After enjoying Zi Menghan’s attentive service, He Qiu soaked in the hot bath with her for a while longer, then acted as if nothing had happened.
He finished washing up and went back to his room to sleep.
In truth, aside from the bath towel wrapped around Zi Menghan floating up when it got wet and nearly exposing her a second time, nothing particularly special occurred.
After two full hours of bathing together, He Qiu had actually grown somewhat accustomed to it.
Later, Zi Menghan also got used to it and wasn’t so awkward anymore.
Sometimes, when her towel accidentally slipped, she would just nervously cover her chest, no longer starting as badly as she had at the beginning…
On the other hand, He Qiu couldn’t even be bothered to look.
Like an old man, he sat in the pool enjoying life.
‘What’s more comfortable? A beauty’s chest or a nice soak?’
And so, with that thought in mind, He Qiu resolutely sat there soaking for two whole hours to prove to Miss Meng’er that he wasn’t some vulgar man with improper intentions.
Later, He Qiu only remembered that Miss Meng’er quickly ran off, her cheeks flushed both green and red, as if she’d been steamed alive—finally able to escape…
He Qiu had no opinion on that. He truly couldn’t fathom a woman’s heart.
Lying in bed, he stretched lazily and prepared to sleep.
But before sleeping, he recalled Senior Sister Ling Ran’s mention of the marriage engagement during the day.
At that time, he had directly rejected her confession in front of everyone, which had caused An Lingran to faint from anger.
“But I really don’t know anything about any marriage engagement…”
“Forget it. I’ll go find Senior Sister tomorrow and ask about the situation.”
Having summarized his schedule for the next day, He Qiu drifted off peacefully.
…
Late at night, He Qiu was sleeping soundly, but things were far from peaceful on An Lingran’s side.
At the Origin Sacred Land, An Lingran and Yun Qing sat side by side, while the white-bearded elder An Daosheng sat across the table.
They were discussing the events of the day.
When An Lingran had been asleep, Yun Qing had already learned the full story of the marriage engagement from An Daosheng.
She also roughly understood the information gap between He Qiu and An Lingran—no wonder such a big misunderstanding had occurred.
“So, you mean the engagement was privately arranged between Master and He Qiu’s father, and He Qiu himself had never heard of it?”
An Lingran tried to summarize, a puzzled look on her face.
At this, An Daosheng stroked his white beard and nodded in agreement:
“That’s right. I thought that when you went to see your junior brother that day, you would have already informed He Qiu about the engagement.”
“I… I thought Junior Brother already knew…”
An Lingran felt wronged, but she couldn’t really argue at the moment.
The probability of such a misunderstanding happening was far too small.
She had thought He Qiu knew about the engagement, so she got straight to the point, never expecting that He Qiu had been on a completely different page from the very beginning…
So, all of Junior Brother’s efforts these past few days were just because he was afraid that this Saintess senior sister would look down on him, and he desperately trained to prove himself?
Thinking of this, An Lingran’s heart ached.
It seemed that at some point, she had become an overly strict senior sister in Junior Brother’s eyes.
While she felt pained, An Lingran was also inexplicably relieved.
She could see that although Junior Brother didn’t know about the engagement, he genuinely had no improper thoughts about her…
But at least he acknowledged her as his senior sister, and he respected her.
At the very least, he was still her junior brother—that fact wouldn’t change just because of the information gap about the engagement.
“What do we do then? It seems He Qiu doesn’t have any romantic feelings for Ranran…”
Yun Qing was a bit worried.
In a sense, she had also gotten things wrong.
It had always been An Lingran’s unrequited love.
From the very beginning, He Qiu had never seen his senior sister as a romantic interest.
This plot was way too melodramatic.
The misunderstanding kept growing, and now it had An Lingran all worked up.
If they had discovered it earlier, perhaps An Lingran wouldn’t have developed such tangled feelings…
Seeing Yun Qing’s concern, An Lingran smiled slightly.
As the one directly involved, her mood wasn’t as heavy as An Daosheng’s or Yun Qing’s.
She didn’t seem to be shutting down just because her confession had been rejected and her hopes dashed.
“It’s fine. Junior Brother He Qiu is still my junior brother. That has never changed from beginning to end, has it?”
“But he rejected you in front of everyone…”
“And that’s the right thing to do.”
An Lingran interrupted Yun Qing’s confusion and calmly analyzed: “If Junior Brother He Qiu, not knowing about the engagement, had easily accepted my confession and then proceeded with this marriage without understanding…”
“Then I would have become the one being deceived. I wouldn’t like that kind of dishonest Junior Brother He Qiu.”
“When you put it that way, you’re right…”
Yun Qing seemed to understand and couldn’t help nodding repeatedly: “If He Qiu had simply coveted my Ranran’s beauty without exposing the information gap about the engagement, and had taken advantage of Ranran’s feelings, that would have been truly outrageous!”
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.
Yun Qing continued with another example:
“In that case, wouldn’t he be willing to marry any woman who said she had an engagement with him?”
“Mm. So I think Junior Brother He Qiu’s current behavior is very correct, and it shows I didn’t misjudge him.”
An Lingran smiled contentedly, without any hint of blame.
Since it was a misunderstanding, they just needed to clear it up.
Luckily, the engagement itself wasn’t a misunderstanding.
The nominal relationship between them as fiancée and fiancé still remained—that was something no one could shake…
Thinking about this, An Lingran regained her motivation.
Now, she acknowledged her feelings.
She had indeed fallen for her junior brother.
So even if He Qiu had no romantic interest in her, An Lingran was willing to pursue him.
She wanted him to truly fall for her, and then solidify the engagement.
That way, An Lingran could be with He Qiu with complete legitimacy.
Though she was resolute in her feelings, she was also a conservative woman.
Without the engagement, An Lingran wouldn’t dare to get too close to He Qiu or easily develop feelings, because there would be no guarantee.
If she were to be let down, as a woman, she would be considered impure.
In this regard, An Lingran was still very traditional.
So she needed this engagement. With it as proof, even if they started from a misunderstanding and Junior Brother didn’t like her, An Lingran could still boldly pursue him, because she had the engagement as her safety net.
An Lingran didn’t think it was shameful to have emotional entanglements between a fiancée and a fiancé. She felt it was legitimate.
Her fiancé currently didn’t like her, so she was going to pursue him—there was nothing wrong with that.
With that thought, An Lingran found her confidence again.
It had to be said, once a woman confirmed her feelings for someone, she became unusually confident, more proactive and purposeful than usual.
“Tomorrow, I’ll go find Junior Brother He Qiu and clear this up.”
“Mm-hmm!”
As An Lingran and Yun Qing talked, the atmosphere gradually returned to its usual lightness.
Only An Daosheng sat stiffly with a faint smile, his expression subtle.
Because he could see that it was precisely because of the engagement that An Lingran had dared to confirm her feelings, develop a relationship with He Qiu, and ultimately fall for her junior brother, unable to extricate herself…
After believing in the information gap with Junior Brother, she had also become even more convinced of the engagement.
But only An Daosheng knew that the engagement was also fake—he had forged it.
What should he do?
He had originally thought that An Lingran and He Qiu had mutual feelings, so he believed his engagement was a righteous move—a three-birds-with-one-stone solution: helping his daughter and beloved disciple tie the knot, while also securing a connection with the Immortal Sect.
But now it seemed he had also misunderstood.
He Qiu apparently didn’t like An Lingran, while An Lingran thought He Qiu was in the dark about the engagement.
In reality, He Qiu hadn’t misunderstood at all—there simply was no engagement between them.
If An Daosheng chose to remain silent now, then when An Lingran explained the engagement to He Qiu, and He Qiu came to believe in it, a new layer of misunderstanding would sprout.
And the root cause of all this was An Daosheng himself.
So, should he stop the misunderstanding here?
Harboring such uneasy thoughts, An Daosheng looked at his daughter.
He saw a sparkle of happiness and determination in An Lingran’s beautiful eyes.
As a father, how could he not read his daughter’s heart?
After some hesitation, An Daosheng devised a new plan.
Since his daughter liked He Qiu, he would give her some time to pursue him…
In the end, if He Qiu developed feelings for his senior sister, the engagement could still be smoothed over.
He hoped Lingran would put in some effort.
A stunningly beautiful Primordial Saintess like her—surely winning over a newly inducted junior brother wouldn’t be a problem, right?
It should be easy, shouldn’t it?
An Daosheng thought An Lingran could do it.
After all, she was his daughter.
Back in the day, when An Daosheng had pursued An Lingran’s mother, he had also used some clever tricks—writing love poems and confessing constantly, eventually winning her over, giving birth to their beautiful daughter.
An Daosheng believed his daughter would inherit his skills and successfully win over He Qiu before the engagement date!
‘Silly girl, you have to make me proud. This is all your father can do for you…’