As Qing Nianyi spoke from the raised platform, everyone below was struck by her breathtaking beauty and ethereal poise.
Even Qin Heng and Feng Xun, standing among the crowd, were no exception. For a moment, they both forgot how to speak.
It took Qin Heng quite a while to come back to his senses.
With looks and poise like hers, paired with that luxurious white evening gown, she was simply stunning.
The last time Big Slacker had seen anything this dazzling was at Ning Muxuan’s graduation ball. The deep-black evening gown she’d worn had stayed fresh in his memory, too.
He hadn’t expected to be lucky enough to see another such beautiful figure today. Whatever the outcome of this banquet, at least he’d feasted his eyes. The trip hadn’t been in vain.
As Qin Heng pondered, Feng Xun beside him slowly spoke up as well.
“It’s been a year, and she’s still just as beautiful. Pretty stunning, huh, Old Qin?”
Qin Heng nodded blankly, then asked in confusion,
“You haven’t seen her in a year? So you actually know this young lady, Young Master Feng?”
Feng Xun smiled.
“My father’s company was lucky enough to work with the group she belongs to. I saw her once at a company banquet.”
“It was only a brief encounter, but that fleeting glimpse of her back then has stayed with me to this day.”
At that, Qin Heng turned back toward the elegant, refined Qing Nianyi on the raised platform. Before he knew it, he was lost in a daze again…
After a while, a vague sense of unease crept over him. When he looked at Qing Nianyi again, an inexplicable restlessness welled up inside him, mixed with a hint of loss he couldn’t put into words…
It was as though something was slowly seeping into his mind, only to be forcibly held back. His consciousness began to sink deeper and deeper…
The realization jolted Qin Heng awake. He clutched his forehead, and beads of cold sweat had already appeared on his face…
“Old Qin, what’s wrong?”
Feng Xun’s concerned voice came from beside him.
At first, Feng Xun had simply smiled when he saw Qin Heng staring blankly toward the platform. A beauty like Qing Nianyi was a rare sight, after all. It was only natural for this guy to get lovestruck for once…
But before long, Feng Xun sensed something was wrong. Qin Heng’s complexion kept getting worse, and tiny beads of sweat had appeared on his face. That was when Feng Xun asked if he was all right.
“Oh, uh, sorry, Young Master Feng. I saw a gorgeous woman and got so lovestruck I couldn’t even move. Hahaha.”
“As long as you’re okay. You even broke out in a cold sweat just looking at a pretty woman, huh?”
“Hahaha, maybe I’m just disappointed because a peerless beauty like her has nothing to do with a nobody like me. I’m also racking my brain over how I’m supposed to go talk to her later.”
Qin Heng joked vaguely, then looked away.
“……”
Feng Xun didn’t reply. He really did think Qin Heng had a point. With such a vast gap between their social standings… so many people and things were out of reach from the very start.
And it wasn’t just Qin Heng. Faced with a peerless beauty like Qing Nianyi, who was practically top-tier in every way, even Feng Xun felt the distance between them.
If his father hadn’t gotten lucky and spared no expense to secure a chance to work with Qing Nianyi’s group back then, Feng Xun would’ve been just like Qin Heng now—standing at a distance, quietly watching her…
“Old Qin, there’s no need to feel down. Getting to know a beauty like her would be incredible luck, but even if it’s not meant to be, there’s no need to regret it. Just live your own life.”
After a long silence, Feng Xun suddenly spoke. As he comforted Qin Heng, it seemed he was saying the same thing to himself.
“Yeah. That’s true. You can’t force everything.”
But that wasn’t what Qin Heng was really thinking…
Even if he got the chance, it’d be best not to get involved with her.
That strange feeling in his mind just now seemed to be warning him that getting entangled with her, for better or worse, would only bring trouble…
The Ice Snake at home was already enough to give him a headache. He didn’t want the peaceful life he’d finally managed to build to be disrupted again…
?
Qin Heng suddenly came back to himself and tapped his head, mocking himself: “Big Slacker, what are you even thinking? Why would someone like her ever come after you? Heh. What a buzzkill…”
As all eyes watched, Qing Nianyi slowly descended the steps from the raised platform. Her speech was nearing its end. She cast one last glance over the crowd.
“…Thank you all once again for coming. I hope everyone enjoys themselves tonight—”
Qing Nianyi smiled warmly. As her gaze swept across the crowd, it suddenly paused.
She gazed quietly toward one spot, meeting someone’s eyes there—or perhaps it was only for a moment…
Qing Nianyi felt the world around her slowly fall silent. Her speech trailed off. The brightly lit hall seemed to sink back into darkness, until no one else remained…
Only the person who had met her gaze was still there…
Perhaps Qing Nianyi herself hadn’t even realized that her purple eyes were slowly taking on golden scales once more…
—[Young Master, how are you feeling?]
A clear, gentle male voice sounded beside Qing Nianyi’s ear, echoing through her mind and bringing her back to herself.
Qing Nianyi slowly turned toward the steward beside her and asked softly, puzzled,
“Steward Ling?”
Seeing the young lady suddenly call out to him, the elderly man in a suit bowed slightly.
“What is it, Miss?”
At Steward Ling’s response, Qing Nianyi’s brows furrowed slightly.
But as she carefully recalled that gentle voice, she realized it probably hadn’t come from the steward beside her.
……
But she was still some distance from the crowd, and everyone around her was quiet…
Then… where had that voice come from?
Since it had called out “Young Master,” it couldn’t have been calling her—
No!
……
Some inexplicable feeling told Qing Nianyi that the gentle voice had definitely been calling her—and that it had to be calling her!!!
As if she’d just thought of something, Qing Nianyi suddenly lifted her eyes and searched the crowd again for the man who had met her gaze.
It was him… It had to be him…
An intense, inexplicable restlessness surged inside Qing Nianyi. She had never felt anything like it before.
But she had only one thought now: find the person who had met her gaze.
But things didn’t go her way. Qing Nianyi searched the spot several times, but the person she’d seen was nowhere to be found.
When she realized she couldn’t find him, a deathly stillness of loss and emptiness surged through her—a feeling just like the one she’d had that night fourteen years ago…
Qing Nianyi felt her breathing grow heavier and faster. Her clenched hands trembled slightly, and even her shoulders seemed to lose their strength.
Suddenly, a sharp pain in her chest brought her fully back to herself.
A trace of pain appeared on her stunning face. She clutched her chest with her right hand as her mind began to grow hazy and her steps grew unsteady…
“Miss!?”
