Chapter 1125 — Valentine's Day Special: Xiao Ning's Story, Part 10
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
But having feelings did not mean he could act on them as he pleased.
Wei Zhao drew a deep breath and fought down the urge to look back. He fixed his eyes on the distance and quietly took in every sound and stir around them.
The pack had clearly gone far away. They had not the courage to linger.
Blushing, Yu Ning pulled up her pants, washed her hands with snow from the ground, then rose and walked over to Wei Zhao's side.
"All done? Shall we head back?" Wei Zhao asked, sensing her approach.
"Mm, but I don't want to go back yet. Will you sit with me at the mouth of the cave and look at the stars?" Yu Ning said. "The sky here is clearer and cleaner than in the city. You can see so many more stars."
"All right." Wei Zhao did not refuse. He felt there were things that had to be laid out plainly between them now. The nature of their relationship had to be made clear.
Yu Ning and Wei Zhao sat at the mouth of the cave, the fire burning behind them, and neither felt particularly cold.
"Today is Valentine's Day..." Yu Ning began. She was a little annoyed by Wei Zhao's silence. If you did not speak to him first, he might as well have been a wooden dummy, never saying a word.
"Is it...? I think it's already over," Wei Zhao replied.
"This has been the fullest, happiest Valentine's Day I've ever had!" Yu Ning ignored his mood-killing remark and went on. "On this Valentine's Day, when I'm sixteen, I think I've found the person I like..."
Wei Zhao's heart gave a jolt. He knew perfectly well what Yu Ning meant. She actually intended to confess her feelings to him in a place like this!
It might have looked like a good thing, but Wei Zhao did not see it that way. He had to rein in the horse at the edge of the cliff and strangle this romance in its cradle before it had even begun.
"You're only sixteen. You're too young to understand what love is. In a place like this, after everything we've been through together, perhaps you've mistaken it for love. It isn't!" Wei Zhao cut her off. "When you go back home, you'll find it all laughable."
"No, I know what I'm thinking. What's so young about sixteen? In ancient times girls were having children by then! And you're only sixteen yourself, aren't you? What gives you the right to lecture me?" Yu Ning shot back, agitated. She was not about to accept his cutting off her confession.
"Is that so? Then go on," Wei Zhao said. Her stubbornness left him somewhat helpless, and he was already turning over in his mind how to talk her around.
"Ying, I like you!" Yu Ning finally said the words she had held down for so long. When she had finished, she let out a long breath, as though she had completed some great undertaking.
"What do you like about me?" The reason Wei Zhao had let her continue was precisely that he wanted to settle this matter at its root.
"You make me feel safe. Earlier, because I made trouble, in that dangerous situation, you could clearly have run off on your own, but instead you threw yourself into protecting me without a thought for yourself. You even got hurt because of my willfulness, and you never complained once!" Yu Ning said. "In that moment, I fell for you!"
"Miss Yu, don't you think that's a laughable notion? I'm a guard, here to keep you safe. Anyone else in my place would have done the same! My duty is to answer to my superiors. What does that have to do with throwing myself into saving you?" Wei Zhao said coldly. "Put another way, if the person I was protecting weren't you, I would still have thrown myself in just the same!"
"I don't care. You're the first man in sixteen years to walk into my heart, and you'll certainly be the last!" Yu Ning shook her head stubbornly. "I like you, and that's that. When I get back I'll tell my father and mother to contact your superiors and have you transferred to me, to guard me and no one else!"