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"What was you doing alone, A-Yang? I thought you'll be with Wei-Gongzi." Lan XiChen questioned

"Where troubles always seem to follow him around all the times? No thanks." Wei WuHui huffed.

After checking on the maiden's conditions when the dog beasts flee, the pair are now wandering through the forest with no destinations in mind.

Lan XiChen chuckled, covering his smile with his sleeve. "You also attract some troubling situations."

Wei WuHui glared at him before wordlessly taking a puff from her smoking pipe.

Lan XiChen watched as the maiden exhaled the smoke with his brows furrowed. "A-Yang, why...why did you start smoking?"

Wei WuHui froze when that sudden question was asked, she shakily breathed as she looked away from the concerned gaze of Lan XiChen's. "I don't know. I just felt like it, I guess."

Lan XiChen, knowing that was not the actual reason, reluctantly not to push any further as he noticed the maiden's shaky hands and without hesitation, reached forward to clasped his hand together with her's.

This jolted Wei WuHui back as she glanced down at their joined hands. A bright red blush appeared on her face as she couldn't help feel the same fluttering feelings that popped up whenever Lan XiChen is here with her.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me." Lan XiChen reassured, giving her a warm smile.

The maiden didn't respond but instead squeezed his hand as his warmth comforted her.

"...do you know Gege have a crush on Lan WangJi?"

This sudden question startled Lan XiChen as he spluttered a bit. "Pardon?"

Wei WuHui raised a brow as she turned to him. "Really? You haven't seen the way both our brothers give looks to each other?" She asked.

Lan XiChen stared at the maiden in surprise before he thought back all the moments when his brother and Wei WuXian would be together. He thought it was a forming friendship between Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian but now that he thought about it, he could have been mistaken.

"You're...not bothered by that?" Lan XiChen asked hestiantly.

"By what? Gege and Lan WangJi being potential cutsleeves? No, it doesn't." Wei WuHui replied as she gave a small shrug. "As long as Lan WangJi does not hurt him, then Gege can love anyone he wants."

Lan XiChen's eyes widened at the heartfelt tone that was in the maiden's voice before he found himself smiling fondly.

Suddenly, he heard a gasp before he felt himself being pulled behind one of the bushes.

"Wha-?"

"Shush!" Wei WuHui gestured the young sect leader to be quiet before pointing to a certain direction.

Following her gesture, Lan XiChen then saw two figures, one in white and the other in purple, walking from below the clouds. He then recognised them being Jin ZiXuan and Jiang YanLi.

"Damn it. I knew Madam Jin would tell Shijie and that peacock Jin to come out here alone." Wei WuHui hissed beneath her breath.

Lan XiChen tilted his head in confusion. "What happened between you and Jin ZiXuan?" He asked.

Wei WuHui huffed. "If I was to give you an answer, it would be a long one."

Madam Yu and Jin ZiXuan's mother, Madam Jin, used to be the closest of friends. The paid had promised each other a long time ago that if each of them gave births to sons, then they will become sworn brothers; if they gave births to daughters, then they will become husband and wife.

Both mistresses of the two sects have a close friendship and they came from good backgrounds. A marriage would be like a match made in heaven. However, the two involved thought otherwise.

Jin ZiXuan was blessed by the gods with striking goods and impressive skills, and was admired by almost everyone he had met. There were a time when he was brought to Lotus Pier a few times. During the time when he stayed, neither Wei WuXian or Jiang Cheng liked or wanted to play with him. Jiang YanLi did tried to feed him the food she and Wei WuHui had made for him. Despite that, Jin ZiXuan did not paid much attention to her, which angered the Wei twins and Jiang Cheng.

Back then, when they were studying in the Cloud Recesses, the argument between Jin ZiXuan and the Wei twins stirred up trouble in the Cloud Recesses and consequently broke the martial engagement off between the Jiang and Jin Sects. Wei WuHui remembered when she and her brother returned home to the Lotus Pier, they apologised to Jiang YanLi. The only thing the Jiang maiden did was smile and stroked their heads.

Therefore, Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng both thought that the situation was resolved as ending the engagement would leave everyone satisfied. But, Wei WuHui knew that through all of this, her martial sister must've been feeling dejected inside.

Then, the most recent confrontation back when the Sunshot Campaign was still active, when Jin ZiXuan mistakenly accused Jiang YanLi and Wei WuHui lost her patience with the young Jin Sect Heir.

Wei WuHui shook her head, eventually coming back to reality as Lan XiChen turned to look at her curiously. Wei WuHui gestured that she explain to him later and put her pointer finger to her lip, shushing him before turning her attention back to Jiang YanLi and Jin ZiXuan.

Not noticing the dazed look in the soft-honey brown eyes that lingered on her plump lip before catching himself as he shook the thoughts away.

———

Jin ZiXuan brushed the bushes away to revealed the still corpse of a snake yao as he bent down for a closer look. "It's dead."

Jiang YanLi nodded wordlessly.

"The Measuring Snake." Jin ZiXuan added.

"What?" Jiang YanLi asked.

"A beast from the Nanman area. It's only that when it sees someone, it'll suddenly straighten itself and compare who's the taller one. If it's taller, it'll devour the person. It's not a big great. It only looks scary." Jin ZiXuan explained.

Jiang YanLi looked like she was questioning on why the young master in front of her was explaining things out of nowhere, but she nodded anyway.

Wei WuHui scowled as she assumed that her martial sister has been nodding throughout the time that they were together.

Afterward, there are only the awkward silence that followed after them before Jin ZiXuan decided to take Jiang YanLi into the direction that they came from. "Scales can be seen on this Measuring Snake, and its fangs are longer than its jaw so it was probably a mutant. Most would find it hard to deal with it and wouldn't be able to shoot through the armour of scales either." He continued on with his explanation.

"But it's not much anyways. The preys in this hunt aren't going to be too much of difficulty. They can't hurt the Lanling Jin people at all." Jin ZiXuan stated and suddenly, the sense of pride began to rose once again.

Wei WuHui deadpanned at that while Lan XiChen blinked owlishly at the prideful act before him.

"It's best if hunts doesn't hurt anyone." Jiang YanLi responded.

"What value are preys who doesn't hurt anyone? You'll be able to see many rare monsters if you go to Lanling Jin Sect's private hunting ground." Jin ZiXuan suggested.

'Who even want to visit your sect's hunting ground?' Wei WuHui scoffed.

"I happened to have time next month. I can take you there." Jin ZiXuan offered without hesitation.

"Jin-Gongzi, thank you for the kind offer, but there's no need for such troubles." Jiang YanLi replied softly.

Jin ZiXuan looked surprised at her answer. "Why not?"

Feeling uneasy at what she should answer to that question, Jiang YanLi just lowered her head.

"You don't like to watch the hunts?" Jin ZiXuan asked.

Jiang YanLi nodded.

"Then why did you come this time?" Jin ZiXuan continued.

Jiang YanLi stayed silent.

Jin ZiXuan's complexion switched between white and red as he saw how silent Jiang YanLi has become. "Do you not like watching hunts or is it that you don't want to be with me?" He managed to let out.

"No..." Jiang YanLi whispered out.

Jin ZiXuan could only laughed in disbelief. Not only was he refused by a maiden, but been refused twice when he invited her. He just felt ashamed. "Fine then."

"I'm sorry." Jiang YanLi said softly.

Jin ZiXuan scoffed. "What should you be sorry for? You can think whatever you want. I wasn't the one who invited you out here anyway so it's fine if you don't want to."

Hearing that, Jiang YanLi's lip trembed but said nothing. She then saluted to Jin ZiXuan and muttered a small, "please excuse me." Before turning around as she made her leave, alone.

Jin ZiXuan stood still, quiet as he stared in the other direction but after a few moments, he then turned to look back. "Stop!"

Jiang YanLi didn't listened, which enraged him even further as the young master caught up to her in just three steps and was about to grab her hand when suddenly, a shadow appeared in between him and her in a flaah and then a strong blow was striked to his chest.

Jin ZiXuan unsheathed his sword and backed away. But, when he realised who has interfered, his face went red. "Wei WuHui! Why is it you again?!"

Wei WuHui scowled as she went to stand in front of Jiang YanLi protectively. "Right fucking back at you - why is it you again?!"

"Attacking because of nothing, have you gone mad?!" Jin ZiXuan raged.

Wei WuHui went to strike with her palm. "Nothing? That's exactly what I'm doing! What are you doing? Trying to grab my shijie just because you felt ashamed?!"

Jin ZiXuan dodged to the side and immediately went in with a sword attack as rage overcome him. "If I don't grab her, should I just let her walk randomly around the mountain alone?!"

But before the sword make any type of contact with the maiden, the sword glare was suddenly hit to the side by another similar glare. Realising the newcomer, Jin ZiXuan exclaimed with shock. "ZeWu-Jun?"

Lan XiChen stood in between the trio with Shuòyuè unsheathed.

Wei WuHui was about to stepped forward when Jiang YanLi grabbed her hand. "A-Hui!"

Around the same time, series of scattered footsteps began to draw closer as a massive crowd began to swarmed in.

"What happened?!" The person in front exclaimed.

Apparently, the glares coming from Lan XiChen's and Jin ZiXuan's swords that waa shot into the sky, startled the cultivators near them. Immediately, assuming that two people had engaged into a fight which is the reason why they all rushed over to see what had occurred.

And the person who just shouted was non other than Jin ZiXun. "ZiXuan, is Wei WuHui making trouble for you?"

"None of your business, don't worry about it!" Jin ZiXuan replied but as he saw Wei WuHui grabbing Jiang YanLi's hand and about to take her away. "Stop!"

"You really want to fight with me? Fine then, let's go!" Wei WuHui shouted.

"Mèimei!" And just in time, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi came rushing in as he immediately came to his sister's side. Lan XiChen's eyes widened slightly when he caught sights of both his brother's and Wei WuXian's lips being swollen and red as he came to the only conclusion.

"Xiongzhang." Lan WangJi greeted, coming to his older brother's side. Which Lan XiChen returned with a smile.

"Wei WuHui, just what do you mean by going against ZiXuan?" Jin ZiXun asked.

Wei WuHui only gave him an up and down glance. "Who even are you?"

This caused the male to paused in surprise. "You don't know who I am?" He fumed.

Wei WuHui raised a brow. "Should I need to know who you are?"

When the Sunshot Campaign was decided, Jin ZiXun was mainly fighting in the back due to an injury so he didn't get to see how Wei WuHui was like in the frontlines. Therefore, most of his knowledge came from exaggerated rumours that circled around said maiden.

A while ago, before the confrontation, all the dark creatures in the forest were called away by Wei WuHui with a single whistle, which incidentally called away thw fierce corpses that were about to be captured by Jin ZiXun's group. He was already displeased.

And this displeasure increases as Wei WuHui said it to his face that she did not recognised him at all. And right in front of everyone who has gathered here, making him to lose more face.

A third group of people then descended from the sky as they leapt off from their swords and landed on the ground swiftly. Leading this group was a middle-aged woman with orthodox features and edges carrying a hint of rigidity.

"Aunt!"

"A-Niang!"

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(Please correct my translation if I'm wrong and the GIFs and pictures used in this chapter does not belong to me, but their rightful owners)