Chapter 53 (1/2)

“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.