532 At First Sigh

Tang Thirty-Six was covered all over in snow, his face pale, the black bagsaround his eyes extremely heavy, and he looked haggard to the extreme. In thesepast two days, in order to find out Chen Changsheng's secret, he had racked hisbrains for ideas and skipped eating and sleeping. Indeed, after painstakingeffort, even using two magical artifacts of the Wenshui Tangs, he was finallyable to conceal the Qi from his body and catch Chen Changsheng in the act. "Hahahaha!" The forest echoed with his laughter. Then, he walked up to ChenChangsheng, his laughter instantly vanishing as he furiously criticized, "Isn'tthis going a bit too far, forgetting your friends when you're in love? For whatreason do you need to badmouth me, to contrast it with your lofty purity? Justa moment ago in the snow, I heard you mention my name quite a few times, butnot a single word of it was good! "Eh, this umbrella is rather strange." Tang Thirty-Six's gaze moved down fromthe umbrella and fell upon the couple. Feeling proud of himself again, heheartily laughed then said, "The matter of the engagement hasn't even beencleared up yet, and you're actually in the mood to walk under an umbrellathrough the snow! I'll have you know, that Phoenix is quite proud. If she wereto know that you found a girl, then…" He was just preparing to threaten Chen Changsheng into signing a series ofunfair agreements when his gaze fell on the girl under the umbrella, causinghim to subconsciously pause. For some inexplicable reason, he found this girlquite familiar, even though he had clearly never seen her before. The snowy forest became abnormally quiet. The more Tang Thirty-Six stared atthis girl, the graver his expression became. This girl was about fifteen, precisely in the period where her beauty wasbudding. Her face was delicate and pretty, but nothing out of the ordinary. Thejacket she was wrapped in seemed very ordinary, but it was actually made of themost expensive thirteen-thread cotton. Her two eyebrows were as slender aswillow leaves, and it was obvious that the most extravagant orange jasmine hadbeen used to draw her eyebrows. And if he wasn't wrong, even that hairpincasually stuck in her hair was more expensive than all the clothes and shoesChen Changsheng had worn throughout his entire life added together. Of course,what drew his attention the most was still that girl's eyes. Even after beingteased, they were still so calm, definitely not the eyes of some ordinaryperson. He had planned to joke about Chen Changsheng's taste, but now he realized thatthere was actually nothing to complain about with regards to this girl's tasteor temperament. Of course, this girl's taste and temperament, as well as that wealth beyondwords hidden within the fine details, could only have been picked out by ayoung heir to a noble family like him who also possessed wealth beyond words. No matter what, a young Daoist from the countryside like Chen Changsheng wouldnever be able to see these details. This is what was meant to cast pearlsbefore swine, to aim a fluid glance at a blind man. Just who was this girl? Tang Thirty-Six thought through all hisdistantly-related older cousins as well as the young ladies of all the noblehouses of the continent, but he failed to find an answer. He was suddenlyovertaken by a fierce sense of unease and wariness. He didn't know where ChenChangsheng had gotten to know such a noblewoman, but he was worried that ChenChangsheng was being deceived. Tang Thirty-Six looked at her cold expression and asked, "Might I dare ask forthe young lady's…hic!" But before he could finish, he was interrupted by a sudden hiccup. He looked at the girl, his face a picture of absolute shock. His hand held hisstomach like he was choking. He thought about how, in the pile of snow, he hadheard the cry of a crane, and he had also heard Chen Changsheng explain whathad happened that night. Thus, he thought of a possibility, a possibility thathe had rejected last night with a mocking tone and an attitude of absolutecertainty. "You…" He looked at her, his mouth agape, for a long time unable to say therest of the sentence. He was forced to turn to Chen Changsheng and ask, "Her?" Chen Changsheng nodded. Tang Thirty-Six's body went stiff. He turned once more to Xu Yourong, his eyesfilled with shock. At this time, Chen Changsheng was also truly astounded. It was completelybeyond his imagination that this fellow, in order to find out his secrets,would exert such massive efforts. He was somewhat concerned about Xu Yourong's mood, so he looked at her andexplained, "This guy…" "Tang Tang, you can also…hic…call me Tang Thirty-Six." Outside of expectations, Tang Thirty-Six was very quickly able to calm backdown. He very naturally introduced himself to Xu Yourong, it was just that hepaused in the middle. This was because he was still choking somewhat, and the sound in the middlewas a hiccup. Xu Yourong knew that this young master of the Wenshui Tang clan was ChenChangsheng's best friend, the current superintendent of the Orthodox Academy,and also…the new owner of Clear Lake Restaurant. Tang Thirty-Six solemnly said, "I have seen the Holy Maiden." Xu Yourong softly replied, "No need for such courtesy." Tang Thirty-Six answered, "It is said that when the Holy Maiden lived in thecapital, she enjoyed eating the blue lobster of Clear Lake Restaurant?" Xu Yourong calmly gazed at him, a smile in her eyes as if she had guessed atwhat was about to happen. Just as expected, Tang Thirty-Six next said, "In a little while, I'll sendsomeone…hic…to send blue lobster to the Divine General's estate. Once YourEminence returns to Holy Maiden Peak, I'll have…hic…Clear Lake…hic…Restaurantdirectly ship it to you by sea. All four seasons of the year, I'll…hic …guarantee it." Xu Yourong replied, "This will trouble Young Master Tang." Tang Thirty-Six waved his hand. "We're all part of…hic…the same family, noneed for such…hic…courtesy." His appearance was very natural, free and at ease, his heroism soaring to theclouds, yet his hiccups never ceased throughout his talk. In truth, this was also a feat worthy of admiration. He was constantlyhiccupping yet still managed to so calmly conclude this conversation. On the side, Chen Changsheng watched and thought, I guess this is the benefitof having a thick skin? Xu Yourong said, "Let's chat again in the future." Tang Thirty-Six withdrew his smile and said, "Whenever the Holy Maidenpleases." Chen Changsheng raised up the umbrella to cover Xu Yourong's head, then thetwo began walking to some other place in the forest. As he passed Tang Thirty-Six, the two exchanged glances containing countlessquestions and wariness. "Don't speak of this matter to anyone else." "Relax, who am I?" As Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong walked several dozen zhang through thefalling snow, Tang Thirty-Six still stood where he was, smiling and waving hishands. He maintained the posture of saying goodbye: the curve of his smile andthe range in which he waved his hand were all perfect, perfectly displaying thecourtesy and accumulated experience of a young master of a noble clan. Xu Yourong whispered, "This friend of yours is a truly wondrous (妙) person." Chen Changsheng thought, where did this word come from? Is it the ‘wondrous’  (妙) from ‘unfathomably mysterious’ (莫名其妙)? Only when Tang Thirty-Six watched their two figures disappear into the forestand could no longer see them did he finally relax. With some difficulty, he walked over to a tree, stuck out his hands to supporthimself on it, then began to hiccup without end with a much higher frequencythan when he was talking. After this period, he finally truly calmed down and his shocked emotionsfinally truly began to settle. He let out a strange shout and hugged the tree, then began to complain aboutChen Changsheng and himself. It was just at this moment that Xuanyuan Po finished his morning practice andwalked out from the depths of the forest. He just so happened to see the crazyscene of Tang Thirty-Six hugging the tree and couldn't help but be surprised. "Don't you normally tell me that hitting trees is particularly childish? Whyare you also working with trees today?" Tang Thirty-Six continued to hug the tree, unwilling to let go. He sobbed,"I've already acted so shamelessly today; what's another shameless act on topof it?" In truth, Chen Changsheng had never understood what the name 'Xu Yourong'meant to the young men of the world. Although Tang Thirty-Six, because of theengagement and his friendship with Chen Changsheng, did not adore Xu Youronglike the vast majority of the young men in the world, such as the Demon Lord'sson, she was still Xu Yourong! And then what had he done? Like a little urchin, he had buried himself underthe snow to eavesdrop on their conversation and then said bad things about herbehind her back. This morning, he didn't have time to wash his face or evenbrush his teeth, and the bags under his eyes were so heavy…he had never felt soashamed in his life and he wished he could nothing more than hug this tree forthe rest of his life. Suddenly, Tang Thirty-Six turned around and looked at Xuanyuan Po, saying,"They just met for the first time yesterday, so how can they be walking aroundtoday with each other? Moreover, looking at their appearance, although theydeliberately kept a hand's width of distance between them, this sort ofdeliberation is a problem in itself!" As he spoke, he stuck out his right hand in a fist and compared it withXuanyuan Po. Afterwards, he sneered, "What a fine couple, purposely acting calmso that they could conceal it from my insight? Who am I? How could I not seethat passionate and illicit appearance of theirs!" Xuanyuan Po had simply no idea what was going on and found him quite strange."You've gone crazy!" Ordinarily, upon hearing such an honest assessment, Tang Thirty-Six wouldabsolutely not have taken it lying down, but now, his mind was completelyoccupied with that just-departed couple. Looking at Xuanyuan Po, he veryseriously asked, "Do you believe in love at first sight?" Xuanyuan Po replied, "In the tribe, after the first meeting, we usually getmarried. Does that count?" Tang Thirty-Six was almost at a loss for words. He asked back, "Do you thinkit counts?" Xuanyuan Po contemplated the question very seriously, finally saying withoutmuch confidence, "I think…it should count?"