Ban Lan was taken aback: "Huh? Going back?"
Cen Ji smiled faintly: "Seven out of ten of Su Qiao's words are false."
Ban Lan said with a bitter face, "There are still three points left..."
Cen Ji's eyes were unfathomable. "Let's leave it to fate."
*******
Ban Lan finally understood that Cen Ji was definitely not someone who relied on fate.
He wouldn't do something he wasn't sure of. His intuition, the instincts an assassin should have, was far more reliable to him than fate.
Su Qiao's words could not be trusted, and the two did not encounter a second trap along the way.
Ban Lan found herself beginning to admire Cen Ji.
She always reveals a side of herself that she rarely shows to people she admires. For example, right now she is tightly holding onto Cen Ji's arm.
"Cen Qi, how do you know Su Qiao is lying?"
Cen Ji's expression was extremely strange. The arm that Ban Lan was holding seemed to be necrotic, hanging stiffly to one side, making Cen Ji look extremely unnatural.
“If Su Qiao truly intended to kill, then there was absolutely no need for him to show himself,” Cen Ji said.
Ban Lan said, "If I don't kill you, do you expect him to ride a donkey out to enjoy the scenery?"
Cen Ji said, "Whether he appreciates the scenery or not, I don't know. All I know is that we seem to have fallen into a trap set by someone else."
After a long silence, Cen Ji felt a little strange and looked down at Ban Lan.
Ban Lan hugged Cen Ji's arm, grinning and trying to suppress the trembling caused by her laughter. She looked just like a little monkey who had successfully stolen a bite of food.
Cen Ji asked, "What are you laughing at?"
When Ban Lan looked up, she saw Cen Ji staring straight at her, so she stopped trying to hide her joy and beamed with happiness: "Haha, I'm so happy."
Cen Ji asked, puzzled, "What's so great about being schemed against by others?"
Ban Lan said, "It's certainly not nice to be schemed against, but it's different when 'we' are schemed against together."
Cen Ji was momentarily lost in thought as he watched her crescent-shaped eyes crinkle with laughter.
This girl is so happy even when she's being schemed against.
Together...together?!
Cen Ji suddenly understood the meaning behind Ban Lan's words and wanted to immediately extinguish her boundless reverie, but when the words reached his lips, he could only weakly open his mouth and not utter a single word.
Cen Ji was somewhat irritable.
He understood that as a bodyguard and an assassin, one must be decisive and ruthless when faced with a clear objective. Wen Moyin was his objective; whether it was to save her or to love her, she was Cen Ji's sole goal.
Cen Ji clenched his fist: "Ban Lan."
"Huh?" Ban Lan smiled and looked up.
Cen Ji pursed his lips, and after a long while, he said, "I... I could never like you."
Ban Lan paused, then suddenly understood what Cen Ji meant.
She was still smiling, but in Cen Ji's eyes, the smile seemed to have been corroded by the wind for millions of years, barely perceptible and blurry.
“I know,” she said after a long silence.
Knowing is good. The rest of the words remained a silent reply in Cenji's heart.
Ban Lan lowered her head. She felt a slight ache in her face from that smile, so she slowly, with great difficulty, faded it away.
*******
After finding a small town, Cen Ji bought a horse and found a doctor to treat Ban Lan's foot injury. At Ban Lan's insistence, the two did not linger in the town and headed directly towards Baiqi Mountain.
About four or five days later, the two finally arrived at the foot of Baiqi Mountain.
Ban Lan was somewhat annoyed. The two rode around the foot of the mountain for two whole days, but couldn't find the entrance to Crane Feather Palace at all.
"Zhai Huan wouldn't lie, would he?" Ban Lan had always had some reservations about Zhai Huan.
Cen Ji shook his head and denied it, saying, "No. There are rules in the underworld."
Ban Lan snorted and said sarcastically, "I retired from the martial world at the age of ten and have never asked about matters of the Tao since."
When she was ten years old, Wei Li picked her up from the street and brought her back to Kongshanling, ending her days of fighting with the beggars. This was what she called "retiring from the martial world." However, Cen Ji was certainly unaware of this, so he took it all as a joke.
Upon hearing this, Cen Ji simply said, "You are not allowed to call yourself 'Laozi'."
Ban Lan said, "It's none of your business."
Cen Ji said, "You'll never get married if you keep going like this."
Cen Ji regretted it as soon as he finished speaking. He glanced at Ban Lan out of the corner of his eye and saw that she looked calm and composed, which reassured him a little.
"Is being unable to get married the greatest shame for a woman?" After a long silence, Ban Lan turned around and asked slowly.
Cen Ji didn't know how to answer.
He thought about it and realized that the most important thing for a woman in her life is to find a good man and get married. But if she really can't get married, wouldn't that be a disgrace?