## AST: Chapter 19 – Portrait of Beauty

As Qing Shui stared at the ravishing beauty in the fiery-red corset, he visibly gulped. His mind was filled with the thought of pushing her down right there and then, as hints of seduction reflected in his eyes.

The girl in the fiery-red corset noticed Qing Shui’s stare, her brow slightly creasing as she was unsure of Qing Shui’s intentions. This was partly because, looking at Qing Shui’s charming pair of eyes, she did not think that Qing Shui was capable of thinking such dirty thoughts, with her as his main point of focus.

This could hardly be blamed on Qing Shui. After all, he had essentially been a geek in his previous life, he had close to zero experiences with love. Not to even mention that he was currently 15 years old, at the age where hormones rages wildly in one’s body. The moment he saw this girl, he was hooked.. just like a moth to a flame. Qing Shui felt that this girl was just perfect, her beauty was beyond comparison. Especially her jade white face, it was a portrait of beauty! The only negative thing he could pick on was that the girl’s countenance was cold, akin to that of a ice princess. Still, even the most beautiful actresses and movie stars of his previous life were akin to shit when compared to her.

“Hi, does this horse belongs to you? Can I ride you it?” Qing Shui calmed himself and collected his thoughts while asking a question that made the girl in red surprised.

As Qing Shui asked, he was fiercely using his strength to suppress the emberlion horse underneath him. Although he was asking for permission from the owner, he had no intention of dismounting at all.

“You wish to ride my emberlion horse?” The girl in red coldly said, her cold countenance contrasting with her fiery-red corset, making her look even more striking.

Qing Shui also found this action of his laughable. The owner had yet to give him the permission to mount her steed, yet he was already riding on it. Meeting someone so despicable, the girl in red could only directly ask Qing Shui, as if wanting to tell him that her permission still mattered.

At this moment, Qing Shui did another somersault and landed back on the ground, smiling shyly as he stared at the girl in red. At close range he noticed that she was pretty tall, furthermore, her pair of snow-white legs were slender and long, Qing Shui secretly took note of it. Bobbing his head, Qing Shui asked “You are from Hundred Miles City?”

“Yup!” After all, there was no need to keep this a secret. Anyone who was not an idiot could tell with a mere glance that she was an outsider.

Just when Qing Shui wanted to chat with her further, ask her whats a nice girl like her was doing in a place like this, Qing Luo appeared, accompanied by another old man and a youth.

The old man’s garb was plain and unadorned, yet one could see that the sewing technique used to tailor it was exquisite. This coupled with the solid and heavy aura emanating from that old man, one could easily tell that this guy was someone of authority, a bigshot in some other place.

The youth behind the old man appeared to be of the same age as the girl in red, but the clothes on him were completely different from the old man’s. His clothes were made from the finest silk and cotton, bestowing a sense of nobility on the already good looking youth. Just by looking at the youth, anyone could tell that he had an extraordinary background. The only thing that might put people off was that the youth had a haughty and arrogant expression in his eyes, as if looking down on the world was completely natural for him, like it was his right to do so. Qing Shui wanted to laugh when he saw this youth, because the temperament of this youth somehow reminded him of the emberlion horse which he had suppressed earlier.

Qing Shui saw that the 3 of them were smiling as they walked over. Could it be that they already wanted to leave?

“Qing Shui, come and greet your Uncle Nan Tian!” Qing Luo beckoned Qing Shui to come over as he happily did the introduction.

“Uncle Nan Tian, this junior Qing Shui greets you!”

“Ahh, so you are the son of Qing Yi?” The old man asked in surprised. Qing Yi was still relatively young but she already had a son this big. “Good to see you little fellow.” Situ Nan Tian said warmly, giving off an comfortable feeling.

“Come let me introduce you. Qing Shui, this is my grandson Situ Bu Fan, and this lady here is Shi Qing Zhuang!”

“And she is my fiancee!” Situ Bu Fan interjected with a smile that was yet not a smile,, hints of coldness emanating from his eyes.

“Oh, okay, what a pity.” Qing Shui could not hide the feelings within him. Maybe it was because Qing Shui already had a bad impression of Situ Bu Fan the moment he laid his eyes on him, not to mention the cocky expression on his face when he said that Shi Qing Zhuang was his fiancee. Qing Shui really felt like going over and punch out Situ Bu Fan’s teeth.

In contrast, the moment Qing Shui first laid his eyes on the lady in red, he already felt that her beauty was incomparable to any other living creature. Although she was a bit cold, Qing Shui was sure that just a simple smile from her would be comparable to the flowers blossoming in spring!

“You.. you.. what did you say?!” Situ Bu Fan was angered to the point of stuttering. He belonged to one of the 4 great clans in Hundred Miles City, he was the young master of the Situ Clan, he had never been spoken to like this before.

The meaning behind Qing Shui’s words were very clear, it was as if he wanted to infuriate Situ Bu Fan on purpose.

Looking at how Situ Bu Fan acted and his low level of tolerance, Qing Shui was filled with disdain. Situ Bu Fan was just another useless spoiled brat from a large clan who did not know how high the heavens were. If he went out to adventure in the outside world on his own, he would inevitably offend someone he shouldn’t offend and invite misfortune on himself.

Turning his head, Qing Shui looked at Shi Qing Zhuang. She didn’t appear to be affected by the war of words between the two of them. She was calmly stroking the mane of the emberlion horse as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

The gigantic emberlion horse closed it’s eyes and stood still, seemingly enjoying Shi Qing Zhuang stroking it.

“Bu Fan, how many times have I told you? You must be polite and respect others! Your capacity to tolerate must be immense and your vision must be far, have you forgotten everything I taught you?” Situ Nan Tian angrily stated. On the sidelines, Qing Shui grinned, he felt like there was a breeze of cool air blowing past him, giving him a very comfortable feeling. It was tremendously gratifying to see Situ Bu Fan getting lectured in front of him.

Situ Bu Fan meekly lowered his head and didn’t dare to utter anything during the tirade unleashed upon him by his grandfather.

“Qing Shui, you are not allowed to be impolite to Situ Bu Fan.” Qing Luo appeared to be blaming Qing Shui, but his tone was warm and gentle, giving Qing Shui the feeling that Qing Luo actually admired his behaviour.

Anger brewing in his heart, Situ Bu Fan mused, if this meeting occurred elsewhere instead of the Qing Village, he would definitely crippled Qing Shui, after all, there were countless people wanting to curry favor with him – the young master of the Situ Clan.

—————

So her name is Shi Qing Zhuang!

In Qing Shui’s heart, he felt that not only was she beautiful, even her name sounded nice, she must be from the Shi Clan in the Hundred Miles City. The Shi Clan was also one of the 4 great clans of Hundred Miles City, and they are the strongest of all, it was rumoured that the City Lord of Hundred Miles City was someone from the Shi Clan.

Reaching the entrance of the Qing Village, “Brother Nan Tian, I shall accompany you till here, I will visit you again when I go to the Hundred Miles City in the near future.” Qing Luo slowed his steps and said to Situ Nan Tian.

“Brother, you need not be so polite, after all we are comrades, the Situ Clan is also the Qing Clan and vice versa, there is no need to stand on ceremony with me.” Situ Nan Tian angrily said.

After which, Situ Nan Tian and the 2 others left momentarily.

“This old damnable fox, it has been so many years and yet he is still so cunning!” Qing Luo sighed with a hint of helplessness.

“Grandpa, this Situ Nan Tian seemed respectable and amiable, he shouldn’t be too bad?” Qing Shui asked.

“Hahaha, you this little fox, no need to act in front of grandpa, do you think that grandpa is unable to tell what you are thinking of? I have a feeling that you would be even craftier than Situ Nan Tian when you reached his age.” Qing Luo burst out laughing.

“Grandpa… you wronged me T_T, how could i be so cunning heh heh.” Qing Shui grinned evilly.

“You are intelligent, and smart enough to be suspicious, and have a good sense of judgement for people, what a pity that your constitution is so weak.. If this was not the case, taking into account your comprehension level, you would definitely have world-shaking accomplishments in the realm of martial arts.” Qing Luo patted Qing Shui on his shoulder and said, with a contradictory expression appearing on his face.

—–

“Grandpa, why did you stop me earlier, how dare that Qing Clan kid humiliate me like this, I would have definitely given him a thrashing.” Situ Bu Fan was gnashing his teeth in frustration.

“Ai!” Situ Nan Tian let out a breath that he was holding, looking at his grandson, traces of disappointment could be seen in his eyes. His talent in martial arts could be considered above average, but his EQ and way of interacting with people was seriously too shitty. Situ Bu Fan could only afford to be arrogant, behaving in such a way in the Hundred Miles City because he had the backing of his Situ Clan. But what he didn’t know was that in the vast wide world outside, the Hundred Miles City was nothing.. just a speck of dust when compared to the truly great cities of the Greencloud continent.