Chapter 1322 — She Left After All

Xu Shilan was rather quiet. Feng Xiaoxiao had already made her peace with life and death, but Shilan herself could not help feeling wretched; watching a friend she had only just come to know about to depart, her heart hung heavy.

"All right, Xiaohan, let's not dwell on that... Wei Zhao says he can cure me, and he will, I know he will. Give it a few years, and maybe when you come back you will find I've come to life again..." Seeing Xu Shilan's low spirits, Feng Xiaoxiao instead set about comforting her.

"Ah?" Xu Shilan was taken aback. She knew nothing about the ice coffin, so it all sounded quite fantastical to her.

"It's nothing, really. So, what gift did you bring me? Let me see?" Feng Xiaoxiao steered the conversation to something else.

"An album I recorded for you myself. Most of the songs on it are covers, but it is one of a kind, unlike anything else, and I have never released it to the public." Xu Shilan held out the gift as she spoke.

"Wow, it's wonderful, I love it!" Feng Xiaoxiao happily took the gift in her hands.

Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, Kang **, and Xiaofen came back one after another, and the invited guests also included Ergoudan, Yu Yuanyuan, Fatty Lai, and Feng Tianlong!

Once the cake was ready, everyone sat around the round table in the dining room and sang the birthday song together. Though every one of them knew about Feng Xiaoxiao's situation, not a soul brought it up, nor let a trace of sorrow show on their faces; all of them happily offered up their own blessings.

"I'm so touched... this is the first time I've ever had such a lively birthday..." Feng Xiaoxiao said with feeling. "In the past, at most I spent my birthday with my father. But this time I have so many good friends beside me!"

"All right, time to turn off the lights and cut the cake!" Shen Yushu lit the candles on the cake, then ran off cheerfully to switch off the dining room lights.

In an instant the dining room went pitch black, with only the candle flames flickering and swaying; behind that glow, Feng Xiaoxiao's flushed little face was lovelier and more delicate than ever.

"Xiaoxiao, another year older. Have you a wish?" Feng Tianlong asked, gazing at his daughter with a smile.

Having heard that Wei Zhao had a way to resolve things, Feng Tianlong too felt the weight lift from his heart. Not only was there hope for Xiaoxiao, but even his wife might yet have hope of waking. The gloom that had shrouded him for twenty years had finally let in a little sunshine.

"Mm... I can't tell you..." Feng Xiaoxiao said, blushing a little, though in the candlelight no one could see the flush.

"Then let's do this: everyone keep quiet, and let Xiaoxiao make her wish in silence," Xu Shilan suggested.

"Yes, yes, Xiaoxiao, hurry up and make your wish, and once you have, tell me in secret." Shen Yushu said.

"Hehe..." Feng Xiaoxiao nodded, pressed her palms together, closed her eyes, and silently began making her wish...

Though outwardly Feng Xiaoxiao seemed to have made her peace with life and death, and no longer felt any fear of the death drawing near, in truth, deep in her heart, she did not want to die. Especially now that she had Wei Zhao as her boyfriend, and good friends like Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, Tang Yun, and Xu Shilan, she was all the more unwilling to go...

So she meant to make a wish: that Wei Zhao could cure her, so that from then on she might stay with them all forever...

Feng Xiaoxiao began her wish with devotion, and visions of a beautiful future rose before her mind's eye... one day, marrying Wei Zhao and bearing his children, and Tang Yun, Gu Mengyao, Feng Xiaoxiao, Xu Shilan... it was simply too wonderful, and Feng Xiaoxiao could not help feeling a little giddy...

In the dining room, no one spoke; everyone was waiting for Feng Xiaoxiao to finish her wish. But after a while, she still had not raised her head, and Wei Zhao suddenly sensed that something was wrong!

"Xiaoxiao!" he called to her.

Feng Xiaoxiao did not answer.

Wei Zhao sprang to his feet and rushed over. He felt for her breath and her pulse, and sure enough, they had fallen faint to the point of being barely there, just as they had when she lay unconscious before.

The illness had struck after all. She had not managed to hold out past her twentieth nominal-year birthday.

Instinctively, Wei Zhao made to bite open his wrist and heal Feng Xiaoxiao with his blood, but Jiao Yazi's voice sounded at his ear: "Xiaoyi, do not waste your effort. The cold in her has entered her very bones; it is beyond your power to reverse now. No matter how much blood you spend, it will avail you nothing! The pressing matter is to do as you planned before: seal her in the ice coffin, and then go seek the Fire Spirit Holy Fruit!"

Wei Zhao was stunned for a moment, then his mind cleared at once. He stopped himself from biting his wrist, heaved a sigh, and said: "Uncle Feng, prepare the ice coffin... This time, it's no use... I am powerless as well!"

At Wei Zhao's words, everyone present was struck dumb. Time and again he had pulled Feng Xiaoxiao back from the gates of hell, and they had believed this time would be no different. Yet they had never expected him to say such a thing!

"Xiaoxiao!" Tang Yun was the first to rise, her face turning a little pale. "Wei Zhao, is there truly no way?"

"Seal her in the ice coffin as quickly as possible, and I will find the Fire Spirit Holy Fruit. That is the only way," Wei Zhao said gravely. "Of course, once I break through to Heaven Rank, I will be able to cure Xiaoxiao as well. So do not grieve too much; just think of her as having fallen asleep..."

Though grief weighed on Wei Zhao too, he feared the others would grieve all the more, and so he spoke up to comfort them.

Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, and Xu Shilan, at this moment, likewise wore faces full of sorrow and reluctance to part... This day had come at last; fortunately everyone had long since steeled themselves for it, so that they were not utterly heartbroken.

"I'll contact the people about the ice coffin right away!" Feng Tianlong did not dare delay; he nodded hurriedly and began making calls...

...

The once-lively Gu family villa returned to its former quiet, and even the usually spirited Shen Yushu had fallen taciturn...

The gloom brought on by Feng Xiaoxiao's "passing" was not something that could be eased in a day or two...

In the beginning, the villa had held no Feng Xiaoxiao at all, yet the mood now was utterly different.

"Brother Arrow, when are you going tomb raiding?" Shen Yushu urged Wei Zhao practically every day, asking when he would set out to rob the tombs.

"Wei Zhao, Xiaoxiao's affair is in your hands!" Gu Mengyao too reminded him often that he still had a duty, a mission to fulfill.

"Wei Zhao, so long as you save Xiaoxiao... I'll agree to anything, I'll play along with anything... even a threesome..." The normally shy Tang Yun, all for Xiaoxiao's sake, did not scruple to tempt Wei Zhao.

Of course, Wei Zhao was anxious beyond measure, but as the saying goes, sharpening the axe does not delay the woodcutting. The tomb raid was a must; yet the perils of those tombs might well exceed anything they could imagine!