"Sorry!"
Leng Qingsong's throat bobbed as he apologized quietly to Chang Xiaoyue before him.
"Will you blame me?" Chang Xiaoyue tilted her head, ignoring his apology and asking softly instead.
"Blame you?" Leng Qingsong looked at her in bewilderment.
Like a child who had done something wrong, Chang Xiaoyue said, "Actually, it wasn't because I liked you at first. Uncle-Master Hu Yun was using you to help me transcend my tribulation!"
Leng Qingsong shook his head. "No. I knew."
"That's good, then. I didn't get through it anyway, so I don't owe you anything!" Chang Xiaoyue let out a long breath, her eyes curving like crescent moons.
Looking at Chang Xiaoyue, Leng Qingsong remembered visiting the Snake Cave as a child. His elder brother, indignant at not being chosen, had angrily denounced it as an arranged marriage, as feudal dregs.
But thinking about it now, an arranged marriage didn't actually seem like such a bad thing.
"You smiled?"
Chang Xiaoyue looked at the upturned corners of Leng Qingsong's mouth and spoke in delighted surprise.
Leng Qingsong froze. His mouth returned to its usual shape, and he said sullenly, "No!"
"Hehehe, you look pretty good when you smile! Why don't you smile more often?" Watching Leng Qingsong deny what he felt, Chang Xiaoyue laughed like a little hen.
Embarrassed and annoyed, Leng Qingsong reached out to cover her mouth, only to find that his hand passed straight through her cheek.
Looking at his dazed expression, Chang Xiaoyue couldn't help laughing and calling him a fool.
"Sorry!" Impotent rage did not apply to Leng Qingsong. A loss was a loss. He had lost Chang Xiaoyue's life, and his own as well.
He had lost to his own arrogance, to his blind confidence in himself, to his belief that the sword in his