Faraway Wanderers Novel (English Translation)

Equilibrium

Chapter 62.

Once she uttered these words, the few of them were briefly taken aback. Zhou Zishu sat up slightly straighter, but did not pursue any line of questioning, as though he was turning something over in his mind while he waited for Gao Xiaolian to vent her emotions. He frowned.

Wen Kexing eyed him, and with a very natural gesture, placed a xiaolongbao in the bowl in front of Zhou Zishu with his chopsticks. Glimpsing this out of the corner of her eye, Gu Xiang hastily lowered her head, and pretended not to have seen it out of propriety. A while later, she stealthily raised her head again, her gaze roaming between the two men. She thought about it, felt that the situation was uneven, and placed one in Cao Weining's bowl too.

Cao Weining was instantly overwhelmed with delight by the favour he was shown.

On the other hand, Zhang Chengling was the only one who commiserated with Gao Xiaolian. He could not bear to see her cry, but as he was inarticulate, he did not know what to say. He could only carefully accompany her in her grief, and after a while, finally came up with something to say, “Miss...Miss Gao, don’t be sad, my dad’s dead too…”

Zhang Chengling bit his lip, silently reprimanding himself. It was nonsensical for him to say something like this--just because his own dad had died, did that mean someone else’s dad deserved to die? He started to panic a little. However, Gao Xiaolian, knowing that he meant well, did not take it to heart. She squeezed out a smile for him in thanks.

At this moment, Cao Weining spoke up, “I heard that a while ago, Hero Gao personally escorted Hero Shen’s remains back to Shuzhong. Afterwards...did something happen then?”

Gao Xiaolian reached up to wipe her eyes clean of tears and lowered her gaze, her expression settling--while this girl had been sensible since they first met her, she was, after all, a young lady from a wealthy family. Even when she left the house, she had her shixiongs to protect her, and she carried a hint of inexperienced naivete. Yet, in the short span of a few months, she had gone through too much and seemed to have become another person entirely. Her voice still quivered, but her emotions were already reined in.  

She spoke softly, “Back then, Daddy said he wanted to send Uncle Shen off on a last journey with the other heroes. At first, he agreed to take Deng-shixiong and I along, but he suddenly changed his mind the day before we set off, and made me stay behind. I...at that point in time, I thought he was going back on his word, and had a fight with him, but Daddy was adamant about not bringing me along. He even said...even said a lot of things that didn’t sound nice, things like how the current situation was tense, that we might run into much trouble on the way, that the Ghosts from the Valley are still lurking about outside, and I would slow down their journey…”

A teardrop slid down her cheek. Zhou Zishu said gently, “Your father must have been concerned about something that was inconvenient for him to voice, and made you stay behind out of consideration for your safety.”

Gao Xiaolian nodded. “But I…”

Zhou Zishu said, “As long as you are safe and sound, you are preserving his bloodline on this earth, and have not let your father’s efforts go to waste.”

Gao Xiaolian bit her lip. A long while later, she continued, “I was unwilling to accept it, and planned to follow them sneakily after they left. But who knew that Daddy...Daddy sent people to keep me under surveillance, and left with shixiong. I sulked for half a month, before the shixiongs and shidis guarding me released me, and said that this was also an arrangement Daddy had made. They wanted to escort me to a place to meet up with them. At that time...I felt that something was amiss.”