Chapter 1116 — Valentine's Day Special: Xiao Ning's Story, Part 1: Today Is February 14th, the Traditional Western Valentine's Day

Goose-feather snow drifted down from the sky in careless abundance, and everything under heaven lay in a single sheet of white.

In countries and cities the world over, the mood was for the most part festive and peaceful; couples strolled arm in arm through the shops along the pedestrian streets, sweet and inseparable.

But there was one place that was the exception: the borderland of a small European country, where the temperature had already fallen to thirty-eight degrees below zero.

Here there was no clamor, no bustle. The silent frontier was buried under white snow, and the air was thick with danger everywhere.

Wei Zhao scraped a few mud balls out of the fire before him and tossed them to the girl at his side. "Eat," he said flatly.

The mud balls still gave off heat as they came out, but they cooled quickly enough.

The girl's nimble fingers broke the mud ball open; inside was a roasted sparrow. The clay shell had pulled away every last feather, and a smell of primitive roast meat rose from it, enough to make anyone's mouth water.

The girl held the bird meat up to Wei Zhao's lips and said cheerfully, "Open up — ah —"

"Not hungry." Wei Zhao frowned and declined her kindness, then rose to his feet. "Wait here for me. I'll go find some more branches — this little fire won't last the night."

"Don't go, I'm scared!" Seeing that Wei Zhao meant to leave, the girl hurriedly called him back.

Wei Zhao paid her no mind, turned, and went out of the cave.

"Eagle, wait for me — I'll come help you too." The girl set down the bird meat and ran out of the cave after Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao's steps faltered for a moment; he only glanced at the girl and did not stop her.

In winter the earth was covered in white snow, and the dead branches were all hidden beneath it, hard to find. But Wei Zhao had no intention of gathering dead branches; instead he picked out a tree, leaped up into it, and began snapping branches off from above.

The girl stood to one side watching Wei Zhao, unable to help in the least. She stamped her foot, a little self-pitying.

If not for her own stubbornness and willfulness, the two of them would never have been separated from the group.

Wei Zhao broke off some branches, and when he judged he had enough, he sprang down from the tree, found a fairly pliant vine, and bound the branches on the ground together.

"Shall I... help you?" Watching Wei Zhao busy himself, the girl felt even more guilty.

"No need," Wei Zhao said without expression. He quickly finished tying the bundle and slung it over his back.

The girl felt utterly useless. She had wanted to help, and yet she had helped with nothing at all.

"Eagle, I'm sorry... I really didn't know that doing that would cause trouble..." Over the past few days, apart from building fires and roasting birds, Wei Zhao had not spoken a single unnecessary word to the girl, which made her think he was angry.

"Oh..." Wei Zhao answered flatly and started walking toward the cave.

"Hey, I've already apologized to you — why are you still ignoring me?" The girl was growing anxious.

The girl's identity was that of a representative of a great family in the country. She had come here this time to negotiate a partnership with a local tycoon; in truth, it was nothing more than a trial arranged for the family's younger generation.

Originally, there was no risk at all in this operation. Wei Zhao had been invited by Feng Tianlong to take part in the mission.

The mission was not an official one, but because the family behind the girl was enormously powerful, Feng Tianlong had naturally invited Wei Zhao, an outsider, to take charge of the operation.

But who could have guessed that after the negotiations ended, the group would decide to take in the frontier scenery — and that was when the trouble began!

At the border they came upon several pitiful children in rags, looking like refugees. The girl told the people with her to give them some clothes and food. Wei Zhao had objected to this at the time, but the girl said he had no compassion.

Wei Zhao wanted to say something, but in the end did not.

He was merely an escort, while all the others were the girl's own trusted retainers; naturally, in matters of detail, the girl had the final say.

These people could not flatter the girl fast enough — why would they listen to an outsider like Wei Zhao?

So they opened the luggage and rummaged through nearly everything, digging out food and clothing, terrified of displeasing the girl.

Wei Zhao frowned and in the end still said nothing. Wealth should not be displayed — that was the most basic of rules — but these flattering retainers were simply brainless.

The children took the clothes and food and left happily.

But before long, the unexpected happened. A large armed force came surging toward them! The children who had received the girl's charity not only showed no gratitude — they brought the armed force to which their parents belonged, and it began a large-scale plundering of the girl's party.

Though there were capable fighters among the group, before a large band of armed men carrying guns they seemed rather insignificant.

The armed force's ultimate aim was to detain the girl's party and seize the valuables they carried.

Under the armed force's assault, many of the retainers, who had no ability to resist, surrendered outright, and the few skilled hands from the girl's family were no match for guns and cannon either.

But Wei Zhao did not care in the least whether these people lived or died, and he had no obligation to protect the things they had brought with them.

To put it plainly, Wei Zhao had been sent by Feng Tianlong merely as a precaution, and when Wei Zhao came, Feng Tianlong had made it very clear: he was responsible only for the girl's safety.

So if anything happened to the girl, Wei Zhao would have a hard time answering for it; as for the others, if they wanted to die, let them. Wei Zhao had always been that sort.

Still, these armed men were clearly interested only in the valuables the girl's party had brought; they had no wish to kill and silence witnesses. After knocking the retainers unconscious or wounding them, they did no further harm.

Seeing this, Wei Zhao could not help but breathe a sigh of relief — though he still stood in front of the girl, ready to respond to any emergency at any moment.

"Please, could you stop? We can hand over all our valuables to you — please don't hurt our people!" Seeing the situation, the girl felt somewhat to blame and somewhat nervous, and she raised her voice to stop them.

Wei Zhao frowned, wanting to stop the girl, but her words had already drawn the armed men's attention.

"Grab that girl!" When the armed men saw the girl — they had not noticed her during the earlier plundering — she was the only woman in the party, and among armed forces where women were exceedingly rare, seeing a woman was like a starving wolf sighting prey. The leader of the armed men caught sight of the girl's looks and immediately began scheming.

This was exactly why Wei Zhao had wanted to stop the girl! These armed men might not kill, but that did not mean they would not snatch a woman the moment they saw one. Their restraint from large-scale killing was only because they did not want to provoke the local regime into a full-scale war against them; if the local regime truly resolved to fight these armed forces to the death, then their own lives would become very difficult.