Chapter 212: Fear of Tragedy Repeating Itself - My Destiny
Xue Bing looked at the man in front of her with a strange expression.
To be fair, he possessed a handsome and dashing face, yet Xue Bing had already fallen in love with Lu Xiaofeng and knew it was all a facade, so she remained unmoved. But because of this, she was able to see something deeper, something more profound and repressed, something like what she thought of Lu Xiaofeng day and night, chasing after him: Did he also have someone unforgettable in his heart, someone he would never forget?
This is the real reason Xue Bing is sitting here. Otherwise, she wouldn't have stayed away from chatting with her friend Zhu Qiqi at the 20th birthday banquet of the "living god of wealth" seventh young lady, but instead kept staring at him.
The unrequited love that always seemed to have no outcome taught Xue Bing to be anxious and gave her many experiences that were not originally hers. In her anxiety and fear of loss, she became more meticulous. At this moment, she was certain that she was the only one among the many people present who had discovered his secret.
Xue Bing felt a little proud. She looked at this guy and knew his name was Wang Lianhua. He had become very famous in the martial arts world in the past two years, known as the "Thousand-Faced Young Master".
She also knew that she had been watching for a while. Many girls came to Wang Lianhua with blushing faces, and he dealt with them according to his mood, some coaxing them into a happy mood before rejecting them, and some rejecting them directly, displaying the demeanor of a seasoned lover. But Xue Bing could tell that he had someone in his heart, the famous "Thousand-Faced Gentleman" who was known throughout the martial arts world had someone in his heart.
Xue Bing wasn't just a little proud; Xue Bing was very proud.
Wang Lianhua was also watching her. He had noticed her long ago, noticed her strange gaze, but remained silent, not interested in having any fun at the moment. It wasn't until a quarter of an hour had passed and Xue Bing's gaze hadn't stopped that he finally smiled, truly a dashing and debonair man.
Walking over, Wang Lianhua asked, "What are you looking at, young lady?"
But he met Xue Bing's inexplicably sympathetic gaze.
Wang Lianhua's inner expression immediately turned cold, but her outward expression remained unchanged as she saw Xue Bing bring out a jar of wine. This was a return gift from "Living God of Wealth" on behalf of Zhu Qiqi, wishing her to forget Lu Xiaofeng soon. However, she didn't want to, so she didn't want to accept it. Now that the time was right, she might as well give it to this pitiful person who shared her plight.
Xue Bing then said, "I want to give this to you, young master. Although you are forcing a smile, I can still tell that we are destined to be together. This wine is called 'Water of Forgetfulness,' meaning unrequited love. It is best to forget it as soon as possible and not dwell on it."
After saying that, she felt incredibly cool, turned around and left, unaware of the displeasure that was creeping onto Wang Lianhua's face. He seemed to have been suddenly exposed, caught off guard, his true feelings unexpectedly revealed after Xue Bing had torn away his facade.
But the next second, nothing happened.
Wang Lianhua remained calm, but inwardly cursed his bad luck, and handed the wine to Xiongmao'er beside him: "It's yours."
The panda didn't say a word, but it was also cursing its bad luck in its heart.
He said it was unlucky because he felt it brought up someone who didn't need to be mentioned. Yes, now Panda feels that it's not a big deal anymore.
Over the past two years, he had slowly pieced together the story of Wang Lianhua from Zhu Qiqi's words—what had happened between him and that powerful, influential person in Bianjing, someone whose name was best left unmentioned. The story was far too complex, involving too many things, and even Xiongmao'er understood that Zhu Qiqi's account was incomplete. But this better illustrated the complexity of the matter and clarified the depth of Wang Lianhua's entanglement with that person.
Whenever Shen Lang mentioned it, he could only sigh, which made Xiongmao'er feel fortunate that he arrived late and wasn't involved. He would occasionally wonder how such a story would end, how it would conclude, and he worried that Wang Lianhua might become depressed in the middle of the night. He even kept a close eye on him at one point.
But Wang Lianhua's reaction was very reassuring. Too reassuring.
Since returning from the Golden Breeze and Drizzle Pavilion two years ago, he had never mentioned that person again, nor had he participated in any discussions related to her. Gradually, as if the scars had healed, he slowly stopped avoiding her. Occasionally, when he heard Zhu Qiqi and Shen Lang talking about her, he wouldn't react. When he heard storytellers praising her or when people he had met in the past two years mentioned her, he could even chime in with a few words.
It seemed to Wang Lianhua that he was just an old acquaintance.
He has let go of the past. In the two years he has experienced, he has seen through many things that he couldn't see at eighteen. Just as he has shed his boyish appearance and the last trace of childishness on his face, his experience has enriched him, enough for him to understand many things he didn't understand back then.
It's as if Shen Lang once said: Wang Lianhua was clever but only hurt himself. Now he has seen many things and his experience allows him to understand what he couldn't understand back then. He understands the dilemma and can talk about the ending and the final outcome.
So he will eventually forget, the past will become the past, just like that person did. They became each other's past that they had to face. Having overcome the past, they naturally moved on to their own paths.
Xiongmao'er thought so too. Who knows, maybe a few years later, when Wang Lianhua sees that person again, he can greet her. Then he won't have to worry about staging a thrilling escape from the Golden Wind and Fine Rain Pavilion. Although Xiongmao'er still didn't understand why Shen Lang always sighed, why he always said it was all debt.
He weighed the bottle in his hand, then opened it and smelled it, finding the aroma quite pleasant. "Oh well," he thought, "bad luck is bad luck, I'll accept it. It'd be stupid not to drink good wine."
Not wanting to be a fool, Panda decided to go find Zhu Qiqi and Shen Lang. However, he wouldn't abandon his good brother. He glanced at Wang Lianhua, who had long since returned to normal. He hadn't had that feeling of being detached from the world for a long time; he had truly settled down and become part of the Zhu family's prosperity.
Panda asked Wang Lianhua with a grin, "Why don't we not waste it and drink it? This is good wine."
Wang Lianhua rolled her eyes at him, finding his drunken state amusing, and asked, "Haven't you ever tasted good wine before? You drank quite a bit at the Hua family in Jiangnan last time."
“That’s not the same thing. Drinking isn’t something you can calculate like that,” Panda argued. “Drinking means I drink as much as I can, not that I stop when I’m done. I’ll laugh at any hero who stops drinking after they’ve had their fill!” Panda’s definition of a hero has always been drinking.
Wang Lianhua was too lazy to argue with him, so Xiongmao'er put the opened jar of wine under his nose for him to smell.
Panda was very confident in this jar of wine, certain that Wang Lianhua would be tempted. As for anything else, he thought Wang Lianhua wouldn't care about that now.
As expected, the young man's expression didn't change, but his eyes lit up. He also felt that what Xiongmao'er said made some sense, and said, "Let's go find Shen Lang, or let's just kill him together."
Since he asked, all Xiongmao'er could say was, "Of course we'll go find Shen Lang!"
Then he turned around, grabbed the wine jar, and ran off. Wang Lianhua cursed the panda under his breath and followed him.
Unlike the panda, he wasn't in a hurry, so he naturally didn't use his light-footed skills. He strolled leisurely through the crowd of congratulatory people, and then slowly went to find the swordsman who was leisurely enjoying the scenery in the backyard.
.
Zhu Qiqi, on the other hand, wasn't so relaxed. It was her twentieth birthday, and her father had thrown a grand party with half the martial arts world in attendance. She was outside with her brother-in-law entertaining the guests, and she felt like her face was going to freeze from smiling so much that she never liked to smile again.
But when it was time to leave, she immediately smiled from the bottom of her heart, letting the smile linger in her eyes. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared from the main hall and darted back to her bedroom.
Unwrapping gifts was something eighteen-year-old Zhu Qiqi enjoyed, but twenty-year-old Zhu Qiqi was different. She had received so much; her life was now without any regrets. Ordinary gifts no longer pleased her, let alone those from important people like Shen Lang, whom she had already received gifts from and thus lost interest in. The only reason she could still run back to unwrap a gift with such anticipation was because of one gift—the sole exception.
There was an important person who was far away in Bianjing, and she could only send her subordinates to make the trip.
Knowing Zhu Qiqi's affection for that person, the maid placed her gift on the top shelf. Zhu Qiqi saw it immediately and happily took it down. She first admired the outer wooden box again and again, thinking of her long-lost dear friend with tender feelings, then wiped her hands and carefully opened the box.
The gifts that person gave were always the most unique. Zhu Qiqi could tell at a glance that she must have been collecting this gift with a kind of passion to do something naughty. When Zhu Qiqi received it, she also felt like she was doing something naughty—for no other reason than that the gift was a whole book that had just been bound, titled "The Complete Collection of Shen Lang's Childhood Dark History".
Zhu Qiqi almost burst out laughing and immediately flipped through the pages, but she held back because Xie Huailing had also written her a letter, which she decided to read first.
Holding the letter in her hand, Zhu Qiqi couldn't recognize the handwriting, nor did she know who had written it. It must have been a girl, but the handwriting was too strong and deep. She ignored all that and just kept reading. Xie Huailing was always quite interesting; she never cared about Zhu Qiqi's recent situation or asked if she had caused any trouble, because she knew all this at the Golden Wind and Fine Rain Pavilion. So, most of the time, if Zhu Qiqi's previous letter didn't specify what she needed to reply to, she would just write about her own situation, and this time was no different.
Zhu Qiqi looked around, then her beautiful eyes widened instantly, becoming like two little lanterns, and her smile vanished. She looked left and right, but it was still the same. She stood up, then screamed and ran towards the backyard.
She found it hard to describe her current feelings, and she didn't want to. Zhu Qiqi ran all the way and quickly found Shen Lang and the two people drinking with him. She couldn't care less about anything else. As she got closer, she ran and shouted.
"Shen Lang, Shen Lang, Shen Lang—"
Having not seen Zhu Qiqi so panicked in a long time, Shen Lang hugged her tightly and asked considerately, "What's wrong? What happened?"
Zhu Qiqi grabbed his sleeve, her face showing betrayal, and uttered that name: "Huai Ling, Huai Ling..."
Shen Lang asked with concern, "Miss Xie, what's wrong? Are you injured or...?"
Zhu Qiqi blurted out, feeling betrayed and let down. Her best friend hadn't told her anything. Zhu Qiqi burst into tears: "Huailing is getting married behind my back, and only telling me now!"
"Thud—"
This is the sound of Shen Lang almost dropping the bowl in his shock, only to have it caught by Xiongmao'er in time.
Panda kept saying to himself, "Thank goodness, that was close! I almost ruined one of my favorite bowls." Before he could finish celebrating, he heard a sharp crack behind him as a bowl fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.
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