Chapter 198: Chapter 196: Are You Stupid Because of Me?_1
After returning to the hotel, Fang Ren once again began to cultivate, and little Qianye climbed atop his head from the Spiritual Root, circulating True Qi to protect him while he cultivated.
Perhaps the words he had spoken on the road earlier could cause Bai Qi to misunderstand, but even if it was a misunderstanding, it would be resolved in two days, and besides, that girl didn't like him at all.
Let her misunderstand if she will.
Meanwhile, in the neighboring room which he was unaware of, Bai Qi was lying on the bed clutching a pillow, her arms buried within it, leaving only her bright, sparkling eyes staring blankly at the wall.
"Liar... Even though I tell you everything, you still hid the Alchemy from me..."
Bai Qi hit the pillow in her arms with her hand, her expression looking a bit wronged as she frowned and murmured to herself unceasingly.
"Are you even my fiancé anymore? Such a scheming man... I'm so angry..."
"And another thing, can't confessions be straightforward? Why all this beating around the bush, making me go in circles until I finally understand... Hmph!"
...
As Bai Qi grumbled on and on, the more she thought, the angrier she got. Yes, she felt it was all the fault of that guy in the next room—he had deceived her, and she, Bai Qi, was completely right about everything!
It was his fault for her wild fantasies; if he hadn't said those words, would she have come up with such thoughts?
After rambling to herself for a while, Bai Qi suddenly sat up on the bed, clutching the pillow and pouting, again beginning to think of everything she did towards Fang Ren yesterday.
She didn't understand what kind of feelings those were exactly. She refused to admit it was liking him, but if not that, then what?
She immediately coaxed him when he was upset because of her; there was no need for her to care about him at all.
It was unnecessary for her to take it seriously if he saw other women, like Fang Ren had said yesterday. If he met with other women, wasn't that something she should be happy to see? That way, she could pursue Song Mobei with a clear conscience, couldn't she?
Why did she still get angry? Because he didn't tell her? Because he deceived her?
She had no reason to get upset over someone she didn't care about...
As these thoughts swirled in her head, she recalled the words her grandfather had once told her—"The affection developed between two people is what truly counts. You like Song Mobei only because he is dazzling, but that's just a favorable impression... It's merely a superficial phenomenon and not the love you truly seek for happiness..."
"Aaaaah! What on earth is this feeling?!"
The more Bai Qi thought, the more confused she became, furiously pounding the pillow in her embrace. "Everyone likes to preach such grand principles! How would I know what love is! I've never been in a relationship! Of course, if I have a good impression of someone, I'll like them... What's wrong with that..."
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Around noon, Fang Ren stopped his cultivation.
This was not because it was mealtime, but because he had successfully stabilized his Realm from the entrance of the Xianyun Realm to the early stages of the Xianyun Realm.
Rising from the bed, he felt an entirely different strength within his body.
Fang Ren couldn't help but feel somewhat emotional inside. About two months prior, he was just an ordinary person without the qualifications for Cultivation, yet in the blink of an eye, he had become a Cultivator capable of surpassing some of the Aristocrat Cultivation students from Tianjiang.
Thinking back on it was rather dreamlike.
After finishing the cultivation session, little Qianye was feeling rather energetic and instead of returning to the Spiritual Root, he decided to burrow into Fang Ren's pocket.
Fang Ren checked the time and saw it was indeed mealtime, the right time to take the girl next door out for food.
Knock knock knock—
Before he could open the door, he heard a knocking from outside.
"How much longer are you planning to cultivate?"
Bai Qi's somewhat dissatisfied voice reached him through the door: "Students from other schools have already gone out to eat, and you haven't taken me to eat."
Fang Ren, ashamed and sweating, opened the door to find Bai Qi standing at the doorstep with a troubled look on her face, one hand resting on her belly, clearly hungry.
"I just finished up and you're already knocking on the door. Come on, I'll take you to get some tasty food," Fang Ren quickly grabbed his room key and closed the door as he spoke.
Bai Qi looked at him reproachfully and said, "It's all your fault."
"Huh? What's wrong, why are you blaming me all of a sudden?" Fang Ren was taken aback.
"If you hadn't left suddenly with that girl yesterday, I wouldn't have overeaten and stretched my stomach. If my stomach hadn't stretched, I wouldn't have gotten hungry so soon, and I wouldn't have come back to knock on your door. So, no matter how you look at it, it's your fault," Bai Qi analyzed the situation with him earnestly.
"Alright, alright," Fang Ren said, his head throbbing, fearing that this girl's thought process was veering into abnormal territory again, he hurriedly appeased her: "What do you want to eat? Let's go get it."
"I don't know, but I certainly don't want to go back to that place we ate yesterday. I'm sick of it."
Fang Ren's face was the picture of helplessness; it would be strange if she wasn't sick of eating that much.
Descending the elevator with Bai Qi, Fang Ren noticed the fragrance of her shampoo, realizing that she had just washed her hair not long ago.
Then, Fang Ren took her to a snack bar to sit down. Initially, he wanted to take Bai Qi somewhere nicer to eat since in the few days she worked at school, she hadn't had much to eat other than steamed buns.
However, since all the students were dispersing after exams, the surrounding high-end restaurants were packed with aristocrats, and he did not want to show his face in front of these aristocratic students.
After all, showing up would inevitably result in the same old pretentious act, so he brought Bai Qi to this snack bar, a place beneath the notice of aristocrats.
For the average aristocrat, places like this street stall were considered junk food, but Bai Qi seemed to really like it, eating a lot of stir-fried cold noodles, gnawing on two pancake burritos, and a plate of iron-grilled squid.
Seeing her unpretentious way of eating, Fang Ren couldn't help but remember the first time he took Mu Huanqing to the campus entrance to eat cold skin noodles. Madame Xuan, a person of high status, also liked to eat snacks like these.
With this in mind, Fang Ren couldn't help but wonder if the highest-ranking aristocrats had reached a "mountain is still a mountain" level of understanding when it came to food?
"You're eating so much. Doesn't it make you feel overfull?" Fang Ren said, watching Bai Qi across from him, avidly munching on the pancake burrito, "Don't forget that you can't use True Qi to digest now."
Bai Qi gave him a disdainful look and replied seriously: "Only when I'm full can I stop thinking about you—this pig!"
Fang Ren gave a wry smile. It seemed that what he had said to this girl on the way after the Alchemy ended was still troubling her now.
"Don't overthink it," Fang Ren said. "I was just saying something offhand. It might not have anything to do with you."
Bai Qi gave him another disdainful look and stopped talking to him.
"Young Master!"
Just then, at the doorway of the snack bar, five elders led by Lin Bozhong suddenly burst in.
Fang Ren turned around, and his whole person froze; why did all these elders have such odd expressions on their faces?
Bai Qi also turned around to look and immediately lowered her baseball cap over her head, whispering, "You quickly distract them! I can't be exposed!"
Fang Ren froze again, staring blankly at Bai Qi. The girl was truly naive at heart—any of these elderly men could hear every single word spoken silently in a corner of the snack bar, and yet this girl...
"Your Highness!"
Before Bai Qi could leave the table, the elders called out all at once.
Bai Qi was stunned, the pancake in her mouth forgotten; only then did she realize they could hear her voice.
She stared blankly at Fang Ren: "Why didn't you remind me..."
"You're the fool, yet you blame me?" Fang Ren felt helpless.
"It's over, these old men will surely come over and give me an earful..."
"And you're still talking..."