Chapter 2 Rainy Night, Black Umbrella, Reunion
Thump—
Thump—
Thump—
The deafening music pounded on my heart like a hammer blow, and the laughter of men and women pierced my eardrums sharply.
The girl on the sofa trembled her feather-like eyelashes and suddenly opened her eyes.
Before me were the bizarre lights of the bar, and the air was filled with a strong smell of alcohol and perfume.
Across from them, Jiang Tangtang leaned closer, her bright face filled with worry.
"Ruan Yao! What are you daydreaming about? I've been calling you for ages."
She waved her hand in front of the girl's eyes, "What's wrong with your face? You look terrible."
The bizarre lighting cast dappled shadows on the face of the person on the sofa, revealing an excessively beautiful face, like a delicate beauty who stepped out of a classical painting.
At this moment, her long, curled eyelashes trembled slightly, and her almond-shaped eyes, which always looked at people with a naive and innocent air, were filled with a hint of confusion and fear.
Ruan Yao's gaze slowly focused, landing on the other person's concerned face.
It was her best friend, Jiang Tangtang.
What's going on?
She parted her cherry-colored lips, her voice so faint it was almost drowned out by the music.
"Tangtang, what are you doing here?"
"Oh my god, why are you starting to talk nonsense?" Jiang Tangtang touched her smooth forehead with the back of her hand; it felt slightly cool. "You don't have a fever. Is it too noisy here? Are you not used to it?"
Jiang Tangtang knew that her best friend was always a pampered and obedient girl raised at home, and rarely came to such occasions.
"I... feel a little dizzy," Ruan Yao said honestly.
"I told you you couldn't drink, but you insisted on drinking with me." Jiang Tangtang took the wine glass from her hand with heartache and couldn't help but pinch her soft cheek. "Alright, alright, you've already done me a favor by drinking that glass. You should go back first; I'm worried about you looking like this."
Feeling dizzy, Ruan Yao stood up, holding onto the edge of the sofa. Her body swayed, and her mind was filled with chaotic thoughts, making her want to find a place to be alone.
She walked out of the bar.
A cool night breeze blew in my face, carrying with it a few damp raindrops.
It's raining outside.
The cold raindrops hitting her face cleared her mind somewhat.
Ruan Yao stretched out her hand, watching the raindrops fall into her palm, bringing a slight shiver.
Didn't she jump off the seventeenth floor with Shen Yu in her arms?
The wind tearing my body apart, the weightlessness of falling—it all felt so real.
But now, she's standing here perfectly fine.
Ruan Yao looked down at her unharmed body, wearing a beautiful white dress, the hem of which was gently swaying in the night breeze.
Clean, delicate, without a trace of blood.
She took out her phone again and glanced at the date.
The first week after graduating from university.
Just now, it was Tangtang's birthday party.
Ruan Yao raised her hand and pinched her cheek hard with her fair fingertips, which made her gasp in pain and her eyes instantly redden.
It's not a dream.
She was reborn.
We've gone back two years, to a time before all the tragedies happened.
Now, the Ruan family has not gone bankrupt, and Huo Yanzhi is still alive.
Huo Yanzhi didn't know her yet. She didn't become Shen Yu's pawn, didn't harm the Huo family, and didn't put him in jail.
Everything can still be salvaged.
Ruan Yao's eyes welled up with tears. She took a deep breath and tried to suppress the tears that threatened to spill over and the surging emotions within her.
She remembered this day in her previous life.
Right outside this bar, after saying goodbye to Jiang Tangtang and the others, she encountered a drunken thug as she was preparing to go home.
She was terrified. Her newly bought phone fell to the ground and shattered. She ran home in the rain and fell seriously ill.
Ruan Yao gripped her phone tightly, preparing to hail a taxi.
She couldn't afford to be as pathetic as she was in her previous life.
She wanted to go home to see her parents, her brother, and Huo Yanzhi.
The screen lights up, displaying the interface of the ride-hailing app.
She was about to tap "Call a vehicle".
A strong, pungent smell of alcohol suddenly wafted from the darkness beside us.
A muffled male voice rang out.
"Little beauty, are you alone?"
I still ran into them.
Ruan Yao's body reacted before her brain. She took a step back, gripped her phone tightly, and her fingertip was already tapping the emergency number.
Unlike her previous life, when she was panicked and fled in a disheveled state, she was still the pampered Miss Ruan at heart.
Although she was so scared her heart was about to jump out of her chest and her palms were sweating, she now understood that backing down and screaming were useless.
“If you take one more step, I… I will call the police.”
Ruan Yao raised her phone, the screen illuminating her feigned composure.
His eyes were misty, filled with a panic he was trying desperately to hide.
The man was momentarily stunned by her, but then became enraged and reached out to grab her wrist.
"Hey, you dare to talk back to me?"
Ruan Yao's heart was in her throat.
Just then, a hand grabbed the man's wrist and easily threw him away.
"What do you want to do?" a calm male voice rang out.
Ruan Yao looked up and saw a man in a black suit standing between her and the drunkard.
The drunkard grumbled as he got up from the ground, but after looking at the man's sophisticated demeanor, he sobered up completely.
Knowing he couldn't afford to offend them, he muttered a couple of things and slunk away.
The crisis is over.
The man then turned around and looked at Ruan Yao.
"Miss, are you alright?"
Qin Feng.
Huo Yanzhi's most trusted special assistant, and his absolutely loyal subordinate.
Ruan Yao looked at him, her heart pounding.
In her previous life, after her relationship with Huo Yanzhi broke down, Qin Feng told her that Mr. Huo had done a lot for her and that she had misunderstood.
But at that time, she was deceived by Shen Yu and couldn't listen to anything he said.
But why is Qin Feng here?
In my previous life, there was no story of Qin Feng appearing to help me out, and there was no one else around.
A thought flashed into her mind, making her blood freeze.
Qin Feng is here, does that mean...?
Ruan Yao looked past Qin Feng's shoulder and eagerly towards the street opposite him.
The rain became finer, blurring the neon lights across the street into a hazy mass of light.
A figure is walking out from the bright lights of the 24-hour convenience store.
He opened a black umbrella, its canopy blocking out the hazy lights above and casting a serene shadow around him.
The man was wearing a well-tailored dark suit, and his tall and slender figure gave him an undeniable presence.
He held up a black umbrella and looked over quietly across a busy road and a light rain.
Those unfathomable eyes landed squarely on her.
In an instant, all the sounds in the world disappeared.
The noisy traffic, the bustling crowds, and the cold sound of rain all faded away.
In Ruan Yao's eyes, only that figure remained.
Huo Yanzhi.
It was him.
The living, real Huo Yanzhi, who hasn't yet been dragged into the abyss by her.
The image of her dying moments in her past life overlapped with the image of this man standing alive before her.
His features were striking, his nose high and straight, and his thin lips tightly pressed together—the most familiar look in her memory.
But those eyes, seen through the rainy night, appeared exceptionally calm and distant.
Unlike later on, when he was always filled with an almost insane possessiveness and obsession with her, like a snake waiting for its chance to strike, suffocating her.
Ruan Yao's nose suddenly stung with tears.
Her heart felt like it was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, the pain making it hard for her to breathe, and even her fingertips felt numb.
Her eyes quickly welled up with tears, blurring her vision. The man across the street with the black umbrella became a swaying shadow.
Huo Yanzhi is still alive.
Not the man who later became lifeless after the Huo family's downfall.
Not the man who calmly signs the divorce papers and says, "No one will pressure you anymore."
Not her ex-husband, who eventually died in prison.
Joy and sorrow almost overwhelmed her.
Ruan Yao stood there, across the street, gazing at him through teary eyes.
Her snow-white cheeks, the corners of her eyes and the tip of her nose were flushed with a fragile red from the tears she was trying to hold back, as if she would fall apart at any moment, making her look extremely pitiful.
She noticed that Huo Yanzhi's eyebrows seemed to twitch slightly.
Then, he said something to Qin Feng beside him.
Qin Feng nodded immediately, quickly ran across the road, and returned to her side.
"Miss."
A long-handled black umbrella was handed to her.
"The rain is getting heavier." Qin Feng's voice pulled her back from her emotions, carrying a hint of gentle persuasion, "Take this umbrella and hurry home."
Ruan Yao's fingers trembled slightly as she mechanically took the umbrella handle, but her gaze remained fixed on the man across the street, past Qin Feng.
She wanted to go there.
She wanted to run to him immediately and say something to him.
Say whatever you want.
She took a step, just about to step out.
Across the street, Huo Yanzhi bent down, closed his umbrella, and got into the back seat of the black Bentley.
His movements didn't stop for a moment; his gaze shifted from her and he didn't look at her again.
It was a kind of indifference and alienation towards strangers.
This was completely different from the burning passion in his eyes when they first met in their past life, a passion that almost devoured her.
The car door slammed shut.
The black car smoothly entered the traffic and quickly merged into the distant lights, disappearing from sight.
Ruan Yao was left alone, standing there in astonishment.
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