Rong Zhaonan slowly came to his senses, staring intently at Ning Yuan with a complicated expression, but he didn't say anything.
Seeing his unusually slow reaction, Ning Yuan could guess that his mind was probably in turmoil.
Ning Yuan rolled her eyes, really not wanting to talk to him.
Tsk... I knew it! This father and son are related, and that smug look on their faces is just so annoying! They only say half of what they mean!
She continued to press herself against the corner of the wall, listening intently to what was being said inside.
Rong Zhaonan watched as she disdainfully moved aside, so he silently shifted his tall frame closer.
Secretary Qiu was extremely nervous and was looking around when she accidentally turned her head and saw that troublesome little devil sidling up to the girl who was eavesdropping like a big dog, and silently pressing against her arm.
Secretary Qiu: "..."
He silently kept turning his head back, and whenever he saw a waiter or someone else coming by, he quickly sent them away.
...
In the private room
Rong Wenwu stared at Madam Ning in shock: "What did you say...?"
"I said Xiao Ning is my daughter. What, you have a problem with her? Are you afraid she will implicate your son?" Madam Ning sneered.
Rong Wenwu opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say. He stared blankly at Madam Ning.
Madam Ning said coldly, "Let me tell you, Rong Jiuyu, if it weren't for the fact that your son has half of Zhu Jun's blood in him, I would make Xiao Ning divorce your son right now. My daughter is not good enough for your family!"
Rong Wenwu's mind was also in turmoil, but he didn't know what to say: "Sister Huifang..."
Under the window, Rong Zhaonan was about to stand up with a gloomy face, but the next moment, Ning Yuan twisted the flesh of his arm.
She stared at him coldly, and said almost silently, "You dare to stand up and try!"
Rong Zhaonan's sharp brows furrowed slightly as her warm breath unintentionally brushed past his ear.
A sharp, subtle pain shot through his arm, causing a flicker in his usually cold eyes. He inexplicably licked the corner of his lips, remaining motionless in his original position.
Inside the room, Rong Wenwu looked at Madam Ning and rubbed his temples. "Sister Huifang, calm down, I need to think about this..."
Madam Ning interrupted him with a cold laugh: "What are you thinking about? How did you abandon your wife and children for your future? Now you want to use the same reason to separate Xiao Ning and Xiao... Zhao Nan?"
She paused, looked at him, and chuckled softly: "Ah, I forgot, you've always been like this. You were heartless and ungrateful back then, so what's so strange about you being selfish and self-serving now!"
Back then, Rong Jiuyu was just a poor student. After his parents passed away, his elders brought him to Shanghai to work. He worked odd jobs to earn money while continuing his studies.
That elder from the Rong family was a distant relative of her maternal family, though they were not related by blood. Rong Jiuyu could still call her "cousin" without any real connection.
"I only helped you because of your aunt, but I never expected to be such an ingrate. I'm so sorry to Zhu Jun!" Madam Ning said self-deprecatingly.
Rong Wenwu's face grew increasingly ashen; he endured it all, the veins on his forehead bulging.
Under the mocking gaze of his old friends, he seemed to see that woman standing in front of him again.
Madam Ning looked at him hatefully: "I shouldn't have introduced you to Zhu Jun because of your talent, and made you her secretary to earn tuition fees, but I ruined her life!"
Inside the room, the usually imposing and composed man suddenly slammed his fist on the table, his eyes bloodshot, and cried out uncontrollably, "It wasn't me, it was her! She was the one who abandoned me back then!"
A man who had fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood throughout his life exuded an aura that caused even Madam Ning to take a step back.
She stared blankly at the man in front of her, her brows furrowing.
Rong Wenwu closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and slumped down, feeling ashamed of his loss of composure. "Sister Huifang, whether you believe it or not... it was Zhujun who proposed the divorce and separation."
Madam Ning the Second naturally didn't believe it, and coldly said, "She never remarried in her life, and even wanted to send her child back to you. When you were nothing, she was willing to defy the family's orders to marry you. Now that you have achieved great success, she wants to divorce you?"
She paused, then said coldly, "You're only saying these things because she's already dead! No one can find out the truth!"
Rong Wenwu chuckled softly, lowered his eyes, and said in a hoarse voice, "I know you don't believe me. After all, I didn't believe it at first either... She wanted to divorce me when the child was still an infant."
He said softly, "I begged her to stay, but she didn't agree, even though she said she had never regretted marrying me..."
...
“Ayu, I insisted on marrying you in the first half of my life because I love you; when the nation was on the verge of collapse, I supported you with everything I had to go to the battlefield, even though I was so afraid that you would sacrifice yourself.”
The woman's voice was clear, cool, and elegant, lingering in my ears for a long time.
The woman of unparalleled beauty and he were separated by the river of time, gazing at each other from afar.
He heard his own hoarse voice calling her across decades: "Zhu Jun..."
She sighed softly: "Now that the war is over, my father has done countless good deeds and donated a great deal of money throughout his life. His only wish before his death was to make his bank a source of pride for the Chinese people. I must go across the ocean to fulfill my responsibilities as a daughter of the Zhou family."
In the depths of Rong Wenwu's, no, Rong Jiuyu's, memory, there was a woman of unparalleled beauty, backlit.
The church-style stained glass behind them fragmented the light and shadow of that day.
Across the vast river of time, she softly asked him, "Ayu, look, dawn has fallen on our land. Day has broken, we have survived, the war is over. Would you like to come with me?"
He was dressed in military uniform, gazing at her intently for a long time: "Zhu Jun, every time I charged through the gunfire and saw my fallen comrades, I told myself, 'Live to die...'"
"If I am fortunate enough to live to the end, I must see for them what tomorrow will be like, whether their homes and rivers will be safe and sound, whether the children will be worried about the grades on their report cards, and whether the adults will be concerned about the trivial matters of life, rather than the death knives..."
He raised his reddened eyes: "But it's not enough, Zhu Jun, it's not enough. At a time when everything is in ruins and we are rebuilding our homes, while wolves are still eyeing our doorstep, I cannot lay down my arms, I cannot leave so irresponsibly."
She looked at him, and he looked at her.
His eyes were red, as if he wanted to freeze her in place with his gaze: "In the midst of war, you were willing to risk your life with me, now I beg you, you will stay..."
"Rong Wenwu." The beautiful woman suddenly spoke, but she called him by his changed name.
That was the name his old squad leader gave him after he had gone through one life-or-death battle after another.
Jade is fragile, but "literary" and "martial" qualities will not break.
Moreover, literature can bring prosperity to the nation, and military force can save it.
He stared at her, stunned, his eyes red.
As if she had already anticipated his answer, her beautiful, alluring eyes slowly reddened, and she sighed softly—
“I know, my Jiuyu is gone, and Rong Wenwu has the responsibility to his family and country that he can never let go of…”
The beautiful woman smiled through her tears: "It's such a pity. We've walked together for the first half of our lives, Comrade Rong Wenwu. How wonderful it would be if I could be with you to see what tomorrow holds."
She turned her head slightly and said, "It's a pity that Zhou Zhujun also has responsibilities she can't forget. Let's forget about her. Rong Wenwu has his own life to live."
She slowly turned around and disappeared into that blurry expanse of time, leaving nothing behind except a large sum of Zhou family wealth to support the reconstruction efforts.
Goodbye, Jiuyu.
...
“Zhu Jun…”
He tried to grasp something in vain, but couldn't grasp anything; all that remained was desolation, and his once black hair became mottled.
The figures of those I know seem to remain forever young.
Rong Wenwu closed his aged, tear-filled eyes and said in a hoarse voice, "Everything is fleeting. The next time I heard news of her, it was a picture of her grave."
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