Chapter 28.1 [Edited]

Ruan Mingfu looked back.

She saw that the person was the chubby boy who had bumped into her earlier, looking plump and surprisingly cute.

Standing next to him was someone with a very different style.

He was handsome with delicate features, resembling the elegant young men of the future. He was a head taller than the chubby boy, wore polished leather shoes, and had neatly combed hair.

Ruan Mingfu looked at the two of them and asked, “Who are you?”

She didn’t recall having met anyone like them before.

The chubby boy scratched his head and flashed a hearty smile. “Have you forgotten me? We’ve been in the same school from elementary through high school. My name is Li Zheng.”

Xu Zhu responded, “What a deep connection you two have.”

Li Zheng?

Ruan Mingfu thought back carefully and finally remembered who Li Zheng was.

He was indeed a classmate of the original owner.

From a young age, he had been chubby and bullied by other children. Later, Lu Yan helped him once, and the chubby boy became Lu Yan’s sidekick. They were inseparable, always doing everything together.

Ruan Mingfu furrowed her brows and shifted her gaze to the other person.

“Are you Lu Yan?”

Thinking that Ruan Mingfu was going to pester him again, Lu Yan’s eyes flickered with disgust as he turned his head away.

He thought his blatant attitude would deter Ruan Mingfu from bothering him further.

Lu Yan was mistaken.

Instead of pestering, Ruan Mingfu responded with a resounding slap.

Everyone was stunned.

Even Lu Yan himself was taken aback, turning to look at Ruan Mingfu in shock.

Xie Yanzhao’s gaze darkened as he stepped forward to shield Ruan Mingfu, always on guard in case Lu Yan retaliated.

“You… How can you hit someone?” Li Zheng stammered in surprise.

“Because he deserved it,” Ruan Mingfu declared confidently. “I warned him not to let me see him again, or he would pay the price!”

Compared to the unfamiliar faces of Lu Yan and Li Zheng, Xu Zhu naturally chose to stand by Ruan Mingfu.

“It’s been so long, and you’re still the same,” Lu Yan said, touching his slapped face. “You’re unreasonable.”

Ruan Mingfu scoffed, “You act so righteous, but you’ve done all sorts of dirty deeds!”

She had no feelings for this former fiancé. If anything, she now wished she had hit him even harder.

Abandoning the engagement to marry someone else deserved the wrath of Miss Ruan.

Li Zheng scratched his head and said, “Is there some misunderstanding between you two?”

He couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

“Misunderstanding?” Ruan Mingfu’s eyes blazed as she glared at Lu Yan. “You heartless scoundrel, just looking at you makes me sick!”

When the Ruan family was in trouble, if the Lu family had honored their engagement and married Ruan Mingfu, things might not have turned out the way they did. She wouldn’t have ended up in this era.

If the Lu family had been reliable, her parents wouldn’t have had to send her to the countryside alone.

The more angry Ruan Mingfu became, the clearer her thoughts were.

In the past, the Ruan and Lu families had a good relationship. To curry favor with the Ruan family, the Lu family had proposed the engagement. Later, when the Lu family became wealthy and influential in politics, they looked down on the business-oriented Ruan family.

Her parents had anticipated this, which is why they didn’t want her to go to the Lu family.

Ungrateful scoundrel!

Ruan Mingfu was more enraged by Lu Yan’s treachery than by the broken engagement.

It might be that Ruan Mingfu arrived at the wrong time. She didn’t inherit the original owner’s memories. Her memories seemed sealed and only resurfaced when triggered by certain keywords.

Now, recalling the sequence of events and the original owner’s past entanglements with Lu Yan, she cursed inwardly and wished she had kicked this scoundrel even harder.

After being slapped and scolded like a fool, Lu Yan was furious, as even a clay figure would get angry.

His eyes were stormy as he raised his hand to retaliate but was stopped by Xie Yanzhao.

“Comrade, hitting a woman is not acceptable.”

Lu Yan was about to argue but saw that Xie Yanzhao was a head taller than him, exuding a menacing aura.

It was clear that this was someone he could not provoke.

But letting it go was also difficult for him.

Grinding his teeth, Lu Yan glared at Ruan Mingfu and said, “Even if you have someone backing you, I will never marry a woman like you. Give up!”

Ruan Mingfu: “…”

What nonsense was this scoundrel spouting?

Xu Zhu glanced up at Xie Yanzhao.

“Want to marry me?” Ruan Mingfu kicked him. “In your dreams!”

The kick wasn’t hard. To Lu Yan, it felt as light as a tickle and didn’t hurt at all.

But it was deeply insulting.

Lu Yan was stunned!

He had been slapped and kicked repeatedly by a woman. If this got out, his reputation as the young master Lu would be ruined.

Angered, Lu Yan was about to disregard Xie Yanzhao and teach her a lesson when a cold voice suddenly came from behind.

“Lu Yan.”

He turned around with a glimmer of joy in his eyes.

“Brother.”

Lu Yang glanced at Lu Yan with a warning look, causing Lu Yan’s steps to falter and his face to show a look of grievance.

Ignoring him, Lu Yang walked over to Xie Yanzhao’s side.

“Commander Xie. It’s been a long time.”

Both Xie Yanzhao and Lu Yang were prominent young figures in the same military district, highly regarded by their superiors.

Unlike Xie Yanzhao’s intimidating presence, Lu Yang had a handsome face.

Although he was somewhat aloof with strangers, he was more popular in the army compared to Xie Yanzhao. Therefore, even though both were older single men, the leaders were more concerned about Xie Yanzhao’s marital status.

“Comrade Ruan, it’s been a while,” Lu Yang said, his gaze settling on Ruan Mingfu. “My younger brother is already married.”

Ruan Mingfu looked up at Lu Yang and asked, “So?”

“I can marry you.”

The statement was met with stunned silence all around.

Xu Zhu’s face was full of confusion. He didn’t understand what was going wrong. They had already arrived at the doorstep, and now someone was trying to steal the person.

Moreover, the situation involving Xie Yanzhao had long been reported back to the military, so Xu Zhu didn’t believe that Lu Yang wasn’t aware of the relationship between Ruan Mingfu and Xie Yanzhao.

This guy is here to mess things up.

The person most affected by this was Lu Yan.

Xu Zhu had rolled up his sleeves but found no opportunity to act.

“I disagree!”

Li Zheng, the chubby boy, wanted to remind Lu Yan not to court disaster, but given the atmosphere, he swallowed his words.

Xie Yanzhao fixed his gaze on Lu Yang.

But Lu Yang was unafraid and met his gaze directly.

The two had always been at odds in the military, and their subordinates loved to pit them against each other—each equally matched.

“I disagree!”

Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Lu Yan shouted again.

“Lu Yan, be quiet!” Lu Yang gave him a calm but commanding look. “You have no right to speak here.”

“Why don’t I have a right to speak?” Lu Yan’s brows were furrowed tightly. “I don’t care. I just don’t agree with you marrying this woman!”

A frivolous, vain, and shallow woman was not worthy of his esteemed elder brother.

Lu Yang became a deputy commander at a young age entirely through his own efforts. He absolutely would not tolerate such an outstanding brother being tarnished by a woman like Ruan Mingfu.

“Shut up.”

“Brother!”

“I said, shut up!”

Lu Yang’s commanding presence was effective, and Lu Yan immediately wilted but not before shooting a furious glare at Ruan Mingfu.

Ruan Mingfu: “…”

Aren’t they supposed to ask for her opinion as the person involved?

Had she ever said she wanted to marry into the Lu family?

Lu Yang’s gaze fell on Ruan Mingfu. Xie Yanzhao slightly turned to shield her behind him.

Lu Yang looked at Xie Yanzhao with a smirk. “Commander Xie, I have some words to say to Comrade Ruan.”

“She doesn’t know you.”

Xie Yanzhao’s gaze shifted slightly, his hands still behind his back.

“Oh?” Lu Yang looked at a small section of the light-colored dress peeking out from behind Xie Yanzhao. “In that case, let Comrade Ruan speak for herself.”

Ruan Mingfu grabbed the corner of Xie Yanzhao’s jacket and said, “He’s right. I don’t want to know people with the surname Lu.”

Hearing the girl’s petulant words, Lu Yang chuckled.

“We will meet again.”

He glanced at Lu Yan and the chubby boy. “Follow me.”

Before striding away, Lu Yang’s gaze lingered on the light-colored dress.

Once they had left, Ruan Mingfu breathed a sigh of relief. She peeked at the direction Lu Yang had gone and pursed her lips.

Damn it!

No one with the surname Lu is a good person.

Xie Yanzhao’s voice was slightly somber. “It’s getting late, we should hurry and leave.”

“Oh!”

Ruan Mingfu replied and quickly followed Xie Yanzhao, picking up her skirt as she went.

He was a head taller than Ruan Mingfu, not to mention his longer legs. With his fast pace, she had to jog to keep up.

Ruan Mingfu was breathing heavily, and her beautiful brows were furrowed.

“Slow down, why are you walking so fast?”

Her voice has a hint of the soft Wu dialect of the Jiangnan water village. Even when she is complaining, it sounds like she is acting coquettish to others.

Xie Yanzhao’s ears perked up, and his stern face relaxed a bit.

He glanced at Ruan Mingfu who was breathing heavily, but silently slowed down his pace.

In the busy station, Ruan Mingfu was afraid of being squeezed out, so she reached out a hand and grabbed the hem of Xie Yanzhao’s clothes.

Outside the station, the people waiting for them were already there.

Among the crowd, two young soldiers in uniform immediately spotted Xie Yanzhao and ran over, their eyes lighting up. “Commander!”

Xie Yanzhao nodded.

Seeing Ruan Mingfu, the two soldiers’ eyes brightened even more. “Commander, this is my sister-in-law right?”

Before Xie Yanzhao could respond, the two soldiers loudly said, “Hello, Sister-in-law!”

Under the gaze of those around them, Ruan Mingfu wished she could bury herself in a hole.

Calling her sister-in-law was fine, but why did they have to shout it so loudly?

Ruan Mingfu forced a smile. “Hello, hello…”

The two soldiers helped with their luggage.

At that moment, a car drove up, and in the driver’s seat was Lu Yang, whom Ruan Mingfu had just seen. He looked at Ruan Mingfu. “Comrade Ruan, my offer is always valid.”

Xu Zhu’s face immediately darkened.

“Old Xie, they’re even trying to steal people right from under your nose. If you don’t teach them a lesson, they might really think you have a good temper.”

Xie Yanzhao watched the departing car, his eyes narrowed slightly.