Chapter 3278 — Childhood, and the Future

After all, this account was merely the Songshan Orphanage's public donation account—anyone could transfer money into it. It might well have been some charity account Wei Zhao had typed in at random, just to make a fool of He Dantou for sport.

But by now Wei Zhao had safely reached Island X, and none of that needed to be considered any longer. Looking outside the airport at a car bearing the butterfly emblem, Wei Zhao knew at once that this was the car Yang Qiqi had sent to collect them.

That emblem was one Wei Zhao knew intimately. He had worked for this organization for many years, and it was precisely through the emblem on Yang Qiqi's ring that he had first recognized her as one of its assassins—and had thereby come to treat her wounds.

After getting off the plane, Wei Zhao climbed into the car together with Xu Shilan and Cheng Yiyi—and sure enough, there was Yang Qiqi inside, smiling and waving to them! What made Wei Zhao a little nervous was that Xiao Jiu was there too!

This girl, who had so often come to Wei Zhao's aid in daily life and on missions, made his breath catch for a moment. Wei Zhao knew what was in Xiao Jiu's heart, but his thinking now was not what it had once been.

Back then, Wei Zhao had believed that everyone in the assassin squad lived a life of drift, with no future to speak of, unable even to know what their own future held—and so he had ignored Xiao Jiu's hints, time and again.

Even Yu Ning's confession, back then, had been buried deep in Wei Zhao's heart.

But things were different now. Wei Zhao's thinking had changed as well. Faced with these feelings, he no longer harbored his former misgivings. After all, their fates would all be much the same from here on—and Xiao Jiu, too, was a successor.

In essence, there was no difference between her and Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, and Feng Xiaoxiao. They were the same kind of people, and so Wei Zhao could now face her with perfect candor—only, he did not know whether the feeling in her heart, when she saw him again, would still be love.

A fondness from childhood might stubbornly persist for many years, but when two people meet again as adults, they discover that this fondness was nothing more than a game of house played in their youth. Reality has already changed, and the people with it.

When Wei Zhao saw Xiao Jiu again, his own feelings were in truth quite complicated. He did not know how he had once categorized her—a childhood playmate, a little sister and nothing more, or something tinged with the stirrings of first love.

To be honest, when Wei Zhao was small, he really had been fond of Xiao Qi and Xiao Jiu. But as he grew a little older and learned of his own mission, he tucked that faint stirring away at the bottom of his heart. In time, Wei Zhao even came to avoid meeting Xiao Qi and Xiao Jiu face to face—because once they met, he would not know what to say.

This, too, was why Wei Zhao had not returned to Island X, the place where he had lived as a child, for all these years.

Only now, Wei Zhao had come to terms with things. Some matters cannot be escaped simply because one wishes to; some people are destined, after all, to appear in the course of your life.

Like Yang Qiqi, meeting him again and again in the trials.

Like Xiao Jiu—though they had often spoken by phone, Wei Zhao had time and again sidestepped the question of feelings between them. Yet Xiao Jiu had unexpectedly become a successor! And that left Wei Zhao unable to go around her any longer.

There were already too many successors among the women around Wei Zhao, and with Xiao Jiu joining their number, he had no way to refuse.

It was as though fate had played a joke on Wei Zhao: everything, from first to last, had never changed at all.

"Princess Jiu, it's been a long time." Wei Zhao adjusted his mood and, once in the car, greeted Xiao Jiu.

"Hmph." Seeing Wei Zhao, Xiao Jiu's eyes flashed with a trace of delight, but her mouth still gave a cold snort. "A long time? Or is it that you've been avoiding me all along?"

Her words could not help but leave Wei Zhao a little embarrassed. He gave a dry laugh, declined to take up her topic, and turned to Yang Qiqi. "Qiqi, the Overseas Cultivators Association hasn't been giving you any more trouble, have they?"

"No, not anymore. They asked a few questions and then left me alone." Yang Qiqi shook her head.

The Overseas Cultivators Association could hardly be foolish enough to move against Yang Qiqi. She was no rootless wandering cultivator, after all—and even if she had been, to suspect and interrogate her out of nowhere, without any evidence, would chill the hearts of the other members.

People joined the Overseas Cultivators Association, in truth, to seek the shelter of an organization. But once its members could be suspected and interrogated at will, who would join the Association after that?

Fortunately, Xiao Jiu was only venting her grievances to Wei Zhao, letting out the dissatisfaction in her heart. She did not blame him overmuch.

She had once been in charge of intelligence and coordination for the entire assassin organization. From that position, nothing within it had been a secret to her, and watching assassins fall, one after another, she had grown numb to it.

She understood Wei Zhao's former thinking as well. Wei Zhao was an assassin too, unable to see his own future, let alone see it clearly. He could not make her any promise, nor did he dare to! That went for her, and for Yang Qiqi as well.

So Xiao Jiu truly had no grounds to blame Wei Zhao. Now her identity had changed, and Wei Zhao's identity had changed, and only then had a future become possible—though that future was a very dim and distant thing.

Whether that successor plan held danger, whether Wei Zhao could take part in it—all of it was unknown. One might say that although Wei Zhao's thinking had changed, his circumstances were no better than before; they had, if anything, grown more uncertain.

"Brother Wei Zhao, don't think so much about it. The future will work itself out in time. These next few days, can we play about the island just like we did when we were small?" Xiao Jiu had come to terms with things as well, and meant to cherish the good time before her.

"Of course!" Wei Zhao had been worn out in body and mind these past weeks—and beyond that, he still had to face the troubles that would come crowding in one after another once he returned to Donghai City! His true strength had already been exposed. Once he went back, he feared the Black Horse Society, the Mingri Fu Mingri sect, the Dongfang family, and even the ancient Feng family would all come looking to settle accounts with him.

When that time came, with so many people seeking trouble with him, how was he to deal with them?

Since he could not think of a solution for the moment, Wei Zhao might as well stay here and relax. These past weeks had truly been too exhausting!

Of course, for now, so long as Wei Zhao did not go back, the people around him would be free of trouble for the time being.