Chapter 4752 — A Complete Misunderstanding
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
Ning Shanghe kept Wei Zhao and Ning Xuefei a while longer, speaking mostly warm words of encouragement and drawing them closer in feeling. At last she kept them for dinner before letting Wei Zhao go, and even went out of her way to arrange new quarters for him.
After all, from this day on Wei Zhao was Ning Xuefei's betrothed in the proper sense of the word, and for him to go on lodging at the West Island envoy's residence would no longer do. Ning Shanghe gave special permission for him to stay within the Island Master's palace, in a courtyard right next to Ning Xuefei's, only a few steps from the rooms of Han Jingyi and Shangguan Lan'er—which suited the several of them well enough for their gatherings.
For the next several days running, Wei Zhao had nothing else to attend to and spent every hour in the company of Ning Xuefei, Han Jingyi, and Shangguan Lan'er. There was no help for it: after the ordeal of the trial, the three girls had grown especially clingy, and even if Wei Zhao had wanted to cultivate alone it was impossible. He could only set aside the time to keep them company, and count it as amends for the fright he had put them through.
Meanwhile, in a small courtyard not far off within the same Island Master's palace, Huo Yudie shut her ears to all that went on beyond her window, never stepping out of doors, her head buried in bitter cultivation day after day.
Liu Ziqi saw it all and ached at heart. A mother knows her daughter best, as the saying goes, and this master who was more than a mother to Huo Yudie knew precisely what was in the girl's heart: her precious disciple had come down with a sickness of longing.
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"Die'er, stop shutting yourself up in your room to cultivate. Go out and get some air," Liu Ziqi coaxed gently.
"No need, Master. I let things slide so long during the West Island trial—I want to make it up with hard work," Huo Yudie said, shaking her head.
"Haste makes waste. Besides, you have already reached a bottleneck; there is no use in mere grinding, and what matters is to set your frame of mind right." Seeing the sullen look on Huo Yudie's face, Liu Ziqi's heart ached despite herself, and she said, "Aren't you rather taken with the things of the mortal world? Han Jingyi came up from the mortal realm—go and amuse yourself with them."
"Ah?" Huo Yudie was caught off guard, and only when she saw the teasing smile on her master's face did understanding dawn. After a moment's hesitation, she nodded shyly and ran from the room.
Watching Huo Yudie's retreating figure, which had plainly taken on a new lightness, Liu Ziqi sighed softly. Fate did like to make a mockery of people, she thought: Heaven had clearly brought the two of them together, and now it had without the least mercy awarded Wei Zhao to Ning Xuefei. How cruel that was to Die'er!
In her heart of hearts, Liu Ziqi did not wish to let Huo Yudie have any further dealings with Wei Zhao now. Wei Zhao was the West Island's consort-to-be, after all, and that was a fact beyond changing.
This young man Wei Zhao was powerful and outstanding far beyond anything Liu Ziqi had anticipated. Especially after she learned from Huo Yudie's own lips how they had made their way out of the trial grounds, she had felt, instinctively, as though she were looking upon a prodigy of another order: a mere mid-Nascent Soul cultivator who could stand on equal footing with a Xuan Ascension expert—how absurd, how heaven-defying!
Huo Yudie had meant to keep the matter sealed tight, but somehow, when Liu Ziqi asked, the words had come pouring out of their own accord—in short, she had wanted to show her master just how formidable Wei Zhao was. Her master would not go spreading it about in any case.
Indeed, seeing Liu Ziqi's stunned expression when she finished, she had felt thoroughly satisfied, her face glowing with reflected glory.