Chapter 5031 — Flowers Are Innocent

After all, between a man and a woman it always comes down to that one thing. Faced with a beauty like the little ice queen, the most natural excuse for a strange man to hover about her and seek her out was to court her. Otherwise she would suspect him of ulterior motives, grow all the more guarded, and it would be that much harder to draw anything out of her.

And where the origins of those Heavenly Dao experts were concerned, if he remained a mere casual acquaintance, the little ice queen might never breathe a word of it. Only once she became one of his own would he truly have a chance at the fullest truth.

Yet for all that, and for all that Wei Zhao had a great many fair confidantes, he had never actually done the chasing. From the day he came down the mountain, the only woman he had ever truly pursued of his own accord was Tang Yun, and even that had been half-hearted. The rest had all come about naturally, like water finding its channel; he had not worn himself out winning a single one of them.

Wei Zhao freely admitted he had neither experience nor gift in such matters, but to get to the bottom of this earth-shaking affair there seemed no better choice before him, and he would simply have to grit his teeth and make an exception.

He had his own purpose in it, true, but fortunately the little ice queen was a beauty, cold and aloof and holding the world at arm's length. Hard as she was to approach, she had a peculiar, itch-inducing charm. Even if he were turned away again and again in the courting, at least the sight of her was easy on the eyes and would not grow tiresome.

"Then it is decided." Wei Zhao smiled as he resolved himself. He had nothing to do these days but restore his strength anyway, and restoring one's strength could not be done by bitter training alone. There had to be tension and release, or one only defeated one's own purpose. And since the two of them happened to live across the hall from each other, idle time was idle time.

And so Wei Zhao grew more attentive than ever. Before, to keep her from growing suspicious, he had gone to great lengths to manufacture chance encounters. Now that his courtship was out in the open, he could skip even that and simply come to her door to press his attentions.

Early the next morning, Wei Zhao went and knocked on the door across the hall again. When one knock brought no answer he knocked a second time, and a third. His hide was thick enough for it.

At last the tall woman opened the door. She looked at the flowers in his hand with a strange expression and asked in surprise, "What are you doing?"

"They're for you." Wei Zhao was rather puzzled in turn. A man giving flowers to his beloved—was that not a required step? A matter of course, however clichéd, and utterly indispensable.

That was what the art of courtship said: sending flowers did not mean you would win her heart, but if you did not send them, you had no hope in this life at all.

Yet at his words the tall woman only looked more bewildered. "What are you giving me these for? Is this breakfast too? Do you people actually eat flowers?"

True, flowers were grass, and if people could eat grass, then naturally they could eat flowers—but that was far too strange. Besides, she had been in the mortal world for days now and had never once seen anyone eat flowers in public.

Wei Zhao was struck speechless. This conversation was utterly at cross purposes. Who in the world took flowers for breakfast?

But he caught on quickly enough. If the girl was not of the mortal world, it was no wonder she was unfamiliar with such things. On Cloud Terrace Isle at least, no one gave flowers. The more refined suitors gave pills and elixirs, the more direct ones gave spirit jade; Wei Zhao had truly never seen anyone give flowers in public.

Fresh flowers, after all, were merely pretty and had not a shred of practical value. Giving flowers was probably a custom unique to the mortal world. The cultivation world had always gone by whatever was most practical; there, the very word romance was defined altogether differently from the mortal realm.

At that thought Wei Zhao smiled and said, "As the saying goes, flowers for a beauty. The fairest flowers should naturally go to the fairest person."

Truth be told, if not for the need to win over the little ice queen quickly and get to the bottom of things, Wei Zhao could never have brought himself to say anything so sappy. These were all golden words from the art of courtship he had looked up online the night before, and he had memorized them word for word.

The tall woman took the flowers in a daze. Wei Zhao was just about to praise the art of courtship for living up to its name when she turned and tossed them into the trash bin in the corner of the stairwell, saying coldly, "How absurd. I have no need of them."

"Uh..." Wei Zhao thought for a moment. The art of courtship had an answer for this situation too, with follow-up lines prepared, and he recited from memory, "Why must you be like this? Flowers are innocent."

"Flowers are innocent?" The tall woman was taken aback again, then said, "What has innocence to do with it? A flower has no life. It is not even worth as much as any common herb. You really are a strange one!"

"No, no. From the standpoint of modern biology, plants are alive just as animals are. That is to say, flowers have life just as we humans do," Wei Zhao corrected her.

"Modern biology? What is that?" The tall woman was all the more astonished, and looked at Wei Zhao as though he were a madman. To say that flowers were the same as humans—was there something wrong with this fellow's head?

"Uh..." Only then did Wei Zhao realize he had done something foolish. In his days of utter boredom he had once tried to discuss scientific questions with his long-suffering senior brother and the other natives of Cloud Terrace Isle, and the result had been the two sides arguing ten days and ten nights with no hope of ever convincing each other. Their worldview, bred in them since childhood, was simply different; such things could not be explained in a moment.

And the little ice queen's upbringing, even if not on Cloud Terrace Isle, was probably not far removed from it. To discuss modern biology with her was to play the lute to a cow.

Fine. A whole night spent memorizing the art of courtship, all for nothing. She simply did not take to it.

Wei Zhao felt as though he were back on Cloud Terrace Isle. Speak to them of the mortal world and they simply did not understand—and not only did they not understand, some of their logic ran flat contrary to it. If he truly kept insisting on every point, nothing would ever get done; he might as well prepare to argue until the end of time.

Seeing Wei Zhao choked into silence, the tall woman said, "I told you last night. You need not waste your efforts on me. I am not like you. It is impossible for us to be together, so stop pressing your attentions on me. I have said all there is to say. Take care of yourself."

With that, Wei Zhao was unsurprisingly turned away again. He had grown used to it these past days, and it did not much surprise him.

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