Chapter 1310 — A Touch of Melancholy

"Xiaohan, you look lovely today!" Feng Xiaoxiao had long since grown familiar with Xu Shilan, and she said so the moment they met.

"You look lovely today too!" Xu Shilan laughed. "Don't just stand there in the doorway — come in, come in!"

The others welcomed Xu Shilan inside, and Feng Xiaoxiao introduced Shen Yushu, Tang Yun, and Gu Mengyao to her one by one. "They're all good friends of mine — besties, that kind of thing!"

Naturally, Feng Xiaoxiao did not mention that Tang Yun was Wei Zhao's girlfriend. This business of a wife and a second wife was not something that needed to be aired before an outsider; for the time being, Tang Yun's identity was simply that of Wei Zhao's good friend. Anything more would have been far too complicated and strange.

Wei Zhao nodded to Xu Shilan and took out a bag of painkillers he had prepared long in advance. "Here, these should last you a while."

"Ah? You hand them to me the moment I arrive — you're not trying to send me packing, are you?" Xu Shilan took the medicine and said it in jest.

"Only afraid I'd forget later." Wei Zhao said flatly. "There's takeout in the kitchen. If you're hungry, go eat. If there's nothing else, you all enjoy yourselves — I'm going back to my room."

Wei Zhao had no wish to join in the merrymaking with Xu Shilan. With a little celebrity like her, he honestly could not think of a single thing to do.

Feng Xiaoxiao and the others could at least gossip, prying into a few of Xu Shilan's private matters — but Wei Zhao had no interest in Xu Shilan's private affairs whatsoever. In his eyes, Xu Shilan was little different from a stranger, and who on earth takes an interest in a stranger's personal business?

Watching Wei Zhao's indifferent manner, Xu Shilan could not help rolling her eyes. Here she felt not the least bit like a celebrity — and yet precisely because of that, she shed her usual guardedness and tension, as though she had come home, able to let herself go body and soul.

She answered nearly every question Gu Mengyao, Tang Yun, and Shen Yushu put to her; after all, there was little for Xu Shilan to hide. Apart from a troublesome headache, none of it amounted to anything serious.

"Xiaohan, do you have a boyfriend?" Even the young mistress had turned a little gossipy — after all, this was the very thing her fans cared about most.

And Xu Shilan's boyfriend was the prime target of the media's digging. Fans had paired her off at random before, but every time it turned out to be a misunderstanding — Xu Shilan had always been single.

Single though she was, plenty of fans refused to believe it. They were certain that Xu Shilan kept an invisible boyfriend behind the scenes, and that no one had simply found him out yet.

"Not yet — hehe, this one's really true, I'm not lying!" Xu Shilan laughed. She had guessed they would ask about this.

"So you're still a virgin?" Shen Yushu's questions had always been blunt.

"Uh... yes..." Xu Shilan flushed red and sighed inwardly: Wei Zhao's friends truly were no ordinary bunch!

"Oh, so you really are the pure jade maiden after all!" Shen Yushu liked Xu Shilan all the more.

Listening to the girls' gossip, Wei Zhao could only shake his head and retreat to his room.

That evening, besides the seafood he had brought back from the restaurant, Wei Zhao cooked several more of his signature dishes. He had said what he said — a pile of seafood was plenty — but Xu Shilan was a guest, after all, and he did not want the young mistress and the others to lose face.

Tasting Wei Zhao's cooking, Xu Shilan clicked her tongue in wonder. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that Wei Zhao could cook — and cook so well that he was more professional than her own housekeeper.

"Your skill in the kitchen is really something. Your friends are lucky," Xu Shilan said admiringly.

"Xiaohan, if you like the food, then come often from now on — you're always welcome here!" Gu Mengyao was the mistress of this villa, and this was the right moment for her to say it.

"I'd love to, Yaoyao, but I won't be in Songshan City many more days — I'll be leaving very soon." Xu Shilan spoke with some regret. "But whenever I'm free, I'll come find you all! It's so happy being with you, no pressure at all!"

"That's wonderful — you must come often from now on!" Shen Yushu said happily.

"Yes, you must come, or I'll die..." Feng Xiaoxiao said pitifully.

"Don't talk like that. Your boyfriend's medical skill is so brilliant — there's bound to be a way!" Xu Shilan said.

"I hope so," Feng Xiaoxiao sighed.

"All right, let's not talk about it. Everyone eat." Wei Zhao did not want to go on with this subject. Just now the mere thought of these matters gave him a headache, and he had no good solution. All he could do was take one step and see.

After dinner, at Shen Yushu's suggestion, they started singing karaoke. The sound system in the young mistress's home was no worse than V's — only the highest-grade electronics had gone into the renovations. So after Xu Shilan adjusted the sound, she found herself quite satisfied.

At first it was Xu Shilan singing for everyone; later they took turns. What surprised Xu Shilan was that all of them had fine voices, no worse than her own — give them a little training and they would have the makings of stars.

Wei Zhao sat on the sofa listening to the girls sing, and felt a warm and cozy feeling. This kind of easeful life was something he would never have dared hope for or imagine in the past. Had he ever pictured days like these, he would not have turned Xiaoning down back then — and that was something Wei Zhao still brooded over to this day.

But what was missed was missed; some things could never go back to the way they were. And now Wei Zhao's relations with the Yu family were tense. Was the Hidden Yu family and the Yu family actually in league? Whatever the case, Wei Zhao knew that as he was now, wanting to marry Xiaoning was utterly impossible.

The Hidden Yu family's threshold was very high, and they had placed great hopes on Xiaoning, raising her as one of their own. How could an ordinary man ever pass muster in the Yu family's eyes? Back then Wei Zhao had been merely a Yellow-rank expert; even now he was only Mystic-rank — and the Yu family was said to have Heaven-rank experts among its ranks.

This too was the root of Wei Zhao's sense of inferiority: he could give Yu Ning no stable life, nor could he contend with the Yu family.

Thinking of these bygone things, Wei Zhao could not help but sigh.

And yet, thinking of his life now — with Tang Yun at his side, and Feng Xiaoxiao, that little bringer of joy — Wei Zhao had no regrets. Whatever became of him, Tang Yun would never leave him nor forsake him; she was the one who would walk through life at his side.

A sorrowful song drew Wei Zhao back from his thoughts. It was a classic old tune, now drifting slowly from Feng Xiaoxiao's lips...

Paired with the faint melancholy in Feng Xiaoxiao's voice, it sent a sudden pang through Wei Zhao's heart...

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