CH 89.1

Translator: Wuwu

Editor: Yuki 

Lu Qingjiu felt uncomfortable, but he didn’t know how to express it. He wanted to talk to his Grandfather again, but based on the current situation, his situation did not seem optimistic. Moreover this time, Zhu Rong had come looking for Bai Yuehu with the dragon’s claw for an unknown reason.

Zhu Miaomiao, who had gone to the field with Bai Yuehu, came back early. When she returned, she told Lu Qingjiu that Bai Yuehu had asked her to pass a message. He had something to tend to, so he won’t be coming back for lunch.

“Did he go off with a red-haired man?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

“Yeah.” Zhu Miaomiao nodded, “What’s wrong?” 

Lu Qingjiu replied, “It’s nothing, I’ll go cook lunch in a while.” Zhu Miaomiao was an ordinary person after all, so there was no use in telling her these things.

Zhu Miaomiao nodded blankly,: “Oh…sure?”

Lu Qingjiu smiled, rolled up his sleeves and went to cook. He had eaten glutinous rice in the morning which was good for staving off hunger. It was almost noon now Lu Qingjiu had yet to feel hungry.But thinking of the numerous mouths waiting to be fed at home, he cheered up and started cooking up a feast for lunch.

For lunch, he used the fruits brought by Zhu Miaomiao. Lu Qingjiu made pineapple steamed rice with glutinous rice and a plate of fried shrimps. Previously, when the pigs were killed, a part of the slice of top-quality pork belly was left. He took it out and defrosted it and fried it. The meat was fried with salt and half a chicken was also stewed.

Zhu Miaomiao’s saliva was about to overflow, smelling the aroma and she refused to let go of his chopsticks. She was no stranger to high-quality dishes, but she had never tasted such a delicacy in other places. Not just the side-dishes, even the rice in her bowl seemed to be distinct, sweet and fragrant. As long as it was  this bowl of rice, she could finish the whole bowl without having to add any side dishes.

Since Lu Qingjiu had something on his mind, his appetite was not very good, but he was very happy to see Zhu Miaomiao eating heartily.

Seeing that Yin Xun and Zhu Miaomiao were almost done eating, Lu Qingjiu got up and said that he wanted to take a nap, then left the dinner table.

“Does it seem like Qingjiu isn’t happy?” Zhu Miaomiao poked Yin Xun. 

Yin Xun said, “It seems so… Did something happen in the morning?”

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Zhu Miaomiao nodded. 

Upon returning to his room, Lu Qingjiu took out the wooden box his grandma had left him. The box had been resealed again and it seemed that it could only be opened on Lu Qingjiu’s birthday. Fortunately, all the contents in the box had been taken out by Lu Qingjiu, including his grandmother’s diary and the scale full of scars.

Seeing the scale, Lu Qingjiu suddenly thought of something. When he had bathed Bai Yuehu before, he had mentioned that every scale of the dragon is tactile, and for a  scale to fall from the dragon’s body, it had to be done on purpose.

This scale is obviously what his grandfather had left behind for grandmother, and it is also the last bond between the two.

Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help picking up the dragon scale and gently stroked the old wounds on it. He felt distraught at the thought of the bloody dragon claw in Zhu Rong’s hand. After seeing Bai Yuehu’s true form, he was full of affection for this type of beautiful and noble creature. Moreover, his grandfather was his last living relative. When he thought of all the wounds on his body, Lu Qingjiu couldn’t help but sigh heavily. 

It was already two o’clock in the afternoon, and the bright sunshine illuminated the entire yard. Yin Xun and Zhu Miaomiao were both taking naps, and the whole old house was filled with silence.

Lu Qingjiu had planned to put away the things he was holding and also take a nap, but noticed that a butterfly had flown over to his window. If it’s just an ordinary butterfly, that’s alright, but the butterfly caught Lu Qingjiu’s attention as soon as it appeared, for no other reason other than being too beautiful. Its wings were dark blue with black patterns dotted on it. At first glance, it looked like a black dragon swimming around. It slowly danced, flying through the window, and landed on the black scale that belonged to his grandfather under his watchful gaze.

Lu Qingjiu looked at it and couldn’t help but stretch a finger out towards it. The next moment the butterfly flew onto Lu Qingjiu’s finger, gently flickering its wings, as if telling him something.

Lu Qingjiu asked, “Are you trying to tell me something?” 

The butterfly seemed to understand his question,  flying into the air again, before heading out of the window. When it flew out, it turned back from time to time, as if it was waiting for Lu Qingjiu to follow.

Lu Qingjiu recalled that when his grandfather was looking for him before, he seemed to have used a similar method, and hurriedly followed.

Lu Qingjiu followed closely behind the butterfly. A person and a butterfly, moved one after the other, soon leaving Shuifu Village and heading towards the forest.

Before Lu Qingjiu left, he sent a text message to Bai Yuehu, briefly explaining the situation so that he would not worry. 

The butterfly flew very slowly, as if concerned that Lu Qingjiu would not be able to keep up. Lu Qingjiu also noticed that as he followed the butterfly deeper and deeper into the forest, their surroundings gradually grew unfamiliar. He had obviously entered a different realm. If he wasn’t wrong, this world belonged to grandfather.

The lush trees surrounding him began to wither, and there were no traces of the green grass on the ground, not to mention other animals or insects. The world seemed to have lost all its vitality, leaving behind only silence.

Amidst the dead trees, Lu Qingjiu finally saw the person he was looking for. He stopped and couldn’t help calling out the words he had held in his heart for a long time: “Grandpa…”

The man sitting in the middle of the dead trees turned his head slowly. He was wearing black clothes, his eyes closed, and there were unhealed scars on his cheeks. Hearing Lu Qingjiu’s voice, he smiled and wanted to say something, but remembered that he couldn’t speak in this state, so he waved to Lu Qingjiu and motioned for him to come over. 

“Grandpa, are you okay?” Lu Qingjiu hurriedly walked up to him.

Ao Run smiled. He seemed to want to reach out his hand to hold Lu Qingjiu like before, but found that his right arm was empty and there was no way to reach out. After a while, he just changed to his left hand casually and signaled Lu Qingjiu to put his hand out.

Lu Qingjiu looked at the empty space where Ao Run’s right arm should be and felt like something was stuck in his throat. For a while, he didn’t know what to say.

“You are hurt.” Lu Qingjiu said, “Zhu Rong said you will die if you don’t go back, I’m worried…” 

Zhuo Run smiled and wrote in Lu Qingjiu’s palm: “I won’t go back anymore.”

Lu Qingjiu said: “Why…”

Zhuo Yun slowly explained as his fingertips brushed across Lu Qingjiu’s palms, very light and gentle, “I stayed there before to pay for my sins, but now I have to come out. Qingjiu, you are my grandson. I hope you can leave Shuifu Village.”

Lu Qingjiu stared blankly: “Why?” 

Ao Run continued to write: “Because only after being corrupted can you understand what corruption means.” He smiled bitterly and wrote, “Corruption… is just an exaggeration. To be precise, it just exposes your innermost desires.”

Lu Qingjiu thought of his red-haired grandfather, and said in a trembling voice: “The desire of the dragon race is to eat the one they love the most?”

Ao Run nodded and continued to explain: “This has been the case since ancient times, but in fact, humans are also like this. They just have limited capabilities and limited destructive power, so even if many people become corrupted, there is not much impact. As for dragons…”

Dragons are gods. Needless to say, the destructive power of a corrupted god cannot be imagined. 

Lu Qingjiu continued listening quietly. He had too much he didn’t understand. Ao Run’s explanations only skimmed the surface of the hidden mysteries.

“Let me tell you what happened that year.” Zhuo Yun wrote, “The answer will be cruel, are you sure you want to hear it?”

Lu Qingjiu nodded in panic, and at the same time, he felt a sense of foreboding.

“After I fell in love with your grandmother, we had a very good life,” Zhu Run wrote, “she even became pregnant.However, before I learnt about this news, I fell into a trap and was unfortunately corrupted.” 

Lu Qingjiu sat down next to Ao Run to make it easier for him to write. For the first time, he could feel Ao Run’s weakness. Ao Run no longer had the dragon clan’s aura. Instead, he was like the early morning mist that was about to dissipate in the mountains.

Under Ao Run’s gradual depiction, Lu Qingjiu learnt what happened afterwards.

Corrupted dragons would not be punished. After all, they are ancient gods. After being corrupted, the only restriction was that they could no longer enter the human world. Regardless of their previous personalities, the corrupted dragons’ temperament would change drastically and become irritable and perverse, even if they were gentle like Ao Run. Although he was unwilling,  due to his fear of hurting his lover, he chose to leave. At the same time, the Dragons also sent a new tenant, Bai Yuehu.

It was only after returning to the otherworld that he found out his lover was pregnant. At that time, he was ecstatic, and what he wanted to do most was to see the child after its birth. However he still had a trace of reason, knowing that if he went to the human world, he was very likely to do irreversible things. Therefore, Ao Run forcibly endured his inner desires and began to look for ways to suppress his corruption. 

According to Ao Run, corruption is actually completely exposing one’s inner desires and self-control. Under normal circumstances, self-control could suppress one’s desires, but after being corrupted, such suppression will not be effective.

The instincts of dragons were to consume their beloved, so the corrupted dragons would naturally be unable to control their desires to eat their lovers.

This also applied to  Ao Run. He crazily wanted to do it.