Chapter 5045 — Who Says I Can't Even Hold Her Hand?

Wei Zhao watched her with growing puzzlement. It was only a bit of shopping—was there really any need for such excitement?

This state of hers lasted a full half hour. It was not until the two of them stepped into a clothing shop along the street and her attention was drawn to the racks of fashionable new styles that she finally began to settle back to normal. Any longer, and her heart might well have leapt straight out of her chest.

Wei Zhao found it a little odd, but he did not dwell on it. Only one thought occupied his mind now: who on earth had ever decided to pair women with shopping in the first place?

However adorable a girl might be, the moment she began to shop she turned into a monster of inexhaustible stamina. Keeping them company on a shopping spree was enough to wear a man to death, and even a top-tier expert in the Giant Head realm would have nothing left but to be bored to death by sheer exhaustion!

Once Leng Leng got into her stride, she shopped the entire afternoon away. Even Wei Zhao cried out that he could not take it, and had it not been for his wish to settle their relationship as quickly as possible and get to the bottom of those Heavenly Dao experts, he would likely have fled long ago...

At long last, evening drew near, and Leng Leng finally called a halt to her shopping. Glancing at Wei Zhao, who stood beside her nearly flattened beneath a mountain of bags, she said, "I didn't mean to let you buy so much at the drop of a hat. I really am sorry."

"It's... it's nothing. As long as you're happy." Wei Zhao managed a rather strained smile.

"Then let's head back for today. What a pity Xima City is so small—we've covered the whole place in a single afternoon. Otherwise I could have shopped another evening away." Even now, Leng Leng was still rather reluctant to stop.

"Uh..." Wei Zhao broke out in a cold sweat on the spot. Thank heavens this was only little Xima City. Had it been a major city like Donghai, the girl could probably have shopped days and nights on end—with her early Foundation Establishment strength, that would have been no trouble at all—and then the joke would truly have been on him. He breathed a silent prayer of thanks.

Seeing how she still had not had her fill, Wei Zhao feared she might change her mind and want to walk the whole round a second time. He hurriedly said, "We can always go shopping again another time. It's getting late—we'd better head back now, or we'll likely miss the last bus."

"How about we just walk back instead? Are you tired?" Leng Leng suggested. After that murderous crush of a morning, she truly did not want to ride the bus a second time—especially now, in the evening rush hour; she had seen several buses go by packed to the brim, hardly any better than the morning.

"Not tired. Not tired at all." Wei Zhao perked up. Though he had looked and felt utterly spent while trailing her through the shops, on the verge of collapsing, it was really all in his head. With his strength, an afternoon of shopping—even several days of it—would have been easy and pleasant.

"Then let's go." Leng Leng nodded. If Wei Zhao was not tired, then she, an expert of early Foundation Establishment, was naturally not tired either. Such a short distance was nothing to her—so long as they did not have to squeeze onto a bus.

The two made their way back, and before long they passed a broad river. A question or two told them it was the Nanma River, the largest in the Nanma City area. The sun was just then setting in the west, and its lingering glow spilled across the rippling water, making it seem especially gentle and serene.

"The scenery here is lovely. We're in no hurry to get back anyway—how about we sit for a while?" Wei Zhao suggested.

"All right." Leng Leng agreed at once with a nod. The view really did give one an oddly warm and cozy feeling—any normal person would want to linger and enjoy it.

Greenery lined both banks of the river, and many stone stools and benches had been set out, making the place like an open-air park. The two found a bench nearby and sat down, quietly soaking in the afterglow of the setting sun.

Before long, however, the mood between them began to shift—not because of anything they themselves had done, but because all the people seated around them were young men and women in pairs, many of them even openly canoodling in public as though no one else were there. This was not merely an open-air park; it was a veritable Mecca for lovers.

"How can they do that?" Leng Leng's face went red at once. Such public intimacy was simply unimaginable in the ancient little jianghu—far too indecent for words. She felt embarrassed even to look.

"It's perfectly normal. The ancients said that love should arise from feeling and stop at propriety, but people's ideas are different in this age. A little intimacy between young couples does no harm. These days displays of affection are everywhere—no one bats an eye," Wei Zhao said with a smile.

"But this is going too far. Where we come from, holding hands at most is the limit—that's as far as it goes," Leng Leng said, her face still flushed.

"So have you ever held hands with anyone?" Wei Zhao asked suddenly.

"N... no." Leng Leng shook her head, a little embarrassed. With her cold, keep-away temperament, those second-generation cultivators who pursued her could never even dream of touching her, let alone holding her hand. To her, that was a matter of great significance—like accepting a personal token, a symbol of pledged love.

Wei Zhao could not help laughing at this. The girl was impossibly innocent—so cautious that she would not even hold hands.

As they were talking, they suddenly heard a young couple not far away discussing the two of them. Though the pair kept their voices low, how could Wei Zhao or Leng Leng—with hearing far beyond ordinary folk—fail to catch every word?

"Darling, look at those two—they can't be here for a blind date, can they? Sitting so far apart?" the woman whispered.

"Doesn't look like it. See all those big and small bags beside the man? Looks like clothes they just bought. Who buys all that for someone on a first blind date?" the man said dismissively.

"That's true. Then he must be courting her—but he's a real fool. He bought all that and still couldn't even hold her hand. What a loss!" The woman giggled.

"Exactly. Who courts a girl like that these days? Clumsy and clueless. Compared with how I courted you back then, this guy is an absolute pig," the man said smugly.

"And you still bring it up! Even now, the things you've bought me don't come close to what he's bought her—and yet I gave you my whole self, while he hasn't even held her hand. Poor man," the woman pouted.

Before the woman had even finished speaking, Wei Zhao suddenly turned his head and said loudly, "Who says I can't even hold her hand?"

With that, Wei Zhao seized Leng Leng's hand in his and deliberately raised it toward the couple.

Listening to the pair, Leng Leng had been somewhat annoyed, but she never imagined Wei Zhao would suddenly do such a thing, and her mind went blank. At any other time she would surely have shaken him off at once, but this time—whether because she could not react in time, or because she wanted to spare Wei Zhao's face—she, strangely enough, offered no resistance at all, and simply let her hand stay clasped in his. (I have to go out tonight, so only two chapters today; three chapters resume tomorrow.) (To be continued.)