Chapter 4694 — Don't Think I Don't Know
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"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.