Chapter 4753 — Buying a Walkie-Talkie

"What do you mean, 'not'? Sister Huo, you're still wearing the clothes from the secular world that our little junior brother gave you—so you've clearly admitted it yourself. It's settled, then, happily so!" Shangguan Lan'er said, her face full of teasing mischief.

"Ah? I..." Huo Yudie had just put on this denim sportswear today, and had secretly been quite pleased with it. Now she was instantly struck speechless. How had she admitted anything? Admitted what, exactly?

"Lan'er, don't get so smug. You talk as though it's none of your business—don't tell me you don't want to be our sister too?" Ning Xuefei stepped in to smooth things over, and her one sentence left Shangguan Lan'er speechless as well. Together with Han Jingyi, she pulled Huo Yudie over to stand before Wei Zhao.

"You've come," Wei Zhao greeted her with a beaming smile.

"Yes, I've come." Huo Yudie's face flushed with shyness, and she dared not meet Wei Zhao's eyes. For some reason, this time, whenever Wei Zhao came a little closer, her heart pounded madly, as if it would leap right out of her chest, leaving her breathless.

"Come sit. These girls were just talking about you—pestering me with questions about the West Island trial. I was unconscious for most of it, so how would I know that much? You may as well tell them yourself," Wei Zhao said, naturally taking Huo Yudie's hand and seating her beside him.

"Ah!" Huo Yudie let out a small cry as if jolted by electricity. She had clearly not expected Wei Zhao to take her hand in front of Ning Xuefei and the others, and she immediately ducked her head even lower in embarrassment. Her heart raced wildly, yet at the same time she was slowly filled with sweetness.

"That's right, Sister Huo, you tell us!" Ning Xuefei and the other two exchanged smiles and crowded over eagerly, clustering around Huo Yudie with great interest.

Huo Yudie was quite overwhelmed by such easy familiarity, and the tension in her heart melted away. She had been worrying just moments ago about how to get along with these girls, but now it seemed she had been overthinking everything.

Whether it was Ning Xuefei, Han Jingyi, or Shangguan Lan'er, they were all kindhearted girls. The sordid things she had imagined earlier—being excluded, being targeted—would never have occurred to them. Huo Yudie could not help feeling a little ashamed; she had been judging noble hearts by the measure of a petty one.

With her worries gone, Huo Yudie soon became fast friends with the girls, laughing and chatting merrily. Though she was somewhat older than Ning Xuefei and the others, her nature was simple and pure, and their time together was warm and pleasant.

Friendships between young girls can sometimes be very strange. In but a short while, Huo Yudie and Ning Xuefei and the rest had become close friends who wished they had met sooner, growing more agreeable with every word, brimming with shared topics. Now it was Wei Zhao's turn to feel bored—surrounded by these young girls, he was utterly an outsider who could not get a word in!

Of course, Wei Zhao was in fact rather gratified by this outcome. Kindhearted as the girls were, they each had a clever, perceptive mind. Huo Yudie had said nothing, and everyone else had said nothing, yet each knew clearly what the others were thinking. They simply chose not to say it aloud.

Over the next few days, Huo Yudie became completely inseparable from the girls—she even moved in, and the four of them laid out a big communal bed in Ning Xuefei's room. They all slept together at night, though Wei Zhao of course had no place in that arrangement. Even though Ning Xuefei was nominally his fiancée, he could not enter the women's quarters—especially not with four of them squeezed in there at once!

As for the daytime, Ning Xuefei led Wei Zhao and the girls around the various parts of West Island, just as Wei Zhao had once shown her around North Island. They visited basically every place of note. The local customs and ways, utterly different from other places, truly opened Wei Zhao's eyes.

Still, awkward moments often arose along the way. Wherever they went, the crowds would jam up tight, with throngs of West Island folk scrambling to catch a glimpse of Wei Zhao, the prospective son-in-law of West Island. That feeling of being stared at like an animal in a zoo left Wei Zhao at a loss for words, and time and again he could only beat a hasty retreat.

By contrast, no one paid much attention to beauties like Ning Xuefei and Huo Yudie. Had the four of them gone to an outer island, they would surely have received the same treatment as Wei Zhao. But this was West Island, and the streets of West Island were full of women—men were not permitted to show themselves about at will.

While Huo Yudie was happily out and about with Wei Zhao and the others, Ren Zhongyuan remained utterly unaware of it. He still assumed Huo Yudie was in seclusion these past few days, and every day he yearned only for a chance to curry favor, lest the earlier misunderstanding leave a bad impression on her.

Ever since that day when he saw the chastity mark on Huo Yudie's arm, he, like everyone else, had dismissed that photograph as complete rubbish.

No matter how the two poor wretches Li Yuzhou and Sun Baolu begged for mercy—and without even needing Liu Ziqi to lift a finger—he was the first to beat the two of them half to death, hoping thereby to show Huo Yudie his goodwill. At the same time, he rushed to delete the photograph, lest it spread and ruin the reputation of the woman he adored.

Still, giving his two lackeys a sound thrashing was only what was expected of him. Ren Zhongyuan knew that this alone was unlikely to win Huo Yudie's forgiveness. He had heard that Huo Yudie was very interested in secular-world cell phones, so he decided to prepare a gift to her taste.

Unfortunately, although the Central Merchants' Guild dealt mainly in all manner of technological products, cell phones—the most common item in the secular world—were rarely sold. After all, there were no base stations on Tianji Island; a cell phone was purely an ornament. Surely he could not go and become a network operator himself just to sell phones...

Here on Yunjie Island, if one wanted a cell phone, one had to have one specially made. But Ren Zhongyuan was not Ning Xuefei. Though he had some standing at the East Continent Academy, the West Island's Central Merchants' Guild would not defer to him, and having a phone custom-made was pure fantasy.

With no other choice, Ren Zhongyuan wandered about the Central Merchants' Guild for most of the day, and in the end had to abandon the idea of buying a cell phone. Instead, his eye fell on a pair of walkie-talkies. In his view, these were quite impressive too—their function was not much different from a cell phone's—and he was sure Huo Yudie would like them when she saw them.

Gritting his teeth, Ren Zhongyuan tightened his belt and, sparing no expense, bought the walkie-talkies at an astronomical price. He was about to hurry off to find Huo Yudie at once and give his beloved a great big surprise!

But seeing Huo Yudie was not so easy. He was staying at the West Island envoy's residence, whereas Huo Yudie, owing to the close ties between Liu Ziqi and Ning Shanghe, was lodged within the Island Master's palace. Without special reason, no outsider was permitted to set foot inside the Island Master's palace—let alone a man like Ren Zhongyuan!

Yet this did not stop Ren Zhongyuan. As a consummate Nascent Soul cultivator, and moreover a prodigy disciple from the East Continent Academy, even with the Island Master's palace guarded so strictly, when he set his mind on slipping in, he could still find some opening to exploit. (To be continued...)