Chapter 1120 — Valentine's Day Special: Xiao Ning's Story, Part 5

"Shall we talk a little?" Xiao Ning hesitated a moment, then at last ventured the question.

"About what?" Wei Zhao opened his eyes.

To tell the truth, Xiao Ning was genuinely the sort of girl to make one's heart stir. In all these years, apart from Xiao Qi, she was the first woman Wei Zhao had ever been alone with. Yet he and Xiao Qi had both been far too young back then, so much so that the memory had grown hazy and faded almost entirely from his mind.

Still, Wei Zhao was a man of iron principle. Xiao Ning was his employer, and Wei Zhao would not let their relationship overstep so much as half a step beyond its proper bounds - that was not in keeping with the way he had always conducted himself.

"You must have had all sorts of interesting adventures. Would you tell me some?" Wei Zhao's sharp vigilance and decisive way of handling matters had filled Xiao Ning with a deep curiosity. She thought: he must be a man with a story behind him. Though he looked to be about her own age, his life was surely anything but ordinary.

"No." Wei Zhao declined her question in a perfectly flat voice.

Xiao Ning was somewhat vexed. How could a man be so blind to a gentle hint? Watching Wei Zhao close his eyes once more, she rose to her feet in exasperation. She would go out for a stroll on her own; staring at that poker face of Wei Zhao's was altogether too dreary!

"Don't go far." Wei Zhao did not open his eyes, yet he spoke to Xiao Ning all the same.

"Hmph!" Xiao Ning gave a hmph by way of answer, and ran out of the cave.

Wei Zhao did not stop her either. There was no danger nearby, and the militants were unlikely to have found their way here, so he simply let her go. With Xiao Ning gone, Wei Zhao actually breathed a sigh of relief!

With a beauty at his side, it was impossible for a raw novice like Wei Zhao not to be flustered. Though he did his utmost to compose himself, the effect was slight. A fair and graceful maiden is the gentleman's true delight - and at this moment Wei Zhao's state of mind had not yet grown as steady as it would be two years hence. In the end, he too was an ordinary man.

Wei Zhao sat with his eyes shut in cultivation also to keep himself from too much contact with Xiao Ning. In the wilderness, a lone man and a lone woman - this was the very situation most likely to strike sparks. Though Wei Zhao longed for something to happen, his reason held him fast.

Besides, Wei Zhao had thought it through very clearly: she was the one calling the shots in these negotiations, a little princess of a great clan, while he was no more than an attendant bodyguard. Could anything really happen between a bodyguard and a princess? Was that realistic?

Xiao Ning ran out of the cave, but did not go far. She did not want to make trouble for Wei Zhao, and simply busied herself building a snowman near the cave mouth!

The Yu family was a mysterious clan. The secret of its unbroken prosperity and its position as leader of the hidden great families lay in certain matters no outsider ever knew. Xiao Ning was the family's inheritor - the one who had received the transmission of its strength after the Yu family's patriarch passed away.

This was also the reason she could not cultivate: her bloodline had been born for the sake of inheritance!

According to the patriarch's dying instructions, Xiao Ning had to begin the trial of her life once she was past the age of sixteen; only by passing the trial could she receive the inheritance. And no skilled family protectors could be assigned to her side during the trial, or it would defeat the purpose entirely!

Of course, all of this was top secret within the Yu family, and Xiao Ning knew nothing of it. All she knew was that her bloodline was unsuited to cultivation, and that the family had sent her out in order to temper her, to make her into someone who would amount to something!

Not every member of the Yu family had to cultivate. A clan as vast as the Yu family also needed someone at the helm, and Xiao Ning's grandfather had let slip more than once that he wanted her to take over the family business in the years to come. So Xiao Ning assumed that this present tempering was nothing more than preparation for managing the Yu family all the better in the days ahead!

Of course, one who was not a cultivator could not become head of the Yu family either; such a person would merely be responsible for managing the family's worldly affairs - in truth little different from a chief steward, a rank standing below that of the head of the family!

What Xiao Ning did not know was that her family's expectations of her were simply beyond measure. She was the hope of this generation of the Yu family; if she could successfully receive the Yu patriarch's inheritance, then the Yu family would rise, and become an existence surpassing even the hidden great families, even the ancient sects!

But this was no more than a legend, and the Yu family could not be certain the inheritance would succeed. Still, the Yu patriarch would surely not have deceived his own people; in any case, to have hope was always a good thing!

Though the Yu family was not an ancient sect, in his youth the Yu patriarch had discovered an ancient ruin, and within it had - by pure chance - inherited the martial arts of that ancient sect. Certain flaws, however, caused him to suffer qi deviation, and his strength was gravely diminished. Even so, the Yu family became the leader of the hidden great families!

Later, though, through his research into and deciphering of the ancient ruin, the Yu patriarch discovered the reason for his qi deviation: he had inherited the martial arts of two people. These were the skills of the ruin's two guardians, skills meant to complement each other - yet one was water and the other was fire. They could not both be inherited by and cultivated within a single person, or qi deviation was certain to follow. Most crucially of all, both of those guardians were female, while the Yu patriarch was male!

By the time the Yu patriarch discovered this, it was already too late. What he had counted on was this: after his death, by means of the secret method mentioned in the ancient ruin, he would transmit this martial skill into a great-granddaughter not yet born into the world!

Xiao Ning was having the time of her life in the snow. After building a snowman, she wrote the two large digits "01" upon its body, then painted the snowman's face into that of a playing card. Having done all this, she finally could not hold herself back and burst out laughing!

Xiao Ning's silvery laughter pulled Wei Zhao back to reality. He frowned; the sound of it left him somewhat unsettled. At his age, his resistance to girls was wretchedly poor. Wei Zhao did not want to think about Xiao Ning, yet her face rose unbidden in his mind...

He opened his eyes and frowned, affecting annoyance as he spoke: "What are you laughing at?"

"Haha - come and see!" A little smug, Xiao Ning pointed at her masterpiece and winked at Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao rose and walked out of the cave. Catching sight of the snowman Xiao Ning had built, he could not help but smile. He had never expected her to produce such a snowman - and it was actually rather true to life!

"Not bad," Wei Zhao said coolly.

"Of course it's not bad! I'm Genius Ning, and this is a masterpiece by Genius Ning!" Having won Wei Zhao's approval, Xiao Ning was very happy.

Yet having said those words, Wei Zhao turned and went back into the cave. In the depths of his heart, Wei Zhao felt toward Xiao Ning a certain wariness and resistance. He warned himself that he must not get too close to her; otherwise, should anything ever happen, the old man would certainly never let him off!