Zheng Miaomiao felt a bit awkward seeing Shen Xu now, because it always reminded her, against her will, of that period when she had flattered herself with feelings for him.
Flattering herself was one thing—she’d also been fickle, falling for every man she met…
Looking back on it now, it was like having a criminal record.
No wonder Shen Xu didn’t like her.
But Zheng Miaomiao no longer blamed her own personality. She hadn’t been that mature back then. Those handsome men were flirting with her every day—so what if she fell for one after another?
It was just that she didn’t really want to see Shen Xu right now.
“Why are you getting married so suddenly?” Shen Xu asked, then added, ”For the past two years, I’ve been looking for you but couldn’t find you. Where did you go?”
“Ah…” Zheng Miaomiao patted her temple, hiding some of her awkwardness.
“I’ve been traveling around with my partner these past two years,” she said with a smile. ”After graduation, I worked in my hometown for a few months, then quit.”
“We’ve basically been living a nomadic life, never staying in one place for more than three months. And we spent most of our time abroad, so it’s normal that you couldn’t find me.”
As she talked about her travels over the past two years, her face gained even more color, glowing rosy.
It seemed that had truly been a wonderful, happy time for her.
In the reflection of Shen Xu’s eyes, the girl before him looked confident and assured.
She had changed so much in two years. And what Shen Xu found hardest to accept was that, judging from their conversation so far, all of Zheng Miaomiao’s changes were based on that “partner” she spoke of. Her fiancé.
Zheng Miaomiao briefly explained her situation.
She had no idea how many people her two-year departure had caught off guard. She simply regarded her travels as her own freedom and way of life, and saw Shen Xu as an ordinary friend she hadn’t seen in a long time, with only a so-so relationship—the kind with whom she’d had some unpleasant experiences in the past.
She didn’t feel she had hidden anything from anyone. After graduation, she had returned to her hometown and become a teacher in her field of study—her classmates all knew this.
During her time in her hometown, no one had come looking for her, and Shen Xu and the others had barely been in contact with her.
Her later disappearance wasn’t aimed at Shen Xu and the others, nor was it some deliberate vanishing act. It was just that her parents controlled her life too tightly, disapproved of all her choices, and forced her into blind dates. To escape, she had changed her phone number and cut off contact with her family.
She hadn’t even thought about Shen Xu and the others. After all, since she’d graduated and left City A, she’d received hardly any messages from Shen Xu in a month.
Losing touch with ordinary friends she’d never talked to much anyway was pretty normal, right?
She still thought about it so lightheartedly.
How could she have known that, in the eyes of many, her departure was a vengeful farewell without a word? Even less did she know how much effort these men had put into finding her after she left, only to always arrive one step behind her journey.
“What did you want with me?” Zheng Miaomiao brought the conversation back on track.
Shen Xu said he’d been looking for her, but Zheng Miaomiao couldn’t think of anything urgent it could be about.
Shen Xu gazed at her deeply. At the person he had rarely even dreamed of in the past two years. The wedding dress she wore, the smile on her face—all of it turned those two agonizing years into a farcical silent comedy.
He was actually going to explain to her why he had come looking for her.
An indescribable absurdity surged in Shen Xu’s chest.
He no longer wanted to play riddles with Zheng Miaomiao, and said directly: “Don’t marry him.”
“Whatever Lin Qin’an can give you, I can give you too. He’s just an ordinary man…” Shen Xu raised his eyes, his green pupils now turned a deep, dark green. “Marry me instead, and I can give you everything. You know that.”
“…” Zheng Miaomiao was clearly stunned. She had barely understood what Shen Xu meant.
“What did you say? Marry you?” Zheng Miaomiao blinked, asking back in disbelief.
Before, when she had wanted to officially date Shen Xu, she’d been mocked, and afterward the two of them had become strangers. How did things jump all the way to marriage?
She would sooner believe she had misheard him.
“Yes. Marry me.” Shen Xu nodded, his gaze fixed on Zheng Miaomiao like a hawk’s.
He wanted so badly for the girl to give him an affirmative answer.
Yet Zheng Miaomiao’s expression only grew more astonished. “Are you sick?”
The heir of the Shen family, its de facto ruler… marrying an ordinary, unremarkable person like her?
Zheng Miaomiao used to have dreams like that, but now they only seemed too fake to her.
Zheng Miaomiao’s reaction stung Shen Xu deeply. But he missed her too much, and longed too desperately to have her.
So, ignoring the sting in his heart, he laid himself bare: “I like you.”
“More than like…” he added.
He loved her.
Someone born cold and indifferent since childhood—who could have imagined that one day he would be completely swept away by such intense emotion? He had never thought he would ever fall for any woman, but now, he was willing to give everything for the woman before him.
As long as she would be with him.
“But you clearly didn’t like me before,” Zheng Miaomiao blurted out. “When I confessed to you, didn’t you reject me? And you even…”
Shen Xu felt almost terrified to hear what Zheng Miaomiao might say next.
He knew she was thinking of that night. In fact, that night had haunted him like a nightmare for two years.
For two years, Zheng Miaomiao had vanished without a trace. He had no news of her at all. Whenever he tracked down some trace of her in a certain city, by the time he rushed there, she was long gone.
He missed her to the point of madness, yet he had only a handful of photos of her. He couldn’t see the girl’s face, couldn’t hear her voice—even his memories would only return, again and again, to that cold night.
His girl had mustered the courage to confess her feelings to him, only to be cruelly mocked by him.
Through hundreds of days and nights, he had replayed it countless times—how wonderful it would have been if he had said yes back then.
“I’m sorry.” He chose to cut off Zheng Miaomiao’s words with an apology; he was afraid of hearing about that incident from her lips.
He looked at Zheng Miaomiao earnestly, her figure reflected entirely in his dark green eyes.
“I’m sorry. I’ve always loved you. I was so terrible to you before, and I regret it deeply… Could you give me another chance? Marry me, and everything I have will be yours.”
Seeing Shen Xu so solemn, Zheng Miaomiao finally snapped out of her daze.
She had rarely seen Shen Xu like this. In her memory, Shen Xu was always lazy, mean, careless…
She knew it was because this man was too extraordinary—he had been born at the very pinnacle of the pyramid, both in terms of his family and his talent.
Heaven favored him too much, so much that his life had no difficulties whatsoever; everything came to him as easily as a child playing house.
And yet Shen Xu was being so serious right now.
He didn’t seem to be joking.