Xinyi looked at him for a good long while.

Unbeknownst to him, BaoBao had long been bought over by him and this move of his destroyed every last bit of wariness that BaoBao had towards him.

Xinyi sighed inwardly and a hint of resignation entered her eyes. "I'll have to thank you for the food then."

ZhangYong caught the slight change in the way she talked to him and his eyes rounded in surprise again. Boundless joy filled his eyes within seconds and a bright smile spread across his face. He then bounded off like a happy dog and brought the food that was being kept warm on the stove to the stone table.

Xinyi, however, has already steeled her heart in preparation for things like that. She remained unaffected and obligingly sat down at the stone table.

During their meal, ZhangYong tried to ask her about her day again, "Today... Was there an event that you had to attend?"

"I was meeting my fiance for the first time." Xinyi replied.

ZhangYong's eyes shot towards her and the food between his chopsticks dropped onto the table.

The shock felt so great that he might as well be shocked by lightning itself. Xinyi replying to his question was one thing. He had not heard a thing about her marriage from HuiShan or anyone. /Was the news not significant enough for servants and maids to gossip about?/

When he finally noticed Xinyi looking pointedly at something on the table, he broke out of his daze and followed her gaze to the food he dropped. "Oh. Sorry."

When he wanted to pick it up, Xinyi grabbed his wrist. "What were you about to do? I'm not that horrible a person that I'd make you eat dirtied food, am I?"

ZhangYong laughed sheepishly. "You're right."

Because he was still recovering from the shock, he did not think well and his hand moved by itself.

After eating in silence for a while, ZhangYong finally breached the topic that bothered him greatly. "Where did you meet him today?"

"I followed my father and Mother Chen to meet my fiance and his parents at a restaurant." Xinyi replied blandly without missing a beat.

"How was he?"

"He looks like any other rich young master. He seemed to be quite pleased with me since he took me for a stroll in a garden for the rest of the day without our parents."

"Oh…"

After another long pause with them eating in silence, he asked in a soft voice, "So... Who is this man who's fortunate enough to get someone like you?"

"Ou SiLiang. But I'd like to correct you that he's not that fortunate." Xinyi said that in all honesty because only she knew of her plan to make him end up as a ditched groom.

ZhangYong frowned at her words then said in a very serious tone, "How's he not fortunate? Your beauty's charming. Your character's precious. The tenacity, drive, and discipline you show in trying to break through your boundaries is invaluable and awe inspiring."

The way he spewed out such words in such a serious tone made it hard for even Xinyi to brush off. It felt so different from the way the smooth talker sounded in the afternoon.

No longer able to continue eating nonchalantly, she cast her eyes down and paused in her eating to regain her composure. "Please don't say such things again."

His brows drew together even more and formed a deeper frown. "Why not? It's the t-"

"I get it. I get it. I just don't need to hear it again. Thank you." Xinyi hastily cut him off with her head still hanging low.

ZhangYong noticed her red ears and observed the way she rubbed the tip of her nose. He then stopped frowning and revealed a little grin before he resumed eating in silence.

Meanwhile, BaoBao was grumbling and whining unhappily in her head. [If I haven't already learnt my lesson, I would have said that he was surely in love with you. Why are human emotions so difficult to learn…? Why is human behaviour so difficult to read…?]

Later that night, after ZhangYong returned back to the camp close to the border, he found that sleep evaded him. His mind kept drifting back to Xinyi's engagement. In the end, he reasoned with himself that he must be worried if that man was good enough for her. /Ou SiLiang… I'll ascertain for myself if you're capable of taking good care of her./

Meanwhile on Xinyi's end, she was discussing her plans with BaoBao while they sat side by side on her bed. "SiLiang said that the dowry will be ready and sent over by the end of the next month. I have to be gone by then."

"We've only managed to sneak out of the house a few times in the past two months... We haven't even gone beyond the capital yet." BaoBao felt a bit worried.

Xinyi looked at her hands. "And I'm still at mid level Sky realm." She said with a sigh.

"I can feel that I'm at a bottleneck though…"

She clenched her hands then looked at BaoBao. "We'll go as far as we can from now on and we'll sneak out more often. Get ready for more action."

BaoBao's eyes burned with enthusiasm and he nodded resolutely. "Mm!"