Just as Chao Youye took Mu Xinrong's hand and was about to turn around and leave, completely forgetting Ning Xiuyan in the cold air—
"Oh, President Chao really has good taste."
Ning Xiuyan's deliberately raised voice, filled with strong malice and twisted sarcasm, was like a venomous snake spitting out its tongue, sharply and abruptly tearing apart the warm and peaceful atmosphere.
Chao Youye and Mu Xinrong stopped in their tracks at the same time.
Chao Youye slowly turned around. The pair of purple eyes that had just been filled with intoxicating tenderness froze the moment they turned to Ning Xiuyan, as if they had instantly fallen from a warm spring day into the abyss of absolute zero.
The air seemed to be frozen, with a biting chill.
Mu Xinrong also turned around, the bright smile on his face disappeared instantly, and a hint of displeasure at being disturbed flashed across his clear eyes.
Then when he looked at Ning Xiuyan, his eyes became unusually calm, as calm as the dead sea before a storm.
He recognized the second young master of the Ning family, who he had seen several times on campus before, was rumored to be a playboy, and seemed to have gotten into trouble recently.
Ning Xiuyan met Chao Youye's cold gaze as if he was looking at a dead person. His heart instinctively twitched wildly with fear, but jealousy and anger had completely consumed him.
He forced himself to ignore the gaze that nearly froze his soul, and a malicious, twisted smile spread across his lips.
His gaze was like a brush stained with filth, deliberately and unscrupulously scanning Mu Xinrong up and down with an undisguised frivolity, intimacy and evaluation, as if he was looking at a commodity to be sold.
"Mr. Mu, right?" Ning Xiuyan's voice was drawn out, filled with a condescending air of almsgiving and a sickening familiarity. "As expected...youthful and energetic, like a young white flower that hasn't weathered the storm."
He paused deliberately, the malice in his smile almost overflowing, "No wonder you caught the attention of President Chao. But... " He dragged out the last syllable, his eyes becoming even more obscene.
"This kind of small greenhouse gadget is fine for fun, but someone like President Chao wouldn't really intend to..."
"Ning Xiuyan."
A cold, calm, and unmoved voice, like a scalpel, precisely cut off Ning Xiuyan's words filled with malicious speculation.
The one who spoke was not Chao Youye, but Mu Xinrong.
The malicious smile on Ning Xiuyan's face froze instantly, as if the pause button had been pressed.
He looked at Mu Xinrong in surprise.
He thought that this little white rabbit who could only smile foolishly and cling to Chao Youye would be ashamed, scared, and would hide behind Chao Youye, but he never expected that the other party would dare to interrupt him so calmly and call him by his name?
That tone... so calm and terrifying!
Mu Xinrong's face showed no trace of humiliation, anger, or panic. He continued to stand beside Chao Youye, not even dodging Ning Xiuyan's malicious gaze.
But his entire temperament had undergone a drastic and heart-pounding change. His clear and bright eyes were now like a deep pool covered with a thin layer of ice, cold and sharp, with a penetrating power that could see through everything and... a hint of disgust, as if he had seen something dirty.
He tilted his head slightly, and the corners of his lips even raised a very faint, shallow arc. There was no smile in that arc, only undisguised mockery and a kind of...condescending pity.
"You..." Mu Xinrong's voice was not loud, but it penetrated the solidified air with extraordinary clarity, carrying a strange and creepy calmness.
"...It smells like a dirty sink. It's strong. You can smell it three blocks away."
His small nostrils even wrinkled slightly in cooperation, as if he really smelled the stench.
"Why, Second Young Master Ning, haven't you washed it clean yet? Or... do you particularly like that smell and can't bear to wash it off?"
Boom——!!!
It was like a mental bomb exploded in Ning Xiuyan's brain!
The color on Ning Xiuyan's face instantly faded completely, leaving him as pale as gold paper! He was like being struck by an invisible lightning bolt that carried the stench of dirty water!
Ning Xiuyan's pupils suddenly shrank to the size of a needle tip, filled with unspeakable horror and fear as if he had seen a ghost!
My heart was beating wildly in my chest, almost exploding!
Dirty pool... Dirty pool...!!!
Zhang Xuanhua! That cold, mocking smile! That murky, foul-smelling sewage! That bone-deep humiliation and the fear that gnawed like a maggot!
All the unbearable fragments of memories that he had suppressed with alcohol and strong willpower, instantly broke through all barriers with Mu Xinrong's understated yet precise words like a scalpel, and turned into a raging, foul-smelling torrent that completely drowned him!
How could he know?! How could he possibly know?! That incident happened in a back alley so remote it couldn't be any more remote! Besides him and Zhang Xuanhua, there was absolutely no way anyone else was there! This Mu Xinrong... who... who is he?! He and Zhang Xuanhua... could it be...
The huge shock, the excruciating pain of having his bloody scars exposed in public, and an even deeper, indescribable fear that came from the depths of his soul, were like a giant cold hand, tightly strangling Ning Xiuyan's throat.
His whole body began to tremble violently and uncontrollably. His carefully groomed face was distorted under his gray-blue hair, his lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a word.
He subconsciously staggered back a step, as if trying to escape from Mu Xinrong's all-seeing, icy gaze, and the stench of the "dirty pool" that surrounded him again like a substance.
At this moment, Chao Youye moved.
He still didn't even look at Ning Xiuyan, as if the other party was already a rotten and smelly corpse.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
