Two lotus blossoms, blooming on one stem
-Guan Pingchao
Just as Xing Yan bent down to examine the jade lotus that had fallen into the water, he saw something utterly astonishing. After drifting gently down and touching the water, the snowy jade bud had blossomed in an instant into a lovely water lotus.
At this strange sight, Xing Yan hurriedly swung down from the willow branch onto the lakeshore, kicked off his straw sandals, and waded out to inspect the white jade lotus blooming on the water.
Qiong Rong and Kou Xueyi stood on the bank behind him, watching him go to retrieve the fallen lotus.
Standing before the jade lotus, Xing Yan discovered that a crystalline, lustrous mirror had formed at the heart of its bloom, shimmering with misty ripples and bright enough to reflect a face. Yet what appeared in this mirror at the lotus's heart was not his own face, but the delicate back of a long-haired girl.
Although the girl had her back to Xing Yan as he leaned down to look, her figure was already deeply familiar to him:
The girl within the lotus was none other than Ling Yier, the Four Rivers Princess of the Poyang Dragon Palace.
Lingyi was dressed in a spotless, snow-white silk gown, sitting before a coral table with her cheek resting in her hand, lost in thought. Her dark hair cascaded loosely down like a waterfall, looking wonderfully soft and serene.
Judging by Ling Yier's rare air of tranquility, her thoughts must have been wandering far away.
Seeing Ling Yier again after two or three months, Xing Yan suddenly felt an unprecedented warmth toward the little dragon maiden before him. Looking at her quiet demeanor, he could not help smiling as he thought:
*I never knew Lingyi had moments