Outside the Dragon-Leap Gate, the four o’clock bronze bell had just begun to chime when Gu Changsheng placed three warm. Golden-flaky Caramelized Custard Egg Tarts onto three small porcelain plates and handed them to Su Nuannuan, Gu Nian, and Ye Xiao.
Crunch.
As Su Nuannuan took a happy bite of the thirty-six-layer puff pastry, a tiny flake of golden crust landed on the tip of her nose. Making her giggle and kick her pink bunny shoes against the rung of her bamboo stool. Behind the iron palisade, three thousand noble parents, Academy instructors.
Commoner students stared at the nine-year-old boy who was currently blowing on his cup of honey-milk—and then looked back up at the shattered window of the northern VIP watchtower. Senior Head Instructor Lei’s purple boots were still sticking straight up out of the rubble!
“A nine-year-old child... broke a Rank 4 Mid Thunder-Tortoise Spirit Shield with one bare-knuckle punch?!” Lord Qian-Shan, who had just been revived by Grandpa Fu’s ginger plaster, clutched his chest and nearly fainted a second time.
“What kind of monster family is living in South Canal Street?!
Are they feeding those kids dragon meat every day?!”
“Close,” Grandpa Yao chuckled, handing a fourth tray of egg tarts through the fence to Chief Examiner Scholar Wen and the twenty cheering commoner scholarship students. “Dragon-marrow spirit pork ribs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and five-treasure phoenix-tail shrimp balls on Tuesdays and Thursdays! Here, Old Wen, eat this while it’s hot—good pastry clears the liver fire…
