Chapter 4694 — Don't Think I Don't Know

"Thank you, Brother Ling," Xia Qianqian said, her face flushed, as she came over and thanked Wei Zhao in a small voice. Since Qi Wenmo called him Brother Ling, she could only follow suit—husband sings, wife follows.

"Think nothing of it. We're all family here anyway," Wei Zhao said with a knowing chuckle. Xia Qianqian's face promptly turned redder still, and she scurried over to Qi Wenmo's side to pack up their things with him—yet she raised no objection, which showed she had already begun, deep down, to accept the idea.

Once Qi Wenmo and Xia Qianqian had stowed everything away and made certain there was no other threat nearby, Wei Zhao finally spoke his farewell: "All right, I won't intrude on your two-person world any longer. We'll be off."

"Oh—thank you for this, Brother Ling. Mind how you go, and once we're back we'll have a proper drinking bout." Qi Wenmo nodded, and could not resist glancing at Xia Qianqian; but their eyes met for only an instant before they broke apart as if shocked, for at that moment both minds held only those four words of Wei Zhao's—two-person world...

Wei Zhao waved with a smile and at once turned and led Huo Yudie away. Meeting Qi Wenmo and his companion here had been pleasant enough, but it had cost them some time; better to press on while they could.

After watching Wei Zhao and Huo Yudie recede into the distance, Qi Wenmo and Xia Qianqian stood in an ambiguous silence for a moment. Qi Wenmo felt as though a hundred claws were scrabbling at his heart; red-faced and thick-necked, he agonized for the longest time and yet could not produce a single word.

Never mind how, when Yin Shao and his two companions had cornered him earlier, he had borne himself like a man of unyielding steel charging straight ahead—when it came to moonlit flowers and tender sentiments like these, a fellow of his sort turned bashful instead, with less nerve than an ordinary man!

The things he had said to Yin Shao and the others—he could not have forced them out now if his life depended on it.

Xia Qianqian, aside from feeling shy, was torn between annoyance and amusement. Thank goodness she had made her feelings plain in that moment of peril; otherwise, given the temperament of this blockheaded oaf, who knew how many years and months they would have had to wait before they truly came together.

"This time we were lucky to run into Brother Ling. Otherwise we'd really have been in trouble." Xia Qianqian gave a faint sigh and took it upon herself to break the silence.

"Y-yes... I'm sorry, Luoluo. This was mostly my carelessness—I never noticed from the start that those three had set their sights on us. I failed to protect you..." Qi Wenmo's expression fell as he said this.

It truly had been his oversight. As someone who had come out of a lawless place like the Southern Continent's seas, his sense of danger was far keener than that of most cultivators; but the mere thought of a two-person world with Xia Qianqian had set his heart racing beyond all restraint, and how could he have kept an eye out for hidden dangers?

Once out of the gorge, everyone had scattered to forage on luck alone. He and Xia Qianqian had been fortunate enough to spot a rare natural treasure native to these parts—only to find it had become the source of their misfortune, for the two of them had been marked from the very beginning.

"No—if not for you, those three wretches would have defiled me just now." Xia Qianqian shook her head. After a pause she suddenly said in a low voice, "Those things you said earlier... I liked them very much."

"Huh? What things?" Qi Wenmo, not catching on at once, asked foolishly.

"Idiot!" Xia Qianqian stamped her foot in speechless exasperation and shot a glare at this dense young fool who had no feel for romance. How could a girl bring herself to repeat such words? She could only change the subject: "That veiled girl just now—if I'm not mistaken, she should be a disciple of the Eastern Continent's Morning Pride Academy. Is Brother Ling an old acquaintance of hers as well?"

"I don't know. They didn't seem like it. All I know is that Brother Ling's two confidantes are Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao, and both of them are at Morning Star Academy," Qi Wenmo said with a shake of his head.

"Is that so? But somehow I felt there was something rather intimate between the two of them. If they'd only just met, things wouldn't progress that fast, would they?" Xia Qianqian said, puzzled. It had not been blatant, but there had been distinctly flirtatious little gestures between Huo Yudie and Wei Zhao just now—that could not escape her eyes, and what was more, it had looked as though Huo Yudie was the one taking the initiative!

"Really?" Qi Wenmo started, then caught on belatedly, and could not help saying with envious admiration, "Brother Ling is something else—absolutely brilliant. He's even won over a beauty of the Eastern Continent. No wonder peerless girls like Wang Xinyan and Huang Xiaotao follow him so devotedly. Tsk, tsk!"

"Oh? From your tone, it sounds like you're quite envious?" Xia Qianqian turned to look at Qi Wenmo and said in an odd voice.

"Well, any man would—" Qi Wenmo answered on reflex; only when he sensed the killing intent did he come to his senses, and for once his mind worked quickly: "—never possibly be like Brother Ling! A figure like him comes along once in a few thousand years. How could I compare? One is enough to satisfy me—I could die without regret!"

"Hmph, that's more like it." Xia Qianqian curved her lips in a faint smile. Though she was still disguised, the charm revealed in that instant left Qi Wenmo utterly dumbstruck—a beauty to topple a city and overthrow a state was no more than this.

Seeing his expression, Xia Qianqian lowered her head bashfully and muttered under her breath: what a blockhead...

Meanwhile, Huo Yudie had followed Wei Zhao some distance when, after holding it in for a good while, she finally could not restrain herself: "Hey, once we find the Thunder Mystic Vine, you're not going to kill me, are you?"

Wei Zhao, walking ahead to clear the way, stumbled at those words, so startled was he by this girl's wildly fanciful line of thinking. What on earth was she going on about?!

Wei Zhao turned back and cast a speechless glance at this girl whose head was clearly full of who-knew-what, then said with a teasing grin, "If I were to kill you, I'd ravish you first and then kill you..."

"Ah... is that so... Then could you just ravish me and not kill me?" Huo Yudie blinked and said.

"Pfft! Cough, cough, cough!" Wei Zhao choked on his own breath. A moment ago he had merely thought this girl's thinking eccentric; now he was utterly astounded by her.

Ravish without killing? Was that an answer any normal girl could come up with? Surely the proper course was to prefer death to dishonor, as Xia Qianqian had done just now? Or were the people of the Eastern Continent simply different, raised from childhood to believe that preserving one's life mattered more than one's reputation?

"Hmph, don't think I don't know. You're not the sort who kills at random. If you were really that bloodthirsty, you'd have killed Ren Zhongyuan and the others long ago!" Huo Yudie said with absolute certainty.

True enough, Wei Zhao had indeed been decisive in his killing just now—against those three from the Snow Sword Sect he had cut them down without blinking. But those men had deserved death a thousand times over; even Huo Yudie herself would have done the same. (To be continued..) I752