Chapter 3050 — Little Shu's Secret, Part Two

Once Fire Burn Cloud had finally been seen off, Wei Zhao called out to Shen Yushu, who was already heading for the stairs: "Little Shu, in such a hurry to sleep? Is there nothing you want to explain to me?" "Ah... oh... Little Shu is going upstairs to take a bath..." Shen Yushu stammered. "Upstairs to bathe? Didn't you just take a bath?" Wei Zhao asked, glancing at her hair, which was still damp. "Ah... well... actually I'm going to help Sister Yaoyao scrub her back!" Shen Yushu's eyes darted about. "Sister Yaoyao hasn't bathed yet, so I'm going to help!" "No need, I can manage on my own. You sit right here!" Gu Mengyao shoved Shen Yushu back and went upstairs herself. She knew Wei Zhao meant to talk to Little Shu about Fire Burn Cloud. Curious as Gu Mengyao was, she had already asked Little Shu about it once and gotten nothing, so it would have to be Wei Zhao who pried it out of her. "Um... Arrow-Brand Bro... leaving Little Shu here alone and sending Sister Yaoyao away—are you... going to confess your feelings to Little Shu?" Shen Yushu gazed at Wei Zhao with tender eyes. "Pfft..." Wei Zhao was at a loss for words. "Little Shu, the way you're looking at me, anyone would think I was the one confessing to you—when it's plainly you confessing to me!" "Oh, good, good—Arrow-Brand Bro, Little Shu confesses to you..." Shen Yushu seized on his words and ran with them. "What do you think of Little Shu, hmm? Would I do for your little wife?" "That's enough, Little Shu!" Wei Zhao's expression turned serious. He looked at her and said, "Little Shu, in most situations you play your part very well—you could call yourself a regular master of disguise. But we know each other far too well. If you tried to lie to my face, I'm afraid you'd be the one feeling guilty first, wouldn't you?" "All right... Arrow-Brand Bro, you're really something. Since you already know, why say it?" Shen Yushu dropped her earlier air of innocent naivety and blinked her big, liquid eyes at Wei Zhao, looking rather put out. "Little Shu, why do you hate Fire Burn Cloud? There must be some reason." Wei Zhao fixed his eyes on Little Shu and asked, word by word: "There is no love without cause in this world, and no hate without cause either. You had never met him before—so why would you hate him?" In truth, this was also why Wei Zhao had not brought up the journey to the Hakkunamata Desert again, even after Fire Burn Cloud left the villa. It was because he could not work out just what the grudge between Little Shu and Fire Burn Cloud actually was. "Actually... I'm not entirely sure myself..." Just as Wei Zhao was about to press further, Little Shu spoke first: "Arrow-Brand Bro, do you remember—I once had a betrothal, didn't I?" "A betrothal?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. "Yes, a betrothal between me and an ancient sect." Shen Yushu nodded. "Eh?" Wei Zhao thought it over. There did seem to have been something of the sort! But it was rather a long time ago—from before Wei Zhao had unified the secular great families. On the eve of the Great Family Assembly back then, the Kang family had sought promotion to great-family status, and one of the existing great families was to be struck off. At the time, no one thought much of the secular Chen family either—but there had been a rumor going around that Shen Yushu, just after her birth, had been betrothed to an ancient sect. And so those who wished to move against the Chen family did not dare act rashly. At the time, Wei Zhao had heard the rumor but had not paid it much mind. On the eve of a Great Family Assembly, after all, every family built up its own momentum, and inventing a few lies was only to be expected. But now that Little Shu brought it up again, Wei Zhao recalled it: "Which ancient sect?" "I'm not sure either, but it should be Fireflame Mountain..." Shen Yushu lowered her head, her mood sinking. "I don't know whether this Fire Burn Cloud is the one, but I don't want anything more to do with the Fireflame Mountain sect!" "So that's how it is!" Only then did Wei Zhao realize he had misjudged Little Shu. She had not been making a fuss over nothing—she was resisting this so-called betrothal! If it were Wei Zhao in her place, with such a tightening band around his head, he doubted he would bear it any better. "Then shall I go ask Fire Burn Cloud about it one of these days?" "No!" Shen Yushu started in alarm and shook her head hurriedly. "Arrow-Brand Bro, whatever you do, don't ask..." "Oh? What's wrong?" Wei Zhao frowned slightly and looked at Shen Yushu, asking gravely and solemnly: "Little Shu, are you hiding something from me that you haven't told me?" "N... no..." Shen Yushu's face froze, and she stammered. "Nothing?" Wei Zhao drew a deep breath. He had decided to have an honest, open talk with Little Shu. By now Wei Zhao was a Heaven-tier expert, no longer the ignorant nobody he once had been. Whatever difficulties Little Shu was hiding, Wei Zhao wanted to help resolve them and share the burden. And so, word by word, he said: "Last time, you poisoned my tea, and then in the middle of the night you came at me with a knife. I've known about all of that for a long time..." "Ah!" Shen Yushu cried out, her face draining white. She had not expected Wei Zhao to know everything—and in such detail. But why had he never said a word, and instead gone on treating her so kindly? "Arrow-Brand Bro... you knew all along? Then why... why didn't you expose me, and why are you as good to me as ever..." "Little Shu, I believe you have reasons you cannot help, and your heart isn't wicked. You didn't want to kill me, did you?" Wei Zhao smiled. "So I don't blame you. You poured me tea, then knocked it over; you came at me with a knife in the night, then couldn't bring yourself to do it, and told me you were sleepwalking..." "Ah, well—then Little Shu will tell you the truth. But you mustn't tell Sister Yaoyao; she'd only worry." Shen Yushu hesitated a moment before speaking. "Don't worry, I won't tell her." Wei Zhao nodded. "Pinky swear!" Shen Yushu held out her little finger. "Heh, all right." Wei Zhao hooked his finger around hers, then said: "Now, will you tell me?" "I... am actually not Chen Yuxuan's real sister," Shen Yushu said faintly. "I'm not a child of the Chen family. I'm a child the Chen family adopted..." "What?" Wei Zhao was stunned. He had never imagined Shen Yushu was an adopted child of the Chen family, not Chen Yuxuan's blood sister! But this—Gu Mengyao probably did not know it either. "Does Chen Yuxuan know? In your Chen family, who else knows about this?" "Only my grandfather... and me..." Shen Yushu sighed. "Actually, I learned it from other people's mouths, not from Grandfather's."