As the saying goes, the mighty are always mighty.
Huangfu Wenqing never imagined that her small act of greed would draw more than five times the hostility. At that moment, she was happily holding Yan Zhen’s hand as they returned to the room together.
With a click, the door shut, sealing the space.
Yan Zhen gave the interior a quick glance.
Room Four was identical to his Room Three: simple decor, basic furnishings, just like an ordinary room in any roadside inn—utterly lacking in charm, far inferior to Room One.
“Alright, we’ll stay here for the next few days,” Huangfu Wenqing said softly, biting her lip. “No matter what we do, we can do it together.”
Yan Zhen blinked and replied shyly, “I was planning to just sit in meditation and cultivate the whole time.”
According to the script, the shipboard days held only one show-off moment, but the timing wasn’t right yet. They had to wait for people from the other kingdoms to board and for conflicts to erupt.
Before then, Yan Zhen had holed up alone in his room, refining the Gold-Silver Fire Sword Embryo under the guidance of his beautiful master.
“Can’t you keep me company and chat for a little while first?” Huangfu Wenqing clutched her wrist against her chest, her posture a touch restrained. “It’s been so long since we last met. I want to talk with you.”
“Ah, well… that’s not out of the question.” Yan Zhen couldn’t bring himself to refuse, so he resolved to chat until the sky went dark. “What do you want to talk about?”
At his agreement, a captivating smile bloomed across Huangfu Wenqing’s face once more. She sat on the edge of the bed and patted the spot beside her. “Come sit down first.”
Yan Zhen complied, maintaining a full arm’s length between them while strictly upholding the tenets of the Book of Male Virtue. “So, what are we talking about? I’m not much good at conversation.”
“For instance, we could talk about what you’ve been up to over the past year. Or even about yourself.”
As if afraid he might bolt, Huangfu Wenqing scooted closer until their thighs pressed together. She hooked her arm through his, trying to tease his resolve by rubbing her chest against him—but unfortunately, the dimensions fell short.
“As your fiancée, I want to know all about you. The good parts, the bad parts—everything.”
“There’s nothing special about me,” Yan Zhen said, stroking his chin in thought. “I’m just a little handsome, a little talented, a little kind-hearted. Otherwise, I’m perfectly ordinary.”
Huangfu Wenqing let out a light chuckle. “Just a little?”
“I’m being humble. Actually, it’s more than a little.”
“You’re so cute~”
“Wait—compared to cute, I’d rather hear ‘peerlessly elegant, handsome and dashing’ or something along those lines.”
“You’re cuter than cute~”
“Uh…”
It seemed Huangfu Wenqing was even worse at conversation than he was.
“Actually, you have so many strengths I lack,” Huangfu Wenqing said. “I heard that you used to be a genius youth. Then you inexplicably plummeted in cultivation, drawing mockery from all sides. Yet you persisted undaunted, eventually breaking from your cocoon to become a butterfly and rising above everyone once more… I truly admire you for that.”
Yan Zhen smiled faintly. “There’s no talk of undaunted persistence. It was just stubborn clinging on for dear life. I even wanted to give up several times, convinced it was fate and that I should seek another path. But then I’d unconsciously slip back into meditation. A tiny bit of progress would thrill me, only for an even greater disappointment to follow. It went on like that, day after day in a haze, lost to myself—until I finally glimpsed the dawn once more. Even then, I feared it was a false hope, reaching out to it in anxious trepidation—”
“Yan Zhen…”
“So don’t speak of admiration. I’m not proud of it at all. If I had the choice, I’d rather never have endured that hardship.”
At the very least, his grandfather wouldn’t have worried so much, and that deadbeat father of his wouldn’t have vanished, winding up a prisoner in the Demon Domain.
“I’m sorry, Yan Zhen. I thought about it too simply.”
Huangfu Wenqing brimmed with guilt as memories of her past life flooded her mind—the moment she annulled their engagement, and he swore that Battle Pact of life and death.
He had looked like a small beast cornered by a hunter, his eyes brimming with wariness and madness, every motion a desperate, unwilling struggle.
He was already mired in the swamp, fighting for his life. Yet she hadn’t spared a thought for his feelings and had hurled a stone at him besides—
Even now, she was spouting such frivolous words, without truly grasping his pain. Winning his heart seemed farther away than ever!
A wave of bitterness washed through Huangfu Wenqing’s heart. Even after her rebirth, she still couldn’t seem to draw truly close to Yan Zhen.
“No, I overreacted and said some unpleasant things.” Yan Zhen flashed a carefree smile. “Let’s talk about something more interesting instead.”
Huangfu Wenqing bowed her head, her voice tinged with dejection. “Truth be told, when I first learned that Grandpa had arranged the betrothal on my behalf, I was utterly unwilling. I even demanded he cancel it right away. I didn’t want to marry some stranger I’d never met or knew nothing about.”
“I felt the same way,” Yan Zhen said with a nod, thinking to himself that this was the Huangfu Wenqing straight out of the script!
“Then what made you change your mind?”
“Because I had a dream. A… very unhappy dream.” Huangfu Wenqing hugged Yan Zhen’s arm tightly. “I dreamed that I secretly took people from the sect to Martial Tang City and annulled the engagement without telling Grandpa. I said some truly awful things that hurt you deeply. Enraged, you swore a Battle Pact for a duel to the death two years hence. I didn’t take it seriously back then because you were just a half-cripple stuck at the Mystic Disciple Third Stage, while I was the ascendant Cloud Heaven Palace Young Sect Master. A pact like that suited me perfectly—defeating you would let me end the engagement with legitimacy.”
Yan Zhen blinked rapidly, thinking that this was precisely the standard script he’d hoped for.
“Two years later, true to the pact, you ascended the Cloud Heaven Summit for our deathmatch. By then, you’d undergone a complete transformation, not only reclaiming your former talent but surpassing it. I lost that duel utterly—crushed from start to finish, without a chance to fight back. Even in defeat, I found myself drawn to your power and your aura, until my heart surrendered as well. But you… by that point, you had no interest in me. You’d already let go, harboring no hatred at all. That’s when I realized I’d squandered our marriage from the very beginning. There was no chance for us anymore.”
Yan Zhen froze, his mind racing. This dream didn’t match the script at all. In the script, Huangfu Wenqing never fell for him after losing.
She’d come to like him only after being thoroughly beaten? Was Huangfu Wenqing a masochist? She presented herself as a proud little peacock on the outside, but deep down, she craved being conquered!
Hiss~~~ He’d just uncovered something monumental.
“That’s why, to avoid any regrets, I decided to come meet you in person first,” Huangfu Wenqing said with a smile. “And once I saw you… you’re so cute. I like you so much~”
—Sister, can we please drop the “cute”?
“Yan Zhen, can I give you a kiss?”
“Huh?”
