Back in the palace, Fei Bai Mu raised her brows at her two other disciples. "What about the two of you? Do you not have anything better to do than to sit around here?"
Huo Cheng and Huo Hai who had just been happy that their Master might actually be nice to deny Xin Lan the opportunity to marry their little junior were taken aback. Why was their Master throwing them out?
They exchanged a glance but there was nothing they could do for the moment other than nod and then roll out. Now, they could only hope that whatever their Master and Xin Lan talked about would not convince Fei Bai Mu so that their little junior wouldn't get married.
Fei Bai Mu waited until they were gone before she got up and waved for Xin Lan to follow her. She left her palace through a door at the back and then strolled through the stone garden at the backside.
Xin Lan glanced at her but she refused to say anything for the moment so he could only follow along.
After a while, Fei Bai Mu stopped next to one of the stones that were about their own height. "Why do you insist to get married to my disciple?"
Xin Lan gave her a curious look. "Why? Of course, it is because I love him."
Fei Bai Mu looked at the garden instead. "You see, the problem with this is that I do not believe it."
"Then what do I need to do to make you believe me?"
Fei Bai Mu lightly shook her head. "I cannot tell you. If I did tell you, you would go and do exactly what I asked of you. But does that really mean that you love him? I don't think so. I think it would mean that you want me to believe that you love him so that you can marry him out of whatever reason you might actually have. But you still wouldn't hold any feelings for Xiao Yu."
Xin Lan stopped next to her and flicked a glance at the garden as well before turning back to Fei Bai Mu. "In other words, no matter what I do, I've already lost. Since you don't believe me now, you will never believe me. What am I to do about that?"
Fei Bai Mu sighed. This was indeed a conundrum. She couldn't simply ask for proof because it wouldn't prove anything. But at the same time, she couldn't just say no. "You see, I don't know you very well. In fact, we have only met a few times before. But the thing is that in these few times, I was able to observe a few things.
"For one, I've seen you flirt quite openly with that person from the spirit beast tribe. That tells me that you definitely don't subscribe to the belief of monogamous relationships the dragon race usually holds.
"This is a problem because I am pretty sure that Xiao Yu does believe in that and so do the Hua family and me as well. This is a difference in beliefs that I think would doom any relationship you could ever have."
Xin Lan gave a hum. "I will not argue that I do differ from the people of my race quite a bit. It is the truth. Currently, I'm probably the oldest person of my race still alive. I've seen quite a bit more than others have. I was also born at a different time and there are some things where I am actually quite different from the people of the new generations.
"I won't deny that. I also won't deny that there have been different relationships in the past. But the thing is, I do believe that if you love somebody, you should only be with that person. If I was to marry Hua Lin Yu, I would stay true to him until the day he dies."
Fei Bai Mu nodded, somewhat believing what he said. He could probably argue against it. He could've said that while he did go after that person, he was rejected and thus moved on. She would have had to believe it. After all, she didn't know where that person was currently and she wouldn't make such a fuss about it and go to ask anyway. But he did give an explanation that sounded quite logical. It told her that there was some reliability in those words.
"Very well. I think the bigger problem is the other thing that I have observed: You did flirt with that person but it was obviously just something on the surface. You felt attracted to him at that moment but there were no deeper feelings involved. Because of that, I also believe that it wouldn't be a problem for you to move on fast if you need to.
"The problem is, it isn't the same for Xiao Yu. This disciple of mine … He does like you or maybe he just likes some idea of you, I do not know. But you definitely do not love him. And the worst is that I know that there is another person that you actually do hold special feelings for."
This time, Xin Lan's gaze cooled quite a bit. "I have no idea what Sect Master Fei is talking about."
Fei Bai Mu closed her eyes and thought back to what she had observed at the Yun Zou Sect. "I cannot fault you. Even with a long life, there are few very special people you would meet. And I do believe that our Jian Yi Sect's Grandmaster's husband is quite a special person. Very suitable to fall in love with. You're probably not the only one who had his heart broken by their marriage.
"Still, others will move on but you probably haven't. You definitely hadn't at the time when you were at the Yun Zou Sect. So why should I believe that in the past couple of years, anything has changed about that?
"I simply cannot. And that is why I don't want to give my blessing to you marrying Xiao Yu. You would just make my disciple unhappy."