NOVPUBChapter 384: 370, Her and His Past (1)_1
Chapter 384: 370, Her and His Past (1)_1
The corridor was empty and every sound seemed loud.
“Master is in there,” Ning Feng said, looking at the tightly shut door.
After speaking, he grasped the door handle and turned it.
As the door opened, Jian Qing lifted her gaze to see a room so dark as to be impenetrable. It was dim and eerily quiet.
After a moment of silence, she turned to look at the man beside her, “Xiaojing, wait for me here.”
“Alright.” Quan Jingwu nodded.
Jian Qing stepped inside, and Ning Feng closed the door behind her, leaving it slightly ajar.
Entering the room, a pungent smell of alcohol hit her straight in the face.
Jian Qing frowned. Relying on her good vision, she found the switch on the wall and walked over to it, pressing it with a “click”.
The luxurious crystal light brightened, its soft halo illuminating each corner of the room and driving away the uneasy darkness.
Almost simultaneously, a hoarse voice growled out.
“Ning Feng, turn off the light and get out!”
Before the voice faded, the sound of bottles clinking intermittently could be heard.
Jian Qing withdrew her hand and followed the sound.
Walking to the left side of the bed, what she saw made her eyes harden. 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓅𝓾𝒷.𝒸ℴ𝓂
The man was slumped by the side of the bed, his handsome face showing signs of defeat. The dark circles under his eyes could rival those of a panda, while his usually clean-shaven chin was shadowed with stubble.
Jian Qing’s long fingers clenched. The man in front of her was a stark contrast to the proud and unrestrained Mo Xiao in her memory.
He seemed like he had fallen from grace, from the altar to the depths of hell.
He was melancholic, decadent, and spiritless.
Perhaps annoyed at the light being on for so long, the man finally lost his patience.
His tightly closed eyes suddenly flew open as he roared without lifting his head.
“Ning Feng, are you taking my words as wind?”
“It’s me!”
The cold voice resonated softly, exploding in Mo Xiao’s ear.
Hesitation seized him, and he swiftly raised his head.
When he saw who was standing in front of him, an inkling of astonishment flashed in his bloodshot eyes.
Was he drunk or still not fully awake?
He shook his head, and looking again, the person in front of him was still there.
It wasn’t a dream; she had really come.
Jian Qing, looking down from above at the man who seemed to be in a state of shock, softened when she saw what he was clutching in his arms.
A thick stack of photographs, all featuring her, Luoluo, and her mother.
They must have been given to him by Old Master An.
Meeting her clear gaze, Mo Xiao finally regained his composure.
Using the edge of the bed for support, he stood up unsteadily.
Given the binge drinking of the past few days and nights, it was quite something that he could still stand.
“You, why are you here?”
Clutching the photos, recalling the harsh words he had just spoken, he suddenly felt at a loss.
“I didn’t know it was you just now. I thought it was Ning Feng, so… I didn’t mean to yell at you.”
Who could have imagined that the imperious and arrogant Mo Xiao would also have a day when he would observe others’ reactions and speak carefully.
Jian Qing looked at him, silent.
Seeing her not speaking, Mo Xiao’s thin lips drew into a bitter curve.
Now, she probably disliked him even more.
“Did Ning Feng come to find you? If you don’t want to be here, don’t force yourself.” As he spoke these words, it was as if his heart was being stabbed with a small dagger.
After a long while, Jian Qing finally spoke up. Her gaze landed on the photographs he was holding. “Those photos…”
Mo Xiao froze, assuming that she did not want to leave even these photos with him.
He reflexively hid the photos behind his back. Because of his hasty movement, the thick stack of photos scattered to the floor.
The photos fluttered and fell on the icy marble floor, he immediately bent down to pick them up. The gleeful face of Jian Qing in the photos stung his heart.
His eyes reddened as his large, calloused hands carefully picked up each picture, cradling them like precious treasures.
Jian Qing watched him, a fleeting trace of sympathy flashed in her eyes.
Having collected all the photos, Mo Xiao gently placed the pictures on the bed. Then he turned to look at her.
“Can you accompany me for a while?”
Hesitating for a moment, Jian Qing gave a slight nod.
A glimmer of hope ignited in Mo Xiao’s dim eyes. He quickly fetched a chair and placed it in front of Jian Qing.
“Sit down first; standing for too long will make your legs sour.”
Invisibly, Mo Xiao’s inclination to pamper women seemed to skyrocket.
Jian Qing masked the warmth in her eyes and sat down on the chair he brought over.
Mo Xiao’s gloomy face softened slightly as he sat down by the bed.
The two sat facing each other, the atmosphere turning silent once more.
After a while, it was Jian Qing who broke the silence.
“How did you meet my mother?”
Mentioning Jian Wei, Mo Xiao’s eyes softened.
“The year I met Weiwei, I was already a colonel. At that time, I was leading a mission in Y Country. On the day before we were supposed to return after resolving the issue successfully, I met Weiwei in a club. She had gotten into a fight with someone, and I just happened to pass by when she dragged me into the mess.”
As he spoke, a faint smile emerged on his lips.
Back then, she appeared in front of him like a shrewd little fox. When her tender and fragile hands held his, he knew right then and there that he couldn’t let go.
“After Weiwei and I fended off the people who were ganging up on us, we ran out of the club. Once outside, my men eventually found us. When we were about to leave, Weiwei said she owed me a life debt and pledged herself to me, following wherever I went.”
He remembered how his men had hollered ‘sister-in-law’ when they heard her words, and for the first time, he didn’t stop them.
Jian Qing listened quietly, the scenario he described vividly playing out in her head.
Her grandmother had said that her mother was straightforward in her likes and dislikes. She was so candid that it sometimes made her seem like a boy, causing headaches. It seemed that her grandmother was correct.
He continued, “She followed me to the hotel where I was staying and booked a room next door. The next day, when I should have returned to China, looking at her innocent eyes, I decided to stay back, letting my team return first.”
Even though he knew she was pretending to look pitiable at the time, he still couldn’t help but give in, so he decided to stay in Y Country for a bit longer.
“Weiwei was very familiar with Y Country. She took me around to different places for those few days. She did not tell me her name, only that she was called Weiwei. One day, she overheard one of my men call me Captain An, after that she just simply called me An. I once asked her for her name, but she said she’d tell me when the time was right.”
This turned out to be the regret of his lifetime. If he’d insisted on knowing her name back then, he might not have spent years searching for her blindly.
There were countless Weiweis in the world. Every time he heard a faint trace of information and rushed to it, only to face disappointment and despair, he almost became numb to it.
