Chapter 726 - 499: No Fate

Chapter 726: Chapter 499: No Fate

They left as soon as they said they would, without the slightest reluctance. Very soon, the entire marquisate was left with only Jiang Yu and Zhou Ying as its two masters.

Still, over these past few months, Zhou Ying had gotten to know quite a few madams and young ladies, and with Madam Liu to visit as well, she didn’t feel lonely.

Besides, last year when she came to the Capital City, she’d brought her own dowry maids and the like. All the estates and shops the emperor had previously rewarded the marquisate with were now being managed entirely by her.

If nothing unexpected happened, those things would belong to the two of them as husband and wife, so bored? That definitely wasn’t a thing.

On top of that, this time in the palace examination, Jiang Yu had gotten an extremely, extremely good result; among all the young scholars, he stood out as exceptional.

Those who hadn’t paid much attention to Jiang Yu before now began, through this exam, to take notice of the marquisate’s eldest son who had voluntarily given up his right to inherit the title.

Including the emperor, who at the beginning had singled out Jiang Hu and Jiang Wei to be summoned into the palace, leaving him aside.

At this time, the rest of the Jiang family had already boarded the ship they’d long since prepared, quickly putting distance between themselves and the Capital City—this prosperous yet suffocating place.

Xiaomi also let out a breath of relief, leaning against the ship’s railing, letting the cool river breeze blow over her. She didn’t feel cold; she just felt clear-headed and refreshed, as if she’d finally come back to life.

"Big Brother is too amazing, isn’t he? Never showed anything, never flaunted it, and he just went and brought back the top scholar."

The top scholar, the one personally chosen by His Majesty—every year tens of thousands of scholars take the exams, round after round, and it takes years before one appears.

And before this, none of them had ever thought about such a thing.

"Big Brother has grand ambitions; naturally he wouldn’t slack off."

Besides, the Jiang family has no foundation at all. What Big Brother is doing now is working hard to plant some roots for the Jiangs in the Capital City and in the court.

The several brothers weren’t particularly keen on promotions and titles, but Big Brother wasn’t like them.

What’s more, Big Brother was thinking further ahead; just because they didn’t like it didn’t mean the Jiang family’s younger generations would always be content with an ordinary life.

Big Brother’s efforts now were also to leave their nephews more possibilities and choices.

But there was no need to say all this out loud.

Wei Ziang was holding an umbrella, standing at Xiaomi’s side.

Today there was a light rain, and with the snow and ice melting, it was a bit cold, but this bit of chill didn’t seem to mean much to the two of them.

These past few years, they had both been diligently cultivating their Swordsmanship. Although the progress was slow, they had never slacked off.

Even though they hadn’t improved much in technique, the Spiritual Power within their bodies had been slowly increasing, and as their Spiritual Power grew, their constitutions improved as well; they were no longer so afraid of the cold.

Xiaomi turned around, leaning her back against the railing. She tilted her head slightly and looked at Wei Ziang: "Little Brother, what about you? You just gave up everything and left like this—won’t you regret it?"

With Wei Ziang’s abilities, if he stayed in the Capital City, his prospects would be in no way worse than Big Brother’s, but he hadn’t stayed.

Wei Ziang took one of Xiaomi’s hands and said with a smile, "What’s there to regret? Back then, when I impulsively ran off to the border, I was originally thinking of earning some official rank, so our family could hold its head up a bit."

"Who knew that just as I left, you went and brought a noble title home for the family? If I’d known, I wouldn’t have gone in the first place—those few years were wasted for nothing."

Wei Ziang’s hand was large and warm, able to completely envelop Xiaomi’s slender palm and shield her from all the cold.

Xiaomi was a bit unused to it, but she didn’t pull away.

These past few months, the two of them had felt a bit like they were in a relationship. She’d never thought about it before, but now she was slowly getting used to some of Wei Ziang’s affectionate gestures.

Maybe it was because she’d been single too many years, or maybe because she’d always watched Wei Ziang grow up with an adult’s mindset.

Even though she called him Little Brother and knew he was two years older than she was, her mentality still couldn’t quite adjust in such a short time.

Especially since Wei Ziang was still so young—two months shy of twenty—and he looked even more like a handsome youth, his face still very tender.

The feeling of an old cow eating tender grass was practically slapping her in the face.

As for the fact that she herself was only eighteen, she completely ignored it.

Precisely because of this, aside from their initial moment of impulse, the two of them had discussed it afterward and agreed to take things slowly, to ease into it. They decided that once Xiaomi felt the time was right, it still wouldn’t be too late for them to get married.

Feeling the warmth from that other big hand, Xiaomi suddenly had a hazy realization—turns out, Little Brother really wasn’t a child anymore.

Their tightly clasped hands swayed in front of her eyes; Xiaomi came back to herself. Wei Ziang said helplessly, "Spacing out again? Are you actually not happy about leaving the Capital City?"

Xiaomi shrugged. "How could that be? Oh right, Little Brother, did you know about something? Sister Yingying told me that when she and Mother went to a certain madam’s house for tea, they heard someone say you looked familiar."

Wei Ziang raised a brow and drew her back toward the cabin. "I know. Quite a few people have said that. When I was working at the Ministry of War, I heard a few people mention it too."

Xiaomi was curious. "You never asked, or tried to look into why?"

"What’s there to look into? There are plenty of people who look alike. I can’t start asking every time I hear it, ’Who do I look like?’ can I?"

"Haven’t you ever thought that you might actually be the person Sister Yingying mentioned before—that little young master from the Wei Duke’s manor?"

When she’d first heard Sister Yingying describe that little young master, they’d already guessed it was eight or nine parts likely to be Wei Ziang.

What’s more, Wei Ziang had found the safety amulets Zhou Ying had once given them very familiar, and even had a faint bit of memory of them.

"So what if I am? So what if I’m not?"

Wei Ziang stopped and, smiling, rubbed the top of Xiaomi’s head. "Xiaomi, you need to understand, I don’t have any memories from before. I only remember you all, and my own name."

"I stayed in the Capital City for half a year this time, and for the past few years in Lishi City, I’d never changed my name. You should know that that Wei Duke, Marshal Wei, is at West Origin Pass, not far from Lishi City, right?"

Xiaomi stared blankly and nodded. That was true, but what did it have to do with what she’d said?

Wei Ziang smiled gently. "See? Even so, no one ever noticed that there was anything unusual about my name. Those who thought I looked familiar never made the connection about who I resembled. So tell me, whether I’m that lost little young master from the duke’s manor—does it really matter?"

Xiaomi was stunned. It did kind of seem... that this was the case.

"Come on, don’t think about those things. Even if I really am that little young master, it only means that I have some fate with the Wei family but no bond. Why overthink it?"

His memories began the first moment he saw Xiaomi. His life had also been saved by Xiaomi.

He didn’t know what had happened before that, and he had no intention of finding out.

When he’d heard that information from his sister-in-law, he had indeed guessed a few things, but he’d decided to leave it all up to fate.

Clearly, he and the Wei Duke’s manor didn’t seem to share much of a bond.