“Gu YunZhou and Xia Chen are both there, right? Honestly, you just wanted to intimidate Shi Dan. Now that you’ve achieved your goal, there’s no need to go all the way. Besides, I can promise you—he won’t lay a finger on Ye QiuXue again.”
HuMing glanced down at Shi Dan beneath his foot, then looked at Shi Ren standing in front of him. After a moment, he loosened his stance and stepped aside.
Shi Ren gave HuMing a slight bow before helping Shi Dan to his feet and guiding him out of the alley.
Shi Dan kept shouting, demanding that Shi Ren avenge him, but Shi Ren ignored every word. Without so much as a response, he disappeared down the alley with him.
HuMing watched them slowly vanish, then turned his gaze toward Ye QiuXue.
She ran up to his side, reaching out with both hands, examining him closely.
“HuMing, are you okay?! That bastard Shi Dan didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry.” HuMing rested a hand on her head.
The gesture made Gu YunZhou and Xia Chen, watching from a distance, widen their eyes in disbelief.
It was the first time they’d seen HuMing act so gently toward a girl.
And from the look of things, HuMing had clearly stood up for her!
In that instant, both of them became very curious about the girl’s identity.
Xia Chen frowned slightly as he took in the scene between HuMing and Ye QiuXue. He instinctively thought of his own little sister.
He wasn’t sure how his sister felt about HuMing, but given how she talked about him all the time, he figured the odds were high she liked him.
He had no idea how she’d feel if she saw this.
Gu YunZhou, on the other hand, was simply stunned. He didn’t even know HuMing had any friends in JingDu—let alone a female friend.
Judging by how close they were, their relationship wasn’t ordinary at all.
Nobody in the family knew about this. And he had no plans to tell them.
Still, he was curious—just what was it about this girl that had caught HuMing’s attention?
“Who was that Shi Ren just now? Do you know him?”
“Yeah. He used to be the top student in school. He overtook me in grades a while back. But I had no idea he was from the Shi family. He never had any contact with Shi Dan on campus.”
“Probably because of his background.”
HuMing thought of the mark on Shi Ren’s body—he was clearly part of “Blizzard”. But to think he also belonged to the Shi family…
Maybe the internal strife in the Shi family was connected to Blizzard too.
Just how many secrets were buried within that organization?
“HuMing… let’s go eat.” Ye QiuXue tugged gently on his sleeve, her earlier coldness melting into warmth.
HuMing nodded and let her lead him away.
Seeing that, Gu YunZhou rubbed his chin and turned to leave as well. Xia Chen pulled out his phone and sent a message to Xia XiaoXi.
In Kang Xin’s memories, there was a past she could never erase.
Memories that had been with her for as long as she could remember—and ones that refused to fade.
Now, after all this time, she found herself back in JingDu.
Why had she followed HuMing here?
Partly because she had already decided he was the one she would follow. But there was another reason—one rooted in her past.
She remembered being in a secret organization from a very young age, trained relentlessly.
Back then, if you couldn’t meet their standards, you simply didn’t survive.
She’d watched people around her die, one after another, their eyes full of unwillingness in their final moments.
At first, Kang Xin had been terrified. But then a girl the same age as her had saved her.
The girl spoke in a language she barely understood, like she was pitying her for ending up in such a place.
But neither of them could escape. All they could do was endure the training.
Kang Xin told herself: if you want to survive, do everything in your power to stay alive.
Don’t fear death. The more afraid you are, the faster it comes for you.
She watched that girl break through challenge after challenge until she became the most talented one among them.
She personally trained Kang Xin, always wearing a gentle smile.
Kang Xin didn’t understand. After enduring so much, how could she still smile like that?
She had asked her once, quietly. The girl had placed a finger on Kang Xin’s lips and smiled.
“That’s my final secret,” she said. “Maybe I’ll tell you one day.”
Kang Xin had nodded, confused but obedient.
She lived in that organization for a long time. Then one day, the leader brought back an older girl.
Her face was expressionless, her body covered in scars. It looked like she’d been tortured.
But she was quieter than the first girl—never speaking unless necessary, just completing every task like a machine.
The first girl often dragged Kang Xin over to talk with her.
Strangely, Kang Xin always felt like the first girl was more like the big sister.
Eventually, the older girl began to show faint signs of warmth too—a smile, just once.
But that life was shattered in an instant.
The leader sent all three of them out on a mission.
When they arrived at the destination, they realized it was the final test.
Only one of the three would survive. One would die. One would be exiled. One would remain.
Kang Xin didn’t want to remember what happened next.
Now, she held a bouquet of flowers, walking into a graveyard.
She knew nothing of JingDu—except this place. This, she could find by memory alone.
What surprised her was how nothing seemed to have changed. It was exactly as she remembered.
She made her way forward, and as she passed the gate, she saw a woman in a cheongsam walking toward her.
Their eyes met for a brief second before the woman looked away.
But something about her face struck Kang Xin as familiar.
She didn’t dwell on it. Instead, she walked straight to a particular tombstone.
To her surprise, the area around it was clean, freshly tended. A single fresh flower was already placed there.
She immediately thought of that woman. Her eyes trembled faintly.
Still, she set her flowers down, bowed gently, and whispered,
“…Sister HuMin, it’s been a long time.”
(SHMOLL: Pinch me- PINCH ME!!)
(TL: Totally wasn't expecting this)
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