Chapter 4628 — A Grown Daughter Is Hard to Keep
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
When Shangguan Lan'er returned after seeing Wei Zhao off, she wore a furtive, guilty look, and Shangguan Tianxia at once grew suspicious. "Little Lan'er, which piece of calligraphy did you choose for him?" he asked.
"Mm... that True Word one, you know..." Shangguan Lan'er said vaguely, her eyes darting this way and that.
"What True Word? I have written more than a dozen True Words. Which one did you pick?" A sudden foreboding rose in Shangguan Tianxia's heart.
"Just... just the one that gives people a headache to look at..." Shangguan Lan'er said, pouting.
"Gives people a headache to look at?" Shangguan Tianxia grew ever more uneasy, and all at once he gave a shudder. "Little Lan'er, you didn't give him the Ten-Thousand-Word True Word, did you?" he said in shock.
"Yes, I did." Shangguan Lan'er nodded, shrinking her neck.
Shangguan Tianxia nearly spat blood at the words, caught between laughter and tears. "That is our Shangguan family's ancestral teaching, and ten thousand characters besides—it took your grandfather a whole month of hard labor to copy it out..."
"You said yourself I could pick anything in the study. You are the master of the Skypiercer Pavilion, a man whose word is his bond—surely you won't go back on it?" Shangguan Lan'er muttered.
"Go back on it? What is given away is given—how could there be any going back!" Shangguan Tianxia shook his head in exasperation, and could only sigh: "Ah, a grown daughter's heart turns outward, and truer words were never spoken. It has not even come to anything yet, and already she is scheming to fleece her own grandfather."
"How have I fleeced you!" Shangguan Lan'er flushed at once, and ran over to cling to Shangguan Tianxia's arm, coaxing: "Little Junior Brother is no outsider. Giving him the Ten-Thousand-Word True Word does no harm at all."
"Yes, yes, no outsider." Shangguan Tianxia fondly ruffled his granddaughter's hair and said with feeling: "Truly, the boy is uncommon. I had thought he might be the next Gongyang Jun, but this meeting today shows I had still underestimated him. I half regret not having taken him as a disciple back then."
"It is not too late now. Little Junior Brother has not formally taken a master anyway—shall I go and tell him?" Shangguan Lan'er said, her eyes lighting up. If Wei Zhao could enter her grandfather's tutelage, their bond would grow all the closer, and that was something she would gladly see.
"That will not be necessary. Your grandfather was only speaking offhand. If Wei Zhao truly entered my tutelage, it would not be a good thing for him—at the least, I could not do what others have done and raise him to the Nascent Soul within two years. All I can do now is drop a hint or two from the sidelines," Shangguan Tianxia said with a slight shake of his head.
"Oh. All right." Shangguan Lan'er could not help feeling disappointed, then her eyes suddenly darted and she asked: "Grandfather, was this Dewtip prepared for Little Junior Brother?"
"It was," Shangguan Tianxia nodded.
"Really? How could you bear to let Little Junior Brother drink the Dewtip?" Shangguan Lan'er was ever more astonished. Few in all the world could make her grandfather bring out the Dewtip, and by any reckoning she could not see how Little Junior Brother had earned the right—even Gongyang Jun had never received such treatment.
"Heh, a grown daughter is hard to keep. Since you, Little Lan'er, cannot wait for him to drink the Dewtip, what is your grandfather to say?" Shangguan Tianxia looked at Shangguan Lan'er with a teasing smile. (To be continued...) R752