Chapter 911 — I Do!
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
And besides, this was the first time Wei Zhao had invited her to dine at so high-class a restaurant, and at once an ominous foreboding surged up in Tang Zhi's heart, setting it racing.
"Yunyun, the truth is, my injuries haven't fully healed!" Wei Zhao decided to keep it short. There was no need for preamble in being honest with Tang Zhi; she had already learned the particulars of his wounding from Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, so he had only to get to the point. "My external wounds have healed, but my strength is gone — all of it..."
"What? Is it serious? Is there any danger?" Startled, Tang Zhi blurted out the question. She had never expected this to be what Wei Zhao meant to tell her! He was not casting her off, at least — but if he spoke so solemnly of his injuries, they must be grave indeed. Tang Zhi was deeply worried.
"The wounds themselves pose no danger. But if my enemies were to learn that my strength is gone, then I would be in real danger." Wei Zhao smiled bitterly.
"Then why tell me? You shouldn't tell anyone!" Tang Zhi was badly frightened. "But I won't say a word — I'll keep your secret!"
"Heh... Yunyun, you misunderstand." Wei Zhao smiled. Her anxious reaction put him rather at ease: Tang Zhi cared about him.
"Misunderstand?" Tang Zhi was taken aback.
"Yes. I'm telling you all this because I've already asked Gu Mengyao to release me. I won't be serving as her close guard any longer..." Wei Zhao said.
At his words Tang Zhi was slightly stunned, yet a quiet gladness stirred in her. His strength might be gone, but he had also left Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu — was that not precisely what she had wished to see?
"Then where will you live from now on?" A faint blush rose to Tang Zhi's cheeks. "How about... once our new house is renovated, you move in?"
"Heh heh..." Wei Zhao looked at the bashful Tang Zhi, and his heart stirred. For the rather conservative Tang Zhi to say such a thing was no small feat. But he could only shake his head. "I told you before — as long as my strength isn't restored, my enemies may track me down wherever I stay. I can't drag you all into it..."
"So you mean..." A vague unease rose suddenly in Tang Zhi's heart, as though something momentous were about to happen. The joy she had felt at his quitting Gu Mengyao's service vanished in an instant.
"I'm leaving Songshan City, going back to my hometown..." There was a note of sorrow in Wei Zhao's voice as he said it, but in the end it had to be said. The music ends, the guests disperse — an unchanging law.
"You... you don't want me anymore? You really don't want me?" Tang Zhi felt as though her heart had been struck by a sledgehammer, aching so sharply, so terribly. She had wondered before what she would do if he abandoned her, but she had never imagined the day would come so soon...
"It isn't that I don't want you... it's that you don't want me..." Wei Zhao was badly startled by her reaction. In his memory, Tang Zhi was strong — surely not this fragile?
"I don't want you? Why wouldn't I want you?" Tang Zhi wanted to cry; for a moment she did not grasp his meaning, taking it for a quibble.
"My strength is gone. I won't be as glorious as I am now — I might be very, very poor. Would you still want me then?" By now Wei Zhao was fairly certain of her heart; it seemed the ring had not been bought in vain. Still, some things had to be made clear in advance.
"Wei Zhao, I'll bite you to death!" Flustered, Tang Zhi glared at him with big, tear-filled eyes. "Do you take me for someone who despises the poor and fawns on the rich? For someone that contemptible? That's my mother, not me!"
Tang Zhi was so exasperated that she dragged her mother out for comparison — though Mother Tang did indeed give her no end of trouble...