Whether it was psychological or not, the more she looked at that camera, the more it resembled Ning Yu’s. She lowered her head, concealing the excess emotion in her eyes, and smiled, following up with a question: “That friend… do I know them?”
Luo Yanzhi replied with deep meaning, “Sister, you should know them?” She hooked her arm through Ning Ruohuan’s and took the camera hanging from her own neck. Her slender fingers wound the camera strap twice around her hand, but she didn’t elaborate. “I’m so tired. I had two back-to-back meetings this afternoon; my brain feels foggy.”
She led Ning Ruohuan into the villa. The butler, who had been waiting there for a long time, took the camera she handed over and removed the suit jacket draped over her arm.
Two identical cameras were carried away by the butler, disappearing from Ning Ruohuan’s sight. The latter remained silent for half a second before withdrawing her gaze and bending down to change her shoes.
Luo Yanzhi went to the bathroom to shower.
Ning Ruohuan went to the study. The two cameras were placed side-by-side in the camera cabinet. She could easily open the cabinet, take out the one Luo Yanzhi had brought back, and look at the photos inside to determine if the owner was indeed Ning Yu.
“Luo Yanzhi agreed to let me in.”
Boss, we’ve discovered that Ning Yu has been frequently appearing in the area where you live recently. Also, she has visited the Luo Group several times…
Ning Yu’s words and Shi Wen’s message collided in her mind, a single sentence and a few lines of text echoing back and forth.
“Marriage candidate,” Ning Ruohuan murmured under her breath.
She had always known the Ning family wanted to change the candidate for the alliance, but this was the first time it had been stated so clearly.
No, that’s not right.
Vaguely, she felt she finally knew the conclusion to the sentence Ning Yuan had been interrupted from finishing that day. It likely had everything to do with the choice of marriage partner.
Ning Ruohuan expressionlessly stroked the glass of the cabinet, her fingertip pressed flat against it as her gaze shifted downward inch by inch.
Ultimately, the power to decide the marriage partner lay with Luo Yanzhi.
Ning Ruohuan took half a step back and suddenly laughed out loud. How could she be shaken by Ning Yu’s words? Luo Yanzhi had said she loved her more than once.
She and Luo Yanzhi were not involved in a simple political marriage; they were bound by love. How could Luo Yanzhi possibly give her up to marry someone else from the Ning family?
She withdrew the hand that was about to open the glass door and left the study.
Entering the bedroom, she found Luo Yanzhi sitting at the vanity performing her skincare routine. Seeing the figure entering through the mirror, the hand opening the essence bottle paused. Luo Yanzhi called out crisply to the person in the mirror, “Sister.”
Ning Ruohuan curled her lips into a smile. “Is there anything I can help with?”
Luo Yanzhi spoke while applying product to her cheeks, “Not right now.” She gave an ambiguous smile. “But there could be tonight.”
Ning Ruohuan was momentarily stunned. A second later, she understood Luo Yanzhi’s implication, and a faint layer of red unconsciously brushed her earlobes. She walked up behind Luo Yanzhi, rested both hands on the woman’s shoulders, and leaned down until her face was nearly parallel with the reflection in the mirror.
She looked into the eyes of the person in the vanity mirror and said softly, “Besides that?”
Luo Yanzhi smiled. “Nothing else.”
After finishing her skincare, Luo Yanzhi didn’t move. She naturally reached her hands up and back, interlacing her fingers with the hands on her shoulders, and leaned her waist back.
Ning Ruohuan caught her.
After a simple dinner, Ning Ruohuan and Luo Yanzhi went for a walk outside the villa.
The early autumn evening breeze already carried a chill. Ning Ruohuan turned her head; the person beside her was wearing only thin long sleeves and trousers.
Their hands brushed, feeling slightly cool.
“Are you cold?” Ning Ruohuan took off her jacket and draped it over Luo Yanzhi’s shoulders.
Luo Yanzhi pulled the clothes tighter. “I was a little, but with Sister’s jacket, I’m not anymore.”
They walked outside for about ten minutes. During that time, Ning Ruohuan’s phone vibrated several times, but she ignored it. It wasn’t until they returned to the villa and the chill left her body—while Luo Yanzhi went to the study to handle some urgent business—that she unlocked it to see who the messages were from.
Cousin, did you see my camera? — Ning Yu.
Are the photos I took pretty? I specifically looked for good angles and even spent a few minutes learning photography. Once you’ve seen them, remember to give me a critique. Ning Yu.
The surrounding sounds receded like a tide. Her throat felt as if it were being squeezed by a giant hand; all her senses were frozen, and the external cold rushed in, making her tremble uncontrollably.
Those two short messages made it undeniable: the camera Luo Yanzhi brought back belonged to Ning Yu.
Ning Ruohuan forgot how to breathe. The purple veins on the back of her hand bulged, and her jaw clenched tight.
Suddenly, she turned off the phone, strode up the stairs, and headed straight for the study where the cameras were kept.
Under the cold, pale light, Ning Ruohuan’s hands shook as she pressed the buttons on the camera. Image after image jumped onto the screen.
Most were landscapes of the villa district. But interspersed among them were one or two selfies of Ning Yu.
In them, she was bright and sunny, posing with hand gestures, triumphantly gloating at whoever was viewing the photos.
Ning Ruohuan’s pulse throbbed painfully at her temples.
There was no need to look further. No need at all.
This camera belonged to Ning Yu.
Ning Ruohuan even saw a photo taken today of her own back as she walked past the Ning family car.
How ridiculous. The interval between Ning Yu leaving and Luo Yanzhi returning was only a few minutes. And in those few minutes, the two had somehow met and spoken.
Ning Yu gave this camera to Luo Yanzhi—so what did Luo Yanzhi give Ning Yu in return?
After finishing her work, Luo Yanzhi couldn’t find Ning Ruohuan in the bedroom. She sent two messages, but the other woman didn’t reply. Feeling a surge of irritability, she asked the butler and then went to the second-floor study to find her.
Ning Ruohuan’s tall, elegant figure stood by the camera cabinet. Two camera straps were wound around her hanging wrist, and below them sat the black camera body.
Luo Yanzhi pushed the door open and entered. Seeing this scene, she couldn’t help but stop in her tracks. Upon seeing that specific camera, her pupils contracted before returning to normal. “What are you doing in here?”
Ning Ruohuan stood with her back to her, looking lonely and desolate. “Don’t you plan to explain?”
Luo Yanzhi countered, “Explain what?”
She walked over, picked up the camera, and tossed it aside carelessly. “It’s just a camera.”
Ning Ruohuan’s throat was filled with bitterness; her heart ached inch by inch. “Which ‘friend’ gave it to you?”
Luo Yanzhi ran her tongue over the inside of her cheek. “That’s not important.”
Ning Ruohuan’s chest heaved as she barely suppressed the powerlessness spreading through her body. She wanted to ask, “Then what IS important?” and “Have you ever considered my feelings?”
But in the end, what she asked was: “When did you and Ning Yu become friends?”
“Are you interrogating me, Sister?” Luo Yanzhi narrowed her eyes. “The Ning-Luo alliance is imminent. Is it so strange for me to know members of the Ning family?”
She pressed closer, her expression irritable. “Or are you just being pointlessly jealous?” She picked up the camera and threw it away.
The camera body hit the floor with a dull thud, making the space feel even more oppressive and suffocating.
“If you don’t like it, throw it away.” Luo Yanzhi’s brow furrowed deeply, her tone half-explaining and half-dismissive. “I ran into her, she gave it to me, so I took it. Is it really necessary for you to make such a big deal out of this?”
Make a big deal out of this? Ning Ruohuan grew quiet because of those words.
She stated calmly, “When I go out, I have to report to you. Who I met, what I did, what I said—I have to report everything to you one by one. The slightest discrepancy leads to all kinds of dissatisfaction.”
Luo Yanzhi asked, “What are you trying to say?”
Ning Ruohuan said, “So, you can question me however you like, but if I ask you one question, I’m ‘making a big deal out of it,’ is that it?”
Luo Yanzhi’s face darkened. She stared at her for a long while before dropping a sentence—”You don’t have to talk then”—and storming out.
Ning Ruohuan tilted her head back and closed her eyes, the taste of iron filling her mouth.