Chapter 86: She’s Looking For You

Source: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5896087
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.

With the sound of the clock gears reversing, time went back to noon.  

Wei Qingyu had just finished class and saw off Feng Yue when Chen Linji pushed the door open, holding a delicate, heavy box.  

He looked at Wei Qingyu, who was about to leave, and placed the box on the clean desk. He opened it while saying, “Try it and see if it fits.”  

The moment Chen Linji finished speaking, sunlight from outside fell exactly into the opened box.  

A neatly folded white dress gleamed with silver light, catching Wei Qingyu’s eyes.  

She touched the soft fabric lightly and asked, “This is…”  

“The makeup artist is waiting downstairs, your uncle will take you to a banquet later,” Chen Linji said.  

Wei Qingyu seemed to understand something and nodded obediently, “Okay.”  

Soft light filled the clean room, the fabric adorned with tiny diamonds sparkling in the sun, like countless stars falling.  

Chen Linji’s secretary had asked for Wei Qingyu’s measurements not long ago; the exquisite dress would fit her perfectly.

Wei Qingyu will turn eighteen in less than three months. The maturity of an adult Omega had already begun to quietly unfold beneath her snow-white skin, like an apple not yet fully ripe, where youth and ripeness coexisted, elegance mingled with the spirit of a girl.  

“Very good.” Chen Linji nodded in approval at Wei Qingyu’s outfit. “It’s getting late, let’s go.”  

Wei Qingyu nodded slightly at his words and followed Chen Linji into the car.  

The winter scenery was dull and monotonous. Wei Qingyu looked at the snow outside that had not yet melted and asked softly, “Uncle Chen, are we starting the second phase of the plan?”  

Chen Linji nodded. “The Jin family will also be at the banquet later. Make a good impression.”  

Wei Qingyu, as always, nodded obediently. Yet her reflection on the car window carried a few unnoticed shadows.  

She knew Chen Linji meant well. In his eyes, Jin Nanfeng was far better than Ji Xiao.  

But dislike was dislike. Even though she had spent half a semester in the same class with Jin Nanfeng, their exchanges could only barely count as half a friendship.  

Some people were used to being alone. All they wanted was a lover.  

Winter nights came earlier than any other season. The sun set behind the western mountains, leaving only a line of gold in the sky before five o’clock.  

The car stopped smoothly at the hotel entrance. Chen Linji led Wei Qingyu into the banquet, which had just begun.  

When Jin Changsong saw Chen Linji arrive, he raised his glass and greeted, “Linji.”  

Chen Linji also lifted his glass and replied, “Brother Changsong.”  

Glasses touched, and the clear sound rang out.  

Standing beside them, Wei Qingyu could tell from their forms of address that the two had a deep relationship.  

After one drink, Jin Changsong noticed Wei Qingyu standing beside Chen Linji. He smiled and said, “Qingyu, long time no see. I think you look even prettier than when I saw you a year ago.”  

Wei Qingyu gave a small smile. “You flatter me.”  

“Linji, you may not know. I met Qingyu at a New Year’s banquet in the first half of this year. Back then, I already felt this young girl had a bright future.”  

Jin Changsong had seen Wei Qingyu’s manners before, and his words showed his appreciation for her.  

Even though he said it to Chen Linji, the other company heads nearby also heard it clearly, and they all could not help but look at Wei Qingyu, the Wei family’s young lady in name only, with more respect.  

“Dad.”  

As they were chatting, Jin Nanfeng, who for some unknown reason had arrived late, walked toward them from afar.  

Chen Linji saw Jin Nanfeng and smiled. “Nanfeng is here too.”  

“Uncle Chen.” Jin Nanfeng nodded slightly, and his gaze could not help drifting to Wei Qingyu beside Chen Linji.  

It was nothing unusual, but Chen Linji still caught it.

He instantly misunderstood Jin Nanfeng’s glance and thought it had another meaning. He stepped forward a little and leaned toward Jin Changsong, saying, “Mr. Wu is already here. Should we go and say hello?”  

“Mm, we should go.” Jin Changsong nodded, then gestured to Jin Nanfeng beside him, “Let’s go.”  

But Chen Linji stopped them. “Let the kids talk here for a while. We can go greet Mr. Wu ourselves.”  

Jin Changsong looked at Jin Nanfeng and Wei Qingyu, as if thinking about something. After a few seconds, he nodded. “Then we’ll go find Mr. Wu first. Nanfeng, stay with Qingyu and don’t wander.”  

“Okay.” Jin Nanfeng nodded.  

But after the elders left, the two of them did not become lively like they expected. Instead, the quiet between them deepened.  

Even though in others’ eyes one was an S-level Alpha and the other an S-level Omega, and they should have found it easy to feel something for each other, they were like travelers who walked against the rules of the world, both not interested for their own reasons.  

After standing for a while, Jin Nanfeng felt it was not good to keep standing there, so he said to Wei Qingyu, “Let’s go sit over there.”  

“Okay.” Wei Qingyu nodded.  

But as she moved, a dull glint flashed through her loose black hair and entered Jin Nanfeng’s sight.  

Jin Nanfeng shifted his gaze a little and looked at Wei Qingyu. He saw a tiny diamond, not easy to notice, caught between her thick strands.  

He lightly tapped his own hair to remind her. “There’s a small diamond here. It should be from your dress.”

Wei Qingyu stopped when she heard him and reached up to take the small diamond from her hair like Jin Nanfeng said.  

But after trying a few times, she still could not touch the strand that caught it.  

Jin Nanfeng stood beside her watching. He meant well and did not think too much. He lifted the hand that had been in his pocket.  

Wei Qingyu seemed to know what he wanted to do. She did not like physical contact with others and wanted to step back to refuse, but Jin Nanfeng had already reached out.  

“Thump.”  

A fierce thump sounded in Wei Qingyu’s heart.  

Not excitement, but panic.  

She could not dodge Jin Nanfeng’s hand moving through her long hair. She turned her head by instinct and met Ji Xiao’s gaze from the other side of the crowd.  

Light and shadows broke the line of sight between them. Ji Xiao stood in the center of the crowd wearing a simple black cut-out dress.  

Her golden-orange eyes held a mix of emotions, and Wei Qingyu read a large piece of sorrow in them.  

Ji Xiao never expected that her first time seeing Wei Qingyu today would be watching Jin Nanfeng brush his hand through her hair.  

The bright lights fell over their heads, making the scene so beautiful that no words in the world could describe it, and it deeply stung Ji Xiao’s eyes.  

And at that moment, Ji Qingyun, who stood beside Ji Xiao, also saw Wei Qingyu.

The emotion hidden in his eyes was easy to guess, all of it was surprise.  

“President Ji.”  

At this moment, Chen Linji walked over with a wine glass, followed by several company heads, cutting off Ji Qingyun’s thoughts.  

Chen Linji followed Ji Qingyun’s gaze toward Wei Qingyu not far away and explained with a smile, “President Ji, I happened to meet Qingyu today. I heard my younger brother was not planning to bring her. Since Mr. Wu had a lot of ties with her father when he was alive, I made the decision to bring her here. I hope you will not mind?”  

“How could I?” Ji Qingyun looked at Mr. Wu beside him and pulled out a slightly apologetic smile. “I only worried she would remember the past, so I did not bring her. President Chen thought more carefully.”  

After saying that, Ji Qingyun clinked glasses with Chen Linji.  

This was the first time Ji Xiao saw the sharp and smooth Ji Qingyun suffer a setback.  

She looked at the three main figures around them, Mr. Wu, Jin Changsong, and Chen Linji, and understood that Ji Qingyun had been tricked by Chen Linji and the others.  

This was a play Chen Linji staged using Mr. Wu’s banquet, marking the first step of Wei Qingyu’s return to the upper circle in the original text.  

On the surface, he earned favor from Mr. Wu. In secret, he made Ji Qingyun lose face. And with this banquet, he could also push Jin Nanfeng and Wei Qingyu to interact more.  

Three gains in one move. He was truly an old fox.  

Ji Xiao felt a war made of words unfolding.  

Even if there were no blades, when people with deep plans stood together, they could still stir up a bloodbath.

She did not know if it was because of the invisible clash, or because of the scene she saw of Wei Qingyu and Jin Nanfeng together, but Ji Xiao suddenly wanted to escape the banquet.  

The winter night was cold like knives. A few lonely stars flickered on the black sky.  

While no one was paying attention, Ji Xiao slipped out of the hall alone, wearing her mink coat.  

The fountain in the back garden kept its water above freezing and flowed in a quiet and elegant way.  

Ji Xiao looked at the little angel stone statue standing above the fountain. She pushed herself up with her arms and sat on the edge of the fountain.  

The girl’s legs crossed and swung in a relaxed way. In her earphones played Mai Kuraki’s “Time After Time.”  

Curled hair brushed her ear tip. Ji Xiao looked up at the sky. On the black curtain, all she saw reflected were the side profiles of Wei Qingyu and Jin Nanfeng.  

The stars twinkled. It felt like the lights that fell on their close moment earlier should not have been the fake glow of wine and money, but cherry blossoms blooming in March.  

Ji Xiao felt she should be happy, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not feel happy.  

When she saw Wei Qingyu stand with another boy, even if that boy was the male lead she once shipped so hard in her original world, her heart still hurt like it was torn apart.  

The black hole in her heart kept dropping pale pieces, and the growing emptiness was slowly eating her up.  

She knew the only one who could fill the hollow in her heart was someone she could not have.  

But you are the one who chose to step back. You are the one who wants to put everything back on track.  

So what right do you have to blame anyone?

Then should she run away from here?  

Source: http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5896087
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.

Ji Xiao thought about it and raised her hand to block the sky that showed Wei Qingyu’s side face.  

But when she lowered her hand, she saw that familiar face through her fingers.  

Jin Nanfeng walked out from the bright doorway of the banquet hall with his hands in his pockets. “You’re here.”  

Ji Xiao sat high on the edge of the fountain and looked down at Jin Nanfeng. She let out a cold “Mm,” “Can’t I?”  

“You can.” Jin Nanfeng nodded.  

As he spoke, he moved one step to the left and revealed the doorway behind him.  

“But she’s looking for you.”  

When his words fell, a Tumi flower shining with silver-white light bloomed in Ji Xiao’s sight in the dim yellow courtyard.  

Wei Qingyu lifted her dress and walked out of the doorway with careful steps.