The Inverted Dragon’s Scale

038 – Strange Constellation!


Chen Jin was a senior invigilator; so seeing students arriving late in the middle of the exam is not uncommon for him. For the majority of these students, their family is wealthy and their background is deep, but they’re ignorant and incompetent. They could be classified into the category of people that just are their whole life, waiting to die.

They are asked or forced by their family to enter the examination hall, and then they would pick up an exam paper and endure till the end of each exam.

To those students, exams are a torment, and seeing such students is also a torment for Chen Jin.

They don’t understand and they can’t answer questions, so why waste time by coming here into the examination hall?

Could it be that they fantasise that all of a sudden they would gain a sea of wisdom or that the teacher who writes the questions have a mental lapse and write simple and childish questions so people with their IQ can easily answer it?

In the eyes of Chen Jin, Li Muyang belongs to the type of student that has given up and stopped bothering, yet had no choice but to come.

Just as he thought, after taking the papers and walking back to his seat he sat there in a daze.

“Hmm, he began to play with his pencil case—-just like those former students—–”

“He’s removing the pen cap—-hehe—–it would be best if there is cheat notes hidden in his pencil cap, in that case I won’t let you off easily—”

“Ah, he’s beginning to answer—–”
———–

Very soon though the mocking smile on Chen Jin’s face slowly disappeared.

Because he noticed something very strange, since Li Muyang had sat down and started answering, his arm has not stopped moving.

He did not look around like the other candidates, nor did he pretend to answer by falsely moving about his pen and constantly glancing around for an opportunity to copy someone else.

When he occasionally raised his head, it was just to stretch his muscles and bones.

Even if his steel tip pauses, he looks as if he’s in deep thought.

He really is answering questions, and is also answering smoothly.

Chen Jin is full of curiosity about this student, could it be that he had misunderstood him?

He was prepared to go and investigate himself, to see whether he had misunderstood him before.

In order to not seem so obvious, Chen Jin first started to inspect from the right-hand side of the classroom. Seeing that the invigilator had walked down from the stage, all students lowered their head even more and exerted many efforts to display a righteous face saying ‘I did not copy someone else.’

Chen Jin moved from the right to the left, and then his footstep stopped slightly just behind Li Muyang.

“Hmm, the words are well-written, the questions are also nearly done—-”

This was the first reaction that Chen Jin has towards Li Muyang.

But very soon he noticed a strange thing.

Li Muyang’s answers had no errors at all, each of the questions that he answered was correct.

At the very least, the questions that he had carefully checked possessed no errors at all. Every question is answered perfectly.

It was not just memorising the model answer, but there is real insight and also the answers were arranged and summarised up properly.

Chen Jin was astonished, to be able to do that, the way he dealt with each question is similar to dismembering an ox as skillfully as a butcher. This is something that only the best students in the school can do.

“How could he be late?” Chen Jin thought to himself, his impression towards Li Muyang improved drastically and he did not doubt him anymore. “Why would a good student be late? I hope there is enough time for him.”

“Uh—-what is it?” Chen Jin saw that Li Muyang had stopped writing.

He followed his pen and looked across, this was a multiple-choice question. The topic is not too difficult, just somewhat uncommon. And also the four answers given are all very similar so it was confusing.

“Such a question, why can’t you answer it? “Chen Jin felt this was a pity in his heart. “Think, think about it, and you should be able to find the rule—-”

“Eh, this kid has given up—-he jumped to the next question and started answering. What an impatient guy, but his approach is correct. After all, he arrived extremely late; compared to other students, too much time have already been wasted—-”

Chen Jin sighed slightly and then walked towards the stage.

He walked a few steps, but then he could not help but walk back.

Chen Jin stood beside Li Muyang, stretched out a finger pointing at the multiple-choice question that he had skipped and then gently coughed twice.

Li Muyang raised his head to take a look and Chen Jin looked at him with no expression at all.

Li Muyang pondered for a moment and then suddenly understood. He looked over the question again and was pleasantly surprised as he wrote out the second answer.

Chen Jin stepped away to leave, scolding himself in his mind over his improper actions: “Damn my Virgo constellation.”

Luckily Li Muyang did not encounter too many problems.

When he finally finished answering the final big question, the bell indicating the end of the exam just rang.

He didn’t have any time to check over his answers.

However, Cui Xiaoxin had already spoke to him about this, as long as he is able to answer the question, then almost everything is a standard answer—-because the time he spent studying wasn’t much, so either he doesn’t know it or if he knows it the answers will be correct. Those leading questions were not a problem for him.

Li Muyang once again checked the name and other identification information, and sat in the same place until the invigilators collected the papers.

When Chen Jin was at Li Muyang’s side, he looked at him with a pensive glance, collected the papers and moved on to the next person.

Just as Li Muyang walked out of the classroom, all candidates from each exam hall gathered in the courtyard of the examination venue.

“Li Muyang—–” Cui Xiaoxin who was wearing a long white dress and a dragonfly hair clip on the top of her long hair stood behind him and asked in a sweet voice: “How did you find the exam? ”

“I thought it was okay, I answered all the questions.” Li Muyang nodded at Cui Xiaoxin and said: “I came late, so I had no time to check over. I hope I didn’t get too many of the questions wrong.”

“You arrived late?” Cui Xiaoxin is exceptionally intelligent, she instantly detected the flaws in Li Muyang’s words and asked: “Did something happened? ”

“Nothing.” Li Muyang shook his head. He didn’t want to tell Cui Xiaoxin that assassin Crow changed his target and came to his house to seek revenge, if it’s like that then she would worry about him. Anyway, since the issue is now resolved, why make someone else worry?

Cui Xiaoxin saw the concern within Li Muyang’s eyes; she knew what he was worried about. But Li Muyang won’t tell her so she doesn’t want to ask too much details: “If there is anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask me—–”

“I will not hesitate to ask you.” Li Muyang smiled as he nodded.

“Well. Then, please continue to do your best.” Cui Xiaoxin held out her fist in front of Li Muyang and made a cheering gesture.

“You too.” Li Muyang said with a smile. “I know you’re awesome—-there wouldn’t be any questions that you find difficult—-so, we shall meet at Weiming Lake.”

“We certainly will.” Cui Xiaoxin said in a firm voice.

After a 20-minute break, the second exam began.

Li Muyang and Cui Xiaoxin did not sit the exam in the same hall. After they encouraged each other, they once again separated to fight for their future.

—————

—————–

The two exams had finished; Li Muyang did not take notice of anyone else and directly ran towards the direction of his house in big strides.

Cui Xiaoxin passed forward her papers; originally she wanted to have lunch with Li Muyang at somewhere close to the exam hall. Many students did not go home at noon; instead they stayed somewhere close to the exam hall to eat something good.

She sat in the corner of the exam venue under a tree reading a novel, seeing Li Muyang coming out from the examination room, she was about to call his name, but noticed that Li Muyang’s eyes were fixed straight ahead and had ran into the far distance already.

Cui Xiaoxin looked puzzled, closed the book and walked towards the outside.

Ning Xinhai appeared behind Cui Xiaoxin and said politely: “Miss, the car is in front, are we going back?”

“Let’s go back.” Cui Xiaoxin said aloud.

“Yes, Miss.” Ning Xinhai answered.

The car had droved far away already, but Cui Xiaoxin was still thinking about the concern she saw in Li Muyang’s eyes, which also seemed like he’s hiding something.

“Uncle Ning—-” Cui Xiaoxin suddenly said aloud: “Go to HuBu Lane.”

“Yes, Miss.” Ning Xinhai face was expressionless as he commanded the driver to turn around.

Li Muyang pulled open the gate and ran directly into the living room, seeing the pale complexion and weak body of Yan Xiangma sitting there moaning incessantly, he jumped up and said: “There was another assassin attack?”

If an assassin did not attack, then how did Yan Xiangma, who was still healthy and active when he left and who could use a fan to cut the lapis tabletop into pieces, become like this?

“More frightening than being attacked by an assassin—-” Yan Xiangma answered in an extremely weak voice. “I drank a bowl of decoction.”

Li Muyang walked to the front of Li Shinian, reached out his hand and checked her pulse, and asked: “How do you feel?”

“I feel a lot better.” Li Shinian smiled happily as she looked at Yan Xiangma and said: “This idiot drank a bowl of laxative—–”

“I have explained several times, it is not a laxative, it’s a cure—–” Yan Xiangma was almost driven mad. He looked at Li Muyang and said: “You come and judge this– they have been poisoned by the smoke of the puzzling obstruction. Out of kindness I told people to make a decoction for their detoxification. As a result they suspected that I have other intentions and that I might have poisoned the decoction——Am I, Yan Xiangma that sort of person? In order to prove to them that I have not added anything, I drank the whole bowl of decoction—-”

After checking his parent’s condition, Li Muyang was completely at ease, and a rare happy smile surfaced on his face.

Even when he’s sitting his test, he was constantly worried about the safety of his parents and sister. Now the test was over and his family is healthy, to him there is nothing happier than this.

Li Muyang went over to Yan Xiangma’s side, after hearing him explain in a hoarse voice and without any strength, he asked: “And then you’ve been poisoned?”

“I’ve said already, this is not a poison, it is laxative—- to detoxify the body. Detoxification –do you understand it or not?” Yan Xiangma originally thought Li Muyang would understand what he meant, and did not expect Li Muyang to suspect him of poisoning the decoction.

Yan Xiangma now just wants to cry but no tears flowed down. If he had known about this earlier, there was no need to seek pain for himself and set up such a strenuous and unrewarding rotten show?