Unsheathed

Chen Ping'an shook his head as he replied without any hesitation, "You can raise the question, but I can't allow myself to think along those lines, so there will be no answer."

Ruan Xiu rested her chin on her hands as she looked into the distance and sighed, "You're just like my father when it comes to these things. He's extremely stubborn and has always refrained from searching for my mother's current incarnation.

“He says that even if he manages to find her, she'll no longer actually be my mother, and not everyone can recover their memories from their past life, so he would rather not see her again at all. Otherwise, he would be doing a disservice both to the memory of my mother residing in his heart and her current incarnation."

Chen Ping'an offered no response as it wasn't in his place to speak on any matters concerning Ruan Qiong.

"Did you bring back any gifts for me?" Ruan Xiu asked as she turned to him with a smile.

An awkward look appeared on Chen Ping'an's face as he replied, "I didn't dare to bring back anything for you as I thought that could potentially deepen any misunderstandings between us."

He then smiled as he continued, "However, now that I've clarified everything, I can start bringing back gifts for you from my future journeys from now on."

"How have you clarified everything?" Ruan Xiu asked with a smile.

A dumbstruck look appeared on Chen Ping'an's face upon hearing this, and he hurriedly began retracing everything in his mind.

He felt like he had made his own feelings very clear regardless of whether Ruan Xiu had romantic feelings for him or not.

Ruan Xiu burst into laughter as she said, "Alright, I get it. You don't like me that way, but you're worried that I like you that way, and that made things very awkward for you. You were worried that if you were too direct about it, then I would be embarrassed, and that would ruin our friendship, right? Don't worry, I'm fine, and I'm not just putting up a strong front.