Chapter 2886 — Reunion After Long Parting

It was an instinctive gesture. When they were children, whenever Wei Zhao went off alone to train, Yang Xiaoxiao—Little Seven—would always be waiting for him on the only road back. And whenever he saw her, he would give her a hug.

Between childhood sweethearts, a hug meant nothing—it was simply the joy of seeing Yang Xiaoxiao. And so it was with Wei Zhao now. The moment he recognized Yang Qiqi, he unconsciously made this gesture he had not made in so long.

"Ah!" Yang Qiqi had not expected Wei Zhao to come flying at her the instant he entered the room. Was he trying to pin her down? Only then did she realize—this room was actually Wei Zhao's room... What did he intend to do?!

Yang Qiqi kicked out at Wei Zhao and cried, "You... what are you doing? You scoundrel!"

"Uh..." Wei Zhao's hands, about to embrace Yang Qiqi, froze awkwardly in midair. He stared at her in astonishment, not even dodging her kick. In any case, her kick did not hurt; she was not Tianchan, and Wei Zhao had no need to guard against her too carefully—one kick would not kill him...

"Wei Zhao, what are you doing?!" Yang Qiqi glared at him, eyes wide with fury. Originally, recalling how Wei Zhao had grilled fish for her beneath the sheer cliffs, she had thought him a very, very good person. If her heart had not already been occupied by that man, Yang Qiqi might truly have been able to fall in love with Wei Zhao.

But now Wei Zhao was actually making such a lewd, despicable move toward her, and all of Yang Qiqi's good impressions of him vanished in an instant, leaving only vexation and rage!

"Little Seven... I..." Wei Zhao slapped his forehead as it suddenly came back to him: when the two of them had recognized each other earlier, Yang Qiqi had been somewhat delirious—at that time she likely could not tell dream from reality. Now that she had woken up, she naturally did not know that he was her Brother Ah Yi. Of course she would be furious that he had recklessly tried to hug her!

So Wei Zhao gave a bitter smile and hastily said, "Little Seven, don't you recognize me?"

"Recognize you..." Yang Qiqi was startled by his question. Wei Zhao was perfectly fine—why had he suddenly asked such a thing? Had something happened to them after they escaped from the cliffs? Had she lost her memory? Otherwise, why would Wei Zhao ask that?

Had she forgotten something—something that had happened between her and Wei Zhao? Yang Qiqi frowned. But that did not make sense either. Her heart already belonged to that man, so how could she possibly accept Wei Zhao?

"Recognize me?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. "You recognize me, so then you..."

"Wei Zhao, what happened before?" Yang Qiqi had calmed down as well. She was an assassin, highly skilled at reading others' expressions, and Wei Zhao's present astonishment and bitter smile did not seem feigned. After a moment's hesitation, she asked cautiously.

"Little Seven... after all these years, have you had any word of Master?" Wei Zhao did not know how to explain his identity, so he asked in a roundabout way instead.

"Master?" Yang Qiqi was slightly stunned. "Your master..."

"Is Madam Wang well? How could she feel at ease letting you come out alone?" Wei Zhao continued to ask.

"You... you you you you..." Yang Qiqi's eyes went wide, and she stared at Wei Zhao in disbelief. If his previous remark had been somewhat baffling, this last one made everything obvious. Madam Wang... her own mother's surname was Wang, and Wei Zhao had actually said that she felt at ease letting her come out... Then Wei Zhao was—?

"You went looking for the Five Baleful Dragon to cure the Ninth Princess's illness? Her illness... you found a way?" Wei Zhao paid no attention to Yang Qiqi's astonished expression and went on asking as though to himself.

"You... who on earth are you?" Yang Qiqi looked at Wei Zhao in horror, as though she had seen a ghost.

"Earlier, when I grilled clay fish for you, I thought you had remembered—remembered the things from our childhood, on the deserted island..." Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"You... you're Brother Ah Yi?!" Yang Qiqi stared at Wei Zhao in utter shock. When Wei Zhao had said those things before, it was not that she had never considered that he might be her Brother Ah Yi, but all along, Wei Zhao's image had differed far too greatly from Brother Ah Yi's, and added to that her poor first impression of him, she had simply overlooked the possibility. But now, thinking carefully, Wei Zhao... was indeed that very person!

Only that person knew all these things about her. Only that person knew the memories on the deserted island that belonged to just the two of them... And only that person, upon seeing her, would call her Little Seven and embrace her!

"Heh, I never imagined either that you would turn out to be little sister Little Seven..." Wei Zhao smiled bitterly. He had to admit, this way of recognizing each other was rather clichéd, but childhood playmates could look so utterly different—who could have expected such a coincidence?

"You... why didn't you say so earlier!" Yang Qiqi leaped up from the bed and threw herself into Wei Zhao's arms. Feeling the warmth of his embrace, she wept with joy: "Wonderful—now I finally don't have to kill you..."

"Pff..." Hearing this, Wei Zhao nearly burst out laughing. What was this cool girl thinking about now? Still the matter of killing him?

"I'm sorry, Brother Ah Yi, I didn't know you were Wei Zhao... That's why I wanted to kill you... I treated you so horribly before, yet you were so good to me... Little Seven is truly awful..." Yang Qiqi sobbed against Wei Zhao's chest.

"Awful? I never imagined you were trying to kill me because of me... Now that you've figured it out, of course I won't blame you..." Wei Zhao's sentence looked like a grammatical error, but both of them understood what he meant.

Yet Wei Zhao was somewhat shocked inside as well, and there were some things he did not say. He truly had not expected that his childhood sweetheart harbored that kind of romantic feeling for him! All along, Wei Zhao had regarded Little Seven as a younger sister and had not thought much about it—he only wanted to protect her and care for her. But at this moment, Wei Zhao did not voice this either.

At a reunion after so long apart, Wei Zhao would not say anything to spoil the mood. As for Yang Qiqi's feelings for him, in Wei Zhao's view they were probably a stubborn sort of dependence—when they could not meet, she would keep thinking of him and missing him, but once they truly met, she would gradually discover that the Wei Zhao of today and the Brother Ah Yi of the past were two entirely different people...