Chapter 1931 — I Believe You!

We're here? Already? Wang Xinyan could scarcely believe it. How long had Wei Zhao carried her on his back—and they had actually arrived?

"You're awake?" Wei Zhao had known she had dozed off, and the moment she came to, he noticed at once.

"Mm... I'm sorry. I was so tired I nodded off without meaning to..." she said, a little apologetically.

"What is there to be sorry for..." Wei Zhao said with a smile. "It was only natural. We rest up tonight, and tomorrow we can push on properly."

He set Wang Xinyan down, pulled the little flag from the ground and stowed it in his pack, then set to work pitching the light tent...

In a business van at the foot of the mountain, Chen Yutian and several other soldiers were staring fixedly at a computer screen. When Chen Yutian saw the GPS in Wei Zhao's hand come to rest on the flag's coordinates, he knew they had reached the target.

At the sight, Chen Yutian let out a breath of relief. Wei Zhao had fallen well behind You Panhu and the others, but he had a girl with him; and over the last ten kilometers his pace had been remarkably quick, which led Chen Yutian to guess that Wei Zhao must be carrying Wang Xinyan.

"Wei Zhao, let me help you with that—you eat something. Carrying me all that way must have worn you out," Wang Xinyan said, seeing him assembling the tent.

"No need. You eat first. You've never put one of these up; follow the diagram step by step and it takes forever." As he spoke, his hands moved briskly over the tent parts.

Wang Xinyan blinked. He isn't even looking at the diagram? But a closer look confirmed it: the instructions lay folded at his side, never opened, never once consulted.

"You've assembled one of these before?" she asked, surprised.

"Mm. Military field tents like this all go together the same way. I used to put them up all the time..." Wei Zhao sighed, as though he had fallen back into those years of fire and smoke—every night camping with his teammates, raising tents. In those days Pangolin had been the most eager of them all; the boy's one great love was sleep...

At the thought of Pangolin, Wei Zhao's heart sank. To this day he had not found the man who killed him. The Yu family in the secular world had been wiped out by his own hand, but they had been accomplices only, not the masterminds. The masterminds were that organization called Red Conch. He had killed two of its important figures, but that was nowhere near enough. His aim was to exterminate the whole clan, to grind the organization to dust—only then would the hatred in his heart be eased.

Then he thought of Ying Ziyu, and wondered how she was doing. According to Uncle Qing, she and Chen Xi had both tested into First High School on their own merit—Chen Xi's score had cleared the line for a free-tuition student, while Ying Ziyu's had barely reached the threshold for a fee-paying one; but with Uncle Qing there, she had not had to pay a cent.

Back then the Gu Group had not yet fallen into trouble, and Uncle Qing still had the absolute right to speak. Even after the An family took over, they could hardly chase down so trifling a matter—nor would they have had the time.

On this trip back, Wei Zhao meant to look in on Ying Ziyu and see how she was getting on. He cared a good deal about the girl, and for no other reason than that she was Pangolin's sister.

"Before?" Wang Xinyan found it odd. "You pitched these before?"

"Ha... before..." Wei Zhao smiled bitterly, and yet, for reasons he could not name, he did not hide it from her. "Before, my life and yours were two different worlds..."

Perhaps it was his trust in Wang Xinyan; perhaps it was that at his present strength he no longer needed to hide anything. The enemies of old, measured against the height Wei Zhao had reached, hardly deserved the name anymore. He was not afraid of their revenge.

In those days Wei Zhao had been a Yellow Rank fighter, and he had feared old enemies would come knocking. Now he was Earth Rank, and the foes he faced counted Mystic Rank as their floor. Concealment had lost its meaning.

"Ah?" Wang Xinyan was taken aback. "You mean before you came to Songshan City?"

"More or less. That time I met you on the train—that was really the start of my blending into this city." Wei Zhao nodded.

Wang Xinyan did not ask what he had done before. Everyone has secrets, and she did not want to put him on the spot. "Let's eat a little, then rest."

"Ha, all right." Wei Zhao fitted the last piece into place; the tent was finished.

The two of them sat in front of it and, under the moonlight, opened a packet of compressed biscuits. Hungry as she was, Wang Xinyan did not eat much, which puzzled Wei Zhao. "Eat a bit more?"

"I..." Her face reddened slightly. "It's not convenient to—to use the toilet out here. I don't dare eat much..."

"Ha, this is deep mountain forest—anywhere will do," Wei Zhao said with a laugh. "It's fine. Eat up; we've a long walk tomorrow."

Urged though she was, Wang Xinyan still ate sparingly, though she drank a fair amount of the bottled water. They had brought plenty; perhaps she meant to lighten Wei Zhao's load, and water would fill her stomach besides.

"I'm full. Let's rest." Wang Xinyan drew a deep breath. "The air here is so good!"

"It is. No din of the city, no exhaust. If we weren't pressed for time, this would make a fine place for a holiday," Wei Zhao said.

"You go in. I'll be fine out here." Wei Zhao did not enter the tent.

"It's all right... in the barracks before, didn't we sleep side by side..." Wang Xinyan could see he felt it awkward, and so she spoke.

"There were so many people then. Now it's only the two of us..." In truth Wei Zhao feared she would be embarrassed; he had not expected her to be the more forthright of them.

"I believe you..." At that, Wang Xinyan lowered her head and said no more. That she should be the one inviting a boy to sleep beside her—the Wang Xinyan of before would have found it unthinkable. Yet now it came as naturally as anything.

"All right." Wei Zhao hesitated a moment, then nodded, without any pretense of reluctance.

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