The salty - astringent sea breeze carried the sandalwood scent of the e - invitation. Lin Xia stood on the deck of the cruise ship, tightly gripping the hem of her dress.
She lowered her head to look at the dark patterns on the deep - purple silk - it was an Eastern dragon with its head and tail joined. The scales glistened with an eerie blue - gold luster in the moonlight. Three hours ago, this invitation had been nailed to the wooden stake of her family's floating fish farm. The blade had pierced through the eyes of her father's photo. The sight of her younger brother huddled in the corner, trembling, made her temples throb. The debt collector, with betel - stained red teeth, smiled at her and said, "Miss Lin, Mr. Lu has a penchant for girls like you... with the smell of the sea."
"Please present your invitation." The pupils of the black - clad bodyguard had an unnatural grayish color.
As Lin Xia handed over the invitation, which was damp with the sweat from her palm, the cheap plastic bracelet on her wrist suddenly cracked. This "evil - repelling charm" had been forcefully stuffed into her hand by Alia last week. At this moment, it was giving off a pungent smell of burning flesh. She instinctively took half a step back, only to bump into a cold body.
"Be careful."
A deep male voice sounded close to the back of her neck. The moment Lin Xia turned around, her fingernails dug deep into her palm - the dragon - pattern embroidery coiled on the man's black suit was actually wriggling. The dragon's eyes embroidered with golden threads suddenly turned towards her, and she clearly saw a blood - red vertical pupil flash deep within the pupils.
"Mr. Lu!" The bodyguards all knelt down on one knee in unison.
Lin Xia's breath hitched. The mysterious wealthy man, rumored to own half of the shipping lines in the Pacific Ocean, was now pinching her broken bracelet with his fingertips in black leather gloves. His Sino - French mixed - race face was like a cold weapon polished by the moonlight. His eye sockets were so deep that they could hide the clouds of an entire rainy season. But when he lifted his eyelashes, the coiling dragon patterns in his gilded irises made Lin Xia think of the bait - light of the anglerfish in the deep sea.
"Chinese - Filipino?" His Chinese had the smoky - voice accent of the old Shanghai Bund. The glove stroked the red - swollen burn mark on her wrist. "Do you know what this is?"
Suddenly, Lin Xia smelled the smell of blood. It wasn't the rotten fish blood in the fish market, but fresh, scalding blood mixed with the fragrance of dragon's saliva. Only then did she notice that what was pinned to the man's collar was not a gem - brooch at all, but a reverse scale - a blue - black scale with a metallic cold sheen on the edge, and dark red flesh still sticking to the root.
"Exorcism props are ineffective against dragon descendants." Lu Chen suddenly grabbed her wrist, and the scale brushed against her throbbing pulse. "But you're more interesting than the previous thirty - seven sacrifices."
At this moment, a sharp pain pierced through her skull.
Lin Xia's vision was suddenly immersed in blood - red. She saw a Chinese - style courtyard in the rain. A woman with bound feet placed a baby into a bronze tripod. The coiled - dragon patterns on the tripod were exactly the same as the dragon patterns on Lu Chen's suit. She saw a younger version of Lu Chen in a suit chained in the church cellar. When the cross branded his back, green smoke mixed with dragon roars rose. Finally, the picture froze on the sea surface on a full - moon night. Countless golden light spots like anglerfish lanterns rose from the deep sea. And Lu Chen stood on the reef, allowing the waves to tear at his cracked back. A pair of broken dragon wings were being reborn in the blood - rain -
"Let her go!"
Alia's voice penetrated the illusion. Lin Xia staggered and fell to the ground. She found that her Indonesian witch friend was confronting Lu Chen, holding a Barong puppet. The guests were still dancing the foxtrot in the banquet hall. The violin music was sliced to pieces by the sea breeze as it passed through the deck, as if this confrontation was just a shadow - play in a midnight theater.
Lu Chen chuckled, and the dragon - pattern pupils shrank into thin lines. "Marking the invitation with a Kris knife? Clever." He suddenly tore open his tie, revealing a hideous scar below his collarbone - exactly the mark of the torn dragon wings she had seen in the illusion. "But you should have smeared silver powder on the blade tip instead of cinnabar."
At this moment, Alia's spell spontaneously combusted. As Lin Xia rushed over to pat out the sparks with the hem of her dress, she heard Lu Chen whisper above her head, "You saw it, right? Those cursed memories." He took off his gloves, and on his palm was clearly printed a dragon - scale mark exactly the same as the burn mark on her wrist. "Now, it's time for you to pay the price for peeking into the dragon clan."
The cruise ship's siren suddenly roared, drowning out Lin Xia's exclamation. As Lu Chen dragged her and burst through the side door of the banquet hall, the last thing she saw was Alia being pinned down on the deck by the bodyguards. The crystal chandelier cast scale - like light spots in the violent shaking, much like the trapping net opened by the anglerfish school in the deep sea.
"Contract marriage, one - year term." Lu Chen pressed her against the oak barrel in the wine cellar. The dragon - scale brooch cut open her shoulder strap. "I'll wipe out your five - hundred - million - yuan debt, and you'll bear the backlash of the curse for me - it's a fair deal."
Lin Xia bit the tip of her tongue to stay awake. "What if I say no?"
Lu Chen suddenly pinched her chin, forcing her to look up. The moonlight outside the porthole shone exactly on his iris, and the coiling dragon patterns actually formed a countdown number.
"Twelve speedboats are approaching three hundred meters away." His canine teeth grazed her earlobe. "Guess which will come first, the debt collectors' machetes or my dragon flames?"
Salty - astringent liquid dripped onto her collarbone. Lin Xia initially thought it was cold sweat, until she saw the blue - gold blood seeping through Lu Chen's fingers - exactly the same as the baby in the bronze tripod in her illusion.
At this moment, the electronic clock struck the midnight chime. The entire cruise ship suddenly tilted violently. In the sense of weightlessness, Lin Xia grabbed Lu Chen's tie, but pulled off the reverse - scale brooch. The moment the scale cut through her palm, she heard an ancient whisper roaring in her mind:
"With blood as the contract, with the soul as the sacrifice..."