"No, Shenyi, you matter a great deal to ."
"After countless sails have passed, you are the one I return to."
Jun Xiaoyao said this with complete sincerity.
He reached out and gently brushed the white hair from Jiang Shenyi's forehead.
Jiang Shenyi had once had a full head of ink-black hair.
Back in the ancient immortal world, Jun Xiaoyao had entered the forbidden Bronze Immortal Palace, and even his life tablet had shattered.
In a single night, Jiang Shenyi's black hair had turned completely white.
Black as silk at dawn, white as snow by dusk!
What kind of profound emotion could bring about such a thing?
Even now, Jiang Shenyi's hair remained as white as pale snow.
Because it was a scar left behind by a wounded heart, no matter how high one's cultivation, it was nearly impossible to reverse.
Looking at Jiang Shenyi's snow-white hair, Jun Xiaoyao felt that perhaps it was ti for him to make a promise.
Otherwise, he had no right to face this woman standing before him.
Feeling Jun Xiaoyao's warm and tender gaze upon her, Jiang Shenyi lowered her long lashes slightly, her face flushed like morning glow reflected on snow, a touch of shyness mingled with quiet joy.
But she was also a woman of keen insight, and she sensed that Jun Xiaoyao seed different from usual.
"Xiaoyao, what's wrong? This doesn't seem like you…"
Jun Xiaoyao was soone reserved and composed by nature, and even when it ca to matters of the heart, he was rational to the point of seeming almost emotionless.
Yet now, his behavior felt sohow unlike himself.
What Jiang Shenyi didn't know was that Jun Xiaoyao had caught a glimpse of a fragnt of the future.
Though it wasn't necessarily set in stone, it hung over him like a shadow he couldn't shake.
"Shenyi, I think it's ti I gave you a promise."
Jun Xiaoyao gently drew Jiang Shenyi's slender waist close and spoke softly into her ear.
"Wh… what do you an…"
Jiang Shenyi's mind went completely blank, as though her very thoughts had deserted her.
Then, before she realized it, glistening tears slid down her porcelain cheeks.
"Shenyi…"
Jun Xiaoyao hadn't expected this reaction. He raised his hand and gently wiped the tears from her face.
"No… it's not that, it's just… so sudden…"
Jiang Shenyi was wiping her own tears, flustered and at a loss for what to do.
It was hard to imagine that this woman, who in the eyes of outsiders appeared as cold and untouchable as a fairy from the moon palace, an exiled immortal descended from the heavens,
could show such a helpless and flustered expression.
Yet this look had its own kind of endearing charm, sothing small and warmly human.
"Shenyi, because of my path of cultivation, I kept putting off giving you a promise."
"Now I realize, that was actually a kind of selfishness."
Jun Xiaoyao had made up his mind.
His path of cultivation would continue.
But the one he cherished could not be left behind.
"Xiaoyao, what's really weighing on your mind?"
Jiang Shenyi was too perceptive, and she could tell Jun Xiaoyao was hiding sothing.
Jun Xiaoyao shook his head slightly.
He couldn't possibly speak of that fragnt of the future.
As far as he was concerned, he would not allow that to happen.
"Shenyi, promise you won't do anything foolish for my sake in the future." Jun Xiaoyao said.
Jiang Shenyi smiled faintly and said nothing.
She thought again of the ti when she had received the inheritance of the Queen Mother of the West, and the Queen Mother's final trial.
The Queen Mother of the West, in order to revive her beloved the Immortal Emperor Wuzhong, had torn out her own twelve-aperture immortal heart with her own hands.
She had asked Jiang Shenyi whether she too would be willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of the one she loved most.
Jiang Shenyi's answer had been: I would.
And even now, that answer remained the sa.
Looking at Jiang Shenyi's silent composure, Jun Xiaoyao could only feel helpless.
He knew this woman had her own stubbornness and convictions.
The only thing he could do was make sure that outco never ca to pass.
Jun Xiaoyao and Jiang Shenyi, each of them carried a secret in their heart, a secret they couldn't let the other know.
And yet, they were each other's most devoted and selfless companion.
"Shenyi, I owe you a grand wedding." Jun Xiaoyao said sincerely.
Jiang Shenyi's eyes glistened with moisture, tears like dewdrops clinging to her curled lashes.
She was overjoyed, for she had waited so long for this day, enduring more than words could say.
And yet she swallowed the tearing ache in her heart and said, "Xiaoyao, I know you want to give a promise, but…"
"Your road ahead is still so long. If your heart is weighed down by attachnt, how will you ever set foot on that supre path?"
"For your sake, I'm willing to wait."
The most profound confession a woman can make is this: I am willing to wait for you.
Jiang Shenyi knew that Jun Xiaoyao possessed a talent that surpassed every extraordinary person throughout all of history.
His path ahead stretched far into the distance.
A union too soon would only beco a shackle.
As long as Jun Xiaoyao held this feeling in his heart, that was enough for her.
Looking at Jiang Shenyi, so gentle and warm and understanding, Jun Xiaoyao truly didn't know what to say.
He was soone who rarely let his emotions show, who had encountered countless celestial maidens and immortal consorts, and yet very few won had ever truly taken hold of his heart.
But Jiang Shenyi had.
"How about a compromise, then. We can find a ti later to get engaged." Jun Xiaoyao said.
Whatever the case, he had to give her sothing to hold onto.
Jiang Shenyi's beautiful eyes grew soft and hazy, her fair and radiant face streaked with tears like a pear blossom in the rain, yet these were tears of happiness.
She embraced Jun Xiaoyao and rested her head against his chest.
"Speaking of which, there's Luoli." Jiang Shenyi said.
"Luoli… she…" Jun Xiaoyao didn't quite know what to say.
To say he felt absolutely nothing for that little short-legged girl Jiang Luoli would be a lie.
But this was his promise to Jiang Shenyi, and he truly couldn't bring himself to speak of taking both of them for himself.
"Honestly, if we're being fair about it, I'm actually the one who ca later and got in the way. At your tenth birthday banquet, Luoli was the very first one to say she wanted to be your wife."
"After all these years, you can't let that girl down."
Jiang Shenyi felt a little embarrassed saying this.
After all, she was the one who had co in and surpassed the other.
She had waited for Jun Xiaoyao all these years.
And Jiang Luoli had waited just as long.
Jiang Luoli's love for Jun Xiaoyao was no less deep than Jiang Shenyi's.
"But…" Jun Xiaoyao began, then stopped himself.
"Xiaoyao, you are so remarkable, so exceptional, that even having you all to myself makes feel a little uneasy, like I might not deserve you."
"Shenyi, you're being too hard on yourself."
Jun Xiaoyao pulled Jiang Shenyi closer.
To think there existed a woman in this world so gentle and wise and understanding.
That she was his, was truly a fortune and a blessing.
"Besides, I've always treated Luoli like my own little sister, and I've seen with my own eyes how devoted and sincere she is toward you."
"If I were to selfishly keep you all to myself and leave Luoli with a broken heart, that's sothing I could never do." Jiang Shenyi said.
If it were any other woman, Jiang Shenyi didn't know how she might have felt.
But when it ca to Jiang Luoli, all she felt was guilt and tenderness.
"Alright, then."
Jun Xiaoyao gave a slight nod.
Jiang Shenyi had already agreed, so there was no reason for him, a grown man, to hem and haw about it. That wasn't his style anyway.
"Call Luoli in." Jiang Shenyi said.
Before long, Jiang Luoli was called inside.
Her fair and pretty face wore an expression of bewildered confusion.
"Luoli, would you be willing to be with , and with Xiaoyao?" Jiang Shenyi asked gently.
Jun Xiaoyao also said, "Going forward, I want to give you both a promise, the promise of an engagent."
Hearing the words of both Jiang Shenyi and Jun Xiaoyao, Jiang Luoli trembled, and tears instantly spilled from her eyes before she could hold them back.
Only she knew how long she had waited for this mont.
It had started at Jun Xiaoyao's tenth birthday banquet, when she had insisted she was going to be his wife.
And now, after all these years, her long-held dream was finally within reach.
Through her tear-blurred eyes, she looked toward Jiang Shenyi.
She knew that without Jiang Shenyi's blessing, this never could have been settled.
"Shenyi, it was you, wasn't it?" Jiang Luoli said, her voice thick with tears.
Before this, because of matters involving Jun Xiaoyao, a certain distance had grown between her and Jiang Shenyi, and there had even been a touch of jealousy.
But Jiang Shenyi hadn't minded in the slightest, and had instead been nothing but understanding toward her little monts of willfulness.
Jiang Luoli imdiately threw herself into Jiang Shenyi's arms and let all her emotions pour out.
"Wuwu, Shenyi, how can you be so gentle and wonderful, if I were a man, I'd definitely marry you~" Jiang Luoli sobbed through her tears of joy.
"You silly Luoli." Jiang Shenyi affectionately patted Jiang Luoli on the head.
"Ahem, am I sohow the odd one out here?"
Jun Xiaoyao cleared his throat from the side.
"Xiaoyao is also the person Luoli loves most, most, most of all."
Jiang Luoli then turned and threw herself into Jun Xiaoyao's arms.
Jiang Shenyi smiled warmly and leaned against Jun Xiaoyao's shoulder.
In this mont, Jun Xiaoyao felt a deep sense of fullness within his heart.
No matter what chaos lay ahead, no matter how the heavens and earth might fall into turmoil, how all the worlds might shake, how one age might give way to the next,
he would protect with his own hands the people he loved.
This was a man's promise.
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