Chapter 3457 — Guan Xin's Betrothal

Guan Xin seemed to be talking to herself, lost in recollection, and she recounted in detail the story of how she and Wei Zhao had first met. Some of the particulars Wei Zhao had forgotten; he had not expected Guan Xin to remember them so vividly.

If Guan Xin had not spoken of it today, Wei Zhao would never have known that, without his realizing it, he had come to matter so much to her.

Listening to Guan Xin pour out her heart, Wei Zhao was filled with emotion. He liked her too, but it was an ordinary sort of liking; he had not reached the point of being sick with love for her, as she apparently was for him.

Her sudden confession left Wei Zhao at a complete loss. Accept or not accept? Yet by the look of things, there was no way he could refuse.

Wei Zhao had always been passive in matters of the heart; his relationships with these girls had tended to fall into place naturally. Facing Guan Xin now, he could not say he disliked her, but becoming boyfriend and girlfriend still fell a little short of the mark.

"My master told me that I am to become a Wood-line inheritor, to accept the legacy and go open Cloud Terrace Isle. It's an extremely dangerous mission, and I was afraid that afterward I might never see you again. That's why I had to say all of this to you today!" Having finished, Guan Xin let out a long breath.

Guan Xin, a Wood-line inheritor? Wei Zhao had vaguely heard Leader Bai hint at something of the sort before, though he had never put it in so many words. Now that both of them had said it outright, the matter was likely true.

Who would have thought that the Wood-line inheritor would turn out to be Guan Xin? Did that not mean that, apart from Elder Tang of Snow Valley, every one of the remaining inheritors was connected to him? The thought gave Wei Zhao a sudden headache.

Was it coincidence? Or was there some design in the unseen? Or had his arrival in Songshan City from the very beginning been part of a scheme laid by interested parties? Wei Zhao could not be certain. That task which was supposed to keep him fed for a lifetime had brought him step by step to where he stood now—so did Old Man Wei know what was really going on?

Wei Zhao did not know, and no one had told him. But of one thing he was sure: he had to keep pressing stubbornly onward. Whether or not it was a scheme, a trap, he could not halt his advance.

"The Cloud Terrace Isle plan… actually, Xinxin, you should know too. The people around me—Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, Feng Xiaoxiao, and two you haven't met, Yuning and Xiao Jiu—they're all inheritors as well. So I have to be present through the whole plan. Otherwise, who knows what might go wrong, and I wouldn't rest easy. Since you're an inheritor too, then let's go together!" Wei Zhao consoled her with a smile.

"Ah, all these inheritors… you know them all?" Guan Xin's expression shifted, turning rather odd. Naturally she knew Feng Xiaoxiao was an inheritor, and that Tang Zhi was one as well, but she had never known that Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were too.

And Wei Zhao knew those two as well, this Yuning and Xiao Jiu. What was the relationship there? They must be close to him too, surely? So it was—everyone was an inheritor, everyone was connected to Wei Zhao. Guan Xin felt rather relieved instead.

At least she would not be some singular exception, isolated and alone.

Only, Wei Zhao probably still did not know about Tang Zhi. If he learned of it, he might be all the more astonished! Every single inheritor connected to him—what a coincidence that would be.

"Yes—except the inheritor from Snow Valley, whom I'm not especially close to… of course, I don't mean that kind of closeness. As for the other inheritors… more or less… you know how it is…" Wei Zhao said, somewhat embarrassed.

Snow Valley—did that not mean Tang Zhi? Guan Xin could not help laughing at herself. She was your first girlfriend, after all! A girlfriend in the truest sense!

"Mm, then I'm relieved…" Guan Xin nodded. "There's one more thing. I hadn't intended to speak of it, but you've given me hope for the Cloud Terrace Isle plan—perhaps I really can come back alive, after all. So I must tell you this now…"

"What is it?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. He could not imagine what else Guan Xin could consider so important; it seemed to have nothing to do with cultivation or inheritors.

"It's like this… my father arranged a betrothal for me when I was little, and there had been no word of it for all this time, but… all of a sudden, he told me that word had come from that family, and that I should prepare to meet my intended…" Guan Xin said, rather vexed. "I've never even seen him, and I don't like him. And if I hadn't met you, that would be one thing—but now the person I like is you, and Father still wants me to go and meet him. What am I supposed to do?"

"Ugh…" Wei Zhao had not expected Guan Xin's father, Guan Xiaopeng, to be so earnest about the betrothal. He had assumed it was a dead letter, only for it to be brought up again. Still, this was their family's business. The Guan family asked nothing of the world and never vied for rank or standing among the great and hidden clans; they would not force Guan Xin into an arrangement for some advantage—nor switch her over to Wei Zhao for gain.

In this they were utterly unlike the hidden Yu family. If the Guan family were like the Yus, Wei Zhao would be confident of settling the matter. But it was not so. Guan Xiaopeng's ambitions were not those of the hidden Yus, and given Guan Xuewen's relationship with him, Wei Zhao could not very well strong-arm Guan Xiaopeng.

This really was a headache. Then Wei Zhao thought a moment and said suddenly, "By the way—aren't you best at cooking food so utterly revolting that it scares off any prospective match? You could try that again this time!"

Wei Zhao had suffered from that trick several times himself, and the stratagem came to mind at once.

"I thought of that too, but my father said straight out that we'd meet at a restaurant—he's not giving me a chance to show off my cooking!" Guan Xin sighed helplessly. "I suppose Father was afraid of exactly that, so he deliberately set the meeting place at a hotel!"

Wei Zhao reflected that this was true; she had used that trick so often that Guan Xiaopeng had naturally caught on. Now, for the real meeting, it was useless—and poor Wei Zhao was the one who suffered for it.

"Looks like I'm the unlucky one!" Wei Zhao thought for a moment. "What sort of person is he, this fellow?"

"They say he's the successor of the man who once helped my father. I don't know him, I've never seen him—I don't even know his name!" Guan Xin said. "If I knew his interests and hobbies, I could put on some display that runs counter to them, and he probably wouldn't like me then. But without knowing what he's like, I can't prescribe the right remedy!"

"Why not prepare yourself the conventional way—figure out what sort of girl a boy dislikes, and dress yourself up in that direction?" Wei Zhao thought for a moment and suggested. "For instance, make yourself out to be thoroughly wanton, with every other word about one-night stands and hookups, or just tell him straight out that you're pregnant!"

"P-p-pregnant?" Guan Xin was instantly dumbstruck. RS