CHAPTER 93: 089 THIS LIFE UNFORGETTABLE (SECOND UPDATED)

Miss Ning hummed dismissively, not wanting to argue with the old witch. Her gaze shifted and fell upon Bai Ran, who was on the periphery of the crowd. Her lips curled slightly, and she tightly clung to the arm of the man beside her, proclaiming her ownership.

Bai Ran’s eyes flickered, and she pretended to look down casually, adjusting her hair at her temples. She put on a gentle and warm smile again, and stepped forward.

She heard Yun Shen’s deep and magnetic voice asking, "May I know who this gentleman is...?"

Her heart instinctively tightened.

The woman’s charming and melodious voice was like a knife that killed without shedding blood, stabbing fiercely into her chest. Each step she took toward him was like walking on sharp blades. Fine beads of blood oozed from her forehead, but she still smiled elegantly, without fault.

"He’s my little boyfriend," she offered, unwilling to say more.

Little boyfriend...

Her breath caught, her lashes quivered slightly as she hurriedly lowered her gaze to hide the fleeting glimmer of tears in her eyes, and thus she missed the man’s puzzled and shocked look toward Miss Ning. Miss Ning reassured him with a look that said, "Don’t worry." The man pursed his lips and saw Bai Ran naturally reaching for and taking Yun Shen’s arm, displaying an intimate posture as if she had done it a hundred, a thousand times before...

"Miss Ning, welcome to the banquet," she said with a smile, her eyes gliding over him, nodding slightly in a greeting that was as detached as if she were meeting a stranger for the first time.

Ning Qinglin was stunned, then quickly lowered his gaze to hide the hint of bitterness at the corner of his mouth.

Indeed, if her husband were to find out about their past relationship, it would cause her a lot of trouble. How could he have forgotten that?

"Oh, isn’t that Miss Bai? No, I should refer to you as Lady Yun now. Marriage really changes a person, doesn’t it? You even seem to have that virtuous wife and good mother look. But how does the saying go? ’A fly does not land on an egg without cracks.’ No, perhaps ’a dog cannot change its habit of eating feces’ would be a more fitting description. President Yun, I know you’re busy with work, but you really should spend more time with your wife. Otherwise, you never know when your head might be adorned with a shade of green..." Miss Ning’s bright voice could not hide the sarcasm, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

Bai Ran’s face turned somewhat pale. She slightly bowed her head, wondering when she had offended this young lady. A thought crossed her mind, but she dismissed it as impossible. Her relationship with him was very secretive; nobody knew about it...

Unless, he had told on purpose.

In that moment, she felt an almost unbearable pain, her complexion ghostly pale in the light, yet she still managed to smile and say, "I’m not aware of when I offended Miss Ning to warrant such hostility from you?"

Miss Ning hummed again, tightly hugging her companion’s arm, her eyes defiant and smug as she looked toward Miss Ning, as if declaring something silently.

Bai Ran completely understood. Miss Ning truly knew about their relationship. What was she doing? Showing off?

Even if Yun Shen did not love Bai Ran, she was still his wife in name. A husband and wife share both honor and disgrace. Besides, as a man, when such things were said, where could he place his dignity? His expression inevitably turned colder.

Yun Ya watched the sparring individuals with a slight curl of his lips – what a drama. Bai Ran had been with Ning Qinglin for so long and yet had no clue about his true identity.

But then again, it made sense. Although Ning Qinglin was a young master of the Ning Family, he was born to a servant. Initially, the Ning Family did not acknowledge his existence, and he and his mother suffered a lot. Only later did the Ning Family accept him back, but they never announced his identity to the public. It was normal that the outside world did not recognize him.

Yun Ya’s gaze unintentionally swept over Yun Shu, noticing that Yun Shu was also watching her, her eyes deep with a cold light, her red lips slightly curved in a mocking and disdainful sneer.

Yun Ya’s heart suddenly skipped a beat, and without a change in expression, she averted her eyes, clenching her small hand into a fist.

She turned her gaze to Yan Song beside her and asked softly, "Brother Yan, if one day I disappeared from this world, would you remember me?"

The girl’s eyes were as mysterious and expansive as the deep sea, with ripples surging, like sad and restrained tides... Slowly, they filled his heart to the brim...

He replied subconsciously, "Who would remember you? Don’t flatter yourself, hmph..." With that, he turned his head away, his haughty demeanor fully on display.

So he did not see the girl’s quivering eyelashes, nor the profound sorrow in the depths of her eyes that couldn’t be dissolved...

She murmured, "That’s for the best... I’m just a passerby in your life, forget about me..."

Yan Song dug at his ear, "What did you say?"

Yun Ya smiled, "Nothing much, Brother Yan. I saw Aunt Zhuang looking for you, you should go to her and not keep her worried."

Yan Song felt awkward and guilty today, as he was not there under legitimate circumstances. He took a few steps away, then turned his head back for another look at Yun Ya. The girl stood quietly, her appearance fresh and pure with sweet, innocent smiles, her black eyes brimming with a gentle teasing, and a chestnut butterfly perched in her hair flickered in the light, reflecting dazzling brilliance...

Everything behind seemed illusory, except for her tender smile and the fluttering butterfly in her hair, which formed the last image of her in his mind. For the next ten years, it lingered in his dreams without end...

If time could turn back, he would tell her, "I will never forget you in this lifetime, not for a moment, not ever!"

----

Huadu Hotel sat in the most expensive commercial district of Jiangzhou, with a red carpet stretching from the glittering main entrance all the way to the street corner. In front of the hotel, a man-made fountain on the plaza gushed impressively, its waters reflecting spectacular lights under the neon glow.

Hotel security patrolled the plaza with batons, forbidding any suspicious individuals from approaching.

In the neatly trimmed flowerbeds outside the hotel, a pair of eyes glinted with the cold ferocity of wolf cubs, the dark harboring a ready sharpness that flickered ominously.

"Damn it, with such tight security, how are we supposed to sneak in?"

A skinny boy about seven or eight frowned and said, "Brother Yuesheng, is it really okay for us to sneak out like this? Brother Han warned us, we shouldn’t act rashly."

Yuesheng wiped his face, his eyes fixed on the security guard’s baton, and he said coldly, "As long as Ning Zijin is killed, the Qinglong Gang will surely respect Brother Han. You don’t worry about me; minors get locked up in reformatories at most, and it won’t be many years before they’re released. Besides, I won’t just get caught without a fight."

Xiao Ma couldn’t help but burst his bubble, "Brother Yuesheng, do you really think Ning Zijin is that easy to kill? If that were the case, she wouldn’t have lived until now. And even if you did kill Ning Zijin, do you think her people would let you go?"

Yuesheng snorted, "Mind your own business, stay out here, I’ll blend in through the back door."

With those words, his figure swiftly vanished into the darkness.