans in thevicinity. It belonged to the Three Noâs district; no people, no signals, nosigns. To the dragon race, this was the legendary immortal mountain-YaoMountain.
Five years ago, Bai Huo was sentenced toten years of hard labor for disturbing the human world, and was sent to YaoMountain to participate in the construction of the dragon clanâs undergroundpalace. This year was his fifth year in this place where even birds didnâtshit.
âI didnât get it from anywhereâŠâAt a loss, Liu Jian Guo scratched his head for a while, âOh right, I sawthem picking up a dogâs shit with this!â
Bai Huo: ââŠâ
Bai Huo heaved a sigh and amiably pattedLiu Jian Guoâs barely functioning head, then he kicked him away.
Liu Jian Guo shrieked unevenly as he tumbleddown the mountain like an empty oil drum.
Bai Huo pulled back his long leg and threw awaythe newspaper, rubbing his sore shoulder. With this movement, the ice-cold ironchains that were wrapped around him jingled, sounding especially loud in the desolatevalley.
It was almost dusk, and a ray of residualsunshine shot through the clouds, sketching out long, slanted shadows on theyellow sand. The desert wind was strong, causing strange sounds to occasionallyring out from the depths of the empty valley, making the surroundings seem evenmore lonely.
Bai Huo leaned on a rock wall, exhausted, hisbangs fluttering in the wind, his pale, haggard face almost bloodless. Heraised his hand and touched the chain around his neck, tugging it impatiently.
This iron chain was as thick as a humanâswrist. It was made out of black iron, and was extremely hard. It wasclaw-shaped, one thick main chain dividing into five branches whichrespectively bind Bai Huoâs wrists, ankles, and neck.
It wasnât others whoâd tied Bai Huo inthese chains, it was himself.
Heâd just finished his month-long estrus, hiscondition was still unstable, so he didnât dare rashly take it off. A monthago, in order to avoid hurting people, Bai Huo asked his little subordinate brotherto find this chain, then he firmly tied himself up and hid in the back mountainvalley, instructing to not let anyone approach.
Once male dragons entered estrus, theiraggression levels would increase sharply. Without mates, even the gentlestdragons would become extremely violent. No one would dare provoke a spouseless maledragon in heat. This past month, only Liu Jian Guo, this silly boy, came to seehim every day, servilely bringing him food and drink. Even Bai Huoâs aggressiveand violent look during estrus couldnât scare that fool away.
It was quickly getting dark, Bai Huoglanced at the newspaper he had thrown aside. In the end, he couldnât hold backhis curiosity, he hooked it over with his tail, and pinched his nose while readingthrough it.
Although Liu Jian Guoâs brains were nogood, he made an excellent henchman. He knew that Bai Huoâs biggest enemy wasnâtthe sandstorms or the bleak desert, but boredom.
Bai Huo flipped the newspaper with the tipof his tail, and incredibly, he saw a familiar face.
This was a newspaper called âXi CityEvening Newsâ, published two years ago. On the front page was a large sectiondedicated to commendations. Except for the part that promoted positivity, its topicroughly introduced a young police officer. Because heâd participated in solvingseveral large cases, heâd earned a series of honors and was successfullypromoted. Among the cases, the editor focused on a child trafficking incident,describing how the policeman boldly and sensibly used his ingenuity to lure thecriminals. At the crucial moment, he wiped them out, then he followed the trailof clues, rescuing dozens of missing children. Then it took nearly two years tofind all their biological parents. The editorâs writing was very good, theprocess was vividly described, it was more thrilling to read than street fiction.
Bai Huo read it with great interest,looking at the delicate and thin face printed on the newspaper, he exclaimed inhis heart, Ji Beiâs really awesome, he had to remember to extort him when hegot the chance.
âBossââ Liu Jian Guo actuallyhadnât left yet, after being kicked down by Bai Huo, heâd painstakingly crawledup again. Afraid that Bai Huo would kick him again, he hid behind a stone and panted,âBoss âŠâ
Bai Huo face palmed, thinking that thischild was really foolish.
âWhat is it?â He askedhelplessly.
âBoss, Boss, I have more good news, uh⊠a dragon sect is here, donât you want to come out and see?â
âA dragon sect?â Bai Huo lookedback. Wasnât this the dragon clanâs headquarters, in other words, Zhou ChongWenâs administrative center?
âYes,â Liu Jian Guo scratched hishead. âI also donât know the specifics, but there are several people here,and they all look like immortals. All the dragons around Yao Mountain have runover to take a look âŠâ
âAre they better looking thanme?â Bai Huo brushed back his hair, asking shamelessly.
Liu Jian Guo looked at his ragged andblood-stained clothes, his messy hair that had not been taken cared of for amonth, and his pale and weak looking face. The dishonest words were stuck in LiuJian Guoâs throat for a long time before he forced them out: âNo, they donâtlook as good as you, boss! â
Bai Huo was perfectly content, lying backlazily: âThatâs that, whatâs so fun to look at.â
Liu Jian Guo: ââŠâ
Liu Jian Guo was tongue-tied, saying nomore, he gloomily ran to the front lines to check out the progress.
At first, the idea of staying within the dragonclan gave Bai Huo a headache. Ten years of hard labor was nothing to a dragon, theadmonishment had a stronger meaning than the punishment. It was reasonable tosay that this level of forced labor generally involved cleaning the dishes and sweepingthe floors of the dragon sectâs kitchen, or taking care of and making copies ofthe books in the library, and so on. The offender wouldnât normally be assignedto the remote Yao Mountain. A minimum sentence of a hundred years was requiredto go there. However, considering Bai Huoâs MLM boss-like skills in promoting mahjong,and the dragon clanâs internal atmosphere, Zhou Chong Wen sternly packed him upand shipped him off to Yao Mountain.
Because of this, many people secretly thoughtthat the patriarch was too strict, and felt a little more dread and awe towardshim. But contrarily, Bai Huo was happy, feeling that Zhou Chong Wen knew himtoo well. Heâd grown up in the dragon sect, many of his unpleasant childhoodexperiences were related to this place. He also had a lot of old enemies here.Forget about serving a sentence, if Zhou Chong Wen just wanted to keep him there,heâd feel extremely reluctant.
In this lawless place, he did some randomwork during the day, and in the evening, he beckoned over some potential mahjongplayers, the long and exciting night life beginning. Whatâs not to love? Eventually,they became familiar, and his colleagues no longer allowed Bai Huo to work,suspecting that his clumsiness was only adding to the chaos, it would be betterif he didnât try to help.
At first, Bai Huo was resentful, thinkingthat everyoneâs evaluation of him was unfair. Later, after accidentally causingan explosion in the kitchen platform where everyone gathered to eat, he fell silent.Towards this, all of Bai Huoâs insistence that this was an accident was met witha resounding âGet lost!â. Bai Huo didnât take it to heart, and eventually inventedand re-built a new kitchen platform, but to this day, he still wouldnât admitthat the explosion was a result of him getting drunk and running into thekitchen, stubbornly wanting to make braised fish for his son.
However, since then, everyone on YaoMountain, from top to bottom, old to young, knew that he had a baby boy.
With a son, there must be a mate.
Therefore, when Bai Huo first showed signsof estrus, no one took it seriously. During forced labor, mates were allowed tovisit, and laborers were allowed to take leave during estrus.
It wasnât until Bai Huo came down with a highfever and started babbling crazily, that everyone heard from his mouth that hewas spouse-less, and hurriedly sent him to the back mountain. Then, at Bai Huoâsrequest, Liu Jian Guo tied him up with a chain.
Now, the month-long estrus period was over,but because heâd suppressed himself by brutal means, the physical damage wasgreat. Bai Huo couldnât focus for long periods, plus his state was unstable. Justto be safe, Bai Huo refused to go out and see others.
In the middle of the night, Liu Jian Guogrunted up the mountain again and gave him an altar of liquor: âBoss, boss,wake up, itâs good stuff.â
Bai Huo was fast asleep, but was awakenedby the fragrance of liquor. In a daze, he rolled the jar up with his tail andpulled it over, taking a sip, he immediately woke up.
âOld Tibetan Qingke beer, this isnâteasy to make, where did you get it?â Bai Huo fully transformed into his dragonself and wrapped his body around the jug.
When dragons entered estrus, their scales wouldrelax and expand, the blood flowing under their skin accelerating. Bai Huoâs whitescales were now almost transparent, the surface of his body revealing a kind ofhazy pale pink. Under the moonlight, he looked very different from usual.
Liu Jian Guo scratched his head foolishly:âThe dragon sect people brought it, I stole a jar for you.â
âHuh, so thatâs it.â Bai Huo hadnâtdrunk good liquor in a while, much less his favorite type. After drinking contentedly,he couldnât stop, urging Liu Jian Guo to go steal two more altars.
Liu Jian Guo crawled down again without complaint.
Late into the night, Bai Huo was having asweet dream pillowed on top of the liquor jar. He heard the sound of light footstepsapproaching him, and, thinking that Liu Jian Guo had returned, he mumbled a fewwords and went back to sleep.
*
Daybreak.
A young boy wearing black shorts flippedover the wall and jumped into the courtyard as lithely as a cat. He straightenedhis legs, about to let out a breath, when a gentle voice sounded from besidehim.
âDid you see him?â
The young boy froze, then turned to see along-haired man in a blue robe standing at the window, looking at him with asmile. The boy immediately bowed his head: âJing Shishu.â
Jing Lan closed the book in his hand andspoke slowly, still smiling: âNo wonder you wanted to leave from here, itturns out âŠâ
âItâs just a coincidence.â Li LinXi rested his hands behind his back, tugging his clothes restlessly.
Jing Lan also didnât expose him, just noddingthoughtfully: âGo rest, we have to meet the master of this palace together.â
Li Lin Xi nodded and bowed his head back tothe room.
As he passed by, Jing Lan glanced at the backof his completely red ears and couldnât help but chuckle.