Fishing a Little Dragon Girl from the River - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I spent five years lounging about on the seabed, until the Ninth Year of Jin’an.

The An River seethed, its torrential waves surging with unstoppable force for thousands of miles.

Heavy rain fell for seven days. The upper reaches of the river breached their banks, flooding the east and breaking through the west, destroying rice paddies and homes.

Snail Girl rushed into the Dragon Palace, her face pale with fright. “Princess! This is bad! The rice you love most has been washed away by the flood!”

During my years of wandering the mortal world, I had developed a taste for rice. Even after returning to the palace, I remained a rice-loving Dragon Maiden.

Every year, Snail Girl would go ashore to steal some rice for me.

The villagers were always puzzled, unable to understand why a portion of their rice would vanish every year, only for a pile of fish to appear out of nowhere in its place.

I heard the cries of the villagers along the An River; I recognized many of them. Tian Dazhuang, who lived nearby, had once asked his wife to sew clothes for me.

Their young son had been swept away by the water, and the couple was wailing in each other’s arms.

My heart ached. Heedless of the consequences, I surged to the surface. With a breath of dragon energy, I forced the torrential waves to slow down.

I transformed into my true form and flew over the An River, scooping people up with my claws like a claw machine and dropping them onto the soft banks.

I am a noble White Dragon of the seabed, and my father is the Dragon King. Everyone under the sea who has seen me says this Dragon Maiden is graceful and impossibly beautiful.

I saved the entire village. The history of the Dragon Palace would have to dedicate at least eight thousand words to recording my heroic deeds.

I must have looked incredibly cool while saving those people.

After all, the villagers were staring at me in a daze.

I was feeling quite smug when I suddenly heard the child I had just rescued speaking to Tian Dazhuang.

“Dad, why is that dragon wearing a bright floral padded jacket?”

I stumbled mid-air, nearly falling out of the sky.

I looked down, and it felt like a bolt from the blue.

I had forgotten. I was still wearing that bright floral padded jacket.

And around my right claw was a clear jade bracelet.

“Dad, that dragon isn’t someone’s pet, is it? Why is it wearing a bangle?” the child continued to ask.

His father, however, was lost in thought. He muttered blankly, “This floral jacket… why does it look a bit like Huai’an’s handiwork?”

That familiar name reached my ears. In a moment of sudden realization, my eyes met a figure in the crowd.

He was wearing a crane-embroidered official robe, now stained and filthy from the mud of the flood. He looked disheveled, having just used a rope to pull several people from the water.

The people he saved were thanking him profusely. “Thank you, Governor Chen! A thousand thanks!”

His features were ethereal and handsome, his eyes like stars. He was staring at me with a burning intensity, his gaze complex and his face grim.

He was surrounded by officials. One of them said in shock, “Governor Chen, the gods have appeared! There is hope for the An River flood!”

“Exactly! Not a single person was lost. It’s all thanks to the protection of the gods!”

“The Governor truly is the man the Princess chose!”

“The Governor is blessed by the divine. As soon as you arrived, the An River flood…”

The officials around him chattered on, but Chen Huai’an seemed deaf to them. He only stared straight at me.

I flew in the sky, the water rushing beneath me, yet everything felt silent.

I avoided Chen Huai’an’s gaze. Hearing that “not a single person was lost,” I prepared to turn and leave, flying back toward the ocean.

Suddenly, I heard a splash. Chen Huai’an had jumped into the water.

“Governor!” The officials and villagers on the bank screamed in terror.

My heart jolted. Chen Huai’an was a terrible swimmer; he always stayed on the bank and used ropes to save people!

Without time to think, I dove into the turbulent An River, desperately searching for him.

The bottom of the An River was thick with vegetation. The rushing flood had stirred up silt and sand, making the water murky. My dragon body got tangled in water weeds, wasting precious time. In my desperation, I transformed into human form to search for Chen Huai’an’s figure.

Finally, I found him. Chen Huai’an’s eyes were tightly shut as he drifted deep underwater. I grabbed him, intending to pull him toward the shore.

He suddenly opened his eyes and caught my hand.

Underwater, I couldn’t hear his voice, but I could read his lips.

“Am I dreaming? Is it you?

“Song Song, I missed you so much.”