“I don’t really feel anything for her. I don’t like or dislike her,” Xia Qingchen truthfully spoke.
Xia Yuan spoke, “This child Churan, although she plays up to those in power, her original nature isn’t bad and she has feelings for you. Why don’t you marry her?”
Back then at the family banquet, it was Zhao Churan who alerted him about what Xia Cangliu had done.
From this, one could tell that her nature wasn’t truly bad.
In addition to her beautiful and delicate features, she was also his cousin via the female line. Xia Yuan would still be satisfied if she was married to Xia Qingchen.
For these months, Xie Jie had been living in the Xia Manor and had been thinking of methods to arrange a marriage engagement between Xia Qingchen and Zhao Churan.
It was just that Xia Yuan didn’t decide on Xia Qingchen’s behalf. He wanted to ask what Xia Qingchen thought.
Xia Qingchen shook his head. “I will only marry the one I like. Cousin Churan isn’t the person.”
Emotions could never be forced and one shouldn’t accept something they didn’t wish to. Even more if it was something as big as marriage.
By forcibly being together, it would only cause Zhao Churan to waste her time.
“Alright then, I can only reject your aunt,” Xia Yuan spoke.
The father-and-son duo returned to their residence, yet they ran into Zhao Churan who was hiding near the entrance.
So it turned out that she was following behind and watched as the people of the Shrine departed.
Coincidentally, Xia Qingchen returned at this moment. Therefore, his words were naturally all heard by her.
At this moment, she bit on her red lips as her crystal-like eyes felt wet. When she met Xia Qingchen’s gaze, she forcibly cheered up. “Cousin, you..you’ve returned.”
But ultimately, she couldn’t control the sorrow in her heart. She sobbed as her tears began to fall.
After that, she covered her face and ran off.
She had stayed for half a year in the Southern Xia Manor and thought of Xia Qingchen daily, silently waiting for him. Wasn’t it simply because she hoped to be able to speak with him?
But ultimately from the start to the end, she had only met him twice.
And this time around, she unintentionally heard the thoughts of his heart. How could she endure the cruelty between her hopes and reality?
She naturally felt sorrow rising in her heart.
“Ai~” Xia Yuan sighed. “Churan’s feelings for you seem genuine.”
He was someone who had seen many things, so he naturally could tell that Zhao Churan’s feelings for Xia Qingchen weren’t simply because he was on the rise.
It was unknown how she had fallen in love, and this love grew increasingly deeper day by day.
Most probably, this was Zhao Churan’s current feelings.
Unknowingly, a sour fruit of love had borne in her heart.
Xia Qingchen was silent. He shook his head lightly.
He had no way to accept Zhao Churan.
The first impression he got when he saw her was already entrenched in his mind. He was unable to change that.
For someone like Zhao Churan, he had no way to like her.
After resting for a night, Xia Qingchen prepared to return to the martial pavilion the next day.
Just when he exited the manor, his father hurriedly came over and passed him a letter. He had a dim expression on his face. “Churan and your aunt took the ship back to the imperial capital last night.”
Most probably, Zhao Churan’s heart had died, right?
Xia Qingchen opened up the letter. There were only three blurry words on it.
The words were blurred by tears, causing the ink to be wet and scrambled.
If one looked at it seriously, one could make out the words ‘I am sorry’. When Xia Qingchen saw this, a complicated feeling appeared in his heart.
These three words indicated the regret Zhao Churan felt in her heart.
If everything could be restarted, she would definitely not slight him during their first meeting.
“Why? Wouldn’t it be better if you loathe and disregard me just like before?” Xia Qingchen sighed.
No matter how sharp a supreme weapon was, it would never be able to hurt someone as badly as the word ‘love’.
“This [Traversing Snow, Flowering Plum], father please send this to her. This can be considered the reward for her warning us at the family dinner.” Xia Qingchen took out the [Traversing Snow, Flowering Plum] that he had written last night.
He could remember that when they had been in the Ghostwail Forest, his female cousin had been very envious that Xia Qilin had managed to obtain the fragmented scroll of [Traversing Snow, Flowering Plum].
Now that he had given the completed version of [Traversing Snow, Flowering Plum] to her, the slate was clean.
He put down the letter and returned to the martial pavilion.
With the authority token in his hand, he headed to the office of the advanced martial tutors and looked for the martial tutor of the A class who was responsible for leading the way this time around, Zheng Fengrui.
“So you are Xia Qingchen? You look like a man of talent.” Zheng Fengrui had long since received Qin Lin’s request to take care of Xia Qingchen.
Xia Qingchen politely replied, “Martial tutor Zheng praises me too much.”
Zheng Fengrui nodded casually. He stood up. “It’s about time we set off. Follow me first and meet with the other students who also want to head there.”
Staring at Xia Qingchen, Zheng Fengrui added, “They are all from the A class, the students at the peak of the martial pavilion!
“Hence, their temper might be bad and they might be prideful or arrogant. Later on, if they say something to you, you have to bear with it and ignore them. Understand?”
Xia Qingchen contemplated a little and felt that most probably, such a scene wouldn’t appear.
Unless they had not been beaten up enough!
Seeing Xia Qingchen remain unmoved, Zheng Fengrui laughed silently.
In truth, he couldn’t be bothered with the unfair treatment Xia Qingchen would receive.
Xia Qingchen wasn’t his student!
“In addition, I also need to remind you a few points.” Zheng Feirui seemed to be smiling.
“Firstly, they are all the future hope of our martial pavilion. So, you have to give in to them. I cannot allow a conflict to happen between you and them. Understand?”
“Secondly, if you are really bullied by them, you must not retaliate. You can just report that to me.”
“Thirdly, when we arrived at the Myriad Longevity Manor, you must definitely not disturb their cultivation.”
Each of his words and sentences was pointing to one meaning.
They were elites while you were a low-class weakling!
Xia Qingchen glanced at this hypocritical martial tutor as he silently shook his head.
Under his lead, Xia Qingchen arrived at the A class.
Before they entered, Zheng Fengrui reminded him once again, “Remember my words, you have to tolerate it no matter how they try to provoke you.”
Xia Qingchen calmly spoke, “As for this, please rest your heart at ease.”
Because that basically would never happen.
At this moment, there were twenty students here. All of them were excitedly discussing the matter of heading to the Myriad Longevity Manor.
“Senior Zhou, this time around, you most probably will break through to the third fold-level of the middle constellation stage, right?”
“That’s right, Senior Sister Zhou is the one with the greatest hope for a breakthrough!”
Zhou Xuelin mumbled some humble words to answer the flattery, but she felt pride in her heart.
For this trip, it was truly only her who had the highest possibility of a breakthrough.
If she truly managed to reach the third fold-level of the middle constellation stage, the first thing she would do would be to look for Xia Qingchen and teach him a lesson!
“Students, be quiet.” Zheng Fengrui walked in, smiling as he clapped his hands, causing everyone to fall silent.
“Before we head out, I want to introduce a new student who will be temporarily joining our class.” Under Zheng Fengrui’s applause, Xia Qingchen entered the A class.
He smiled and introduced, “This is Xia Qingchen, someone from the junior D class. This time, he will be heading to the Myriad Longevity Manor along with us. I hope that you guys won’t bully him…”
Given Zheng Fengrui’s understanding of these students, he was sure they would definitely look down on Xia Qingchen and mock him.
However, a scene which he would never imagine even in his wildest dreams actually appeared.
When Xia Qingchen entered the A class, even before he said anything, all twenty students began to move and crowded over.
“Ah! Teacher, why have you come?”
“Teacher, I apologize. It was my mistake previously, I shouldn’t have snapped and cut you off. I am truly sorry!”
“Teacher Xia, please forgive my ignorance and stupidity!”
“We are sincerely asking teacher to guide us once more!”
“Teacher, I beg you!’
Other than Zhou Xuelin who was stiffly standing far away, the other students all had faces filled with respect as they surrounded Xia Qingchen. Their attitudes were extremely humble.
Even the female students who were usually cold and arrogant now rushed over to Xia Qingchen as they acted coquettishly, asking for his guidance.
Zheng Fengrui was completely stunned, feeling a sense of surrealism.
Were these still students of the A class that he knew?