Chapter 911 — I Do!

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 Yun'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 Yun; 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 Yun 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 Yun 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 Yun 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 Yun cared about him.

"Misunderstand?" Tang Yun 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 Yun 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 Yun's cheeks. "How about... once our new house is renovated, you move in?"

"Heh heh..." Wei Zhao looked at the bashful Tang Yun, and his heart stirred. For the rather conservative Tang Yun 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 Yun'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 Yun 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 Yun was strong — surely not this fragile?

"I don't want you? Why wouldn't I want you?" Tang Yun 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 Yun 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 Yun was so exasperated that she dragged her mother out for comparison — though Mother Tang did indeed give her no end of trouble...

"Heh..." Wei Zhao sighed. He had to tell her the worst possibilities. She was a girl from the big city, after all; who knew whether she could endure the dreariness of the countryside? "It's a remote place. No skyscrapers, none of the city's bustle. There isn't even a bus line. Most families have no telephone — if they want to reach one another they mostly just shout. The houses are ramshackle, there's no heating in winter, you burn wood yourself, no modern bathrooms, only public latrines... You're a girl. Could you bear such hardship?"

"Of course I could! Don't forget, my family used to live in a single-story house in the shantytown. We burned our own fires in winter too, and we had no private bathroom either — just a public one! Everything you describe suits me perfectly, as if it were made to measure!" In her excitement Tang Yun's words came out all in a jumble, for she had finally found something in which she surpassed the young mistress!

"Heh heh... But if I never recover my strength, you'd have to spend your whole life with me in that little mountain village in my hometown. Do you really want that?" Wei Zhao was moved by her words — truly moved...

"I do!" Tang Yun nodded firmly. She cared nothing for whether Wei Zhao had strength, and nothing for whether he had money; she cared only for Wei Zhao himself.

"Good. Then I'll go back first. You finish high school here, and university too, and then you can come find me. Think of it as time to settle your own heart — I hope it isn't just a moment's impulse." Wei Zhao spoke sensibly.

"It isn't an impulse." Tang Yun shook her head. "Everything I said is true. But I do need to settle things with my parents... If I'm to marry into a remote mountain region, I owe them some reassurance... You're not just putting me off, are you? Not going to abandon me once you're gone?"

By now Tang Yun had gradually regained her composure, and she watched Wei Zhao, trying to see whether he was deceiving her — soothing her first and then slipping away.

"Heh..." Wei Zhao suddenly produced a small box and set it before Tang Yun. "No. I thought this over for a long time before I said any of this to you... This is for you."

Tang Yun was slightly stunned, and then an irrepressible surge of excitement rose in her. She had not yet opened the box, but she had seen scenes like this in television dramas — surely it wasn't a wedding ring inside?

Tang Yun took the box and opened it with trembling hands. Under the light of the private room the diamond blazed, dazzling bright, making her squint. It was a diamond ring after all! Tang Yun was overwhelmed; in that moment she was so happy, as though her path of love had at last borne fruit. She felt like the happiest girl in the world...

Fastest updates. For ad-free reading, please visit the site.